Triangle

The name of Mulder's boat is the Lady Garland. We see from the very first scene that this episode will be an homage to The Wizard of Oz.

During the amazing Scully scene in the FBI building, there is this little Scully's slide when leaving the basement office.

'Chapeau bas' to Gillian Anderson who have managed this unscheduled stunt with a beautiful left arm style.

In this scene Mulder and 1939!Scully are trying to keep the Nazis from finding out who the scientist is--basically trying to save the world. It's what they do. It shows us that in any time and place Mulder and Scully are going to be working together, fighting against the forces of evil, for the good of us all.

Whereas the episode has a lighthearted tone, there's a dramatic scene happening in the ballroom. Here, Mulder (and then 1939!Scully) is facing a tough dilemma, partly by its fault. There will be two civil dead, and would have been more to come if there wasn't the fight scene.

If all this tale is a dream, it's the part becoming Mulder's nightmare, where he must face his demons, well sumarized by the line "How many lives are you willing to sacrifice ?". I like the way David Duchovny tells the answer "None" with a light tremble in the voice.

Did I just choose the moment where Scully kisses Skinner as my MSR moment? You bet I did! Here's why: when Skinner said he couldn't help her, Scully responded "This isn't for me, it's for Agent Mulder" as if that would be enough to convince him. Scully can't imagine why anyone wouldn't want to help Mulder. When Skinner relents and gives Scully what she needs, she's so happy she kisses him. But her focus is entirely on Mulder.

I'd like to have bright pics when Mulder and 1939!Scully are crawling during the fight scene. I'd want to clearly see our two Agents surreptitioulsy escaping. Alas ! They want to remain unnoticed until they reach the corridor !

I like this furtive crazy moment where 1939!Scully follows Mulder (Mulder's butt) because she makes the choice to believe him, and then let him lead her by hand in the corridors.

Mulder in his sweaty dirty shirt, 1939!Scully in her pretty red dress: sexy couple !

Scully's response when Mulder confesses his love for her is priceless. The look on her face as she says "Oh brother" and turns to leave cracks me up. After all he's put her through in the past several hours (years) she's not about to have this conversation with him in a hospital room, right after he wakes up from a head injury. Nope. She's going to let him sweat this one out for a while.

But still, I have to give Mulder props for trying (see below).

I adore this elevator scene, even if it's silly that the cell phone doesn't work in it (maybe in the 90s ?). The peak of this moment is when Skinner pretends to yell at Scully, just after she kissed him. BTW, I'm sure that Skinner has appreciated this kind gesture.

So funny !!

This moment was the nicest of surprises. After doing all he could to convince 1939!Scully to set the ship on the correct course, Mulder sweeps her in for a passionate kiss (at least I assume it was passionate, since we can hardly see it).

Mulder hasn't forgotten about the almost-kiss in his hallway and he's not going to risk never getting a chance to kiss Scully.

Of course 1939!Scully doesn't know her counterpart has kept Mulder honest, made him a whole person.... All she knows is that this possibly crazy man she just met is taking some liberties, so she punches him. Another great surprise!

God bless 1939!Skinner the savior ! Mirroring Skinner the FBI savior ! Even Mulder and Scully (past and present) are surprised by the miraculous interventions of Skinner.

Great scenes for Mitch Pileggi in this episode, perfect as always. Though, both Skinners are saying "ass" or "butt" a bit too much...

Frohike references Gilligan's Island, an American sitcom about survivors of a shipwreck (which doesn't sound funny when it's described like that). I used to watch reruns of Gilligan's Island every day after school, as a lot of American kids of the time did. It's part of who I am.

Mulder's ship name is "Lady Garland". It's the only reference to The Wizard of Oz that I could notice, without googling...

Indeed, I'm not at all familiar with Oz: it's not a cultural reference for a french woman like me. I only know a few things about it, so I miss a lot when watching Triangle !

"In your dreams." There are so many layers to this quote. Scully is teasing Mulder, telling him the only time she'd believe him is in his dreams. But it's also an attempt to deflect the very real emotions Mulder is displaying: his admiration, longing, and love. Also, Mulder dreams about Scully, a lot.

I want to keep this exchange:

"I would never have seen you again. But you believed me."

"In your dreams."

[...]

"I love you."

"Oh, brother."

The whole is amazingly highlighted by a simple beautiful melody from Mark Snow.

Of course, we would have wanted to hear more positive and fruitful answers from Scully... In fact, no: I'm fairly happy with her answers, I find them very funny, and Mulder is so fulfilled !

Mulder has faced the possibility that he would never see Scully again too many times to go another minute without telling her how he feels. He opens up and tells her, with complete sincerity, that he loves her. And when her response lets him know she's not ready for this conversation yet, he just smiles, knowing what he knows, willing to wait for her.

I bet that it's the best moment FOR Mulder, the one he'd remember his whole life. He surely have made other dreams involving Scully, but this one -if you are a believer of the theory that it's all a dream, as I am- is so... impactful !

M&S being S&M ! ;-)) It must be the reason the scene is so dark...

I love Scully's take-charge attitude in the second act. She's not going to stop until she gets what she needs to help Mulder. I particularly enjoyed her attempt to boss Spender around. He's shown himself to be a weasel and she just doesn't have time for that now!

The best Scully moment is the entire part 2 of the episode happening in the FBI, from "We have to get help" to "Yeah" !

Impossible to cut the whole scene, a true 'tour de force'. I'm not really cheating: it's supposed to be seen as one single take (of course, it's not, but there are only a few cuts). It's an amazing choreography, Scully's performing a ballet, weaving in the whole FBI building, always in movement, yelling at other characters, the camera -us- dancing around her in perfect sync.

This part is really mesmerizing ! I love the moment when she slams Skinner's door, a faithful summary of the entire scene.

Listen to Chris Carter's commentary of the episode: it's very insightful.

Last but not least: Gillian Anderson is tremendous.

Mulder wakes up in the hospital after a bizarre experience (caused by doing something incredibly rash) convinced that those in the room were there with him: "You were there!" This scenario is repeated in Babylon. It seems Mulder will do what Mulder does, even all these years later.

First, it's Mulder "Oh, sh..." line which makes me link Triangle to Bad Blood.

Then, I found more links between these two episodes: Mulder lying on the floor powerless, all funny Scully's facial expressions, Mulder's stupid/overreacted actions. Moreover, both episodes are a way to revisit M&S relationship, through an original narrative structure involving a concept of duality or double. They are also both highly entertaining and funny (though, Bad Blood is funnier).

Triangle is a fantastic episode. The pacing and the use of long takes (made to seem even longer by skillful editing) propel the story forward with so much energy you don't stop to wonder whether this is really happening. My description doesn't do justice to this amazing feat. You should listen to Chris Carter's commentary.

The second act, with Scully marching through the Hoover Building, is absolutely thrilling. Gillian Anderson is fantastic, and the camera work and sets had me convinced she was really moving through the offices and elevators. The final scene where she steps into the parking garage and gets in the van as Spender chases after them is an amazing bit of choreography and timing.

Aside from that, I love the parallels between the Skinner characters, I love seeing Mulder and Scully running through the ship holding hands, and the end scene is a pure delight.

Triangle is one in my Top List ! So entertaining, so funny, so original. A true fairy tale as it meant to be.

We know that Chris Carter is obsessed by Dopplegängers, and this episode is a hit in this thematic. The pic above reflects (mirrors!) one of the brilliant ideas he had when directing/writing it.

I love the music, the old 40s songs and Mark Snow score, they match very well together.

I love that they filmed it in a true cruiser ship, with wonderful decors and costumes (thanks to Titanic ?).

This is very nit-picky because really I think the overall feeling of the episode is more important than the details, which don't make sense anyway. But in one scene Skinner tells Scully he's not allowed to have any contact with her and Mulder, and then at the end he's bringing Mulder flowers in the hospital. Just a silly inconsistency, but I love having Skinner in the hospital scene so I'm not complaining about this too loudly.

Oh yeah, and I would have appreciated better lighting for the kiss!

Two things I don't like much.

First, I find that Scully is very rude with her coworkers, especially with Spender. Okay, the women in the elevator doesn't seem to like Scully, so Scully says "Sorry" in a cold tone and I'm sure she's thinking a bad thing in her head when apologizing. The real harsh tone and words are for Spender, she even threatens him seriously. I've always find that too much. Spender is not a bad guy at this point (will he ever be ?).

Second, there is a flaw in the continuity. In part 1, Mulder has a white T-shirt. In part 3, a grey one. I don't think that Mulder changed his T-shirt when he dressed up as a Nazi (BTW, very/too quickly!), or when the nazis undressed him (BTW, they have retrieved his jeans ?). Why haven't they kept the white one ?