Rewatch Extra: 2x13 Irresistible
I’m sorry to speak ill of the entirely fictional dead, but that girl is weird-looking and fish-lipped.
The guy at the mortuary is eating a popsicle when he comes in and discovers Donnie. I love little touches like that.
I wish they would’ve dropped the demon visions. They add nothing.I guess the format demands that there be a hint of the supernatural, but the story stands without it, and Mulder's final voice over even speaks to the idea of mundane horror being more frightening than an X-File. I know they had to drop the original necrophilia aspect, but were they made to add in something X-Filey, too? Man, I can’t imagine a network being so touchy about something like that today. Hell, Fox would produce "Corpse Island" if they thought it would get the right numbers. “Ten Necrophiliacs. Ten Corpses. One Chance for Love. This Summer on Fox!”
Moe Bocks might be my favorite one-off character. Maybe because he reminds me of another awesome Moe, Moe Szyslak. I kept hoping he’d say “Whaaaaat?” to someone. Anyway, that actor’s great, and I love that he’s apparently the Mulder of the Minneapolis field office. “Anything slightly freakazoid, that's the drill: call Moe Bocks. As if I'm tight with all the nut cases in town.”
In the Minneapolis cemetery, there’s a Ray Soames headstone. Boooo, too cutesy.
Awww, yeah, Mulder busts out his mad violent crimes skills! I wish we got to see more of this.
After she holds the umbrella and he ducks to get under it with her, he opens her car door! While that’s lovely and chivalrous, it also might have been nice of him to mention to Scully that he thought it might be corpse desecration, rather than aliens. He’s all, “Oh, no biggie. I mentally prepared myself on the plane while you were eating peanuts and reading Skymall." But then I guess he couldn’t have gotten her out there so they could go on a FOOTBALL DATE. It’s awesome, but she looks a little less than thrilled, probably because he flew her across the country and made her look at a desecrated corpse. He's a romantic, Scully. Get used to it.
OH GOD, why is the frozen foods woman charmed by Donnie when he knows her lipstick color? It's unspeakably creepy.
Mulder and Scully show up at the field office and Moe says he’s sorry they had to miss the game, which we see is currently on the TV. Were they going to the game in their suits and trench coats? I guess Scully wouldn't have known to pack sporting event clothes, so maybe Mulder was going to dress FBI-style to make her feel comfortable. At the very least, I guess they could've used their badges to avoid long lines in the bathroom.
Why does Scully lose her shit over this so badly? It makes for a good story, but it's not linked to her abduction enough to make it seem like that's why it's freaking her out. She's seen terrible things, she performs autopsies all the time. Why this?
I’d love to make fun of the idea of people in a city as large as Minneapolis not locking their doors, but our bi-weekly county paper prints police reports, and I swear, almost every single entry ends with "unlocked door" or "unlocked car."
Mulder looks over at the football game on TV like he really, really wishes he was there, sharing some nachos with Scully.
It’s cute how Mulder leans out the door to talk to Scully.
I like how Scully immediately loses herself in the work, typing up her thoughts on death fetishists. I wonder if they just made guys from the crew pose for the mug shots we pan over. Mulder uses chopsticks to eat while he works, which I find adorable.
When Donnie’s driving, he passes a bus with "UBC" on its display. I guess that’s University of British Columbia?
Hookers, watch out! I kept writing warnings while I watched this, but no one heeded them. RUN! He just said “forced-air unit.” HE’S A WEIRDO. Oh, hey, is shampooing your hair out of the ordinary? No, Donnie, guys stop by all the time for a quick shampoo and blow job in the alley. Stop yelling at him and BOOK IT!
The stupid "come on in the unlocked back door, I have daughters!" mom is also the stupid “I write poetry, too!” mom from "2Shy."
Why are these suited dudes at the autopsy? Why is Scully blanching at the dead hooker’s body? Why is she being so poetic in her report?
Night school, talkin’ bout night school. (Does anyone else remember those commercials? No? Just me?) Okay, again, this lady’s as dumb as the prostitute. GET IN THE CAR and drive away. Don’t indulge the weird guy from your class, just act like you don’t notice him and lock your doors. And then after she knees him in the balls, she runs away and yells for help instead of getting in her car.
Okay, Donnie is in love with season two Scully hair, so you KNOW he’s mentally ill.
When Scully asks to talk to Mulder at the jail, I love how she gives Moe a smile and he’s like, “Oh, I’ll wait out front.”
She’ll barely look at him when she’s lying about thinking she can better drive the investigation in D.C. Mulder doesn’t want her to feel like she has to hide anything from him! He loves and understands you just the way you are, Scully!
Never, ever trust a man who buttons every button of his shirt when not wearing a tie.
Aw, yeah, FBI therapy with Karen Kosseff, LCSW! She’s so soothing, she should make a relaxation tape.
We only see her talk to Scully here and during "Elegy." GOD, I wish we could’ve seen Mulder talk to her when Scully was dying of cancer. Obviously, he never would’ve gone on his own, since he was dealing with it in his own special way (denial, fisticuffs, handsome brooding), but what if Skinner forced him to, all, "You get your ass in there, Agent Mulder, or I'm taking you out of the field so fast it'll make your head (and ass) spin"? So he'd go in and he’d be really angry, but Karen Kosseff, LCSW, and her soothing voice would break him down.
“I trust him as much as anyone. I'd trust him with my life.” I think what you meant was "more than anyone," Scully, but I'll let it slide, since you're very sad right now.
I adore how she articulates what her job means to her. “I know that the world is full of predators, just as it has always been. And I know that it is my job to protect people from them. And I have counted on that fact to give me faith in my ability to do what I do. I want that faith back. I need it back.”
NotPendrell, the large-nosed lab tech, has a little crush on Scully, too. Seriously, I bet those nerds sit around their Bunsen burners and talk about how pretty she is and how stupid that handsome Agent Mulder is, and how they could treat her right.
Moe: “FANtastic.” I love you, Moe! I wish you could've come back to provide a little levity in "Orison."
I love that once she's reminded herself of what her job is, she’s back in the game. “Anyway, you could use my help.”/ “Always.” He's so serious when he says it. SWOON.
Wait, Donnie Pfaster is supposed to be 28? The nineties were a weird, weird time where everyone looked ten years older than they actually were.
Mulder’s so determined and worried! “We’re gonna find her.” We have to find her, because she’s got many, many more years of tragedy to experience!
It’s really, really creepy and effective that we don’t see Scully for quite awhile at Mrs. Pfaster’s house. We know, basically, that Donnie has her, but all we see is Donnie preparing.
Mulder thinks she’s pretty! He like-likes her. Take that, lab nerds.
Look, profilin’ Mulder! He wishes Moe would shut his piehole while he’s on the phone.
Ugh, it’s terrible to see Scully all tied up. Although, I don’t know, maybe he could just give her a little trim while he's there?
A gun seems a strange weapon of choice for Donnie, like it would allow him to be too detached from the murder, in a way that he wouldn’t with a knife. He seems like a criminal who would want to experience it viscerally, rather than from a few feet away.
Oh, dear, the ending is so lovely. She tells him she's fine, of course, and doesn't allow herself to get upset until he forces her to look him in the eye.
meatfight and I discussed this a few weeks ago while I was trying to rationalize Scully's behavior in the two episodes between "William" and "The Truth," and I think this is the best example of Scully only being able face her demons, so to speak, with Mulder's help.
After a quick look at an episode list, I'm pretty sure this is their first real hug since the Pilot. And, my friends, what a hug it is. Look at his big hand on her head! Look at the way she starts out with her arms tightly between them, but then wraps her arms around him! Look at the way he pulls her in tighter and murmurs "It's all right" against her hair! Sigh.
