AIR DATE:  January 12, 1997
Written by John Shiban
Directed by Tucker Gates

	I didn't have too high expectations for "El Mundo Gira" 
considering the writer, John Shiban, was behind one of my least favorite
X-Files episode's "Teso Dos Bichos" or the Killer Pussy Cats episode as I
like to think of it.  He didn't disappoint me in that regard.  I guess
since I didn't go in with high expectation like I did with Morgan and
Wong's "Home"  episode I wasn't disappointed instead I was just bored. 
Nothing much really happens in this episode to make it a memorable bad or
good episode.  Scully and Mulder run around a lot doing their usual thing
with Scully giving her usually techobabble explanation of what is
happening and Mulder going on about some extraterrestrial reasoning behind
it.  Ho hum, give us something new.  Oh yeah, we get some kind of social
commentary about how we treat Mexicans, illegal or legal in this country,
as second class citizens.  We all did notice how everyone treats them as
being invisible, etc.  Lucky for everyone Mulder and Scully are on the
case otherwise nothing would have been done about Elaido Buente.

	The story might have been more interesting if they continued with
the old woman telling the story.  It was a bit confusing why they would
start the episode off this way then after the commercial break begin with
Scully and Mulder in the field, and return to the old woman telling the
story at the end of the episode. It makes one wonder what was the point of
it all other than to drive it into us that they like telling stories. When
we get back to her it is when Agent Lozano brings the brother back to the
camp and it appears the only purpose was to have her say it was the alien
looking Chupacabra behind everything.

	Oh well, there really isn't much to say about this episode so
let's go to the misc. comments:

- We get the tough no nonsense Scully when she basically tells the Coroner
to do her job and show her the body. You just don't mess with the Scully. 
Contrast this with her singing that little ditty from "West Side Story"
which was kind of funny to see Scully thinking of that song.  It was a
side of Scully we don't always get to see in the X-Files.

- I found it interesting how they all said it started raining yellow rain
when the sun was out though it appeared to be overcast thoughout the
scene.  Damn, that Vancouver weather. 

- Why was the INS bus taking a very back road to wherever it was going? 
It was on one of those back roads where it would be hard even for two cars
to pass.  You would think it was taking them to a processing center which
would be on a main road.  Once again Scully and Mulder just happened to be
going the same way, boy, what a coincidence.

- Someone should have realized that a white cowboy hat just didn't work on
Ruben Blades' head.  Maybe that's why we only get to see him wearing it in
one scene.  Got to be wondering what they were thinking about with one. 

- Did anyone else wonder how Mulder and Agent Lozano were going to be able
to catch Elaido Buente since Mulder said they couldn't touch him and he
was running away for dear life.  What were they going to do lasso him or
shoot him?  Also, I liked how Mulder yelled out to Buente way before he
even got to him.  Yeah, that'll catch him if you warn him of your presence
beforehand.  Buente must have been a Chupacabra since he was able to jump
into the truck in record time.  It must have been a minute between the
time he jumped under the truck and got into the other moving truck.

- Those X-Files people can be so funny sometimes by having an alien head
painted onto the wall with Chupacabra written next to it.  I will admit
that was a great fade from the painted alien head to Skinner's head.  Hmm,
maybe he really is an alien and they are giving us little clues.

- Anyone else think of Mr. Wizard when that lab guy showed Scully the
effects of the fungi.  He definitely got that "excited lab guy" look on
his face when he did it or maybe that old Scully magic was working on him.

- We did get to see some classic X-Files moments from Mulder eating
sunflower seeds to the Mulder "it's me" and "where are you Scully" lines.

- I did find it hard to believe Agent Lozano would take the brother back
to commit murder and on top of it leave him handcuffed.  What was the
point of doing that if he was allowing him to commit revenge on his
brother. 

- The people behind the X-Files calendar have some great pictures from
this episode from Marie's head to the scene in the supermarket.  We know
how much they like to take the worse pictures and use them for the
calendar.  We don't want any decent pictures of Scully and Mulder since
that's not the reason why we watch the show. 

	As I wrote earlier nothing really much happens in "En Mundo Gira" 
to make it a memorably bad or good episode, though I went into the episode
not expecting much and this is exactly what I got.  We got the classic
Scully and Mulder running around a lot with a little social commentary. It
wasn't a bad episode, it just didn't have interesting characters.  In
Shiban's episode "The Walk" the story itself wasn't that exciting, but the
characters were interesting enough to keep us involved in the episode. 
Let's hope the viewer friendly Super Bowl episode is a little bit more
interesting in its villians and overall plot.

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


P.S.  A brief comment on the Simpsons episode which featured our two
favorite agents.  Once again the Simpson proves why it is one the best
comedies on tv even in its eighth season.  I was a bit worried about it
since the episode kept being pushed back from being shown last season to
not being shown last November which is never a good sign.  Anyway, it was
really funny and better than I excepted it to be.  The funniest part came
in the X-Files episode that followed when Agent Lozano goes to Mulder and
says doesn't the F.B.I. have better things to do than investigate a case
like this, and Scully says the same kind of thing to Mulder in the
Simpsons episode.


1/13/97

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