Hey everyone, PushingUpRoses here and today I am in a mood for something silly, memorable,
and Cher-centric, so I decided to break down The Post-Modern Prometheus, a stand alone
episode from The X-Files. And when I say stand alone, I mean it; not only does it not follow
the overarching plot of the show, it was shot differently, has all of these cheesy pop culture
references, and I’d say you could even consider this more of a fantasy episode that just happened
to use the characters, it may not even be canon to the show’s mythology. This isn’t
uncommon for the X-Files - in fact most of the series consists of what show creator Chris
Carter calls “Monster of the week” episodes; the show ramps up its main storyline as the
seasons go and they become fewer, but this particular episode REALLY stands out among
the others. The title references Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein; The Modern Prometheus is the
book’s subtitle, though it has since been dropped over the years. This episode takes
a lot from the Frankenstein mythos, it was shot in black and white to reference the films,
and the plot involves scientists doing unethical testing to create a monster who really isn’t
all that monstrous. Maybe MAN was the monster all along and all that jazz, you know the
story. A lot of people consider this a classic and one of the best stand-alone episodes in
the entire series - I think it’s a campy ride with some loose ends that drive me absolutely
bonkers, but we’ll get into that later. For now, let’s get cheesy.
The episode begins with a shot of a comic book
called The Great Mutato with an illustration of a two headed monster skulking about. At
least I think it’s Mutato. Maybe it’s Mutato, like tomato. Mutayto, Mutahto, let’s
call the whole thing off.
We transition from the comic book into real life, and right away I feel the B-movie, almost
pulp fiction style the writers were going for, and the macabre waltz like music that
plays definitely helps with the atmosphere. An 18 year old boy and his friend are off
to go to a comic book convention, despite his mom’s reservations. His friend’s name
is Booger. Not important to the plot, but important to me personally that I point this
out. Mom: “You drive careful Booger, he’s the only son I got.”
The woman, whose name is Shaineh, is seen later that night enjoying some late night
trash and doesn’t seem to notice her house is being covered in tarp. The intruder starts
frying up what looks to be a McDonald’s sausage patty, and the house fills with smoke.
And then… Cher. Yes, Cher. You know. Scully: “The one who is married to Sonny.” Her
cover of The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore starts playing.” The Great Mutato, and yes
it’s MUTATO, as in mutant, peeks through the door. At first I thought he was going
to murder her, but no person murders someone to the sweet sounds of Cher, this is clearly
someone with a sensitive soul.
Mulder and Scully receive a letter from Shaineh. She explains that 18 years ago, she felt a
presence in her house. She fell asleep, and three days later, she was pregnant, and had
a son named Izzy. She mentions she found out about Mulder from the Jerry Springer show,
which is hilarious to think about - you gotta wonder how the public feel about Mulder and
what kind of conspiracy theory shows and YouTube videos he’d be in if he were a real figure
in the present. Shaineh is writing because it happened again - she saw the monster, conked
out for three days, and woke up pregnant; Mulder is intrigued enough to check it out.
MMMM Perk Soda, my favorite. Scully asks Shaineh about her son. Shaineh: “Izzy, that’s
him there.” So cute, but who’s the one on the left?” Scully asks if the intruder
did anything physical to her, and Shaineh seems quite sure that there was no physical
union, she just woke up pregnant; furthermore, she had her tubes tied. Shaineh: “You can’t
plant a seed in a barren field.” That’s one way to put it. So it’s unlikely she
was physically assaulted, but we’re still talking about an unconsented pregnancy; Shaineh
doesn’t seem very upset about it and is more intent on finding the creature that did
this. Scully finds a comic book in her son’s room with the monster Shaineh described on
cover; it’s the Great Mutato, a character her son created. Speaking of, Izzy gets home
just in time to meet the two agents. Shaineh: “This is Agent Mulder and Agent Scully from
the FBI.” Izzy: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation?” No Izzy, the Female Body
Inspector. Mulder and Scully start to believe it’s all made up after seeing the comic,
but Izzy insists the monster is real and tries to lure him into view with a peanut butter
sandwich. Scully isn’t impressed, and thinks they have been brought there under false pretenses.
Scully: “I think what we’re seeing is an example of a culture for whom daytime talk
shows and tabloid headlines have become a reality against which they measure their lives.
Strangely prescient. Mulder wants to give Shaineh’s story a chance. Scully: “Is
there anything you don’t believe in Mulder?” A consistently good haircut?
Suddenly, they hear moaning off in the distance. *Mutato Moaning* *Gibberish Batman Dance Meme
music plays*
They do see Mutato, but he manages to escape quickly because they waited a fucking thousand
miles away from the bait and couldn’t get to him in time. Yep. It’s bread.
Everyone attempts to chase him, but are intercepted by a man that tells them to get off their
property. He insists they are no monsters, and suggests they go talk to a real monster;
his son, scientist Dr. Pollidori.
Assistant: “What do you want me to do with these Dr. Pollidori?” (flies escape) And
this is how the plague started.
Dr. Pollidori tells Mulder and Scully all about the genetic testing he’s been doing
on fruit flies in a very stylized, mad scientist inspired scene. “But which I through my
genius, can alter into a creation of my own. Pollidori: “Behold…” The extra WIDE
fly. The fly has legs growing out of his mouth. Mulder asks why he would do this, and Pollidori
gives no other reason than: Pollidori: “because I can.” He also says that it’s possible
to do this type of testing on humans.
Wife: “When are you coming home again?” Pollidori: “Huh?”
Wife: “When are you coming home again?” Pollidori: “What???”
Me: WHEN ARE YOU COMING HOME AGAIN? GODDAMN-
This is Dr. Pollidori’s wife, who really wants children. The doctor does not. “Which
do you want, a baby or a Nobel Prize?” Well let’s see…nobel peace prize comes with
money, children come with diarrhea… gonna have to think about it. She gets upset and
dramatically throws herself on this oversized doily. Won’t some mutant beast give me a
child?! The next day, Mulder makes a visit to the town’s diner, where he is very admired.
Like… VERY admired. The town is pleased Mulder believes the legend of the Mutato and
looks at him like he’s a hero for trying to find it. An article was published in the
paper, and it was because Izzy recorded a conversation between him and Scully, and sold
it to the tabloids. He is of course, in big trouble. Izzy: What’d I do?” Shaineh:
“I hope the answer to that question is nothing.” Scully pops in: Hello! Izzy admits to doing
it because he wanted publicity for his great mutato comic book, and shows them the tape
recorder he used. But hey, what do you know! The recorder also has a Cher song on it! Shaineh:
“Hey, that’s it! That’s the song that was playing when I got knocked up.” it also
captured Mutato singing to it, and we cut to this amazing scene of him dancing and singing
in the Pollidari house.” (Cher plays) This is amazing.
Scully gets back the medical reports on Shaineh, proving that she did have a tubal ligation,
followed by two positive pregnancy tests. As they are driving, Mulder notices the Pollidori
house covered in fumigation tarp, and the two rush inside. I’m hesitant to play it
due to copyright reasons, but Cher’s Gypsies Tramps and Thieves play during this scene
and it’s a mood. It’s both ridiculous and brilliant and I never want it to end.
Unfortunately the house is still filled with gas, and they pass out next to Pollidori’s
wife. Presumably for three days. Great, so are they pregnant too?
Dr. Pollidori is not impressed. Mulder asks him if he knows something they don’t, and
Mulder drops this bomb. “I’m accusing that your wife may have been impregnated.”
Oh wow, she perked right up. I don’t care WHO the father is, I just want a child! A
mutant child will do!
They find some strange residue on a frying pan in the house, as well as an empty, extra
large jar of peanut butter.
Meanwhile, Mutato is watching one of his favorite movies, Mask, starring Cher, of course. The
movie is about a boy with a rare bone disorder, causing calcium to build up in the skull which
creates facial deformities. The boy is loved by his friends and family, and particularly
by his mom, played by Cher. Scully: “The one married to Sonny.” Pollidori Senior
gives him a peanut butter sandwich, and calls him son.
While Pollidori Sr is looking through a photo album of him and Mutato, his son barges in,
accusing his father of impregnating his wife. They get into a fight, and Dr. Pollidori murders
him.
The town is looking for someone to blame for the attack on Pollidori’s wife, and Izzy
gets briefly accused before his mom comes in to defend him. Scully finds Mulder and
tells him the residue on the frying pan was from an anesthetic used on herds of animals,
and farmers have to register with the FDA to get it. Pollidori Sr was the only one registered
in the town. Mutato finds Pollidori Sr and weeps with grief - he decides to bury him
in the barn. Mulder and Scully find the anesthetic, the grave, and also run into a reporter who
had seen Mutato burying his father - she assumes Mutato must be the murderer. Dr. Pollidori
rounds up an angry mob and insists they must find and bring the monster to justice. Justice
meaning burning things with torches. Again, this is lifted almost exactly from the 1931
Frankenstein film, and even though I know that, I could really only think of Beauty
and the Beast. Friggin’ Gaston, you know? (Kill the beast! Kill the beast!)
So these assholes storm the barn, which seems like a terrible idea considering they just
brought torches into a place filled with hay.
While the mob is distracted, Mulder and Scully search the cellar under the house and find…
a Cher Shrine! Dang, this monster is obsessed. “Snap out of it!”
They discover Mutato hiding in the corner. Yes… you found me. And me.
Mulder tells Scully they have to get him out of there, or the mob will kill him. Speaking
of! “The barn’s on fire!!!” Oh really? Who could have seen that coming?? I can’t
belieeeeeve this shiii-iiiit.
The reporter spots Mutato peeping out of the cellar, and the entire mob goes down to attack
him. Pollidori claims that his father is the one who created the so-called monster, but
Mutato begins to speak, surprising everyone. He tells them it was Dr. Pollidori who created
him with horrible experiments. Pollidori sr found out and rescued him, then raised him
like a son, unbeknownst to Pollidori jr. He lived his life in the barn and desired friends,
or a companion - so his new father tried to learn science to try and recreate one for
him. That being said, I have NO idea how they managed to impregnate these women or whose
sperm they used. It is implied the father tried to create hybrids using farm animals.
Shaineh: “But… who’s the father?” *pig oinks* Are they implying that she is
pregnant with a pig baby?? It’s not explained, mind you. Just implied. It’s further implied
by the photos of her son Izzy next to a pig, and all the references to pigs, and barns
throughout the episode. Shaineh: “This pigsty is Izzy’s room.” Mutato doesn’t really
answer, he’s just like “eh heh the experiments didn’t work.” He pleads with Pollidori
to make him a mate.” Pollidori: “I don’t know how to recreate you. You were a mistake.”
Mutato admits that what they were did was wrong. He also explains that during the 3
days the women were being impregnated, he went through their records and books and became
cultured, and for whatever reason, despite violating these women’s bodies, they side
with Mutato. Izzy: “Hey, he’s no monster!” He’s a Cher fan! So instead, Pollidori is
arrest for the murder of his own father. Mulder laments, saying that it isn’t fair that
Mutato doesn’t get a bride because hell, even Frankenstein gets a chance to look for
love. In a very meta moment, Mulder asks to speak to the writer of The Great Mutato, who
is Izzy, presumably so he can demand he change the ending.
Now for the best part - the end scene shows Mulder and Scully taking Mutato to a Cher
concert, where she performs Walking in Memphis. Oh my god, what is HAPPENING. As the crowd
cheers, Mulder and Scully share a dance. Gosh, how romantic. It ends by fading into the last
page of the comic book and… wait a minute. What happened to Mulder’s EYE? It shifted
like an inch up. I am pretty sure this is now John Travolta. Like oh mah god mistah
Kottah muh EYE. I stared at this last screen for SO long, consumed by the weirdness of
Mulder’s right eye, these zombie-like looking people in the crowd, and this phantom hand
that seems to be attached to nothing.
Okay, so let’s think about this for a second. And I do mean literally a second because that’s
all the time you need to understand some of the implications in this episode. The way
I’ve come to understand it is that in order to make a mate for Mutato, the farmer, who
was not a man of science, tried his best at haphazardly experimenting with animals in
order to create some kind of hybrid. Now, where this fits into impregnating the women,
I don’t know. I don’t know what happened in those three days; it doesn’t seem like
they were impregnated with intercourse, it seems like it was some kind of weird in vitro
thing that didn’t pan out because Pollidori Sr didn’t know what the fuck was going on,
and when Mutato is speaking at the end, I started to get squicked out because the camera
would pan over all these animals. Now, you cannot create a human embryo with animal cells,
it’s not possible, and I don’t even know if that’s where the episode is going, but
considering it’s focus is on genetic testing, playing god, and this IS the X-Files, I wouldn’t
put it past the writers. I just couldn’t ignore all the creepy foreshadowing that involved
the farm animals. If I am wrong, then we’re looking at rape apology and the father could
either be Mutato or Pollidori Sr, but Shaineh’s tubal ligation story leads me to believe the
pregnancies happened in some way using some kind of fictional scientific process, or it
could have have happened paranomally. It could also just be a comparison between man and
beast, but it seemed pretty direct. Either way, no matter whose cells were used to impregnate
these women, they still had their bodies violated. Yet, they are very happy and satisfied, so...I
don’t know. Also, Mutato is now 25, is he supposed to just wait for these babies they
wanted to create to be of age so he can have a partner? We’re obviously supposed to be
more comfortable with the women’s unconsented pregnancies because Mrs. Pollidori at the
very least wanted children, but Shaineh had a tubal ligation after her son, the exact
OPPOSITE of wanting children, there was only a small attempt to make Mutato look more virtuous
than he actually was. And that wasn’t even the point, Pollidori Sr had no sympathy for
the wife’s desire for children, he didn’t experiment on her to grant her some beautiful
wish, and Shaineh clearly didn’t expect to get pregnant again. Mutato: Mutato: “But
in our tresspasses, we gave you a loving son.” She didn’t ask for one, Mutato! Cher: “Snap
out of it!” He just wanted to keep trying to recreate another mutant for Mutato to play
with, and comes across just as cold as Pollidori Sr. “Because I can.” The story really
focuses on these women and their mysterious pregnancy; that is what brings the X-Files
agents to the town in the first place, and that is the conundrum we need to figure out,
but I’m really not sure if it works alongside the Frankenstein mythos. If I were to script
doctor this I think I would have gone full body snatcher, had characters experiment on
the dead, dead animals, maybe live animals...though that would likely be too close to the material
it inspired. As you can see I am both amused and conflicted with this idea. I understand
why the episode was so well received; on a production level, it’s really well done;
it was shot with a wide angle camera lens, and because of that the actors look and speak
directly to the camera, giving it this simultaneously dramatic AND cheesy feel. It pays decent homage
to Frankenstein, specifically to the 1931 movie as I mentioned earlier, and there are
lines lifted directly from the book itself. Though sometimes the concept is really pushed
onto the audience, as though Carter himself didn’t trust them. Mulder: “Good night
Dr. Frankenstein.” Yes, if you hadn’t figured it out, this is a parody of Frankenstein.
Thanks for the reminder. It gets really heavy handed, especially when Mulder goes on his
spiels about mad scientists and playing god; the episode is already called The Post-Modern
Prometheus, we don’t need it called out SO directly.
Most people assume the end scene with the Cher concert is fanciful, but I’d argue
that the entire episode is. It just doesn’t really tie into any of the X-Files lore, and
there are many hints to suggest it’s purely fictional within the show - specifically,
I noticed everyone in the town Mulder and Scully were in had these extremely old cars,
not just a few people, but most of them - you can see them in the ending sequence. Even
some of the backdrops are clearly fake, as though it was just a set provided for the
storyline, it reads like a short film within an episode. I almost forgot to mention the
biggest indicator for the episode being fantastical, and that is the fact that we open with the
comic book transitioning into the story, then transitioning back at the very end, though
it’s a little confusing to think that we’re just being told the comic book, when the comic
book is IN the episode.
Overall I liked it because it’s SO absurd, absurdity with good production quality. Now
I am a Cher fan, so I ate up these references and the songs scattered throughout. Again,
they push the point too hard by referencing the movie Mask, but I couldn’t help but
enjoy the hell out of this bizarre-ass plot. “Cher loved that little boy so much.”
That she did, Mutato. That she did. It also has the best ending of ANY X-Files episode,
but I can’t really put behind some of those insinuations. If you can look past those it
is a fun time with a lot of pop culture references, good acting, and nice aesthetics. Or you can
skip the whole thing and watch that ending, fist bumping to Cher’s cover of Walking
in Memphis. Yes, what a banger. I think I will bestow upon this the most Questable Episode
Award. It’s fun, it’s bizarre, it’s a lil problematic. Yep, it’s Questionable.
All right. Good talk.
If you have an off-the-rails episodes of the X-Files you are just dying to see me talk
about, please leave a suggestion in the comment section, I do take them into consideration.
And until then… the truth is out there.
Hey everyone, thanks for watching my video on The Post-Modern Prometheus - I hope you
enjoyed it. I have more X-Files content on my channel that I’d love to show you, but
first a quick shoutout to my patrons, who paid for this video to be made! Isn’t it
good to know your tips and donations are going to a good cause? Thank you so much for all
your support and donations, it really means a lot to me.
If you want to see more content from me, I have a few recommendations on the screen - on
the left I have another episode breakdown on the X-Files, and on the right I have a
wonderful little review on the X-Files live action FMV game. Definitely check those out
for all your Mulder and Scully shipping needs. Thanks again and I’ll see you in the next
one.