The X-Files: Syzygy   Rewatch 
April 28, 2020 7:48 PM - Season 3, Episode 13 - Subscribe

Mulder and Scully go to Comity, New Hampshire, to investigate some strange murders of teenagers that are possibly due to a rare planetary alignment.
posted by orange swan (4 comments total)
 
Cameo by a super young baby-fat Ryan Reynolds.

Didn't like Scully and Mulder being snitty with each other and not realizing that something was really amiss. iirc, Anderson has been in photoshoots smoking (and there's another episode where she does?), but can't tell if she's an actual smoker*. Can't tell if the intention behind Scully being jealous/ bitchy is a hint that she really does have feelings for Mulder or if she's just being abnormally bitch-eating-crackers bitchy.

Astrology is so bs. Highschool kids being oh-so-dramatic and this-is-soooo-important annoys me. That and the mean girls "we're so innocent" schlock.

*I recall the actor playing CSM in an interview admitting that he used to smoke, quit, and smoking all those herbal cigarettes on camera was really tough
posted by porpoise at 9:15 PM on April 29, 2020


Can't tell if the intention behind Scully being jealous/ bitchy is a hint that she really does have feelings for Mulder or if she's just being abnormally bitch-eating-crackers bitchy.

I think we're meant to think that it's just up to the planetary alignment-weirdness that's making everyone go bonkers.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:37 AM on April 30, 2020 [2 favorites]


I think Scully and Mulder's behaviour in this episode might be simply a matter of them being their worst selves, and acting out on impulses they would normally control. We've already seen that Scully has begun to be jealous whenever there's another attractive woman around Mulder, and that she gets annoyed by Mulder's demands on her, and she just gave free rein to it and acted out on it and vocalized it in a way she would never do.

Mulder was doing much the same, being sarcastic with Scully whenever she griped at him, drinking though he usually doesn't at all (which may mean the desire is there), and commenting on how someone was wearing his favourite perfume, which was a comment he might normally think, and perhaps make in private to Scully, but would ordinarily never make in a room with other law enforcement officials, much less sniffing their hair afterwards.

I think the same might have happened to Margie and Terri, that the planetary alignment simply took their worst qualities and dialed them up to 11 -- and to most of the other townspeople as well.

I recall the actor playing CSM in an interview admitting that he used to smoke, quit, and smoking all those herbal cigarettes on camera was really tough

Somewhere on one of the commentary tracks, someone says that amazingly, William B. Davis smoked his way through nine seasons on the show without ever starting smoking again in real life.

And yes, I think Gillian Anderson either smokes or used to smoke. Her speaking voice seems to be terribly damaged these days, and that may be why.

I'm not a big fan of this episode. There are some fun moments, but everyone behaves so badly it's hard to enjoy the other things. I couldn't stand Margie and Terri. They were making me flash back to some of the girls I knew in high school who made such a performance out of being best friends, i.e., they'd wear necklaces with pendants on them that were each shaped like half a heart and said "Best Friends" on them, would dress/style their hair the same, take all the same classes, have a shared life plan, and generally be tiresomely absorbed in each other and focused on being as united and as much alike as possible rather than on developing as individuals. It always annoyed me, and they weren't even murdering assholes on top of that. I was more amused than otherwise by watching Mulder and Scully bicker, but it did bother me that Mulder is shown driving drunk without being called on it.

None of the named characters in this episode behaves well except for Brenda and Scott, and we don't get any real character development with them.
posted by orange swan at 12:08 PM on April 30, 2020 [1 favorite]


This one isn't good, or not that good, but I have a soft-spot for it anyway, basically because Terri and Margi are pitched at just the right level of menacing but silly for me. That said, and this might just be from my habit of watching this while doing the dishes, I don't know why they killed Ryan Reynolds, except for us to have a fun cold open. Everyone else they killed pissed them off in some way, and maybe with him they just wanted to destroy all evidence of their threesome? If that even happened and they didn't just seduce him to the cliff for the fun of it?

Anyway, this is mostly fun for Lisa Robin Kelly's performance, which makes great use of her face being perfect for looking all the more evil the more innocent she plays it.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:14 PM on June 20, 2020 [1 favorite]


« Older Legends of Tomorrow: The Great...   |  Star Trek: The Animated Series... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments