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It cleverly subverted some of the show’s problematic perspectives - the romance with conspiracy thinking the allegory for religious faith - and just as cleverly reorganized them around better, sounder ideas, like wonder for the natural world (still a treasure trove of secrets) and empathy for the strangers among us.
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Guy Mann, a gentle but still troubled version of the “ underground man” archetype, crippled by self-awareness and warped by modernity, could be used as a case study in an Existentialism 101 class that includes Dostoevsky, Camus, Wright, Sartre, Hesse, and, of course, Lee/Kirby. It was a Monster-of-the-Week episode that deconstructed certain metaphors common to the sci-fi and horror genres, specifically that of the alienated outsider. “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster” compliments “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” by making bittersweet comedy, philosophical complaint, and meta-commentary out of the show’s other modality. Toss in a choice or two worthy of a critical headshake, like the dubious inclusion of a crack-addicted transgender prostitute played for laughs and murky thematics, and there’s an argument to be made that this fable about estrangement from society, nature, other, and self was itself slightly out of step with the audience, with the revival’s narrative flow, and with the times. Oh, for an epic sequence that would strand the pair on a rock in the middle of a lake and make them connect with each other, just as the show did in the season 3 gem “Quagmire” (which this episode flicked at in various ways see: Queequeg). The episode also did that thing where the show separates Mulder and Scully for long stretches to investigate different aspects of the mystery, a maneuver that denies us the pleasure of their shared company and defies the expectation of anyone who thought the revival (now half over!) would be scratching the ‘ship itch nonstop. Truth is, Guy Mann was so well realized he threatened to upstage both Mulder and Scully as the story progressed. I imagined a nation of ‘shippers beholding the spectacle of Scully getting her freak on with that piece of strange and fuming: That should be Mulder, dammit! Scully’s most memorable moment came when she appeared in the sex fantasy of our Monster of the Week, an ancient horny reptilian infected with an ugly masculinity, existential crisis and the life-sapping banality of seersucker-suited modernity. (“I’m immortal,” she quipped to Mulder, winking at a fan theory.) She served as midwife to Mulder’s spiritual rebirth, flipping the one female stereotype she often plays, the wet-blanket scold, with another. Since the episode was mostly about Mulder beating back his version of mid-life identity crisis (alt title: “How Spooky Got His Groove Back”), Scully got short shrift despite a handful of small, fun beats. The premise of Mulder questioning his faith in all things freaky and his career as a paranormal muckraker seemed as bogus as a jackalope coming one week after “Founder’s Mutation” depicted him fully engaged in old crusades. I loved “Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster,” but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of you didn’t.