Written by John Shiban
Directed by Tucker Gates
This episode doesn't have the best
reputation. Considering that it came from John Shiban whose last piece of work
was one of the worst scripts in the show's history, and that it seems to not
exactly be covering any new territory, one is inclined to rank it at the bottom
of the pile. It doesn't help matters that it comes after one of the series true
masterpieces.
The biggest problem with this
episode is that there's nothing subtle about it. Everything is done in big,
extravagant tones like one of the stories that the migrant workers where the
episode takes place. A lot of the
problem is the script. There are many things one can say about the situation
with illegal immigrants, but listening to some of the dialogue that Shiban
gives Mulder and Scully can only make a person wince. Scully's line about the
aliens being the victims is relatively restrained compared to some of the
dialogue they have to wade through. It doesn't help matters that mixed with all
the lines about 'El Chupacabra', we have to go through what is essentially a
soap opera between two brothers who seem to love the same woman, who seem to
end up in the same situation with another woman. It's all very messy and
confused, and it is not helped a bit by Mark Snow's discordant score, which overplays its hand by the time the
second commercial break is over.
But despite all of these flaws,
there are some parts of this episode which do work or have some interesting
follow ups. There is the fine performance of Ruben Blades as the ultra cynical
INS Agent Lozano, whose utter disdain for the people he's following is far more
intriguing than Shiban gives us. One could also be intrigued by the presence of
Raymond Cruz as Eladio, who would rise
to notice on The Closer and become magnificent on Breaking Bad--- none of which can help him playing one of the most
awfully clichéd performances in the history of the series. (Lost fans will also
recognize Lillian Hurst--- Hurley's mother---- in a performance that bookends
both parts of the episode.
The ending is also more interesting
then it has any right to be. Considering that this had only appeared to be a
fairly traditional X-File at best, the fact that no one can agree on what
exactly happened between Eladio and Soledad
at the migrant camp makes the episode a little more interesting. Some would say
that this adds a little pretension to a story that isn't worthy of it;
considering that the entire episode has been about the unreliability of
stories, there is certainly a level of intrigue in the version of events that
we see. It also takes in a certain recurring theme of the season that the
supernatural is just the story for something a bit more mundane and far more
frightening. It doesn't redeem the episode by any means, but it definitely
helps it out a little.
Of course, intrigue doesn't mean
viability. By the end of the episode, the migrants have gone from being actual
people to being giant infected Typhoid Marys that are, despite their enormous
heads, invisible to the affluent West. One would like to give credit to Lozano
for all this, but it's straining the credibility of what is, in truth, not much
of a supernatural tale. In fact, it's the general lack of paranormal events
that make this story work at all, even if the final picture is less than
satisfying.
El Mundo Gira is not a very good
episode. It's characters never rise much above cliché, the special effects are
not particularly remarkable and the technical aspects (especially the music)
are pretty blah. But it is not the utter disaster that Teso Dos Bichos was and
it's not as weak as the majority of Shiban's scripts will be. If in the long
run, it's neither particularly memorable or scary, at least it is not an
embarrassment. It probably wouldn't look much better based on where it aired,
but it's not as generic as some of the other episodes we'll get.
My score: 2.25 stars.
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