"The X Files" Monday (1999)

User Rating:

8.7/10   

Director:

Kim Manners

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator)
Vince Gilligan (written by) ...

TV Series:

"The X Files" (1993)

Original Air Date:

28 February 1999 (Season 6, Episode 14)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

A bank robbery gone wrong turns into disaster for Mulder and Scully. Mulder gets shot by the bank robber...

Plot Keywords:

Time Loop | Repeated Event | FBI | FBI Agent | Alien

Cast

David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
Mitch Pileggi	...	Assistant Director Walter Skinner
Wayne Alexander	...	Assistant Director Arnold
Darren E. Burrows	...	Bernard (as Darren Burrows)
Monique Edwards	...	Head Teller
Carrie Hamilton	...	Pam
David Michael Mullins	...	Tour Guide
Mik Scriba	...	Lieutenant Kraskow
Suanne Spoke	...	Woman Customer
Arlene Warren	...	Skinner's Assistant (as Arlene Pileggi)

Runtime:

Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Certification:

Argentina:13

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Trivia:

Scully's comment, "when did you get a water bed?", refers back to an earlier episode in season 6 'Dreamland II', when Morris Fletcher bought himself a new water bed, thinking he would be living the rest of his life in Mulder's body and put it in Mulder's bedroom. Mulder has no memory of those events so has no idea where he got his water bed from!

Goofs:

Continuity: In this episode, a key event revolves around Mulder's water bed bursting which exists theoretically because of the Dreamland episodes. However, at the end of _"The X Files" Dreamland II (1998)_, 'time snaps back' with Scully summarizing the event as making the day as if it never happened. Therefore the purchase of the water bed by Morris (as Mulder) would not have occurred. So there shouldn't be a water bed in any following episode.

Quotes:

Fox Mulder: Cover for me, will you?
Dana Scully: When have I not?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Life Serial (#6.5)" (2001)

Leaky Waterbeds

If you're not familiar with the film Groundhog Day, you should be. Watch it. It's great. This is the X-Files version of Groundhog Day. It's well done and different enough so you don't think that they are just copying Groundhog Day. This has to be one of the most shocking teasers ever, when you see Mulder and Scully get blown up by a bomb in a bank. What the heck? How are they going to get out of this one. But soon, you see that the same day just keeps repeating. Pam, the bank robber's girlfriend is the only one aware that they stuck on the same day, Monday, over and over again. Unlike Groundhog Day, where the character do the exact same thing unless Phil changes things, Mulder and Scully vary their routine and dialogue a little bit each day regardless of their interaction with Pam. She believes that Mulder is the key to escaping this time loop. This episode has a good mixture of humor in it, mainly focusing on Mulder's waterbed springing a leak. The funniest part is Scully's reaction to discovering that Mulder has a waterbed, a reference to the earlier episode "Dreamland II". And to show homage to Groundhog Day, writers Vince Gilligan and John Shiban stick two references to the movie in the episode. The first is with the title "Monday", getting the word "day" in there. The second reference is showing an old-fashioned clock in Bernard & Pam's house change from 7:16 to 7:17 just like you saw Phil's clock in Groundhog Day flip from 5:59 to 6:00. The guest actors are great. I like the touch of the boring meeting in Skinner's office. I've sat through plenty of those. But I've got to dock it a couple of points for lack of originality. If you liked Groundhog Day, you should like Monday and the always interesting concept of being stuck in the same day over and over again.