"It's a joke, son. Ah say, it's a joke! Get it???"
-- Foghorn Leghorn, Warner Brothers cartoon character
Just as Foghorn Leghorn is a cartoon caricature of a southerner, so too is "Bad Blood" a cartoon caricature of Mulder and Scully. Humor is based, in great extent, on exaggeration. Take a normal, everyday occurrence, skew its perspective or the observer's perspective somewhat, and something ordinary becomes funny. Comics such as Steven Wright, Chris Rock and Richard Jenni make a very good living these days with what can only be described as observational humor. They take something with which we're all familiar, show us how to look at it in a different, slightly twisted way, and we laugh. This is the essence of comedy in the late '90s.
Vince Gilligan once again shows that as a writer, he has no peer when it comes to writing a comic episode for a dramatic series. There aren't many writers around who can create something as dramatic and touching as "Paper Hearts" and then turn around and write episodes like "Small Potatoes" and "Bad Blood." He's a treasure to be enjoyed over and over again.
Consider the structure of "Bad Blood" and how it demonstrates the writer's talents. Gilligan takes a timeworn plot device, the retelling of the same story by multiple parties, adds his own particular spin, and makes us laugh from the opening credits to the final fade-out. How did he accomplish this? He takes one of the best known and most analyzed partnerships on television today, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, places them in an environment that is pretty much normal (for them), tweaks the characters to make them just a little off-center, and the result is a sidesplitting comedy. Lest you make the mistake of viewing "Bad Blood" as an X-File that has humorous overtones, I'll submit that "Bad Blood" is, instead, a comedy from start to finish, set in the world of the X-Files.
Gilligan pulls out all the stops in "Bad Blood," and the risk-taking pays off on all levels. There is a generous helping of slapstick humor when Mulder tries to board a runaway recreational vehicle and falls in the mud, when he falls off the vibrating bed after realizing that he has been drugged, when he's on top of a casket, riding it like a bucking bronco, and when he's startled by the blowing of a horn in the next to last scene.
David Duchovny once again demonstrates his affinity for physical comedy with the above scenes. Even when he's trying to bring a slice of pizza to his mouth while the Magic Fingers vibrate Scully's bed with the force of a small earthquake, his hand is shaking and he has trouble hitting his mouth. Little touches like this, the slight exaggeration of the force of the bed's vibrations, work because of Duchovny's skill. They help to bring Gilligan's script to life.
Not to be outdone in the physical comedy department, Gillian Anderson shows that she, too, can handle a comic script with the best of them. Only Vince Gilligan could take an occurrence as gruesome as an autopsy and write it in such a way as to make us laugh. Anderson demonstrates her comedic aplomb by making us laugh at the monotonous nature of the mechanics of an autopsy. Her slinging of internal organs and the accompanying "Yadda, yadda, yadda . . ." evoked a multitude of responses from the viewer. While Scully's handling of the slimy internal organs was comic to watch, one could see that she was tired of spending so much time in a lab or morgue with her hands immersed in human innards. Is this the dedicated Dr. Dana Scully we've come to know and love over the past four and one half years? Of course not. This was the giveaway that what we were watching was an exaggerated perspective.
The acting in "Bad Blood" by both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson was first-rate. Relating different perspectives of the events in Chaney, Texas, both lead actors were required to portray their characters doing essentially the same scenes twice with very different characterizations. Mulder's version of Scully depicted her as whiny when he told about their new case, sarcastic when he proposed his theory that a vampire had committed the murder, self-absorbed, and a flirt. Scully's vision of herself saw her as a victim of Mulder's obsession with the paranormal, a dedicated doctor and scientist who was knowledgeable about human disorders related to vampirism. She also saw herself as attractive to someone of the opposite sex because of her intelligence as well as her physical appearance.
Similarly, Scully's Mulder was no more flattering. She depicted him as obnoxious when he told her where they were going and why, rude when he interacted with the sheriff, sarcastic when he belittled her theory of what had transpired, and selfish when he was using her bed's Magic Fingers and cackling as she was leaving to perform yet another autopsy at his request. Mulder's self-image was of someone who was calm and reasonable, willing to hear Scully's theories on the possible explanation of how six cows and a human had been exsanguinated, and accommodating by letting Scully spend time alone with the sheriff while Mulder hunted for Ronnie, the vampire pizza delivery boy.
Guest star Luke Wilson as Sheriff Hardwell does Duchovny and Anderson one better. Besides playing the smooth, handsome sheriff of Scully's version and the bucktooth hick of Mulder's recollection, he had to assume a third persona: that of a real vampire who was trying to make Scully understand that he and his people weren't evil after all. Wilson handled all three transitions naturally.
Director Cliff Bole, who also directed Gilligan's "Small Potatoes," once again demonstrates that his eye for comedy is unerring. Bole coaxed hilarious comic performances from two outstanding dramatic actors as well as a guest star. The pacing of the episode was perfect. The story moved along steadily, despite the disjointed structure of the "he said, she said" genre. Editor Lynne Willingham, back in the cutting room once again, melded these disparate scenes and multiple perspectives into a cohesive episode that literally flowed from scene to scene. Mark Snow finally turned down the volume and allowed his score to remain in the background, where it belongs. While Snow's comic overtones score was a little too cutesy and too reminiscent of his score for "Small Potatoes," his restraint in not overlapping the dialogue was a welcome return to his former treatments.
"Bad Blood" was another demonstration of how versatile Vince Gilligan can be when left to write his own stories without the help of other writers. When his run with The X-Files is over, I can see Gilligan writing great comedy, such as I consistently see on Frasier. There were so many clever one-liners and amusing sight gags that trying to list them all would be an exercise in futility. After the disappointment that was "Kitsunegari," "Bad Blood" marks the triumphant return of the best writer still writing for The X-Files. I'm still laughing at some of the things I saw Sunday night.
My Score: 10 out of 10