Hidden Truth/Hidden Truth.iso/data/xfiles/x-files3/syzygy.rvw

Text File | 1996-09-22 | 9.8 KB | 185 lines

                    A Cosmic Realignment

                      by Sarah Stegall

               copyright 1996 by Sarah Stegall

     "Fair is foul and foul is fair."
               --"Macbeth"

     Sometimes the need to mess with our heads outweighs
common sense.  "Syzygy", the January 26 episode of "The X-
Files", is a very funny misstep.  It is clear from the
beginning, when Mulder and Scully drive into the town of
Comity ("comedy"), that writer Chris Carter intends this to
be a romp, a lighthearted faux X-File where we see every
defect exaggerated for effect.  This is a classic technique
of comedy, dating back to Aristotle, whereby we laugh at
something precisely because it is out of character, out of
proportion, or out of context.  By showing us a negative,
like a reversed photographic image, we come to appreciate
anew the qualities we find attractive in Mulder and Scully,
while having a harmless laugh at their all too human
foibles.  Or at least, that is how the theory goes.
     Mulder and Scully are called to the town of Comity by
the semi-hysterical Detective Angela White (Dana Wheeler-
Nicholson) to help her investigate a series of teen deaths.
Rumors of a Satanic cult have swept the town, whipping up a
panic in normally (we are told) placid townsfolk.  The eye
of this storm centers on two over-mascaraed high school
seniors named Margi Kleinjan (Wendy Benson) and Terri
Roberts (Lisa Robin Kelly), who appear to possess abilities
not commonly found even in blonde cheerleaders.  Using
telekinetic abilities apparently brought out by an imminent
astrological alignment (the 'syzygy' of the title), they
lure one boy to a death by hanging, crush a clumsy
basketball player under collapsing bleachers, and get rid of
a rival by slicing her to death with shards of a mirror.
Throughout all of this, Mulder and Scully increasingly snipe
at one another, finally erupting into outright quarelling.
Meanwhile, the planets inexorably advance towards a cosmic
re-alignment.
     There are two ways to look at this episode:  as a
single episode, independently of all others in the series,
or as part of a longer story arc.  Considered these two
different ways it takes on different hues.  As a stand-alone
piece, it is actually rather funny.  If we had seen "Syzygy"
after almost any second season episode, it would have been a
riot.  As the Weird Sisters of MacBeth, the literary
antecedents of Terri and Margi would say, "Fair is foul and
foul is fair".  The world is turned upside down for our
amusement: birds fall from the sky, Scully gets bitchy, and
Mulder becomes an insensitive clod. Scully works off her
tensions with a cigarette, and the suave and urbane Fox
Mulder becomes an insecure and fumbling frat-boy bewildered
by Det. White's advances. Scully runs stop signs and Mulder
drinks Cheez Whiz mixed with vodka (oh, I know it was frozen
orange juice, but it *looked* like Cheez Whiz). The entire
episode is a Keystone Kops escapade, with Mulder and Scully
being shuttled frantically from one silly contrived scene to
another ("Quick! A mob has formed on the south side of
town!").  Within the thin premise of the astrological
conjunction, the events make some kind of distorted sense,
with the madness and confusion building to a cathartic
"shootout" in the police station, where all the guns fire at
once to a circus-music accompaniment. The joke culminates in
a classic X-Files non-explanation:  "It *was* Satan!"
declares the high school principal (Garry Davey), and the
suddenly enlightened town responds with a choral "Ohhhh!".
The scene in the hallway, when the clock strikes midnight
and the world snaps back into focus, worked well for me:
the realignment of Mulder and Scully is made clear by their
unanimous "Put that gun down!", said side by side and nearly
cheek to cheek.    Echoes of the syzygy linger, however, as
the two leave town bickering over Scully's driving, a minor
theme that proves no experience leaves us unchanged.  As
such, then, "Syzygy" is a funny episode that reminds us that
Chris Carter started out writing comedy.
     Unfortunately, it does *not* stand alone, and here is
where history works against it.  Long term fans will see a
larger context for "Syzygy", one which incorporates Satanic
cults ("Die Hand Die Verletzt"), demonic teenagers wielding
powers out of their control ("D.P.O."), and aberrant
behavior between Mulder and Scully ("War of the Coprophages"
and, in a sense, nearly every episode in the third season).
Contrast is all in comedy, and if we had not seen these
elements before they would have been funnier here.  More
importantly, the "temporary" dissolution of the bond between
our heroes would have been funny and fascinating if the
deteriorating relationship between the two throughout the
last few months had not already turned it into a sick joke.
Mulder sniping at Scully is not funny when he has been
insulting, ignoring, and trivializing her since September.
Scully's alleged sexual jealousy has no punch to it when we
have seen little or no evidence in the 'serious' episodes
that Mulder is anything more than a nuisance to her.  The
erosion of this partnership began in "Paper Clip", and is no
longer a laughing matter. Will next week's episode show us
Mulder and Scully at swords' points with one another, as it
logically should?  That, too, could be an interesting
dramatic twist, but it dare not be allowed to fester
forever.  I know that Chris Carter is dead set against a
romance between his main characters, but if this is his
attempt to forestall it, it is like burning down the barn to
get rid of the rats. At this rate, Mulder and Scully will no
longer be speaking to one another by season end, which won't
matter because no one will be watching.
     Carter has said that this episode will "change the
dynamics" of Mulder and Scully's relationship. If this is a
permanent change, he is risking the entire series.  He has,
over two years, built up a sexual tension between his main
characters. This tease keeps the tension simmering,
providing continuity between episodes and satisfying our
need for personal involvement with the main characters.  A
television audience, like anyone viewing a work of art,
brings expectations with it.  Not all of them may be met--
that, too, is part of the challenge and attraction of art.
But we must have *some* of our hopes in "The X-Files" met.
If we cannot get closure on Samantha's abduction, on the
alien/government conspiracy, on the personal tragedies which
have haunted our heroes, we must have at least the thrill
generated by two sexy and intelligent people to draw us
back. But if this final dramatic hook is lost, we have
nothing left but a 'monster of the week' series that will
die as swiftly as "Amazing Stories". We need the tease.
     There were some real gems in "Syzygy" which should not
be overlooked in our greater concern for the direction of
the series. Denalda Williams' Madame Zerinka, the astrologer
who trusts the government even less than Fox Mulder does, is
hilarious.  The hapless town pediatrician, whose only sin is
a lousy taste in lingerie, is a cute send-up.  Wendy Benson
and Lisa Robin Kelly turn in exquisitely cartoonish
performances as the terror twins Margi and Terri.  Their
characterizations are as flat and two-dimensional as they
should be for these two vapid Valley Girls.  I know *I* went
to high school with cheerleaders like this, and always
suspected them of selling their souls to the Devil.
Reminded again of MacBeth, I kept thinking of them as
prototypes for those three witches who meddle in men's lives
for no greater reason than spite and mischief, turning
nonsense ryhmes into potent spells:  "Double, double toil
and trouble" becomes "One Bloody Mary, Two Bloody Mary...".
I can see these two Stepford Wives in the making, a couple
of gin-soaked decades further on, seducing the paper boy
("Hate him, wouldn't want to date him") and plotting the
demise of their rivals in the Junior League.  Carter casts
Terri and Margi as latter day incarnations of the two
teenagers from Arthur Miller's "The Crucible", whose
hysterical accusations based on malice and pique launched
the Salem witch hunts of 1692 that resulted in the deaths of
twenty of their neighbors.
     Many of the jokes in "Syzygy" were predictable, but
that does not make them unfunny.  I still laughed at the
argument over adjusting the car seat.  Scully's smoking
caught me by surprise, and Mulder's fumbling encounter with
the semi-crazed Detective White was a hoot.  Some of the
lines were priceless:  "I don't even think she's a blonde."
I'll be laughing at the "mystery of the horny beast" for a
while.  It's clear that Carter still knows where all the
buttons are and how to push them.  "Syzygy" had all the
ingredients for a real fruitcake of an episode, but it
lacked two essential ingredients:  contrast and timing.
Taken in and of itself, "Syzygy" was laugh-out-loud funny.
"War of the Coprophages" was clever, but too busy mocking
our heroes to be funny.  In "Syzygy", when we laugh at
Mulder and Scully, we are laughing at fellow human beings,
as confused and inept as we are.  That's the charm of this
episode, despite its flawed context. It is still too much
comedy for one season, and I wanted to give it only three
sunflower seeds, but was persuaded otherwise by my mother, a
far better qualified critic than I am.  Thus, against the
tide of current opinion, I give this episode as it stands
four out of five sunflower seeds.
     Am I crazy?  Don't ask me.


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Sarah Stegall*http://www.webcom.com/munchkyn*[e-mail]
  I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather,
        not screaming in terror like his passengers...
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