"The Rain King"

"My Irish Aunt Olive has more Cherokee in her than Daryl Mootz."
Originally Aired 1/10/99

Writing these reviews is typically a long process for me; longer if the episode is a drag. That's not entirely true for "The Rain King." It's not a bad episode, and it's one I appreciate now after going in order, more so than I did back in 2008. It's a process because I like to watch the episode once through, then again while writing the review, and most times a third time is needed to pick up a quote or two that I'd want to highlight. This episode took about 4 or 5 run-throughs because I wasn't quite satisfied with what I wanted to say.

Then it hit me like a lightning bolt! This episode is just like Back to the Future, well....without the future. Picture it. Mulder is playing the part of Marty McFly. Scully is Doc Brown since she doesn't want him to get involved, just like Doc warned against doing anything to alter the course of events; plus she's a doctor. Now as always, Mulder gets involved and he's trying to help the local weatherman woo Sheila, which is just like George and his "density" Lorraine. Instead, things get complicated when Sheila falls for Mulder, and then her ex-fiancee is jealous causing Mulder to restrain him. It was right in front of Sheila, exactly like the confrontation with Biff at the school dance. Only in this episode its not a dance, it's a high school reunion; and no guitar solo from Mulder.

That doesn't even sound like an episode of The X-Files at all. It's more like a romantic comedy with Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. I guess that reference is as dated as The X-Files; it's more like Katherine Heigl and Chris Pine. Anyways, what makes this an "X-Files" case is because of the unusual weather in Kroner, Kansas. There have been showers of flower petals, hail that resembles hearts, and a guy named Daryl Mootz is trumpeted as the titular "Rain King." The one gripe that I do have with this episode is not with the episode itself, rather with it's placement in the season. I think it should have been moved before last week's "Terms of Endearment" since it fits all of the preceding episodes, like "How The Ghosts Stole Christmas", that tease a romantic relationship between Mulder and Scully. Unless the producers wanted to break up that pattern and throw something in the middle to break the streak. However in hindsight, I'd have even held off on this episode for a month, and aired it in February since the beginning teaser took place on Valentine's Day. That's not really a fair complaint since it's not the fault of the writer, director, nor the actors involved. Yet with the amount of episodes that either poke fun at Mulder and Scully or show how much they need each other, you would think that this season ends with them coming to that realization about each other. I'm inching closer to the half-way point, with several unseen episodes (like next week's "S.R. 819" and the two-part, mega, mythology story) remaining, so possibly more events will unfold in that direction.

"The Rain King", like many episodes, seems to have improved with age. While it's very silly and one of the gags is very dated, I do enjoy that the writers this season were thinking outside of the box and presenting episodes in different ways.