AIR DATE:  January 4, 1998
Written by Vince Gilligan and Tim Minear
Directed by  Daniel Sackheim

	I think Vince Gilligan and Tim Minear should be called the McGruff
boys since they took a bite out of one of the better villians from a
previous X-Files episode.  How boring was "Kitsunegari"?  Well, I almost
didn't want to bother rewatching it because there was nothing to the
Modell character, Mulder acted stupidly and Scully was barely even there.
The only time I never bothered to rewatch an episode was last season's
time travelling episode "Synchrony".  I always thought "Pusher"  was a
good episode, but not as good as everyone else thought.  Modell did make a
good villian because he got off on having this power to get people to do
things, but I've always had a hard time liking stories that deal with
someone else having the type of mind control Modell did.  One of the
saving graces of "Pusher" was seeing Mulder and Scully working well
together and seeing how deeply they care for each other.  We didn't see
this at all in "Kitsunegari", instead they worked against each other and
you never see the deep devotion they have for each other. 

	This time around instead of Modell continuing the game we have his
evil twin sister trying to get to Mulder.  I guess Modell had a "Regarding
Henry" moment since all the fight in him is gone.  I gather a bullet in
the head will do this to you.  Instead we have his sister getting revenge
for whatever bond she feels with Modell even though she has only known of
his existence for 6 months.  She can be quite loyal.  Unfortunately, she
was a weak villian who we never really saw anything more about other than
she wanting simple revenge.  She didn't enjoy it the way Modell did. 
Which I blame on the actress, Diana Scarwid, who underplayed the part. 
She just didn't have that menacing feel in her voice as Robert Wisden had
in his voice.  Not only that, she wasn't as smart as Modell. My big
question is why did she stand up behind Mulder when she was playing a dead
Scully at the big standoff between Scully and Mulder?  Her whole point was
to get Mulder to shoot Scully so why get up.  Just so the plot could allow
Scully to shoot her.  I suppose it was to draw Scully's fire so Mulder
would shoot back, but there had to be a smarter way.  The only person who
still had a brain in this episode was Modell who was trying to warn his
sister to not mess with Mulder because she would only lose in the end.  As
we see even before Mulder confronts Modell ALONE, Mulder already suspects
Modell didn't kill Nathan Bowman so Modell tries to get him off the case
to prevent him from figuring it out.  Modell knew no one would trust
Mulder's opinion after he let him go. 

	When Mulder walked into the building next to the warehouse by
himself this was when I threw my hands up in frustration.  Excuse me,
isn't this the same man who warned the U.S. Marshalls not to confront
Modell alone, but to get as much backup as possible in order to prevent
Modell from doing what he did to Mulder.  Urgh, I can take some plot
conveniences, but this only made Mulder look stupid which he isn't.  I
basically gave up on the episode after this because I knew everything was
going to lead up to some big Scully and Mulder confrontation since Scully
wasn't backing him up at all.  Scully not backing him up after his
confrontation with Modell made sense because anyone would have their
doubts about Mulder's judgement, but by the time Mulder says he is going
to wait for Modell to wake up she should have been right behind him.  If
Scully was being true to her character then she would have been, but the
plot wouldn't allow that, instead we see the second stupid move on
Mulder's part when he goes to the warehouse alone knowing it is a trap set
up by Linda Bowman.  We don't see him call up Scully so we can assume he
didn't so he should have been wondering why she was there (Hell, I'm still
trying to figure out how the real Scully got there, but I guess Linda
Bowman gave her a buzz).  There was no real reason why Mulder had to run
off to the warehouse.  If we had the smart Mulder he would have gone to
Scully and convinced her that Linda Bowman killed Modell and was waiting
at the warehouse for him and discussed what they should do about Linda
Bowman, and if Scully was being her true character she would trust
Mulder's instinct. So instead of having an intelligence battle of wills
between Mulder, Scully and Bowman such as we had in "Pusher" between
Mulder, Scully and Modell we get this lame lets have Bowman pretend to
have Scully kill herself then have Mulder point the gun at the fake Linda
Bowman who is really Scully.  Yucky, I only have one advice to Vince
Gilligan, stop writing with other people because everytime you do the
results are less than stellar. 

	Now a few comments on "Kitsunegari":

- First off when did Modell and Sis suddenly have the ability to get
people to imagine they are seeing someone else.  If this was the case why
didn't Modell use it in "Pusher".  I always love in tv shows how when they
bring back a character they always seem to have some new abilities.  This
is why "Tooms" was such a good sequel to "Squeeze", Tooms didn't all of
sudden have new abilities.  He still just wanted the fifth liver and could
only squeeze through things and nothing else.  Just another cheap plot
device by Gilligan and Minear whose only purpose for giving them this
ability was for the final scene with Mulder and Scully. 

- Gilligan and Minear should have rewatched "Tooms" to see how to properly
do a sequel.  "Tooms" had everything "Kitsunegari" didn't.  "Tooms" showed
us how far their partnership had gone since "Squeeze".  In "Squeeze" they
are still getting to know each other, but by "Tooms" we have the
conversation in the car where Scully admits to Mulder she is willing to
put everything on the line for him.  This Scully was nowhere to be seen in
"Kitsunegari".  In "Pusher" Scully was there for Mulder in his battle of
wills with Modell and helped him deal with shooting Modell, but in
"Kitsunegari" she is outright hostile to him and not supportive of him in
anyway.

- Gee, Modell has an operative tumor in his head (I'm pretty sure Scully
says it was operative until the end in "Pusher"), and does the State take
it out?  Noooo, they just leave it in him so he can die.  You kind of
figure they would have taken it out when they were working on his brain
after he got shot in the head.  What a compassionate State.  Also, wasn't
the tumor getting worse that it was indicated he was going to die soon
from it if he didn't have it removed.

- I find it hard to believe Modell would have been taken to trial since he
was in a vegetative state and couldn't defend himself.  I know sometimes a
person will be brought to trial if they are not there, but I find it hard
to believe any judge would have allowed a trial for Modell in the state he
was in. 

- Why was Modell wearing a D.C. Dept of Correction uniform if he was in
Virginia?  It was indicated that he in some kind of Federal prison and not
a state prison.  If it was a state prison it would be Virginia since that
is where the crimes took place, not the District of Columbia.

- Linda Bowman must like the movie "Goldfinger" since she had hubby paint
himself.  Too bad they didn't have it gold instead of blue then it would
have been one of the few funny things in the episode. 

- You would think they would have searched all the surrounding buildings
near the warehouse when they found the cop holding a gun to his partner.
Oh, wasn't that a bit of foreshadowing for the later confrontation between
Mulder and Scully.  I guess if they did that then there wouldn't have been
the opportunity for Mulder to stupidly confront Modell alone. 

- Linda Bowman must not only have the ability to control people's minds,
but she is also psychic since she called the Therapist at the very moment
Mulder was questioning the Therapist about who had been visiting Modell. 
What a coincidence that the Therapist couldn't see anything without her
glasses on and she couldn't find them at that moment.  What did Darin
Morgan have Mulder say in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", "If
coincidences are just coincidences why do they feel so contrived?"  This
is the feeling I got throughout the episode.

- Wow, I'm surprised the Consortium weren't studying the heck out of
Modell to see how they could use this ability.  They must be too busy
working on their killer smallpox carrying bees, oily aliens and clone
projects to care.

- Skinner isn't any weakling since it only took him one kick to knock down
the door to the room Bowman and Modell were in. 

- We finally find out Mrs. Mulder's first name is Tina.  Somehow it was
always fun to wonder what it was.  Well, there goes one big mystery. 

- Boy, I'm really frightened by Linda Bowman's threat at the end of the
episode of "You think you can hold me."  I was shaking in my boots over
that threat. Actually I am worried that they will try and bring her back.
Hell, why can't Scully and Mulder sometimes just kill them so they don't
come back.

- Why did the names Luke and Leia come to my mind once we find out Modell
and Linda Bowman are twins separated at birth and don't know each other's
existence for years.  You could almost look at their pushing ability as a
kind of force. 

	I'm still trying to decide whether this episode was worse than
"Emily".  At least with "Kitsunegari" they weren't trying as hard as they
were with "Emily" with all the symbolizing and stuff.  Come to think of it
Mulder did some dumb things in "Emily" too.  Maybe Eddie Van Blundht is
still pretending to be Mulder to explain all of Mulder's recent dumb
actions.  I think now I should have watched the new Babylon 5 movie
instead of taping it because it would have been ten times more enjoyable
than "Kitsunegari" with its weak villian, lack of Scully and Mulder
working together and plot coincidences too hard to believe. 

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

1/5/98