Theatre of the Mind ~ Synchrony
If you had asked me to tell you what this episode was about before I sat down and watched it again, I would have described it by saying that it was Part II of the "SY" trilogy: You know, "Syzygy," "Synchrony," and "Schizogeny." Just kidding. But actually, it is a pretty accurate description, since "Synchrony" is sorta like the middle part of most trilogies: forgettable. But since ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or die, here you go anyway.
1. Synchrony: Simultaneous occurrence.
2. Supposedly, the opening scenes of this episode mirror scenes from the film, "Back to the Future." Hmm. I don't recall. Maybe from "Back to the Future Part II."
3. The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century. Well, don't say I didn't warn you.
4. This old guy seems to know when people are going to die. Mr. Bruckman? Bye, bye to banana cream pie.
5. It does appear that the cards are stacked against Lucas. It is his density!
6. Thank God for Indiglo watches!
7. In the immortal words of Agent Dana Scully: My medical opinion? BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! Splat.
8. TWC1: Oh my. You just keep that leg up on the desk, Agent Mulder. I'll enjoy the view.
9. Let's go to the videotape!
10. TWC2: Woo-hoo! Well, the view of the nicely wrapped packages didn't last long, but I like the pencil behind the ear sittin' right next to Scully. That would make my highlight reel for sure.
11. Do my ears deceive me? Scully makes a grim reaper joke?
12. Didn't you want Mulder to say, "Please explain to me the scientific nature of the icicle?"
13. Scully's just a wee bit embarrassed that she didn't think of the thermometer in the ear before she got so excited.
14. Hope they solve this case before Mulder runs out of cold-weather puns.
15. TWC3: I like it when people tell Mulder stories that perplex him, cause he does such nice things with those lips! Hoo-boy!
16. Cryobiology is his specialty. And Jason's fingerprints are in the patrol car. I think I might have this figured out even faster than Spooky Mulder!
17. Mr. Yonechi should beware of geeks bearing hotel rooms with a view of the river.
18. For future reference, vitrification is the process of making something into a glassy substance, especially through heat fusion.
19. Looks like Mr. Yonechi's got a bad case of freezer burn.
20. Lisa's still working at 10:22 p.m.? She should work for the F.B.I.
21. Ahh, vitrification! That's what's missing! I told you I had this figured out already.
22. TWC4: Luckily, while Lisa and Scully discuss a lot of scientific stuff I don't understand, Mulder stands around and looks good. That I *do* understand.
23. Bringing people who appear to be dead back to life? You expect us to believe that?
24. I don't even want to know what's causing that yellow water.
25. "This isn't gonna work." Scully, you'd better adjust your attitude before Season 8, young lady!
26. The new Mulder motto: "Well, if he's already dead, then he's got nothing to lose." ROTFLMAO!
27. I like how Scully starts explaining what *we* did to Dr. Yonechi. I didn't see her do anything.
28. Ouch! I've had that happen when I tried to cook frozen waffles in the toaster oven too quickly.
29. "Dear Diary, today my heart leapt when Agent Scully witnessed spontaneous human combustion."
30. I just remembered that Dr. Yonechi suffered an untimely death in "Firewalker" too, skewered through the throat by a piece of asparagus. (Well, you know.) He got to die twice this time.
31. "I question now if we should have removed him from the tub." Well, duh.
32. If the old Jason has a heart attack while trying to keep up with the young Lisa, will the young Jason cease to exist? I don't really care at this point, I'm just asking.
33. It's an old story. Boy takes fall for brainy beauty who falsified scientific data.
34. I always like how Mulder pulls Scully aside to talk to her privately when she is barking up the wrong tree.
35. M&S in bed together!!!!! Okay, they're sitting on it. It was technically true.
36. Come on, Scully, even I had this figured out a while back. (Though I did like hearing Scully say "What?" twice, "when was the photograph never taken?" and "Back from the future?".)
37. Actually, I know what would pep up this episode! Moose and Squirrel could go back in time to 1955 to try and keep Jason's parents from getting married, thus he would have never been born, the compound never would have been invented, Fox and Dana could go to the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance, fall in love, kiss, and when they got back to good old 1997, their own future would be changed! They would be married, live in a nice house in the suburbs, have a Labrador Retriever named Quequeeg, and three precocious children, the youngest of whom would be named Marty Mulder!! (Where have I heard that name before?)
38. "And if your sister is your aunt and your mother marries your uncle, you'd be your own grandpa." Scully, you crack me up!
39. Mulder, where's that eidetic memory when you need it? Rewriting Einstein was her *senior* thesis, not her *graduate* thesis.
40. Subatomic particles that can travel faster than the speed of light and go back in time, but only for a few seconds and only at a temperature of absolute zero. :::yawn::: A DeLorean is so much cooler, don't you think?
41. I expected that Lisa was frigid the first time I saw her. (And I guess she has learned now that her mom was right: Yes, your face *will* freeze that way!)
42. TWC5: Mulder is glad to be on the other side of springing someone from the joint. And he looks so tasty too!
43. Mulder tells Jason that he may have come back to kill himself. Would that be murder or suicide?
44. "It puts a whole new spin on being your own worst enemy, huh?" Good one.
45. In Scully's absence, Jason gets to utter Scully's line: "It's science fiction."
46. TWC6: Holy Flaming Cow! Though I feel Mulder should watch the road a little more, I can't resist him driving that car and seeing him through that rainy windshield! Woo freakin' hoo!
47. You knew Mulder would have a theory and he'd want to share.
48. When Mulder tells Jason to go find Scully, I think Jason should have said, "Who?" To my recollection, Jason hasn't met Scully in this episode. (No wonder he didn't find her.)
49. What exactly is the normal purpose of the "frostbite bay"? Is there also a "hypothermia" bay? A "frozen stiff" bay? A "popsicle" bay?
50. Lucky Mulder came across that helpful research assistant at just the right time!
51. Dern! No "Mulder, it's me" moment, but we do get a "Where are you?"
52. Didn't you want Mulder to say, "Please explain to me the scientific nature of 'whacked'"?
53. When the two Jason's meet, it was sort of like when Marty met himself in Back to the Future-wasn't that in Part II too? I forget.
54. Much as I like to see Running!Mulder most anytime, I wish he'd get to wherever he's going. I feel like I'm in a Hertz commercial. (Maybe he's practicing for a Lariat TV spot.)
55. Do you think Mulder ever thought it might be a good idea to use the fire extinguisher to put out the fire, rather than to break the glass?
56. Lisa survives her dip in the yellow bathwater. (It's probably a big practical joke in the old frostbite bay to throw a Baby Ruth in there from time to time too!)
57. MSRM: Awww, he might not have remembered it was her *senior* thesis, but he memorized it. How sweet is that? I bet he's spent many a late night laying on his couch, reading her thesis, fantasizing about her twin paradoxes, and . . . whoa, better stop before we get into NC-17 material. To quote Huey Lewis, "That's the power of love."
58. It appears that by saving Lisa, Scully altered the future after all and allowed the research to continue, so that the compound, and ultimately time travel, will be discovered one day. But as *we* all know, Moose & Squirrel already know the secret of time travel. How else to explain how they are able to get from one coast to the other in an hour or so, or how they get from the Hoover to Quantico in a matter of minutes in rush-hour traffic. The laws of quantum physics already don't apply to these two.
59. It was just like I said. "Synchrony" isn't a bad way to kill an hour but in its own way it does have the "part 2" trilogy curse: it's just filler till we get to the good stuff at the end of Season 4. So that's it. There isn't any more. That's all there is of this TOTM. What, you didn't like it? You thought it lacked creativity, and originality, and substance? You wish you had been able to go back in time and put a stop to this TOTM before it was even begun?
60. "You were a lot more open-minded when you were a youngster."
Apologies to Michael J. Fox, Bob Zemeckis, John DeLorean, and trilogies in general; and to all of you, of course!
Polly