Comments on "Unruhe" (10/27/96)
Claudia S Cauchon
Finally, a decent X-Files episode, not that the other ones were
bad just that "Unruhe" had the elements that makes X-Files a good show.
There was the villian who had some weird ability though he didn't know it,
the usual Scully and Mulder verbal exchanges, and Mulder going for the far
out conclusion in the case. If it wasn't for the Scully gets kidnap bit
at the end of "Unruhe" it would have been a better episode, but for what
it was it was a damn fine episode.
In "Unruhe" we get Scully getting unnerved by Gerry Schnauz who
once again touches upon Scully's fear of being kidnap and having someone
do unspeakable things to her. A telling moment happened after they find
the dead body of the second victim and Mulder wants to get more into the
head of Schnauz to understand what made him do what he did while Scully
just wants to forget all about the reasons. It is only at the end that
Scully understands why it is important to understand what makes these kind
of people tick that if we try to not understand these people it makes us
vulnerable to them. It is something I don't think Scully has been willing
to face in the past. Considering her reaction of denial to the women in
"Nisei" it isn't surprising to see this in her. Agent Scully might be one
tough cookie, but even she is only willing to go so far into looking at
the inter motives of people.
A good aspect to "Unruhe" it was good old detective work done by
Scully that lead them to the killer. While Mulder was obsess with finding
another photograph in the accounting office Scully puts two and two
together via a photo when she sees the same construction company had been
in the area where both kidnappings took place. If it wasn't for that they
never would have found Schnauz. Though in the end it was one of those
weird photos that allows Mulder to figure out where to find Scully. It
was kind of nice to have them both be right on different aspects of the
case.
Now on to the misc. comments:
- I have to admit at the beginning of "Unruhe" I really wanted to smack
Mulder in the head for his arrogant attitude he displayed during this
episode. At the same time I wanted to smack Scully for her outright
dismissing Mulder's theories though you couldn't blame her since all it
appeared Mulder cared about was to prove someone could have the abilities
Schnauz had in the "Unruhe". Also, I was kind of curious what exactly
were Schnauz abilities in the first place. At one moment Mulder indicates
we are seeing Schnauz nightmares and then the next moment it appears the
photos are showing what is going to happen in the future via Schnauz. Oh
well, I guess it isn't really that important to the story. Maybe he had
the ability to do both things.
- Did the Polaroid photos Mulder took out of the first victim apartment
remind anyone of that painting of the screaming ghostlike person? The
irony of it all is the Mazda commerical right after the episode ended
using the same painting. Weird.
- I have to admit that was one hell of a busy back road that first victim
turned up. It was like the director said okay cars move now.
- No more Ford Taurus for Scully and Mulder anymore, they now demand a car
with power like a Ford Explorer.
- For once Scully hangs up on Mulder, yahoo. Now I hope he knows how it
feels. I would have loved to have seen the reaction on his face when she
did that to him. Oh yeah, I always like it how only on a tv show can the
only person Scully checks out is the man they are looking for as a
suspect.
- I liked how when Scully and Mulder are questioning Schnauz he explains
how he has no earthly idea what they are talking about to him. I just
thought it was an interesting way to put it. I thought they worked good
together interrogating him though they still can't beat pre-stoke Frank
Pembleton from "Homicide".
- Boy, that drug stuff Schnauz used really works fast through the foot.
The first victim could at least walk down the steps and see her attacker
come after her while Scully out in about 10 seconds. Once again one of
those things that only happens in tv land.
- I'm kind of curious who paid the rent on Schnauz father's office for the
last 16 years. Sure you could say he might have own it, but he would
still have to pay taxes on it and since the son was in mental hospital for
6 years and the father was beaten so badly he couldn't take care of
himself anymore where was the income to pay for it. This part of the show
just didn't make sense and the only reason I can see for it was to pad the
episode out a bit and have us see Mulder's investigating powers.
- I did like how as they were finding the second victim body Mulder had
his gun holster on his left side of his body though he is right handed .
- Where the hell did Mulder shoot Schnauz? I sure couldn't see any blood
on him and considering he died from the gunshot wounds you would figure it
would have been more noticeable.
"Unruhe" was a good X-Files episode in that we didn't get the
reaction of what the hell is going on as we did in "Herrenvolk" or the
lame attempt at another super mutant as in last week's episode "Teliko".
As I said before the only drawback to the episode was Scully being
kidnapped by the bad guy, but the scene with him made it worth it since in
all the other times we never got to see Scully talk to the kidnapper. It
allowed us to see more deeply into what Scully would do if she was allowed
to face her kidnappers.
Claudia
E-mail: Claudia...@unh.edu
Kyonghun Lee
Claudia S Cauchon wrote:
>
> "Unruhe" was a good X-Files episode...
Good review. Here are some stuff that some of you might
have wondered about:
Herr Schnauz( I think this comes from German word Schnauze. A slang
depecting one's mouth.
the writers must have taken it off some dictionary...:))
talked in German while he was doing his thing on his 2nd victim.
He said " einer so wie SIE getragen hat.." while he was throwing the
sun-dress at her.
It means " just like the one she used to wear..." So at this point you
know what
happened to his sister.
Also Scully's German was pretty good, BTW. :)
Kyong
Michael Aulfrey
c...@hopper.unh.edu (Claudia S Cauchon) writes:
>- I did like how as they were finding the second victim body Mulder had
>his gun holster on his left side of his body though he is right handed .
I would've thought this was perfectly natural, considering the difficulty
of drawing a pistol quickly where the holster is on the same side as you
shooting arm...
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Michael J. Aulfrey Anti-Gump, X-Phile
University of Western Australia X-Fanfictioneer
Address: mike...@tartarus.uwa.edu.au
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"High tech <beep> tech <beep> <WHACK!> technology." -- Fox Mulder on Pentium
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"Unarmed...and extremely attractive." -- Dana Scully on Windows 95
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Michael Emond
In article <551n3s$6...@mozz.unh.edu>,
Claudia S Cauchon <c...@hopper.unh.edu> wrote:
(A DARN GOOD REVIEW)
I heartily agree with your analysis. This definately captured the feel of
some of the earlier X-Files that drew me to the show. It stood out to me
like Pusher did last year.
I think my main beef with shows like Teliko are that Mulder and
Scully seem more like observers than heros. Mulder was at the height of
his observational powers in this show as was Scully. They contributed to
the story and the tension in the story.
As well, the interaction between Mulder and Scully was great. I
loved the interchange between them when Scully, who is trying to figure
out where Mulder is going with his theory, suggests something and Mulder
shoots her down "Why the heck would he do that?" Mulder is in his own
introverted world and Scully is trying to get them to work together.
Mulder pays the price for this in the end when he sends Scully away
instead of keeping her with him to observe the photos from the
photo-booth.
Michael of the North
Susan J. Daniell
Kyonghun Lee <kyon...@cae.wisc.edu> wrote in article
<32749C...@cae.wisc.edu>...
> Sure, if you speak German, and most of us don't. I was left wondering
what the hell the fruitcake was saying to her. Turns out it was
significant too.
Champey
In article <5532rj$8...@enyo.uwa.edu.au>, mike...@tartarus.uwa.edu.au
(Michael Aulfrey) writes:
>>- I did like how as they were finding the second victim body Mulder had
>>his gun holster on his left side of his body though he is right handed .
>
>
I also noticed in this same scene as Mulder's hair was parted on the wrong
side... I think they must have had the film turned backwards for some
reason for that short clip.
Barbara
Kellie J. Adan
Claudia S Cauchon (c...@hopper.unh.edu) wrote:
: - Did the Polaroid photos Mulder took out of the first victim apartment
: remind anyone of that painting of the screaming ghostlike person? The
: irony of it all is the Mazda commerical right after the episode ended
: using the same painting. Weird.
it's called 'The Scream", and it was painted by a schizophrenic.
Eerie, huh?
-kj
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"Mentos: The Death Maker." -- Chris
Kyonghun Lee
> > He said " einer so wie SIE getragen hat.." while he was throwing the
> > sun-dress at her.
> > It means " just like the one she used to wear..." So at this point you
> > know what
> > happened to his sister.
> > Sure, if you speak German, and most of us don't. I was left wondering
> what the hell the fruitcake was saying to her. Turns out it was
> significant too.
Well the above sentence was pretty much the only thing that was
significant.
OTherwise he was only mubling:
"Have no fear. I am not going to hurt you. I am going to help you.
things will be better and similar stuff over and over."
kyong
--
_________________________________________________________________________
|Kyonghun Lee |
| | \ / | Class of '93 | || || | Class of 199X |
| | \/ | University of \ \/ /\ \/ / University of Wisconsin |
| | |\ /| | Michigan Mech.E. \ / \ / Mechanical Engineering |
|| |\/| | Go Blue! | | | | Go Badgers?...NOT! |
|kyon...@cae.wisc.edu & http://smartcad.me.wisc.edu/~kyonghun/kh.html
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Lois Johnson
Hi x-filers:
I have to agree with the Scully issue raised her. If they were proper
cops, there would be less of this separte stuff. Also why does SCULLY
have to get kidnapped in this typical stereotypic "EVIL MAN CAPTURE WEAK
WOMAN COP"!
Anyway I love the show still. Will see if the MILLENIUM show is anygood
or just gory.
--
Take care,
LOis
Lois Johnson
Monell Chemical Senses Center
3500 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3308
215-573-3328 (lab 1)
215-898-5122 (lab 2)
ljoh...@pobox.upenn.edu
Alan Felsen
Debbie E. McGhee wrote:
>
> On Tue, 29 Oct 1996, Jennifer Matthews wrote:
> <snippage>
> > Oh, and speaking of "proper police procedure:" I have little
> > knowledge of how it really works in police stations, but I was quite
> > astonished that Gerry managed to escape in the way that he did. It
>
> Which reminds me of a question I wanted to ask: Isn't it rather standard
> procedure that officers remove their sidearms before fingerprinting?
Yes.
Mike/Damon or Peni R. Griffin
It can be irritating for the audience not to know what the people on
screen are saying, but if you pay attention, you will notice that they
only give subtitles when the person we're supposed to identify with
can understand what's being said. Neither of the first two victims
understood what was being said to them, so "we" (the collective
audience; obviously they can't control who speaks German in the
audience) didn't either. This leaves us as bewildered as they were.
This is a technique they've used consistently, and with good effect.
The idea here is to *create* suspense, not relieve it.
This is Peni.
Kid books are better than grownup books.
Check out http://www.geocities.com/athens/3401