With everyone obsessing over Obsession, I recently watched an X-Files episode that did the trope better and shorter. It’s also the first episode that Vince Gilligan directed of the show as well as writing.
Gilligan had already established himself by mixing quirky and twisted dark comedy into precious episodes. I like “Bad Blood” which is a Rashomon-style about nomadic vampires featuring Luke Wilson and Patrick Renna of The Sandlot fame.
“Je Souhaite” is the 21st and penultimate episode of the seventh season as well as the penultimate episode before David Duchovny left the series as a regular for the next two seasons, only popping up in guest roles. It’s set mostly around the Mark Twain Trailer Park in the St. Louis era. Anson Stokes is a ne’er do well who works a lowly job at a storage unit facility whose laziness and apathy invokes the ire of his boss, Jay Gilmore (Paul Hayes).
While cleaning out an abandoned unit, he attempts to remove a rolled up rug only to discover a woman (Paula Sorge) inside who appears unconscious but opens her eyes. In the next scene Jay pulls up to the storage unit in a golf cart only to discover Anson and the woman. As he calls for Anson, he goes mute as it’s revealed his lips and mouth have disappeared and he can’t speak.
A month later, Jay has contacted Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) after having the skin covering his mouth surgically cut open. He tells them about Anson. While Mulder thinks it’s the supernatural, Scully thinks it may have be related to known medical conditions.
When they travel to St. Louis, they discover a yacht dry-docked next to the mobile home. Anson suspects Mulder and Scully are from the IRS and hides leaving his brother, Leslie (Will Sasso, to talk with the agents. Leslie uses a motorized cart as he is disabled from a foolish prank he and Anson pulled when they were younger. Mulder and Scully notices the woman in the kitchen area looking frustrated and bored.
At the storage unit, they discover pictures from the 1970s and furniture and material items that are very expensive. They notice the woman in a photo but she is the same age. Mulder does some more research of archival footage of Richard Nixon and Benito Mussolini with the same woman. Mulder deduces she is a genie.
Even though Anson wished for a boat, he didn’t specify for it to be in water. Also, he didn’t expect to have to pay taxes on it. And he said that he only wished to never hear Jay’s voice again not for his mouth to be sealed. However, Anson and Leslie aren’t the smartest and when the genie hints they should give Leslie the ability to walk again, they don’t get it.
Not to give much more away but Mulder finds himself being owed three wishes. Thinking that everyone before him was selfish, he wishes for peace on Earth only to discover he’s the only one left on Earth. And there might not even be any animals. Yes, the episode has the old fashioned theme of “It’s better to work for something than just expect it” but it also shows us how when we think we’re doing the right thing, it may not be the correct thing. It helps that by this time, Duchovny and Anderson had been so invested in their characters, we’re not surprised by their a twist on their behaviors.
But it’s Sorge who steals the show as a genie who’s spent centuries having to grant wishes to selfish people. She clearly has zero fucks left later and is screwing over people on technicalities. She hasn’t appeared in much except TV shows and hasn’t had a screen credit since 2015.
Zane Says 