AIR DATE: January
14, 2001
Written by Jeffrey
Bell
Directed by Rod
Hardy
Nothing takes down an X-Files episode faster than the revenge Monster of the Week. "Salvage" borrowed from so many different sources from old X-Files episodes ("The List") to the movie "The Terminator". If the people behind the X-Files are going to forget that Mulder even exists then the writers at least should give us guest characters we care about or who are at least interesting instead of your typical revenge Monster of the Week. I couldn’t care less what happened to anyone in this episode, as a matter of fact I couldn’t wait for no name woman (I don’t care that they dubbed in Doggett’s voice saying her name to me she was annoying no name woman) at halfway house to be killed by Ray Pearce (or Iron Man as I like to call him). Remember when we had guest characters such as Clyde Bruckman, Duane Barry and a host of others. We cared and found these characters interesting. It seems as if guest characters in this season’s episodes are made up of two types, either they are dumb or they are mindless killing machines. There is nothing else to them. Was there anyone we didn’t care if they got killed or not? This points out another problem. It was utterly predictable who Pearce was going to go after and kill. As a matter a fact it seemed once Doggett visited a character it was like putting a bullseye on their shirt because that were dead the next second. There is the owner of the junk yard visiting Pearce’s wife and there is the head Doctor at Chambers Industry (I think this is what the company was called) who both get visits from Doggett then get attacked by Pearce. If there isn’t going to be any witty dialogue between Doggett and Scully (they spend very little screen time together) or some kind of character development then they need to give us more appealing guest characters than what they are giving us.
Now some more useless comments on "Salvage":
The car crash reminded me of the car crash in "The List" where the warden crashes his car into a tree and he sees the dead inmate in his rearview mirror before he dies. At least this is how I remembered it as it’s been years since I’ve seen the episode.
Wasn’t Delario going too fast at 40mph in a residential district? Who says smoking doesn’t kill? If Delario wasn’t going for his cigarette lighter he would have seen Iron Man a long time before he did.
As Scully opened up the recycle bin I couldn’t help thinking "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle". At least Iron Man knew to put Delario into the recycle bin.
It was nice to see Scully doing an autopsy again since it has been a long time though it was a bad attempt to bring back the give and take over the phone Scully and Mulder used to do.
It must take a long time for Iron Man to shave his face if he has to use a nail clipper.
You are the big owner of a major corporation and you want to illegally dump your toxic waste you do the following:
I found it very disconcerting to suddenly find Pearce at a halfway house. I must have missed where they ID’d that place in the episode as being a halfway house.
I couldn’t help thinking Iron Man had some angry issues he needs to face and he must be a vampire too since he only kills at night. Could he start looking like the terminator any sooner from what his body was starting to look like and how he was talking? I kept expecting to see him molt everytime one of his parts came loose or he got shot.
I hope Doggett recovering the shredded invoice taught everyone the important lesson that you should only use cross-cut not a strip shredder.
Why is it in movies and tv monsters never lock their doors allowing people just enter their apartment without permission. Every time Nameless Woman said she understood what Pearce was going through I kept thinking to myself that he should be saying to her, "So are you slowly turning into the Tin Man, too.)
How many days old is that newspaper Nameless Woman is reading since it had Pearce’s obit with a picture and that’s usually put in the paper before the funeral.
Why didn’t Ray’s blood turn to metal earlier in the episode as it did in Chambers Industry building? Was this just so Scully can say it is Pearce’s blood they found at the car crash site. How convenient.
Great security at Chambers industry, Pearce’s wife can just walk into the building without anyone stopping her. It was amazing how she was able to find the files she wanted so fast. Bad luck for her that just at the moment she was entering the office Scully happened to see her enter. What a coincidence.
Good police work when they didn’t even make sure Pearce’s wife’s house was secure before they let her in though they knew Mr. Pearce was a danger to her.
How does having the name, Owen Harris, help Ray Pearce? He doesn’t know how Owen Harris looks so how the hell did he know that was Owen Harris’s SUV? What did Pearce’s wife say to him "Oh by the way he drives an SUV and wears glasses blah, blah, blah". I suppose she must have given the address too. You know what, I don’t care why Pearce didn’t kill Harris. Somehow I think there is a profound message behind it.
There really isn’t much left to say about "Salvage". I miss the days where I would analyze every nuance of an episode because there was so much going on, but nowadays there isn’t much going on so there isn’t much to write about.
Claudia
E-Mail: Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu
01/17/01
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