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"Just answer the question, Mom! Just answer the question!"
"I am your mother and I will not tolerate any more of your
questions."
Ever feel like you're Mulder and Chris Carter is "Mom"? You love him, but sometimes you just want to shake the truth out of his weasely little head and make him quit with the games already. Despite being an intense, edge of the seat episode from long time producer and first time writer Bob Goodwin, we still don't learn anything that we didn't already know by last year at this time. I guess I should just be thankful that there were no bees and no bee husbandry. This episode was all presentation and not that much substance - empty calories - but you know what they say, presentation is everything - and we all love dessert - and that is why "Demons" succeeds. The story was riveting, the direction tight, the editing flashy, and the acting first rate - all hiding the fact that nothing new is presented. Unlike this season's "Paper Hearts" which took the Samantha story on a new and different spin, here we follow a familiar path - only with the volume turned way up. In fact, if anything, what we had here was sort of a "Wetwired" redux: episode before the finale written by staffer who usually doesn't write, one of the partners goes temporarily bonkers, other partner is oh so understanding and fears for their partner's health, big gun-drawn showdown scene where they say things like "You've got to trust me" or "You're the only one I trust", showdown ends in a dramatic crumpled hug. Seem familiar?
Well, I guess we do now know for a fact that Mulder is definitely off the deep end for the truth. He's lost all sense of judgement at this point and Scully is right in her eyebrow-enhanced fears that she voices at the end. Let's face it, Mulder allowed some weirdo doctor to *drill into his head* not just once, but twice, the second time with full knowledge of just how stupid it was - risking both his own and his partner's life in the process. Yeah, he's got some demons to exorcise alright. Duchovny does his tortured and bewildered Mulder well (he even manages to get the veins on his head to pop out during his seizures), and Anderson as Scully takes control this episode running the gamut from doctor to friend to investigator to lawyer to, my favorite, Cranky!Scully who gets tough with the evil Dr. Goldstein (we know she hates him early on from the way she initially confronts him - you go Cranky!Scully).
I'd also like to take the time to point out to you Scully naysayers out there that this episode clearly shows why Scully's skepticism is a *good* thing. Her need for "absolute certainty" is what drives her here in clearing Mulder. She methodically goes about investigating the death of Officer Spooky and the Cassandras (with the help of "Abductee" magazine - what is up with that - talk about your plot devices) until her Spooky is sprung.
Also, a nice portrayal of the Mulder/Scully dynamic and their absolute faith in each other. Mulder calling her, as usual, when in a panic, and Scully's commitment to comforting and helping Mulder despite his bad ditching ways. I absolutely loved the "I'm fine", "No, I am not going to take that for an answer" exchange - Scully better watch out for that one to come back and smack her in the head sometime. I was, however, concerned by Mulder's affirmative nod to Scully's "Are you going to shoot me Mulder?" - what was that all about? A tie into the earlier murder/suicide?
Still, in the end, we didn't even get answers as to how in the heck Mulder got himself into this pickle in the first place - even he doesn't know what he was doing there. He doesn't know why he stood around or was invited to a murder/suicide. He doesn't know who his father is. He confronts his mother, finally, with "You've kept things from me. You've kept secrets from me" while the audience screams "DUH!" in a loud voice. So Mulder is finally coming to the realizations that have been obvious since "Talitha Cumi". Like I said, nothing is learned, but wow - what presentation.
-Retread: the doctor working with Scully was the Agent stuffed in the trunk in "Colony" and the missing fighter pilot in "Deep Throat". Thankfully, we did not have to see him in his underwear in this particular incarnation.
-Time stamp reads April 12th - the last time we got a date read was around the end of February with Scully's birthday in the "Tempus Fugit"/"Max" episodes. They've certainly packed a lot of adventure into the last month and a half.
-OK, so I know Scully has many superhuman powers, but really - I haven't seen her play "The Flash" like this since her two minute crosstown jaunt in "Grotesque". Let's see, Mulder wakes her up in her jammies at 4:50AM and she has time to get up, put on her favorite Casual!Scully outfit, pack, apparently take a chartered Concorde from her apartment to Providence, Rhode Island, stop by Lariat and pick up the rent car, and drive to Mulder's hotel all by 6:15AM? What a woman! At least she was squealing her tires when she drove up. Sometimes I just have to wonder if they do this on purpose as just changing a simple legend time stamp could make it possible. Maybe 1013 really wants us to believe Mulder and Scully can beam anywhere...
-So then, given this propensity for speed, what makes her so damn slow in getting people to the doctor's office when, as she mentions, she knows that it is the only place Mulder would go - seems like she should have been able to get authorities to head him off at the pass before he got his little brain breather.
-Speaking of Casual!Scully, have you noticed that she really has a thing for that particular little button up sweater top? It seems almost every time we see her not in a suit she's wearing that with something. At least she decided to wear a shirt underneath it this time after all the trouble its cleavage enhancing features caused her in "Small Potatoes".
-Ditching!Mulder is back and back big time. He calls her in the middle of the night to save his ass, drags her all over refusing medical treatment, has her get him out of jail, takes her to a messy confrontation at Mom's and then sneaks off with her car? So, how did he do that? Hot-wire the car in record time? Scully drove and had they keys - and while I'm willing to suspend disbelief the way those two are always leaving their cars unlocked or windows down I will *not* go so far to believe Scully left the keys in the car.
-Despite all the forced stylishness, the flashback sequences worked for me - I liked the quick cut grainy effect, though, try as I might, the only dialogue I could ever seem to make out was stuff like "She's my baby". I wonder if the strobe effect used by the memory machine was supposed to effect the way the memory was "viewed".
-What is it with these two and bleeding? Are they not pitiful? If we can't have blood dripping from Scully's nose this episode we've got to have it running down Mulder's forehead.
-In the "it's the little things that count" department - I loved the way Gillian had a sleepy Scully shield her eyes from the light upon waking.
-Well, probably not quite what some people were looking for, but Scully did get to play doctor with a naked Mulder. We also know that they were spending a Friday evening talking on the phone for what that's worth.
-What the heck was with Scully giving that Quonochontaug officer a friendly pat on the butt for his work before heading off to face psycho Mulder? Ok, Ok, it could have been his arm, but it looked like Scully was getting a little too frisky.
-Looks like Mrs. Mulder invested in new lamps to cover up in that summer house they never use - last I saw Mulder was smashing all the table lamps in that living room to find the hidden alien toy.
-My Mom always told me not to pick at scabs, but I guess it is OK if you are a doctor. Why didn't she check Mulder's head right away after this little revelation?
-Anyone else get sort of an odd Star Trek flashback on the line "You're a doctor not a lawyer Scully"?
-Dr. Goldstein tells us his procedure is not invasive. Oh yeah, right, drilling a hole in someone's head certainly isn't - and while I'm thinking of it why did he drill a second hole into Mulder's head - certainly the first hadn't healed - or was it just so we could get that scary drill shot ...
Autumn
"Mulder, you are not really good"