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.

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.

[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.

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.

[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.

[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.