Salvage: Off the Top of My Head (SPOILERS) (January 14, 2001) Caution: spoiler for next week's ep (based on the trailer) is in the "Etc." section. SALVAGE: In a nutshell: Man turns into metal. Cool special effects. Not enough Scully. What I liked: - As I mentioned above, the special effects were impressive. I particularly liked the effect in the teaser of the car hitting Ray. The metal whiskers were cool too. :) - I liked the actress who played Lorena. She had the right combination of concern and that look of someone who's been in one of those very dark places. What I didn't like: - Has Doggett forgotten his manners? When Scully called him over to the garbage can while he was talking to Nora, he didn't even say "Excuse me" before walking away. - Speaking of manners, did anyone else think that it was particularly brusque of Doggett to just hang up on Scully when he was first at Chamber Technologies? It wasn't even a "nice" hang-up like you-know-who used to share with Scully. It was just weird. - And, since I'm grousing, I'll go back to the first act with the crashed car. Is it just me, or was Doggett rudely dismissive of Scully's theory? I couldn't help thinking that Doggett wasn't "respecting her journey" if you know what I mean. It *really* made me miss the Mulder/Scully interaction. - Dr. Scully was absent again inasmuch as she showed no interest in trying to find out how Ray caught this metal disease from the dead scientist. Under the circumstances, shouldn't there have been quarantines or some such thing? What's got me puzzled: - If they knew that the doctor at Chamber Technologies was dying from a disease that turned him to metal, why did they ship his body to a salvage yard? Why didn't they dump it somewhere remote so *no one would find it*? Or for that matter, why were they stupid enough to put the guy's body in a drum marked with the company name? Even if they didn't know that someone else could "catch" the disease, wouldn't they have wanted to make the container untraceable? - Who knew what when? Why did Ray go after Curt and Harry? Did he think that they knew what was in that container that infected him? I could maybe understand that he'd think Harry knew, since he was the owner, but why Curt? And how did Ray know about Dr. "It's German, no H"? - How long does it take to do an autopsy? Didn't Scully start the autopsy of Curt before Harry was killed (which was after 10 p.m.), but she was still in the autopsy bay when Doggett called her from the salvage yard in the morning? - How did Ray put a hole in the other side of that locked chamber, and go through what appeared to be a concrete wall, with no one hearing him do it? - Why didn't Nora seem surprised/concerned to see her husband turning into metal? She didn't seem to have much of a reaction at all. - If Doggett thought there was something fishy at the salvage yard -- already the site of one murder -- why did he go there alone? (Note: please don't say "Because he's a manly man." I already know that. ) - After Doggett found the body of the dead metallic scientist, why in the world did he bring the body back to Chamber Technologies -- basically, the scene of the crime? - How did Nora get into the Chamber Technologies building? Don't they have security? Doesn't anybody lock their desk drawers when there's incriminating files in them? How did Nora know what office and what drawer to search? - How did Ray manage to kill Lorena? He only had his hands over her mouth and throat, didn't he? It sure didn't look like he had hit any major arteries. It was as though she'd just died of fright or something. - So Nora gave Ray the name of the accountant. How did Ray get to/find the guy, *driving in his car*? Presumably Mr. Harris was driving home, and Ray stopped him close to his house, but since Ray seemed to be traveling on foot how did he get to the Harris home before Scully and Doggett got there? Etc.: - ::shrug:: I'm sorry that Ray got this disease, but I was pretty bored by the end of the first act. Two people were already dead. We knew who the killer was. We knew why he was killing. And it just kept going that way for another 40 minutes. There was no suspense at all. - Even the ending was unremarkable, with Ray hearing the cries of the boy and just leaving. Just like "Trevor," eh? - Where have I seen the actress who played Nora before? She seemed awfully familiar. - Next week's ep: CHUCK! Woo hoo! Maybe he'll make this butt genie thing bearable. Maybe. I'm not too happy that Chuck will be talking to Doggett, though -- doesn't anybody remember Mulder? Do we think there's any chance that we'll get any mention of his name next week?