The X-Files Season 6, Episode 3: Triangle

Yes! Time travel! Only not really? Either way, another brilliant episode to start off season six.

'Triangle' was fantastic in so many ways, and not just that the Smoking Man showed up as a Nazi. Because of course he did.

It was clear that a large part of the last few episodes has been showing off the new sets. No, I don't think the ship is going to play a long-term role in season six, but obviously there are new FBI sets that need to be dashed through a lot. Since I'm also watching The West Wing right now, I commented while watching this that the way the camera followed Scully through the FBI reminded me of the famous 'walk and talk', only without the talk. I probably could have phrased that more eloquently.

I do enjoy the episodes that tie somewhat into recognisable mythology, like the Bermuda Triangle. (But not those that tie into religious mythology, because that's stuff a lot of people actually believe to be true - I think most people accept that things like the Bermuda Triangle are largely just folk tales.)

But bringing it into a show like this is a brilliant move. They might as well take advantage of a well-known myth that a certain region of ocean is somehow more dangerous for ships than any other, and that navigation equipment goes all wonky, and sometimes you get transported 59 years into the future. The way you do.

I also like the idea of showing established characters in other roles represented by an alternate reality or someone's subconscious. I've seen it in so many shows, and not only does it always give actors a chance to play someone a little different from their usual, but it's always fascinating to see how certain things are projected on them. Since this is more alternate reality than Mulder's subconscious, I think we can safely assume he doesn't actually see Scully as an upper class English woman in the 1930s. (Aside: Gillian Anderson can do a convincing British accent. Why didn't she?)

But the Spenders as Nazis I totally believe.

The way Mulder's end of the story comes together is only part of the story, though, and while it serves as reasonable character development for him, the other half of the story is Scully's attempts to find him, seeking out help even from the Lone Gunmen, which is a pretty remarkable step for her. But she's desperate at this point because her hands are more than completely tied at the FBI.

I had to look it up in the script because I couldn't quite make out the voice on the phone, but when the Smoking Man called down to the old X-Files office while Scully is there, I didn't even put two and two together. But I do like the direction the show is taking - three seasons ago, maybe even fewer, Scully was still mostly a good little FBI worker bee, but now even she's in too deep and she's in the same place Mulder's pretty much always been.

So naturally, because she's so desperate, she even tries to trust Spender to find what she needs, but that kind of blows up in her face until she's bailed out by Skinner, who does have the information and is risking a lot to give it to her. Fortunately for him, he's rewarded quite well for his trouble, though he certainly looked shocked at the time. (He liked it, I'm sure of it.)

And so we're treated to the usual amusing interactions between Scully and people she doesn't particularly appreciate or even like, but it's worth it for the split screen non-rescue at the end. When the two Scullys passed in the hall, I thought for a moment that they had spotted each other or caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of their eyes, but based on what we saw later, all they saw was a dirty dirty trick by the writers. Er, I mean a brilliant piece of misdirection.

It wasn't even until modern-day Scully arrived in the deserted ballroom that I figured out what was going on, and of course then realised how much more brilliant an already very good episode was.

And then we get yet another Mulder/Scully tease because Mulder kisses 1939 Scully just before jumping into the water, and then we're at least led to believe she got them to turn the ship around, allowing it to become the ghost ship that it did by 1998.

One problem with time travel stories is the idea that a person returning to the past can actually affect anything. Really, Mulder was always there in 1939, he just didn't find out he was until, you know, now. And the ship was going to turn around and be lost anyway, it just looks like Mulder and 1939 Scully had a hand in it - and maybe they did, but they always did. It can't work any other way.

Of course, 1998 Scully doesn't believe him - to be fair, his story now is a lot more far-fetched sounding than some of the other stuff he's got her to sort of come around on - but thankfully, she and Skinner say what we've all been thinking for most of the episode and get in a whole bunch of Wizard of Oz references. Because how could they not?

One thing I didn't notice specifically when watching the episode, but learned later, was that each segment was filmed as more or less a single shot (there was apparently some fancy editing at points where they just couldn't quite get everything done in one shot). And that's kind of amazing. I never thought of this show as one to do much artistic filming, but it really worked in this episode.