2Shy ('MOW'): It's in the Music

There is so much to say about '2Shy' that has already been said: great story (a villain who loves poetry AND the fat in people's bodies), great set design (I'd love to have an apartment like the fat-eaters. . .minus the dead bodies and stuff), great casting (from Timothy Carhart (ELLIS DEWALD!) as the villain to all the mousy fat women he goes after), and classic X-Files images (bodies being reduced to slime and bone, women being gagged by an odd slime substance, etc).



But my favorite parts of '2Shy' are the things you really shouldn't notice or, in one case, shouldn't be there in the first place. To me, '2Shy' has a fantastic musical score. Mark Snow has never mailed it in but sometimes his scores are very similar. But every now and then he puts out a truly unique electronic underscore that adds to the uniqueness of an X-File. The producers of the X-Files DVDs have put his best work on the DVD menus EXCEPT the score for '2Shy'!!!

To start, the score contains a theme. I can't necessarily recall any character in the X-Files having a theme. Even the iconic X-Files theme doesn't necessarily apply to Mulder and Scully (save one sequence in the first film and the final scene of the series). But the Fat-Vampire has his own synth theme: it's very simple but unique for the show. I've tried to find files of his theme but it isn't on the various X-Files soundtracks I own or on the limited fan sites I've searched. For me, '2Shy' is many things BUT I think it's most forgotten element is the beautiful score.



Now the second thing I remember '2Shy' for is the fantastically 80s-action-film ending in which the previous 40 minutes of intelligent writing goes completely down the tubes. This is, most definitely, a set back for an otherwise great episode but I can't help but love it despite the fact that in any other story it would bring the episode/film/book down to mediocre levels. '2Shy' is too good for a bad ending to ruin it completely and the ending is done so seriously that you can't help but love it's tenaciousness.

In a matter of minutes, Mulder jumps down a three story building, lands and then slowly brings his gun up next to his face. . .Norris style! Meanwhile, Scully suddenly learns advanced martial arts, a wormy, nervous, loser-chick nicknamed Timmy becomes a solid marksman, and, in an interrogation room, Scully gets all hard boiled. Keep in mind, this is an episode about a dude who eats peoples fat! God I love how off the tracks '2Shy' gets but it's first 40 minutes is so classic X-Files that you can forgive it.