Case 06, File 19: The Unnatural

AKA: There's No Rule That Says An Alien Can't Play Baseball

The question of whether The X-Files should tackle big issues, not just questions of loneliness or depression but big issues like racism or sexism, is one I go back and forth on. On the one hand, I like my shows having depth and the series is often at its best when its trying to be more complex. On the other, The X-Files is a sci-fi horror show about two model gorgeous FBI agents fighting monsters and aliens, it's ability to write about complex issues can be limited. So whenever it looks like it's about to dip its toe in those waters, I get excited, yet...nervous.

Our episode opens in Roswell in 1947, with a black baseball team playing a white baseball team out in the desert (it's more remarkable in 1947). We've just learned that one of the black baseball players, named Exley, is famous, when he hits a Home Run and also the KKK shows up, demanding he be turned over. When the players pelt them with baseballs and unmask them, one of them is revealed to be an alien. No, that's unrelated to the KKK thing, the KKK are not aliens, life isn't that nice and simple.

Anyway, we then return to the present day, with Mulder and Scully spending a beautiful Saturday indoors, researching old newspaper headlines and bickering, until Mulder finds an article that interests him, about a baseball player who disappeared with police officer Arthur Dales. Except it turns out to not be THAT Arthur Dales, it's his brother. And after some cajoling and ranting about how important baseball is, Dales agrees to tell Mulder his story.

See, as a really good black player who had interest from the Yankees, Exley (shortened to Ex) was getting a lot of death threats from the KKK and Arthur Dales, then a police officer, was assigned to protect him. After some comical not fitting in among the all black team and noticing some odd things about Ex, he notices the most important odd thing: When the Yankee scouts show up to watch, he throws the game until they leave. And when Dales confronts him about it, and how he's letting down black people (don't do that Dales, not your place) he dodges the question.

Turns out the next night, when Dales hears something weird in Ex's room, that Ex is an alien, who, as we learn over the next couple scenes, was one of the Colonizers, but defected to humanity when he discovered baseball (just accept the idea of baseball as this magical transformative thing or we'll be here all day) and chose to take the form of a black player so he could avoid playing in the majors and thus get the scrutiny that would cause him to get found out.

I didn't totally follow what was up with this statue thing, but I guess it was cute?

But he can't just keep playing baseball, as an Alien Bounty Hunter is down there looking for him, and after destroying some evidence (he got some blood on a glove in a pretty minor moment), Ex realizes he needs to go back and leaves the team. But then we get to the cold open of the episode, where the KKK member is revealed to be an alien and after he transforms back into the Alien Bounty Hunter, lectures Ex on betraying his people for baseball but Ex...broke a record? I dunno, I think it was a home run record but a lot of the baseball stuff in this episode is just noise to me.

But what isn't noise is that the Bounty Hunter demands he change back into his real face, and Ex stays human as the Bounty Hunter executes him. I'm not gonna explain that, you can figure it out on your own. And then as Dales arrives, Ex dies in his arms, leaving Mulder back in the framing device to puzzle over the meaning of the story, and deciding that what he's gonna do is end the episode on a cute scene where he teaches Scully to hit baseballs.

How good is The Unnatural as an episode? I don't give a shit about baseball, either as a sport or as a cultural institution, and this episode still gets me. There's a lot of moving parts in this episode, and not all of it works for me, but as an overall package, the episode really gets to me. A combination of good writing, solid direction and, let's be honest with ourselves, an extremely cute closing scene, combine to make this episode if not precisely the level of Jose Chung, then at least one of the best episodes of the later seasons.

"Does this make it less weird for you?"
"Uh no, but it makes me ask some questions about your goals for our friendship." 

The central element, the one that holds the entire episode together is Exley. The actor playing him has an excellent mix of humor and pathos, and his performance keeps the episode on track when some of its stranger turns could throw it completely off the rails. His final scene in particular is one of those things that could be unbearably cheesy in the wrong hands, but it works because he sells it, and that counts for a lot more than you might think in a episode with a tone this odd.

And the episode does have an odd tone, hovering near the edge of a fairy tale style tone but with reality constantly pushing in around the edges, making the episode get darker and darker as it encroaches more on the story. If I wanted to get more into thematic readings of the episode, I could argue that the fact that the Bounty Hunter appears as a KKK member allows the alien plotline to stand in for the reality of the bigotry of the time period intruding on our more idyllic conception of that time period, but I don't wanna do that. I mean, I just did, but I didn't want to.

Not every aspect of this fairy tale tone works; The kid who wanders into the framing device at about the midpoint feels very out of place and I don't get why he showed up in the framing device, except the edit of him heading down the hall and then cutting to the past is a nice edit (and no, him showing up in the epilogue doesn't help things). The kid is kind of a brief glimpse of what the episode would have been had it been less skillfully made; Twee to the point of obnoxiousness.

If you want to know the main reason why the fanbase is so obsessed with this episode, this picture is exhibits A through at least P.

But it manages to avoid that, mostly due to a strong screenplay and great performances. The actor playing younger Dales is good, not fantastic but he manages to sell how out of place he is with the team without it feeling forced, and the rest of the team does solid work with very little screentime. And it's nice to see the return of the Alien Bounty Hunter classic, who not only gets to show up with his face un-fucked up, but also gives an actual monologue towards the end. I think he says more in that scene than in the entire series before it.

Part of me, a bigger part of me than I care to admit, wants to dig further into this episode for more thematic elements, for more depth, or even discuss the fact that this is basically our only look at the alien's culture, but that's not what this column is about. This column is about evaluating each episode, and placing it in the larger context of the series, and under that microscope, this episode is the polar opposite of Milagro: An episode that takes a silly premise but instead of taking it deadly serious, gives it just enough gravitas to make it great.

Case Notes:

• The opening camera shot, showing us the Roswell location title before switching over to the baseball game is on the gimmicky side, but I like it.
• The baseball scene is cheesy in a good way, it feels like a period appropriate sports movie (with the characters spouting their backstories and character traits).
• Hearing The X-Files use the N-word is really uncomfortable, on purpose I think.
• I'd forgotten this episode got it's own replacement for The Truth is Out There.
• First scene out of the cold open and Mulder is making Scully fetch huge books for him. It's only weird cause Duchovny directed this episode.
• Okay the cold open is really cute, I am not made of stone. I love Scully being completely unshocked by Mulder defacing the book.
• Another Arthur Dales sighting, this time his brother. This one is a jerk and rants about baseball a lot.
• I like Mulder knowing Mickey Mantle's stats off the top of his head.
• I dunno why, but I like the team hassling young Arthur Dales, it's good character work, which is important for an episode that's so character focused.
• The reveal that Ex is an alien hits harder than the reveal that one of the KKK members is an alien. The former is when the story begins to open up, the first feels like it's just the episode trying to pull you in.
• Mulder looks so incredulous when Dales is telling him that all the most important baseball players were aliens. Is that how other people feel talking to him.
• Dales failing to chew tobacco is cute, but the scene where Dales panics (justifiably) and covers Ex is better.
• A lot of the elements of the Ex mystery feel like a throwback to earlier in the series (acid blood plays a major part, we've got alien bounty hunter classic) which I guess fits into the fact that the episode itself is a throwback to old baseball stories.
• I like that the episode tries to actually make race an issue, but it is in a very 90s way (Dales' "Liars come in all colors" line lands kinda wrong, especially in the 1940s). 
• The scene where Dales sees Ex as an alien and they both shriek is very Darin Morgan, in a good way, as is the following scene.
• It kinda goes unnoticed, but this is basically our first (only?) look into the alien culture, with their desire for privacy and their lack of laughter.
• The Mulder and Dales interludes are fun but older Dales is still kind of a jerk.
• I like the Alien Bounty Hunter's arrival in the third act, suddenly jerking this light, fun story to earth. Although the Alien Bounty Hunter does make a joke (he got the substance from Mars...just to the left of Mars) which is new, I guess to make us feel like it could actually be Ex?
• I really like the ending, from Ex disappearing, but choosing to stay and break the record, the conversation between the Bounty Hunter and Ex, even Ex's death in Dales' arms. It's excellent stuff.
• The final scene, where Mulder teaches Scully to bat is a fan favorite for a reason, but it also serves as a nice emotional end to the episode.
• As always these reviews are supported by my Patreon. Check it out cause lord knows I'll never make money on my baseball commentary.

Current Celebrity Watch:

Jesse L. Martin, who plays Exley, is pretty well known in the world of theater, notably being the original actor who played Collins in RENT. He's currently on The Flash playing Joe West.

On a much more minor note, while he never got famous, M. Emmet Walsh who plays Old Arthur Dales played Visser, the detective, in Blood Simple, which is a frankly incredible movie. He still gets around now, mostly voice work (including 46 episodes of a Canadian TV show called Pound Puppies?)

Oh and the baseball coach in the cold open is played by a commercial director named Daniel Duchovny. He's not famous, but his brother sure is.