Sunday, November 15, 2009

Season 7, Episode 21: Je Souhaite

Synopsis

A lazy and insubordinate employee at a Missouri self-storage business named Anson Stokes is ordered to clean out one of the units that hasn't been paid for. Anson discovers a mysterious woman rolled up in a carpet. When his boss finds that he's disappeared, he starts calling after him, only to have his mouth disappear. The boss goes to Mulder and Scully, having gotten a ragged new mouth carved into his face, and blames Anson for his condition because he told him to shut up right before it happened.

The agents visit Anson's residence at a trailer park, where he lives with his paraplegic brother Leslie; they notice a huge luxury yacht there, as well as the woman. They also check out the storage unit, where the unaged woman appears in a 1970s picture of an overweight man with a couple of babes at his side. Back at the trailer park, it turns out that woman is a genie, and that the the boss's mouth and boat are a result of Anson's first two wishes. The genie, who is very big on specifics, grants his last wish to turn invisible at will and disappears. Anson is run down by a truck soon after while trying to cross a road.

The body is eventually found, and Scully is fascinated by his invisibility (using a dusting powder to bring Anson to sight). Mulder discovers that the man in the photo became an overnight millionaire but died a rather unusual and unpleasant death. He also finds that the woman appears in videos with Benito Mussolini and Richard Nixon. Leslie unrolls the genie and wishes for Anson to return from the dead (embarrassing Scully, who has told some a Harvard medical team about the Amazing Invisible Man who is no longer there).

Leslie then specifies that the zombie-like Anson should be able to talk; Anson gives off a long scream, then relates the unpleasantness of his deathlike characteristics. Leslie wishes for legs, right before a chilly Anson blows up the trailer while trying to light the stove. Mulder unrolls the genie and finds that she's been around for 500 years, becoming a genie herself after wishing for great power and long life. Going off her complaint that everyone is always selfish with their wishes, Mulder asks for peace on Earth. She responds by removing the entire planet's population, and Mulder's second wish undoes it. Scully convinces Mulder that trying again for worldwide peace is too risky and could take away the entire human experience, so for his third wish, Mulder grants the genie's own desire to live a normal life.

Will Sasso, who plays Leslie Stokes, is a regular on MADtv. Kevin Weisman, who plays Anson Stokes, also played Marshall Flinkman on Alias.

Episode Body Count


Anson Stokes: hit by a truck while invisible; later brought back to life on a wish from his brother, but killed when his trailer blows up due to a gas leak.


Henry Flanken: a former genie recipient who died of chronic morbid tumescence and extreme priapic condition, ie an overly massive erection.


Leslie Stokes: killed in the trailer explosion.

Humans: 3
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (160/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,725
Creatures: 114
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,901

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