In a nutshell, its Mulder and Scully vs. Modern Technology.
Little sound effectsblorpoff smartphones.
Pushy Push Notifications demand feedback.
Credit: Shane Harvey/FOX
INCORRECT USERNAME OR PASSWORD declares one screen, and then theres a TEXT MESSAGE ERROR.
But I was enraptured by the long sequence that began the episode proper.
Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) sit alone in a restaurant.
No servers, no other patrons.
They order sushi on a tablet-ish screen.
They pull out their smartphones, Scully reading up on Elon Musk, Mulder playing a tapper game.
Their food arrives, via some automated system.
Scullys food looks normal, and Mulders food looks like the only-just-dead carcass of the little-loved video game characterSeaman.
He leaves them no tip, and thats where the troubles begin.
Theres no dialogue at all during this first scene, except the high-tech restaurants infuriating YUM!
Theres not a whole lot of dialogue in Rm9sbG93ZXJz, period.
Chaplins mute Little Fellow got swallowed up by the machines of industry.
I know I hada goddamn conniptiona few weeks back over The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat.
That episode gave me closure Ill never get from a more conventionalX-File.
Where Forehead Sweat was talky and purposefully anti-realistic, Rm9sbG93ZXJz is visual andtoorealistic.
Heroic Fox Mulder struggle to use a roadmap when Fake Waze fails him.
Heroic Dana Scully make a run at key in the right passcode (QUEEQUEG!)
into her miserable home security system.
So theres an endearingly handmade, family-store quality to the story the trio has come up with.
Its a simple joke the machines are crazy, because we are crazy!
but the little details pile up.
Doesnt even sound like it!
Mulder says, talking to no one.
You feel the shameless peacockery of reboot logic: Oh yeah, were covering the BIG stuff now!
Whereas this episode reminds you thateverythingabout our weird modern life wouldve been a plot concept forThe X-Filesin the 90s.
So how thrilling, to just follow Mulder and Scully through an almost-typical hour in our bizarre futuristic lives.
Is it a highX-Filesmasterwork?
Lemme think on that.
Im not sure if the message here quite carries.
Artificial Intelligence has learned from us, and We have to be better teachers, Mulder concludes.
Heavy, and heavyhanded.
I imagine this is the kind of episode that drives someX-Filesviewers mad.
But theres a real thoughtfulness in how this episode deploys our two heroes, deeper than farce.
By grounding them in familiar annoyances, they seem larger somehow.
Choose Humanity Over Devices: You get it.
But the last scene takes that thudding point and makes it poetic.
At a diner full of regular human people, Mulder thanks a waitress by name.
The bills about $18.55; Mulder hesitates for just a moment, and sets down two twenties.
The agents open up their smartphones.
And then they put their smartphones away!
Scully takes Mulders hand.
Credit Morgan for holding this last shotjustlong enough.
You see Mulder and Scully, just the back of their heads, just two random people together.
They dont speak, but for once, the silence isnt deafening.
