Roland

Season 1, Episode 23, Aired
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Episode Summary

When a series of murders occur among a group of scientists working on advanced propulsion technology, Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate. All evidence seems to point to the janitor Roland, who is mentally handicapped.
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Fan Episode Reviews (7)

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  • Great Episode.

    9.6
    "Superb"
    By Duofan, May 26, 2011 Report Abuse
    I actually find this a very good episode, compared to what certain people think I do not think the episode was about reincarnation, since the episode dealt with 2 twins separated at birth, then one of them dies and the other is struggling to live despite his mental conditions. "It is the belief that one has lived before and will live again in another body after death. The bodies one passes in and out of need not be human. One may have been a Doberman in a past life, and one may be a mite or a carrot in a future life."-(http://skepdic.com/reincarn.html) Since Roland already had a "soul ", his brother was merely controlling him.

    I actually found it a pretty touchy episode and I was enjoying every bit of it. The end, when Roland gives his love his bottled up stars, that was a very special moment.moreless

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  • A great episode.

    10
    "Perfect"
    By farscapefanuk, May 26, 2011 Report Abuse
    Roland is a handicapped genius because somehow his death brother who's head is in statis is controlling him to kill the people who stole his work. Mulder and Scully are forced to work out the mystery and stop Roland from killing the scientists. Overall i really enjoyed this episode. Tis is the last episode before the season final and i think this pritty good. Most of the episode was interesting but again it is another possesion story with is a little unoriginal but i still really liked it. I thought it was well written and the plot was not as simple as i thought it would be.moreless

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  • Well-rounded and Mysterious

    7.9
    "Good"
    By qbeanz, May 26, 2011 Report Abuse
    This episode is just plain good writing (finally). The project and its devoted scientists is just the right amount of intriguing and enough so that it's not too much boring science stuff. Basically, the premise is the project - so the writers set it up but then only use it minimally throughout the show. It's a good device.

    Roland is a sweetheart and you really feel for him and his struggle, particularly when he doesn't want to hurt Tracey. The actor was great! And the flashes of dreams used by his twin brother to control him were surprising and scary when they flashed suddenly onto the screen.

    I loved when Mulder was helping Roland pick out his shirt. And also, when Mulder first thinks that it was Roland's handwriting on the board - his facial expression when it turns out his first hunch is wrong was funny. He's not used to being told he's wrong. Haha. And lastly, that squelching noise when the scientist gets eaten up by the fan - that's a great sound effect. Appropriately yucky!moreless

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  • Another reincarnation plotline

    3.1
    "Bad"
    By RJNeb2, May 25, 2011 Report Abuse
    It does come as a great disappointment after "Born Again" to find that the writers are resorting to the old reincarnation theme yet again in this episode. What's more, they're doing it in a particularly lazy and unconvincing way. Hey, no one bought the old brain-in-a-jar movies from the 50s. Just because you dress it up as a Mulder and Scully investigation doesn't make it any more plausible now. And in the absence of any convincing arguments on her part, Scully obviously feels the same way. We've rarely seen her so docile and unquestioningly accepting of Mulder's bizarre theories as she is here.

    Also in the absence of any demonic kiddies that we had in "Eve" and "Born Again", here we have the mentally impaired Roland of the title, which boils down to being the next best thing. Although Zelkjo Ivanek works hard at playing his role, it does come across as being a bit too hard. Just a bit too laboured. Though, to be fair to him, he is ten times better than the actress playing his girlfriend Tracy, who's been saddled with some dreadful dialogue and doesn't know what to do with it. Every now and then "Roland" threatens to go off in some interesting directions, and then it thinks better of that and doesn't. The frozen brain is just too difficult a concept to buy, even for this show, that it sours any mystery that might have been produced. But is there any mystery? Not really. OK, you get the novelty of an autistic murderer but he doesn't know he's doing it. You get the vaguely comical sight of a couple of rocket scientists hurtling into a big jet engine (though the shattered body of the scientist who met his end in the liquid nitrogen is probably the episode's nicest touch). And you also get Mulder and Scully padding around, not doing very much. Sure, Mulder comes up with his out-there theory in record time, as he did in the previous episode, but the two are given surprisingly little to do here. They seem to spend a lot of time hanging out at Roland's care home and not doing much when he goes off on one of his wiggies. So, given that this is the penultimate episode in what has been a long run of the show's first series, "Roland" would seem to indicate that everyone is a bit tired at this stage and going through some easy motions. This is borne out doubly so when you put it next to the previous episode, "Born Again". The question now remains is whether the show can pull a big rabbit out of its paranormal hat for the big season finale? We look forward to finding out. 3/10moreless

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  • Roland and Albert

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By mrsKrycek, Apr 25, 2009 Report Abuse
    When a series of murders occur among a group of scientists working on advanced propulsion technology, Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate. Roland's twin brother was a scientist. he was killed in a car accident. he worked in the same lab as his brother roland who was the janitor. All evidence seems to point to the janitor Roland, who is mentally handicapped. albert is finishing his work through his brother. Albert's brain was the onlly part that survived the crash. he had it cryogenically frozen. in hopes that when they could resusitate them they could also grow new bodies for patients.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

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    • Principal setting: Colson, Washington. Edit
    • Plot Hole: If Arthur Grable was so desperate to complete his work and yet keep it a secret from his fellow scientists, whom he believed were taking his work from him, then why would he leave his equation up on the board for all the world to see? Edit
    • Plot Hole: Dr. Surnow, who was killed in the opening segment, could have escaped his fate by lying on the floor under the fan. The airflow into the fan would have held him there. Edit

  • Notes

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    • This episode is in some ways similar to the previous episode "Born Again", the general theme being revenge; and the main antagonists being reincarnated or controlled by a deceased person. Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • Mrs. Stodie: How could this happen? Roland never exhibited any violent tendencies. Mulder: It's my belief that he wasn't acting under his own volition. Mrs. Stodie: What do you mean? Mulder: This is the work of Arthur Grable, Roland's brother. It's a new theory of jet propulsion, unfinished at the time of his death. In the last two weeks, Roland has completed the calculations. Mrs. Stodie: How? Scully: We're not sure, Mrs. Stodie. All we know is that Roland was somehow able to finish his brother's research. Edit
    • Scully: Arthur and Roland Grable, born at Puget Presbyterian to Mr. and Mrs. Louis Grable on July 15, 1952. Arthur was four minutes older than Roland. Mulder: Identical twins. Scully: Which means that they're the result of a single egg fertilized by a single sperm. Mulder: I've read studies which suggest that in some cases the identical twin arises very early in the embryonic stage when a mutation in one cell is rejected by the other cells as foreign. Scully: So that maybe Roland's condition is the result of a damaged chromosome rejected by one of Arthur's cells? Mulder: In a way, that would explain Arthur's genius and Roland's strange mathematical gift. Edit
    • Mulder: You've got a brother, don't you Scully? Scully: Yeah. I've got an older one and a younger one. Mulder: Well, have you ever thought about calling one of them all day long and then all of a sudden the phone rings and it's one of them calling you? Scully: Does this pitch somehow end with a way for me to lower my long distance charges? Mulder: I believe in psychic connections, and evidence suggests that it's stronger between family members, strongest of all between twin siblings that shared the same womb. Scully: OK, maybe. But in this case, one sibling has closer ties to a frozen fudgesicle than he does to his own brother. Mulder: Arthur Grable is not dead. He's in a state of consciousness that no human has ever returned from. And what if that state allows one to develop psychic ability to a potential that the conscious mind is too preoccupied to explore or believe in? He could use that ability to control his brother to kill those scientists. Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • Dr. Nollette: If I've seen further than other men, it's because I have stood on the shoulders of giants. This is a famous quote from Sir Isaac Newton that he wrote in a letter to Robert Hooke in 1676. Edit
    • Scully: The Icarus project? In Greek mythology, Icarus was the son of the artisan and builder Daedalus, who built the Minotaur's Labyrinth and a number of intricate devices for King Minos of Crete. Daedalus fell out of favor with the king, and he and Icarus were imprisoned in a tower. To escape, Daedalus made two pairs of wings out of feathers and wax with which he planned to fly to freedom. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too low or the sea spray would wet the feathers, nor too high, or the sun would melt the wax. However, caught up in the ecstasy of flight, Icarus climbed too high, and, as warned, the wings melted and he fell into the sea and drowned. The story of Icarus has become a cautionary tale against hubris and overreaching one's limits. There is also an asteroid, 1566 Icarus, discovered in 1949; it is also the title of a scientific journal of solar system studies and the name of a number of literary and film characters. Edit
    • Mulder: I don't think they will be performing this trick on Beakman's World. Beakman's World is a kids science show which ran on CBS from 1992-1997 where the scientist (Beakman) answered questions about science and nature topics. Edit

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