AIR DATE:  November 22, 1998
Written by Chris Carter
Directed by Chris Carter

	"Triangle" was an outstanding episode where everything was done
just right.  This time they did the time traveling thing intelligently, it
wasn't bothersome that Mulder and Scully weren't working together, Mulder
gets beat up a few times, we get to see all our favorite characters who we
love to hate acting really nasty, and we get to see kick ass don't mess
with me Scully who has to rescue Mulder when he goes off on his own.  As
we all know whenever Mulder goes off on his own without Scully it only
gets him into trouble.  Now they only have to learn how to do this in a
regular episode since in "Triangle" it was Mulder's imagination running
wild and aren't we all going to have a fun time interpreting what it all
means. 

	The novelty of "Triangle" was Chris Carter filming scenes as one
long sequence so we had no time for closeups or cutaways to other places. 
As a whole, Carter did a great job in pulling it off along with the actors
who had to act in these long scenes without the crutch of cutaways and
knowing if they messed up they would only have to repeat where they messed
up whereas in this episode they would have to start at the beginning of
the scene.  One could almost see the enjoyment the actors were having in
doing something different on the show.  Carter cleverly used the ship as a
way to switch to another part of the action when a scene had ended.  The
only thing was that it sometimes felt claustrophic with all the actors so
close together so they could fit into the screen.  Also, when they were
taking Mulder to the Captain's room and the time they were taking him to
the ballroom it seemed as if it took forever and I wish they had cutaway
to him being brought into these rooms.  I couldn't help feeling they found
themselves 2 minutes short and had to drag out these scenes to fill the
time, but if they did cutaway it would have ruined the concept of how they
wanted to film the episode.  It made for an exciting episode. 

	A few miscellaneous comments on "Triangle": 

- You would think by now Mulder would know him + water = trouble so it
isn't surprising he didn't know how to work a boat and when the bad
weather hit he was doomed to crash the boat.  I'm not going to get into
how it is doubtful Mulder would even know how to pilot a boat since he
needed Scully to pilot one in "Quagmire" and he got seasick in "Dod Kohm". 

- What kind of captain's name is "Yip" Harburg? 

- The X-Files people have fun with the fact that there isn't a Department
of Investigation when the British Crewman said he never heard of it and
Mulder acts surprised that he never heard of the F.B.I..  That is
surprising even in the late 1930's considering some of the high profile
cases the F.B.I. had before 1939. 

- One of the things I liked about this episode was they didn't interpret
for us what the Germans were saying so we were just as much in the dark as
Mulder.  For some reason I think there was a past episode where we learned
Scully took German in college which would explain why her 30's character
could understand German.

- Mulder still doesn't know when to stop making jokes in this episode.  My
favorite was his yelling at the German soldiers at how much fun they will
have in Russia later on in the war.  Thinking about it, I think Mulder
loved the chance to fight the Nazi's.  I mean who wouldn't want to be
Indiana Jones fighting the Nazi's.  Of course, this being Mulder, he kept
messing up. He puts on the Nazi uniform thinking it will give him time to
escape such as Indiana Jones did not thinking I can't speak German what
will I do when a ship full of Nazi's start talking to me or that every
German soldier should know each other so it wouldn't take them long to
figure out he didn't belong in the uniform.  Also, we get to see the "I
trust everyone" Mulder in this episode when he opens his big mouth about
who's on board the Queen Anne to the British Crewman who ends up being a
Nazi spy.  Even in Mulder's imagination he stills screws up. 

- The funniest thing was when Skinner came in as Cigarette Smoking Man's
second in command to save Mulder from being shot not once but twice.  It
was the first time that got me because this is exactly how Mulder sees
Skinner. 

- Nice to see Scully has a desk in Mulder's imagination.  Of course, she
is stuck working in a small enclosed area with a dozen other workers with
no privacy at all.

- Skinner's comment to Scully of "use your head and it will save your ass
later on" was his way of telling her he will get her the information, but
don't do anything stupid in the meantime which is exactly what she did
when she went to Kersh and Spender.  The other good part was in the
elevator when she realized her mistake and called herself stupid which is
so human since there are times when we all do something stupid and
chastise ourselves for it. 

- It was great to see Boss!Scully in action.  I'm not surprise Spender ran
off to daddy after Scully burst into his office demanding he help her
because everyone knows this is the Scully you don't mess with. 

- It was just as great to see Scully unrestrained in her joy when Skinner
gave her the information she needed to find Mulder and she kissed him
without even thinking about it or even being self-conscious about it
afterwards.  This is where last season's episode "Bad Blood" failed when
we had Mulder view Scully as a big whiner who was on his back throughout
the episode whereas in "Triangle" we have Mulder's imagination view her as
a strong determined woman who will always be there to back him up when
he's in trouble.

- I think this is the first episode since "Tooms" that Scully and CSM have
been in the same room. 

- It was also good to see in a typical government view of efficiancy that
both Skinner's and Kersh's offices looked the same. 

- Did anyone else think this episode cried out for Krycek to be in it? 

- Mulder's answer of "none" after Nazi Spender asked how many people will
he allowed to be killed had to be one of the toughest answers he had to
give, but he knew the consquences if he did give up the scientist. Mulder
most likely always imagined himself in a situation where he would have to
make such a moral decision, and it isn't until 30's Scully gets involved
that he breaks down and tells them.  It doesn't surprise him that 30's
Scully would be the one to stick up for him. 

- It was funny how they could say "ass" (3 times I think) on the X-Files
while on That 70's Show they had to spell it out.  Don't want to corrupt
the youth of America. 

- Now we finally get the kiss without some damn bee interrupting it.  It
was good that Mulder expected to be smacked one by the 30's Scully after
he kissed her since to him it is exactly what he would expect to happen to
the romantic hero of the story when the romantic hero kisses the girl
before he goes off to risk his life and the girl isn't ready to admit she
likes him. I won't go into the deep meaning of Mulder kissing 30's Scully
and then telling Scully in the hospital that he loved her.  But it does
show Mulder's deep feelings toward her and it takes him being fairly
drugged up to tell her he loves her.  Scully's reaction to it was great
comic timing on Anderson's part to pull off Scully not taking him
seriously.  In other words as Scully says "Oh, brother" in an unbelievable
way and leaves the hospital room she is basically saying to Mulder I'll
come back when you are not as drugged up and you're not so out of your
mind.


	I haven't enjoyed an episode like this in a long time.  "Triangle" 
was funny, dramatic, well acted, directed and written.  It was good to see
the X-Files hasn't lost its touch because it did show us Mulder in a
different light than his usually tightly controlled self around Scully and
others. 


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

11/23/98