Case 06, File 14: Monday

AKA: I Am Legally Barred From Making A Joke About That Bangles Song

There are premises, concepts, ideas, in fiction that for one reason or another become so fixed in the culture's imagination that in the end, anyone who can figure out a way to explore that concept in their premise, will feel the temptation to try it. And one of those concepts is the Groundhog Day loop, where the same day is lived over and over again. Movies and tv shows from Buffy and Angel to The Twilight Zone have used it, with some like Russian Doll and Happy Death Day using it as their central premise. As such, it's not at all surprising that a show like The X-Files would want to give it a shot.

Our cold open kicks thing off with a bang (literally) with Mulder shot and bleeding out on the floor of a bank (in Scully's arms, naturally). Skinner is outside, trying to coordinate the response to the bank robbery, when a mysterious woman runs up to him and yells at him to stop the police from storming in, because (as we learn in a moment) the bank robber has a bomb strapped to him which he sets off when the police storm in, killing everyone in the bank. And thus ends The X-Files.

Just kidding, we open back up on the same Monday morning, with our hero having the Monday from hell: His water bed (remember that?) has leaked, shorting out both his alarm clock and his cellphone, causing him to miss a very important meeting. It's also leaking to the apartment below his, and he has to write his landlord a check for the damages, which will bounce if he doesn't go deposit his pay right now. Oh and he trips on his shoes. That always sucks.

While all this is happening, the woman (Pam) and the bank robber (Bernard) from the opening are arguing, with Bernard promising an already despondent Pam that he's got a plan to make their lives better. He heads off to the bank at the same time as Mulder, while Pam sits in the car, predicting everything that happens, while the situation ends the same way: Bernard tries to rob the bank, Scully leaves the meeting to get Mulder, Mulder gets shot and Bernard blows up the bomb killing everyone.

"Wait, why did I get a mirror on the ceiling? Did I start having regular sex and just forgot?"

And then the day restarts, with everything mostly happening the same way, except Mulder and Scully have a brief conversation about the nature of fate, which leads Scully to try and go to the bank in Mulder's stead, but Mulder ends up following her and it ends the same way. And then starts again. And again. And again. Finally Mulder, getting enough memory back to recognize Pam and she fills him in: This day has been looping hundreds, if not thousands, of times, Pam is the only one who knows it and she can't find a way to stop it. Bernard always goes to the bank and Mulder and Scully always go in there and get blown up.

Mulder tries to avert this time, but gets blown up again, repeating to himself as he does "He's got a bomb." This time, as the day starts over (this time Pam tries to warn Scully) but Mulder remembers that he has a bomb and tries to defuse the situation by asking Scully to bring Pam into the bank. Bernard still freaks out, the cops still show up, but this time Pam jumps in front of Mulder, taking the bullet and dying. Bernard despairs and is taken away peacefully as Pam dies and the episode ends with Tuesday finally hitting and Mulder musing on what happened.

Monday isn't a complicated episode. If you asked an X-Files fan to imagine what would happen if the show tried a Groundhog Day style episode, it's probably pretty close to what they'd imagine (although most X-Files fans I know would probably add in a scene where Mulder graphically hooks up with either Scully or Krycek). So instead the episode manages to distinguish itself by focusing on making the execution, the details, great.

I just really like this shot, I am weak.

The first major way this episode works is with the secondary characters and their acting. Bernard is good, maybe nothing super unique (he's a slightly deranged bank robber and called upon to rob a bank in a slightly deranged way) but the actor sells it and he's engaging enough. But the real heavy lifting is being done by Pam. A lot of any good Groundhog Day story is selling us on the eventual existential horror the trapped person feels, and we get that from Pam right from the get go. Her actress radiates exhaustion and despair from the first moment we see her, and her handful of monologues sell it even further.

It also helps that, when the episode redoes sequences that we've already seen, they make sure to redo them in slightly different ways. This both helps reinforce one of the major themes, that of the slight differences in each loop based on the character's free will. It also helps the audience buy that Mulder is slowly gaining memories of what's happened, since a lot of the differences build on stuff that's happened before (I like how fed up he is with his water bed leaking by the end, him picking up the phone and immediately declaring that he knows and will pay for it is great stuff).

Unfortunately, the lack of complication in the episode's setup and execution means that I don't have a whole tone of stuff to talk about. I like that the episode never feels the need to explain how the time loop happened. Worrying about those kinds of things can drag an episode down. Honestly, the episode doesn't sweat the details a lot, which lets it imply a lot of stuff that it doesn't need to show. The implication that Pam has been trapped in the loop for hundreds of repeats and has kind of given up trying to stop gives her character a lot of pathos.

When X-Files fans said they wanted Scully to rip Mulder's clothes off, this is not what they meant.

If I have complaint about the episode it's that the two characters who are at the center of the plot, Pam and Bernard, aren't fleshed out as well as they could be. Part of that is simply the structure of the episode: The cold open starts us in the middle of the action and doesn't really go back after that, but I would like more of a hint of why Bernard wants to rob a bank outside of "Unhappy at his janitor job." Also where did he get a bomb? I feel like a bomb like that is either expensive or hard to make. I know, that's overthinking things, but it's a really impressive bomb.

Monday is an example of what The X-Files does best, take a simple concept for a sci-fi/horror premise, insert Mulder and Scully and make it work with some good acting, writing and directing. That the premise this time around is well trodden ground isn't too much of a stumbling block, because the episode does the premise well.

Case Notes:

• I like the cop assuming that Skinner is there to take over the bank robbery. He's practically begging Skinner to take over the robbery.
• Gotta say, as far as memorable ways to put our heroes on screen for the first time in an episode, Mulder lying bleeding out in Scully's arms is a good one.
• Nice practical explosion effect there.
• Mulder's confusion at the water bed and the mirror on the ceiling is a joy to behold.
• The first bit in Mulder's apartment does an excellent job of establishing what an unspeakably awful morning he's having.
• Scully has some good sass in the office. She does not look happy sitting through the meeting while Mulder is absent.
• The actress playing Pam does a great job at instantly selling the existential horror of being trapped in a loop like this.
• Oh we get a brief look at the meeting. I dunno what report Mulder was supposed to be giving. The "Killer Squid Made of Saltwater" trends?
• The guy playing the robber does a good crazy and desperate. I like that he knows most of the bank tricks, but still misses the silent alarm the teller pushes.
• Honestly, being so attached to Mulder and Scully as characters, watching Mulder get shot is rough.
• Gillian Anderson still has one of the best "Controlled panic" in the biz, and she has it turned up to 11 here, trying to talk Bernard down while freaking out over Mulder being shot.
• I like the small differences in each run through, but I also like that one of those differences is the fact that Mulder and Scully pause for a minute to discuss predestination and free will. More shows should do stuff like that.
• Scully doesn't get shot when she's the one who goes in the bank cause she's just too damned badass.
• Pam tries warning Scully, correctly intuiting that she's the smart one, but also failing to intuit that only Mulder would buy a story like that.
• "Some Freudians believe that deja vu is repressed memories." Yeah well, I believe Freud was full of shit, so what's your point?
• The fact that Mulder tries to get around going to the bank by going to the ATM, but the ATM is out of service is perfect.
• Pam's monologue about the hell of living through the same day over and over is really good, to the point where I understand why Mulder might buy it. Aside from, you know, being Mulder.
• Mulder repeating to himself "He's got a bomb" is an appealingly Mulder way to try and remember details.
• The slow, silent pans across Mulder's apartment in the beginning of the third act is very Twin Peaks-y in a way the show hasn't been in a while.
• Mulder tells Scully to leave a meeting, grab a girl from a car and let the girl tell Scully where to go, and Scully does it. Must be soulmates.
• Scully takes Mulder saying this day has been on a loop in stride. I'm pretty sure he comes up with three equally crazy ideas each day.
• Pam looks pretty okay with being shot. Guess death is better than being trapped in the same 12 hour cycle over and over.
• Mulder is, once we finally move to Tuesday, sleeping on the couch. All is right again.
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Current Celebrity Watch:

Bernard is played by Darren Burrows, who had just finished a run as Ed Chigliak on Northern Exposure, one of only a handful of pieces of media that takes place in my home state of Alaska, so it's one I know pretty well.

Pam is played by Carrie Hamilton, who was partially well known for her two season run as Reggie Higgins in the Fame tv show and partially known for Carol Burnett's daughter.