Not one of the best, but still watchable for me. They really screwed up the subject matter; the Jersey Devil is a winged beast, not an unwashed woman. It was dissapointing to see that they totally went against the legends of the Devil in favor of something so mundane.
I can understand Renard's opinion. I never minded this episode that much and considering the budget of the first season, it would have been impossible to represent the Devil as it's been described. There's an article in the Lexicon's Paranormal Omnibus that has an illustration of what the Devil is alleged to look like.
Considering that CGI animation was still in a pretty crude form in 1993, there wasn't much of a chance a Devil would have looked anything other than cheesy. A Mechanical puppet would have looked disastrous. Taking everything into account, I found it clever that they basically grafted the Devil legend with Wild Men legends. To each his own.
Either way it was a cool story. I love how the character of Mulder isn't afraid to put himself out there. He really gets into his investigations. He posed as a homeless man LOL
Have you not watched the episode yet, AgentMomo? And I'm also from Jersey, so the JD legend is close to me too. And this ain't the Jersey Devil!
LexiconMatt, I wouldn't have wanted them using crappy CGI, but surely they could have come up with something. They produced half men/half worms, werewolves and a variety of other monsters, surely they could have created a more interesting Jersey Devil with their effects budget than "naked woman in need of shower". Actually, I think they should have gone a little further than the legend and made it something really devilish, more freaky looking than that image you put up. Something with fangs... yeah...
If they had made the devil more creepy, we would have seen a different Mulder. He wouldn't have been saying she was beautiful. He would have been trying to shoot it.
If they had made the devil more creepy, we would have seen a different Mulder. He wouldn't have been saying she was beautiful. He would have been trying to shoot it.
Yes, it's a good thing Scully made her will because she knew working with Mulder that he would have wanted to study her.
Personally, when I die, I just want to rest in peace. I don't want anyone studying me. Right now I think my body is rather boring because I don't believe I have anything that anyone would want to study. People study diseases, etc. I think I'm a lucky person.
Not an inherently interesting episode but still a very interesting episode nonetheless. As monsters go, this one seems barely threatening, and looks like a model scruffed up for a designer shoot. Although she has gnawed several homeless people, we certainly get no sense of her representing much danger (and let’s gloss over Mulder’s corny reaction to her, “She was beautiful”).
Having said all that, “The Jersey Devil” is also great fun. Carter really has got the measure of the Mulder and Scully characters and the episode is just full of delightful banter. Starting from when Scully catches him looking at one of his porno mags (“anti-gravity is right”), to her riposte to his teasing that she has no life (“Keep it up Mulder and I’ll hurt you like that beast woman”), the two spar together with an ease and candour rarely seen among TV pairings. It’s really charming, and shows the actors are really at ease with their roles. Likewise they seem more into the banter, Mulder’s determination to solve the case not quite having the same level of intensity as he did in “Deep Throat”, for example.
Odd too to hear Scully utter the immortal line “I have a date”! Much is made of this in this early episode of how Scully turns her back on some semblance of a social life to devote herself to her work. That kind of commitment requires a real dedication and seriousness, qualities that Scully singularly doesn’t demonstrate much in this episode. It’s quite a surprise when she rejects dating to side with Mulder, having firmly established earlier with her friend that she doesn’t fancy her partner. But it’s a logical choice (the date is wearisomely dull, and doesn’t Scully know it) whereas hunting down a naked woman in the wilds of Atlantic City obviously holds a much deeper attraction.
Carter’s love of conspiracies enters into the plot with the ACPD going out of their way to keep the Jersey Devil out of the news so as not to frighten the tourists. It’s an unnecessary addition to a straightforward plot, when Carter’s strength here is the fleshing out of the 2 lead characters. Having Mulder openly enjoy pornography and profess to having a life when he quite clearly doesn’t are lovely touches, while Scully displays a sprightly sense of humour that we haven’t really witnessed up until this point. It all helps make for a highly enjoyable episode, despite its flaws.
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