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"It begins where it ends - in nothingness - a nightmare born from deepest fears."
Damn it, they did it again. The curse of "To be continued" rears its ugly head one more time in X-Files land. Boy, did I want to like this episode. "Christmas Carol" hit such a chord with me that I'd prepared myself to be crushed by the emotion again. I was ready to rail, as I do, against the forces that torture Scully and was primed to rant against the seemingly inevitable death of her child. However, my plans were cruelly thwarted as writers Shiban, Spotnitz and Gilligan provided an episode I was totally unprepared for. I wasn't touched (and please note just how out of character this is for an episode in which Scully suffers). Heck, I wasn't even upset when Emily died. The only time I really thought "poor Scully" was at our heroine's thoughts of being "alone as ever" in the teaser. What we got here folks was a mythology 101 episode (though certainly not as overly confusing as they can be) with nothing really new and all the usual suspects just jumbled in a different pattern: clones/hybrids, green goo, government experiments, and guess what - all the evidence is gone except one vial that Mulder keeps without telling Scully - it's a poor man's "Memento Mori".
I'm trying to get to the bottom of why Emily's death was OK when I was so convinced it would not be. I think that they did do a wise thing in making her a hybrid of sorts because she became different from just a child then. Still an innocent victim, yes, but one for whom death was not necessarily a bad thing as opposed to becoming a monster created by the project. Speaking of the project, I'm trying to piece some things together here that don't seem to fit from what I know. We learn in "Colony"/"EndGame" that the "bad" morphs (as opposed to the Jeremiah Smith "good" morphs) don't like these experiments - call it diluting the race - and yet they are the ones seemingly in charge of this one? Also, did she start out all human and they were making her toxic with the alien creme de menthe injections? Obviously they had to puncture her skin to hook her up to all those IVs and take blood so it hadn't taken complete control. I'm also confused as to why they needed to put the hybrid fetus in a human host at all - we've seen the kids floating in tanks before - why is a human birth necessary? I couldn't help but wonder if the use of elderly nursing home patients in any way tied into the black cancer nursing home experiments of "Terma".
Scully spends too much of this episode either in a mask or staring pensively through safety glass while the ever-so-close camera registers her minuscule facial ticks. Meanwhile, Mulder, once again, gets to beat up people and run around finding evidence he can keep from her. The relatively few scenes we got between Scully and Mulder were very well played. I liked the moment Duchovny gave us as Mulder sees Scully and her child for the first time with the slightly sad look turning to a plastered-on weak smile as she notices him. There was a very nice undercurrent in that reunited scene as they were hurting each other in subtle ways - played out with lines like "Why didn't you call me sooner?" and "Then why are you here?". Still, between this and the little "why didn't you tell me" discussion on the couch, Mulder is supportive despite how he must realize a child in Scully's life will impact him as well.
From a character standpoint, I think that Mulder got off the hook WAY too easy for his sin of omission in keeping the whole ova tale from Scully (especially as I got the impression, based on what he said in the judge's quarters, that she had told him when she found out she could not conceive a child). I realize that it is horrific to think that not only were you experimented on, but that "medical rape" is being used to create other lives - however she deserves to know. She should know about what he found at the Beauty Rest Home and that experiments with her ova are still being done - AND she especially deserved to know that he had something that could have been potentially used to help Emily. Asking "are you sure" to what is, for her, a hypothetical situation is not fair.
I was especially dissatisfied with the ending. First of all, the Scully crawling into bed with the comatose Emily thing just did not work for me and then to have it fade into a stained glass Madonna and Child was TOO MUCH (and this coming from an OBSSE member)! So, we have Our Heroes standing stoically together discussing death as salvation for the child as what is "meant to be" and, by the way, what a shame all the evidence is missing - imagine that - and we end it on a bookended cross in the sand? I'm not quite sure what they were going for here except it ends where it begins. Too bad most of the episode was just the "past reflected", and not the best reflection at that.
-It's official. Hanging around Spotnitz and Shiban has totally corrupted Mr. Gilligan's once cherished sense of continuity. I mourn its passing. Scully was gone "four weeks"? HELLO!!! These episodes *are* on tape guys, and you can't use the "Scully dreamed it" excuse like the cross faux pas last week. Try August to November. My math says 3 months.
-While I'm on dates, a few nitpicks - The second set of MRIs show a date of 10/31/97 when we are between Christmas and New Year and the IV bags for the "Beauty Sleep" Granny brigade read November.
-Frank's Fashion Spot: I was glad to see Frohike back in a vest - it was too weird seeing him in his pre-vest phase in "Unusual Suspects". While I liked the teaser visually, WindMachine!Scully doing her (thankfully non-singing as we know all about that now) impersonation of Stevie Nicks was a little much. Did Scully borrow that dress from Melissa for her dream?
-Speaking of Melissa, why was Melissa not speaking? So now that Mulder's here the ghost decides to give Scully the silent treatment instead of that "Dana, go to her" line?
-The teaser monologue seems to reflect a bit of Scully's tattoo - talk of a path that begins where it ends and a past that repeats.
-While the introspection of the opening reflected Scully's loneliness - the distance she talks about in "Christmas Carol". It is apparent she's still coming to grips with the *all-new* I'm-ready-to-open-up-to-others Scully. Yes, she does call Mulder to come out and tells him she needs him, but still rejects his comfort to be alone. Not too surprising though as it was the fear of losing those emotional attachments that she spoke of last week and those fears are being fulfilled just as she predicted.
-Who knew Mulder's secret Mr. Potato-head talent. It certainly charmed the women.
-Apparently, after hanging around Scully, Det. Kresge is now psychic as well - as I certainly can't figure out how he found Mulder at the home otherwise.
-Long time no seed, but they are back as Mulder munches on his sunflower seeds before his oh-so-warm reuniting with Brother Bill.
-Very nice touch in using the same actor as Jeremiah Smith morphed into when talking to the Detective in "Talitha Cumi" for the Dr. Calderon morph when escaping Scully.
-Just how long did it take to harvest all those eggs and build a baby? The "Memento Mori" vial read 10/24/94, here the packing list (how thoughtful of the project) reads Scully's name and 10/13/94 and yet Emily is born 11/2/94. God only knows how many Scully babies are out there given these revelations.
-For all the folks sprayed with the alien mace this episode it's a darn good thing Scully figured out how to fix it with a nice cool bath back in "EndGame".
-We do learn a fun Scully fact. It seems her favorite term of endearment is "sweetie".
Autumn
"Medicinal or recreational?"