7x02 The Goldberg Variation
Sorry that I have to post early today, the London movie premiere (!) is at my regular posting time and I want to check it out and be a screaming fangirl. ;)
Synopsis
Mulder and Scully are caught in a real-life Rube Goldberg device as they investigate a man cursed with extremely good luck since he survived a plane crash back in 1989. The man, Henry insists that he is never unlucky but he finds out that he cannot pass on his good luck to others without severe consequences to their part.
Writer: Jeffrey Bell
Director: Thomas J. Wright
Originally aired: December 12, 1999
Quotes
Mulder: This man fell for 30 floors, plus the distance down the shaft because these doors just happened to be open. Straight through, nothing but net.
Scully: Ouch.
Mulder: I'm guessing that's what he said... after he got up, climbed out of here, scampered out into the night.
Scully: So basically, what we're looking for is Wile E. Coyote...
Scully: You okay, Mulder?
Mulder: Yeah, it's all right. My ass broke the fall.
Scully: For such a fortunate man, a lot of unfortunate things happen in Henry Weem's wake.
Links
Episodes online and here and here
Episode transcript
Screencaps
Episodic Fanfic
Mods thoughts and discussion attempts
This episode highlights a lot of the things that I enjoy about the "later years" of the X-Files. I know a lot of people prefer the old school episodes, and that's fine, but I like the story in this one, the actors AND the Mulder/Scully action. I really, really love the way Mulder and Scully interact in Season 7 - it's like they get over that horrible stifled tension from the previous season and are just...relaxed. And so smiley! And cute! I think that's why this point in the series it makes sense for them to finally sleep together and maybe have more of a relationship in a few episodes down the road (IMO). A lot of people see them like this and think they already did so (have The Sex) and are thus better around each other, but I see it the other way around I guess. I see them as finally building more and more to that point, and closer with each other, that then leads them to being together. But what do I know?
Right.
So just for a few random things:
-I love the scene where Scully is having a chat with Richie and she's all, "Oh I like baseball too". I'll bet you do Scully, when you have Mulder giving you personal lessons. (I like to imagine that birthday lesson happened a few more times afterwards, sue me).
-The score is extremely memorable to me and I don't mean it in a bad way. I'm not sure why it stands out aside from the fact it's just not usual X-Filesy.
-I love those Mousetrap sort of games, I've always wanted to make one but alas, I'm not creative enough.
-I have a Medic Alert bracelet and it's kind of rare to see one used or displayed on tv. Pretty neat I must say.
Sometimes when I'm in a very self-pitying mode, I think of how much luckier some people are than I am. Could it be true though? Could people really have an extraordinary amount of good (or bad) luck for some reason? Who knows.
This episode is silly but I like it.
The ScreenGrab Archive
"Waa-GAH"
Things We Learned 101
Extra
This episode was too short, so they had to add a scene after the fact- the one where Mulder and Scully are in the car discussing the case. However, Gillian Anderson had already cut her hair significantly shorter for the next episode (oh dear), so she had to wear a wig for the scene.
Although the entire episode took place in Chicago, the lottery tickets sold at the convenience store were from the Wisconsin lottery.
"The Goldberg Variations" were special compositions of the work of J.S. Bach in the 1700's by a brilliant harpsichordist named Goldberg. Rueben (Rube) Lucius Goldberg (1888-1970) was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor, and author. A trained engineer and accomplished artist, Goldberg's "inventions" were known for making simple tasks amazingly complex by utilizing dozens of arms, wheels, gears, handles, live animals, etc to accomplish something as simple as squeezing orange juice or closing a window. The name Rube Goldberg has become associated with any convoluted solution to perform a simple task. The board game 'Mousetrap' utilizes a Goldberg device as it's main feature.
Willie Garson (in the episode as Henry Weems) also appeared in The Walk.
Synopsis
Mulder and Scully are caught in a real-life Rube Goldberg device as they investigate a man cursed with extremely good luck since he survived a plane crash back in 1989. The man, Henry insists that he is never unlucky but he finds out that he cannot pass on his good luck to others without severe consequences to their part.
Writer: Jeffrey Bell
Director: Thomas J. Wright
Originally aired: December 12, 1999
Quotes
Mulder: This man fell for 30 floors, plus the distance down the shaft because these doors just happened to be open. Straight through, nothing but net.
Scully: Ouch.
Mulder: I'm guessing that's what he said... after he got up, climbed out of here, scampered out into the night.
Scully: So basically, what we're looking for is Wile E. Coyote...
Scully: You okay, Mulder?
Mulder: Yeah, it's all right. My ass broke the fall.
Scully: For such a fortunate man, a lot of unfortunate things happen in Henry Weem's wake.
Links
Episodes online and here and here
Episode transcript
Screencaps
Episodic Fanfic
Mods thoughts and discussion attempts
This episode highlights a lot of the things that I enjoy about the "later years" of the X-Files. I know a lot of people prefer the old school episodes, and that's fine, but I like the story in this one, the actors AND the Mulder/Scully action. I really, really love the way Mulder and Scully interact in Season 7 - it's like they get over that horrible stifled tension from the previous season and are just...relaxed. And so smiley! And cute! I think that's why this point in the series it makes sense for them to finally sleep together and maybe have more of a relationship in a few episodes down the road (IMO). A lot of people see them like this and think they already did so (have The Sex) and are thus better around each other, but I see it the other way around I guess. I see them as finally building more and more to that point, and closer with each other, that then leads them to being together. But what do I know?
Right.
So just for a few random things:
-I love the scene where Scully is having a chat with Richie and she's all, "Oh I like baseball too". I'll bet you do Scully, when you have Mulder giving you personal lessons. (I like to imagine that birthday lesson happened a few more times afterwards, sue me).
-The score is extremely memorable to me and I don't mean it in a bad way. I'm not sure why it stands out aside from the fact it's just not usual X-Filesy.
-I love those Mousetrap sort of games, I've always wanted to make one but alas, I'm not creative enough.
-I have a Medic Alert bracelet and it's kind of rare to see one used or displayed on tv. Pretty neat I must say.
Sometimes when I'm in a very self-pitying mode, I think of how much luckier some people are than I am. Could it be true though? Could people really have an extraordinary amount of good (or bad) luck for some reason? Who knows.
This episode is silly but I like it.
The ScreenGrab Archive
"Waa-GAH"
Things We Learned 101
Extra
This episode was too short, so they had to add a scene after the fact- the one where Mulder and Scully are in the car discussing the case. However, Gillian Anderson had already cut her hair significantly shorter for the next episode (oh dear), so she had to wear a wig for the scene.
Although the entire episode took place in Chicago, the lottery tickets sold at the convenience store were from the Wisconsin lottery.
"The Goldberg Variations" were special compositions of the work of J.S. Bach in the 1700's by a brilliant harpsichordist named Goldberg. Rueben (Rube) Lucius Goldberg (1888-1970) was a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist, sculptor, and author. A trained engineer and accomplished artist, Goldberg's "inventions" were known for making simple tasks amazingly complex by utilizing dozens of arms, wheels, gears, handles, live animals, etc to accomplish something as simple as squeezing orange juice or closing a window. The name Rube Goldberg has become associated with any convoluted solution to perform a simple task. The board game 'Mousetrap' utilizes a Goldberg device as it's main feature.
Willie Garson (in the episode as Henry Weems) also appeared in The Walk.