"God knows we could use some romance
in this sleepy bedroom town
I know you're still afraid to rush into anything
But there's just so many summers
And just so many springs"
-- Don Henley, "The Last Worthless Evening"
"Small Potatoes" is the first solo effort from writer Vince Gilligan since the memorable "Paper Hearts" and the first real comedy episode of the season. Ironically, or perhaps intentionally, the lead guest star is Darin Morgan, whose "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" was the last true comedy of the series, and was my selection for the all-time best episode of the series. Well, move over Darin. There's a new contender for writer of the year, and his name is Vince Gilligan.
Mulder and Scully start out to investigate the strange occurrence of 5 babies born with tails in a small city in West Virginia. What they determine through some nice scientific detective work is that there's a man running around who has impregnated 4 married women and one single woman. This leads them to a janitor, Eddie (the "h" is silent) Van Blundht who has the ability to shape-shift and change his physical appearance, including his height, weight, hair color and pattern and even his voice. Eddie is something of a human Xerox machine. Eddie is found to be the father of the 5 babies with the tails and leads M & S on a merry romp until he is finally apprehended with his lips scant inches away from Scully's.
One of the best things about "Small Potatoes" is that Eddie is played by none other than Darin Morgan, 1996 Emmy winner for "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" and writer of the two best comedies of the series, "War of the Coprophages" and "Jose Chung." Morgan displays his penchant for comedy on the other side of the camera with as much ease as he did from the screenwriter's chair. Our first glimpse at Eddie, as he's working on the pipes under the sink in the hospital, gives us a prelude of the wonders to come. In typical handyman style, Eddie stays engrossed in his work, oblivious to all, including his display of VBC (Visible Butt-Crack). But it is when he morphs back to Eddie after his impersonations that the Eddie character comes to the forefront, and this is a tribute to Darin Morgan's acting ability. When he's trapped in the bathroom after the husband comes home, the expletive "CRAP!" rolls off Morgan's tongue as naturally as if he were saying, "Hello." And it's funny. Like a great pizza, great comedy is in the delivery, and Morgan's was first rate from start to finish.
But the highest accolades for the acting in "Small Potatoes" go to David (the "h" is silent) Duchovny. His portrayal of a slightly-loosened up Mulder ("should we be picking out china patterns?") as well as Eddie/Mulder ranks as his finest performance to date. The heretofore mostly-hidden comedic talents of Mr. Duchovny came bursting forth like a torrent of water after the dam has broken. Duchovny's klutzy self-parody invoked a mental image that I can't seem to shake: Tim Allen does Fox Mulder by way of Tim Taylor. Picture this: the Tool Man joins the FBI!!! Simply replace Allen's trademark "Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!" grunt with "You're a damn good-looking man!" and you're on your way. The similarity with the pratfalls are almost too numerous to mention: the junk from the closet falling almost into Mulder's lap, the father falling from the attic, the fumbling around with the keys as "Mulder" tries to get into his "own" office, almost falling out of his chair when he sits down, and losing the clip from his .45 when he draws the pistol from his holster are, with some imagination, straight from Home Improvement. When you remember Mulder first breaking off the mummified tail and then struggling to re-attach it, it's like being on the set of "Tool Time." It almost makes you think of "Victor/Victoria" without the dresses. (Of course, DD did that in Twin Peaks.) Duchovny manages to keep himself from going over the top in a script that could have easily become a farce.
Yet, DD manages to differentiate between when he's really being Mulder and when he's Eddie being Mulder, and he does it with his eyes or his demeanor or something other than the spoken word. I have often praised Gillian Anderson's ability to act without saying anything; this time, that praise belongs to David Duchovny.
Director Cliff Boles demonstrates a deft comedy touch that rivals the best in the business, Jim Burrows. Burrows, whose credits include Taxi, Cheers, and Frasier, almost always manages to get the most from a script and his actors. Boles elicits a superior comedic performances from all the actors, all the way down to the minor supporting characters playing the hospital security guard and Dr. Pugh in the men's locker room. Heather MacDougall's editing was once again so good as to defy detection, and Mark Snow rebounded from his off-week ("Synchrony") with a score that was right in step with a light comedy. Jon Joffin's photography was also a fine quality effort. He captured the darkness of Eddie's home existence very nicely, as well as the sterile surroundings of the hospital where Scully was conducting the autopsy of Eddie's father (not to be confused with The Courtship of Edd ie's Father ;-). But the finest collective work was done in Scully's apartment. Duchovny's nervous twitching with the pillow, trying to attain a cool, but comfortable posture combined with that nice, soft mellow feel that Joffin achieved with his lighting. Gillian Anderson was just soooo laid back as a wine-softened Scully telling Eddie/Mulder about her prom night. It seemed so right that she would lean in to meet Eddie/Mulder's lips for that first kiss. Her shock when she realized what she had almost done and that the real Mulder had seen her in this moment of vulnerability was priceless, as shock turned to revulsion. The FX people earned their paychecks with an excellent morphing scene, and Morgan looked like a little boy who got caught with his hands in the cookie jar. There were so many wonderful things happening in that scene that repeated viewings are necessary to appreciate all of them. I've always maintained that it's the story that matters most to me on The X-Files. Great scripts and great direction beget great performances, but the great script has to be there first. Writer Vince Gilligan has written some of the absolute best X-Files this season, most notably the universally acclaimed "Paper Hearts." In writing "Small Potatoes," Vince has demonstrated a depth of writing ability that expands way beyond the conventional labels of "comedy" and "drama." He made me laugh throughout the entire episode, and he made me marvel at the range of his comedy. "Small Potatoes" contained some wonderful slapstick mixed in with liberal doses of subtlety. I think about how hard I laughed when Duchovny almost fell out of his chair, and then about how I chuckled as Eddie played back the call from the 1-900 operator. There's the closet gag and there's the fall of the silent "h" when M & S go to Eddie's house. For every pie in the face, there was a snappy entendre, and the balance was perfect.
But Vince Gilligan was not about to settle for just going for laughs. The undercurrent to this whole episode was that Scully might be loosening up because of that gnawing realization that her days are numbered. She was willing to open up to Mulder if he would only listen to her and open up some himself. And she was willing to be romanced instead of spending Friday night working on a medical paper. Gilligan uses Eddie to make Mulder realize that while he's been chasing after all that's weird in the world, his life is so pitifully devoid of humanity that Scully would welcome some warmth and companionship from an impostor. Eddie's statement that, "I'm a loser by birth, but you're a loser by choice," eventually hits home with Mulder, and as he and Scully exit the correctional facility, you just know that Eddie's words have struck a chord. Maybe it's the E chord at the end of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life," that runs on and on forever. :-)
"Small Potatoes" made me laugh, it made me think, it made me chuckle and it made me glad to be a fan of this series. It had it all, and it's the first time since last April that I've even considered an episode other than "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" for my pick as best of the series. After much soul-searching, I've decided that there's very little to choose between these two episodes. If "Jose Chung" is my #1, then "Small Potatoes" is my #1A.
My Score: 10 out of 10.