The X-Files 3x18: Teso Dos Bichos
Jul. 22nd, 2019 09:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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The X-Files 3x18: Teso Dos Bichos
I had thought from the Spanish title that maybe this was the chupacabra episode; all I remember is that these is a chupacabra episode at some point but nothing about the plot or when it happens clearly. But I am pretty sure that episode is set in the US, maybe Texas (which might imply it’s a post-s5 episode) and that the chupacabra story is a Mexican or even southern US things, so I didn’t think that long once I started watching this.
Other fun note from my viewing, just as it faded to black after the reveal of the toilet rats we got a loud crack of thunder here; that made the jump scare much more effective. Up until that point, the scene had me rolling my eyes pretty hard, girl scientist is super freaked out but decides to go and investigate every strange noise she hears and thing her dog barks at; sure, that’s super realistic.
Also, I did a terrible job of catching anyone’s name this episode. Not that I have a lot to say on the guest cast, but when I do don’t count on me using names.
All that taken care of, for a monster of the week episode this one was...alright. It’s nothing special like ‘Pusher,’ but it’s also not as bad as a lot of what I haven’t liked this season. I would call it a pretty average episode, and not exactly in a bad way. There is absolutely not need to watch this episode, if you’re not a completest or if you’re even just trying to edit this series down to a more manageable number of episodes, this is the kind of episode you can skip past; you won’t miss anything; but it’s perfectly fine to throw on in the background and not be too bothered by what’s going on.
In some ways this could count as a Twilight Zone-esque episode that I’ve complained about several times this season. Mulder and Scully don’t exactly contribute a lot to the story or its resolution or have much done with their own characters through it, but...it just didn’t bother me this time. They were very present and in character, we were more seeing things unfold from their POV rather than them in focus, very much the way a lot of protagonists in case driven stories are. While of course I prefer doing more with them, for case of the week stories, this isn’t a bad structure to shoot for (especially if it isn’t overused); it isn’t deep or terribly interesting, but it’s not trying to be and does keep respect for them.
If it feels like I’m just circling around repeatedly talking about how this episode is fine but nothing special, it may be partly because I really don’t want to get into the politics here. I generally try not to get into this, partly because I’m such a centrist that I tend to see both sides of most issues, and I do here. The episode seems to want me to be on the side of not disturbing these artifacts, but I can’t help but feel like unless they also make a deal with the oil company this is the lesser of two evils. I’m not saying it’s exactly right, but I don’t think it’s some happy ending this way either.
I’m also not quite sure I buy that any of the parties would give in so easily to sending the artifacts back. It’s not like they believe it’s a curse and their primary suspect is now dead; plus even if they did want to get out of the hot seat on this issue wouldn’t they be more worried about precedent?
And was the end saying that it wasn’t an old curse but the work of the current old man? There were some things I was expecting to be more relevant that would probably make more sense if that was the case. Noting that the deaths had been taking place around the same time of night was the big one. I was expecting them to look up the time in Ecuador and find that the murder window coincided with sunset or something a few time cones over. But once the similar times are noted, it’s never remarked on again.
Also, I was really hoping this was a were-panther. Cursed cats is so much more boring than that would have been.
Previous status
Never seen before
Vancouver spotting
I could swear that front room at the museum is the same staircase that gets used pretty often on this show and all Vancouver shows, and the Arrow-verse has filmed in about a thousand times; but this time it was usually dark in those scenes so I’m not sure.
Are we saying it’s aliens?
Either ancient curse of more modern animal control from a distance. Again, this might all be useful fighting aliens at some point.
Scully’s convenient miss of the week
Mulder and Scully kept splitting up, making me sure she was going to miss the supernatural elements, but then she didn’t miss anything. Sure all she knows in the end is there were some crazy sewer cats that seem to have disappeared, but it wasn’t a convenient miss episode.
How crazy does Mulder sound?
While I’m not doing a DD acting check this time, I realize now that I don’t remember much that Mulder said in this one. He does keep proposing an ancient curse, mostly to Scully but also to girl scientist, so there’s that. He must not have been overly crazy as it didn’t stand out.
Pretentious voiceovers
Mulder gets one at the end. Again I hope he’s not putting this in an official report.
Who’s driving?
Mulder, when they actually go anywhere together (which does raise the question of how they always have the right number of cars for how they decide to go; sometimes they go together, don’t pick up another car, and go to the next place separately. I know this shouldn’t bother me, it’s just a TV thing, but it does).
The X-Files 3x18: Teso Dos Bichos
I had thought from the Spanish title that maybe this was the chupacabra episode; all I remember is that these is a chupacabra episode at some point but nothing about the plot or when it happens clearly. But I am pretty sure that episode is set in the US, maybe Texas (which might imply it’s a post-s5 episode) and that the chupacabra story is a Mexican or even southern US things, so I didn’t think that long once I started watching this.
Other fun note from my viewing, just as it faded to black after the reveal of the toilet rats we got a loud crack of thunder here; that made the jump scare much more effective. Up until that point, the scene had me rolling my eyes pretty hard, girl scientist is super freaked out but decides to go and investigate every strange noise she hears and thing her dog barks at; sure, that’s super realistic.
Also, I did a terrible job of catching anyone’s name this episode. Not that I have a lot to say on the guest cast, but when I do don’t count on me using names.
All that taken care of, for a monster of the week episode this one was...alright. It’s nothing special like ‘Pusher,’ but it’s also not as bad as a lot of what I haven’t liked this season. I would call it a pretty average episode, and not exactly in a bad way. There is absolutely not need to watch this episode, if you’re not a completest or if you’re even just trying to edit this series down to a more manageable number of episodes, this is the kind of episode you can skip past; you won’t miss anything; but it’s perfectly fine to throw on in the background and not be too bothered by what’s going on.
In some ways this could count as a Twilight Zone-esque episode that I’ve complained about several times this season. Mulder and Scully don’t exactly contribute a lot to the story or its resolution or have much done with their own characters through it, but...it just didn’t bother me this time. They were very present and in character, we were more seeing things unfold from their POV rather than them in focus, very much the way a lot of protagonists in case driven stories are. While of course I prefer doing more with them, for case of the week stories, this isn’t a bad structure to shoot for (especially if it isn’t overused); it isn’t deep or terribly interesting, but it’s not trying to be and does keep respect for them.
If it feels like I’m just circling around repeatedly talking about how this episode is fine but nothing special, it may be partly because I really don’t want to get into the politics here. I generally try not to get into this, partly because I’m such a centrist that I tend to see both sides of most issues, and I do here. The episode seems to want me to be on the side of not disturbing these artifacts, but I can’t help but feel like unless they also make a deal with the oil company this is the lesser of two evils. I’m not saying it’s exactly right, but I don’t think it’s some happy ending this way either.
I’m also not quite sure I buy that any of the parties would give in so easily to sending the artifacts back. It’s not like they believe it’s a curse and their primary suspect is now dead; plus even if they did want to get out of the hot seat on this issue wouldn’t they be more worried about precedent?
And was the end saying that it wasn’t an old curse but the work of the current old man? There were some things I was expecting to be more relevant that would probably make more sense if that was the case. Noting that the deaths had been taking place around the same time of night was the big one. I was expecting them to look up the time in Ecuador and find that the murder window coincided with sunset or something a few time cones over. But once the similar times are noted, it’s never remarked on again.
Also, I was really hoping this was a were-panther. Cursed cats is so much more boring than that would have been.
Previous status
Never seen before
Vancouver spotting
I could swear that front room at the museum is the same staircase that gets used pretty often on this show and all Vancouver shows, and the Arrow-verse has filmed in about a thousand times; but this time it was usually dark in those scenes so I’m not sure.
Are we saying it’s aliens?
Either ancient curse of more modern animal control from a distance. Again, this might all be useful fighting aliens at some point.
Scully’s convenient miss of the week
Mulder and Scully kept splitting up, making me sure she was going to miss the supernatural elements, but then she didn’t miss anything. Sure all she knows in the end is there were some crazy sewer cats that seem to have disappeared, but it wasn’t a convenient miss episode.
How crazy does Mulder sound?
While I’m not doing a DD acting check this time, I realize now that I don’t remember much that Mulder said in this one. He does keep proposing an ancient curse, mostly to Scully but also to girl scientist, so there’s that. He must not have been overly crazy as it didn’t stand out.
Pretentious voiceovers
Mulder gets one at the end. Again I hope he’s not putting this in an official report.
Who’s driving?
Mulder, when they actually go anywhere together (which does raise the question of how they always have the right number of cars for how they decide to go; sometimes they go together, don’t pick up another car, and go to the next place separately. I know this shouldn’t bother me, it’s just a TV thing, but it does).
