So, 'Three of a Kind' was obviously a followup to 'Unusual Suspects', and was similarly excellent. Also amusing, because really, any episode that features the Lone Gunmen as main characters is bound to involve hilarious hijinks.
And because 'Unusual Suspects' featured Mulder and not Scully, it was clearly time now for an episode with just Scully. And Mulder's voice. There have been quite a few episodes that Scully didn't appear in at all, but I don't know of any that Mulder hasn't had at least some screen time in.
In other words, IT'S ABOUT TIME.
The Lone Gunmen are definitely an interesting group, and definitely have some boundary issues, but that mostly leads to comedy and incorrect assumptions in this case.
I'm amused at the poker playing in the beginning of the episode, because this was really still the very beginning of poker's growing popularity. The movie, 'Rounders' was made in 1998, and that helped get things started. I don't know that the writers were trying to capitalise on the game's newfound popularity, but either way, I think the scene worked. Well, I guess it didn't work so well for Byers, who not only lost all his chips but didn't really come off as very authentic and was easily found out as a spy.
Whoops!
The overall plot doesn't really seem that important. I wasn't really particularly interested in who double-crossed whom or when each victim was drugged, but the ending is sweet, and surprisingly did not go for the obvious Brazil reference when the Lone Gunmen informed Susanne that she was effectively dead (if you've seen the movie, you know exactly what I'm talking about) and the bit with Scully finally getting through to the actual Mulder is predictable, but still hilarious. I kind of want to see her kick their asses.
But otherwise, I think it's worth it mostly to cover a few of the more amusing scenes in what was really a pretty funny episode.
Let's start with Scully. And Langly tagging along for the autopsy, which he totally can't handle. I saw it coming, but what I did not see coming was Scully being drugged. Not that Langly could have stopped Timmy had he been there, but then they might not have been able to figure out either of them had been drugged in the first place. However, Scully's scene upon his return has some excellent comedic delivery from Gillian Anderson, including the most entertaining hand mime of a bus hitting a person you'll ever see.
And then she's at the bar and for some reason Morris Fletcher is there, which I suppose makes sense since Area 51 isn't really that far from Las Vegas. Of course he doesn't remember 'Dreamland', which I think is a good thing, because that might not have ended well for Scully or the Lone Gunmen.
The one thing that confused me initially was the scene in which Susanne was 'shot'. I suppose you could say that was well-misdirected, since we never saw them cure Langly, and the blood sure looked real. I was completely surprised that he was able to nonchalantly shoot her and walk away, though. No one in the room thought to tackle him? I guess the implication there would be that they were all in on it? That doesn't seem right.
But it all came together when we saw her alive again, and thankfully the pieces all fell into place to allow her and the Lone Gunmen to survive. How convenient that the drug would be so immediately effective as to completely prevent Timmy from shooting anyone, right?
I liked the idea that they were able to expose the project - or at least try - rather than have Susanne, or whoever she is now, go public with the information. They publish conspiracy theories that I think we've been shown enough times by now are pretty much spot on. The people who believe them, like say, Mulder, may eventually be in a position to do something about them, but everyone else just thinks they're a bunch of kooks. Even the government doesn't take them that seriously because they aren't seen as a threat. At least not the way Susanne would be.
Also, randomly, this episode made me want to go to Vegas.
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