Improbable: Off the Top of My Head
(April 7, 2002)

Caution: spoiler for next week's ep (based on the trailer) is in
the "Etc." section.

IMPROBABLE (9ABX14):

In a nutshell:  Burt Reynolds as God?  Or God-like?  And he sits
by while women get murdered.  Umm, OK.  A lite ep.


What I liked:
-  Just before the ep started... the little ad thing... I'm
assuming GA's fall was intentional.  (I guess they wanted to
make sure we knew that this was going to be a lite ep. *g*) 
Sure it was goofy, but it was cute, and since it was outside of
the actual ep it was cool to see the three main characters all
giggly. *g*
-  I liked the top/bottom split screen at the beginning, and
some of the left/right later, but there was one "swipe" with
Doggett's image going across the screen that didn't work for me.
 Oh well, can't win 'em all, I guess. *g*  (Unless you're Burt
Reynolds...)
-  This ep was just... strange... but I liked Burt Reynolds in
it.  (I'm not sure what that says about me, or about him. *g*) 
This was an ep where having a "big name" guest star worked *for*
the ep rather than against it (e.g., HTGSC, Rain King, and
something else from the last couple years that I can't recall).
-  OK, the 666 thing on the counter and in the hair curls was
interesting, but it reminded me of "Orison," a much more
interesting ep, even though it wasn't a particularly good ep.
-  Getting character tidbits: Doggett's middle initial is "J",
and his birthdate is 4/4/1960.  Although perhaps we already knew
that before, though (from when Scully checked out his background
in "Within") and I just didn't notice his info at the time.
-  William is still adorable... and I'm glad to see Scully doing
a bit of smiling and such with her son.
-  "9 is completion."  So Scully is completion?  OK, this ep was
worth watching just for that line. *g*


What I didn't like:
-  The music.  Hated it, hated it, hated it.  It was *waaaaay*
too obvious and intrusive to the scenes.  Maybe that was the
point, but whatever the point was I didn't get it.  The music
just grated on my nerves.
-  Did anyone else think that scene where Monica walks in to
applause was just... bizarre?  Maybe surreal is a better word. 
I know this is supposed to be a lite ep, but... it was just
weird.  And not in a good way.  Same when the FBI Suit Guy was
tilting his head to look at the 6 upside down, and everyone
behind him tilted their heads, too.  Just... strange.
-  FBI Suit Guy's serial killer profile paled in comparison to
the one from Clyde Bruckman. ::sigh::
-  This music really annoyed me.  Did I mention that already?
-  When Scully pulled her gun on the killer, why didn't Monica? 
And is it me, or was that attempt to grab the guy handled badly
by them?  Shouldn't Scully have expected him to just wait in the
elevator until its door closed?  Surely they must teach stuff
like that in the FBI Academy (not to mention that these are
experienced agents who should know that the bad guys are going
to have something up their sleeves... no pun intended *g*). Why
didn't Scully immediately have him turn around and put his hands
against the wall, then stand in the elevator door to keep it
from closing while Reyes covered her?  This just made Scully and
Reyes look like idiotic, green agents.
-  Umm, why did they tell Burt Reynolds about the serial killer?
 How did they know he isn't an accomplice?
-  Am I really supposed to believe that two FBI agents are
sitting in a parking garage playing checkers while a killer is
on the loose?  The didn't even bother going around the entire
parking garage looking for a way back into the building, or for
an emergency phone, or even a fire alarm they could pull to get
attention.  Or if they did, someone should have said something
to that effect.
-  Did we need that shot of Burt Reynolds shaking his booty? :-P
-  "What if the killer's still down here?"  Good question,
Monica.  Weren't you guys looking for the killer before, when
you found Burt Reynolds?  I guess you forgot about checking
*everywhere* in the garage before you sat down to play checkers.
 ::sigh::  Yes, I know this is supposed to be a lite ep, but why
do the main characters have to be idiots in order for the plot
to work?
-  Glad to see Reyes has shown further incompetence by getting
grabbed by the bad guy.  ::sigh::
-  Funny-bad: the lip-synching in this ep sucked. *g*
-  TURN OFF THIS FREAKIN' MUSIC.


What's got me puzzled:
-  That murder in the teaser took place in... what, about 20
seconds?  Or did I miss something that suggested the passage of
more time?
-  So Reyes found a bunch of unsolved cases with numeric
connections... what about all the unsolved cases that DON'T have
numeric connections?  If you have -- how many unsolved murders
must there be in this country? -- wouldn't you expect the
numbers to fall into place (using Reyes' theory) by coincidence
for at least some percentage of them?
-  Umm... what was with Burt Reynolds' Italian song in Act I?  I
missed something there.  Same with the song at the end.  Huh? 
OK, music.  Burt Reynolds' character said he likes music.  So
what?  Please, somebody connect the dots for me.
-  Who is this FBI Suit Guy?  That would have been a good role
for Kersh.  Why use an unknown character?
-  Where did this ep take place?  I didn't notice any
time/location stamps that would place it.
-  How DID Reyes stumble across these particular murders?  I
bought her explanation of how she noticed the number thing (and
I'll give 1013 points for giving us that much of an
explanation), but why was she looked at unsolved murders to
begin with?
-  Where did the table and chairs used for the checker game come
from?  Were they in Burt Reynolds' car trunk, buried under all
those CD's?
-  So Doggett figured out that there would be 9 victims.  But
how did he figure that out?  By looking at the 6 upside down? 
So what?  And that still doesn't explain HOW he found Scully and
Reyes in the parking garage, it just explains why he went
looking for them.
-  Umm, what was the point of this ep?  The tag line this week
was "Dio Ti Ama."  Based on the translation at BabelFish, that
means "God loves you."  Gee, if Burt Reynolds was supposed to be
God, I'm glad he loved the seven victims enough play games while
people were being murdered. ::rolls eyes::  Can someone explain
this to me?  If he wanted to help, why didn't he just go to the
police and tell them who did it?  Why did he need to lead Reyes
and Scully to figure out what was going on?  (Of course, the ep
never really did explain what was going on... like how the
killer knew to go to the numerologist.)


Etc.:
-  Hey... no slide show -- overheads! 
-  Raise your hand if you thought the answer to the great
question/equation of the universe is "42." *g*
-  "Pizza by the slice $3.50".  That's pretty pricey in my neck
of the woods.
-  Vicki Burdick's suite number is 333.  Just thought I'd
mention it. *g*
-  Did everybody (at least in the US) see the ad for "The
Scorpion King" between Acts II and III?  I know that music...
what is it?
-  Who besides me thought that one of those older men singing at
the end of the ep sounded like a Munchkin? *g*
-  This could have been a good ep, but it's just... not.  The
idea was intriguing, but between the annoying-as-hell music, the
stupidity of Scully and Reyes in the garage, and the concept of
God playing games... it just left me with a bad taste in my
mouth.  I was really hoping for a clever end to the ep, too.
-  Next week's ep: Oh, yay!  Agent Leyla Harrison again!  Note
to 1013: don't make her look like an idiot.  I was OK with her
enthusiastic inexperience last year, but she'd better be a
smarter agent this time around.  And Reyes has something inside
of her?  Oh, yuck.  Well, Scully had her Jesus!Slug, so I guess
it's only fair that Reyes gets something in her, too.


***