THE AMAZING MALEENI

AIR DATE: January 16, 2000
Written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Thomas J. Wright

        "The Amazing Maleeni" tries to be two things, part con-game and part "Columbo". It also is a little disconcerting considering what happened in last week’s episode "Orison" where Scully killed someone in cold blood. This wasn’t so much a problem in the early days of X-Files, but now it is frustrating when something major happens to one of the characters and there is no follow up for months or ever. Not that it hurts to have a light-hearted X-Files episode after an intense episode, but it might have been better if there was a follow up episode first, then, a light-hearted episode.

        Overall, "The Amazing Maleeni" was an average episode that was a bit slow moving with the Amazing Mulder at work (hmm, maybe that is what they should have called it since Mulder figures out everything in the episode). Granted it took Mulder a little bit longer than usual to figure out everything, but it was stretching it a bit that Mulder just seemed to figure everything out nice and neatly in the end. Of course, the whole episode was asking us to believe a lot of things especially the Amazing Maleeni/Albert Pinchbeck and Billy LaBonge partnership who took a lot of chances that things would happen in a certain way in order for their con to work, such as taking the chance that Bank Guard who Maleeni had switch his bullets to blanks would be the one to open the door to the bank truck. I just couldn’t get the image of Columbo out of my mind throughout the episode with the flashbacks and having LaBonge inspecting the Amazing Maleeni’s van and the interaction Scully and Mulder had with Maleeni and LaBonge. The only difference is Columbo wouldn’t have dumped Pinchbeck out of his wheelchair to prove he could walk, Columbo would have been more sophisticated in getting Maleeni to expose himself. "The Amazing Maleeni" is one of those episodes where nothing much happens to anyone so there isn’t much to write about.

        A few comments on "The Amazing Maleeni":

-  I was with LaBonge at the Amazing Maleeni magic show to speed it up. It sure felt like one long opening teaser to get to Maleeni’s head falling off.

-  The head falling off Maleeni was pretty cool and I think I would have screamed my head off if I saw that happen in front of me. Though I wasn’t too impressed with the special effect of Maleeni turning his head around. Just one of those things where I know it is a special effect.

-  I’m glad Scully told us Mulder was sounding like Tony Randall because he sure didn’t to me or maybe it would have worked better if she had said he was sounding like Felix Unger.

-  Gee, I hope the police didn’t take the tourist camera, too. If that was the case it sure would make me reluctant to turn in any video tape I had to the police. Shouldn’t Mulder have given back the camera to the police officer instead of taking it with him as he and Scully went to check the trash can for LaBonge’s drink cup.

-  Would the van still be at the amusement park since it had to be at least a day or two after the event for Scully and Mulder to get to Los Angeles no matter how soon Mulder heard about it. Let’s not even get into the fact the cop had the camera still with him instead of the tape being in the evidence room or the amusement park doesn’t empty its trash bins every day. Of course, if Scully and Mulder had to go to the police station to look at the tape or the amusement park did empty its trash bins every day then Scully and Mulder would have nothing and have to head back to D.C.

-  How could Pinchback and LaBonge know that having Maleeni’s head fall off would bring in the F.B.I.? Other than Scully and Mulder’s X-Files the F.B.I. wouldn’t even be involved in a local death. I guess the X-Files must be making the news a lot lately with agents killing criminals, end of world zombies and brain eating mutants.

-  I get it, because someone can twist their arm around explains how someone can twist his head around.

-  Lucky for LaBonge his old cellmate, Alvarez, had all those tattoos on his arms and hands to make it easy for anyone to ID him, say in a bank robbery attempt.

-  Mulder’s sarcastic remarks back to Pinchbeck about his "car accident in Mexico" were good. Just enough to say he didn’t quite believe him though you would think if the accident only happened a month or so ago he would be in rehab for months before coming back to work. No wonder Mulder was suspicious.

-  I just couldn’t believe Scully and Mulder would let LaBonge go over Maleeni’s van just because he claims to be a great magician. Weren’t they suspicious of him before. Of course, this is pure Columbo where you bring the guy you suspect to the scene and keep asking him questions. Good question on Scully’s part when she asked, "Why would the marker be in the van?" Too bad it took Mulder a little bit longer than usual to figure it out.

-  Clichest line of the episode was Scully telling Alvarez not to leave town. Why would he, since he had nothing to do with anything that was going on.

-  It really would have been good if Maleeni truly didn’t have any legs. Now that would have been funny just to make Mulder wrong for once.

-  Did anyone else think Mulder was awkward with those handcuffs? It was as if he hardly ever touched a pair or was it that Duchovny hardly ever touched a pair.

-  Favorite part of the episode was the Bank Manager going on to Pinchbeck and everyone else how they gave him handicap parking and build him a ramp as if that was the worse thing a human being could do and not impersonating his brother, cutting off his head, or the fact he could have stolen lots of money. One of my first thoughts was shouldn’t the bank already have handcap parking and entrance to the bank. Also, Pinchbeck’s legs must have been cramped up from being underneath the wheelchair all day.

-  Gratuitous line of the episode was when Mulder is explaining to Scully what Maleeni and LaBonge were up to when he says E.F.T. then to make sure Scully and us didn’t forget what E.F.T. meant he tells us it means Electronic Funds Transfer. Thanks Mulder we forgot the Bank Manager mentioned it 15 minutes earlier.

-  How can Mulder be so sure that Maleeni and LaBonge didn’t already get his thumbprint off the playing card? They had plenty of time to do it so it is hard to believe they wouldn’t have everything all set up to do their illegal E.F.T.. I was really surprised we didn’t hear Pinchbeck demanding to know where his wallet was when he went to reclaim the stuff the police took off him because I’m fairly sure that would be a big deal if someone’s wallet disappeared while they were in lockup and wouldn’t Mulder’s be the last name on the signout sheet. Oh yeah, I’m so glad the Bank Manager mentions he would need Mulder’s F.B.I. ID number and his thumbprint to see if Pinchbeck has done any E.F.T. just so we know what Mulder was talking about at the end of the episode. It wouldn’t be so bad if the next second the Bank Manager says Mulder can see what Pinchbeck has done on his computer all day.

-  Wouldn’t the police have Pinchbeck take off his suspenders so he couldn’t hang himself with them. They must have the same guards working at that police station as the guards at the Illinois prison who were guarding Pfaster because Pinchbeck and LaBonge had to be gone for a few hours in order to pull off their bank heist, then plant it in the pool hall where Alvarez’s hangs out. This is why this episode is asking us to suspend our disbelief so much because we have to believe so many things went a certain way and that Pinchbeck and LaBonge planned it that way when it had more to do with luck that people did certain things and didn’t make other choices that would have ruined their plans.

-  Scully must have been bored in her motel room to figure out and work on how LaBonge did the arm trick. Once Letterman is back to health she can go on his show and do a Stupid Human Trick.

        A good con-game episode usually works better if it is the main characters pulling it off and not some supporting characters we will never see again which is why I wish for once Scully and Mulder would do a con on the Consortium such as that old Maverick episode "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres". Of course, I’ve been saying for years to let Scully and Mulder win one against the Consortium so a nice con-game would be an interesting way to do it. Otherwise, "The Amazing Maleeni" plays as if it wants to be the classic example of a con-game and old "Columbo" episode where the crooks think they can outsmart the detectives and didn’t make it too interesting.

Claudia

E-Mail: Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

01/18/00

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