First Person Shooter
Season 7, Ep. 13
Quick Take
Scully
kicks some virtual reality ass, bascially, to save Mulder's ass.
Rating
Snark's Cerulean Blue rating
scale gives First Person Shooter
• • •
• • • • • • •
6 dots out of
ten. Click here for
scale explanation.
Transcript
For a complete transcript for First
Person Shooter, please visit Tiny Dancer's site.
Pictures
For a few pictures from this
episode, click
here.
Snark's
Thoughts
If you want to skip the plot synopsis and head right to
my thoughts
on this episode, click here.
__________________________________________________________________
Synopsis
{Note: This episode, which I will shorten to FPS
in most places, definitely needs to be seen to be appreciated. The look and
feel of the virtual reality environment, Jade Blue Afterglow, Maitreya, all of
it—you need to see it.}
First
Person Shooter opens in a flashy chamber of some sort. Three guys, called
Lo-Fat, Retro and Moxie, are dressed in virtual-reality combat gear, complete
with big weaponry and such. They are obviously about to be 'released' into the
gamespace and they are all pumped up at the thought of blasting the bad guys.
Camera cuts up to a control booth of some sort, where we see two other people
monitoring the three guys—a girl named Phoebe and a guy named Ivan. [I will
insert here the very apt comment from CarriK's transcript: "Ivan is a very
tense, easily excitable young man. Very similar in temperament to the Tweek
Coffee kid from South Park."] They comment on the heart rates on the three
guys, Phoebe saying they need to let the guys out there or they'll kill each
other.
Back down in the chamber, we see the doors slide up and the
three run out into the gamespace, crouching behind a low wall in front of
them. The gamespace at this point is like a city street, sort of—tall
buildings on either side with an open street area stretching away from them.
We hear the sound of engines, and then a group of crotch-rocket style
motorcycles come whipping down the street from the far end. The three stand up
and start firing away—as their shots land, the motorcycles 'flash' out of
existence. The three guys then run down the street, shooting into the windows
and such as they go. From inside the building, we see the programmed bad guys
firing down at them. Lo-Fat gets hit and goes down in a heap of yellow paint
and electrical jolts. Retro runs across to a building entrance and goes
inside, descending into a concrete area almost like a parking garage. He's
looking around, finally hearing some footsteps coming down after him. He calls
out "Moxie?" but it is obviously not Moxie.
It is a woman, a woman
dressed in... in... in not a whole lot of anything. Leather bodysuit that's
not much more than the thong, spike-heeled thigh high boots, long black hair
pulled back, exceptionally beautiful, etc. Retro is in awe, dropping his gun
down and kneeling before her, obviously thinking she is somehow part of the
game. She holds out her hand and he kisses it, asking who she is. "I am
Maitreya, and this is my game," she says. Her hand morphs into a flintlock
pistol, pointed right at Retro. She fires the gun and the screen 'snows' out
and blurs, like a transmission going dead...
{Cut to X-Files opening sequence.}
FPS Corporate Headquarters, Inland
Empire, California. We see Mulder and Scully enter into the main lobby area of
First Person Shooter, going through metal detectors and such. At the guard
desk, they have to give retinal scans and sign waivers—Scully comments that it
is easier to get into the Pentagon than this place. Mulder is intrigued by the
little retinal scan device, claiming it to be "cool."
The Lone Gunmen
appear, Langly getting a good quote: "Welcome to the land where silicone meets
silicon." They are cheerful at first, trying to get Scully pumped up about the
digital entertainment rocket they are on, whatever whatever. She's not buying
it, and they finally admit there's been a little accident. Cut to all of them
walking through the halls of FPS, and we learn that the Gunmen were hired as
consultants to FPS and that the company has its IPO in a week. The game is
about to ship to 50 malls across the world. "Only there's a dead body between
you and untold riches," Scully says.
Cut to them in the gamespace
area, where Retro is lying under a sheet of bubblewrap. Scully lifts the
sheet, saying that this man has been shot. Ivan and Phoebe are there as well
now, and Ivan says that's not possible. He explains that the whole game is
virtual, that the guns in the game run off the mainframe but are not real. He
points out that the suits the players wear simulate everything that happens,
with paint explosions and such for wounds and kill shots. But none of it is
real, it all happens within the gamespace. Scully says she's going to call the
cops, and Ivan gets upset with the Gunmen, saying that they told him there'd
be no cops, whatever. Ivan is obviously worried about the IPO on Friday,
leaving the room.
Except for Scully, they go up to the control room,
where Phoebe shows them the replay of the game. She points out that everything
seems to be fine, Retro's vitals are fine, and then they spike as if he's been
shot. On the video playback, the game blanks out in the gamespace [the virtual
environment disappears and we see only the real room] and we see Retro lying
on the floor as Moxie comes running over to him, yelling for help. Langly says
that they have no visual on the interior gamespaces, which is where Retro was
shot. Mulder, showing he knows something about all this, asks about the
wireframe. Phoebe says maybe, and taps away at the computer, stripping the
display down to the wireframe image.
On the screen, we see a figure
lying on the floor as another figure, obviously female, is standing nearby,
pointing a gun. [All in wireframe view—if that means nothing to you, don't
sweat it.] Mulder asks for Phoebe to texture-wrap the image, and the wireframe
is slowly replaced by a more regular-image as the computer extrapolates the
real look of the environment. When Maitreya has been formed completely on the
screen, Mulder gets a printout of her. The Gunmen and Mulder leave, and Phoebe
stares at the screen. "Goddess," she says, obviously knowing who the character
in the game is.
Down at the lobby, we see Scully talking to the police
chief, who is rather disbelieving of the fact that she has no murder weapon,
no motive, no suspect, just the dead body. Mulder and the Gunmen come up, and
Mulder hands the guy the printout, saying this is the suspect. The detective
is not impressed, but takes the picture and leaves. Scully tells Mulder he's
nuts, basically, that this image is straight out of a thousand video games and
their vixenish heroines. Mulder points out that she was never programmed into
this game, but here she is.
An young Asian man enters the lobby with a
couple other guys and pass by the group. The Gunmen and Mulder are all
awed—"Daryl Musashi. You see who that is? Daryl Musashi," Langly says. Scully
asks who Daryl Musashi is, and we find that he's some super-cool virtual
reality guy. "Word is that he slums as a game designer when he's not
contracted to the CIA. The boy wonder of virtual mayhem," Byers says in full
worship mode. The Gunman leave to follow their hero. Scully, not impressed,
says "Mulder, why does this game have the effect of reducing grown men back to
moony adolescence?" as she watches the Gunmen leave. Mulder gets a *great*
reaction scene here, staring at her for just a second before breaking into a
'moony adolescent' as he says "But that's Daryl Musashi!" He goes off to
follow the others while Scully leaves to autopsy Retro.
Up in the
control room, we see everyone looking on as Daryl enters the gamespace in full
combat mode. He is the epitome of calm, mowing down the motorcycles without
his heart rate escalating one bit. He then runs over to the same building
Retro went in, going down into the same parking-garage type place. The camera
follows him and we see someone come up behind him. Just as he spins around,
Maitreya swings a sword down at him, slicing his hands off. Daryl is now
screaming in agony, and all of this is showing up in the control room too.
Everyone is horrified. Maitreya whispers a line in Japanese [translates to
"Forgive me for what I am about to do"] and then swings the sword at Daryl's
head.
{Cut to first commercial
break.}
Autopsy bay, where
Scully is looking over Retro's body. Very funny scene where she's speaking
into her little recorder, repeatedly saying "Scratch that" and saying
something new. Her final comment is "Wound is result of high-velocity impact
from an unknown object, which even if it did enter the body left no damn trace
evidence whatsoever... no powder burns, no chemical signatures of any kind of
explosive propellant." She is obviously frustrated.
Mulder comes in
and Scully shows him how she thought perhaps the game vest had malfunctioned,
since it is designed to give a 'wounded or killed' player electrical shocks to
keep him down. Mulder picks up the vest, holding it up to his chest, saying
"I've got a birthday coming up." [Very cute.] He says that Scully has to admit
this is an amazing piece of technology. "Yeah, wasted on a stupid game,"
Scully says. "Dressing up like high-tech warriors to play a futuristic version
of Cowboys and Indians? What kind of moron gets his ya-yas out like that?"
*Excellent* shot of Mulder here, as he grins a huge grin and spreads
his arms wide in a "Me!" gesture. Scully smiles very slightly. [Very cute
scene.] They talk about testosterone frenzy and cultural repression and
whatever for a while. "Well, that must be why men feel the great need to blast
the crap out of stuff," Scully says. Mulder points out that their only suspect
so far in this case is a woman carrying a flintlock pistol, holding out
another printout. "Pictures don't kill people, Mulder, guns kill people,"
Scully says. At this point, another gurney is wheeled into the bay, as Mulder
says "As do swords." Scully looks under the sheet to see Daryl Musashi's body,
his severed head placed between his legs. Mulder gets a call, telling Scully
that the police just picked up a suspect that matches the picture.
{Next scene must *definitely* be
seen to be appreciated.}
Mulder
and Scully arrive at the police station, where about 20 officers are lined up
outside a holding room, all struggling to get a look inside. The chief comes
out of the room, biting his knuckles in the that junior-high fashion. The
other officers cheer and laugh. He tells Mulder and Scully that they picked
this woman up outside of a strip club in Reseda, matching their description
perfectly. Scully asks if the woman was read her rights, and the chief says
"About 500 times."
Mulder and Scully go into the room, Mulder turning
back to the officers as he closes the door, giving them the same knuckle-bite
motion. They again laugh. In the room, we see a woman who is obviously the
same as Maitreya, dressed in a very, very short metallic mini-skirt and top
combination, lots of chains. We learn that she is Jade Blue Afterglow, and
when Scully asks her what her *real* name is, we get a great quote: "That is
my real name. What were you expecting? Mildred?"
We get a Basic
Instinct legs-uncrossing-then-crossing scene, very funny. Jade claims no
knowledge of FPS or of the game or of why she has been placed at the crime
scene. Scully tells her she might want to start telling the truth. When Jade
asks what truth that is, Mulder says "That you murdered two men. One with a
14th century broadsword and the other with a flintlock pistol." Great Jade
quote: "Oh. You must have had me confused with my sister—Xena, Warrior
Princess."
When Mulder shows her the picture, Jade says she
understands now, that a company paid her to let a medical imaging place do a
body scan. "They paid you to scan your body?" Scully asks. Another killer Jade
quote: "You think that's the strangest thing I've been paid to do?" [I was
rolling at this point.] Jade gets up and grabs her coat from the wall, Mulder
sitting down in the chair she just left. As Jade walks out from the room and
down the hall, Mulder leans over in his chair to watch her go. Very funny
scene as Scully slowly leans into his line of sight, blocking his view as he
strains to keep an eye on Jade. Mulder finally sits back up, saying "I don't
know about you, Scully, but I am feeling the great need to blast the crap out
of something." Scully smiles. [*Very* cute scene there.]
Mulder and
Scully go back to FPS headquarters, and find Phoebe up in the control room.
She says the Lone Gunmen are out in the gamespace, testing a software patch to
the game. When they first look at the screen, the Gunmen are just in the
regular room—the game has not been started. But as Mulder and Scully watch,
the image switches to show that the game has started up. The Gunmen start
freaking, as does Phoebe, since the game is starting up by itself, not from
her control. Down in the game, we see shots being fired at the Gunmen, and
they run for cover. Mulder pronounces they need help, and leaves the room.
Cut to Mulder now in the entrance chamber a bit later, fully outfitted
in the combat gear. Looks like he's got it strapped on over his dress pants,
but no idea on where he got the shirt or sunglasses. "Bring it on," he says,
as the door opens. He runs out into the gamespace, where we see the Gunmen
huddled behind a low wall. Byers has been hit, but is OK. Mulder gives cover
fire while the Gunmen get back into the chamber, but then he runs off to go
find Maitreya.
He goes into the same area as the others have before
him. Maitreya is there, waiting for him, swinging her broadsword. Mulder tells
her to put the sword down. *Very* cool special effect here, as she swings a
slow circle with the sword in front of her—as the sword spins, her body
disappears behind it. She then reappears behind Mulder, and he begins shooting
at her. At this point, we cut back to the Gunmen, who begin to run out of the
chamber and help Mulder. Just as they do, though, the environment 'digitizes'
and then fades to just the plain room. A few moments later, Scully comes
bursting into the area, asking "Where's Mulder?" but he's nowhere to be seen.
{Cut to second commercial
break.}
Same scene. Scully again
asks the Gunmen where Mulder is, but they have no idea, saying that he just
took off into the building. "I saw where he went. I want to know where he
*is*," Scully says. Byers says this is impossible, that it is just a digital
environment and that no one can disappear. Phoebe comes in at this point, and
says she found Mulder. We go back up to the control room, where she points to
a monitor listing the players in the game. "There... player four. It's his
telemetry," she points out. "He's still in the game," Langly says. "Yes, but
where's the game?" Scully asks.
Cut to inside the game, where we see
Mulder get up from the floor. The broadsword has been embedded into a concrete
pylon next to him. [Cool shot.] He runs out into the main gamespace, heading
back over to the entrance chamber. Maitreya appears at the end of the street,
then begins back-flipping towards him. Mulder is shooting at her, but she
disappears as she flips right over him.
Back up in the control room,
the Gunmen are working on rerouting the circuitry to make a kill switch. [I
always that that was the 'Off' switch, but what do I know.] At this point,
Tweek... I mean, Ivan comes back into the room. He's been talking to the money
people, and he's all happy. He tells Scully that she saved his ass, that the
money guys were just thrilled to see that the FBI was involved. [This makes
little sense to me, but whatever.] "You fixed our problems. The game's going
to ship and we're going to be counting Franklins," he says. In my favorite
Scully quote of the night: "Yeah, and you're going to be counting teeth," she
says as she advances on him. The Gunmen have to stop her from knocking the guy
on his ass. Scully asks him about Jade Blue Afterglow, but he doesn't
recognize the name. As Scully sees Phoebe leave the room suddenly, she put it
together that it was Phoebe's creation.
We get a big, long, utterly
worthless scene here between Scully and Phoebe, about the trials and
tribulations of working with all men, and that Phoebe wanted to create someone
that was everythign she could never be. Whatever. The important information is
that Phoebe programmed Maitreya in another game entirely, one she was working
on in secret, but that Maitreya somehow jumped programs.
In the game,
we see Maitreya approaching Mulder, and he notices that he is out of
ammunition. She begins kicking the shit out of him. Up in the control room,
Scully comes back in and fills the guys in on what has happened. They guys
point out that Mulder's vitals are getting all haywire, that he's maybe in
trouble. Back down in the game, as Maitreya aims another kick for Mulder's
head, we see his hands snap up and catch her foot, then drop her to the
ground. Kind of a neat move, actually. Mulder takes the opportunity to run
over to the building, and go down to get the broadsword. As he pulls it out,
though, the gamespace changes to be a long Western-town street, complete with
tumbleweeds and whatnot. Mulder glances around, as if to say "Couldn't they
have spent an extra 50 bucks on the effects here instead of this awful
blue-screen?"...
{Cut to third
commercial break.}
In the
control room, we see Langly get the computer to begin responding again, but
for some reason he can't get it to shut down. Down in the game, we see
Maitreya appear again, but this time, she's dressed as WesternBabe, with
pistols and whatnot. Mulder sees her and raises his sword, telling her to stop
right there. Maitreya draws the pistols. Very funny scene as Mulder drops the
sword, saying "That's not really fair, is it?" as he looks at her. Maitreya
shifts, and there are suddenly five of her standing there. "Well that's just
cheating," Mulder says. He spins around as he hears the chamber door opening
again...
To show *Scully* this time, fully outfitted in combat gear,
holding a *huge* gun and ready to kick some ass. Mulder is just a little bit
in awe, I think. Scully comes out and begins firing at the Maitreyas, as
Mulder drops to the ground.
Scully blasts all the Maitreyas to
nothingness, but up in the control room, Ivan and Phoebe are not cheering—"No
one's ever beaten level two," they say. Down in the game, we see Mulder get up
and run back to Scully, both running for the chamber as the doors begin to
shut. They don't get there in time, but Mulder does manage to shove his sword
[not that one, LOL] under the door to use as a prybar. Maitreyas begin
appearing again, and Scully blasts them. Cut up to the control room, where a
big scene over the existence of a kill command, one that will destroy the
whole game. The Gunmen want Phoebe to give them the code, Ivan is telling her
not to do it.
Down in the game, more Maitreyas appear, this time with
tanks [what the hell?], yet Scully continues to kill them all. Yadda yadda,
this goes on for a while, with some more scenes in the control room. Finally,
Phoebe gives Frohike the command, Shift-Alt-bloodbath, and he types it in. The
game digitizes and then goes blank. They run down to the gamespace, but the
room is completely empty. After a bit, Phoebe runs over to the chamber thing
at the end of the room, the one physical part of the game. They all lean over
to heave the door open...
And find a very exhausted Mulder and Scully
lying on the floor of the chamber. Scully particularly is looking a bit messed
up. But they are all OK. Mulder quips "Now that's entertainment!" as the
Gunmen help them both up. Very cool super-hero slow motion shot as the whole
group walks forward through the gamespace a bit, with a very stupid monologue
from Mulder running over it. "We came, we saw, we conquered. And if the taste
of victory is sweet, the taste of virtual victory is not Sweet 'N Low, nor the
bullets made of sugar. Maybe past where the imagination ends our true natures
lie, waiting to be confronted on their own terms. Out where the intellect is
at war with the primitive brain in the hostile territory of the digital world
where laws are silent and rules disappear in the midst of arms. Born in
anarchy with an unquenchable bloodthirst, we shudder to think what might rise
up from the darkness."
Cut back up to the control room, where every
screen is dark and the computers are all shut down. Ivan is there, with his
head on his desk, very depressed. The monitors suddenly come on again, and we
see the game loading up again, with "Data Acquisition." Ivan lifts his head to
see a new character being created on the screen. It's still dressed like
Maitreya, with the thong and the boots and the gun, but it is decidedly Scully
standing there now. Shorter reddish hair, Scully features, etc. Ivan is
overjoyed at this development, chuckling as we fade to closing credits.
__________________________________________________________________
Snark's
Thoughts
I know a lot of people out there got to
the end of FPS and wondered "what the hell was that?!" and so on. I
will admit freely that as an X-Files episode, this one didn't really make much
sense or have much purpose.
But I didn't really care, considering how
much sheer and utter fun I had watching this one. It was like watching a comic
book come to life, complete with voluptuous vixens and doomsday machines and
our superheros dressed all in black. It wasn't meant to be analyzed or sifted
through or deconstructed for deeper meaning—this was entertainment, pure and
simple.
There really wasn't a story here, per se—whatever minimal plot
there was existed simply as the means to get large weaponry in Mulder and
Scully's hands. So I won't bother talking about the story as a whole or on its
lack of believeability and so on. Rather, I'll comment on specific scenes and
so on, though again, this episode really must be seen to be appreciated.
The first scene I really enjoyed was where Daryl Musashi comes into
the building. Watching the Gunmen and Mulder drop into worship-mode was very
funny, and highly accurate. My husband gets nearly the same way at the mention
of Arlen Ness or Boyd Coddington. [Names which will mean nothing to you if you
aren't into custom motorcycles or street rods.] They were positively googly,
and it was a hoot to watch.
The autopsy bay scene is probably the
strongest of the episode, in terms of normal Mulder and Scully behavior. We
get Scully pissed off at her lack of findings, or rather, her lack of ability
to make sense of her findings. We get classic interplay between them as they
discuss the testosterone frenzy and stupidity of games. So this scene is
probably the only one in the episode I would rate as normal interaction.
But for pure fun, the next scene, with Jade Blue Afterglow in the
holding cell, is by far my favorite from this episode. Her calm demeanor, her
killer one-liners, the reaction of the men around her—god, it was hilarious. I
especially loved Scully's obvious "I know exactly what you're thinking,
FBI-boy" tactics, as she moved into his line of sigh and so on. Her smile at
the end was perfect, and showed us just how much fun these two have together
when given the chance.
The rest of the episode is really just about
Mulder and Scully blasting the crap out of stuff, and while that was
thoroughly enjoyable, I don't feel the need to comment on it particularly. One
specific image I do want to mention again is the awesome special effect as
Maitreya disappears behind the swinging blade. Very, very cool. The entire
episode was made right there, in my opinion. That was just dang cool.
And of course, the end image of the digital vixen Scully. Some people
were really pissed off about this, saying it was demeaning and worthless and
whatnot. But to me, this was the icing on the cake. I interpreted it as
Maitreya's way of acknowledging that she got her ass kicked by Scully. She saw
and interacted with Scully, and then took the elements of Scully to improve
herself. So it just worked for me.
So, what were things that I didn't
like about this episode? Well, there were plenty, actually. The character of
Phoebe just made *me* want to kick the crap out of something, preferably her.
What an annoying, whiny little twerp, even more so that Ivan. At least Ivan
knew what he wanted (money) and was out there trying to get it. The entire
concept of the "aren't the evil men so bad and I feel so out of place, won't
you all cry for me now" just irritates me to no end. Phoebe obviously had the
skills and talent to be one of the main programmers for a cutting-edge
technology, so get out there, use it, and stop whining about it. You don't
like your coworkers? Get a new job, or form your own company, whatever.
I also didn't enjoy a large portion of the writing for this one.
Certain scenes were wonderful, but the rest were fairly laughable. "Scully's
in the zone!" probably ranks as the top of the worthless category, along with
the 18 repetitions of "The bloodthirst is unquenchable." And Mulder's ending
monologue was completely unforgiveable. An utter, utter waste of time and
effort.
The Gunmen, though always enjoyable just for the sheer fun of
seeing them on screen, were not too interesting here. It was as if they went
"ooh, we have a virtual reality story, better get the Gunmen in here." They
were fairly out of character, but I won't knock them on that, considering that
the entire episode was out of character. But they just didn't seem to serve
any real purpose, which is always kind of depressing.
In Summary, though, I thought FPS to
be highly entertaining. Don't let the 6-dot fool you. In terms of lasting
X-Files impression, no, this really isn't a great and wonderful episode. But
it does have quite a bit of fun and entertainment built into it, and is
definitely worth the view.
_____________________________________________________________
• Click here to return to the
Episode Guide main page.•
• Click here to go back to Snark's
main page. •
_____________________________________________________________
Please mail any comments or questions to Snark
_____________________________________________________________
Pictures
_______________________________
The
pictures shown here are courtesy of the Haven for the FBI's Most Unwanted.
_______________________________
Holy
bustline, Batman!
_______________________________
Byers has
a moment of silence as Frohike licks his lips for Langly.
_______________________________
"I...
said... coffee! Now!"
Tweek goes a little nuts for the java...
_______________________________
My
favorite goofy Mulder shot in quite some time.
_______________________________
I am
Locutus of Borg. Resistance is futile.
_______________________________
Mulder
gets a firm grip on the length of his sword...
Scully, in an attempt to unseat Ron Popeil, unveils the Salad
Shooter XKG.
_____________________________________________________________
• Click here to return to the
Episode Guide main page.•
• Click here to go back to Snark's
main page. •
_____________________________________________________________