Date: Thu, 13 Jun 1996 22:37:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: Randy Perry 
To: xfiles list 
Subject: Randy's '2Shy' Review
Sender: owner-x-files@chaos.taylored.com

My apologies for being so late in sending this off -- I had company all 
weekend, and I didn't get to rewatch '2Shy' until Monday night, and I was 
in the lab until midnight Tuesday and last night...

(My apologies also if this seems unfocused.)


	The Silence of the Fat-Sucking Vampires

	Review of '2Shy'
	by Randy Perry


"The dead are no longer lonely."


Before I get to the episode itself, I thought I'd start the review with a 
digression, that may help explain my response to '2Shy': I am Chandler Bing.
	If you watch 'Friends', you know who Chandler Bing is.  He's the 
one that always has the funny, sarcastic comebacks.  Well, there are so 
many reasons why I am Chandler Bing: he's played by Matthew Perry, a 
Canadian, while I am Randy Perry, a Canadian; Chandler's ex-girlfriend 
Janice (who is convinced they're destined to be together) is played by 
Maggie Wheeler (she of 'Born Again' X-fame), while my ex-girlfriend (who 
is convinced we're destined to be together) is named Maggie; Chandler and 
I both tend to use humour as a defense mechanism; we've both been assumed 
(by friends and coworkers) to have been gay - incorrectly, of course, but 
not that there's anything wrong with that :) - and we both have 'homosexual 
hair'; we both have this insane and occasionally overwhelming fear of dying 
alone.  Chandler even thought of himself as Crazy Snake Guy, an old man who 
has a snake as a gimmick to frighten young children.  I myself have no such 
gimmick yet; I'm only 22.
	This fear of dying alone, this loneliness, is a rather 
contemporary emotion, that of a society which places alot of value on a 
career; a relationship is something we're supposed to have in our spare 
time. (Oh great, I think I've inadvertently started a M/S coupling 
argument again...)  All of a sudden, you're in your late 30s, and you're 
craving a connection - any connection - to another human being.  And 
then, if you find yourself among the people who make less-than-ideal first 
impressions (or among the people who think they do), you may resign 
yourself to a life of loneliness.  For me, the most fascinating part about 
'2Shy' was how it tapped into this.  It's bad enough to feel lonely, 
detached, unwanted, and desperate, but to have someone prey on those 
very feelings is almost unimaginable.
	Jeffrey Vlaming, the author of '2Shy' isn't the best X-Files 
screenwriter.   He is, however, quite good at drawing the supporting 
cast.  Both '2Shy' and 'Hell Money' deal with sad people in desperate 
situations.  In '2Shy', a killer who is unable to produce fatty tissue 
stalks 'Big and Beautiful' women on the internet.  (How often can you 
describe the plot of an X-Files episode in one sentence?)  Mulder, 
although present in body, seems notoriously absent in spirit; Scully, 
meanwhile, has a few great scenes staring down the sexist local Sheriff.  
If any of you, while watching '2Shy', thought that it seemed familiar, 
there's a simple explanation for that.
	Here's something that Jeffrey Vlaming seems to understand: 
if you're gonna rip off another source, you'd better make it a good one.  
And as far as FBI agents seeking twisted serial killers goes, you can't do 
better than than novels of Thomas Harris.
	In his novels 'Red Dragon' and 'The Silence of the Lambs', Harris 
creates a vivid world where FBI agents (or even agents-in-training) track 
down serial killers with the assistance of one such killer, Hannibal 
Lecter.  But then again, you already knew that, since the figure of 
Hannibal Lecter has become a part of our collective pop culture 
consciousness.  (My God, I just used the term 'collective pop culture 
consciousness'.  I must be a critic.)  Harris' novels are noteworthy 
for their intricate, wonderful plots, their gut-churning uneasiness and 
dread, and their startling literary qualities.  (As well, they've made two 
crackerjack movies.  ('Red Dragon' became the movie 'Manhunter'.))
	So when you consider that The X-Files is about two FBI agents who 
quite often chase down serial killers, comparisons to Thomas Harris' 
works (particularly the more well-known Silence of the Lambs) are likely 
inevitable.  But I think that in '2Shy', Jeffrey Vlaming makes it 2Easy.  
(Sorry, that's the only pun I'll use here.) 
	I offer for your consideration: '2Shy's Virgil Incanto has a 
thing for "Big and Beautiful" types, since he feeds on their fatty 
tissue; 'TSotL's Buffalo Bill uses BnB women to fulfill his warped 
fantasy of becoming a transsexual by making a dress made of real skin.  
Scully has to deal with the sexism of the local law enforcement, much 
like Clarice Starling in 'TSotL'.  Hannibal Lecter is an intelligent, 
literate figure with a very literary name; likewise Virgil Incanto, which 
is still my fave X-Files villain name.  In both 'TSotL' and '2Shy', there 
is a shot of a dead body in a bathtub, as well as a scene in which the 
killer's doorbell rings, and he answers it, and it's not who we think it is.
	But back to the episode.  Timothy Carhart is great as Virgil 
Incanto, whose sick, twisted activities are essentially to fulfill a 
physical need.  (And, he looks alot like Bill Pullman, who I've always 
thought was just as creepy, if not moreso.  And now, Bill Pullman's 
playing the President in 'Independence Day' -- must be a Democrat.)  And 
the supporting female cast in the episode (some being hunted by Incanto, 
some not) is uniformly excellent, and they all seem to be lonely, o be 
craving something that their lives are missing.  A telling moment is when 
we find out that the slender, attractive roommate of one victim actually 
kept the letters that Incanto had written.  We're all alone, this episode 
is saying.  But then, like the fox who'd convinced himself that the grapes 
he couldn't reach were sour, at least we're not being devoured by a 
fat-sucking vampire.

'2Shy' gets 8.5 huge-chunks-of-human-flesh-under-a-hooker's-fingernails 
out of 10.

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