Great Episode.

Loved It.

I did wonder where the plot was going though. First Pinky kills the Warden, why? He wasn't stoping his escape, the only reason to kill him would be for putting him in the box, but because he was in the box he got his powers, so why kill him?

Then It seemed like he was after the money, then the child, but what was he going to do after he got the boy, besides go?

Ploting Nit:
When Scully and Trevor are in the phone booth, why didn't Pinky disolve the metal in the booth, then the glass in the booth would fall away, and are Phone Booths, still made on glass? I thought it was plastic?

ANP

What a lovely, bright day for a tornado it was at the prison! Too bad the person filming it who got on the news did it under such a gray sky. Twisters are much more fun when it's sunny. ;-)

Nice line by the guard about the largest piece of The Box they found, but did they really go searching a three-mile radius for pieces of it? Or if it was found by chance(or indeed, otherwise), how would they know it was part of The Box?

Rawls must have literally scared Jackie's socks off. When she goes to answer the phone, the outfit she wears includes white socks. When Rawls is in the house, and she's barricading the room, she has shoes but no socks. Oddly enough, when we see her again with Trevor(and where was he the first time?), she's got what looks like her original clothing on again, including the socks. Perhaps those two scenes were shot together, and someone goofed in costuming continuity?

When Scully and Trevor hide in the glass phone booth, why doesn't Rawls reach through the metal, and thus highly conductive and permeable to him, frame of the booth? He couldn't grab them through a space that small, but he could break down the chemical bonds, make the frame brittle, then shatter it and have the whole booth collapse around them.

I didn't understand quite why he couldn't go through glass. Glass is made up of electrons and protons just like everything else. (I guess he read the script.)

Okay, so anomalous conditions in a tornado give you the ability to walk through things. Do you A - try to figure out what caused this, how long it will last, if it will be any danger to you, etc. or B - do you accept it as a gift from God and go after your long-lost son?

Why didn't Mulder consider getting rubber bullets? Those should stop Pinky.

I thought Mulder had gotten rubber slugs, used for riots.

>>Then It seemed like he was after the money, then the child, but what was he going to do after he got the boy, besides go?
>>

My best guess is that Pinker did not think things through. He just wanted the kid, period.

Didn't Mulder get rubber slugs special-order from the military?
Why did he just stand there in the end, he knows he can't go through glass, he can see the windshield...

Why was Pinky cut in half by the windshield? The edge isn't sharp. It should have broken into bits.

Also, there are a number of rubber tubes and gaskets inside a car's hood (the radiator hose, the headgasket, sparkplug cables, windshield wiper blades, etc); they should have hit Pinky first.

The soup that was thrown on Pinky went through his clothes, even though it was well established that his clothes weren't able to go through things.

Why did Pinky engrave the message "I want what's mine" after meeting with his girlfriend and her sister? Wouldn't it be simpler to tell them he was looking for the boy, rather than leave a rather obvious clue for the FBI? (I guess that's why he was called Pinky, instead of the Brain)

From Pinky's imprisonment in the box to the Warden's death was only 40 minutes. Pinky sure was quick in figuring out how to use his new found powers.

During the first autopsy scene, only Scully is wearing a face mask, even though Mulder is just as close to the corpse.

Murray, as a comment to your question, I think you have to realize that Pinky is not exactly a stable individual. Remember his ex-girlfriend's story about following a motorist for 62 miles just to beat him up? He doesn't strike me as the scientific type.

Also why did the pot swung by the kids adoptive mother hurt pinky? It's made out of metal!

First off, Chris B., the pot she swung was made of glass.

I find it hard to believe that an autopsy room could have only one set of protective glasses and mask (which is probably the only reason why Mulder isn't decked as Scully). Or he could just think it's his turn to be "immune."

I loved it when he said "Dear Diary ... " ... if he kept a journal like Doogie Howser did, it would be something worth looking at. ;-)

When Pinky first goes to see June's sister, why did he bother to take off his shirt when he could easily walk out of them like when he ran away from Mulder at the end?

Murray, Mulder did get rubber bullets. He even showed Scully as much. Here's my nit ... Ok, so Pinky's weak point is any insulator. Ok, so what happened when Mulder fired the standard issue rubber bullets at him? I was half expecting him to have holes on his chest (since he was hit right? or maybe Mulder's aim is bad in the dark). But instead he ducks and reappears quite the same as he was before.

Well, next week's episode has Scully attracted to Mulder's chief suspect ... pay-back time for last ep? ;-)

Chris B., the pot was a Visions^tm cookware pot. They are made out of glass. My wife and I got some many years ago for our wedding.

So, do rubber bullets affect people like normal bullets? If they do, why have them. If they don't, they should affect Pinky just like they would affect normal humans.

My understanding of rubber bullets is that at long range they hurt, rather than kill, and that at closer range (Mulder and Pinky) they are less likely to be deadly than metal bullets.

Good, although pretty predictable episode. X-Files Monster of the Weeks are starting to sound and act like Spider-Man villains, complete with "secret weakness".

Also, the gore factor was a step up in this episode (although Pinky did not kill the security guard).

The characters were deeply-riched, though (while Pinky was nasty, he was never uninteresting).

I thought that maybe (even though it wouldn't have been very accessible) Mulder should have used wooden bullets (like from vampire movies) or maybe even glass slugs, as it was well-developed that glass was the real harmer toward Pinker...

Aaron, I thought about glass slugs as well...

Looks like he used rubber birdshot. Those bullets looked like shotgun cartridges, not bullets. Also, he was carrying a shotgun.

I guess Mulder decided that he wasn't going to need any kind of lethal force, since rubber bullets are not lethal (they are commonly used in riot control).

-12-

I must indicate two aspects of this particular episode. First of all, our two protagonists arrive at Mr. Rawls's former lover's residence 6:15 in the morning. Since when was that early an hour so sunny? And secondly, Special Agent Dana Scully's facial expression, when realizing Trevor Andrew is noticing someone behind her, is priceless.

Tried to get on last night but the board wasn't open yet.

When M&S discover Merkle's body (the faceless man) and the camera angle moves to the perspective of over his shoulder looking at our heros, does it look like to anyone else that Merkle's shoulder and neck are moving?

Why did M&S break into Jackie's house guns at ready? At that point, they had just pulled up and had no idea that Pinky was even there.

Great detail point: clothes do not pass through objects just because he's wearing them.

Okay, so apparently Pinky can turn this "gift" on and off at will. So when he is turned "on" and can pass through or change the molecular properties of conductive elements/compounds, what is happening to the floor/ground when he is walking around barefoot? For ST:TNG fans, remember in "The Next Phase" when Geordi and Ro where half-phased and could walk through walls, the Chief @ NitCentral pointed out, what kept them from falling through the floor of the ship? I guess, when you think about it, most of what he would have been walking on would be non-conductive materials, i.e., wood, linoleum, dirt, etc. It would have been interesting though to see these charred footprints here and there.

I noticed right away that the soup pan was Visions or Pyrex or something. I knew she was going to throw it at him, but what a COOL effect! Then when she started beating him with the pan, I thought, "You go, Girl!" It is amazing, though, how persistent psychos can be when they're on a mission. Nothing slows them down.

I, too, thought why didn't he cut through the frame of the telephone booth.

I'm surprised no one mentioned this: Why wasn't Scully issued rubber bullets? Or didn't Barney Fife think they would work?

As for the rubber bullets working, I, too, thought there should at least be some bruising...

Actually I thought the car thing at the end was kind of neat. Maybe he realized that he wasn't going to win this thing and like the dog lady from last week saw this as a way out. Or maybe he hadn't put it together yet that he couldn't pass through everything. I do think, however, that a windshield coming at you at that angle and speed would probably cut you in half. I didn't have a problem with that theory. Did you notice the body parts all over the place after she hit him? I wonder who got the job of cleaning that up?

One other thing, shouldn't June be arrested for not returning the money? Even though she didn't steal it, she knew it was stolen when she found it. Isn't that against the law to not turn it in?

I think June's got a bigger charge against her now--vehicular homicide.

She might not even be charged with anything regarding Pinky. There were two FBI agents on the scene who can testify to the homicidal nature of the man she killed. As for the money she now seems to be an "upstanding member of the community" and will probably be able to work a deal involving probation, community service, and paying back every penny.

>Why did Pinky engrave the message "I want what's mine" after meeting with >his girlfriend and her sister? Wouldn't it be simpler to tell them he was looking >for the boy, rather than leave a rather obvious clue for the FBI? (I guess >that's why he was called Pinky, instead of the Brain)

LOL! That's the funniest thing I've read all day :)

My problem with the episode is that Mulder's theory was that he couldn't use his powers through non-conducting material (glass, rubber, etc), and we know Mulder had to be right, after all, he is the hero :-).
But weren't his clothes non-conductive? Cotten and linen don't conduct electricity. And the plaster in the walls and ceilings he walked through also weren't conductive. Shouldn't Scully have turned to Mulder and said "Mulder, did you sleep through chemistry class in high school when they explained non-conducting materials?"

I'd like to know what that old-fashioned glass phone booth was doing a convenient few hundred yards away from June's sister's house. Is that her equivelent of a plastic pink flamingo?

And BTW, this episode doesn't exist yet according to the X-Files Official Website. "Alpha" and the ep. before that don't exist either, apparently. Are they usually this slow in getting episode summaries up?

Lauren--this episode was set in Mississippi, in an area that seemed a bit financially challenged. If you visit the South, you will see old fashioned phone booths in small towns.

Try Tiny Dancer's site (www.insanity.com.au/td) for up-to-date X-Files info.

Mandy--thank you. I try to amuse.

I wasn't that impressed. It was okay. Good idea, but I think it could've been excecuted better. I didn't buy the whole search for the son thing. And the phrase "I will get what I want"(was that it?)could have been used a lot more than twice. Again, it was okay, but not as good as it could've been.

Bjackson... it was "I want what's mine"

-12-

In the scene where they arrive in Meridian, MS, you can see mountains in the backround. There are no mountains in Mississippi. I know- I lived there. They were probably California mountains.

Meridian…isn't that where Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird from there?

-12- Thanks. I knew that wasn't right. It was too long. :-)

How did the handcuffs stay in one piece for so long? They ought to have shattered as soon as Pinky slid through them and they fell to the ground, but they managed to stay intact as they fell and continue like that - dangling around on the cop's belt and no doubt getting sat on and thumped about - until the plot required them to crumble!

I don't know. I still like the part where Scully suggests spontaneous combustion much to Mulder's unabashed delight.

Okay, so anomalous conditions in a tornado give you the ability to walk through things. Do you A - try to figure out what caused this, how long it will last, if it will be any danger to you, etc. or B - do you accept it as a gift from God and go after your long-lost son?

Well, the guy IS a criminal.

BTW, I think this episode has the best Mulder/Scully exchange of the entire series. It comes at the very beginning when they are examining the warden's corpse:
Scully:Should we arrest David Copperfield?
Mulder:Yes. But not for this.

First Pinky kills the Warden, why? He wasn't stoping his escape, the only reason to kill him would be for putting him in the box, but because he was in the box he got his powers, so why kill him?

Because Pinky was mad at the Warden for letting him die. That he didn't die by some freak plot contrivance- eh, chance - or Act of God? - and got a gift doesn't migitate Pinky being mad.

Ploting Nit:
When Scully and Trevor are in the phone booth, why didn't Pinky disolve the metal in the booth, then the glass in the booth would fall away...

I guess because Pinky didn't think of it. He wasn't too bright, but thought quickly enough of overcoming the glass barrier by cracking it with a stone.

I didn't understand quite why he couldn't go through glass. Glass is made up of electrons and protons just like everything else. (I guess he read the script.)

Because Mulder thinks (and as hero, he's right ;)) that Pinky somehow exerts some kind of electromagnetic force, and glass and rubber are insulators.

>>Then It seemed like he was after the money, then the child, but what was he going to do after he got the boy, besides go?
>>

My best guess is that Pinker did not think things through. He just wanted the kid, period.

Mulder speculated that he just wanted "a second chance" (like his girlfriend earlier, trying to get away from the trailer park life, by moving to a nice suburban home and hooking up with a respectable guy).
Pinky thought that he could start a good relationship with his son, to make up for all the years he lost in prison. Notice how much he tries to dampen his anger and appear non-frighenting when talking to the boy (and he doesn't notice at first that his acts of violent aggression towards the two women scare the kid).
At the end, he steps away from the booth because he sees how scared the kid is of him and realizes that despite blood relation, the boy won't instantly love him, and Pinky doesn't seem to be the type to curb his anger long enough to try for long-term building of trust.

Why did he just stand there in the end, he knows he can't go through glass, he can see the windshield...

Well, Mulder figured out the glass thing, but he's smart and educated. Pinky isn't, so he might not have figured it out yet.
There's also the possibility that he wanted to give up, since he couldn't find a way to relate to his son, and didn't see an alternative or have hope for a different approach.

Why was Pinky cut in half by the windshield? The edge isn't sharp. It should have broken into bits.

Also, there are a number of rubber tubes and gaskets inside a car's hood (the radiator hose, the headgasket, sparkplug cables, windshield wiper blades, etc); they should have hit Pinky first.

It's not the sharpness, but the insulating force. The rubber gaskets etc. probably were too soft on impact and bent out of the way, but the glass sliced through his body.

The soup that was thrown on Pinky went through his clothes, even though it was well established that his clothes weren't able to go through things.

Are you sure? I only noticed how the soup passed through his head (and it looked cool, with no trace of soup on his hair or face), but the scene was a bit dark, so I couldn't see his clothes clearly enough.

Why did Pinky engrave the message "I want what's mine" after meeting with his girlfriend and her sister? Wouldn't it be simpler to tell them he was looking for the boy, rather than leave a rather obvious clue for the FBI? (I guess that's why he was called Pinky, instead of the Brain)

Well, besides being required as bad guy to leave clues for the good guys... As intimidation? To show that he had a right, because he owned what he was looking for, and the FBI should stop keeping him away?

Ok, so what happened when Mulder fired the standard issue rubber bullets at him? I was half expecting him to have holes on his chest (since he was hit right? or maybe Mulder's aim is bad in the dark). But instead he ducks and reappears quite the same as he was before.

I, too, expected him to go down with bullet holes, until I realized that these rubber bullets are used by normal police for crowd control precisely because they don't really hurt, since they are too soft to penetrate flesh.

I thought that maybe (even though it wouldn't have been very accessible) Mulder should have used wooden bullets (like from vampire movies) or maybe even glass slugs, as it was well-developed that glass was the real harmer toward Pinker...

Well, they were in a hurry, and while rubber bullets (and the necessary guns, since they wouldn't fit into either of Mulders or Scully's handguns) can be gotten from a big police station, wood and glass bullets would have to be custom-made. Besides, there would be a problem with the enormous pressure, heat and speed exerted on the bullets when fired, I guess.

Looks like he used rubber birdshot. Those bullets looked like shotgun cartridges, not bullets. Also, he was carrying a shotgun.

I guess Mulder decided that he wasn't going to need any kind of lethal force, since rubber bullets are not lethal (they are commonly used in riot control).

Well, Mulder did say "Don't force me to shoot at you", since he didn't want to kill him if not necessary. As for not being lethal - he knew that rubber bullets would work better then the metal kind, which didn't work at all, and he didn't want to be unarmed, I guess.

As for the bullets - I don't know what kind of bullets these were, but they were quite thick, and I don't think they would fit into Mulders handgun, so that's why he used the shotgun.

I'm surprised no one mentioned this: Why wasn't Scully issued rubber bullets? Or didn't Barney Fife think they would work?

Well, Mulder got a big box of bullets, so I expected him to share. But maybe there was only one shotgun available to fire the thick bullets from? Though they could've given Scully a rubber beating stick instead...

My problem with the episode is that Mulder's theory was that he couldn't use his powers through non-conducting material (glass, rubber, etc), and we know Mulder had to be right, after all, he is the hero :-).
But weren't his clothes non-conductive? Cotten and linen don't conduct electricity. And the plaster in the walls and ceilings he walked through also weren't conductive. Shouldn't Scully have turned to Mulder and said "Mulder, did you sleep through chemistry class in high school when they explained non-conducting materials?"

Mulder is brainstorming a possible explanation to help him deal with the situation, so "somekind of electromagnetic force that somehow alters the chemical composition of materials, but is stopped by non-conductive materials like glass or rubber" seems to work for the moment.
I think there seems to be a heat factor involved, and glass doesn't start to crumble when exposed to heat, but plaster would change, as would flesh turn to char, or metal become brittle.

I don't know. I still like the part where Scully suggests spontaneous combustion much to Mulder's unabashed delight.

Yes, I liked that too. I think a great line besides David Copperfield was Mulder's "Dear Diary" speech...

Shouldn't the station wagon's engine blow apart after it passed through Pinky?

"What a lovely, bright day for a tornado it was at the prison! Too bad the person filming it who got on the news did it under such a gray sky. Twisters are much more fun when it's sunny. ;-) "

Storms can be strange, and it is common to see bright sunlit skys behind a tornado.

The beginning though...it looks like they were bracing for a hurricane. They should've all been running for cover, not boarding up windows.