Case 05, File 19: Folie a Deux

AKA: Machines Made Of Meat

Mulder is fucking weirdo. I love the man dearly, I hope that is beyond question at this point, but there is no getting around the fact that by any standard of human behavior, Mulder is a weird fuckin' dude. Depending on the episode this can either be a light hearted joke or a searing insight into his character, depending on how the episode wants to frame other people's reactions, but it is odd to see the series occasionally try to frame an entire episode around people thinking he's crazy.

Our episode opens with a guy named Gary working in a telemarketing center (IE hell on earth) when he notices his boss, Pincus is a monster. And not a monster like most bosses, big ol' bug person, but he's the only one who can see him for what he is. Yeah that's pretty sparse for a cold open, but what are ya gonna do? He starts calling in the radio and asking them to play his uh, crazed ramblings, so Mulder gets sent off to Illinois to check it out, but he leaves Scully behind because he thinks the whole thing is dumb. Meanwhile Pincus is investigating his work force and transforming them into zombies.

But after getting there and hearing a line that reminds him of an old X-File he read (one of the actual files, not, you know, an episode) and decides to call in Scully. Unfortunately before he gets there, Gary dials it up from kinda-crazy to super-duper-crazy and goes full Hostage Taking. Mulder gets swept up in it, naturally, and tries to talk him down, but he still executes one of the dudes he says are zombies. After some wrangling and hostage negotiation, Gary gets shot but not before he gets Mulder to briefly look at Pincus looking like a bug.

So Mulder, being the sort who's already prone to believing crazy things, decides he believes him and immediately begins stalking Pinkus, putting together Pepe Silvia walls and gathering evidence because Mulder does not do things halfway. Specifically he heads over to Gary's house and finds his own wall o' crazy but also sees one of the zombie workers watching the house and decides that justifies him following the car around till he sees Pincus breaking into someone house and uh, follows him in, waving a gun around. Still, he sees Pincus crawling on the walls and ceiling. That's neat.

"Mondays, am I right?" Oh god I hate myself for making that joke.

But the employee (who has been zombified, via a bite to the back of the neck) objects to Mulder breaking into her house and after Mulder nearly attacks Pincus in the meeting, Skinner decides to have him committed. While all this is going on, Scully is performing autopsies of the guy Gary shot and finds that his body is an advanced state of decay and eventually finds a weird mark on the back of the dude's neck, right where Mulder said it was.

Hokay, so Mulder is locked up in the asylum, but Pincus begins trying to break in, and also zombifies the nurse in the building, but Scully shows up at the hospital to see Mulder and realizes what's going on just in time to break into his room and shoot Pincus, who escapes. She talks with Skinner who asks her to quantify what she saw, but she can't cause it was fucking weird. And thus the episode wraps with another employee at another call center recognizing that Pincus is a bug person.

I defined Seasons 3, 4 and 5 as The X-Files' Golden Age, so that means that Folie a Deux is the last Monster of the Week of the Golden Age. And it's a good note to head into the waning years on, a great example of what the series is best at, taking a small, simple concept and turning it into an engaging little thriller narrative out of it. There's a lot of details here that turn this episode, which
could have been fairly rote and silly, into a solid piece of horror/sci-fi.

I like this shot, and this setpiece, a lot. More trucks crashing through walls please.

The big one is a very minor one, but that's very important: The visual effects over the bug monster itself. All they do is put a minor filter over it, give it a little static, but it works like gangbusters. Even when I was a kid, I could tell it was the sort of thing that you would add because the effect wasn't working out (later readings confirmed this) but the added effects give it an air of other worldly-ness that makes all the difference. Not only do they tie into the "Hiding in the light" element, but the jerky, half-there effect just ramps up the creep factor. Pretty good for last minute effects to hide a bad costume.

The plot of the episode is a solid foundation to rest that effect on (that's an awkward segue, but whatever). Part of me wishes the episode tried to mess around a bit more, pretend maybe Mulder is going insane, but honestly, the pacing is so tight that I dunno if they'd have time for it, and when it works it works. It's also another episode that (wisely) puts a lot of weight on Mulder and Scully's relationship, counting on audience investment in the characters to sell elements like Scully deciding to trust Mulder or Mulder begging Scully to help him. The series is closing in on the end of its 5th Season, if the audience isn't here for their relationship by now, they won't be there for it any time soon.

It helps that the episode takes a couple of pretty novel twists. Mulder getting trapped in a hostage situation is the kind of thing that could carry an entire third act (and indeed, has carried the first two acts of an excellent episode prior to this) but this episode is confident enough in the second half of its story that it just resolves it at the midpoint and keeps on trucking. There's not a lot of shows that would use a character getting a machine gun pointed at him as the 1st act closer that gets resolved 8 minutes later, but The X-Files is at the top of its game and it's still got enough gas in the tank to make a truck smashing through a wall not the third act climax.

"Pincus is such a doucheb-oh god, he's standing right behind me isn't he?"

If there's an issue with the episode it's that the human face of the villain is really really dull (which is a shame because the guy playing Gary is really intense). Yeah I get that that's part of the point, he's hiding in plain sight and all, but he has no oomph, no screen presence. You don't need to give him more screen time, just write him with a little more menace. It's probably not a good sign that I thought Gary's friend with no screen time was actually the villain at first cause I thought the bug was a lady. It's possible I got it confused with the similar episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

It's tempting to get misty eyed over this passing of my self-imposed era of the show (is my assessment of Seasons 3, 4 and 5 as the series' Golden Age controversial? I have no idea) but that seems a little premature. It's not like the series drops off to unwatchability here. This isn't the end of the series (either of them), this isn't when Duchovny leaves the series, this isn't even the end of the season. All this is is an above average episode, with a solid central effect and a good hook. And a big goddamn bug. That's important.

Case Notes:

• The opening tracking shot over the call center reminds me of Sorry to Bother You. Have you seen Sorry to Bother You? You should.
• The first guy the caller calls in the cold open is a lot more polite than I would be. He's like "I'm not interested, I have to go" I'm usually either sarcastic or I hang up.
• I want to hope that the "Dial and Smile" bit is an exaggeration, but I know it's not.
• The dude still going through the script while getting increasingly terrified of the insect monster is good stuff, it actually manages to sell his terror more than if he just collapsed out of it.
• I like how Mulder immediately groks that he's being tapped for this assignment cause the manifesto the company got was pretty weird. And then Skinner basically says "Yeah, it was weird, but you're a weirdo so you should be able to figure it out."
• Hey, Mulder is still wearing the splint on his finger from the previous episode. Good continuity there.
• I dunno if telling a radio station "Please play my crazy manifesto over and over, 24 hours a day" is a good way to get taken seriously.
• Mulder sends Scully chasing through his old case files. Mulder you should just digitize those already.
• The guy they hired to play the mid-level boss is pretty solid at "Douchebag," good casting.
• The makeup on Nancy post-zombifying is pretty freaky.
• I like that Mulder is taking this assignment seriously, even though he thinks it's a waste of time.
• Mulder: "At the risk of you telling me 'I told you so' I think it's time for you to get down here and help me." Scully: "I told you so." I love them so much.
• Scully arrives and Mulder has already stumbled into a hostage situation, good job Mulder.
• I'm surprised that Mulder doesn't handle more hostage situations, he's got a calming presence about him when he wants to. I do like him lying that he's there to apply for a job though, I think he guesses (rightly) that Gary will lose his shit if he figures out Mulder is FBI.
• Monster of the Week already pointed this out but "Robots made out of meat" is a great line AND a solid way to describe late stage Capitalist America.
• The hostage sequence is good, lots of stuff changes very quickly, there's good tension and solid directing and acting. I like that the situation hinges on the FBI making the (stupid, but understandable) decision to call Mulder's cellphone.
• I'm surprised Gary didn't figure out why the camera man was spinning the camera around the room. Can't imagine why a cameraman in this situation would want to show the entire room dummy.
• The climax of the hostage scene is really good, the actor sells the shit out of his part and I like that Mulder is just credulous enough to look at the bug monster at the right moment. Plus the truck busting through the wall is great. More episodes should include trucks ramming through walls.
• Mulder starts questioning the dude immediately after the hostage situation is over. I get we're being economical with our screen time, but that's kind of a dick move Mulder.
• Mulder jumps right into the conspiracy theory of Pincus being a bug monster and then spends the entire night reading X-Files. Oh Mulder.
• Mulder goes to Gary's house and finds he has the exact same map that Mulder made. If he were less Mulder that might give him pause.
• I get that Pincus has figured out that he's been exposed, but I don't think that having one of your zombie ladies hanging out outside of Gary's house like she's Mike Myers is not the way to appear innocent.
• I love Scully hedging on why Mulder is investigating the case, basically covering for Mulder being a weirdo. Him sending her the body to autopsy is pretty over the line though.
• The Illinois FBI describe Mulder's behavior as "Erratic" but honestly, when is he not?
• I like the moment where the rookie autopsy dude recognizes that the dead body has been dead longer than he was shot. It's a good way of getting Scully on board and I like her reaction when she realizes Mulder is right.
• The scene where Mulder basically breaks into the woman's house is good. The bug crawling across the ceiling with the static is pretty solid and the audio backup of the 40s(?) movie ups the creepiness factor.
• Mulder movies to protect Skinner from the bug monster but come on Mulder, Skinner is invincible.
• I like that Pincus doesn't drop the facade too much in his meeting with Mulder and Skinner.
• Mulder beat me to the "Scully should have expected Mulder to get committed" joke.
• "You're my one in five billion." And then Scully trusts Mulder enough to go look at the body again. Goddamn I such an unceasing shipper, help me. 
• Windows at hospitals don't generally open (especially mental hospital), but whatever the scene where she reveals she's under Pincus' power is good.
• I like the final meeting between Mulder and Skinner, as she's basically admitting Mulder was right but doesn't want to put it in those terms.
• I know that the series didn't really publish the episode titles much, but Scully hitting the title drop as her final line is pretty great.
• As always these reviews are supported by my Patreon. Feel free to check it out so I can talk more about big goddamn bugs.

Current Celebrity Watch:

This is not at all a real celebrity but I am forced to point out that Gary's friend is played by Cynthia Preston, a voice actress who, among other things, played Princess Zelda in the Zelda segments of the Super Mario Brothers Super Show. I would like to invite you to go back and watch those segments again, they really are so much worse than you remember.

Future Celebrity Watch:

The random FBI Agent who hangs around for a lot of the episode and does nothing is played by Roger Cross who played Curtis Manning on 24. I said in the All Souls review that I haven't watched 24 and that's still true. Probably won't.