Rush

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PLOT: An unusual death prompts Mulder and Scully to investigate a high school teen who appears to have obtained the power to elude the naked eye.

NOTE: Okay...just to let everyone know that I am reviewing this episode *months* after its original airing in December, 1999 simply because my cable box decided to go "kaput" on me at that same time. So FINALLY, they show the repeat of this episode during the summer of 2000, and I was able to finally get a copy. It will be easy to review without mentioning episodes shown after this since it is a stand-alone episode rather than part of the mythology. So here goes....

"Rush" reminded me of Season 2 episodes where our favorite F.B.I. investigators would just "investigate." Sometimes, they would have interesting ones to watch and sometimes not. This one is kind of in-between. Yes, there was a paranormal event coinciding with a murder and lots of Mulder/Scully interaction. Yet, it sometimes felt as though they were just going through the motions. Far from being bored, David and Gillian just appeared to be interested enough to add some emotion to their deliveries while not necessarily feeling challenged.

The main theme of the episode is alienation. A new kid on the block, Tony Reed, has just moved to the area. Like any teenager thrust into the same situation, he is just trying to find his own niche. Instead, he ends up following the wrong crowd and trying to distinguish wrong from right. Remember how it was to be 16 and not having any idea what you're doing yet pretend you do? If you said "no," then you are one of the lucky few to know exactly what you were doing. So when Tony finds himself in the situation of having to be the one accused of murder, he follows the silent rule of not placing blame on his new "friends." This is where peer pressure gets a whole new meaning. Since Tony has no idea how the deputy was killed, he knows keeping his mouth shut will help him avoid the same fate.

So when Mulder and Scully investigate, Tony acts like any troubled teen who is essentially scared. Mulder sees this and already knows that Tony is taking the fall for someone else. The young actor who played Tony did a great job in conveying the numerous insecurities of such an awkward age. As for Max, he literally is a "junkie." In his particular case, he is not addicted to drugs but to "power." The rush that he feels from his experience in the cave has literally made him as unstable as the two teens who caused the tragic Columbine High School shootings. Most teens feel indestructible, but to actually gain a superhuman power is too often disastrous. As the old adage states "with great power comes great responsibility." Yet, Max only sees it as a way to gain popularity and power.

Unfortunately, that is also the biggest flaw in the story. Yes, Max turns out to be a bad guy, but what exactly has caused him to commit murder? If he can zip himself and Tony out of a fast car before it is crushed into a tree, why didn't he do the same when Tony was being arrested? Since his gal pal, Chastity, appears to not be as psychotic with the same power, Max obviously has more than a "discipline problem." There are bad kids and then there are truly crazy ones. Me thinks Max fits more into the latter.

Though Mulder and Scully had more than enough to do with trying to keep up with the youngsters, their moments on-screen were truly in the spirit of teamwork and cooperation. It is always amusing to note how Mulder has to make sure that all their cases have a paranormal flavor to further his interest in the case. Yet, he is insistent that the deputy was murdered due to a blunt-force trauma caused by a poltergeist or a ghost. It never occurs to him that any teen would actually be involved. That's where Scully makes herself useful. She has a feeling that Tony's friends, Max and Chastity, know something more than they care to admit. To Mulder's credit, he checks out her hunch rather than instantly dimisses it to follow his own instincts. Like I said...teamwork and cooperation.

Of course, we can't help but be amazed at Mulder's keen eye. He is the only one who finds two very different yet related clues: the melted pieces of plastic on the floor and the one lone blur in the surveillance tape. The melted rubber was kind of amusing, especially after seeing that Max had almost as many shoes in his closet as Imelda Marcos. The videotape is another thing. Remember what old Chuck said? 1/30 of a second is the elapsed time of *one* frame of a videotape. Mulder's photographic memory must also be able to slow down moving pictures, too. To see just one frame with a blur, a person would have to go back and forth a few times not to mention that it would be missed the first few times because of the fast forward or fast rewind functions. I found it almost irritating that Mulder saw it within a few *seconds* after being handed the remote. Maybe Mulder is not too old to be affected by the Rush.

Some of the special effects were very interesting. There were obvious references to the "Flash" TV series of the early 90s as well as "The Matrix" film. This is one of those rare cases where the effects really outshone the plot. In fact, the effects helped save a rather banal and predictable story. The subtle blurring of Max when he is in "rush" mode as well as the scene in the cafeteria where a table and chair seemed to "move" without any help were all well done. Of course, the bullet scene at the end was definitely outstanding from a "wow" standpoint. However, it still doesn't make the episode that much more memorable.

Overall, the episode was watchable. Take away some of the plot holes and input more Mulder/Scully moments, then the episode would have been more fun to watch. Though I will make sure not to ignore brief lapses in my X-Files videos. It could be a spectre trying to tell me something.

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