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"I don't think this is working. OH MY GOD!"
Imagine my surprise. It's been a long time since we had this satisfying a cliffhanger follow up. I'd gotten used to being offered less instead of more in the conclusion to a two part episode (and actually in mythology episodes on the whole) so I'm delighted for the most part in "The Red and the Black". Thankfully, there was a lot less filler and a lot more answers here. Plus we were treated to some great emotional confrontations that continued to follow Scully's story. Instead of explosions (though we did have those) Carter directs the script he wrote with Spotnitz by keying on the emotions and pain of Scully and Mulder and effectively draws us in through closeups and caresses.
The episode's real highlights for me were that wonderful hospital scene followed by Scully's scary trip down memory lane. Scully has talked about perhaps not being able to follow Mulder before, but now she makes it clear that if she has followed on his faith before, and now he no longer trusts that, she has to find her own memories to act on. She can't go on blindly. This was such a painful conversation brilliantly played out with such honesty on the part of both actors. Then there was the hypnosis scene with the beautifully shot dreamy bridge sequences juxtaposed with our first true glimpse of an unfiltered Dana Scully, her voice hoarse, in sheer writhing terror while Mulder tries to reconcile what he is hearing. After watching the composed Scully, who has never been a fan of hypnosis, move through that and come back to herself I had to shake my head at the Screen Actor's Guild's choice to honor someone other than Gillian Anderson this year. Oh well, I guess she can't get all the prizes.
Mulder is still a bit of a puzzler until Krycek alternately beats and kisses some sense into him. (And by the way, kudos to Nick Lea for *always* making this character fascinating to watch). Mulder is hanging fast to his new "Redux" theory and seems none to pleased when Scully consents to be hypnotized. The amazing thing about this scene (besides Gillian Anderson's performance) was that both Mulder in "Patient 'X'" and later Spudner, uh, I mean Spender act as if Werber is doing something terrible and yet as far as I can tell he didn't lead Scully at all - she just starts blurting all this stuff out. While she reaches out to Mulder in this state he obviously doesn't like what he has heard and ends up walking away. So Mulder tries to twist all this into a typical abduction fantasy in front of Skinner. Since when does the typical abduction story involve faceless aliens setting a large group of people on fire? Mulder just can't win as a non-believer. Even Skinner is convinced that the old Mulder was right - either that or he was a little too taken with listening to Scully scream "Oh my God" that many times on tape.
Things are finally starting to really make sense from a mythology standpoint, though I am still very curious if we will ever get a straight answer about Scully's abduction. Perhaps she ought to visit Dr. Werber again since they got such good results the first time. Lucky for us, one of those alien ships crashes (well what do you expect, they have no eyes) conveniently right by an air force base thus allowing us to learn a little bit more about the rebel without a face. As much as I hate to mention the bees, it seems they and the hybrid clones were the only things left out of all this. I suppose we will find out how they figure into the mix a bit more with the season ending episodes.
What didn't work for me can be summed up in one word. Spender. Instead of allowing the audience to see Mulder and Scully sifting through what they just experienced and finding a united common ground we get Agent Spender's valentine from Canada. Wouldn't it have been nice to see Mulder actually verify to Scully that he saw some of the things she did - to see them on the same page for once about these issues? But nooooooooo. I think Scully says it best when she asks "Why are you here Agent Spender?". So, the CancerMan who tells us he has no family in "One Breath" now suddenly has not one, but two children springing out of the woodwork this season. Sure. Fine. Whatever. While I found Chris Owens' character to be a rather dull nonentity in "Patient 'X'", here he graduated to just plain annoying. I think that "patron" of Spender's Skinner spoke of "with a high level of influence" is Chris Carter. I have to really wonder why it is so necessary to introduce what appears to be a surprise critical player this late in the game while consistently killing off or not using established and interesting characters.
I am hoping that, even though it was left up in the air, this "reconsidering" both Mulder and Scully speak of is not meant to align them back in their rigid roles and instead allows them to meet in the middle on at least this one important issue. I'm not asking for, nor do I want, Scully to believe in everything paranormal, and skeptical Mulder bothers me more often than not. However, there really is no reason that I can see that Scully can't be allowed to be a bit of a believer and Mulder someone who questions. It is when they are at their most inflexible that they become caricatures. While I have not been a fan of Mulder's about face (mostly because of his amazingly abrupt and equally extreme skepticism), Scully's journey has been realistic and much more tempered. It is a treat to see her looking for answers even when they aren't easy instead of slipping into the denial patterns of old. I want to see what destiny holds for a Mulder and Scully who are united in knowing what they are up against. They've enough problems to face without fighting each other on this.
-I guess maybe if you actually thought CancerMan was dead that the teaser and ending were surprising.
-Now, I know I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth here, but why did the Oilien put Marita into a coma? It didn't have that effect on anyone else. I guess I should just be thankful and move on. At least with that tube shoved down her throat she can't lisp out bee husbandry.
-Now we did see Quiet Willy really really quiet on the bridge, but even though The Well Manicured Man tell us young Dmitri is dead I couldn't help but notice he was being worked on in the tent with the other survivors.
-If the spaceship aliens killed all the faceless "flam" aliens then how exactly did Scully get those burns on her face and hand?
-That was a cute moment when Scully awakes in the hospital thinking that she has overslept and is being woke up my Mulder.
-Frank's Fashion Spot: I always enjoy seeing that wine suit on Scully, and from a hair standpoint I think her hospital bed hair where she wakes up is the worst I've seen it look since that unfortunate curling iron period she went through. It's nice to know she doesn't always wake up perfect looking.
-Anyone else surprised that Scully was able to relax her usually quite strong filtering processes so quickly? Maybe is was being told to relax her pelvis that did it. That's the closest she's got to someone talking dirty to her in God knows how long.
-Did those alien rebels really need to resort to self mutilation to prevent infection? Couldn't they just morph their faces that way?
-That Scully may not remember much about those 3 months but she always seems to remember a face. She pegs the Bounty Hunter/Quiet Willy in the dark and rain much like she caught Crew Cut Man in "Red Museum".
-What's with Mulder shooting at aliens. Does he not recall the toxic blood thing? Did it slip his mind?
-Actually I guess since Carter gave us so many answers here he felt obligated to cheat us out of the ending. What happened after Mulder pulled the trigger? Does he really not remember?
Autumn
"What time is it?"