REVIEWED BY: Jennifer J. Chen ON: March 25, 1999
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: January 12, 1997
This was really not that bad an episode. I'm just saying that in advance because the analysis of it won't be very pretty, but I can't say that I wasn't entertained. Watching all the previews for it, I thought, oh, a typical monster-of-the-week ep. But it wasn't as bad as all that. Rather boring one to review (at least, for me, since I only really love exploring in depth the Mulder/Scully dynamic), though. This episode was a pure X-Files, as in, a case--not the show. The focus was the investigation--in this instance, El Chupacabra. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully just happened to be the FBI agents investigating it.
Since it was written by John Shiban, this was to be expected. And I suppose there may be such a thing as too much of a good thing--not every episode can be a deep, angst-ridden journey into the deep recesses of the Mulder/Scully relationship. I have yet to tire of those, of course, but I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt to run-of-the-mill case episodes, and say that their presence only serves to make the relationship (UST-filled or otherwise) centered episodes all the sweeter and more valuable. Not every episode can be written by Vince Gilligan--that boy needs rest like the rest of us.
It's nice, even, to be able to enjoy an episode like El Mundo Gira without having to constantly wrack my brain and analyze every Mulder and Scully detail, because there really is no deeper meaning to be found. In these types of episodes, Mulder and Scully are not the protagonists--the focus isn't them. When they are shown, they are on professional mode (Shiban can't seem to write them any other way--which, actually, takes some talent, considering the unpartner-like feelings they harbor for one another) all the time. No little looks into what makes Mulder and Scully tick, or why they tick together so nicely.
But I don't mean to criticise too much. As I said, as far as these kinds of episodes go, it wasn't all that bad. We did get to hear some Mulder commentary on Purple Rain ("Great album. Deeply flawed movie."), which, I suppose, does tell us more about Mulder, and I have to say that I laughed out loud at his melodramatic imitation of Eladio--"Flash of light...yellow rain...Maria! Maria!" He really cracks me up sometimes.
We got to see Scully drive, at least, even though for most of the episode Mulder was acting the way Scully exaggerates him to be in Bad Blood...but that's still a season away. For the most part, he's clinical and indifferent to her as Scully--she could have been any old partner, instead of one who had just shared and comforted him through some pretty difficult times, when he was put through the emotional wringer at the hands of John Lee Roche. I guess what disturbs me most about these episodes is that without that element of the personal, without some Mulder/Scully angst (no secret that that's why I watch the show), I feel like I don't even know these characters. They're just FBI agents on a case--I have no emotional investment in their cause or purpose. And what lets me enjoy it to any extent that I do is because they physically resemble the people I do know and care about, so I can bring in some past inferences and memories, and make them into Mulder and Scully.
I thought that Raymond Cruz, who portrayed Eladio Buente, did an excellent job. His horror when he saw himself in the mirror--ooh, still get chills thinking about it. He made his character sympathetic, when it could have easily been just horrific. Scully's scientific rationalization was believable--even though I'm no scientist, I consider myself an intellectual, and it didn't insult me. And the story itself was told in a successful way. But there were too many obvious gloss-overs that made it bad--if the enzyme that Eladio was emitting was that fast-acting and powerful (as shown in the supermarket with a mountain of green stuff), then hell, he would have been doing that EVERYWHERE--any place that he touched, including the supermarket door, the phone, etc. But that conveniently doesn't happen. And then, having the two brothers both become Chupacabras? What the heck was that? Major cheesy, cop-out ending. Shiban ran out of time so he created the Lone Chupacabras. I'm sure he wanted to leave us with a feeling of horror, that these two "monsters" are still out there, lurking in society, and give us chills, but when I think about the goofyness of it I just want to giggle. But it did, as I said, entertain me. That's why I watch television, after all.
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1999 by Jennifer J. Chen