Rewatch Extra: 1x04 The Jersey Devil
It's been awhile! Let's watch The Jersey Devil, an episode I love in a pretty un-ironic way.
So this is the 5th episode of the series. I don’t know why that blows my mind so much. I do feel like, somehow, this episode is where they both click into who they are and just do that thing they do. It swiftly dispenses with the sort of surface, third party love stories that are old hat for most TV shows. And here we are. Mulder: intensely focused weirdo. Scully: there’s no looking back. Put your vests and bodysuits in storage.
The shot in the teaser when the family is driving, with the jagged trees forming a V above the wet strip of road will always be quintessentially season one to me.
Teasers are so boring. I'm pretty sure the only person who likes teasers is Chris Carter. He probably has specials versions of every episode with Mulder and Scully edited out, so he can just watch his precious bone-chilling stories.
Why even bother with the search team/bloodhound scene? This is just like the outrageously long, two part “Detour” teaser. All we learn from the addition is that the dad’s leg was eaten off. (“Sort of…gnawed on,” presumably.) They really should’ve just cut all that, saved themselves some cash, and gone from the dad getting dragged off straight into credits. Why didn’t someone stop these shenanigans?
It’s so weird to see Scully walking through the bustling bullpen. Smiling. Wearing a tangerine dream blouse. Carrying a briefcase. And walking into their Not Yet Real Office. It's incredibly strangely lit--the lighting sort of has a school gym quality about it--and I hate it.
Mulder’s looking at pornography at work, as you do. OH WAIT. NO, YOU DON’T. Somebody needs to retake the sexual harassment training course. Still, I almost have to begrudgingly tip my hat to him for not even acting embarrassed. He does seem to be scrutinizing it in a work-related capacity. And Scully is, apparently, not even thrown a little bit. “Anti-gravity is right.” Is this the first instance of Mulder referencing porn? Because what the hell, right? This must’ve seemed incredibly bizarre to watch chronologically, not already knowing he was an, um, aficionado.
“You feeling lucky, Scully?”
“Relative to whom?”
I love how she says “An X-File?” Why are you so bemused, Scully? You thought you were going to come into work with a tale of a man getting his arm gnawed off and Mulder was going to go, “Hmm, interesting. Anyway, about these expense reports...”
The art of close talking.
I’m way too into “signing for rental/FBI pool cars” scenes. I think they happen more frequently in my head than they do in the show, but damn, I love them.
I thought the woman playing the ME was the woman from “Soft Light,” but apparently she isn’t. The “Soft Light” woman is, though, in “Genderbender,” according to imdb. The more you know.
I’ve becoming really interested lately in how to apply the Bechdel Test to television shows. I tend to think TV is better about female-female interaction, but when you get down to brass tacks, I think there are a lot of shows that aren’t going to have EVERY episode pass the test. The episode squeaks by with Scully and the ME talking briefly about the dead body. Scully and Ellen talk, of course, but only about babies and Mulder’s relative fitness as a potential boyfriend/knocker-upper.
The date on the toe tag is August 29, 1993. So…whatever.
Mulder is wearing, like, Dockers and a plaid/houndstooth jacket and a polka dot tie. I feel like he’s going to assign me the first half of “Leaves of Grass” for homework over the weekend and then go to his after school job as yearbook advisor. Oh captain, my captain.
Scully’s wearing white pantyhose. Bad idea jeans, Scully. Nothing makes your legs look like two stumps faster than that.
My note for this cap: look at these fucking fashion plates
Mulder is mentally writing his very own fic: “Hey, what do you say we grab a hotel, take in a floor show, drop a few quarters in the slot, do a little digging on this case.” He’s trying to decide whether he should call it “Luck Be A Lady” or “Joker’s Wild.”
Scully turns him down and he gets all huffy like the big baby he is. Grow up, Mulder. Scully gets all whiny about driving home in Friday night traffic on her own. Get used to it, Scully.
I love the ridiculous, season one-style insert shot of Mulder’s finger running down entries in the phone book.
There are seriously a lot of boring scenes in this episode. The sheriff will NOT stop talking.
I do love this shot of Mulder walking through the woods.
This birthday party will never stop being hilarious and terrible. Let’s begin with the Scullster’s suede vest, as it’s amazing. It’s kind of adorable, the “off time” clothes she used to wear. Before she filled her whole “weekend side of the closet” with, like, twenty pairs of black pants and twenty beige button-up sweaters.
Somebody take the noisemakers away from these kids! Whose idea was that, anyway? Why hasn't someone yelled for them to take it outside? Jeez, Ellen, stop swooping around in your flowy dress, looking dewily harassed, and tell those kids to pipe down or go to the backyard.
Oh, look, it’s ladies talking about babies and men! Ellen is doing that awesome thing where she’s acting as though she JUST WANTS SCULLY TO BE HAPPY, but she’s really silently judging her. The “but first you need to find a man” line always makes me want to punch her in her smug mommy face. (I may be projecting here.)
“What about that guy you work with?”
“Mulder?”
“Yeah, I thought you said he was cute.”
“He’s a jerk. He’s not a jerk, he’s just…obsessed with his work.”
The idea of Scully dishing to Ellen about Mulder being “cute” is HILARIOUS. Can you imagine Scully saying “ooh, he’s cute!” It’s making me laugh right now, just thinking about it. The word “cute” should not pass Dana Scully’s lips, unless she’s saying it sarcastically.
We immediately cut to Mulder looking vaguely crazed, walking through the woods by himself. That’s the recurring motif in this episode: quick cuts to Mulder being an obsessive weirdo.
“Hey there, I’m Rob. Look at my hair and linen jacket. I listen to a lot of Huey Lewis and the News, even though it’s 1993, and I really enjoy sun-dried tomatoes. Should I unbutton one more button?”
Annnd, another quick cut, from super hunky divorced dad Rob to Mulder, who’s shouting questions at homeless people, most of whom seem to have written him off as unstable.
I think Mulder gives the guy a twenty, which seems pretty rich for Fox Mulder, Terrible Tipper.
Yes, Mark Snow, bringin’ the Tribal Beatz!
I’m totally charmed by the old timey cop cars, before everyone started using Crown Vics. It makes me realize just how old this is.
Mulder is so righteous, it’s cracking me up: “Oh, is that your job? Or is it to keep the dice rolling, keep the tour buses rolling in? You can't fill those casinos, this town disappears like a quarter down the slot.” God, get a blog, Mulder.
Time out: he’s way hot.
This whole phone call will never stop being funny:
“What's that noise in the background?”
“That's a guy getting sick.”
“The drunk tank?”
“Well, it’s not hard to see why they mistook you for a vagrant.”
“Am I buying, or did you manage to panhandle some spare change while you were at it?”
Somebody toss her a bolo tie and get her to an open mic night! Don’t get her started, don’t EVEN get her started!
My favorite scene of this whole episode just might be Mulder ravenously eating breakfast, waving his cutlery around and talking with his mouth full. I’m pretty sure that this gives us a glimpse of portions of their on the lam life.
“Chewing somebody’s arm off is not exactly a defensive posture.”
“I still got a hotel room I’m paying for.” Look, Mulder’s still trying to get his fic going. So far, he’s only got a first person POV section where he thinks about how pretty Scully is and how good she smells and how she’ll probably never like him, because he’s so dumb and stupid and everyone in his childhood was super mean. Why won’t she help him out? He keeps lobbing her these plot-starting pitches that should be home runs!
“No. I have a date.” Her prim sip of coffee and shifty eyes make this a classic. But oh no, now Mulder’s going to have to reassure everyone in an author’s note that even though it starts out as Scully/Other, it ends up as MSR in the end!
I hate that they’re asking this hippie anthro professor a bunch of stupid questions that grade schoolers would know. Really, Scully? We’re at the top of the food chain?
Mulder, in glasses, is spending an awesome night with his Jersey Devil pictures. I kind of love how they keep shooting him in a similar way to the opening porn shot. Naked ladies, sketches of the east coast Bigfoot…to quote GOB Bluth, “it doesn't matter…in the dark.”
Scully could not give less of a shit about this date than she does right now. She is, however, a vision. I think my mind always adds little sprigs of baby's breath stuck in her curly hair for some reason. I think my mind thinks she's going to the 1993 Homecoming Dance. (At least on the top. Her bottom half? Allll business.)
“Well, you'll understand when you have kids. Having kids changes everything.”
"That's what they say."
HAHAHA.
Rob guesses that Scully doesn't want to hear about the finer points of estate planning and taxation. You're right, Rob. This is a lady who enjoys chatting about recidivist offenders on a Friday night, not estate taxes. “Well, it’s almost Thanksgiving, everybody, and I know what this crowd's giving thanks for: estate tax reform!”
Scully’s beeper, in her clutch purse, goes off, and she and her high waisted pants make a quick getaway. She’s thrilled to be interrupted. I only wish we got to see her “apologetically” telling Rob she has to bail. (Rob then presumably went to the bar and got sloshed on pinot grigio.)
I also wish Scully had worn her date outfit to NJ.
Chris Carter really outdid himself with really unfunny funny lines for Scully:
“Maybe she was shopping.” I can’t tell if Scully’s supposed to be mocking the idea that women love shopping, or if Carter is actually having her tell a “bitches be shoppin’!” joke…
“Talk about primitive.”
Why doesn’t Scully have her gun out as they’re walking through the warehouse? This whole scene, while extremely well-lit and shot, is so meandering and haphazard. Their lack of direction reminds me somehow of the interpretive dance my friend and I choreographed to “Phantom of the Opera” approximately ten minutes before it was to be performed in our gifted program dance class in fourth grade. We swooped around in capes, mostly. (Please note that this was not a class for people who were gifted at dancing.)
Mulder LEAPS out of the window and honestly does a tuck and roll before leaping up and continuing pursuit. A few moments later, SCULLY DOES THE SAME. As though it’s FBI protocol, or something about the architectural design that makes this a necessary maneuver.
“She was beautiful.” Mulder/Beast Woman OTP (Oh God, I hope that doesn’t exist.)
Mulder, you maybe want to stop getting your paws all over that dead body. I know you need to have your moment and tenderly use your palm to close her eyes, but come on. This is a crime scene, buster.
The “Tourists Shall Never Know!” detective seems unnecessarily villainous.
Scully’s classic Scottie Dog look!
Once again, we cut from Rob’s invite for date #2 to Mulder’s intense “walking through the bullpen, gonna get a car, gonna go to the Smithsonian” face. Is there a choice? No, there is not.
So this is the 5th episode of the series. I don’t know why that blows my mind so much. I do feel like, somehow, this episode is where they both click into who they are and just do that thing they do. It swiftly dispenses with the sort of surface, third party love stories that are old hat for most TV shows. And here we are. Mulder: intensely focused weirdo. Scully: there’s no looking back. Put your vests and bodysuits in storage.
The shot in the teaser when the family is driving, with the jagged trees forming a V above the wet strip of road will always be quintessentially season one to me.
Teasers are so boring. I'm pretty sure the only person who likes teasers is Chris Carter. He probably has specials versions of every episode with Mulder and Scully edited out, so he can just watch his precious bone-chilling stories.
Why even bother with the search team/bloodhound scene? This is just like the outrageously long, two part “Detour” teaser. All we learn from the addition is that the dad’s leg was eaten off. (“Sort of…gnawed on,” presumably.) They really should’ve just cut all that, saved themselves some cash, and gone from the dad getting dragged off straight into credits. Why didn’t someone stop these shenanigans?
It’s so weird to see Scully walking through the bustling bullpen. Smiling. Wearing a tangerine dream blouse. Carrying a briefcase. And walking into their Not Yet Real Office. It's incredibly strangely lit--the lighting sort of has a school gym quality about it--and I hate it.
Mulder’s looking at pornography at work, as you do. OH WAIT. NO, YOU DON’T. Somebody needs to retake the sexual harassment training course. Still, I almost have to begrudgingly tip my hat to him for not even acting embarrassed. He does seem to be scrutinizing it in a work-related capacity. And Scully is, apparently, not even thrown a little bit. “Anti-gravity is right.” Is this the first instance of Mulder referencing porn? Because what the hell, right? This must’ve seemed incredibly bizarre to watch chronologically, not already knowing he was an, um, aficionado.
“You feeling lucky, Scully?”
“Relative to whom?”
I love how she says “An X-File?” Why are you so bemused, Scully? You thought you were going to come into work with a tale of a man getting his arm gnawed off and Mulder was going to go, “Hmm, interesting. Anyway, about these expense reports...”
The art of close talking.
I’m way too into “signing for rental/FBI pool cars” scenes. I think they happen more frequently in my head than they do in the show, but damn, I love them.
I thought the woman playing the ME was the woman from “Soft Light,” but apparently she isn’t. The “Soft Light” woman is, though, in “Genderbender,” according to imdb. The more you know.
I’ve becoming really interested lately in how to apply the Bechdel Test to television shows. I tend to think TV is better about female-female interaction, but when you get down to brass tacks, I think there are a lot of shows that aren’t going to have EVERY episode pass the test. The episode squeaks by with Scully and the ME talking briefly about the dead body. Scully and Ellen talk, of course, but only about babies and Mulder’s relative fitness as a potential boyfriend/knocker-upper.
The date on the toe tag is August 29, 1993. So…whatever.
Mulder is wearing, like, Dockers and a plaid/houndstooth jacket and a polka dot tie. I feel like he’s going to assign me the first half of “Leaves of Grass” for homework over the weekend and then go to his after school job as yearbook advisor. Oh captain, my captain.
Scully’s wearing white pantyhose. Bad idea jeans, Scully. Nothing makes your legs look like two stumps faster than that.
My note for this cap: look at these fucking fashion plates
Mulder is mentally writing his very own fic: “Hey, what do you say we grab a hotel, take in a floor show, drop a few quarters in the slot, do a little digging on this case.” He’s trying to decide whether he should call it “Luck Be A Lady” or “Joker’s Wild.”
Scully turns him down and he gets all huffy like the big baby he is. Grow up, Mulder. Scully gets all whiny about driving home in Friday night traffic on her own. Get used to it, Scully.
I love the ridiculous, season one-style insert shot of Mulder’s finger running down entries in the phone book.
There are seriously a lot of boring scenes in this episode. The sheriff will NOT stop talking.
I do love this shot of Mulder walking through the woods.
This birthday party will never stop being hilarious and terrible. Let’s begin with the Scullster’s suede vest, as it’s amazing. It’s kind of adorable, the “off time” clothes she used to wear. Before she filled her whole “weekend side of the closet” with, like, twenty pairs of black pants and twenty beige button-up sweaters.
Somebody take the noisemakers away from these kids! Whose idea was that, anyway? Why hasn't someone yelled for them to take it outside? Jeez, Ellen, stop swooping around in your flowy dress, looking dewily harassed, and tell those kids to pipe down or go to the backyard.
Oh, look, it’s ladies talking about babies and men! Ellen is doing that awesome thing where she’s acting as though she JUST WANTS SCULLY TO BE HAPPY, but she’s really silently judging her. The “but first you need to find a man” line always makes me want to punch her in her smug mommy face. (I may be projecting here.)
“What about that guy you work with?”
“Mulder?”
“Yeah, I thought you said he was cute.”
“He’s a jerk. He’s not a jerk, he’s just…obsessed with his work.”
The idea of Scully dishing to Ellen about Mulder being “cute” is HILARIOUS. Can you imagine Scully saying “ooh, he’s cute!” It’s making me laugh right now, just thinking about it. The word “cute” should not pass Dana Scully’s lips, unless she’s saying it sarcastically.
We immediately cut to Mulder looking vaguely crazed, walking through the woods by himself. That’s the recurring motif in this episode: quick cuts to Mulder being an obsessive weirdo.
“Hey there, I’m Rob. Look at my hair and linen jacket. I listen to a lot of Huey Lewis and the News, even though it’s 1993, and I really enjoy sun-dried tomatoes. Should I unbutton one more button?”
Annnd, another quick cut, from super hunky divorced dad Rob to Mulder, who’s shouting questions at homeless people, most of whom seem to have written him off as unstable.
I think Mulder gives the guy a twenty, which seems pretty rich for Fox Mulder, Terrible Tipper.
Yes, Mark Snow, bringin’ the Tribal Beatz!
I’m totally charmed by the old timey cop cars, before everyone started using Crown Vics. It makes me realize just how old this is.
Mulder is so righteous, it’s cracking me up: “Oh, is that your job? Or is it to keep the dice rolling, keep the tour buses rolling in? You can't fill those casinos, this town disappears like a quarter down the slot.” God, get a blog, Mulder.
Time out: he’s way hot.
This whole phone call will never stop being funny:
“What's that noise in the background?”
“That's a guy getting sick.”
“The drunk tank?”
“Well, it’s not hard to see why they mistook you for a vagrant.”
“Am I buying, or did you manage to panhandle some spare change while you were at it?”
Somebody toss her a bolo tie and get her to an open mic night! Don’t get her started, don’t EVEN get her started!
My favorite scene of this whole episode just might be Mulder ravenously eating breakfast, waving his cutlery around and talking with his mouth full. I’m pretty sure that this gives us a glimpse of portions of their on the lam life.
“Chewing somebody’s arm off is not exactly a defensive posture.”
“I still got a hotel room I’m paying for.” Look, Mulder’s still trying to get his fic going. So far, he’s only got a first person POV section where he thinks about how pretty Scully is and how good she smells and how she’ll probably never like him, because he’s so dumb and stupid and everyone in his childhood was super mean. Why won’t she help him out? He keeps lobbing her these plot-starting pitches that should be home runs!
“No. I have a date.” Her prim sip of coffee and shifty eyes make this a classic. But oh no, now Mulder’s going to have to reassure everyone in an author’s note that even though it starts out as Scully/Other, it ends up as MSR in the end!
I hate that they’re asking this hippie anthro professor a bunch of stupid questions that grade schoolers would know. Really, Scully? We’re at the top of the food chain?
Mulder, in glasses, is spending an awesome night with his Jersey Devil pictures. I kind of love how they keep shooting him in a similar way to the opening porn shot. Naked ladies, sketches of the east coast Bigfoot…to quote GOB Bluth, “it doesn't matter…in the dark.”
Scully could not give less of a shit about this date than she does right now. She is, however, a vision. I think my mind always adds little sprigs of baby's breath stuck in her curly hair for some reason. I think my mind thinks she's going to the 1993 Homecoming Dance. (At least on the top. Her bottom half? Allll business.)
“Well, you'll understand when you have kids. Having kids changes everything.”
"That's what they say."
HAHAHA.
Rob guesses that Scully doesn't want to hear about the finer points of estate planning and taxation. You're right, Rob. This is a lady who enjoys chatting about recidivist offenders on a Friday night, not estate taxes. “Well, it’s almost Thanksgiving, everybody, and I know what this crowd's giving thanks for: estate tax reform!”
Scully’s beeper, in her clutch purse, goes off, and she and her high waisted pants make a quick getaway. She’s thrilled to be interrupted. I only wish we got to see her “apologetically” telling Rob she has to bail. (Rob then presumably went to the bar and got sloshed on pinot grigio.)
I also wish Scully had worn her date outfit to NJ.
Chris Carter really outdid himself with really unfunny funny lines for Scully:
“Maybe she was shopping.” I can’t tell if Scully’s supposed to be mocking the idea that women love shopping, or if Carter is actually having her tell a “bitches be shoppin’!” joke…
“Talk about primitive.”
Why doesn’t Scully have her gun out as they’re walking through the warehouse? This whole scene, while extremely well-lit and shot, is so meandering and haphazard. Their lack of direction reminds me somehow of the interpretive dance my friend and I choreographed to “Phantom of the Opera” approximately ten minutes before it was to be performed in our gifted program dance class in fourth grade. We swooped around in capes, mostly. (Please note that this was not a class for people who were gifted at dancing.)
Mulder LEAPS out of the window and honestly does a tuck and roll before leaping up and continuing pursuit. A few moments later, SCULLY DOES THE SAME. As though it’s FBI protocol, or something about the architectural design that makes this a necessary maneuver.
“She was beautiful.” Mulder/Beast Woman OTP (Oh God, I hope that doesn’t exist.)
Mulder, you maybe want to stop getting your paws all over that dead body. I know you need to have your moment and tenderly use your palm to close her eyes, but come on. This is a crime scene, buster.
The “Tourists Shall Never Know!” detective seems unnecessarily villainous.
Scully’s classic Scottie Dog look!
Once again, we cut from Rob’s invite for date #2 to Mulder’s intense “walking through the bullpen, gonna get a car, gonna go to the Smithsonian” face. Is there a choice? No, there is not.
