Case 06, File 20: Three of a Kind

AKA: No, There Are No Threesomes In This Episode

As a series continues on, the temptation to do sequel episodes to well known and well liked episodes becomes greater and greater. Coming up with new unique ideas for a show, especially a show with such a high bar for weirdness, gets more and more difficult every season and you never know what will or will not please the fans. But a follow up to an old episode, that's easy to come up with, and if it includes some fan favorite characters who don't usually get a lot of screentime, well you can sure that will keep the fans happy, if nothing else.

After a cold open where Byers talks about a dream he had about how great America and his life would be if JFK was never shot but also it all still goes wrong, we open in Vegas, with our heroes trying to infiltrate a defense contracting convention poker game. No, not Mulder and Scully, the Lone Gunmen, with Byers as the defense contractor, Frohike as the waiter and Langly as...the guy on the radio. But they get immediately made because they're terrible spies, and kicked out.

After meeting up with some of their friends (Jimmy and Timmy) who are there doing the same thing, and a brief discussion about how Byers wants to go to these conventions because he wants to find Susanne Modeski (they had a Previously On so you remember who she is), they head down to the casino floor where... they immediately catch sight of Susanne Modeski. That was easy.

What's not so easy is that they need FBI help and since everyone there would recognize Mulder, they use Mulder's voice to trick Scully into coming to Vegas, and then discover that Susanne is only a few doors down the hallway from them, and is staying with the man who made them when they were trying to infiltrate the poker game. So they plot, with Jimmy, to sneak into a meeting and see what Susanne's guy friend knows, but Timmy is inside the meeting, catches Jimmy and injects him with an unknown substance.

Scully arrives in Vegas, and before she can even demand to know where Mulder is, Jimmy has thrown himself under a bus in a way that makes everyone realize it's weird. Frohike decides the way to get information is to sneak into Susanne's room and plant a camera (and finds that one is already hidden in their room), but when Susanne returns, Byers decides to go the direct route and confront her. She tells him that the man is her fiancee and that he rescued her, but refuses to elaborate.

I like how even the other nerds think he's a weirdo for wearing that shirt to a defense contractor convention/

Hokay, we're getting kinda complex here: Scully decides to do an autopsy on Jimmy with Langly, but Langly freaks out and Timmy gets the drop on her, injecting her with the same stuff, leaving her silly and airheaded. Susanne goes to talk with Byers leaving Frohike and Langly to peace out to the casino floor. Susanne explains that she and the man (Grant) were working to stop the project they were working on. Langly meanwhile gets tricked into going up to Timmy's room (for an..in memorium D&D game?) and gets injected with the same substance.

Meanwhile meanwhile, Frohike finds Scully on the floor of the casino acting very strange (including getting hit on by Morris Fletcher of all things) and when he gets Scully back up to their room, Susanne realizes that the compound is the one she and Grant were working on and were planning on going public with. The one only she and Grant had access too. Meanwhile meanwhile meanwhile Langly is still brainwashed by the same compound, and gets orders to assassinate Susanne at the upcoming meeting.

So that goes off without a hitch, Susanne is shot, Scully and Timmy are there but, TWIST the EMTs are Byers and Frohike and Timmy realizes the blood is corn syrup and food coloring. It turns out they checked Langly for injections and Susanne is alive and wants to confront Grant who...sold her out so he could live. Oh that's a boring motivation.

What's not boring is Timmy shows up, kills Grant and takes Susanne back to the Lone Gunmen's room. But, Byers gets the drop on him and injects him with the compound, instructing him to confess to both murders. And so, with Susanne legally dead, she disappears into a new identity, with her promising to reunite with Byers someday. Oh and Scully promises to kick their asses.

"So what are we gonna do when she finds out we tricked her?"
"Oh Langly, that's later. Maybe we'll be dead by then."

Three of a Kind is not a great episode. It has issues with pacing and tension that it can't quite overcome and the story feels more fanservicey than its predecessor. But the chemistry between our three leads, and a light tone keeps it from getting dull and it is nice to get some closure to the Susanne plotline, and given the presence of Morris Fletcher, get an even more direct lead in to the Lone Gunmen spinoff. It actually feels more like an episode of that spinoff than it does an episode of The X-Files. And that's all you're getting about the spinoff from me until I get to it.

Our big issue is that of tension and stakes. I like the premise of the tension shift, light and funny until Jimmy dies and then more serious after, but the problem is, I don't care about Jimmy, or his murderous partner Timmy. They get one scene (one shot really), then the scene where Jimmy dies and then Timmy is the villain for the entire rest of the episode. There's no weight to any of their relationships, even if the Lone Gunmen have supposedly known them for a long time.

The interactions between the Gunmen, and between Byers and Susanne, are a lot better, partially cause of Langly and Frohike's unrelenting skepticism towards Byers motives, and partially cause when Byers interacts with Susanne, he's so nakedly pathetic and needy. It may be an obvious emotion to play up, but it feels very real. And I'll admit, I'm a sucker for the Lone Gunmen's camaraderie. It's not quite Mulder and Scully's bond, but it feels authentic, and it gives an explanation for why they keep doing this so long.

Less fun is Scully's interactions with the Gunmen, or rather lack thereof. Aside from a brief fun little bit where Scully performs an autopsy and freaks Langly out, she's mostly utilitarian to the plot. She doesn't really gel with the Gunmen on her own the way Mulder does, but also doesn't really clash with them in an entertaining way. Yes, the bit where she gets drugged as is woozy is funny and Gillian Anderson is clearly loving playing Scully as silly, but it feels more like they decided they wanted Scully (to contrast with Mulder in The Usual Suspects and worked backwards from there, rather than organically choosing her.

Frohike seen here showing his heretofore unmentioned ninja skills.

But there is still something about it that works. Maybe I like how aware the Gunmen are that Scully is going to beat them to death when she realizes they've tricked her, maybe I just still have an immense fondness of the Lone Gunmen as characters, but I still like this episode. I honestly wish there was more of it, lots of conceptually good stuff gets dropped in order to fit the episode into its runtime. I wish we could have seen the Gunmen planning how to save Susanne, for example, instead of relegating it to a twist that doesn't actually land super well because it happens too fast (there's maybe 20 seconds between when Susanne is shot and it's revealed it's a trick).

I spend a lot of time whinging about this episode, but I'm still engaged and happy the entire time I'm watching it, which I think is the gap between my critical brain and my fan brain. My critical brain is, at least theoretically, trying to pick apart the story and the writing, figuring out what works and what doesn't, in order to actually write a review of it. My fan brain is just happy to get to hang around with these characters I like for 45 minutes.

Case Notes:

• There's something kind of funny about a Previously On for an episode from nearly 2 seasons ago.
• There's something kind of dark and revealing about Byers' opening fantasy, about how miserable he is in his current existence. I don't remember The Lone Gunmen super well, but when I get to it, I hope they explore it.
• Also, I love me some Bruce Harwood, but uh...he is not as good at doing opening monologues as David Duchovny.
• I like that the defense contractors are relentless dorks, as they probably would be.
• Byers is an incredibly shitty plant, he's asking super obvious questions from the get go, no wonder he got made instantly. Frohike is a better spy, frankly.
• I like the check ins to Langly basically googling everything they say, it's a very in-character way for them to try and infiltrate someplace.
• I like the brief looks into the Lone Gunmen's weird conspiracy nut world, like the conversation with the other con infiltrators. Mulder's FBI presence is usually the shabby counterpart to the FBI, so it's nice to get to see that he's not the bottom level of weirdness.
• There are brief moments of friendship between the Lone Gunmen that I really like, especially between Byers and Frohike (Langly winds up the comic relief when they're without Mulder and Scully to bounce off of). 
• I am amused by them tricking Scully to coming to Vegas, but I love how painfully aware Frohike is that she's gonna kick their asses.
• I find the rival conspiracy nuts vaguely amusing, but they feel like caricatures of nerds much more than the Lone Gunmen, whose variety of looks and attitudes made them feel more fleshed out.
• The scene where Byers initially confronts Susanne is good, but it coming surrounded by bits where Frohike hides from her gives it a bit of tonal whiplash.
• The scene where Scully does the autopsy is also really good, partially cause of Scully and Langley's different outlooks and partially cause of reminding us how much of a badass Scully is for doing this nonchalantly, while Langly can't handle it
• Between Frohike slipping into the vents and Timmy sneaking up on Scully, is every kind of portly guy in this world a ninja?
• The plot requires Langly to suddenly be INCREDIBLY slow on the uptake when it comes to Scully acting wildly out of character.
• The crowd of men hanging around the clearly impaired Scully does not speak super well of the men in Vegas.
• The Morris Fletcher appearance is blatant fanservice and it adds very little.
• I'm still don't think the writers know how DnD works. I do like Langly's reaction to being betrayed, less angry and more just "Oh darn it."
• The finale of this episode doesn't land well with me, mostly cause it all feels too rushed. Between that and the fact that we need another couple scenes, maybe this would have been better as a two parter.
• I like the delivery on Timmy's "I won't have to dress like you anymore" but honestly, all three of them dress very differently.
• The final moments between Susanne and Byers have the weight of the previous episode behind them, and the sweet moment between all three of them has the entire series behind it, so those land a little better.
• As always, these reviews are supported by my Patreon. Check it out so I can afford to fly out to infiltrate defense contractor conventions in Vegas. I won't, but I would like to be able to.

Current Celebrity Watch:

Grant is played by Charles Rocket, best known for being cast in the ill-fated 1980-1981 season of Saturday Night Live and being fired for saying "Fuck" live. That's not really something any of you would know if you're not fascinated by the history of SNL like I am, but I know it, so I'm gonna share it with you.

Future Celebrity Watch:

Timmy is played by John Billingsley who has never been out of work but is most notable for his role as Dr. Phlox in Star Trek Enterprise. Enterprise is the worst Star Trek, so I've never seen more than a few episodes.