6X13 - Arcadia [REVISITED]

Summary

This wasn't the shipper-fest that some were anticipating, but I didn't find it to be as depressing as some die-hard shippers found it to be. Great dialogue exchanges and tiny little things that GA and DD did added to my enjoyment of the show in general. And you had to love poor Mike. The MOTW elements were admittedly a bit on the weak side and not entirely original, but the entire episode was well executed all in all. (I for one couldn't see where the creators had apparent difficulties getting it into the can.)

Mulder showing his disdain for
Arcadia's CC&Rs

The first half of S6 was a confusing time for episode number continuity. After eps one through five, we got eight, six, seven, ten, nine. After the sweeps period with eleven and twelve, we were back into confusion with fourteen, fifteen, and thirteen; the latter being Arcadia, which is Mulder and Scully's "first catch back on the X-Files". Scully later says it is February 24 (despite Mulder's watch showing differently), which fits into real time as being around when the Two Fathers/One Son stuff happened. (Apparently it wasn't ready to be aired right after those, however, leading to our agents going out to a hurricane in Florida instead — which would not have happened in February — in Agua Mala).

People are disappearing without a trace from an award-winning planned community in SoCal. So the solution is to have M&S go undercover as a cute couple... hey, that's not me editorializing; everyone thought so. And even though at times Scully looked like she wasn't comfortable in her own skin as Laura Pe[ee]trie, Mulder was sure enjoying his work. Quite frankly, I found the "community rules and regs" part of this episode more interesting than the ubermenscher. Nothing like trying to live in the modern version of a Nazi neighbourhood. (My own neighbourhood is architecturally controlled with a certain shade of paint required for our fences. I believe, however, that we can put out as many ugly lawn ornaments as we want.)

After the rapid escalation of monster activity once Rob and Laura are on scene, I found the denouement of this one quite disconcerting. Mulder was just going to stand there and... what? Get consumed by the garbage monster? Even if he was so well informed (and he definitely was that: well-informed) as to how a tulpa lives and survives, he was taking an unnecessary chance, wasn't he? What if Gogolak hadn't died right then?

Oh, and you know what I found funny in the midst of all the funniness of this ep? That after all the grief the FBI ptb have given to Mulder and Scully about the X-Files and what a waste of manpower and money it is/has been/will be, this was one hell of an expensive excursion into whodunit land!

But at least they solved it, right?

Best or Worst Moment

My favourite sequence in this episode was Mulder's wanton destruction of his mailbox stand leading to his subsequent watch over it from inside his front door. He conveyed his "need" perfectly when he squirmed in his chair and then considered his empty juice container. Funny!

Original Rating: * * *
Revised Rating: * * *