Syzygy

Syzygy the Limerick:

A lady whose surname is White

Whose town wasn't feeling quite right

The planets aligning

And teen girls maligning

Spark Mulder and Scully to fighting.

Syzygy is defined as a kind of unity, especially through coordination or alignment, most commonly used in the astronomical and/or astrological sense. This episode uses this definition both literally and loosely with double meaning. The double meaning is seen best to me with Scully's comment after the mob digs up the dead dog Mr. Tippy's bones.

SCULLY: This is called 'rumor panic'. It's when XXX that links up with a popular satanic cult myth and an increase of attention in a community. A villain or villains are singled out as the focus of the community's confusion and angst about unexplained events, like the death of the high school boys. There have been at least twenty incidents since 1983 from upstate New York to Reno, Nevada and not one of them has turned up a single shred of evidence to support the wild allegations.

So in this sense the "syzygy" is the unity of the town against the "satanists". Other types of syzygy seen throughout the show are the repetition of lines, the matching up of the girls stories both in the beginning about the cultists and then at the end when they are implicating each other. They cut scenes back and forth between them saying the exact same thing.

Another characteristic of this episode is how everyone is acting completely out of character. Examples are the obvious Scully and Mulder fighting. At first it seems like they probably are just a little sick of each other but it turns into outright hostility. It all starts with the bickering in the car about directions at the beginning. From there it just goes into Scully being completely unwilling to accept any evidence, and Mulder acts pretty much clueless about anything that is going on. Detective White is another example. I mean a detective would normally not take eyewitness accounts as enough to go on but anytime Scully asks for evidence to support the claims or if they have even looked for the evidence Detective White acts like she had never even thought to do that. Then of course we have other small examples such as the dog mating with the gas grill, the school principal becoming a mob leader, and the pediatrician wearing high heels and make up.

This leads into my favorite scene. The hotel scene. We see more uncharacteristic traits here. Mulder is drinking and Scully is smoking. Interestingly though there are still things that each does that is characteristic of them. Such as Mulder being determined to watch something on TV even though it is the same Sabre Dance movie on every channel where as Scully just turns it off. But then of course we are right back to the strange when Detective White shows up and starts making out with Mulder. The scene is quite comical to me because Mulder is so drunk and knows that something weird is going on but doesn't really seem to care.

Another great element to this show is the astrologist. I love how she milks everything she can out of Mulder money-wise instead of giving him information. She even maxes out his business credit card and then Mulder is seen writing her a check so obviously the $300 he was good for wasn't enough. She has some witty lines too which I enjoyed.

Finally I enjoyed the soundtrack to this episode. We hear "Hand of Death (Burn Baby Burn)" by Rob Zombie, "All Over You" by Live, and "Deep" by Danzig. The most notable song for the X-Files I think is "Hands of Death". This song is used in a number of The X-Files episodes as well as other Chris Carter shows.

So in conclusion this episode had a lot of things that made it wonderful for me. There are a number of other things that I enjoyed that I will not mention but I will just conclude by saying that this was a wonderfully written comical episode about people acting strangely and blaming that strangeness on Satan instead of taking responsibility for their own actions. I give the episode a 10/10.

While considered a "comedy" episode, unlike most of the comedy episodes it also can be very creepy at times. The comedy of the episode comes from a look at the Mulder/Scully dynamic that is almost spoof-like in nature. This comedy is well presented in great bits of dialog. The dialog and the comedy flows naturally the plot and theme of people acting strangely due to the alignment of the planets, however, what makes it work is the fact that every funny line and out of character action comes from the vision normally presented of the characters. For instance, while he never drinks, it seems with in the basic boundaries of the Mulder character to chug vodka. It should be noted though that unlike the other comedy episodes, the comedy tends to be less laugh out loud funny, and more smooth and witty, although there are a few of the laugh out loud moments in this episode.

Now for the other side of the episode, and that is the fact that it is downright creepy and surreal. Going into this episode knowing nothing about it, when things begin to get really weird, I started to think I might be dreaming or something. This comes not just from the dialog, but from the mood and tense atmosphere created by the solid art direction and typically excellent music and cinematography.

In conclusion, unlike most of the comedy episodes, Syzygy is not an episode to show to those new to The X-Files. It is twisted and creepy, and delves deep into the Mulder Scully dynamic.

Sometimes I think that part of the brilliance of the X Files is that it knows how to salvage a flimsy plot idea. When you think about episodes like Syzygy, War of the Caprophages, and especially Bad Blood, Carter seems to know when an episode might tank if a half baked plot were taken too seriously. Instead of plunging headlong into a weak idea and forcing the drama to work, Carter side steps the weaknesses with comedy. If you look at Syzygy (or the other episodes mentioned) the plot has holes in it, and you might not enjoy it if you scrutinize it too closely. But that's the beauty of Syzygy. We are too busy laughing at Mulder and Scully nitpicking each other to death to care about details. Typically Mulder and Scully speculate on all sorts of science and pseudo-science, but in this episode it is enjoyable that they seem blissfully unaware that they are acting like immature teens. They seem too preoccupied swapping wonderful jabs at each other to swap scientific theories. The comedy episodes are some of my favorites and this one ranks up there as well crafted.

Syzygy was written by the creator of the X-Files, Chris Carter. At times, he sure can come up with some unique and interesting takes on the x-files. Syzygy is one of those for sure. Mulder and Scully go to a small town where satanic killings are supposedly taking place. The entire town is in a frenzy. The funny thing is, Mulder and Scully get taken up in it. They start behaving very oddly toward each other. Granted, they do disagree about cases quite frequently, but it's rare that they are mean to each other. In Syzygy, Mulder and Scully become quite rude with each other, giving you the idea that something is not quite right in this town. And that's what made this episode so interesting, seeing Mulder and Scully in a different light. I found it to be a very creative episode. Seeing Mulder drink or Scully smoke, and many other things out of character. Chris Carter assembles a mob in this episode, an element he uses two seasons later in The Post-Modern Prometheus. One of my favorite lines in the episode is when Mulder is defending Scully to Detective White when Scully is being abnormally abrasive; "She tends to be rather rigid, but rigid in a wonderful way, not like she was today." The tension in Syzygy between Mulder and Scully may be a bit unnerving at first, but it does give you a different insight into their characters, which I liked.

The planets have realigned, leading to some very strange goings on in the town of Comity, ever present are Terri and Margi.

At times Syzygy as funny, other times it's incredibly bleak, it really is an incredibly well mixed story. You can see the quality from writer Chris Carter, he knew full well how to present something very different.

Some great scenes, and very nasty one, best of all the one at the gym, that really was grim.

My only real issue is the dynamic between Mulder and Scully, sure all people fall out and snap at one another, but there seems to be some real resentment between the two characters here, and not just the whole driving thing. Some of the dumb locals are perhaps a little over the top.

Look out for dreamboat Ryan Reynolds.

9/10.