NIHT2: Off the Top of My Head (SPOILERS) (November 18, 2001) Caution #1: Spoilers for next week's ep (based on the trailer) is in the "Etc." section. Caution #2: There are quite a few 4-letter words in here that can't be used on network TV. More than I usually use, anyway. Proceed with caution and a fire extinguisher. NOTHING IMPORTANT HAPPENED TODAY II (9ABX02): In a nutshell: Bad guys are doing bad things with ova on a (sea-going, but not for long) ship. Scully is freaking out. Doggett is the new Mulder (gag). Reyes was asking good questions. Knowle Rohrer is alive again. Shannon McMahon and Kersh may be good guys, or maybe not. What I liked: - Nice shot in the teaser pulling back from the ship at night. - I definitely give Reyes points for walking out on that meeting with Follmer. :) Note to 1013: drop the "feelings" crap and give the woman an attitude. It'll work a lot better. - I liked LL in the Wethair/Nekkid!Doggett scene. The character came across to me as believable, in spite of the exposition. - Scully: "Cut the mysterious crap and get to the science." OK, I didn't love the line itself, but I was so happy to hear the attitude behind it! :) - LGM: hee hee! Got a giggle out of their "oops, that wasn't the screen we meant to pull up" moment. :) For some reason, that whole scene reminded me (in a good way) of the old X-Files. That was a nice feeling, for those few precious seconds. - Wow. Reyes seemed to be asking some good, intelligent questions in this ep. Who woulda thunk it? If 1013 keeps this up, I might not hate this character anymore -- I could work my way up to ambivalence as I did with Doggett. :) What I didn't like: - What the *hell* is wrong with Skinner? Did Krycek activate his scaredy-cat nanites just before he bought the farm? Why on earth did he want Reyes to cooperate with Follmer? Because Scully asked him to get Doggett to drop his investigation? If Skinner is siding with Follmer, won't that just make Doggett more likely to pursue his investigation? And why didn't he have a word to say about Follmer calling him *Mister* Skinner? Where are his balls, fer cryin' out loud? And if Skinner and Reyes think something fishy is up, why doesn't someone mention going to the press? - What is UP with making Doggett out to be the new Mulder? Between the Follmer/Skinner/Reyes meeting, Skinner's comment to Scully that Doggett is "hellbent" (and Reyes is following him), and Follmer's comment (in the meeting with Doggett and Kersh) comparing Doggett to Mulder... could 1013 be swinging a bigger sledgehammer? But I guess I should be impressed -- Doggett got himself suspended (sort of) a lot faster than Mulder ever did, as far as I can recall. - I really wish everyone would stop referring to William as "the baby" or "my baby." People, he has a freakin' name! - "MULDER CAN'T KNOW" ?!?!? What the fuck?!?!?!?! Did all of Scully's common sense leave her body with the placenta?! Earth to Scully: maybe the bad guys DON'T WANT Mulder to know what's going on. Maybe they KNEW that William would soon show signs of being unusual. Maybe they wanted to SEPARATE YOU TO MAKE YOU MORE VULNERABLE. Hello? - And while we're on that topic, am I *really* supposed to buy the conclusion that Doggett reached, that Mulder left because Scully made him leave because he and William were in danger? How is Mulder's leaving alone with 42 pieces of luggage supposed to help keep William safe? And can I safely assume that Doggett will not discuss this with anyone useful (Scully, Skinner, LGM) until, *maybe*, February sweeps, if at all? - And why the HELL didn't Scully tell Skinner why she thinks something is wrong with William?! Why do these characters have the habit of not telling each other important information for no good reason?! GAAAAAAH. - The medical exam that Dr. (hah!) Scully gave Shannon was the fastest one I've ever seen. What, no blood exam? No X-ray? :-PPPPP - "She's the key to everything in this case." BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ::wipes tears from eyes:: Well, I suppose I should be grateful that Doggett qualified it with "in this case," but come on, how many keys have we had on this show over the years? And does anyone want to place a wager on how soon William is declared a "key"? - Brad Follmer is a smarmy little bastard, and not in a good "characters you love to hate" way. Cary Elwes is just *not* working for me in this role. - Was it just me, or did we actually hear Doggett's skull crunch when Knowle was squishing his face? Yuck. - "Detonation armed." Gee, wasn't THAT a convenient sign. ::eye roll:: I guess 1013 thinks that the audience has lost a few IQ points since Nisei/731 and the movie. - Scully: "They're manipulating ova." "They're test subjects." She could tell that by looking at the screen and the names? There were no other possibilities? No consideration that the whole thing, Shannon's story and all, was a big hoax? And nobody grabbed any files, or any of those little bags (or whatever they were that had names on them)? So what if they grabbed something that didn't have Scully's or William's name on it, IT'S EVIDENCE, DAMMIT! Three trained investigators on that ship and they didn't take *a damned thing* out of that lab! I HATE it when the characters have to be fucking STUPID because the plot requires that intelligent questions not be asked. Grrrrr. - So now that Scully is *really* freaked that something could be wrong with William, ya think she'll have any tests done on him? DNA? Blood work? Nope, me neither. :-PPPPPP What's got me puzzled: - Why a ship? Why a *weird* looking ship? Why, directly in view of the door to the lab, is there a big honking screen announcing what the bad guys are up to? - If Shannon is aware of the bad guys and she wants to stop them, why didn't she go public? Why deal with Doggett only *after* he tried to contact her? And, more importantly, why didn't anyone ask HER those questions? - How did Knowle Rohrer find that docked ship? - At the beginning of Act 2, why did Reyes call Scully and then give the phone to Doggett? Did Doggett think that Scully would hang up on him? - If you change the molecular structure of chloramine, can you still say that it's chloramine that's being put in the water? And did I miss something, or was the implication that the quasi-chloramine is being put in the water now? And if that's the case, couldn't Scully just walk over to the tap, take a sample, and get it analyzed to see if Shannon is telling the truth? And how is this great water-tainting idea supposed to work for folks with well water? - Reyes told Doggett that she didn't doubt what Shannon is. Umm, really? Somebody just tells you that they're a supersoldier that doesn't sleep and can breathe underwater, and you just take that at face value? - If Reyes thought she and Doggett were being set up and needed info from the Dept. of Justice regarding Shannon, why on earth did she (a) not call Doggett before doing anything else, and (b) go to Follmer for help rather than, say, getting the Gunmen to do some more hacking? - And when she finally catches up with Doggett, why is Scully in his car? - Why would Shannon think that Doggett could lead her to the captain on that ship? And once they thought that that might happen, why on earth did Scully, Doggett, and Reyes do JUST THAT, without seeming to take any precautions (like stealth)? Just because Scully wanted to see if there was info related to William on board? Umm, hello, but didn't the whole situation just scream out "IT'S A TRAP; TURN BACK"? OK, fine, so Scully's common sense is AWOL. But what about Doggett's and Reyes's? - When Doggett pulled his gun on Knowle, why didn't Reyes, his PARTNER, pull her own weapon? Why did she run just because Doggett told her to? Why didn't Scully have her weapon -- even though she's still on a leave of absence, wouldn't she still have it? I mean, when she left her home she knew she was going to help interrogate Shannon, so wouldn't the prudent thing have been to act like she was going out in the field? And why did Doggett keep shooting after it was obvious that the bullets were having no effect on Knowle? Why, why, why? - And speaking of whys, why did Knowle try to break Doggett's skull instead of going a quicker route, like snapping his neck or chopping his head off? If he was just trying to incapacitate him, he could have done that quickly, too, by just whacking him (relatively gently) in the head. Why the dramatics, aside from the, uh, dramatics? - So, let me see if I understand this right. Shannon whacked off Knowle's head. Then the headless Knowle put his fist through Shannon's stomach, and then joined together grotesquely they both toppled into the water? And this ep didn't get a viewer advisory because...? - So what happened to Doggett's suspension? It just got dropped because... Kersh said so? So why was he suspended (or supposed to be suspended) in the first place? What am I missing? Etc.: - ::giggle:: Nice kiss of life that Shannon gave Doggett, huh? Hey, it took Moose and Squirrel 5 years to do that! - Anybody else give that ship's captain extra points for making a call from a payphone right at the dock? Hey, nobody could ever pick up that trail, could they? ::snort:: - "I think we found the captain." Sure, that headless body couldn't have been anyone else. - Next week's ep: Looks gross, and Reyes is having "feelings" again. Help!