The Grand X-Periment Day 17

10/17/11

46) Drive- Season 6, Episode 2- Ah, this was not the episode I thought it was but as soon as I noticed Brian "Breaking Bad" Cranston was the guest star, I had to keep watching. It is becoming clear to me that there are more episodes I want to include than I originally thought from this season...such a good season...

At any rate, this is the X-Files riff on the movie Speed. Cranston and his wife are in a police chase that, as soon as it ends, makes her head explode. Through a series of unfortunate events, Mulder ends up carjacked by Cranston who must drive west faster and faster or his head will explode as well.

Scully gets the leg work on this one, figuring out what happened to Cranston (she luckily meets a deaf woman who is the key to the whole thing). It is a reasonably good hour if only for the dialogue between Cranston and Duchovny ("Mulder, that a Jew name?"). Vince "Creator of Breaking Bad" Gilligan wrote this episode and I would like to believe it is where these two first crossed paths (I have no proof of this).

So, not essential, not funny but good enough. Can anyone tell me which episode starts with the reveal of Scully in the trunk of someone's car? I thought it was this one but I was wrong.

47) Triangle- Season 6, Episode 3- Chris Carter does this time travel episode that finds Mulder in the Bermuda Triangle. The Queen Anne reappears after vanishing in 1939. Mulder goes to find it, gets lost at sea and is pulled aboard. He finds that the crew thinks he is a German spy. When he tells them they are all in the future and the war is over, they do not believe him. When he hears on the ship radio that Poland was just invaded, he realizes he is stuck in the past.

A couple of fun things in this episode to point out. Mulder runs into 1939 versions of all his supporting cast. Spender and Cancer Man are Nazis. Skinner is a double agent ("God Bless America, Move your ass" is a great line). Scully is a tough talking dame straight out of a Howard Hawks movie. The whole thing is very fun and leaves us wondering if Mulder dreamed it or it actually happened (there are some Wizard of Oz jokes, too).

The other fun thing is that Chris Carter wrote and directed this to be a series of long takes broken up only by commercials. Sure, there are hidden edits but the scenes all flow pretty seamlessly and the takes are extra long. It is a pretty impressive feat for a weekly TV show (the blocking alone had to be a nightmare). I would bet you $1000 the episode was filmed on the Queen Mary in California. The long,narrow halls make for some great visual tricks in the third act as Scully and the Lone Gunmen explore the ghost ship while Mulder and alternative Scully pass her by in a split screen.

Of course, this one should be famous for the long ass kiss between Mulder and alternative Scully. The kiss the fans were denied in the X-Files movie. I am officially a shipper for them at this point. The pay off in the hospital at the end is pretty darn cool.

I know this one is just a big gimmick but, dammit, I liked it.