Firewalker the Limerick:
A volcano contains a bacteria
If you are infected it'll spear ya
Right through the neck
Before you can say heck
And before that you'll feel some deleria
This is an average episode at best. Many have described it as an inferior twin brother to the episode "Ice" with good reason as there are a number of similarities to the underlying story. Personally I think that there are more differences than similarities however. I guess they are more like just siblings rather than twins. Upon first viewing of this episode I liked it simply because of the mysterious volcano setting. I have always like that sort of atmosphere for film. Also this is Scully's first case after recovering from her abduction which makes it important in that sense. It shows that we are still watching the same old intelligent Scully who is quite capable of taking care of herself. I thought it was interesting at one scene when Mulder suggests to Scully that maybe she should take some time off and she replies that she has lost too much time already. Upon watching this recently I had the thought that alien abductees report lost time and thought that maybe this quote was supposed to have some sort of double meaning whether it was intended by Scully or not. Just a thought.
The teaser to this episode while interesting has one thing that really bothers me. That is that you see a shadow of what we assume is a man but as they mention "what could be moving around in that kind of heat?" They of course imply that something inhuman down there which leads us to believe that this is going to be some sort of firemonster from the volcano episode. But nothing is done later on to explain what that shadow was and there is no monster. The only other problem I really have with the episode as far as inconsistency goes is I never understood why the girl at the end handcuffs herself to Scully. Unless the virus was taking over and making her do things to ensure that it would infect others. But if thats true why didn't the others that were infected do things to try and infect the others? The one guy actually ran trying to get away from the others. It just doesn't make any sense to me and if there is a reason it is not clearly implied or explained in the episode. And I usually pride myself on being able to understand and follow complex plots in TV and Movies so dare I say that if I couldn't understand that then not many other average viewers could either.
There are still other things that I liked about the episode in addition to the atmospheric setting. First thing is the actor that plays Trepkos is the same guy that plays Eric Gordon, the weasely corporate suck up, on Billy Madison. I just like that fact. It's always fun to see actors that you have a certain image of play a part that is the complete opposite of that image. Another pro about the episode is the spores are way cool. Kudos to special effects for this episode as far as making the necks bulge and then break open spraying out more spores. I think probably my favorite scene of the episode is when Mulder and Scully first enter the compound and Ludwig tries to take off Mulder's head with the pick and then when Mulder takes him down he starts apologizing. What an awkward situation that would be. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to try and kill you." Ha! Overall I have to say that I liked the episode for the most part other than the somewhat confusing storyline. I can't really give it a better score than other average episodes however so I give it a 6/10.
A volcano contains a bacteria
If you are infected it'll spear ya
Right through the neck
Before you can say heck
And before that you'll feel some deleria
This is an average episode at best. Many have described it as an inferior twin brother to the episode "Ice" with good reason as there are a number of similarities to the underlying story. Personally I think that there are more differences than similarities however. I guess they are more like just siblings rather than twins. Upon first viewing of this episode I liked it simply because of the mysterious volcano setting. I have always like that sort of atmosphere for film. Also this is Scully's first case after recovering from her abduction which makes it important in that sense. It shows that we are still watching the same old intelligent Scully who is quite capable of taking care of herself. I thought it was interesting at one scene when Mulder suggests to Scully that maybe she should take some time off and she replies that she has lost too much time already. Upon watching this recently I had the thought that alien abductees report lost time and thought that maybe this quote was supposed to have some sort of double meaning whether it was intended by Scully or not. Just a thought.
The teaser to this episode while interesting has one thing that really bothers me. That is that you see a shadow of what we assume is a man but as they mention "what could be moving around in that kind of heat?" They of course imply that something inhuman down there which leads us to believe that this is going to be some sort of firemonster from the volcano episode. But nothing is done later on to explain what that shadow was and there is no monster. The only other problem I really have with the episode as far as inconsistency goes is I never understood why the girl at the end handcuffs herself to Scully. Unless the virus was taking over and making her do things to ensure that it would infect others. But if thats true why didn't the others that were infected do things to try and infect the others? The one guy actually ran trying to get away from the others. It just doesn't make any sense to me and if there is a reason it is not clearly implied or explained in the episode. And I usually pride myself on being able to understand and follow complex plots in TV and Movies so dare I say that if I couldn't understand that then not many other average viewers could either.
There are still other things that I liked about the episode in addition to the atmospheric setting. First thing is the actor that plays Trepkos is the same guy that plays Eric Gordon, the weasely corporate suck up, on Billy Madison. I just like that fact. It's always fun to see actors that you have a certain image of play a part that is the complete opposite of that image. Another pro about the episode is the spores are way cool. Kudos to special effects for this episode as far as making the necks bulge and then break open spraying out more spores. I think probably my favorite scene of the episode is when Mulder and Scully first enter the compound and Ludwig tries to take off Mulder's head with the pick and then when Mulder takes him down he starts apologizing. What an awkward situation that would be. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to try and kill you." Ha! Overall I have to say that I liked the episode for the most part other than the somewhat confusing storyline. I can't really give it a better score than other average episodes however so I give it a 6/10.