"Honey, what do you think? Is this place us or what?"

This episode succeeds at times precisely because it is simply 
so not them. In a season that has tried hit and miss to find 
humor in things like the unbelievable stereotypical hicks from 
"Rain King" or that embarrassing mirror dance from "Dreamland" 
this episode draws on the humor to be found in the most 
adorable couple on television finally playing an adorable 
couple. In doing so "Arcadia" becomes much more amusing than 
most of the intentionally light offerings we've had. Perhaps 
because it found humor in its situation rather than trying so 
darn hard to be funny. The big difference was they treated the 
episode seriously instead of reveling in "look how funny we 
are" antics.

This is a case of an episode that had to overcome its monster, 
and it was a big mess to overcome. Without the hook of the 
undercover investigation this could have just as easily been 
titled "Our Neighborhood" where the problem is "Crapzfildt-Junkob". 
For a first script, Daniel Arkin does an admirable job fairing 
much better than most. I love that initial moment, alone in the 
house, where Scully removes her coat with "you ready?" and the 
Mulder/Scully version of "let's get it on honey" means donning 
the prophylactics and getting down and dirty in investigation. 
It's this investigation that really saves the episode. They 
weren't just there for laughs. They were there for a purpose, 
acting like FBI Agents and doing a pretty good job of the 
undercover work.

Mulder, of course, takes full opportunity of the situation to 
amuse himself. He's hanging all over his "lovely wife" talking 
about spooning up like baby cats and pushing Scully as far as 
he can while she is clearly there to work. Anyone want to bet 
Mulder got a three-inch heel in his shin for those "new ager" 
comments? When Mulder and Scully play house, they suddenly 
transform into Yuppie!Mulder and Perky!Scully. Mulder pretending 
he's just stumbling across all the wrong questions to ask and 
Scully, never known for her acting abilities, raising the pitch 
of her voice and going all smiles with a hilarious fake laugh. 
My favorite moment in all the undercover silliness had to be 
that air kiss Scully tosses Mulder when he tries to grab her 
after dolphin safe tuna casserole. Clearly Duchovny and Anderson 
were having fun playing these moments. 

>From a relationship perspective, the telling scenes were when 
they were alone. I'd expect Mulder to get the gloves to the face 
after that sandwich bit (which was perfectly performed by both 
actors). Also, the fact that Scully had no problem parading 
around in front of Mulder wearing a facial mask says volumes 
about how comfortable they are with each other. There's no need 
for false modesty when your partner has yanked you naked out of 
alien goo before.

I thought the supporting cast for this episode was especially 
strong. Tom Gallop as Win Shroeder gave an interesting edge to 
the homeowner realizing that maybe, just maybe, a pink flamingo 
wasn't worth killing someone over. Abraham Benrubi, long one of 
my favorite supporting actors on "ER", was well suited for the 
good natured doofus Big Mike.

The weaker moments, besides the obvious mud monster that really 
wasn't that scary (Oh, no! A broken bulb!), included once again 
saddling Gillian Anderson with X-Files Exposition 101 while 
Scully makes clinical home movies. I really wish they'd find 
ways to make this more interesting than giving an actor a page 
of dry dialogue to recite. I think it would have been much easier 
to stomach had they involved both actors or found a way to do it
conversationally. Then there was Gogolak who I believe managed 
to utter almost every cliche' possible (which in my book is 
trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with D and that stands 
for dull). But that's not all! We get  the obligatory character 
watching something pertinent to the story just to hammer the 
theme home a little harder for the slower members of the audience. 
I'd have rather Big Mike was watching something a little more 
befitting his character than "Look at Me I'm Important to the 
Plot TV". Finally, they went to the Scully in jeopardy theme 
not once, but twice for tension and both times inexplicably had 
her unarmed instead of carrying her gun.

Certainly far from perfect, but enjoyable none the less.

Random Musings
--------------
-Date Stamp: Scully tells us as she videotapes that it is 
February 24th. Too bad the 2nd unit folks were not paying 
attention as the watch close up inserts read the date as 
"7" and "9".

-The name joke was funny... for a while. I do like the way 
it was Scully (who was obviously not enamoured with Mulder's 
little joke) that was always the one to correct the 
pronunciation to sound like a scientific specimen dish.

-Gotta love that welcome gift basket that is about half 
Scully's size. Of course Mulder saunters in without helping, 
tossing his clothes about.

-Speaking of Mulder tossing his clothes. The reaction Gillian 
Anderson gave Scully as the sweatshirt barely cleared her 
head in the bedroom was priceless.

-16 pounds of pet? I have a cat bigger than that. I'd say 
Gogolak's "pet" weighed in a little more than that.

-I really enjoyed Duchovny in his "bring it on war" armed 
with lawn ornaments and orange juice. He certainly got a lot 
of mileage out of that carton.

-I can't quite figure out why this episode was postponed. 
It certainly wasn't due to major script changes based on 
the shooting script I have. I'm not sure how the UberMensher 
could have looked that much sillier, so the "special effects" 
delay excuse puzzles me. Personally, my guess is that they 
wanted to push this episode out of sweeps for something more 
serious. However, as this was a much better episode than 
"Agua Mala", the decision is curious.

-I suppose it still works as their "first catch" back on the 
X-Files as "Agua Mala" could have been classified as a favor 
for a friend. 

-Nice moment: Scully's reaction was exactly the way someone 
would act if indeed their china had been broken, but in this 
case she is mourning her lab equipment.

-Did Duchovny have something put in his contract this year 
that specifies a basketball must appear in at least a third 
of the episodes? I think the basketball got a better deal 
than most of the supporting cast this year. Well, better that 
than the porn references I guess.

-I'm trying to figure out why Scully's Sony had a little 
alien face key chain thing hanging off of it.

-Frank's Fashion Spot: Well despite the fact I am disappointed 
they did not have Scully in capri pants it was fun to see Mulder 
and Scully sporting suburban fashion for a change. However, I 
have to admit I am disappointed in the sleepwear choice for 
Scully. Those have to be the ugliest pajamas we've seen on her 
in the entire series history. Bring back the silk sets. Quick.

-My favorite line this episode: "Yes, this is Special Agent 
Dana Scully. I need a full forensic team to 450 Autumn 
Terrace." No reason. I just like the way Gillian said it. 
Really. That's all.

-Also even though we *know* the house was on Autumn Terrace 
the address on the Kline's package read something like "Clover 
Fields".

-Our Little Sailor: Well, it wasn't exactly swearing, but I 
think we all know exactly what Scully was calling Mulder when 
she said "That's right Poopyhead."

-Nice Touch: Having Gogolak keep his "Contracts, Covenants 
and Restrictions" book on a Bible stand.

-Well, now we know how the show is making up those additional 
costs of moving production to Los Angeles: product placement. 
I was surprised in "Tithonus" to see an obvious Coke can on 
Mulder's desk. I mean these are the folks who in Vancouver 
were positively anal about changing brand names. This episode 
alone featured Ericsson, Izod, Tropicana, Sony, Mercury Villager, 
Omega, and even a Ford backhoe. I may have even missed one or 
two.

-While the teaser "Jurassic Park" water glass effect was going 
on anyone think Mrs. Kline would have been a lot smarter to 
crawl out one of those open windows rather than cowering on the 
bed?

Autumn
"If we ever go undercover again, I get to choose the names."