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Season 1 is really coming to a close with a couple of very “meh” and very similar monster-of-the-week episodes. Neither is particularly awful, but man are these episodes (“Born Again” and now “Roland”) just…boring and not very well written? Both are saved by strong casting of the main guest characters, but are still just…basically, my reaction to both was “Welp. That was an episode, I guess. Moving on?”
I’m now really hoping that “The Erlenmeyer Flask” lives up to what I remember about it being very good, because I also remember that season 2 does not start out particularly strong, though at least we finally get into the good really foundational mythology fairly quickly.
I will say that we had some very good episodes recently, with “Darkness Falls” and the return with “Tooms”, but man, does it feel like the writers were running out of ideas to get to the season finale and just thought “Well, everyone seems to like the idea of ghosts/beyond the grave, right?” If this season was shot today (or even in the later 90s), we probably would’ve gone straight from Tooms into the finale. 24 episodes in a season is so many! For the cast, directors, writers, support crew, and everyone involved! And season 2 has twenty-five episodes. Why????
Anyway. As I alluded, “Roland” is also not a particularly strong episode. I was pleasantly surprised that, all things considered, the star character’s neurodivergence wasn’t treated quite as bad as I expected. I mean, it’s still the early 90s and so the writing isn’t great, as I’ll get into, but I was expecting it to be much much worse, considering the horror of “Gender Bender”, and the fact that the only thing I remembered about this episode was that it involved a neurodivergent character and some “beyond the grave” thing. There is definitely stuff to criticize in the writing, but for an episode written in the 1990s, it’s…at least, not completely awful?
I guess with that being said, let’s get into some analysis…
The…Case?
My main, overarching, issue with this episode is that I don’t really get the story the writers were trying to tell beyond the “consciousness after death” part, and I don’t think they do either? Like, why is this man (Arthur Grable) trying to complete his research after death, and why is he killing his colleagues to do it???
So. I’m going to attempt to delve into the case, but if this doesn’t make sense, that’s because it doesn’t make sense in the episode either.
We open in a university physics research lab, where three researchers are arguing over some prototype of a new jet engine, that is supposed to be able to reach very high, powerful speeds? Full disclaimer that physics was my worst science subject in university, and I really barely understand any of it. I’m OK-ish with some fluid dynamics and pressure things as they relate to how cells and chemistry work, but as far as how to make planes fly faster? I dunno. I barely understand what the scientists in this episode are supposed to be working on, and I don’t think the writers understand it at all either.
I think the general idea is that these scientists are working to create planes that can fly very fast…possibly supersonic or hypersonic planes, that I assume would be useful in war, and then might also have applications in space flight? Based on my general understanding, I can then understand why the research is apparently “secret”, and I do agree with Scully that the work seems primed for industrial espionage/sabotage/etc from other researchers. Especially because uh, academia definitely is as cutthroat as it is depicted in the episode, as I’ll get into a little bit more later.
So, that’s what I can glean from the very little given to us in the episode and…that’s the problem? The importance of the research being done in this episode is not at all explained, and so it becomes very hard for me to understand the motivations behind the rest of the storyline.
But, here’s a little bit more: Four researchers are (were…?) working in this lab on this project. One of those researchers, Arthur Grable, died recently-ish, in an apparently completely normal car crash. He was definitely dead (like, body parts smashed along the road dead), but still his head, and just his head was preserved in liquid nitrogen, under the hope I guess that at some much later date, we will be able to clone new bodies and completely revive a dead person’s…head.
The remaining three researchers have different ideas, it seems, about how the research should continue. Dr. Surnow really wants to make sure that the math and theory behind their experiment is sound and solid before continuing recklessly with their wind tunnel experiments. Dr. Nolette and Dr. Keats, on the other hand, appear eager to just keep experimenting without having models and theory and whatnot to back up their experiments. Because they just desperately want their work to get published (sidebar: my dudes, how do you expect that your research would get published even if it does succeed, if you don’t have the theory/math/models to back it up, and thus can’t replicate it?)
Also working around the lab, we have a university janitor, Roland, who we will later learn is the twin brother of Arthur Grable. Roland has some not specified form of intellectual disability (it is stated his IQ is below 70). Despite this, at the start of the episode, Roland is able to correct an equation on a whiteboard before he then kills Dr. Surnow in the wind tunnel (GAH!!!!) Later in the episode, Roland kills Dr. Keats in liquid nitrogen (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!) before working on some computer models/equations related to the research.
Or…is it Roland doing this? That is the question at the core of the episode…
Psychic Links…After Death?
So. The idea floated by Mulder here to explain how (and possibly why) Roland is murdering these researchers is that Roland and Dr. Grable are psychically linked because they are twins, and so Roland is carrying out Dr. Grable’s apparently unfinished business.
MULDER: I believe in psychic connections, and evidence suggests that it's stronger between family members, strongest of all between twin siblings that shared the same womb.
SCULLY: OK, maybe. But in this case, one sibling has closer ties to a frozen fudgesicle than he does to his own brother.
Ahahahahaha. Solid dark humor points to Scully here.
Who I completely agree with.
I just…I really do not understand how a brain that has been frozen at -320 Fahrenheit (-196 Celsius) could possibly be producing any sort of brain wave, that could then also contact someone else and…act through that person?
If it was just the psychic connection between twins, that would’ve been OK. Though…The X-Files also does several of those storylines, so. Nothing really groundbreaking with that idea.
What would’ve been more believable, if still not factual, would be if Dr. Grable wasn’t dead, but instead was in a coma or functionally “brain dead” but producing very low levels of brain activity, or something. At least then the rest of the body is still alive, blood is being pumped, the brain is getting oxygen, etc. There would theoretically, I suppose, be the possibility of that brain reaching out psychically, if you believe in that sort of thing.
Now, I will say here that I do get why the writers leaned into the cryogenics storyline, because I guess you could imagine that the brain has been perfectly preserved as it was at the moment of death (or seconds/minutes/likely hours in this case after), which would not be the case if Dr. Grable was buried and and decomposing.
…It’s still not actually believable, but I guess. Sure. Being preserved cryogenically, does have the entire hope behind it that your organs have remained perfectly intact and healthy, ready to be revived at some future date.
Also, I get why the episode leaned into cryogenics because I feel like there was a time in the 1990s and early 2000s in particular where the idea of cryopreservation after death became very popular in the news? Like it really was some grand possibility that would one day definitely come to fruition. Whereas I feel in our current times, very very very few people talk about cryopreservation and revival of human bodies seriously. Because we now understand that the act of cryopreservation damages neurons and blood vessels and cells, and that damage cannot be undone.
Short note here that my job works with cryopreservation of semen samples from endangered animals, and even with small cells like sperm, there is so much that goes into making sure the sperm cells survive the freezing process, and then to make sure that when a sample is thawed, those cells will actually be functional. The freezing has to be done very quickly, using specific mixtures of chemicals, under very specific conditions; and the same goes for thawing the sample. Now, this process is possible, and it very much is possible to fertilize an egg with cryopreserved and thawed sperm. But sperm are fairly simple cells as far as body cells go. So, effectively freezing and reviving every cell in the human body without causing damage along either process? I suppose I can in theory imagine that one day in the future…under very specific conditions…it might, might, might be possible. Maybe.
But really, most likely very much not happening.
And under no circumstances would that cryopreserved body, brain, or heart be functional while frozen in liquid nitrogen. Nope. Nooooooooooooo. No way was it possible for Dr. Grable’s brain to have activity and be communicating with his twin brother while in that liquid nitrogen tank.
Perish and Publish
Well, now that I’ve gotten my major fact check regarding psychic connections after death out of the way, let’s move on a bit.
Let’s assume for now that we agree with Mulder’s theory, and that Dr. Grable is acting from beyond the grave, his brain in a liquid nitrogen tank, through his intellectually disabled twin brother. Through some mysterious psychic connection.
The question now is: Why was Dr. Grable murdering his former colleagues from beyond the grave to complete his research?!
We don’t have any evidence that the other three researchers were sabotaging Dr. Grable’s research when he was alive, or that they were at all involved in his death? I don’t know if we’re supposed to believe that? But there’s no evidence of it in the script at all.
So why? Why kill your former coworkers?
If Dr. Grable(’s consciousness through Roland…) had killed Dr. Nolette and Dr. Keats, the two who seemed intent on just running the experiments without completing the models, I could maybe buy that, even though it’s still insane. You could think, OK, well maybe Dr. Grable just really wants to ensure that his team’s research is complete and solid (and will actually get published), and he wants these other two researchers sabotaging those efforts out of the way.
But no…the first one killed is Dr. Surnow, who wanted to complete Dr. Grable’s calculations and models before continuing the experiment.
Are we supposed to believe that Dr. Grable just wants to make sure that he does the work? I mean…he’s…dead. Sooooooooo it’s not like he would get first author on the resulting paper or would get famous or a lot of money or anything at all. He’s dead. Best he would get is posthumous authorship, but it definitely wouldn’t be first or last author…
I just really do not feel like the murders, and particularly the extremely gruesome murders as we’ll get into, were entirely necessary to the storyline here. Certainly not as the rest of the research storyline was written. It would’ve been enough for Roland to just mysteriously be completing Dr. Grable’s research…without murder?
Now, yes, it is the first murder/mysterious death that gets Mulder and Scully involved in researching the case, I will grant that. I suppose having Mulder and Scully investigate research fraud when the other three publish research without solid foundational models wouldn’t be interesting television 😅
I guess I’m just saying here that I wish it had been more explicitly explained why Dr. Grable was so intent on murdering his colleagues after death to ensure his own research got completed.
As a scientist myself, I can understand a scientist’s desire to complete their research even when they are dead, if we assume that is possible. Aaaaaaaaaaand I guess unfortunately I do also understand the intense competition in academia in particular when it comes to completing research first and getting funding for further research. But really…these four men seemed to be working together all along? The writers don’t give us any reason to believe Dr. Grable was arguing with his colleagues before death, and thus would want them out of the way to get the research done.
Perhaps a second better storyline could’ve been that a different research team stole Dr. Grable’s research files after death, and his preserved brain needed to stop those other scientists from completing his work.
But as it is written, the “I must complete and publish my research after I have perished, by all means, including murdering my colleagues” storyline just…does not really make sense to me.
Fact Check: Wind Tunnel Death
More fact checking! Because I cannot help myself apparently!
Sorry (not sorry) that the bulk of this episode review is me fact checking the poorly written storyline 😅
As I stated earlier, physics is my weakest science, but I know enough to know that the opening wind tunnel murder (and later attempted murder) would not have happened as they are depicted.
I don’t entirely understand what any of this “Mach” speed stuff means, but I know enough to know that people cannot just stand idly by running jet engines without being blown off their feet. Wikipedia tells me that Mach 1 is equivalent to over 700 miles per hour and, uh, living in Florida I know what it’s like to try to stay standing at wind speeds of “just” 75 miles per hour in a hurricane. No way did either man stay standing/hanging on to the door at even Mach 1, let alone the higher speeds apparently achieved in that wind tunnel.
But, OK, eventually the first scientist is sucked into the wind turbines and killed (Gaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!)
This, uh, apparently happens the night before Mulder and Scully enter the laboratory, and yet somehow by the time they arrive, the wind tunnel and turbine are spotless and the scientists are about to go on with their research.
Um. No?
When birds get sucked into plane engines, it’s a huge problem that almost always causes an engine to fail, and then there’s like, hours or days of cleaning and repair that has to be done to make that engine functional again. And that’s not considering the forensics that would need to be collected from the wind turbines in this case.
How did you write such a gruesome death, writers, but then make the aftermath so clean? Do you not understand the death you wrote?
Fact Check: Liquid Nitrogen Death
First of all:
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
Oh my god. So painful! Why!!!! Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!?!?!
I work with liquid nitrogen and dry ice, and even just accidentally touching dry ice through a glove for a brief second is painful.
Oh my god oh my god oh my god NOPE.
Now that I’ve got that out of my system, I have slight problems with the way this death was written. Fewer problems than I have with the other death and other parts of this episode, but still…I need a fact check.
I actually counted how long Roland held Dr. Keats’ head in the liquid nitrogen, and it appears to be for only ~14 seconds. That ~14 seconds is apparently enough to completely freeze all the tissue in the head such that when it drops the head completely shatters (grossssss aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa)
To completely freeze tissue samples in liquid nitrogen, the general protocol is to hold them in liquid nitrogen for at least 30 seconds to ensure they are frozen. Now, I will grant that scientists usually hold a sample above a liquid nitrogen tank (in the vapors) rather than directly in the liquid, so definitely completely submerging the head in the liquid nitrogen (Again: GAH!!!!) would speed things up.
But still, I doubt that a mere 14 seconds was enough to completely freeze all of the tissue in a man’s head.
Important note: NO ONE SHOULD TEST THIS.
Neurodivergent People are Full People
Time to get into it, at least a little bit. This episode is hugely reliant on the fact that the man committing the murders, and completing very advanced physics research, is intellectually disabled. And thus would not be capable, seemingly, of completing such mathematics and modelling by himself.
I get why they wrote it this way, because it does lend a bit more credence to the still (very implausible) theory that really, it is Dr. Grable doing this by using his twin brother’s body. Because his brain definitely, 100%, is still active even while frozen in liquid nitrogen.
Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut I’m still not a fan at all of an intellectually disabled character basically being treated as an object to be used by someone else.
And Roland definitely is largely treated as just the “body” used by Dr. Grable’s consciousness to commit the murders and complete his research. Which is not great.
It is, however, definitely completely in line with other movies/episodes involving intellectually disabled characters. Not just in the 90s, but even still today. Unfortunately.
What I do appreciate though is that Roland is actually given some of his own personality and personhood in the episode. We see that he holds down a job. We see his interactions with Tracy, another intellectually disabled character who lives in the same care home as Roland. Their interactions aren’t on screen all that much, but it is still nice to see the two of them written largely as adults in a friendship and (possible) relationship. They care for each other, very much.
And what I really really love is how respectful both Mulder and Scully are to Roland. I mean, yes, Scully immediately dismisses the possibility that Roland could do advanced research, but they do both nevertheless treat Roland as a his own person. They are very kind when they interview him. Mulder in particular. I really love his interactions with Roland, when he asks him which shirt he wants to wear, and communicates with Roland using a toy that he controls to explain how (possibly) Roland himself is being “controlled” by something else.
Does the episode still rely heavily on harmful stereotypes of intellectually disabled people?
Yes, for sure.
But, and I state this as someone who is not intellectually disabled nor has family members/close friends who are, for 1994, it’s…not awful. At least Roland is given his own personality and allowed to be his own person, when he’s not being used as an object by his dead brother.
And I do have to praise the acting of Željko Ivanek as Roland, because I personally feel his acting does a really good job of being respectful. He doesn’t overdo anything in his role. I don’t know how much research he put into this role, but it seems like he did a fair amount in order to make his acting believable and effective, but still respectful to intellectually disabled individuals.
Our “Completely Platonic Coworkers”
Alas, there isn’t too much in this episode, as we very quickly get into gruesome deaths and outlandish theories of brain activity after death.
But, we do get the very cute first interaction with Mulder and Scully where he asks her about the (apparently very fun/amusing) wedding that Scully went to, and wants to know if she caught the bouquet 😉
The 90s™
We once again have slightly amusing large desktop computers and old-school programs on the computers throughout this episode.
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Ah, that lovely bright green text on black screens 😂 I actually remember in my junior year of undergrad (2013), we still used a program from the 1990s called “Fish Farm” in my vertebrate zoology, and its interface looked very similar to this.
(I want to be clear here that I’m not making fun of the 90s in these sections. I 100% recognize that a lot of this was very advanced for its time, and very very useful! I just find it amusing when certain aspects of technology really stick out as “from the past”. I’m sure in 30 years I’ll be laughing at people today that were using Microsoft Excel or something)
Goofs/Bloopers/Fun Facts
Well, I already did a whole lot of fact checking “goofs” from the episode. Basically the entirety of this review, because, really, the plotline for this episode was not thought out (in my opinion)
But, a couple fun facts:
This episode is the first (vague) mention of Mulder’s father
In the original script Mulder was supposed to talk to Roland about his sister, Samantha, instead
Personally, I’m glad they changed it. Let’s make Mulder’s family history more well-rounded and stop relying so much on the vanished sister storyline in random episodes
We also learn in this episode that Scully has two brothers. She does not yet mention her younger sister.
Amusing related conversation in episode:
MULDER: Well, have you ever thought about calling one of them all day long and then all of a sudden the phone rings and it's one of them calling you?
SCULLY: Does this pitch somehow end with a way for me to lower my long distance charges?
Overall Thoughts/Summary
Episode rating: 4/10. Really, personally, I think it is an overall very poorly written episode, as you can probably glean from my analysis and vigorous fact checking/questioning of various plot points. The episode was, however, nevertheless still a mostly enjoyable watch, largely because of Ivanek’s acting in the role of Roland. With such poor writing, the episode could have been truly horrible with a different actor. So I really do want to praise him in the role.
But overall, another largely forgettable episode. Not horrible, but also not good. Just. Well. That was another episode.
X-files cases “solved” to date: 19.5/23. Case definitely solved in this episode, as we learn that Roland will, unfortunately, be placed in psychiatric custody, because it definitely was his hands that murdered those two scientists. Even if maybe someone else was controlling those hands.
Well.
As I said at the beginning, I really hope “The Erlenmeyer Flask” lives up to my memories of it being a strong episode, because these most recent two were not strong episodes at all. I’m excited to get back to aliens next week!
After next Sunday, I’m also thinking I’ll do a little retrospective summary of the entirety of season 1. I think it’s still just my dad (hello! 👋🏽) reading these reviews every week, but anyone can let me know if they think that retrospective should be the next Sunday (25 February) or should be a nice “bonus” e-mail in the middle of the week of the 19th.