Summary
I almost wanted to give this one a higher rating but I think it "feels" best at this one. The lack of originality probably does it in, and I found the M&S characterizations to be slightly off, despite some memorable moments. I like Stephen King, but this one was very cliched, seemingly lumping in everything that's hackneyed about his genre. The whole doll thing (and I recall saying "Chucky" at exactly the same moment as Mulder) wasn't the most imaginative idea to come down the pike. (By the way, did anyone else want to slap that little girl and break her record player, regardless of the consequences from her dolly??) I liked the idea that Scully would take time off for herself, though, as well as her wish that she could actually do so, as evidenced by the look on her face when she peers outside her window that morning and sees the good sheriff waiting for her. (Like why is that? Is he not capable of running his own investigation? Was he smitten??)
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| Trust me: this is one of the best parts of the episode! |
The so-called funny stuff with Mulder's phone calls and even that final scene with the pencils seemed a little too hokey for me (and I'm not talking hokey-pokey) on a subsequent viewing. I truly believe he would have better things to do with his time — including watching porn, believe it or not — than sharpening and throwing pencils into his office ceiling tiles. After all, didn't he say to Scully at the beginning of this episode that he had come across a classic x-file? (This is one of those instances where I really find it hard to reconcile "mythology Mulder and Scully" with "everyday Mulder and Scully".)
But mainly, it was the utter stupidity of the characters that ticked me off. The sheriff seemed too dumb for words ("I'm not sure I understand") and let's not even talk about Mommy Melissa, who can't grab her autistic daughter's damn dolly and throw it wherever. (By the way, just who on the X-Files is the name "Melissa" connected to? I know of no Melissas in my RL but I can ID three characters with that name on TXF.) Even Scully was starting to develop a case of the "stupids" at the end when she kept asking the child for the doll rather than just snatching it away from her already, perhaps sparing Melissa a few extra jags on the head with the hammer.
Oh and of course, the original stupid one in this story was the father of this poor child, who nabs a dirty, stinky doll out of the ocean and immediately thinks of giving it to his daughter. (I actually didn't quite get how that gifting process worked. Father died three days after he "caught" the doll, when he heard that voice on the boat and was subsequently "hooked". Had the doll not been given to his daughter yet or was it meant to be a disembodied voice?)
As I said, I like Stephen King. But for him to have been a fan of the show and yet not really know how to write either the characters or a good case file makes me wonder what the whole point of this was. (And of course, shockingly still, the script was apparently majorly revised by CC himself.)
One more thing: the title of this effort caused a bit of a stir since it is actually a slang vulgarity in Spanish. (And apparently it was meant to be the doll's name! That was never uttered on the show!) I heard that the ep was renamed overseas to be the less offensive (?) "Bunghoney"! If this was meant to be in the same vein as Chucky, let's remember that even that movie was not named after the doll. They should have gone whole hog with the homage process and called the ep Let's Play.
One last thought: Mulder's famous poster came from a head shop, huh? Wonder what was behind that tidbit of information? I suppose with the right amount of drugs, you'll want to believe anything...
Picayune Peculiarities
Scully had very few hours to call her own during this weekend "vacation" and yet she didn't seem to make good use of her time. One minute she's watching the good sheriff tear into a famous Maine lobster while he points out the boat that Polly's father used to work on; and by coincidence, the old man she originally encountered at the supermarket is on that boat. It is daylight at this time. In the next scene where they are actually speaking to that old man, it is night time. I guess he was too busy to speak to them until later that evening or did it take all day for the sheriff to consume his lobster?
Best or Worst Moment
Best moment for me was the Mulder phone sequence at his apartment. The orange juice moment — while a bit much in making him out to be a total incompetent at taking care of basic life necessities — was priceless to watch.
Original Rating: * *
Revised Rating: *
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