Je Souhaite

"Je Souhaite"
The X-Files episode
Dana Scully uses yellow dust to see the invisible body of Anson Stokes. The scene required the use of various digital techniques like chroma keying and motion control.
Episode no.	Season 7 Episode 21
Directed by	Vince Gilligan
Written by	Vince Gilligan
Production code	7ABX21
Original air date	May 14, 2000
Guest stars
Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner Paula Sorge as Jenn Kevin Weisman as Anson Stokes Will Sasso as Leslie Paul Hayes as Jay Gilmore Brett Bell as Morgue Attendant
Episode chronology
← Previous "Fight Club" Next → "Requiem"
List of season 7 episodes List of The X-Files episodes

"Je Souhaite" is the twenty-first and penultimate episode of the seventh season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on May 14, 2000. It was written and directed by Vince Gilligan. The episode is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. "Je Souhaite" earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.2, being watched by 12.79 million people in its initial broadcast. The episode received mixed reviews. The title means "I Wish" in French.

In this episode, FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) encounter a man and his wheelchair-bound brother who lead the agents to an indifferent genie whose willingness to grant wishes belies a deeper motive.

"Je Souhaite" was Gilligan's directoral debut. Originally, the script was supposed to feature a "stark and scary" story, but Gilligan relented and wrote a humorous tale about a genie. The episode featured several elaborate "genie effects" that were created through digital technology.

Plot

Anson Stokes, an apathetic employee at a self storage facility, is yelled at by his boss to clean out a old and dusty shipping container. To his surprise, finds a woman wrapped in a rug. His boss comes to check on him and while he is yelling for Anson his mouth disappears. FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) speak with the boss, Jay Gilmore, after surgery to fix his mouth which has left him disfigured and with a speech impediment. They question Stokes' brother Leslie at his home, which inexplicably has a boat in the front yard. It is revealed that the woman in the storage container is in the Stokes' kitchen. Mulder and Scully search the container and find old antiques and a picture of the previous owner with the woman from the apartment. The woman turns out to be a genie and Stokes is angry that he wasted his first two wishes because the boat is not in water and he has to pay taxes on it. The genie suggests that Anson should give his brother the ability to walk as his third wish but he, instead, he wishes for the ability to turn invisible at will. Anson, in his invisible form, runs out into the street and is killed by a truck.

Scully does the autopsy on the invisible body by covering it in powder. Mulder, meanwhile, researches the owner of the container. He learns that the man in the picture was a extremely wealthy and lucky for a short period, before he died with a giant oversized penis. Mulder believes the woman in the picture is responsible for everything, and believes she is a genia, or a female genie. Mulder goes to the Stokes residence and asks Leslie to hand over the genia, which is kept in a box. It turns out, however, that the genia is not in the box, but back in the storage facility. Mulder also finds the genia next to Mussolini in a photo from the 1930s and Richard Nixon in a photo from the 1960s, two men that got a lot of power and lost it in a bad way.

Leslie takes possession of the genia and asks for his brother to be returned to life. Anson is returned, but in a decaying state, complete with injuries from the crash. Leslie's second wish is for Anson to talk, which results in Anson screaming at the top of his lungs and telling his brother that he is cold. Back at the morgue, Scully finds the body has disappeared and Mulder suspects it is because of Leslie's wish. They go to the Stokes residence and Anson blows the house up trying to light the stove in an attempt to warm up. Mulder questions Jen, the genia, who says she's 500 years old. According to her, she gained her powers after wishing for great power and long life from another genie. She also says that Mulder unrolled her so he now has three wishes of his own. Mulder wishes for peace on earth and she wipes out the entire human population. With his second wish, Mulder undoes his first wish. Mulder then writes down his third wish to be very specific. However, just before making the final wish, Mulder realizes that the power of a genie should not be used to force people to be good, and so he ultimately wishes for Jen to be free.

Production

Writing and directing

I was beyond nervous. I was having hysterical diarrhea for weeks leading up to when I knew we were going to start production.

—Vince Gilligan, on the stress of directing

"Je Souhaite" was the first episode Vince Gilligan directed

The episode was written and directed by long-time X-Files contributor Vince Gilligan. Gilligan noted that, "from the very beginning I always had the intention of directing an episode, but I kept putting it off because I figured I didn't know enough." Gilligan, however, soon learned directing techniques from his four-and-a-half years of experience on the show. As season seven neared its end and the rumors that the season would be the show's last, Gilligan decided to finally direct an episode. After approaching series creator Chris Carter, an episode set to be written and directed by Gilligan was green-lit. Initially, Gilligan's first script was "stark and scary" outing for the show. However, as the deadline for the script grew closer, he relented and decided to write a more humorous episode.

After deciding upon the idea to use a genie, Gilligan approached Carter for feedback. Carter was impressed with the story, saying, "Vince had been playing around with somebody finding something in a storage locker. He played around with several different ideas and one day he came in with one idea of a genie and three wishes. The one thing I noticed right away was that the relationship between Mulder and the genie was very sweet." After finalizing his script, Gilligan began to worry that he had "painted himself in a corner": "I did not intend to write a hard episode to direct [...] But before I realize it, I was blowing up a trailer, having a truck hit an invisible man, and all sorts of genie effects. [...] I looked at all the people on the set [...] and though, 'Oh man, I'm going to be exposed as an impostor.'" Luckily, the cast and crew helped the new director ease into his position. In addition, many of the members of production noted that the work environment under Gilligan was largely stress-free.

Special effects

The scene that features Scully adding a yellow power to the invisible body of Anson Stokes made use of various digital techniques. The first shot of the scene used a blue head cast of Kevin Weisman, the actor who portrayed Stokes. Gillian Anderson then added the yellow dust onto the cast. The second shot used motion control in order to match the film up exactly. Anderson then attempted to match her movements so that, when the two strips of film were combined, they would create the illusion of one complete scene. Finally, various close-ups of the blue head cast were filmed, with the blue color being removed via chroma keying. Paul Rabwin later called the scene "very effective."

During the episode, Mulder shows Scully several bits of historical footage of Richard Nixon and Benito Mussolini that includes footage of the genie. In order to create the Nixon scene, the production crew used a real clip of Nixon, his wife, and daughter. The crew then cut a matte in order to replace certain parts; Nixon's daughter was removed to make room for the genie. Paula Sorge, who played Jenn, was then blue screened and the subsequent shot was "dirtied up" to properly age the film. The scenes were then combined.

During the scene where Mulder wanders the deserted city, the production crew had to shot down eight blocks of downtown Los Angeles. The only practical way of doing this was to shoot on a Sunday morning. Filming the scene did not go as planned: a homeless person walked right through the "perfect take," according to producer Harry Bring. Luckily, using digital technology, the man was erased from the scene and it was used in the episode.

Broadcast and reception

"Je Souhaite" first aired in the United States on May 14, 2000. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 8.2, with a 13 share, meaning that roughly 8.2 percent of all television-equipped households, and 13 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 12.79 million viewers. The episode aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sky1 on August 6, 2000 and received 0.72 million viewers, making it the fourth most watched episode that week.

The episode received mostly mixed reviews. Rob Bricken from Topless Robot named "Je Souhaite" the second most funny X-Files episode, writing, "Best line: When Scully, ever the skeptic, begins trying to rationalize her examination of an invisible body, Mulder replies with an exasperated, 'Oh!' It's what most of us had been thinking for years about Scully's refusal to acknowledge all the strange crap she had seen." Not all reviews were positive. Kenneth Silber from Space.com wrote, "'Je Souhaite' offers a few laughs but little drama and no intellectual substance. The episode seems designed to stall for time while negotiations drag on over David Duchovny's contract and the series' future. X-Files viewers will wish for -- and deserve -- better material than this I Dream of Jeannie rehash."

Footnotes

References

• Hurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1933784806. 
• Shapiro, Marc (2000). All Things: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 6. Harper Prism. ISBN 0061076112. 

External links

• "Je Souhaite" on The X-Files, an external wiki
• "Je Souhaite" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Je Souhaite" at TV.com