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"It's been taken care of. The details are unimportant."
"Details are everything."
I have those mythology blues. You know the symptoms - you've watched something that you know thinks it is important, but you can't help but wonder what details really are important and what were thrown in just because it seemed cool at the time. Sometimes, as we are told by the CSM, "a man digs a hole - he risks falling into it." I always wonder what will be important and what is just in there to make my head warm. I wondered that after "Herrenvolk", but now the bees are back in town. This episode felt to me like they wanted to say *something* about the mythology, but not too much of course - can't have that. With the dynamic duo pretty much out of the picture (Mitch Pileggi's also starring credit could have read "Only Starring") we were subject to a bit too much padding and not enough meat. Gratuitous shots abounded, and yes, the underwear shot was in there for no reason except to be an underwear shot and we all know it. Despite that the camera lingered. See Skinner scrub (I guess he got plenty of practice scrubbing latrines in the marines), ride the elevator, walk up stairs - see CancerMan smoke, see him crush a cigarette - gee that's new. I didn't actively dislike this episode, but I was just disappointed that it couldn't seem to bee all that it could bee.
Though we were denied seeing Scully in this episode her presence permeated it. We learn that Scully's oncologist believes her cancer to be spreading, and though Mulder is concerned he isn't concerned enough to be with her. Skinner's deal with CancerMan, cemented in "Memento Mori", drives this outing. I was curious at the time the deal was made (and I'm more curious now) about Skinner's motivation. He is to the point where he actually tells CancerMan his only concern is for Agent Scully: "I don't care what happens to me". Now, while I am the first to understand the appeal of Scully, this is a pretty huge sacrifice Skinner has made for her health. He has totally sold himself out - an officer of the law covering up crimes and endangering lives for the health of one woman. From Mulder this I would understand - from Skinner I really am beginning to wonder at his motivation - does he harbor some deep seated guilt - does he carry a hidden torch for Dana - what has compelled him to for all practical purposes trade his life for hers? I also can't help but think that Scully would not want this. Her sense of justice and right would make a deal with CancerMan to save her life, despite those of others, a sickening and wrong thing to her. If she ever finds out what is going on behind the scenes - that souls are being sold to insure her a long and healthy life - look out because it ain't gonna be pretty. They do leave Scully's fate ambiguous though - we still aren't sure, despite CancerMan's assurances that he may save her life again, that anything will really happen.
I'd like to get into a few details here that didn't make sense to me. How many folks out there were desperately trying to now connect small pox vaccinations with these small pox carrying bees? While in a way it makes sense, I was sort of stumped about how genetic markers in vaccination scars tied into to a plague infestation of this supposed dead disease. It was like small pox was supposed to tie things together without the string. I'll be the first to admit that the bees crawling out of the drain were cool, but we learn later the bees are behind the walls - how did they get in the pipes and just know when to crawl out to attack one person and then crawl back into a drain in mass? Bugs are a lot smarter than I thought. And what was that with that little bit of honeycomb Skinner brought in somehow creating like a kabillion bees to kill the entomologist? Yeah right. Why the huge coverup when they were just going to expose the same sort of evidence in the trial run anyway?
Skinner isn't the smartest guy on the block this time around. He was practically begging for Mulder to find him out. Like Mulder wouldn't notice crime files deleted off his computer. To make matter worse he impersonates Mulder (even has a badge made with his picture and Mulder's name) and thinks wiping prints will cover his tracks. Even if he hadn't been caught on video (which also should have captured him ditching the blood sample) he could have been easily identified by a sketch artist taking a description from the desk sargent. Mulder usually has to work harder to figure things out. We're talking about the guy who sees fingers in a photo and figures out a graveyard site. This was child's play.
What about that scene with Skinner and Marita? Was that supposed to have some sort of an edge or be threatening? It certainly didn't play that way to me. I suppose that we are also supposed to wonder over the purposely blurred figure in the background when Marita revealed that she was a minion of the consortium - like that was a big surprise - I'm willing to bet here and now that it was just a silly red herring and we will never know the identity of that lurker. Just another "cool" thing.
-Well, I thought for being "best friends" those postal girls were pretty darn snippy with each other. Plus, what was Jane thinking? She not only went into a bathroom on the X-Files, but she was also smoking (and for some reason reading a women's lingerie catalog). TV's Toilet terror claims another bathroom body.
-Being a person who works in the computer industry it always amuses me the way the show seems to mix and match MAC and windows interfaces freely. Computer stuff just never really looks right on this show.
-Skinner is so anal about his job that even his home phone looks like an office phone. What was that taking it off the hook deal? In case people call him in the middle of the night they'll think he is talking instead of, say, sleeping?
-Skinner also seems to have one of those season 4 flashlights sported by Mulder & Scully. Am I the only one who misses those big old airport landing lights they used to lug around?
-As a huge Hitchcock fan I can't help but notice the little birds and the bees homage in the playground.
-What an exciting basketball game that orderly was trying to tune into: Citadel vs VMI (Virginia Military Institute).
-Even without showing us Skinner nearly naked we know he is in good shape - given his ability to lug around 190 pounds of dead weight even up stairs.
-Sure, we've seen bathroom deaths more than we can count, but I'm seeing a new trend here - the furnace death/disposal. F. Emasculata, Hell Money, Never Again, well you get the picture.
-Episode time stamp: We started out March 28th early AM according to the log book at the police station.
-The music group "Foo Fighters" got another bit of free advertising that made sense - of course Mulder would have a file on the phenomena.
-What was with that rolodex entry for Marita? It was almost ridiculous in its detailed content.
-Well folks at my house laughed out loud when Marita *finally* said "bee husbandry" - we'd been waiting for that moment all night long. It's funny what amuses we the obsessed.
-Boy Skinner did a Mulder - pull a gun on CancerMan and don't follow through - at least Skinner scared him a little first before backing down.
-What was that PC doing on Mulder's desk? It usually sits on that other desk that isn't Scully's.
Autumn
"If anything happens to her I will expose you."