X FILES LYCEUM - WETWIRED

X FILES LYCEUM
323 WETWIRED

"Television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us."
circa 1959 Edward R. Murrow

"The answers to life's problems aren't at the bottom of a bottle: they're on TV!"
Homer Simpson

SYNOPSIS

BRADDOCK HEIGHTS, MARYLAND; APRIL 27; 10:16 PM
WASHINGTON, D.C.; APRIL 29; 2:12 AM
FREDERICK COUNTY PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL; BRADDOCK HEIGHTS, MA
2400 COURT MOTEL
APRIL 20; 9:48 AM
HELEN RIDDOCK'S HOUSE
THE LONE GUNMEN'S OFFICE; WASHINGTON, D.C.
MAY 1; 6:04 AM
MULDER'S APARTMENT; WASHINGTON, D.C.
FREDERICK COUNTY MORGUE; 6:21 PM PARKING LOT
MARGARET SCULLY'S HOUSE
NORTHEAST GEORGETOWN MEDICAL CENTER; MAY 2; 1:43 PM
PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
FBI HEADQUARTERS; MAY 10
Scully and Mulder investigate a series of murders linked to a device that alters television signals.

SCULLYVISION

Scully is terrifyingly right about her first hunch that the murders have something to do with the videotapes. Her proof comes when she herself is subliminally influenced. It is interesting to note that even before Scully views any of the tapes she is already determined to stay up late to view tapes while her usually obsessive workaholic partner goes off to bed.

ParanoidScully is truly frightening to watch. After she thinks she sees Mulder consorting with the Cigarette Smoking Man, she goes back to her motel room and trashes it looking for bugs. The fearful, nearly panicked, look on her face is scary. (In fact GA does an amazing job building the tension without the use of dialogue) When Mulder and the motel manager come knocking at her door, she draws her gun and just starts firing away. She is - as Skinner soon points out - "armed and obviously dangerous."

When Mulder tracks Scully down at her mother's house we are convinced that Scully is convinced that her psychosis is real. Had Mrs. Scully not stepped in on Mulder's behalf, there is no doubt that Scully would have shot her partner. Again.

MONSTERVISION

Just who is the monster in this episode? The cable guy? The Cigarette Smoking Man? Scully's paranoia? The television? The mind? Perhaps it is the new monster of the twenty-first century, technology. Monsters which you can't quite put your finger on makes them even more scarier. We can be profoundly affected by things we can't see, either because they're too quick for the eye or because they're too small for the eye to see. It may be the dawn of a new threat where we can no longer chart, "Here be monsters" on our maps. These new monsters no longer hide in closets or under our beds. They don't have bolts in their necks, scarred faces, or live in creepy old houses with their mothers. We can't even see these monsters. Now we can only wonder, "Where be monsters?" This monster gets a strong rating because of what it did to sane Dr. Scully, but it doesn't get a perfect rating, perhaps only because we do not really know the full extent of its power and horror. So the monster, who is in X and Mulder's words, "are as yet still unknown," gets a rating of 4 subliminally induced buckets of popcorn, extra butter.

OH, COME ON!

Television sets do not work by still pictures firing against the tube.

THINGS LEARNED

Don't leave your window open for the cat to get in and out while you're away. Some kids may cut class, watch TV, and eat your food.

Don't get ice and take hallucinations to heart after watching hours and hours of videotapes.

If you have a clandestine meeting without your partner knowing, clean out the ashtray afterwards.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

Movie theaters use tachistoscophic images to sell us popcorn at movies.

Red-green color blindness affects only a small percentage of the male population.

WRITER
Howard Gordon

Mr. Gordon has once again written an extraordinary character study after Grotesque where Mulder went off the deep end (we thought). Now it's Scully's turn and she really does. We know our Ms. Scully well by now. We know her beliefs and truths, and know that she trusts Mulder more than anyone else in the world if how she's worked with him even when she thinks he's flipped his lid is any indication. So, when she no longer knows what's real and what isn't, and believes it all, not only are Mulder, Skinner, and the Lone Gunmen scared, but we're terrified. Mulder can be the one who seems off his rocker most of the time, but not Scully. This episode built slowly, each progressing scene showing more and more of Scully's mind working against her. By the time Mulder gets the call from the coroner to come identify her body, it's a kick in the stomach to us because it all had been written so well. For Mulder to be given a biscuit by way of "come with me to discover the truth," and Mulder denies himself that in order to do his duty to Scully, it's even more amazing, real, and tragic. The actors are of course excellent, but there has to be a great script for them to work with. Howard Gordon supplied it here. This episode could also be somewhat of a sequel to another of his scripts, Ghost In the Machine, where machines were controlling people, and the machine had been built by people with nefarious motives.

DIRECTOR
Rob Bowman

Not only can Mr. Bowman keep up with Darin Morgan scripts and heavy mythology episodes, but he shows us what it's like for a totally capable people lose her minds. He also directed Howard Gordon's Sleepless where men are feeling the effects of not sleeping for years. Not only in the terrifying teaser where the man killed his wife thinking it was a mass murdering dictator, or the wife who killed a neighbor who she thought was her husband fooling around with a blond, but our Scully. The visual effects of all of them seeing things was especially effective.

THE USUAL THINGS
Guns
Sunflower Seeds
5:17 pm
X kills someone
Danny
Scully is hospitalized
Mulder's videos fixation
One partner draws a gun on the other
X gives a little less information than Mulder needs
Mulder ditches Scully
Special Agent Pendrell (mentioned)
Someone calls Mulder "Fox"
Mulder tapes an X out of tape on his window

RECURRING CHARACTERS
Skinner
Cigarette-Smoking Man
Byers
Frohike
Langly
X
Margaret Scully

Notes

In yet another jab at David Duchovny losing the question in Celebrity Jeopardy, Scully pulls out videotapes to see one was of Jeopardy.

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

MULDER: You know Scully, I don't mind finger pointing but all this gun pointing between you and me is making me nervous. Do you think that on some level, we want to kill each other?
SCULLY: There are days, Mulder. Let me tell you, there are days.
MULDER: No, seriously.
SCULLY: Who's not serious?
MULDER: Fine. Be that way.
SCULLY: Okay, sorry. I just want some levity after the week I had.
MULDER: Understandable. Are you going to answer my question or should I put on a Led Zeppelin CD?
SCULLY: I think it's just the nature of our work. We've been through some pretty intense times, and...
MULDER: Pulling a gun on me is a way to break the monotony?
SCULLY: I've only pulled my gun on you when you've been totally unreasonable.
MULDER: You were the unreasonable one! If your mother wasn't there, you'd have plugged me again.
SCULLY: Thank God for mom.
MULDER: You can say that again.
SCULLY: Thank God-
MULDER: I didn't mean it literally.

ATHENAEUM

Scully was in the Athenaeum, staring at not one, but three Curators. "Three Curators for the price of one. Is there a special on today?"

"Agent Scully," began Byers, "we're afraid that it may be a little too soon for you to be here following your recent trauma."

"Actually, it's the very reason that I'm here. I want to learn more about subliminal messages."

"Apparently they don't work at all," explained Frohike. "I've been sending you subliminal messages since the day I met you. All to no avail."

"Actually," Byers began again, "Back in the day, to pinpoint it exactly, a fellow by the name of James Vicary claimed that he increased his popcorn and Coca-Cola sales by flashing rapid /3000 of a second-to pinpoint it exactly-messages such as, 'Hungry? Eat popcorn?' on the screen of his movie theater."

"However," Langly interjected to continue the story as he's apt to do, "When Vicary repeated his experiment for the Psychological Corporation, popcorn and Coke sales didn't increase. Later Vicary said that he lied about the previous increase in sales. Some wondered if he had even tried the experiment at all."

"However," Frohike said needing to be a part of the all-knowing club, "Even though subsequent studies questioned the validity of any subliminal advertising, advertisers continued to experiment. One thing is certain, repeatedly flashing subliminal messages does result in what ad execs call "mere exposure," meaning that the subject, or victim, becomes unwittingly familiar with the product. It's a fact that people buy products that they are familiar with."

"Don't forget that some of these companies spend billions on advertising. They'd stop at nothing to sell their product. Now they not only have TV, but movie theaters and the Internet as well." Langly said.

"We think, however, that Mr. X was right." Byers said, taking back the lead in the conversation, as Scully felt like she was at a tennis match looking at each one. "If subliminal messages do influence behavior, why only use it for something as sublime as selling popcorn?"

"Works for me. Popcorn anyone?" Frohike held up a super size bucket of popcorn.

"You know, Agent Scully," continued Byers, "as Jose Chung recently commented, it's amazing how something as simple as the human voice can alter one's conscious state so dramatically. Imagine what results can be obtained by tampering directly with the subconscious. Humanity can be controlled without even knowing they are being controlled. As you know only too well."

"Not to mention," Frohike continued between crunches, "The possibility of not only introducing thoughts in to someone's brain but the opposite as well. Erasing thoughts and memories. Like in the film Men in Black. Agent Scully, it recently came to my attention that you have a thing for Tommy Lee Jones. People are always mistaking me for him, by the way."

"Frohike, it isn't Tommy Lee Jones that people mistake you for, it's Frank the Pug." Langly pointed out.

"Well, Frank the Pug is kind of cute, too," Scully offered. "But gentlemen, you've taught me nothing about how subliminal messages work."

The three Gunmen looked at each other and shrugged. Frohike grunted, "How the hell should we know?"

Langly added, "Yeah, we peaked in high school when we were just a bunch of officers in the A/V club."

Byers said, "Actually, Agent Scully subliminal messages are sort of like hypnosis. We don't know how it works, we just know that it does work."

QUOTES

MULDER: Our blind date's not off to a good start. I've been waiting here nearly two hours.
PLAIN CLOTHED MAN: I was asked to make sure you weren't followed.
MULDER: It's just you, me, and the drug dealers.
PLAIN CLOTHED MAN: This area's always been known for it's criminal element.
MULDER: Especially when Congress is in session.

PLAIN CLOTHED MAN: That's all I have for you.
MULDER: What do you mean, that's all you have for me? I get an anonymous e-mail to come meet you here in the middle of the night, I don't know who you are or what you want.

PLAIN CLOTHED MAN: I've been asked to tell you... you walk away from this, more people will die.

SCULLY: This outside source, Mulder, what's his interest in this case? What does he want us to uncover?
MULDER: I don't know.
SCULLY: And you're not suspicious that we're being used?
MULDER: We've got dead bodies and confessed murderers. If we're being used, it's to find out the connection. That's what I'm interested in.

SCULLY: Look at this, there must be hundreds of videos here.
MULDER: Anything good?

MULDER: I just watched 36 hours of Bernard Shaw and Bobbie Batista. I'm about ready to kill somebody, too.

MULDER: So you think that because Patnik saw this war criminal on television, he was somehow inspired to go out and murder these people?
SCULLY: Well, recent studies have linked violence on television to violent behavior.
MULDER: Yeah, but those studies are based on the assumption that Americans are just empty vessels ready to be filled with any idea or image that's fed to them like a bunch of Pavlov dogs and go out and act on it.
SCULLY: But they believe that the causal connections are there, Mulder.
MULDER: They, studies have also shown causal connections between cow flatulence and the depletion of the ozone layer. What you're talking about is pseudo-science used to make political book.

MULDER: All I know is television does not make a previously sane man go out and kill five people, thinking they're all the same guy. Not even Must See TV could do that to you.

SCULLY: The car's been moved. Did you take it out last night?

MULDER: She looked out the window and claims she saw her husband in the hammock with a blonde.
Scully sees a dog with light colored fur in the yard.
SCULLY: That blonde?
MULDER: Yeah, apparently, he was only taking a nap with his dog. But Mrs. Riddock swears she looked out the window and saw her husband in the hammock with a blonde woman.
SCULLY: So, this woman killed her husband because she thought he was cheating on her?
MULDER: This is not even her husband. Her husband's a long-haul trucker. He's been out of town for the last ten days. Mister John Gillness, it's her next-door neighbor. She didn't even have the right backyard. Helene Riddock lives over here.

Mulder sees a hideous porcelain statuette in her home.
MULDER: A thing of beauty is a joy forever. What do you think, Scully?
SCULLY: I think television plays a large part in both of these murderers' lives.
MULDER: As it does in almost every American home, but television does not equal violence. I don't care what anybody says... unless you consider bad taste an act of violence.

MULDER: I found a cable trapper scrambler running from the pole into the house.
SCULLY: Maybe it's a job for Special Agent Pendrell and the Sci-Crime lab.

MULDER: I bet all you guys were officers in the audio-visual club in high school, huh?

FROHIKE: Hold onto your hat, dude. We have touchdown.
MULDER: So they're different.
BYERS: You know the way television works?

MULDER: Yeah, you click it on, you have a picture.
LANGLY: It's a rapid series of still pictures fired against the tube.
BYERS: There's something non-standard here in the vertical blanking interval, information that's being added into the spaces between the still pictures.

MULDER: This device is emitting a signal.

SCULLY: I just talked to Agent Pendrell. He said that you never showed up.
MULDER: I didn't take it over to Pendrell.
SCULLY: Then where were you?

MULDER: This manhunt is being conducted as if we're searching for an escaped convict.
SKINNER: Mulder, I share your concern for Agent Scully, but the fact remains she fired four rounds at you and an unarmed civilian last night.

SKINNER: Whatever prompted her behavior, the fact remains that Scully is armed and obviously dangerous so I suggest you marshall whatever resources you have to make sure that you find her first.

MULDER: Bring it home, boys.
LANGLY: This device is stimulating electrical activity in the brain.
BYERS: Studies into subliminal influence have shown a correlation between heightened suggestibility and the manipulation of this response.
MULDER: Mind control?
LANGLY: Fifty-seven channels of it.

BYERS: Tachistoscophic images, like they used to sell popcorn at the movies. Both Russian and American scientists have been working with it for decades.
FROHIKE: Not to mention Madison Avenue.
MULDER: The naked lady in the ice cube.
FROHIKE: Ah... one of my personal favorites.
MULDER: Why wasn't I affected?
FROHIKE: That's the one thing we haven't figured out yet.
MULDER: This... subliminal signal, could color be a factor in it?
BYERS: Maybe.
MULDER: I'm red-green color blind.
BYERS: His inability to perceive the color red could render him immune to the psychotropic effects.

FROHIKE: What happened?
MULDER: Maryland State Police. They think they've found Scully.
FROHIKE: Is she okay?
MULDER: No... they think maybe I should come down and ID the body.

PLAIN CLOTHED MAN: Get in.
MULDER: I can't talk to you right now.
PLAIN CLOTHED MAN: They're watching you. Now, get in before you get us both killed.
MULDER: That's an interesting choice of words. My partner may be dead.
PLAIN CLOTHED MAN: It's not my concern.
MULDER: The hell it isn't! We're here because of you!
PLAIN CLOTHED MAN: Keep your voice down.
MULDER: Who are you, who do you work for?
PLAIN CLOTHED MAN: You're wasting time. While you're chasing your partner, they're destroying the evidence.
MULDER: Who?
PLAIN CLOTHED MAN: Just follow the evidence. If you don't, by tomorrow, the responsible parties will be out of your reach.

MULDER: It's not her.

MULDER: Mrs. Scully, is she here?
MARGARET: Uh, no.
MULDER: You haven't been answering your phone.
MARGARET: Well, when I hear from her, I'll call you, okay?
MULDER: I need to see her.
MARGARET: Fox, please, go away...

MARGARET: Dana, put down the gun!
MULDER: I'm here to help you, Scully.
SCULLY: I told you, Mom. He's here to kill me.
MULDER: I'm on your side, you know that.
MARGARET: Put it down, Dana.
MULDER: Scully, listen to me very carefully. You don't know it, but you're sick with the same thing that drove those other people to murder... and whatever you think may be happening...
SCULLY: Just step back.
MARGARET: Dana, you're not yourself. He's telling you the truth.
SCULLY: It's not the truth, Mom. He's lied to me from the beginning. He's never trusted me.
MULDER: Scully, you are the only one I trust.
SCULLY: You're in on it. You're one of them. You're one of the people who abducted me. You put that thing in my neck. You killed my sister!
MARGARET: That's not true, Dana.
SCULLY: It is.
MARGARET: I want you to listen to me.
SCULLY: Mom, just get out of the way!
MARGARET: You trust me, don't you? You know that I would never hurt you. That I would never let anybody hurt you. That's why you came here, isn't it? You're safe here. Put the gun down, Dana.

SCULLY: I was so sure, Mulder. I saw things and I heard things, and... it was just like world was turned upside down. Everybody was out to get me.
MULDER: Now you know how I feel most of the time.
SCULLY: I thought you were going to kill me.
MULDER: I'm not surprised.

SCULLY: I was so far gone, Mulder, I thought that you had gone to the other side.
MULDER: What do you mean?
SCULLY: That Cancerman, the man who smokes all those cigarettes, I was sure that I saw the two of you sitting in your car in the motel parking lot. You were reporting to him, you handed him a videotape. I'm... it was crazy.

MULDER: You want me to go first this time?
PROPRIETOR: You're damn straight.

X: You're too late, Agent Mulder.
MULDER: Now that you've destroyed all the evidence.
X: You were told this would happen. You made your choice.
MULDER: I just didn't know I was working for you.
X: I had no alternative. I was being watched too closely. I couldn't risk compromising myself.
MULDER: Why kill them if you wanted me to expose them?
X: Those were always my orders, Agent Mulder. I was just hoping you'd get to them first.
MULDER: And uncover what? What were they trying to do, manipulate people's behavior? Alter their decision making-process? What to buy, who to vote for?
X: You think they'll stop at commerce and politics?
MULDER: Where will they stop?
X: That's where you failed, Agent Mulder.
MULDER: Don't lay this off on me, you sneaky son of a bitch. You pulled me into this situation because you didn't have the courage to reveal the truth yourself.
X: Feel better now?
MULDER: You're a coward! You work in the shadows, you feed me scraps of information, hoping that I can piece it together. You make me risk my life, you risk my partner's life and you never risk your own! You're not walking away from this.
X: You're risking your life right now. You failed. This is your success? Killing me? The truth is... you need me, Agent Mulder.

CSM: Have you completed your work?
X: All the personnel and hardware have been removed, but Mulder still has one of the devices.
CSM: Oh, it proves nothing. What about, uh... Mulder's source?
X: He's been eliminated.
CSM: And his source? Who's he working with?
X: That person remains unknown.

THE END