4x20: Small Potatoes

[wendelah1]

Egad. Day six already. True confession: I have watched "Small Potatoes" several times just for the scene in the X-Files office where David Duchovny is playing Eddie Van Blundht, the human shapeshifter. Eddie, who has locked up the real Fox Mulder in a janitorial closet in the basement of the local hospital, is now practicing his moves in preparation for taking over Mulder's life. Duchovny's a good mimic, and demonstrates a genuine gift for physical comedy. It's a funny, funny scene.



Writer: Vince Gilligan
Director: Cliff Bole
Originally aired: April 20, 1997

Synopsis: After five babies in succession are born with tails in the small town of Martinsburg, West Virginia, Mulder and Scully head down to investigate.

Most Memorable Quote:
Mulder: I have a theory. Do you wanna hear it?
Scully: Van Blundht somehow physically transformed into his captor and walked out the door, leaving no one the wiser?
Mulder: (pleased) Scully, should we be picking out china patterns or what?

Links:
Transcript
A Good Fic Spoiled: X-Files, "Small Potatoes" by Plaid Adder. I recommend all of her meta series on The X-Files.
Autumn Tysko
Sarah Stegall
Confusion of Rape and Desire in the X-Files Universe by fialka. Addresses "Small Potatoes," also "Post Modern Prometheus."
Only Connect: Scully in Season Four - Part 1 | Part 2 by emily_shore.

Fanfiction:
Isometry by syntax6. Wendy's note: Touches on the events of "Small Potatoes."
Summary: The story of a man, a woman and their lucky pickle. Season 4 cancer era. Rated NC-17.
Small Fries by Kel. Written for Virtual Season X.
Summary: Mulder and Scully investigate the case of some six-year-old shapeshifters.

Comments

[lyryk.livejournal.com]

'On behalf of all the women in the world, I seriously doubt this has anything to do with consensual sex.' You tell them, Scully.

Thanks for that link to the 'Confusion of Rape and Desire' post. I recently rewatched both 'Small Potatoes' and 'The Postmodern Prometheus', and that was the issue that kept coming back to my mind almost throughout. I agree with the writer about how the episodes are enjoyable at the surface level. When you begin to think though about how we almost always get female characters written and directed by men, things definitely get scary.

I do like the tiny bit of backstory we get about Scully's prom night. Also, it's always fun when S&M (I never get tired of saying 'S&M' and then giggling to myself, because I'm twelve) are mistaken for a couple.

[wendelah1]

'On behalf of all the women in the world, I seriously doubt this has anything to do with consensual sex.' You tell them, Scully.

Exactly.

Thanks for that link to the 'Confusion of Rape and Desire' post. I recently rewatched both 'Small Potatoes' and 'The Postmodern Prometheus', and that was the issue that kept coming back to my mind almost throughout. I agree with the writer about how the episodes are enjoyable at the surface level. When you begin to think though about how we almost always get female characters written and directed by men, things definitely get scary.

Fialka is a great writer and thinker about the show. I love all of her essays. I only wish they were easier to access. Yeah, it is disheartening to think about. If the blogosphere on GoT is to be believed (I don't watch it), TV, as a reflection of society, is doing worse at dealing with this issue instead of better.

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

Honestly as far as GoT is concerned it is a mixed bag. On the one hand you have some very empowered, strong female characters and on the other depictions of rapes as casual happening of medieval violence which is not to everybody's taste. But let's face it, in medieval times and modern times rape is a war reality. There was ONE instance where the producer fucked up and a rough sex seen which had been written as consensual ended up on screen as undeniable rape, which made a lot of ink flow and created a lot of outrage. Yeah, GoT fucked up on that one, but shit happens. I don't think we should see a male misogynistic conspiracy underneath all this. I consider myself a bona fide feminist but I also think that some people read way too much into things and give men motives they don't necessarily have. Men are more guilty of genuine cluelessness than nefarious misogynistic intent.

Again about GoT and I finish my rant, a male character was castrated on the show and not a peep was heard against it on the Interwebz. Double standards are a bitch.

[wendelah1]

"I consider myself a bona fide feminist but I also think that some people read way too much into things and give men motives they don't necessarily have. Men are more guilty of genuine cluelessness than nefarious misogynistic intent."

I don't care if it's a conspiracy or not. Being clueless isn't an excuse for sexism or racism or any other ism, especially since white men still overwhelmingly fill positions of power in the entertainment industry. Women (and racial and sexual minorities) deserve to see their realities reflected on their television screen just as much as the people in power do. What we see on screen can reinforce the status quo or it can challenge it. I really can't speak to the GoT controversy and so I shouldn't have raised it at all. Sticking to "Small Potatoes," the attitude that gets reinforced here is that serial rape is a fit subject for making jokes, so it's not a big deal then. Am I right? In a thread further down, I was told we need to "lighten up" about it because this episode is supposed to be funny. That's the problem. Rape isn't funny. It's just not.

Vince Gilligan is such a big effing deal now because of the success of "Breaking Bad." Why should I lighten up on him? If anything, he should be held to a higher standard. He pulls the same shit in one of my all time favorite episodes, "Bad Blood," in that scene at the end where the sheriff puts chloral hydrate into Scully's coffee. In order to watch it, I have to tell myself that if she was raped, she would have reported it, but I don't really know for sure because it's all left deliberately ambiguous. But here's the last thing Scully says: "Anyway, I was drugged." Obviously, to Mr. Gilligan, being drugged and possibly raped is fine to make jokes about. What else can I infer?

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

This is the third time my computer crashes while trying to edit that post. Grrrr.

I didn't say it was an excuse, just that it isn't a deliberate attempt to belittle women. And if people got what they deserved, women and otherwise, I'd be spotting the Pearly Gates from my living room window. The world of men is a world of men. It sucks in many ways and is unfair in many ways but getting all riled up about the subtext of a TV episode honestly isn't big on my list of priorities. Yeah they're using rape as a plot device, just as people use racism and murder as a plot device. These things are dramatic life points, so writers are going to use them as a source of inspiration and use them in comedy too. In the X-Files, people of all genders die a lot. Rape is a horrible thing but for me it is no worse than torture or murder. I suspend my outrage to watch TV shows, the death of people on it doesn't really affect me. Neither does this. It is a comedy. I refuse to go down the "oh but they're making fun of rape" path because I believe it is utterly preposterous. IMO this is one instance when you should not make a gender issue of a comedy episode. Besides Bergson said that laughter is cruelty. A French stand up comedian Coluche, once said: "you can make fun of everything, just not with everybody." I guess we French hold nothing sacred, any subject is fair game, which for Anglo-Saxons makes us insensitive bastards but there you go. This "You can't make fun of that" PC attitude has always rubbed me the wrong way.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

Me too. Hell, I make fun of God, assuming that he has a terrific sense of humor.

[wendelah1]

I'm going to ask the same question of Fish. Is there anything that's off limits for you? How about murdering children? The rape of women is okay to joke about so what about raping children? How about genocide? I haven't seen many people making jokes about murder or torture but maybe I'm just not watching the right (or wrong) shows.

My point is that joking around about rape trivializes the crime. Trivializing it makes it more likely to be committed.

Making jokes about God doesn't hurt God. Please don't try to make the same claim for jokes about rape.

Rape Joke by Patricia Lockwood.

[wendelah1]

Your personal response to this episode or anything else on television isn't at issue here. So you aren't bothered by the portrayal of rape, torture, or death. Fine. I am but that's also beside the point.

I see a huge difference between using murder and torture as a plot device and making jokes about those events. So let's stick to discussing humor. Is there anything that's off-limits to you for humor? Murder and torture are okay to joke about? Really? I haven't seen many comedians making jokes about murder or torture but maybe I'm watching the wrong shows. Raping women is an okay topic for screwball comedy, what about raping children? What about torturing children? Murdering children? Infanticide? Genocide? Suicide bombers? I'm not talking a serious plot here, or a throw-away line of black humor--I mean an entire comedic plot about infanticide or pedophilia. That's not a problem for you?

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

I would have to answer no, because I'm a heartless, soulless monster with no regards for human kind, because let's face it, that's the subtext isn't it?

First I would like to bring some nuance to this statement: So you aren't bothered by the portrayal of rape, torture, or death.

I am not bothered by the portrayal of FICTIONAL rape, torture and death. Show me a documentary on those same topics, on the other hand, depicting real life events with real people and I will react with horror and disgust like everybody does (or should).

I'm not sure how to phrase this right but it's like this big concrete wall between subjects matter that are used for a joke and reality - a complete disconnect between the fictional state of the joke world and what happens in the real world. I guess this is what allows me and other French people to find humour in topics that are taboo elsewhere.

I looked at the various things you named and I could find an example of jokes I've heard at some point for nearly all of them - mostly in France tbh - though I can't say I've heard rape jokes per say. I guess this is where the line gets drawn.

Infanticide: check, when that dead baby was found in the freezer of a French woman a few years back, we had jokes about that on national radio.

Genocide: check, at some point Nazi jokes were quite popular at Uni, mostly because they used terrible puns. The same people who laughed at those jokes went on to loudly protest when Faurisson came to give a lecture on "Gas Chambers never existed." IIRC he had to find another place to give his speech to avoid riots.

Pedophilia: check, the Catholic Church gave a lot of fodder to many French stand up comedians.

Torture, I can't recall, though, I would bet there are many a Guantanamo jokes around.

Suicide bombers. Check. A few days after 9/11, the satyrical puppet news on Canal +, posted this fake Sport newspaper headline: "Allah 1 - God 0".
I did feel bad for finding it funny, but I did because it was so outrageous. And yet, I will always regret watching the documentary of the event done by those French rookie Firemen because I can still hear the sound the bodies made when they fell and it still twists my stomach in horror whenever the memory resurfaces.

I'm not trying to prove my humanity here, merely trying to give evidence of this peculiar dichotomy.

Sometimes I find things that are highly innapropriate funny. I am not sure why I do, I just know that I grew up among people who behaved the same way. There is a very strong cultural factor to this I suspect. I guess the bigger the outrage the more disconnected from reality it feels?

Who said rape was an OK topic for screwball comedy? Is this how you interpret my finding Small Potatoes funny?

An entire comedy plot about infanticide or pedophilia wouldn't be my cup of tea because I don't find those subject matters appealing in any way. But it wouldn't be a 'problem' for me if they existed because they would be fictional stories, with characters, not real flesh and blood people.

Nameless characters from a joke have no substance - or named characters that are so removed from the person who is laughing's reality. I guess this is the reason why I have a hard time mustering outrage. Funny is funny. People are amused by different things. The mechanisms of laughter are most likely highly complex and I'm neither a neurologist nor a philosopher.

Live Journal Wonkiness

[wendelah1]

Weird. Twice now, trying to comment using the new LJ comment form, I got an error message. Using my old style comment form where you have to add it all the html yourself, no problems. So I'm sticking with mine.

Before I write a long comment only to discover it won't post, here's a gif of my favorite moment from "Small Potatoes," stolen from Tumblr.

Re: Live Journal Wonkiness

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's been hit and miss for me too with the LJ posting. I had to delete a post and do a copy & paste because LJ wouldn't let me edit it.

ETA: tried to edit this one and it wouldn't let me. I had to use the back button and now when I press "Post comment" it's gonna show two posts one of which I will have to delete.

Clearing your cache helps.

Re: Live Journal Wonkiness

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

Best scene ever!

Yeah, LJ's been stupid for me too the past few days.

[badforthefish.livejournal.com]

I've read the Fialka paper and she makes some really good points. CC and the 1013 bunch didn't really have much of an insight into the female psyche, which is why Scully is always kind of seen from an external voyeuristic POV.

I will defend Never Again though, because "Scully sleeps with a stranger/gets thrown into the furnace" is a specious attempt to link two independent occurences. Scully and Jerse confided in each other and were attracted to one another. They had sex (no matter how ambiguous CC tried to make it, I read the script and boy it was hawt). The fact that the guy was sick from ergot poisoning was just bad luck. I don't think we should read any "Scully had sex therefore she was punished" subtext. This is jut bullshit if you ask me.

I have WAY more issues with Milagro when it comes to the objectification of the character than I have with Small Potatoes which yes, was played for laughs. At least the women in SP thought they were dealing with their real partner, it doesn't make it right, but in Milagro, you have a guy who violates Scully's intimacy in so many little creepy ways and where Scully ends up with a hand plunged inside her chest, trying to rip out her beating heart. Now THIS pisses me off.

[tri-sbr.livejournal.com]

sticking mostly to the lighter side of this (otherwise I wouldn't enjoy it at all):

MULDER: How would this happen?
SCULLY: Birds and the bees and the monkey babies, Mulder.
ha!

the look of gleeful anticipation on Mulder's face when Eddie Sr (well, supposedly Eddie Sr) is about to show off his tail!

Mulder's face when he accidentally snaps the tail off of Eddie Sr's body and is trying not to let Scully find out. I'm pretty sure this is still supposed to be the real Mulder, but it is very close to how DD does Eddie as Mulder, I guess because Mulder is feeling sheepish here. Great transition then to Eddie as Mulder in Amanda's hospital room.

The couch conversation is very interesting side by side with the conversation on the rock. Mulder with no sympathy for Queequeg's demise and only thinking about his own issues vs Eddie/Mulder actually listening to Scully and showing an interest in her. It's sad, really.

[wendelah1]

I agree. It is sad because it demonstrates that there is a big void in both of their lives. Eddie is only feigning interest in order to manipulate her but she responds so willingly. And Mulder still doesn't get it--even with Scully terminally ill, it's still all about him.

F... B... I...

[mosinging1986.livejournal.com]

I never appreciated it much while the series was airing, but XF always had such amazing guest stars/characters! I can't think of any other show where guest characters are consistently so memorable. This show had them all the time.

Aw, the babies are kind of cute with their tails. You know, in that creepy sort of way.

How can you not love Amanda?

I love how serious Mulder is when he's asking Amanda about the baby's father. But why does he think she's nuts when she says it's Luke Skywalker? I mean, how much crazier is that than an alien abduction? Hee!

I love Mulder's eyeroll when Eddie agrees to answer questions and then... runs. Why do they always do that?

DD pretending to be Eddie pretending to be Mulder is brilliant!

Wait, in the scene when Scully's autopsying Eddie Sr.'s body, is that Faux!Mulder? Or the real one? I always assumed it was the real one but now I'm not sure! If it was Eddie, then where was Real!Mulder?

I love Scully's gray suit.

Ugh, "Chantal's" phone sex voice message for Mulder. Since learning of DD's real life issues, that sort of thing on the show creeps me out more and more as the years go on.

I sort of feel sorry for Eddie. It's hard to be a loser.

It wasn't until years later that I started seeing the uproar that this was all about rape and blah, blah, blah. Good grief! That never would've even entered my mind. It's a comedic episode set in a situation that could never actually happen, since human beings cannot magically transform themselves into someone else. Lighten up, people.

Re: F... B... I...

[wendelah1]

Amanda was played by the actress who voiced Babe and Chuckie in Rugrats. She was wonderful.

"Wait, in the scene when Scully's autopsying Eddie Sr.'s body, is that Faux!Mulder? Or the real one? I always assumed it was the real one but now I'm not sure! If it was Eddie, then where was Real!Mulder?"

MULDER: Uh, could Eddie junior have, uh, the same anomalous muscular structure as his dad here?

SCULLY: Maybe. What are you suggesting?

MULDER: Well, um, if this musculature underlies the entire skin, then maybe it could be utilized to remold the skin's shape and texture. Which would go a long way to explaining why we're looking for a man who can appear to be his own father, or anyone else for that matter.

That was the real Mulder. Eddie isn't that analytic, and he certainly isn't anxious for Scully to figure out how he's committing his crimes.

"Ugh, "Chantal's" phone sex voice message for Mulder. Since learning of DD's real life issues, that sort of thing on the show creeps me out more and more as the years go on."

I can see why that might make you uncomfortable, and I don't think you're alone in feeling that way. In this case, I think it's meant to make Mulder seem pathetic. Here's this great-looking, smart, successfully employed guy resorting to phone sex. We don't know very much about what David Duchovny's real life issues were--we only know that he entered a treatment facility for sex addiction.

I don't feel sorry for Eddie in the least. He feels no remorse for what he did to the five women he raped. He demonstrated no understanding of why having sex with them was wrong. He cold-cocked a policeman. He locked Mulder in a basement so he could impersonate him and have sex with more unsuspecting women. He was ready to rape Scully!

By comparison this is a minor crime, but he committed fraud against the government, cheating the system to keep getting his father's social security money. He's not just a loser. He's a cheater, a liar, a rapist and a sociopath who appears willing to do whatever it takes, perhaps short of murder, to get what he wants. He deserves to be locked up. His character gets no pity from me.

"It wasn't until years later that I started seeing the uproar that this was all about rape and blah, blah, blah. Good grief! That never would've even entered my mind. It's a comedic episode set in a situation that could never actually happen, since human beings cannot magically transform themselves into someone else. Lighten up, people."

The episode is about a serial rapist. It is true that his crimes were committed within an imaginary universe but that's not the point. What people thought about the episode in 1997 isn't the point either. This is:

SCULLY: You had sex with these women? How is it that none of them have any recollection whatsoever of that happening?

EDDIE: Look, I'm not saying anything one way or another. I'm just saying hypothetically, if some women wanted to have kids, their husbands weren't...capable, and everybody was happy and no one got hurt, well hypothetically, where's the crime?

I like many things about the episode. Duchovny's performance as Eddie impersonating Mulder is wonderful. There are many funny moments. I certainly think it's still worth watching. However, treating rape as a joke crosses a line for many people. It certainly crosses one for me. If bringing something up that makes me acutely uncomfortable--perhaps even more uncomfortable as the jokes about phone sex and porn make you--spoils your fun, well, it's a discussion community. I don't think I should be expected to treat the episode any less seriously than I do the fanfic.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

I doubt I can say anything about SP that hasn't already been said. It is exquisitely put together, marvelously acted, and funny. And yes, it is about rape. Eddy Van B is a haplessly amoral character who doesn't understand much of anything. He's onto something at the end, when he advises Mulder that he should "live a little." But if he's advising him to grab his pretty partner, Mulder can be credited for already having considered his options there in an adult manner.

Maybe if all the baby-parents didn't seem so happy, we would have been more grossed out by the goings-on. But the show has a light fantastical tone that is underlain with evasion. I find many details delightful.

The Mulder at the autopsy is definitely the real Mulder. But DD does seem to be teasing the audience by playing him as a fool.

In defense of Eddy. He knocks Mulder out and locks him up, but he leaves him a soda and a sandwich. And an apple?

Let me come down heavy on the rec for Kel's "Small Fries." It is built on one of those strangely obvious ideas: what do the monkey babies get up to as they mature into class-disrupting kids? So, so funny. And Mulder gets locked up again--in an arts and crafts room. So he creates a picture.

[tri-sbr.livejournal.com]

Yes, Kel's "Small Fries" was thoroughly enjoyable. Even the title makes me smile.

[wendelah1]

They are upset, actually. After they find out the truth, the parents are all down at their doctor's office up in arms because of what's happened. But they're reduced to suburban stereotypes rather than treated as real people, because, after all, this is comedy. In real life, of course they would be far more traumatized. The writer, Vince Gilligan, creates humor out of a situation that in real life isn't funny at all, which reinforces societal attitudes about sex and rape and women's position in society that are unacceptable today, and that should have been unacceptable in 1997.

"In defense of Eddy. He knocks Mulder out and locks him up, but he leaves him a soda and a sandwich. And an apple?"

I think that was supposed to be humorous. But it doesn't mitigate his actions in any way for me, and I am guessing that Scully, who was nearly raped by Van Blundht, feels the same way as I do about the soda and the apple and the sandwich. Mulder should be furious. Imagine the damage that would have been done to M&S's relationship if Van Blundht had succeeded in raping her? Why am I supposed to lighten up about this?

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

What you said about being "reduced to suburban stereotypes" is quite correct; that is what they are. That is because this is a fantastical comedy and has no power, I believe, to reinforce anything. This is not real life. One might as well attack Oscar Wilde for encouraging the deceiving of susceptible socialites.

I wish someday the world will be as we think it should be, but my theology warns against such a belief. One must try, of course, and one is free to complain, as you justly have. Oh--you think Eddy's sandwich was "supposed to be humorous?" Yep. So was everything else.

[wendelah1]

"That is because this is a fantastical comedy and has no power, I believe, to reinforce anything."

I wish you were right but I'm certain you are wrong. It's just one example. The patriarchy is so strong, and the attitudes are so ingrained, and the smallest challenge to it brings out all of the cries of "PC-PC-PC."

Serial rape (and most rapes on college campuses, for example are committed by serial rapists) is not humorous. I think this episode skates by on the border between humor and bad taste on the strength of the acting and directing--until the scene where Van Blundht attempts to rape Scully. The ending in the prison, and what Mulder says to Scully just disgusts me. Scully is the one who was nearly raped, yet somehow the focus ends up on Mulder's feelings of inadequacy! Ugh.

[estella-c.livejournal.com]

How long ago was this? Apply time travel.

You're trying to recreate the show according to current social hot buttons. It is what it is. Frivolous.

[wendelah1]

We're talking about 1997, not 1957 or even 1967. This isn't Star Trek TOS. By 1997, we're already five years into the third wave of feminist theory. And why is the age of the episode supposed to exempt it from criticism? Yes, standards change, but rape culture was being discussed in the nineties. This kind of criticism isn't new, not even to this fandom.

[murielle.livejournal.com]

When I saw the picture you posted for Small Potatoes I was immediately disappointed. For some reason I thought this was the episode where we saw Skinner in his skivvies and I realized when I saw the screen cap that wasn't the case. I had a vague memory of the ep, remembered the scene with Scully and remembered that I had enjoyed the episode.

Not this time. Maybe it was because I was tired. Maybe it was because I expected too much from the episode based on a hazy memory. Maybe it's because I'm twenty years older. Whatever the reason the episode left me wanting.

DD was wonderful in his "transforming" scenes, but quirky has been done much better on X-Files, so has tongue-in-cheek.

As far as the rape/comedy argument goes, I wonder about the judgment of whomever was responsible for the decision to make this script part of the series. Rape is not funny. And to be honest, neither are birth defects. I get that this is supposed to be a comedic script. But, really! Were they drunk when they decided this is hilarious, let's run with it? Were there no women in the room? This type of humor just seems so sophomoric.

That said, did any of us really look to X-Files to set moral standards?

It had its moments, but I really didn't find it funny. Not my favorite episode.

[wendelah1]

I can pretty much guarantee there were no women in the room. Check the credits for writing and producing. There rarely are women in the room and that's one reason why so much offensive stuff gets on air.

I agree, it had its moments but the attempted rape of Scully plus the offensive ending ruined it for me.