Case 06, File 21: Field Trip

AKA: I'm In The Goo!

"It was all just a dream" is a hard plot twist to pull off, and frankly most of the time, I think you shouldn't even try. Most of the time it tends to feel cheap, like an easy rug pull or just a way to keep its story from mattering in the long run, and even when you can pull it off, they tend to leave a bad taste in your mouth. Dream plots tend to work when them being dreams is an integral part of the plot, and when it's a way to explore a character's personality.

Our plot kicks off with the Schiffs, Wallace and Angela, returning home from a hike, and Angela having weird visions of goo dripping down the wall, but she just assumes it's from her viewing of Barton Fink the night before and goes to bed, only for her and her husbands' skeletons to be found in the North Carolina woods. Since they were only missing for like, a day and it happened on Brown Mountain (home of the Brown Mountain lights, which Mulder thinks are UFOs, naturally) our heroes go and investigate.

Once there, Mulder heads out to the mountain to check it out, while Scully discovers some weird green goop on the skeleton and decides she wants to figure out what it is. But Mulder has been out on the mountain for approximately 2 minutes before he catches sight of Wallace Schiff, who runs away and hides in a cave. But Mulder, being the king of good decisions, follows him into the cave. 

Inside he tracks down Wallace who tells him that he and Angela were abducted by aliens who left the bodies for...some reason, and then returned him, also for some reason. Mulder is skeptical until some bright lights show up and then Angela is also returned, who describes her experiences as textbook abduction. Mulder is insistent that they leave the cave, while Wallace wants to stay and it seems like he's right, because the bright lights show up again.

But then we join Scully at Mulder's apartment in DC where Mulder has both the Schiffs and also an alien he stole from the spaceship and Scully realizes he was right. But since that would end the show right here (Scully admitting Mulder was right, not the alien), he begins doubting his perception and it all dissolves into goo, revealing that Mulder is trapped in a cave covered in it. Oh and Scully has discovered that the green goo is stomach acid, but like, plant stomach acid? And heads out to the mountain with the coroner and more or less immediately discover Mulder's skeletal remains.

"Mulder, why did you bring them back to your apartment?"
"Because Scully: I didn't think it through."

Scully is naturally a little upset by this, and is at first insistent that they discover how the weird goo is connected to the death, but there's no goo on Mulder's body. Also everyone, from the corner, to Skinner to the Lone Gunmen at Mulder's wake in Mulder's apartment, are all parroting her explanation for the Schiff's deaths from the opening scene: That a cult or serial killer dissolved the skin in acid or boiled it, even as Scully doesn't think that's the case anymore. And they're all super insistent about it and then...

Then Mulder walks into his apartment and the wake has disappeared. Scully naturally thinks that's a bit odd and she's the one that gets the theory: The mushrooms they've been stepping on out on Brown Mountain are part of a big fungus that has them trapped and is digesting them, and in fact they're still trapped there. Mulder freaks out a bit, realizes she's right and then they wake up in the goo filled cave, and pull themselves out. Happy ending, right?

Well no. In the post-case debrief with Skinner, Mulder starts to realize things are weird. They just managed to make themselves wake up out of nowhere, they dug themselves out easily and also they have no burns on their skin. Mulder realizes they're still trapped in the goo, and to prove it he uh, shoots Skinner in the chest. Guess Scully is rubbing off on him. And with that he manages to get a hand above ground, alerting the search team and getting them dug up. And so, with our heroes holding hands in the ambulance, the episode ends.

With Season Seven barreling down on us like a freight train, I think I can safely say that Field Trip is one of, if not the, last truly great episodes of The X-Files. Not the last good, certainly not the last one I enjoy, but one of the last episodes that feels like The X-Files at its peak. Not only a uniquely told story with a creepy and interesting monster, but also a solid exploration of both of its leads, how they see the world and what makes them so invaluable to each other.

That can't be Mulder's skeleton, it's less than 10 feet tall.

That last part is really what makes the subtext of the episode interesting to me, because the slow building reveal of what's going on not only shows how smart both our heroes are (as they both grow suspicious of their circumstances independently) but also how much they need each other. Mulder instantly realizes something is off when Scully just blithely lets his ideas pass, while Scully begins to grow suspicious of how quickly everyone is latching onto her mundane theory. They may drive each other crazy sometimes, but they need each other to survive.

Especially against this monster, which is definitely one of the more memorable monsters of the later seasons. And it's a weird concept for one too; Plants as villains tend towards being more geared towards horror/comedy than straight horror (thinking Audrey II here) so making this one both completely unknowable and extremely effective works very well. We don't need a venus flytrap actually grabbing them to be scary.

And this episode is scary, not in a "Jump out and horrify" you way, more of a slow burn. The episodes throws hints and misdirects at you like it's firing a blunderbuss, trying to keep you from figuring out what's going on right away (although by the time we've had our second Significant Shot of a puffball being trodden on, most people have probably got it) but ultimately it's about the slow, steady reveal of what's happening and the horror that comes with it. It's actually genuinely unnerving when Mulder suddenly realizes he's stuck in the cave and we start getting shots of it.

Not that every part of that reveal is totally perfect. I like the distortion effect on the footage, but the CGI of the characters melting is uh...well it's very 90s. It would not look out of place in The Lawnmower Man, and that's not a compliment. And while I'm complaining, I like the ending, but the little extra beat where Mulder figures out they're still trapped feels unnecessary. Yes the fact that they basically willed themselves awake is silly, but this is an episode about a maneating fungus, I don't need it totally logical. Plus that's still more or less what happens.

"Could you not have worn like, a real suit to this funeral?"
"It would have been an insult to Mulder's memory! Also I don't own one."

But those are minor nitpicks and the episode is still the series at the top of its game. Scary, funny, weird and different, it shows why The X-Files was not only one of the most popular shows of the 90s, but why it endures. House can throw every weird medical condition in the book at you and never come up with something as out there as "A fungus that makes you hallucinate as it eats you." (And I like House so put away the comments). And it's weird things like that, I think, that keep fans so invested, even nearly 20 years after it ended. Not just cause we want Mulder and Scully to bang.

Not just.

Case Notes:

• I know it's revealed to be a hallucination, but honestly, the woman's story about her husband leaving her a half mile behind in the hike makes him a dickbag.
• The flashes of green goop on the walls are creepy (and the sudden flashes to the woman held captive are much worse) but the goop reminds me a bit too much the wallpaper in Barton Fink.
• The transition from the couple in bed to their skeletons is excellent.
• I like Mulder messing up the slide projector for some reason.
• Mulder has taken some skeletons and a story about some lights and jumped right to UFOs.
• Mulder talking about how often he's right that Shit Be Weird and talking about him and Scully going through the motions feels a little metatextual.
• The shot of Mulder running over a puffball is nice visual foreshadowing.
• Mulder sticks his hand straight in crime scene evidence. Never change Mulder. Actually do change, it'll get you killed, but never change cause I love it.
• While Scully has discovered that the Schiffs were covered in plant stomach juice, Mulder has decided to go climbing into a hole in the mountainside alone. And yes I know it's not real, but it's still very Mulder.
• As much as the hallucination plays into what Mulder wants to hear, I like that he's observant enough to notice inconsistencies in it.
• I go back and forth on the shots of the goop. It usually works, but it occasionally feels heavy handed.
• I really like that Mulder is incredibly suspicious of the stuff he's seeing in the hallucinations. He's still picking at the inconsistencies throughout and it's very in character for him.
• I like the edit from Mulder in the cave to his apartment door.
• I get that the bit with Mulder and Scully at his apartment is supposed to be so over the top that we recognize it's fake, but frankly, Mulder living in an apartment with two abductees and a telepathic alien? That is a sitcom I would watch all 8 episodes of before it was inevitably (and rightly) cancelled.
• What convinces Mulder something's wrong? Scully believes him without question. Married? Married.
• The structure of this episode really works, shoving the viewer from one supposed solution to the other, and using the "Mulder and Scully separated" device to us unsure of what's reality.
• Gillian Anderson does a lot of subtle acting in the scene where she thinks Mulder is dead, both freaking out and also realizing that something is very strange.
• I like the Lone Gunmen at Mulder's wake, but does Mulder actually know this many people?
• Frohike is still wearing a leather jacket and Byers is wearing a tuxedo t-shirt. Even hallucinatory, that's good in character stuff.
• Scully starts picking at the hallucination when it starts telling her she's right, partially cause Mulder would argue with her. Married? Married.
• I LOVE the edit from Scully walking to the door in the wake to Mulder barging into an empty apartment, it feels very dreamlike, which is appropriate.
• Scully gets all the way to the explanation on her own, even in a hallucination. This episode really is a paean to how much they need each other.
• Mulder continues to pick at the hallucination and ends up saving their lives. Although I will point out that he's suspicious of them willing their way out of it, but that's still more or less how they escape.
• It's a good thing that Skinner starts bleeding the goop, cause I'm pretty sure he could actually get shot three times and not notice.
• Mulder and Scully hold hands as they drive away. Married? Married.
• As always these reviews are supported by my Patreon. Check it out, cause I don't have the option of luring people underground and dissolving them for sustenance.

Current Celebrity Watch:

Angela Schiff is played by Robyn Lively, who is probably best known for playing the lead character in Teen Witch a movie that did very badly on its release but most people know now for...some reason? She also played Lana in the second season of Twin Peaks and also showed up in the Psych parody of Twin Peaks, which was nice.

Future Celebrity Watch:

Wallace Schiff is played by David Denman, who's been hanging around TV forever (he played the demon Skip on Angel) but his most substantial role was as Roy, Pam's initial fiancee, in The Office.

Also, since we want our entire secondary cast in here, the coroner is played by Jim Beaver, who has also been around TV forever (including Breaking Bad), but his longest running role was as the father on Supernatural. Is that still running? I care enough to want to know but not enough to check.