Rain King

"Don't look at me, this was your idea."

Timing is everything in scheduling.

You know, at this point I wonder if I could have seen "Bad 
Blood" for the first time last night and my reaction might 
have been "eh". I think this episode would have been better 
served if it had been tossed on the shelf and trotted out 
towards the very end of the season. At a time when the fans 
are not so starved for a strong, scary episode that they 
find themselves inexplicably yelling at the screen like 
Tourette's Syndrome sufferers. I swear I could hear things 
echoing around the country like: "For God's sake hit him we 
need some MulderTorture" as Daryl tosses fumbling swipes in 
Mulder's direction or "Would somebody PLEASE make Scully cry 
she does it much better" when confronted with the racoonish 
specter of Sheila Fontaine channeling Tammy Faye upset.

The thing is, first time writer Jeffrey Bell wrote himself a 
nice little script. Emphasis on nice. Bell gives both Mulder 
and Scully some great lines and has some fun with the characters. 
His dialogue had a snap to it and he had some wonderful visual 
ideas. I mean having Mulder and "the Missus" fly in on a puddle 
jumper to an airfield consisting of an airstream trailer and a 
baton twirling welcome committee to be greeted by Mayor Hoss 
Jr. in a feed store gimme cap - it just doesn't get much more 
fun than that. It was very nicely done. The problem is, right 
now we don't want nice. We've had nice until our teeth hurt. 
Heck, last week in the first "scary" episode in God knows 
how long, we even had to have a rather nice "monster". 

They really could have aired this episode any time. There are 
no references to the current status of Mulder and Scully in 
that we don't know if they are just freelancing on their 
weekend and trying to get away under Kersh's radar or this 
tale takes place sometime either in the past or the future 
when they have the X-Files back. The only really important 
character insight it offers as far as the Dynamic Duo is 
concerned is Scully's little women's room confession cloaked 
in advice which makes me suspect this takes place post movie. 
In the long run, I'm willing to bet this episode fairs much 
better than the initial reaction we will see to it. I'm 
thinking if we sit down with it six months from now it won't 
suffer so much from poor timing in the airing schedule.

Timing is everything in acting.

In some ways this was almost like watching two different 
shows. The most delightful thing about this episode was 
enjoying the sly comedic timing of Anderson and Duchovny. 
Anderson has the ability to make me crack up with just a 
well placed sideways glance or classic reaction to some 
Mulder absurdity. I always enjoy these cases where Scully 
thinks their presence is ridiculous but tags along anyway 
just for the looks and the chance of getting others to 
back up her theories about "cow incidents" and the like. 
The triumphant "I told you so" delivery in "Thank you. 
Can we go now?" and the faux serious "Mulder did they 
check you for head trauma?" were vintage Scully.

Duchovny made the most of his silence in the beginning 
looking oh-so-innocent as, per usual, he makes Scully 
piece things together on a flaky case in which he is "vague 
as to the specifics". Mulder seemed to like that "Missus" 
comment a little too much. I also enjoyed the way he tried 
to studiously ignore Holman's queries about the "beautiful" 
and "enchanting" Agent Scully until he just couldn't stand 
to not say something.

It is no mystery to us. Duchovny and Anderson together are 
gold, and if nothing else "Rain King" gave us that. From 
the so-them-it-is-perfect-exchange of "C'mon Scully, you 
act like I intentionally mislead you"/"A man... controlling... 
the weather," to their synchronized sway to "The Things We 
Do For Love", to giving good cell: "Mulder when was the last 
time you went out on a date?"/"I will talk to you later," 
this was the tag team acting I've come to love on the show.

However, beyond Mulder and Scully all sense of subtlety ended. 
David Manis as Hardt was probably the most restrained, yet even 
he succumbed to gawky overblown stuttering in his "big scene". 
Victoria Jackson ran hot and cold as Sheila. Managing to only 
gain a sliver of sympathy in me in quieter moments like the 
teaser. The rest of the time the overblown emotions and silly 
prancy walk were too much for me to handle. However Clayton 
Rohner as Daryl Mootz was by far the most annoying. The problem 
with these characters, and for that matter almost everyone in 
the town, was that they were displayed as caricatures not 
characters. In order for the romantic comedy aspects of this 
piece to work we had to connect with them on some level, and 
audiences connect with real people not stereotypes.

Timing is everything in directing.

When so many performances are off I have to blame the director. 
It's as if Director Manners could not decide if he were directing 
a camp farce or a romantic comedy or merely X-Files light. The 
biggest failing of this episode is that it just didn't hold 
together consistently. It was at turns clever and irritating 
with revealing and well acted scenes like the women's room 
conversation interspersed with the over the top camp of that 
caught kissing moment. It was the uneven quality of the episode 
that kept it from being a more enjoyable outing.

From a special effects perspective things were also uneven. 
While the night rain worked fine, the downpour at the farm 
looked exactly like what it was. Some big truck dumping a ton 
of water on Duchovny and Anderson's heads on a bright, sunny 
day. I loved the heart shaped bouncing hail in the teaser - the 
way pieces popped up and twirled into frame. However, could the 
flying "cow" have been any worse? How did they do that one? Tie 
a string to a plastic figure and yank up? Looked that way.

So, what we have here is an episode with potential plagued by 
timing. Clever qualities in the script like the juxtaposition 
of the most pathetic in matters of love couple trying to play 
matchmaker while they remain blind to what everyone else sees 
as obvious unfortunately shares time with a pathetic one legged 
drunken rain dance. Not a bad X-Files, just a curious one that 
had potential. And one we did not need to see at this time.

Random Musings
--------------
-Date stamp is difficult because it is vague. Takes place 
sometime in the six monthish time frame after Valentine's Day 
thus placing it in the fall. 

-As most of you know, the X-Files really is a show about 
Scully's hair. So for me, the scariest moment in the episode 
was when Mulder and Scully got out of the car at the first 
farm and all of a sudden Scully had some sort of poofy hair 
helmet on. Thankfully it calmed down soon after that, but I 
had no problem with her getting drenched in that scene and 
having to start from scratch.

-I loved, loved, loved Mark Snow's scored for this episode. 
That thunderous bass beat and piano accompaniment was a great 
moody addition.

-What an exciting news station, what with amazing stories 
like two giant pandas in love and "watch the weather and win" 
you can bet I'd be riveted to KPJK. 

-Speaking of the news, I did find it a little odd in the 
teaser that Holman was talking about *rain* in Kansas in 
mid-February. Seems to me that's the time of year for other 
forms of precipitation.

-Small character insight that we all guessed anyway: Scully 
is officially confirmed as at least part Irish.

-I can't for the life of me see what any woman would want in 
Daryl. "And you wonder why your ass is so big". Ugh. What a 
charmer. Pickings must be mighty slim in Kroner. Though I 
suppose he could be considered a step up from "blizzard boy" 
at the local DQ for Cindy. Though not by much.

-Frank's Fashion Spot: Seems Scully is quite fond of that 
long jacket as it's been popping up a lot this season. And, 
in a continuing theme, looks like she has a nice matching 
black bra to go with those new fetching black silk jammies. 
No wonder she was having a hard time sleeping. And one more 
thing. Who wears a Christmas bow on their head?

-In the plus column, any episode in which Scully spends that 
much time licking her lips just can't be all that bad.

-The use of music in this episode was quite inspired. I 
laughed out loud at "Rainy Days and Mondays".

-Some things never change. They may have moved from Vancouver 
to Los Angeles, but we'll still have misplaced mountains. Who 
said Kansas was flat?

-Some things never change #2: Mulder certainly does make 
himself at home in Scully's room, scattering his stuff about 
and lounging about on her bed. If she'd ordered a pizza I'm 
convinced it would have been long gone too.

-During that long take before they enter Rain King Enterprises 
for the first time Mulder and Scully saunter by Vince's cafe.

-The banner at the reunion reads "Go Kangaroos!" Now there's 
an exciting mascot.

-Now we know the ultimate gift of love: "I brought you a leg."

Autumn
"The blind leading the blind."