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"Yeah, Merry Christmas to you too."
If you ever thought you had a bad Christmas home for the holidays - think again. I'm curious as to when exactly it happened. That exact moment, no doubt late one night puffing away on cigars, when the boys at 1013 decided to make Dana Scully prime time's leading poster child for cruel and unusual character angst. Let's see, the death of family and friends was not enough. A three month abduction to be returned near death - heck that's nothing. Deadly psychos and mutants - ha! - she fights them every other week. Lose a partner? He'll crawl through a hole and be back. Terminal cancer? Beat it, and now setting off metal detectors. Let's make her barren when she really wants children and then - oh this will be good - let's give her a child via some sort of immaculate conception - those internet folks are always calling her a "Saint" anyway - but let's give the child a terrible deadly disease just so we can get rid of it in part two in a neat and tidy fashion and make her suffer even more. Cool! That will teach her for smiling last week. Think you're on vacation? Take this "Merry Christmas" Agent Scully - hope you enjoyed your little song and dance because the Grinch has just arrived.
OK. I'm a little better now. I've got to say though that I'm really torn about this episode. On one hand, this constant Scully abuse has become almost too much to bear. On the other, it should come as no surprise to those who follow my reviews that part of me absolutely adored "Christmas Carol". I reveled in the chance to spend an introspective hour with this wonderful character. I wondered, after that simply stunning scene with the social worker (always a good sign for good acting), if Gillian Anderson has more room on her mantle for yet another round of much deserved awards. The beauty of her acting is the quiet intensity without the hysterics that too many actresses seem to rely on. She softly breaks your heart. If you ever find yourself wondering why Gillian has garnered so much praise just watch her deliver this: "I don't understand. I mean I think I have a right to know why you're rejecting my application." It should be clear.
This is another departure episode in what has become a surprising season. Writers Gilligan, Spotnitz, and Shiban focus on the character of Dana Scully. Coupled with the performance of Gillian Anderson they achieve a lot of success in giving us much cherished insight about her. I've always preferred these moment over monsters. I do think that their mythology tie-in attempt (consisting mostly of two guys driving around in a car and yet another evil pharmaceutical company) was weak - which frankly is surprising because it is usually the other way around on this show. I suppose we are going to find out more about all this in the conclusion, but by the third time I had to watch Scully stare intently at these two goons enough was enough. The adoption angle was also contrived, albeit to give us the episode's best scene, but you have to suspend a whole lot of disbelief to think things could happen even remotely that fast. Director Peter Markle makes his X-Files debut by proving that he's got a real nice handle on the intimate moments that populate this episode.
Another thing to like was the appearance of Scully as a very effective detective without Mulder. She singlehandedly brought all the clues together on this one (even getting to show up a doddering old pathologist with her autopsy skills) to solve the crime. I also appreciated John Pyper-Fergusun as her reluctant sidekick. He had a real charisma on screen. Plus, we got more Sheila Larken as Mrs. Scully than ever before (and all of last season). She continues to impress me with her work. My favorite moment of hers was her reaction to Scully's typically bad lie of "nothing" when asked what was the matter. If 1013 ever does one of their patented charactersides on her I'll snap. Whether you "like" Bill Scully or not you've got to admit Pat Skipper and Gillian Anderson click in their scenes. I really enjoyed that edgy eggnog confrontation complete with the disapproving look from Mom when it was over.
I don't remember when we were hit over the head so hard with a theme before that didn't have to do with some moral message or a different culture. We start with placing a child in the manger and end with Scully finding out she is a mother. In between there is a pregnant sister in-law, massive Scully suffering over her inability to have a child, childhood memories (and I'm still trying to figure out what the point of the maggot ridden bunny in the Lassie box was - her love of and need to protect something actually killing it?), putting Scully in the baby's room just to drum it in a little more, and the whole idea of her rebirth after her cancer. I think, just possibly, we got the point.
Psychic!Scully was here with a vengeance - though ghosts have always been Scully's X-File forte - and the whole Melissa issue has been a particularly thorny one for her. It is interesting that family consistently breaks through those skeptical walls and make her start to believe. Whether or not she knew the nature of it, she felt some connection to the girl even before she suspected the Melissa angle. It was a nice scene where she resolves to call Mulder and then freezes numbly, having no idea what to say. Still a few issues to work out there. As much as I liked the emotion behind that Maternal!Scully moment where she buckles up the child, I don't like the idea of her passing on the cross - again the tie into the THEME with her mother giving it to her - mostly because it is so integral to Scully's character for me now that without it around her neck part of her is missing.
So, I guess it boils down to this. Thanks for the character insights. Thanks for showing us a Scully questioning her priorities, thinking of second chances - but could you please lay off the extreme character torture to get there?
-Now this is a great little tidbit. When Scully is checking the reports with the endearing Detective Kresge it seems perhaps the props for another upcoming episode got shuffled in. The first page is a police report on a certain "Modell" and includes such gems as an education of "general studies" at "Our Lady of Perpetual Motion" followed by a degree in philosophy from "Bubba's Community College". Work experience lists "Cady[sic] - Fairfax Driving Range" and down at the bottom, among other things, it says "Modell has excellent dental hygiene". Now, that was funny.
-On to the toxicology report that followed. It lists the birthday of Mrs. Sim as 6/6/67 which does not match the initial claim that she is 40.
-Of course then we have the glaring continuity error which frankly has me a little disappointed as Vince "continuity " Gilligan was one of the writers. "Ascension" tells us that Scully received her cross on her 15th birthday. Not at Christmas. Though this was a charming little moment - especially the way Young Melissa looked about the gift after she expressed her faux joy at receiving it.
-Frank's Fashion Spot #1 (Are you proud Frank? It's mutating!): My God. Where to start. Well, how about the top - of Mulder's head that is. What in the heck was that silly thing he was wearing on his head - and more importantly did David Duchovny get $100,000 for wearing it and saying "hello" three times? Can you say "Playing Goofy"?
-Well, apparently it is the ever-missing-but-finally-mentioned- by-name brother Charles who has the brood. There were quite a few kids in that "Beyond the Sea" family funeral scene as well as the mention of the Babe loving nephew in "Home". Maybe Charles is stationed overseas and that is his excuse. He only comes back to the U.S. to have Dana babysit, not for family emergencies or holidays.
-Does Scully just memorize the local number to any FBI field office before she goes on vacation?
-Scully's "ID number" is listed in the first official guide as the one she rattles off here as her badge number, but she gave us an entirely different "Badge number" in "Teliko" - JTT0331613. Yes, I am aware that I am being anal about this, but it is what I do.
-Retread Alert: This one was a hard one to spot, but Scully's surrogate partner played the main convict who dies at the end of "F. Emasculata". Also, Mr. Sim was just with us recently as the police officer who asks Scully to identify Not!Mulder in "Gethsemane".
-Frank's Fashion Spot #2: Someone kill that wig now. Right now. If they were going to do Quantico!Scully I wish they'd made her look more like she did in the pilot instead of foisting that amazing scare-hair upon her head. Really made me appreciate the current Scully do.
-Bill Scully's requisite partner slam for the episode: "Sounds like something that partner of yours would say." It was no surprise to find that he was also an emotional bully as a child.
-That said, I still maintain that Bill is a very realistic sibling. You may not like him all the time, but that's the way it can be with family. Pushy, meddling, annoying, and too much talking about "secrets" behind your back.
-Scully in braces I could handle, but "Hotel California"? That's information that somehow really frightened me.
-Frank's Fashion Spot #3: Isn't Our Dear Dana just the life of the party. Sitting in the corner all dressed in black on Christmas Eve - how festive. At least she remembered the push up bra.
-Time line: This one goes from December 21 - 25, 1997, and we learn the Scully clan was stationed in Japan in 1966. Emily's DOB is 11/2/94. The references with Melissa running off for a while during this time fit in nicely with the reaction she got from her mother in "One Breath".
-Thanks are in order for letting Scully call "Danny" -see, I told you he wasn't Pendrell!
-Frank's Fashion Spot #4 (and I promise this is the last one): I did like Scully's casual crime-fighting outfit - esp. the jacket which came equipped with the latex gloves usually only found in her trench coat - even if I did find it a bit odd that she felt the need to change into it instead of just wearing what she had on when Kresge came to get her about the pharmaceutical company.
-Scully tells Deadly Dad who holds 2:54AM "meetings" (very subtle) that she was addressed by name on the latest phone call and she wasn't.
-What was with that weird cut to Scully wearing her mother's outfit in the teenage memory - it didn't work whatever they were trying to do.
Autumn
"It's OK. I just never realized how much I wanted it until I
couldn't have it."