El Mundo Gira
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"El Mundo Gira" is the eleventh episode of the fourth season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States on January 12, 1997 on the FOX Network, and features the agents' investigation of a bizarre fungal growth affecting some illegal immigrants.
Plot overview
Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) investigate the death of Maria Dorantes, an illegal immigrant who was found dead with her face partially eaten away after yellow rain fell from the sky. Maria was the object of the love of two brothers, Eladio Buente and Soledad Buente, and Soledad blames his brother for her death. The illegal aliens believe that the "El Chupacabra", the Spanish Goatsucker was responsible for her death. Mulder is assisted on the case by local INS agent Conrad Lozano and the two are able to interogate Eladio, who the other immigrants are fearful of. Scully meanwhile discovers that Maria was killed by a fungal growth known as Aspergillus.
Eladio, who is a carrier of the Aspergillus escapes when a truck attempts to transport him to the border. The truck driver is found dead. Eladio seeks to return to Mexico, but needs money to do so. As such he meets with his cousin Gabrielle, who tells him to meet with her at her job at the local grocery store later that night. Eladio works with a construction foreman for the day to make the money. Soledad comes after him, seeking to kill him, but finds the foreman dead. Eladio escapes on the foreman's truck. Eladio heads to the grocery store, spreading the fungal growth. The agents later confront Soledad at the supermarket, discovering another dead victim of the fungus.
Eladio returns to see Gabrielle, but by now has grown deformed from the fungus. Gabrielle, afraid of him gives him her money and lies to the agents about his location when they come to see her. In actuality, Eladio has returned to the camp where Maria died, where Lozano tries to spur Soledad on in killing his brother. Soledad finds he can't do it and Lozano struggles with him, being accidently killed when the gun goes off. Soledad becomes a carrier of the fungal growth himself and flees with Eladio towards Mexico.[1]
Production
Writer John Shiban was inspired to write the episode based on the long lines of migrant workers he would see when working as a computer programmer in the Los Angeles area.[2] He combined it with an idea he had about a contagioius fungus.[2] Shiban originally intended to have it be spread by a schoolkid, then changed it to a trucker before changing it to Eladio once the storylines were combined.[2] Executive Producer Chris Carter was attracted to the soap opera-like aspects of the episode, and the title of the episode means "The World Turns" in Spanish.[2] The El Chupacabra is a Spanish folk myth that Shiban originally heard about in an article in the LA Times about a year prior.[2] To research for the episode, Shiban spent time observing illegal aliens being processed at an INS facility in San Pedro, California.[2] The usage of fake names by the detained immigrants in the episode was inspired by this.[2] Actor Ruben Blades, who portrayed Lozano, was a spanish-language music star, and had ran for President of Panama back in 1989.[2] Chris Carter had been looking to use him in an episode for a while.[2] The actors who portrayed Eladio and Gabrielle were a couple at the time.[2]
The migrant camp used in the episode was built from scratch in a waste ground near Boundary Bay Airport in Vancouver.[2] This site was later used again in the episode Tempus Fugit.[2] It snowed the night before filming occurred, requiring the production crew to use hot water and blow dryers to melt it.[2] Composer Mark Snow was required to replace his entire score for the episode based on Chris Carter's view that the original score was too serious.[2]
Reception
The episode earned a Nielsen rating of 13.3, with a 19 share. It was viewed by 22.37 million people.[3]
Author Keith Topping criticized the episode in his book "X-Treme Possibilities", calling it an "awful episode with a heavy-handed, clod-hopping attempt at social comment that hardly sits well with the themes on display in the rest of the episode."[4] He called it the worst episode of the fourth season.[4]
References
- ^ Meisler,Andy (1998). I Want to Believe: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 3. Harper Prism. p. 115-22.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Meisler, Andy (1998). I Want to Believe: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 3. Harper Prism. p. 122-3.
- ^ Meisler, Andy (1998). I Want to Believe: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 3. Harper Prism. p. 298.
- ^ a b Cornell, Paul, Day, Martin, Topping, Keith (1998). X-Treme Possibilities. Virgin Publications, Ltd. p. 322-3.
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