AIR DATE:  January 11, 1998
Written by Jessica Scott and Mike Wollaeger
Directed by  Ralph Hemecker

	"Schizogeny" combines the elements of psychiatrists who inflict
their own personal problems on their clients, a bit of the movie "Psycho"
with the dead father in the basement instead of the dead mother and the
killer trees . Oh yeah, Scully and Mulder were there too with Mulder
spouting off wild theories on what is happening and being right.  I wanted
to write that this episode was as bad as "Teso Dos Bichos", but actually
it wasn't that bad and it would have been helped if there were three
silhouettes on the bottom right hand corner. 

	"Schizogeny" had some good Scully and Mulder moments which is
always a saving grace in any X-Files episode.  The best one was when
Mulder was in the hole that was dug to retrieve Phil Rich's sunken body.
Mulder is giving his theory on what happened to Phil Rich and Scully comes
back with a counter scientific nature explanation on what happened. Mulder
laughs at this and Scully says, "You ask me for answers and those are the
best ones I've got." in a kidding way because she knows it is her role to
give this type of explanation even when it makes as much sense as
Mulder's.  It is that kind of playing off of each other that has always
endured the show to me.

	Alas, these kind of things were far and in between in
"Schizogeny". Instead we got a Norman wannabe in Karin Matthews and two
underwritten teenagers whose problems were made worse by their
psychiatrist, Karin Matthews. You would think after going to her for a few
years the parents would have realized their kids weren't any better off
than when they started and they would have gone to another doctor.  Mulder
said it best about Bobby Rich, "I think he's a hard kid to love." which
was one of the problems with the episode in that none of the characters
were likeable so you didn't really care if they lived or died.  Bobby Rich
came off as being too much of an angry young man who couldn't relate to
anyone except Lisa Baiocchi.  I wished they had explained Bobby Rich's
problem with his father other than his mother saying he became a teenager
as if that is a reason.  I could only think it had to be more than that
and he had to have these problems before going to Karin Matthews since
these problems were the reason he was going to her.  Karin Matthews came
off as a psycho Lilith Frasier who you couldn't feel any sympathy for as
compared to B.J. Morrow from the second season episode "Aubrey".  In
"Aubrey" you feel sympathy for B.J. Morrow because of who she came from
and what was happening to her. In "Schizogeny" I couldn't wait for the
scene where Karin Matthews was going to get killed (it wasn't hard to
figure out she was somehow responsible and would end up getting killed). 
Lisa Baiocchi we never got to know other than that Bobby Rich liked her,
she had an overbearing father and when she is a guest in someone's house
she goes snooping around when she should have minded her own business. She
deserved to get stuck in that basement.  I wished this was one of those
X-Files episodes where everyone died except Scully and Mulder, at least it
would have continued the trend of Scully and Mulder investigating a case
out in the woods and everyone dying. 

	There wasn't much to "Schizogeny" so here are my random comments: 

- It seemed to me that Phil Rich was being sunk into the ground face down
and not vertical as the police were saying.  I suppose he could have
gotten up after tripping, but since we saw him start sinking into the
ground immediately upon falling down this seems unlikely.  I did like how
Scully weighted how much mud Phil Rich's swallowed and Mulder's little mud
pie joke.

- I see FOX is getting close to using the type of annoying logo on the
bottom right hand corner of the screen as they do on FX.  As if we
wouldn't know we were watching FOX.  Why doesn't Chris Carter use some of
his pull to get them to stop putting it there because it can get downright
distracting. 

- Department of the Coroner - could they be any more vague about where the
scene was taking place.  Why even putting it in there since it doesn't
take a brain surgeon to figure they were at the morgue.

- I gather Karin Matthews must have been hanging around the Rich's orchard
farm and Lisa Baiocchi house in order to know when she should kill their
fathers.  Well, if that mysterious orchard man can suddenly appear out of
nowhere why not her.

- In the scene in the morgue where Mulder says Bobby Rich's classmates
describe him as a "Dork-weed" does anyone else think Mulder really said
something else.  If you watch the scene it is obvious this was dubbed in
because Duchovny mouth doesn't match what he is saying.  I wonder what
didn't get pass FOX censors?

- We get a bit of the generation gap when Bobby Rich asks Mulder which
Kennedy when Mulder comments on John Kennedy's famous line from his visit
to West Berlin.  I got a chuckle out of that because I could see it
happening. 

- What kind of school lets a murder suspect back into school and even if
he wasn't a suspect don't give him some time off to deal with seeing his
father dying. 

- One of the best comments on this episode was said by Bobby Rich's mother
when she says, "I believe everything happens for a reason.  But I still
don't see no reason for this."  No truer comment about the episode.  Heck,
it's a good comment about some of those mythology episodes such as
"Emily". 

- If Lisa Baiocchi had such a tough father why would he allow his daughter
to walk by herself in the middle of nowhere at night.  It looked like she
was walking on a deserted back road though I have to admit I was shocked
to see she was right next to her house since when we first see her walking
on the street there are trees on both sides of the road, and when she
turns away from Bobby Rich to go into her house there weren't as many
trees. 

- I have to admit how the people got killed was pretty neat.  I especially
liked how Lisa Baiocchi's father got killed by the tree limbs pulling him
outside the window and Lisa Baiochhi's aunt getting a root right through
the heart.  This episode would have worked so much better if it really
were the trees who were behind the killings for whatever reason instead of
Karin Matthews having some mysterious ability to control trees.  Everytime
one of those trees killed someone I kept thinking of that old Saturday
Night Live skit about the killer christmas trees.  In the skit everytime
someone would sing a certain song (I can't remember what song)  a
christmas tree would sneak up behind the person and suddenly they would
have a branch sticking out of them.  The best part of the skit was having
someone as they are singing the song keep looking behind them at the
christmas tree because we could see the christmas tree slowly moving to
its victim.

- It looked liked the Science teacher was playing hangman on the
chalkboard before the class started since it looked liked hangman written
on the board when she moved the chalkboard over. 

- Sharp-Eyed Mulder spots the piece of bark imbedded in Lisa Baiocchi's
father's neck.  Why wasn't it Mulder questioning Bobby Rich and Scully at
the coronor's office?  If anyone should have been at the coronor's office
it should have been Scully since it is her specialty.  What, has Mulder
lost confidence in her that he doesn't trust her abilities or was it a
case of bad writing? 

- Lucky for Mulder there was a nice big rope attached to the tree so he
could climb it though he never makes any real comment about what he thinks
other than some sexual innuendo to Scully.  Actually it was a dumb comment
by Mulder and a bad attempt at humor by the writers. It just would have
been nice if he had got something out of it instead of having Mulder
climbing the tree to set up Scully's confrontation with the mysterious
orchard man.  Nice bit of acting on Anderson's part because you could see
how scared Scully was being alone with a man carrying an axe knowing there
was no way she had time to get her gun or Mulder to help her if he decided
to attack her. 

- Once again Scully and Mulder are always prepared.  Instead of looking
for a lightswitch in Karin Matthews's house they just take out the
flashlights they happened to be carrying with them.  Also, I liked how
everyone, Lisa Baiocchi, Scully and Mulder, go into Karin Matthews
basement, but no one looks for a lightswitch which would have been the
normal reaction for anyone.  This is tv and they weren't expecting to look
for one so they weren't directed to look for one. 

- Hey, I'm trapped in a basement that has windows that are big enough for
me to get through, do I try to get out.  Nope, I just bang on the window
as I watch Scully and Mulder drive off and I'll wait a few more hours
until my Aunt comes by to break the window so she can get killed.  Also,
as far as I know there aren't too many basement windows where you wouldn't
be able to open them from the inside.

- Another good scene was they had Mulder slightly sweating after digging
up Karin Matthews father's grave. 

- The next time it rains I want to be near Scully and Mulder since they
never got wet as it is pouring rain all around them during a scene in the
episode. It wasn't a light rain because you could hear in the soundtrack
how hard it was raining yet Scully and Mulder were completely dry.  Hell,
you could see raindrops falling on their car as they are talking to each
other over it.  Boy, we couldn't let their hair get wet and all messed up
could we? This is bad direction because it made me barely pay attention to
what they were saying because I was only thinking how they both should be
getting soaking wet. 

- I have to admit I was half hoping Lisa Baiocchi would find Karin
Matthews in the basement with tree roots all around her as if she was
communing with nature.  Now that would have been funny. 

- Shouldn't Scully have called the authorities after they find Lisa
Baiocchi on the floor of Karin Matthews house and her dead aunt outside
the house.  I just found it very awkward to suddenly see Scully and Lisa
Baiocchi in the woods where Mulder and Bobby Rich almost became
fertilizer.  There should have been cops all over the place especially
after finding Mulder's car crashed into a fallen tree limb.  Oh, how did
Scully get around that fallen tree? 

- Lucky for Mulder he wasn't wearing his seatbelt since it would have been
hard for him to duck down in his seat when the tree limb fell in front of
him.  Nothing phases Mulder either since he got right up and was able to
catch up with Karin Matthews at Bobby Rich's house. 

	Well, there we have another lackluster X-Files episodes though it
wasn't bad as compared to "Emily" and "Kitsunegari".  This is probably
because it wasn't trying to be as heavy handed as "Emily" or was a sequel
to a classic X-Files episode as "Kitsunegari".  Neither was it all that
engaging with its non likeable characters who one couldn't wait to get
killed.  Too bad because if this episode had been better written and
directed it had the potential to be a good episode.

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

1/12/98

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