Lord of the Flies

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PLOT: An unusual death of a teenager during the taping of a strange reality show prompts Reyes and Doggett for Scully's help.

There is the old adage that "truth is stranger than fiction." The only reality show that I admit to ever having been interested in were MTV's "Road Rules" and "Real World." Though the people on them weren't always the most entertaining to watch, unlike some of the current crop of reality series like "Survivor" or "Fear Factor", people are not purposely out to stab someone else in the back. If the people turned out to be spoiled brats or in dire need of a prescription of Xanax, then that was totally unscripted and only highlighting that real people are not as "polished" as television characters. As for the reality show, "Dumb Ass Show," which is definitely a "Not Ready for TV Viewing...Ever!" kind of show, it makes you fearful that there are actually teens out there that act this ridiculous and don't get paid for it. Worse yet, they are our future leaders.

Yet, the real plot of the episode isn't about a bunch of teens making total fools of themselves in living color. It's about a teenager going through "change," otherwise known as "teen angst." The series has certainly tackled that subject matter before. Though Season 2's "D.P.O." was much better and Season 7's "Rush" was only marginally more interesting than "Lord of the Flies," the plots are essentially similar. A normal everyday teen, who is usually ostracized from the "clicks" of their divergent teen circles, suddenly emerges with some superhuman ability and wreaks havoc with everyone he knows. Nothing truly original about the premise, just the ability. In "Lord of the Flies," Dylan is like an Aquaman to the local flies. They do his bidding.

The one thing that seems to be common to all three episodes is the misguided love factor. Dylan hates Bill, or as he is commonly known on the "Dumb Ass Show" as "Captain Dare," simply because he is dating Natalie, the young woman that Dylan pines for. Remember that Darrin in "D.P.O." pined for Mrs. Caveat and Tony in "Rush" pined for Chastity. The scary thing is that both Darrin and Dylan kill without malice simply as a means to get the ones they desire. At least Tony tried to save Chastity from her murderous boyfriend, Max. Is all this starting to sound like an episode of "Dawson's Creek?"

It's bad enough what the average teen has to endure. Poor Dylan finds out that puberty not only reveals his maturation into adulthood, but that he is also a freak of nature. How exactly does a hybrid human/insect exist? We find out that his mother killed his father. Will Dylan have to kill his mother or are they the last of their kind? As usual, this typical mutated conundrum is never explained.

Lest we forget that the regulars were ignored, there is some funny interaction between Reyes/Doggett and Rocky/Scully. I loved how Reyes and Doggett hesitated when the medical examiner asked them if they were "the experts." Even though they are now manning the X-Files, it seemed as though they weren't really sure if they were "the experts". Considering that they had never seen anything like this particular dead body, their hesitation was made more humorous by the arrival of Scully, who is truly "the expert." When even Scully is stumped by the death, the medical examiner decides to bring in another "expert," the insect specialist, Dr. Rocky Bronzino or simply "Rocky." His heavy flirting with Scully made the episode somewhat watchable. When he talked about the mating rituals of flies, did Dr. Bambi come to mind? At least Scully had something to do in this episode, even though most of it dealt with rebuffing Rocky's advances towards her. I guess he forgot she carries a gun.

When pheromones are revealed to be a clue, Doggett makes the crack about seeing ads for pheromones like the "Spanish Fly" in the back of smut magazines. Scully seemed shocked that Doggett revealed a similar hobby to her man, Mulder. While Reyes seemed shocked that Doggett would read smut. Later, when they were viewing an episode of "Dumb Ass," Reyes was even more surprised to find that Doggett was actually *enjoying* the loony antics of the local youth. It seems there is more to her partner than she initially realized. Too bad the writer didn't expand on those themes a bit more.

After the last few episodes dealt with more character revelation between Doggett and Reyes, this episode was a bit of a downer in that regard. They didn't really seem to be involved with the case that much. "Flies" is definitely reminiscent of many standard MOTW episodes from the Mulder/Scully era where the plot revolved all around them without their direct involvement. They just happened to stumble across some of the evidence or the victims. Nothing truly interactive to say the least.

For the most part, this MOTW episode is the usual run of the mill fare when nothing else inspiring happens to the writers. It does have some interesting interaction between the Big 3 - Scully, Doggett and Reyes. However, the plot seemed so contrived and seemingly borrowed elements from the previously mentioned episodes that it was not as enjoyable to watch as the past two weeks' worth.

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