Well, since the Show Board isn't open yet, I'll post here...

Kudos to TPTB for continuity... The bank is the same one as in "Monday".

Now to the nits.

1) If Scully came all the way from DC to LA, how come the trash can wasn't emptied yet at Santa Monica Pier? That's got to be a matter of several hours.

2) Was Mulder in LA at the time? Or did he come from DC as well?

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Cradock Marine has branches in Washington, D.C. and southern California. Must be a national bank.

Maybe they don't empty the trash all that often. Or possibly the police wouldn't let them clean the place up.

Can anyone explain how Mulder's ID number and thumbprint would allow Pinchek to access EFT?
I guess M&S had a fun time learning all the magician's secrets on this episode eh. Funny though that when Mulder asked Scully to blow her nose, she sneezed instead. :-)
At one point when the protege was doing the coin tricks (close to the end of the 1st visit), his left sleeve goes up and down in different shots, i.e. he pulls it up for the trick, next shot sleeves are down, next shot sleeves are back up.
Also, how considerate of the guard to hand the gun AND the bullet magazine he removed to Pinchek eh. I understand why he removed it before handing it over (safety) but did he have to hand the bullets over? I guess he should've otherwise, the bullets couldn't have been switched.
Just my thoughts for today.

Can anyone explain how Mulder's ID number and thumbprint would allow Pinchek to access EFT?

One possibility: The two would make a fake badge with Mulder's name and one of their photos. Then they would go into a different branch of the bank, impersonate Mulder, and use the information to steal the money.

Second: They would sneak into the bank and use the information to bypass the security themselves, assuming it was set up to work automatically once they had the badge and thumbprint.

This was a very fun episode. I think episodes like this, where there is nothing Extremely Important to the Future of Humanity, really let the creators and the cast relax and show off their skill. Very much the high point of the season so far.

Huge nit- Mulder is lecturing Scully about magic. Didn't Scully mention an ep where she had a male relative (Uncle?) who showed he a few tricks, including how to apear to eat a cochroach in that ep. Scully's trick at the end almost made up for it though.

When is the post show board opening up?

Sorry, folks, sorry! Completely forgot what day it was. Here you go.

This is an episode with no paranormal/governmental conspiracy aspects. Ranks right up there with "Home" and probably others. ("Irresistible" had a little)

I know Ricky Jay (Pinchbeck) is a magician, but is Jonathan Levitt (the young magician)?

When they started discussing who knew all about the secrets of magic, I thought they were going to go to the Masked Magician, and his host, Mitch Pileggi!

I thought they were going to bring in the X-Files version of James Randi.

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This was one excellent episode. I especially liked the end, where Mulder is trailing after Scully, saying, "hey, look"! and doing that crusty old detached thumb trick. As though she could see what he's doing.

the only thing that really bothered me about this ep was that mulder had it all figured out about the magicians framing that tattoo guy, and they were doing nothing about it! i understand that they might not have sufficient evidence to convict the guilty guys , but what about saving the guy they set up as the patsy? after all mulder KNOWS this guy is being set up and how. he should be able to fins some evidence to spring the guy.

This was a good episode. And I especially liked the agents loosening up and being more playful.

The only nit I can remember is that when Mulder takes the card, he really doesn't hold it that much by his thumb. I wonder if his thumbprint was really useable.

Two important questions we need answered to make sense of this scheme.

1 - how did they know that an FBI agent would be assigned to this local murder? Mulder showed up just because it intrigued him.

2 - the scheme hinges on Mulder and Scully recruiting the magician to investigate his rival. How did they know he would do that? For that matter, why did they do that? I'd have gotten an impartial consultant.

I notice this episode was directed by Thomas J. Wright. For Star Trek: Voyager fans that means only one thing: Tuvix!

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