Review of First Person Shooter by Sue Brody Happy news: I *loved* this ep!!! Awesome ep! Wow. Visually stunning, interesting and thought-provoking story, the LGM (hurrah!), an interesting take on the need for violence (maybe it's testosterone, but man, did Scully kick some virtual ass!) and some great quips. Happy, happy me! My favorite ep of the year by far. Would Gibson and Maddox like to sign on as staff writers? The beginning of the teaser concerned me a little...would this just be another vr world scenario...but that was soon dispelled, and was necessary to put you in the right frame of mind. I couldn't figure out who was real and who not until *after* the teaser, but it did introduce us to Ivan and Phoebe and give us a sense of what it was like to be in the game. Oh, yeah, and it us how real the game had become, though we don't find out why til later. Plus we get introduced to Maitrayea, and that is totally unexpected but of course key to the ep. I love the way the music changes, he is instantly attracted to her, and then she tells him her name and that this is "her game" and you know you are in for a hot ep. The first scene after the teaser, where Mulder and Scully get ID'd, is classic. Mulder is so *into* it ("Cool," he says after the retina scan, which foreshadows the ep), whereas Scully couldn't be less interested and is in fact annoyed by the process. Scully: Video games. Mulder: Digital entertaiment. And already the dichotomy exists: It is an important part of Mulder's life (we knew he liked videos, but not *these* kind of videos ), but Scully dismisses it. It's just a "boy thing" to her until it gets serious, and so you have a nice parallel between her and Phoebe, who not only bond over men and their testerone running amuck but who both end up saving themselves (and potentially others). The LGM are just so genuinely excited to be in this world (where silicon meets silicone). Their enthuiasm is contagious. Meanwhile, Mulder is still trying to hook up Scully w/ Frohicke. Very amusing. Langley: We don't want to give you the idea that we're major profit participants. Mulder: Cash or stock options? Langley: Options. Preferred rate... So they're still trying to beat the system, but in a very late 90s (early 00's way), and w/ money as the goal. And here we thought they were only interested in defeating "the man." ;) I love Ivan and Phoebe's cybertalk (which I actually understood), describing that this was all supposed to be virtual and not real. The nice twist is that Ivan (in particular) wanted the game to work out so that he could cash in big b/f the game went to market. Bugs and you're toast. Langley: There's no rez images on the interior game spaces. Mulder: What about the wireframe? Mulder triumphs again! Plus he's got the lingo down pat. There's something slightly sexual about the way Mulder says, "Can you texture wrap her?" (meaning can you fill her in visually). Byers: Holy Toledo. Frohicke: She's packing a flintlock. Mulder (smiling ): That ain't all she's packing. Oh, Mulder, Mulder. When will you learn??? ;) Then Phoebe says, "Goddess," sadly, but I totally missed it til the second viewing. The boyz are so excted when they see Daryl Musashi, the video guru, the boy wonder of . As Frohicke says, "The man's a sphinx." At least until he's killed by the "ninja babe." The man is in the zone and knows no fear until he is defeated by Phoebe's creation. Says a lot about what men can do or *think* they can do. Scully: Why does this game have the effect of reducing grown men back to moony adolescents? Mulder (making a funny face, somewhat sarcastically, and yet enjoying this): That's Daryl Musashi. Scully: Arr. It's interesting how Daryl gets his hands cut off, b/f being slaughtered. Very reminiscent of "Kill Switch," where Mulder's vulnerability is also played upon by Nurse Nancy and team. Here, Maitrayea feeds off the men's testosterone and goes after what they most value (the violence and the sex). Scully looks better and better as she does her autopsies. Her hair is way too flat, however. She clearly can't come up with the cause, b/c the cause is Best line is when Mulder holds up the suit and smilingly says, "I've got a birthday coming up." They have great chemistry in this ep, and it isn't gushy, isn't out of character...it just works, playing off each character's strengths and weaknesses. I was very interested in the discussion between Mulder and Scully vis a vis the idea of video games, which was really the whole point of this story (aside from catching the killer, of course, and whether this is a male or female obsession). Scully clearly thinks it's all about males wasting their time dressing up as cowboys and indians in a high tech wasteland. Mulder: You have to admit, though Scully, that this is a pretty impressive piece of technology. Scully: Wasted on a stupid game. Mulder: Stupid? Scully: Dressing up like high-tech warriors, to play a futuristic version of cowboys and indians. What kind of moron gets his ya-yas out like that? (Of course, I don't for a minute believe that Scully would use the highly unscientific term "ya-ya"). Mulder smiles, but Scully takes the argument that those who try to ban such games bring forth--that violence begets violence (in Columbine High School and beyond) and that the violence is gratuitous and that the impulses do not end when the game does. Mulder disagrees, explaining that he feels that the game provides an outlet for certain impulses, and that video games are important to "fill the void that the more civilizing aspects of society will not allow." Scully: Well, that must be why men feel the great need to blast the crap out of each other. The scene where the LAPD see Jade Blue Afterglow. Scully: Was she read her rights? Detective: About 500 times. Quite a shot of Ms. Afterglow crossing her legs. Jade: And what truth am I not telling you? Mulder briefly explains about the two murders. Jade: You must have had me confused w/ my sister...xena warrior princess Scully: They paid you to scan your body? Jade: You think that's the strangest thing i've been paid to do? Most amusing moment: Mulder checking her Jade out as she leaves the room...LOL, especially as Scully follows his body following her body. Mulder: I don't know about you, Scully, but I am feeling the great need to blast the crap out of something. Fortunately for Mulder, he is soon able to. Even more fortunately for Mulder, so is Scully. That shot of Mulder, Warrior Prince, dressed in vr gear...woah. Very hot. Mulder (deadpan): Bring it on! Notice that he is the only one wearing shades. Phoebe: What is he doing? Scully: He's getting his ya-yas out. And of course the LGM can't stop him. Terrific shots of Mulder fighting Maitrayea, esp. when she disappears and reappears, and then morphs into several clones. He was tough and brave (and macho), but he couldn't do it alone. Maitreayea's back flips, which grew faster and faster, were tremendous. Ivan: We're gonna be counting franklins. Scully: You're gonna be counting teeth. You go, Kick!Ass Scully. Gibson and Maddox bring out the best in her. And after Scully discovers that it was really Phoebe who created Maitrayea: Phoebe: You don't know what it's like, day in and day out, choking in a world or rampant testosterone. Scully: I wouldn't be so sure. And it's great that Scully believes that Maitrayea is the killer, even if she can't explain it, and then is willing to put herself on the line to say Mulder, since she realizes she is the only "non-vulnerable" one and sees on the monitor there is no way Mulder can win. Great switch from the VR world (level one) we've grown accustomed to seeing to the other, wild west one (I expected Clint Eastwood to appear). We even get tumbleweeds. Wow! What a ride! (This is level two, as Ivan and Phoebe explain, which no one has ever survived.) But if anyone were to, it would have been Scully, since she could fight Maitrayea in a way the men couldn't. Alas, she utimately didn't have enough firepower and Maitrayea couldn't really be stopped, anyway, so Phoebe had to be the one to take back her creation, which had jumped from one game to another (so happily, the paranormal returned in a "plausible" way to The X-Files). As the LGM watch: Go girl! The bloodthirst is unquenchable. Scully's in the zone! It's still a game to them...until they realize that Mulder and Scully really *are* part of the game and make Phoebe destroy the game (since "Scully's running out of ammo"). Then Phoebe gives the LGM the kill switch, the music changes, the game is destroyed, and somewhow Mulder and Scully survive. I thought it was very clever to have the kill switch (it's back!) activated by hitting shift-alt-bloodbath. Total CC monologue at the end, or at least it sounded like our director CC, which must have originally been given to Scully (at least in the close capitioning): "...Maybe past where the imagination ends our true natures lie, waiting to be confronted on our own terms...born in anarchy with an unquenchable bloodthirst, we shudder to think what might rise up from the darkness." Maybe a little heavy handed (ya think?), but what a great shot to see M&S walking back in slow mo with the LGM and Phoebe; It's what the FBI might look like in 50 years, or 150, and the music captures the mood perfectly. And it's true; violence is unstoppable and for many, very tantalizing. And to conclude, there is Ivan, playing w/ his "ninja babe." Boys will be boys... Wow. Wow wow wow. Kudos, despite the 'sweet and low' remark in the monologue. Sorry for the excessive length of this review, but it was just so wonderful for me to see a fantastic ep again! Makes my top ten all-time list, without question.