AIR DATE:  November 15, 1998
Written by Vince Gilligan
Directed by Rob Bowman

	"Drive" was a decent average X-Files episode where we find Scully
and Mulder stuck doing grunt work as punishment for their meddling in
things they shouldn't have.  The only flaw in the episode was Mulder and
Scully weren't in the show enough together so that we end up missing the
give and take between them.  The biggest plus was not having Scully
butting heads with Mulder over the case.  As a matter of fact she seemed
as if she couldn't wait to go down to Nevada and check it out.  Heck,
Mulder didn't even have to ask her to go see Mrs. Crump's body, she
volunteered to go see it.  Now there was something we didn't see too often
in the 5th season. 

	Otherwise nothing much happens in this episode.  It wasn't an
episode looking for any major character development or to move along the
meandering mythology plotline.  Instead it was looking to give us a nice
little ride and to show off that California sun.  As if to say we are here
to stay so forget anymore damp dark episodes.  We finally understand the
relationship between Scully and Mulder and their new boss Assistant
Director Kersh which didn't take much brain power to figure out from the
ending of "The Beginning".  Of course, AD Kersh made a critical error in
this episode when he lost any chance of getting Scully's respect by
telling her he doesn't care how many lives they save as long as they
understand they don't work on the X-Files. So now instead of having Scully
trying to control Mulder she will be less inclined to do so since now she
doesn't really care what Kersh thinks.  If Kersh's job is to get Mulder to
quit then you would think someone would tell him that having Mulder doing
boring work like this didn't work three years ago so it is doubtful it
will work again.  If there is one thing Mulder has always been it is a
determined person who won't stop no matter what.  Deep Throat had it right
when he used the old cliche of keeping your enemies close because it could
be harder to control Mulder if he becomes a free agent instead of being
stuck working within the confines of the F.B.I..  Though why they don't
split Mulder and Scully and assign them to some far off place such as
Alaska or, god forbid, kill him is beyond me. 

	Now a few comments on "Drive": 

- The next time I have to travel for a long distance in a car I want to
hire Mulder as my driver since he didn't have to stop once to go to the
bathroom, eat or almost fall asleep during the trip (not that he had much
choice). And to top it off he was able to travel at high speeds without
once almost getting into a car crash or wiping out going around a curve,
but being a New Englander I suppose all the roads in the west are straight
and flat. 

- I don't know much about how police stop a speeding car, but somehow I
don't think making a car that is going 80mph get a flat tire as a way to
stop them is too smart considering it would be easy for the driver to lose
control of the car.  Though I did think it was a nifty idea how they did
it so they could pull the metal spikes away before the cop cars went over
it. 

- We get one of the ironies of life in "Drive".  If it hadn't been raining
Mr. Crump would have been at work instead of being at home reading the
newspaper when the Navy accidently sent the sound over their underground
antenna array.  Of course, he would have come home to a dead wife. 

- I'm glad to see the stereotypical portrait of those who live in the
country hasn't died on the X-Files.  The farmer in Idaho isn't too bright
and lives in a messy home, and Mr. Crump is your typical prejudiced
anti-government hick.

- I really liked how they told us subconsciously that it was a sound that
affected these people by having us hear a high pitch sound when we first
saw Mrs. Crump then when Mr. Crump first began to show signs of being
affected.  I have to admit I didn't notice this until the second time I
saw the episode.

- Shouldn't Scully have been wearing protective glasses as she was poking
around in Mrs. Crump head.  She's lucky that blood didn't fly onto her
face.  Now that would have been something to see.  I loved the special
effect of the inside of Mrs. Crump's head.  Nice work. 

- How far is the police station from the hospital that the ambulance would
be driving 65mph on a secondary road?

- I'm glad Mulder wasn't afraid to tell Mr. Crump what he thought of him
especially when Mr. Crump threw the cell phone out of the car and called
Mulder a Jew in a derogatory way, i.e., he's part of a Jewish government
conspiracy. 

- At least those containment suits look as if they would work better than
the one the NASA scientist used in the episode "Tunguska".

- Once again Scully goes into a dark house and doesn't even look for a
light switch.  Well, it was nice to see the big flashlights make a
reappearance. 

- I don't know if I would have approached a german shepard that was acting
wild as Mr. Crump's dog was.  I was pretty amazed at their ablity to
subdue the dog with no problem though I think most times an animal control
officer would have sedated the animal before approaching it. It did give
us the cool effect of the dog's skull blowing up in that guy's face mask. 

- Once again they showed us a neat way of something that isn't right by
having Scully's cellular phone have bad reception at Mr. Crump's house and
have it getting worse the closer she got to the Navy underground antenna
array.  Though I hate to think what it did to the radio and TV reception
of the people who lived near it.

- Now what I don't understand was why Scully and Mulder decided to wait
until Mulder and Crump got to the California coastline instead of stopping
sooner since it was obivous to Mulder Mr. Crump was getting worse.  Scully
didn't even have to be the one to do the procedure on Mr. Crump.  Actually
it most likely would have been better to have found an ear specialist who
would have been more familiar with the area Scully was going to have to
poke through.  Oh well, if they had done that then we couldn't have had
that great view of the California coastline and it saves the government
from being sued by Mr. Crump. 

- I did like action Scully who gets out of the ambulance even before it
makes a full stop. 

- I have to admit I am enjoying AD Kersh questioning Scully and Mulder's
travel expenses which is something I think should have happened a long
time ago.


	"Drive" while not an outstanding episode considering it came from
the pen of Vince Gilligan at least it wasn't another "Bad Blood".  A nice
enjoyable little episode though it could have done with a little bit more
Scully and Mulder interaction. 


Claudia
E-Mail:  Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

11/16/98

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