"Triangle"

“I want you to do me a favor. It is not negotiable. Either you do it or I kill you. You understand?”
Originally Aired 11/22/98

I recently watched an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 which featured a movie about a caveman in a modern day world; no, it wasn’t Encino Man. A line used in that episode, which poked fun at a movie called Eegah, could easily sum up the events of “Triangle”; “we’re on a collision course with wackiness.” Much like Darin Morgan and Vince Gilligan have done before, this is Chris Carter playing with his characters in a humorous way with the use of time travel, as it takes place in both 1998 and 1939.

Season Four’s episode “Small Potatoes” had a sequence where David Duchovny was able to play someone else playing the character of Fox Mulder. “Triangle” is actually a reversal on that because David Duchovny is the only actor whose character is the same throughout, while his co-stars have counterparts in both 1998 and 1939. Even a man who evesdrops on Scully at the present day FBI building has a counterpart back in 1939, who actually outs her character to a band of German soldiers. I didn’t see versions of the Lone Gunmen back in 1939, which would have been funny, but a lack of Gunmen doesn’t mean it’s short on humor.

The highlight of “Triangle” is an entire 10 minute segment of the episode dedicated to Scully running around the offices at the FBI in search of information on Mulder’s whereabouts. She’s tipped off by the Lone Gunmen about the missing Mulder, then is denied help by Assistant Skinner, which meant she had to do the unthinkable and ask the uptight Agent Spender for help; well, she doesn’t exactly ask politely. Agent Scully is my favorite character on the series, in fact she’s among my top characters in all of television, and if I didn’t have a moment that I could pinpoint why I’ve chosen her, I do now. If this episode has any weakness, it’s that seeing the 1939 Scully running around isn’t nearly as engrossing as when she did it in 1998. In fact, several of the scenes on the ship are almost too darkened to tell what’s going on in them. That’s a minor complaint and doesn’t keep the episode from being a supremely entertaining hour. Maybe another minor nitpick is why Scully didn’t call her brother for help, though that could be answered by her phone’s poor reception. Even in 2013 our cell phone reception hasn’t changed!

While this is one of the few remaining episodes I haven’t seen prior to writing a review, I feel that’s actually for the best that this is my first time. Watching reruns of the standalone episodes was a good way to sample the series since many aren’t linked to the series-long conspiracy, so I was able to see self-contained stories with Mulder and Scully investigating monsters and maniacs. “Triangle” is one of the few that features Mulder and Scully at a different level of their partnership, so you’d need a knowledge of several seasons’ worth of episodes to truly appreciate all that this episode has to offer. I’m glad I’ve waited this long to see “Triangle” because I was grinning from ear to ear the entire length of it, even long after the episode had ended.