The one thing I cannot abide
All this talk about The X Files over the past few days made me long for a little Mulder and Scully. So tonight I treated myself to some DVD rentals and watched a few episodes from season 7. The one I really wanted to see wasn’t in either set, but I couldn’t know that because for some reason season 7 is the only one that doesn’t list its episodes on the outside of the box.
So I watched the one where the Smoking Man tricks Scully into getting the secret disk with the medical information that will cure all diseases. Weird episode, but good, written by the Smoking Man himself.
The one I really wanted to see was the one written and directed by Gillian Anderson (Scully herself). It’s the episode where we’re sure Mulder and Scully have finally. . . you know. So I’ll just have to go back and try again tomorrow.
But all this made me think about the two scariest episodes of The X Files I ever saw. See if you agree with me.
One was about this backwoods incestuous family–I think they were brothers and a sister, but I don’t exactly remember–and the scariest thing of all was one of the big, hulking backwoods brothers hiding under the bed, and you could see his face looking up through the slats. I don’t care for faces in strange places–like at the window suddenly, or like Jack Nicholson’s face in the doorway in The Shining when he’s trying to break in with an ax. No, thank you.
But the worst X Files episode as far as I’m concerned is the one that involves the one thing I cannot abide: skittering.
It was early–maybe season 2–and it took place in a circus. There were all these mysterious murders among the circus folk. Turns out the guy doing it was the semi-formed twin growing out of his full-grown twin’s torso. The semi-twin could detach himself and go skittering along the ground with just his fingers and whatever body parts can skitter when you don’t have legs. SO. GROSS.
It wasn’t the detachable quarter-twin that freaked me out, it was, of course, the skittering. Because what you never want is to be sitting in your clean kitchen and out of the corner of your eye see something skitter. Or be sleeping in a tent and feel something skitter across your face. Or be sucking back some brews with your carnie buddies and see a torso skitter under the bigtop to go off somebody. PLEASE, DON’T SKITTER.
I miss The X Files. Correction: I miss The X Files while Mulder was still on the show. Because any episode where Mulder and Scully kiss just has to be among the greatest romantic thrills TV has ever offered. After Fox left, what’s the point?
Okay, your turn: What were your favorite X Files episodes, and which ones scared the living pee out of you?
Technorati Tags: X Files, Mulder, Scully, Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny
October 8th, 2006 at 6:46 am
Ooh, thank you. I LOVED the X Files, up until it jumped the shark. My favorite episode was the one with Luke Wilson and the vampires, where you saw everything from alternating Scully-and-Mulder points of view.
October 8th, 2006 at 7:26 am
Lol. I watched Fight The Future last night. And it was all your fault.
Scariest episode?
Santa stealing/molesting/murdering little children. Gave me nightmares.
Favorite episode?
The one written by Stephen King. I thought the episodes written by famous fans were great.
But I did not believe the romantic resolution for Mulder/Scully. Near the end everything seemed forced. Because of the Duchovney/Carter/Fox Network saga.
October 8th, 2006 at 9:01 am
Eisha, thanks for reminding me of that Luke Wilson episode. That was hilarious. I’m going to go rent that one today.
And Heather, was the Stephen King episode the one with the evil doll? If so, that one was WAY too scary. No surprise, considering the source.
October 8th, 2006 at 9:33 am
I think I’d be really hard pressed to pick a favorite X Files episode.
But I won’t watch HOME (the incestuous backwoods family) or WAR OF THE COCOPHRAGES (the cockroach one) ever again.
The scariest ones in my mind were the ones about the serial killer who was after Scully, He liked to cut up redheads. There were two of them, several seasons apart. Really chilling.
October 8th, 2006 at 10:50 am
“Home”–that’s it. Grosses me out just to think of it.
October 8th, 2006 at 2:48 pm
Ooh, I could talk X-Files all day. It was my favorite show for years until West Wing came along…
Anyway, Bad Blood is my favorite (the vampire one with Luke Wilson). Also loved Small Potatoes from 4th season, with the guy with the tail who could morph into people and morphed into Mulder to try to seduce Scully.
Arcadia from season 6, where they pose as a married couple in a gated community.
Dreamland 1 and 2 were pretty good, too, because of the Mulder/Michael McKean switch.
Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’ was great…
Obviously I liked the really funny ones. I’ve seen Bad Blood like two dozen times. SO GOOD!
I don’t think I ever found any of them too scary, unless you count the one I very first saw when I was 8…1st season, Darkness Falls…scared the crap outta me!
I hated the show after David Duchovny left, though. And when they finally hooked up Mulder and Scully, it was the biggest diasppointment of my short life to that point.
p.s. I bet you so much the episode you’re looking for is on the 5th disc of the pack.
October 8th, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Lizzie, are we talking about the same hook-up episode? The one where Scully keeps seeing that mysterious woman who leads her to various strange places, and also where Scully reaches some closure with the man she had an affair with back in training?
That one?
October 8th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
I was speaking more generally of the hook-up. It took them 7-8 years to finally hook up, and even then it was kind of vague and disappointing, and magically they’re like oh yea, surprise, Scully’s baby is Mulder’s…we didn’t tell you that, did we?
Now, whenever there’s a sexually tense relationship like that on a TV show, a la Josh and Donna on West Wing, my hope is always “oh please don’t screw it up like Mulder and Scully.” Sometimes it’s a total success, and sometimes my reaction is “well, at least it wasn’t as bad as Mulder and Scully…”