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GENDER BENDER 1.14
() 90's style - 90's Bangs a-plenty. also those dark-colored "Night At the Roxbury" suits with a black tshirt in the club scenes. Scully prominently rocks a double-breasted pant suit.
() 90's tech - You couldn't pay me enough to touch one of those coin-op "Horoscope" machines in a nightclub. Not a lot of tech in this one, which stands to reason given it deals with a Quaker-like society. Only a couple quick cell phone appearances by pre-Alex Krycek Nicholas Lea in the club and Scully as they're making their way to the last victim's apartment.
() 90's life - The 90's club scenes are something to behold: harken back to a time when a place would coat every conceivable surface in that "diamond plate" pattern in an effort to look industrial cool.
There's a literal panning shot of a white pickett fence in the small Massachusetts town - either making sure they showcased the '90's symbol of 'Small Town America' or a nod to "Pickett Fences", which would have been airing at this point. I can definitely recall being in some apartments like that one torward the end of the episode with collaged magazine pictures on the walls and strung up christmas and rope lights - I
fully expected to see the 'liquor bottle with the highlighter filler under a black light' setup as well.
Notes: I was *very* nervous going into this one: I didn't recall how delicately (or not) the gender roles and changing were handled but it doesn't come off as offensive or negative. It's definitely a topic I
don't remember many shows handling except for making it a punchline; it was definitely a different era. Mulder and Scully don't make light of the gender of the killer, only questioning whether they're dealing with a male or female. No jokes, no stereotypes. Nicholas Lea's 'Club Guy' has some problematic lines about 'the club scene being so simple' and showing real discomfort about the possibility that his club hookup was a man, probably echoing an attitude of the early 90's. If anything, the "Kindred" (filling in as a combination of Quakers, Amish and possibly Hutterite populations) get the harshest treatment with the shopkeeper wondering aloud if they're performing "voodoo" and "as long as they bring in the tourists" lines before they're established or characterized.
