"A madness shared by two."

I enjoyed this episode on a number of levels, both as a stand 
alone effort, but especially for what I perceived its place to 
be in the grand scheme of things. First and foremost I thought 
it was creepy - in my opinion not the easiest thing to do given 
the massive potential for cheesiness with the monster. I thought 
the teaser was marvelous with director Kim Manners using that 
effective overhead shot to travel through the buzzing drones of 
these insignificant workers in their colony. I'm glad they fuzzed 
out the bug shots. Making it jittery and jumpy like something you 
think you see just out of the corner of your eye. By the time 
Brian Markinson as Lambert gives that sweaty, high strung whisper 
of "it's here" I thought we were in for some good old fashioned 
scares.

I also like the way writer Gilligan and Manners infused the 
episode with sights and sounds that remind one of bugs. 
Everything from the way Pincus was fidgeting with his hands as 
Mulder interviewed him, to the buzzy tone on all the recordings, 
the rewinding tape, and the music on the television had that
effect.

However, when all was said and done, what stuck with me was 
that for a monster of the week (and how much more monster of 
the week can you get than a giant attack bug) I found it an 
excellent lead in for the season finale and the movie this 
summer.  Why? Well, because it so nicely highlighted what has 
long been, in my opinion, one of this series most intriguing 
journeys: Scully's eroding skepticism. While the journey has 
not been as quick as some would like, and has certainly has 
had its setbacks, the progression has long been there. The 
first and easiest pill to swallow was the conspiracy angle 
which she did long ago, gradually becoming more and more drawn 
into the huge nature of it along with the resulting paranoia. 
However, ever since her testimony in "Terma", complete with 
the description of an extraterrestrial organism, she's been 
also moving in fits and starts towards the idea that just 
maybe there might be something to this little grey men thing 
after all. I've perceived her going back and forth this season 
on the paranormal - believing one week, hard edged the next - 
as the character desperately trying to hold on to her defining 
world view. Her fight back against the erosion occurring - her
descent into what is Mulder's paranormal madness. 

In Vince Gilligan's script we see that whole struggle in one 
episode. She pushes back and pushes back against this "madness", 
but when the chips are down and it all becomes clear that it 
really has to be the two of them against the world - Mulder 
and his "one in five billion" -she sees what he sees. She
shares what the world sees as madness. I don't see the ending 
of this episode (and it should have ended when the elevator 
doors closed - enough with the tacked on forced "creepy" endings 
already) as her dismissing Mulder or the experience as much as 
admitting their place together - a madness shared by two. Perfect 
setup, as it seems pretty clear to me that over the next several
chapters of the X-Files tale we are going to have what will amount 
to Mulder and Scully fighting alone united against the odds. I 
also believe there is a payoff in the works as far as Scully is 
concerned: her moving closer and closer towards a place where she 
will be confronted with undeniable proof and will also believe - 
certainly not in everything (we can't have that) - but I bet lizard 
aliens rank pretty high on the list.

There were really nice performances this episode from both our 
leads. I thought Duchovny was excellent in his screaming bed bug 
terror as he tried to cajole the nurse through his panic into 
letting him loose. Duchovny and Anderson certainly got a lot of 
mileage (above and beyond Scully and Mulder's frequent flier miles 
back and forths to Chicago) out of their scenes together. The 
partnership issues going on throughout this story were quite 
intriguing. It was nice to see Scully push back at the start 
with her "you keep saying 'I'. I heard 'we'" and I think some 
of the latent resentment of being left, coupled with getting 
tasks over the phone (something about an immediate hang up after 
"I appreciate it" dilutes the sentiment a little), added fuel to
their confrontation.  I really like the moment Anderson had in 
this scene when she does the big mental "whoops!" to Mulder's 
admission that he had seen the monster and asked "Does that make 
me sick too?" I got the feeling that if Mulder had just stuck 
around instead of walking out that they would have been able to 
come to better resolution than the "absolutely not" / "I'll prove 
it without you" standoff they were in.

Instead, what we get is them acting at odds until Mulder is 
locked up in the psycho ward. Scully, as usual, plays dumb 
with Skinner while about to burst a blood vessel silently 
fuming over her assigned autopsy while Mulder runs off
without sleep on a bug hunt. That's effective teamwork. 
However, all this general crankiness is worth it for me for 
the hospital scene. That last exchange boils down to its 
very essence what makes this partnership what it is, and 
when Mulder's "you have to believe me" speech is delivered 
with that pleading face complete with the admission that she's 
it on the planet for him - well - "absolutely not" turns quickly 
into corpse flipping and Action!Scully to the rescue.

While I certainly wouldn't rank this episode a classic, or even 
one of Gilligan's best, I do appreciate it for saying some 
interesting things about the characters while something went 
buzz in the night.

Random Musings
------------------------
-Retreads Galore: Brian Markinson (who did a spectacular job 
of portraying Gary Lambert's descent) gets a much better script 
this time around than when we first saw him in "Born Again". I'm 
sure everyone recognized Agent Rice from "Pusher". Also Mr. "Dial 
and smile" was covered in lots and lots of makeup to play Harper 
in "Dod Kalm". It seems they only have one actress in Vancouver
capable of playing a newscaster in the X-Files - the Massachusetts 
reporter from "War of the Coprophages" apparently got a better news 
gig in Chicago after reporting from Houston way back in 1977 during 
"Space" (quite well preserved isn't she).

-Talk about your fast work. We don't call them the dynamic duo 
for nothing. Skinner gives them the assignment at 9:12AM and by 
12:14PM that day Mulder has managed to get from the FBI building 
to Oak Brook IL, interviewed Pincus, started a profile and returned 
to VinylRight. Meanwhile, Dana "Evelyn Woods" Scully has, after a 
call from Chicago, scanned through hundreds of old case files 
looking for a simple phrase buried within them. More impressive 
still she has joined Mulder in Chicago by (according to the 
cafeteria clock) around 2:30 that afternoon. You certainly can't 
accuse these two of dawdling.

-We've get an episode date stamp when Mulder writes the day of 
the Oak Brook crisis on the map: 5-10-98.

-Call me jaded, but I'm just amazed that they had Mulder's 
fingers bandaged in this episode. It is almost as if they 
actually remembered the events of the previous episode. 
Weirdness.

-What's up with "Monster Boy"? It's OK when he digs up werewolves 
or goatsuckers or mothmen or killer trees, but God forbid Skinner 
should ever assign him a case without him getting all pissy about 
it. Remember FlukeMan Mulder?

-Frank's Fashion Spot: I just love Scully in a double breasted 
suit and that new lavender one at the end was to die for. Speaking 
of dying someone should give Skinner's "patriotic" ties a quick 
burial at sea. I don't know how many different flag ties the man 
has, but I could do with out the oval flag design we saw this week.

-I really liked the long hand held camera shot when Scully arrives 
in her Lariat rental for the hostage situation. The only odd thing 
is that the road behind her appears to be completely blocked off 
so God only knows where she is arriving so quickly from.

-I just loved the line: "I'm not addressing you. I'm addressing 
the actual people over here, OK?"

-In the it's the little things that count category: nice reaction 
shots by Gillian as she watches the hostage crisis unfold. Especially 
when she first sees Mulder on the monitor and momentary relief turns 
to fear again as she sees the immediate danger he is in.

-I'll have to guess Scully just had not had her morning coffee yet 
and that was what provoked the silly question "Mulder, why didn't 
you take the day off?"

-Well we finally have a catch phrase for Skinner. It's no "Mulder, 
it's me", but he seems to be saying "I'm at a bit of a loss here" 
with regularity.

-I'm glad we never saw Scully's final answer to Skinner when he 
asks what she saw. Just the "it was dark" qualifier and a nervous 
pause. She knows. We know. Now bring on the finale.

Autumn
"I told you so."