"The X Files" Fight Club (2000)

Director:

Paul Shapiro

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator)
Chris Carter (written by)

TV Series:

"The X Files" (1993)

Original Air Date:

7 May 2000 (Season 7, Episode 20)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

Two strikingly similar women, who do not know one another, cause people to erupt into violence upon each other...

Plot Keywords:

FBI | FBI Agent | Alien | X Files | Conspiracy

Cast

David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Cory Blevins	...	Missionary #1
Brian Chenoweth	...	Koko's Manager #1
Randall 'Tex' Cobb	...	Bert Zupanic
Art Evans	...	Argyle Saperstein
Kathy Griffin	...	Betty Templeton / Lulu Pfeiffer
Jim Hanna	...	Koko's Manager #2
Steve Kiziak	...	Man Who Looks Like Mulder
Gene LeBell	...	Bartender
John Mack	...	Customer #3
Jack McGee	...	Bob Damfuse
Christopher Michael	...	Trusty
John O'Brien	...	Missionary #2
Richard Rossi	...	Witness #2
Rob Van Dam	...	Burt's opponent
Arlene Warren	...	Woman Who Looks Like Scully (as Arlene Pileggi)

Runtime:

Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

USA:TV-14 | Argentina:13

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Quotes:

Scully: Mr Danfous, I am Special Agent Dana Scully with the FBI.
Bob Damphouse: What's so special about ya?
Scully: It's an FBI title, sir.
Bob Damphouse: I know it is. I'm not stupid!

Movie Connections:

References Fight Club (1999)

The first rule of Fight Club is - you do not talk about Fight Club.

I'm going to talk about Fight Club anyway, the much maligned episode, that many people categorize as the worst X-Files episode. I wouldn't go that far. I feel that people take episodes like these too seriously. These tongue-in-cheek episodes need to be taken with a grain of salt. Don't expect too much from them, and you won't be disappointed. Granted, this is not a great episode, but it's still half-way decent.

One thing that jumps out right away is how do Mulder and Scully find out about Bert Zupanic? They're searching for Betty Templeton and they arrive at Zupanic's door with a newspaper photo of him and Betty Templeton or Lulu Pfeiffer. No explanation is given on how they connected him to the two women or how they came across the photograph.

Later, Scully meets Mulder at an auditorium, and she dumps all this information that she has supposedly uncovered on Lulu Pfeiffer and Betty Templeton and how they have been following each other around the country for the past 17 years, leaving devastation in their wake. I'm sorry but there is no way that Scully would find out the specific of information in so short amount of time.

The funniest part of the episode is when Scully goes to the local jail and finds Mr. Damfuse, the father of Betty and Lulu. He screams at Scully, which are some of the best lines of the episode. Another thing of note is that whenever Damfuse talks, a weird sound plays. It's very odd.

Another thing that caught my eye is that the manager, Mr. Saperstein takes Zupanic's money that is owed him, but then acts is as if he never received it. He then happily takes money from Lulu and Betty later on at the fight. The last thing about the episode that troubled me is at the end when Mulder and Scully are giving an exposition to explain the events of the episode. They are giving this exposition to Mr. Saperstein in their office, for who knows what reason. I imagine it's just a plot device in order to be able to explain things.

Fight Club is kind of a confusing episode with a very odd story. But I think that Kathy Griffin and Randall Cobb did a fine job in their guest roles as the doppelgangers and the man they both loved. Sure, Fight Club has numerous problems, but its still fun to watch. And if do like this widely hated episode, remember the second rule of Fight Club: You do not talk about Fight Club.