Testing. Testing. Is this thing on?
In the prison workroom, when everyone and everything else slows down, Faster(sp?) tosses a fabric piece over his shoulder. It falls at normal speed. Okay, explainable if it's just everyone else's perceptions that have slowed down, but we also see a guard descending stairs during this sequence, and I'd think he'd be as affected by gravity(that is, quickly) as the fabric was.
And why were these prisoners all at work around 6 am? I'd think they'd be asleep, or just struggling awake, at that hour. On top of that, Scully says she was awakened at exactly that time -- but her house is in the Washington, D.C. area, isn't it? And D.C. is one hour ahead of Illinois. I don't see how she'd have a house in the Central Time Zone: it'd be a monster of a commute.
When Reverend Orison(which means 'prayer') mesmerizes his guard to escape the hospital, his EKG keeps beeping long after he's departed his bed and crossed the room.
I cannot believe that Scully, just after walloping on Faster in her bedroom, would leave that room to call for help without finding the gun she had dropped on the floor. You don't leave an attacker behind with a weapon nearby.
And maybe I don't know Scully as well as the writers do, but did she ever strike you as the type to have that many candles stored in her house? ;-)
What I don't get is how come Mulder's gun didn't hurt the guy despite multiple shots, yet scully's killed him in one shot?
And where were the cops after she called 911? If they recieve a 911 call from an FBI agents house and suddenly the line goes dead or hangs up I would send police to see what the problem is.
Chris, I don't think Mulder fired his gun. I think he was asking Pfaster to put up his hands 'coz he did look surprised when the first bullet rang out.
Anyway, I agree w/ Shane that Scully should've gone for her gun first and if she shot Pfaster while making the 911 call, it would really be in self-defense and she won't feel guilty about it.
I think Mulder's dropping this investigation after finding Orison's body weird. I mean, they both know how "evil" Pfaster is and so they stop looking? A man with a fetish and who just killed someone should be cause for continued man-hunt. Man, I won't feel safe now. ;-) Maybe Orison did a hypnotic number on them with the "Don't look any further" message eh? Boy, hypnosis through writing ... how'd that happen.
Why was Scully still crawling after she got her arms around from the back? I'd think she'd get up, get her gun and even with her hands still tied up aim a gun and shoot. Lucky for her Mulder came just in time to give her some time to remove her gag and all.
Ok, here's the other thing ... Mulder doesn't check his messages (the one most recent from the agent about the red-head-wig'd hooker) when he gets home? Guess he just wasn't expecting an urgent call.
As for the candles, maybe Pfaster picked them up while he was shopping for all those hair products. I don't think Orison kept that many kinds of shampoo and candles over at his apartment either.
Well, that's my $0.02 worth for tonight. C'yall.
Y'remember the show called "Brimstone"? It was about the Devil using a "lost soul" to track down escaped evil-doers (apparently--the show vaguely hinted that the Devil was lying). This episode reminded me a heck of a lot of that show--perhaps because Pfaster was the usual sort of villain on the show.
"Irresistible" was one of the first "X-Files" I saw when I was a lot younger, and it managed to scare the **** out of me. This one was a little less unnerving (only because of the rather bizarre subplot with Orison, and the fact that we know who Pfaster is and what he does), but still a solid episode.
Little Thoughts
*What exactly is Pfaster? Is it just some sort of hypnosis (Glory...Amen. Glory...Amen. Glory...Amen.) that he pulled on Orison (he does not use it on any of his victims or on Scully, at least in this episode)? Is he a wandering demon, like Bruce Campbell in "Terms of Endearment"? "Irresistible", aside from the final scene, merely had on-edge people think Pfaster is a demon when he is standing in the dark. This episode is a little more odd, since he demonizes right before Orison. (I guess it is possible that Orison, apparently like Scully at the end, saw Pfaster as a demon, and Pfaster used the opportunity to bash Orison senseless).
*Nick Chinlund looks like some Bizarro Andy Griffith to me, especially in the prison outfit. What's really scary to me about Pfaster is his oh-so-eager character when he meets somebody. He's polite, genteel...and then he kills you for your fingers.
*The Orison subplot should have been in another episode. I appreciate what they were trying to do, but it destroyed the basic point that Pfaster is not an "X-File", just a very disturbed man (although this is going on the same scenes from his previous outing).
*Who is Scott Wilson? Why was he a Special Guest? I don't remember the name from anything.
*Also, regarding some of your comments--the reason the E.K.G. continues beeping after Orison leaves is because Orison is making the audience believe it is beeping. Glory...Amen.
*Finally, a query of my own. Why does the end sequence mirror the ones where Orison mind-controls somebody (slow-mo)? Is this supposed to imply, as the ending did, that Orison's spirit got its revenge on Pfaster? Glory...Amen.
Intriguingly, he played prison chaplain in Dead Man Walking.
I'm surprised Skinner even let Scully do this case, honestly. I don't think that needs any further comment.
Perhaps Pfaster is neither a real demon or human, but an abstraction of evil, which appears as your worst fear. Just a thought.
That's a very good theory, and it makes more sense in this episode. The reverend views Pfaster as a demon, but Scully simply sees--Pfaster! Of course, in "Irresistible", nearly everyone saw him as a demon...
I don't see why we even needed the scene with Pfaster-as-demon, when Nick Chinlund could probably scare puppies to death with that look at the end of the episode.
Where was Moe Bocks? I wanted to see Bruce Weitz again.
Fun to see the return of another creepazoid.
Just two things:
Who was mesmerizing who, when? And how/when did Pfaster pick up that ability?
Okay, three:
Shouldn't Scully's gun be smoking after she fired?
I was happy to see Scully fighting like you'd think a trained FBI agent would, for a change. But that was dumb to assume he was out and run for the phone.
My nitpicks are as numerically proceeds:
1) The illegitimately red-headed call girl's arms are crossed together on her chest after entering the killer's apartment and standing beside the table. In the sequential behind-the-shoulder scene, though, her arms are behind her grasping her purse. Then, they return to the previous position in the sequential scene.
2) All I could think as Special Agent Dana Scully is being pounded against the mirror is that I am glad it is not a real mirror. Otherwise, she would have some detrimental cuts and wounds.
MikeC, it is funny you should mention Brimstone. Mr. Farrand recently endowed me with a Brimstone message board, which I have strongly requested. You may notice that there is not anything up yet. Bear with me, considering I am contending with work.
Work? Don't know much about that, I'm afraid.
I was enjoying this episode until I started to get a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Web rumor of the most rumerrific sort has suggested that David Duchovny might leave the show before the end of this season, replaced by the straight guy from "The Crying Game" (whose name fled while I typed. Aargh!). It's probably bogus, but if it's not, Carter might be moving Scully into the "believer" role with this episode, so the new guy can be the doubter.
Or it could be I was really tired last night and reading way too much into this episode. Take your pick.
My nitpicks are as numerically proceeds:
1) Scully kills someone and fires more than 1 bullet. Agent "Barney" rarely carries more than 1 bullet in her gun. Also, this is one of the few time she actully aimed correctly and his her target. I guess she spent a few hours shooting target practice.
(see the X-Files guide for details)
Mark Morgan: Scully has always pretty much been a believer of the religious sort. I forget names, but there have been several episodes where Scully and Mulder switch sides, sort of, when religious belief is involved.
BTW, Re: 6:06 AM
I understand that in some manuscripts, the number of the Beast (from Revelation) is 606 rather than the 666 which is more commonly known.
True. And it's not the first time she's been involved in religious supernatural events. There was the episode she tried to save the girl who might or might not have been the child of an Angel, for example.
I just occured to me that we might be seeing more of this this season, if that completely unreliable web rumor was true. Weird things pop into one's mind late at night. . . .
The first time the "stopping the world" trick is done, a guard walks in front of Pfaster, and his arm disappears BEHIND pfaster, revealing a little editing glitch.
I got the impression that Mulder did check his "messages" (does he ever get any from anyone other than Scully?) but mysteriously, the song, "don't look any further" is playing instead of the message.
This is not a nit, but I was wondering how long it will be, before the actor who played "Pfaster" will be able to get a date, after this ep has aired. hehehe.
AllegraG,
I suppose you meant when he had stopped midway during his brushing ... I think he wasn't checking his messages then but setting his clock and it must've triggered the alarm (as in radio alarm) when it played the song. If I'm not mistaken, his message machine was in the living room not his bedroom.
I find it interesting that (after grousing on Scully's fears about The Song From Her Past) Mulder goes to her apartment when he hears The Other Song. Was that just one coincidence to many, and his "I Want To Believe" insticts kicked in, or did he believe all along, and just wanted to get Scully away from this?
And about The Other Song, is it from Mulder's past, or did he just happen to repetedly quote a lyric that he would later hear in a song for the first time? If the latter that might explain his sudden reversal of belief at the end of the episode.
S. Wong, thanks for being so gentle about my mistake....
Gumba-Gee Dey OH!
At the end it said who performed the song but I missed it. Anyone know?
A huge number of candles in Scully's house don't you think? Have you got that many???
After calling 911, did Scully actually manage to get the phone back on the hook? I guess she must have, otherwise Mulder wouldn't have got a ringing tone. If she had time to get it back on the hook, don't you think it would have been a better idea to leave it off the hook to 911 - get a better responce....
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