"Three Of A Kind"

"Hey man, you wanna 'Thunderdome'? Let's go!"
Originally Aired 5/2/99

Many episodes of The X-Files have opened with a narration from Mulder and Scully, but also her mother in "One Breath", and even earlier this season when Morris Fletcher (guest star Michael McKean) gave a funny description of the life of Fox Mulder to open "Dreamland II." But nothing has been as unique as the opening teaser for "Three Of A Kind." Byers (Bruce Harwood) of the Lone Gunmen tells of a dream he has in which the political landscape of our nation is different, also he appears to have never been a member of the Gunmen as he has a wonderful suburban home, and he's living the American dream with a family. His wife is a familiar face- Susanne Modeski, who we last saw in the Gunmen's origin episode, Season Five's "Unusual Suspects." However his dream life drifts away and he's left with a cruel reality. I liked how the teaser not only focuses on a member of the Gunmen, but I like its dream-like filming quality, which is truly another sign of the move to California, and I've still seen minimal signs of this move. Other than sweeping crane camera angles like this, I've rarely noticed anything that would tip off a viewer to the series' new surroundings.

While the previous Gunmen episode in Season Five told of their origin and how they met Mulder, this time around they're paired with Agent Scully when they dupe her into assisting their investigation in Las Vegas. The Vegas setting is another sign of the L.A. move and they're really embracing it now in the home stretch of the season. Not only are they embracing the sunny West coast of the U.S., this episode is also reveling in geekiness and references to past episodes, thanks to the pair of Vince Gilligan and John Shiban. I just love how The X-Files decides to center an episode in Vegas and they do the opposite of every other television show by centering it around a convention called "Def Con", meaning the Gunmen have met their match in geeks. There's even a Lord Manhammer reference! Michael McKean makes a cameo as Morris Fletcher in a nod to "Dreamland", Signy Coleman returns as Susanne Modeski, and I also loved the "Thunderdome" line from Frohike. As for the plot of the episode, I wasn't begging for the return of Susanne Modeski, though it is a pleasure to see the Gunmen used as more than just a tool for Mulder to gain classified government information. They were a blast in "Unusual Suspects", so why not reward the trio with another episode centered around them?

However, I can't stop thinking that this would have been the perfect opportunity for another Skinner episode or even one featuring the Cigarette Smoking Man. We haven't seen nearly as much of the Smoking Man this season as we have in past years and it's an especially opportune time to show what he's been up to following the destruction of the Syndicate. Skinner was already given center stage in "SR 819", but what ever happened to Krycek and his nanobot device that gives him control over Skinner? The conspiracy has been non-existent in the second half of Season 6, which seems like a bad sign to me because the creative juices were flowing fast and furious in the early portion of the season.

Even though this episode may lack elements of the series' alien mythology, it is a fine conspiracy episode that features an assassination plot that uses brainwashing, possibly in a nod to The Manchurian Candidate. The Gunmen encounter geeks like themselves in Vegas, such as geeks named Timmy and Jimmy. Jimmy is wearing a shirt which says "Government Patsy" (I want that!!) and he explains the entire plot of the episode, only to be laughed on by the Gunmen. Yet in delicious, ironic storytelling from Shiban and Gilligan, he could have actually become a patsy, only Langly is chosen instead. In the past I doubted Shiban's storytelling ability, but he surprised me with back to back episodes ("The Pine Bluff Variant" and "SR 819") which were knee-deep in government conspiracy elements. I think I can thank him for delivering another such episode, although this one is technically a satire. And then there's Gillian Anderson, who is hilarious when Scully is drugged by the bad guy's brainwashing serum. The neat thing about it is we've had plenty of Scully autopsy scenes before but throwing Langly into the mix was an inspired bit of comedy. "Three Of A Kind" is another home run in a season of fine comedic episodes.