"It's not ice cream. It's a non-fat tofutti rice dreamsicle."

No matter what you call it, it was dessert. A sweet fable about 
the unnecessary things in life that bring the most joy. Perhaps 
the timing was not the best in a season where we already have a 
toothache from the sugar, but the difference here was that, for 
the most part, instead of poking fun at the characters it 
celebrated them.

Notable as an episode penned by series star David Duchovny, 
"The Unnatural" is infused with something often lacking in the 
X-Files: optimism. Love and laughter are key in this story of 
unlikely friends thrown together by fate (sound familiar?). The 
theme of what it is that makes us really human is gracefully 
told through the game of baseball. Jesse L. Martin plays the 
alien Ex with a joy that tells us why he gave up an existence 
of living with one of those "very tiny mouths" for one filled 
with laughter and smiling. It was perfect that the last thing 
Ex does before he dies, transformed by his passion into a real 
man, is laugh. Baseball was, as he says, "the first unnecessary 
thing I ever did in my life, and I fell in love." Duchovny's 
echo of this in the episode's coda where a usually straight-laced 
Scully intones that she has "more necessary" things to do with 
her time yet ends up joyfully celebrating something unnecessary 
with her partner was a perfect ending. I'd love to see Duchovny 
get his hands on these characters again some time.

Duchovny as first time director did not meet with as great of 
success. Certainly not a bad first effort at all, but hardly 
noteworthy. It had hits and misses. Of the few more interesting 
shots he set up, the opening of the teaser worked the best for 
me: the camera tracking to lights, swirling with all the stars 
in the sky, then back down to see the All Stars playing baseball. 
On the other hand, the ending transition craning down on Dales 
and Ex to craning down on the older Dales seemed stagy and overly 
long. The use of the period boy moving through time seemed a bit 
forced. Especially when we were subjected to the too pronounced 
message of the black and white child arms around each other 
talking baseball - take the same scene just walking together 
and it does not seem as obvious and we still get the point. I 
will give him points for the clever, yet too self-referential 
for my taste when "Colony" was thrown in, use of the black and 
white TV to move back and forth through time. I was also not 
amused by being forced to watch the rather dull focus of the 
camera on a policeman spit shining his badge just so the real 
focus of the scene - the Bounty Hunter could remain obscured 
for a surprise at the end. Given more time and experience in 
the director's chair to even things out (if it is his wish) I 
think his cleverness could lead to some interesting things.

So, how do you categorize a story that features the alien Bounty 
Hunter, grays, the sacred words "the project", green blood, and 
Mulder spouting off questions about hybrids in this case? I can't 
call it mythology or decide it has impact on the mytharc because 
the picture in the paper is the only concrete thing. The rest of 
the story is filtered through an old boozehound who says to "trust 
the tale, Agent MacGyver, not the teller". So the grand revelation 
that alien Bounty Hunters are just morphing gray lizard aliens who 
in their spare time contract out to local law enforcement is hard 
to swallow as series canon.

The acting in the "Unnatural" was for the most part delightful. 
I'm glad that Fredric Lane got to be in an X-Files episode that 
is so watchable after his last unfortunate outing as Dales. He 
plays the character with such a pureness of heart that it really 
makes you wonder what went wrong to make this man into the rather 
sad loner he became late in life. I'm convinced Jesse L. Martin 
could charm anyone with his sweet style and twinkling eyes. 
M. Emmet Walsh, a late addition pinch hitter for the other Dales, 
does a nice job of trying to get Mulder to understand the heart 
of his story. My only real complaint was the overly nerdy 
portrayal of "Moose", with the glasses and that silly tongue 
thing he was doing it just became a caricature.

As for Duchovny and Anderson, they were a breezy delight. What 
fun to see Scully playfully taunting Mulder with her ice cream 
treasure as they "hurl cliches" at each other and poke gentle 
fun. I'd like to personally thank Mr. Duchovny for allowing us 
this glimpse of playfulness with these two. You could tell both 
actors relished the opportunity to break out of the "joyless 
myopia" that seems to cloyingly surround Mulder and Scully. I 
have to believe that no matter where you stand in the great 
relationship debate, that the last moments of the episode, our 
heroes laughing, smiling and just plain happy as together they 
hit home runs was enough to put a smile on most faces. When you 
spend six years caring about fictional characters like we have 
these two, well, what can I say, I just want those kids to be 
happy. Tonight seeing them happy made me happy. Even in the 
"light" X-Files episodes as much as we may laugh the characters 
rarely get joy, and frankly they deserve a little frisky fun.

There's a line in "The Unnatural" where baseball is described 
as "useless but perfect". This episode was neither one of those 
things, but it certainly was an enjoyable hour of television.

Random Musings
--------------

-Delightful moment: As Vin Scully tells us over and over how 
"gorgeous" and "perfect" the day is, our Scully hauls huge 
dusty old tomes down the basement steps and yearns to be outside 
playing herself.

-I guess when they called it the cactus leagues they really 
meant it because as far as I could tell the cactus caught more 
balls than anyone else.

-Scully has never played baseball? Say it ain't so. I have a 
very hard time believing a tomboy with two brothers who doted 
on her father never swung at a pitch. My theory is it had been 
a while and the adult Scully was just interested in getting 
some private lessons.

-So what does Dales do on the bus rides while the team celebrates 
life around him? He studies French and practices saying "You are 
without heart, Mademoiselle." Maybe this is the reason he ends up 
alone.

-Mark Snow apparently spent so much time coming up with the 
wonderful mournful guitar used in the baseball scenes that he 
had to fill a lot of the rest of the episode with samples of 
the movie score. 

-Speaking of the music, I will admit that I now find it very 
funny that we have "plam music". I swear every time that thing 
opens with the Rabwinesque "pfffft" we hear the same dramatic 
notes.

-Just why is Mulder looking for his Arthur Dales in DC when 
he just saw him in Florida? Maybe "Agua Mala" does indeed take 
place in the future during hurricane season.

-Sooooo, there were two brothers and one sister all named 
Arthur. I wonder if Fredric Lane will also play the sister 
at thirtysomething in drag if we ever get to meet her since 
they all seem to look the same until they are much older.

-Funny how that 1947 newspaper references a past event in 1995 
in the text to the left of the Bounty Hunter's lovely mug.

-Frank's Fashion Spot: I always enjoy 40's period costumes, but 
some of those extras were having serious hat issues. Also, nice 
to see even Mulder notice fashion when he comments on Scully's 
nice suede jacket.

-Dale's refrigerator scared me even more than the one in 
Scully's living room. It was filled with liquor and condiments. 
Yum. I guess if you keep all your hard liquor in the fridge it 
cuts down on the need to dilute it with ice. Looks like the Dales 
brothers have the old lonely boozer living in chaos in common. 
Lovely.

-I loved watching Scully tromp in and then scale boxes with 
ease to crane her neck out the window to enjoy the Saturday 
sun.

-I see Mulder continues to impress with his tipping skills. 
Heck, a buck is better than the pizza guy got.

-I did like the "There was a bee on you" cover for the mistaken 
rescue. Because God knows, we understand just how much a bee on 
you can suck all too well.

-Wow, it was interesting to note while they may not laugh or 
smile, even aliens are capable of a girly scream.

-A few technical highlights I'd like to point out. First, kudos 
to editor Lynne Willingham for scoring with the delightfully 
edited scene at the end. Also a nod to the makeup team for a 
great job with the Exley as alien scene. Usually we only see 
such things obscured or in fleeting and I thought they did a 
nice job giving us an extended view. My only complaint was the 
Bounty Hunter's exit where the alien head looked too much like 
a masked horseman.

-Noticed the little tribute to the late Dimaggio next to the 
TV: "Joltin' Joe Has Gone".

-That lab was just too silly. How many different brightly 
colored bubbling, smoking liquids did we need for a scientist 
who wears dishwashing gloves to do experiments? 

-In the "that's gotta hurt department": "sliding down a 
razorblade into a big old glass of lemonade".

-Line that should have been cut or changed: the reference to 
the ticking of Scully's biological clock when this series has 
already rendered her sterile. It was just the wrong thing to 
say at that time because of what it evokes.

-I've got to wonder if "I don't want to be no famous man. Just 
want to be a man." had a bit of the writer speaking in it.

-"In the Big Inning" gets my vote for worst use of a tag line 
change since "Teliko". What a groaner.

-Poor Gillian, her height and the set conspire against her at 
the end such that as she is walking up the only way her face 
is not obscured is if she hunches over and ducks her head to 
deliver her lines.

-Mulder manages to make hunting aliens sound downright sexy 
mumbling in Scully's ear as they played handsies with the bat 
and hit home runs when the two of them have yet to get to 
first base. I bet he probably wishes he thought of this little 
birthday idea earlier.

-Is it wrong to enjoy a simple line like "I'm in the middle" 
this much? I hope not.

Autumn
"Shut up Mulder, I'm playing baseball."