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"They can't change the things you love."
Oh they are a crafty lot those boys at 1013. They can make us forgive and forget their sins of full disclosure by giving us not oil, bees, rebels and corn, but what we really crave: heart. They can give the mythology life by killing what must have been an unsatisfying end to this episode and instead providing an obviously recently shot coda with an emotional wallop. Maybe I'm delusional, but it's almost as if they finally realized we don't watch this show for scary stories, but for the heroes who fight the monsters. It's a grand day for the character junkies of the world. A grand day indeed.
Perhaps Carter has finally found that writing partner that brings the heart back to the mythology. Duchovny proved his deft understanding of the Mulder/Scully chemistry in last year's "The Unnatural." Maybe as an actor who has lived with this character he's able to bring to the table a humanizing factor that was so often lost of late in the Carter/Spotnitz every thing AND the kitchen sink mytharc brouhaha bonanzas. Whatever it may be, my hopes are soaring for a final season and a final realization that will be emotionally satisfying. There's no hope left that everything we've seen the past six years will make sense plot-wise at this point, but now there is hope that it will make sense emotionally and character-wise. And given the choice I'd rather have that any day.
Apparently so would the actors. This episode is, hands down, some of the best work by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson ever. Their last scene together was sheer perfection to watch. I was stunned by the honesty. Not only in the words, but in every fiber of their beings. How some folks still cannot see the chemistry between those characters I will never, ever understand. The spiritual crossroads Scully faces at the end, when with Mulder finally safe she can begin to process all that she's experienced is shattering. The gentleness in the way Mulder speaks to her then made me love that character all over again. Separate they were equally wonderful. Duchovny bringing such simple joy to Mulder in moments in the dreams the likes of which we rarely see in the character. He also nicely played the anguish in Mulder's eyes and thoughts as his mother fails to hear him call out. Anderson has an energy that is almost unbridled, crumbling the walls of the usually stoic Scully with emotion both quiet as she closes her eyes in prayer and loud as she tearfully tries to bring Mulder back.
And just so you don't think that I got totally caught up in the drama at the expense of letting them slip by anything plot wise, I do have some bones to pick with the writing. This week cinched it. Kritschgau's entire appearance in this two-parter was nothing but plot device. He did whatever the writers needed him to do. Last week he was the skeptic, this week he's Mr. Alien threatening Scully for absolutely no reason and apparently back to helping the government after spending the better part of last week whining about what those big bad government types had done to his pension. I have to hand it to John Finn though as he has done all that he can to make a part that makes no sense at least interesting. The same can be said of Mimi Rogers. True to X-Files tradition they kill off a character just when she actually grew a heart. Finally given something to play in Diana Fowley besides directions towards vague villainy, she made us see regret. She's especially good in the scene when Scully takes the high road instead of the cat fight she had perhaps girded herself for and looks as if she just may cry when faced with righteous Scully.
As much as I like William B. Davis, and I think, he too did some of his finest work here - especially as the jovial neighborly menthol version of himself - the whole CancerMan as Mulder's Dad thing just irritated the hell out of me. For crying out loud, they've danced and danced with this issue. He is, he isn't, he's Samantha's Dad, he's Spudner's Dad, he freaking fathered whole villages on the East Coast. Whatever. They've never really given us anything conclusive on this, and they still don't. Instead they take the easy way out. They just have the characters parrot it over and over and over again as if that makes it realistic and it was the clearest thing from the start.
While Mulder's dream sequences are all well and good, I'm really unsure as to what exactly the choice he is facing is. Even Diana tells us he had no choice in this. Is it "life or death" as CancerMan intones at the start of the fantasy? The choice between that road not taken and his life as we know it has already been made. Even in this supposedly care free world where refrigerators are filled with chilled sunflower seeds, and the dead are merely really relaxed Mulder can't completely let go of his guilt, his duty, or his partner. He always goes back to thinking of Scully even in a twisted dream Arcadia down to the monster down the block and Fowley in the twin set. Fowley becomes the temptress of "hundred of little joys", but I don't see the choice, the need for reinvestment on Mulder's part. I saw a normal life he's just not suited to have. As he says "it's all perfect. What the hell am I doing here?" Or is the point that which he tells the kid with the sandcastle. Don't let temporary setbacks get you down. Start again. It makes sense that in the end he comes back to Scully again, this time chewing his ass out for giving into the creature comforts that mythological archetype heroes are simply not allowed.
The spiritual journey of Dana Scully continues from the strong start it received last week. Dr. Scully is seeing visions again. I'm telling you that kid from the "Sixth Sense" has nothing on this woman. She'll see his dead people and raise him an angel any day of the week. Even when Scully kicks her way into Kritschgau's apartment one is left with the feeling that she is deleting those files from his computer because of the warning she received in a vision in Africa. That people aren't supposed to know about these things. This week she's visited by the spirit of Albert Hosteen all decked out in his otherworld finest and told she must save Mulder for the sake of us all. No pressure Scully. You're on a mission from God.
She does save Mulder. Just as he saves her. Not just from the bad guys, but on an emotional level. Deep Throat is right. Mulder is not the hub of the universe. This is not one person's path or martyrdom. It is a partnership to the point they even share the same tear. It is a journey together. God I love this show when it leaves us with that.
Oh and there was something about aliens, hybrids, and viral apocalypses.
-Date Stamp: I take it by Mulder's victory comments we are to believe the events of this three parter took place during October.
-Way to fake Nick Lea! Through a rather crafty use of a body double and camera angle and either old footage or a quick trip to or from New Zealand to shoot the man leaving a room, we managed to have an episode with Krycek even when Lea was unavailable.
-The opening beach shot. Hmm. No tag line. Must be another beach and not Africa. Just a dream beach that looked like last week's...
-Teena Mulder: "There's only so much bluntness a Mother can take." Yeah, all that truth must be murder on the Queen of Denial.
-How nice to see Jerry Hardin back if only briefly. I miss the levity he brought to the syndicate.
-OK one of you medical types correct me if I'm wrong here, but how in the world did CancerMan shoot Mulder with that huge needle on his temple. I've got solid skull there. I really don't think that's a place you can give someone a shot without breaking off that needle.
-Mulder's not Ralph Nader? I'm crushed. I already knew he was not Prince Hamlet or Christ even though they really wanted to draw parallels to that for some reason down to the cross and the crown of thorns and the implication he would save everyone. Perhaps they could turn down the heavy handed symbolism just a tad to a less offensive level. Mulder does just fine as a hero without having to indulge in that comparison.
-Our first shot of Scully shows her asleep, glasses discarded, on the book she gets about fifteen minutes later in the episode. Oopsie.
-Well, after the horror that was last year, let me just say this: God I loved Scully's hair this episode. Well, except for when she mysteriously had her later in the season short hair for the last scene. Anyway, it was nice to see them actually put some style back into it instead of deciding droopy and flat was chic.
-Frank's Fashion Spot: In the "Do" column we have that lovely button down white blouse suit combo to go with her "I'm back from Africa and finally styled my hair" look. In the "Don't" column we can certainly see that a life without Scully marred Mulder's sense of style. That shirt he wore as an old man turned his dream into my nightmare.
-Scully's apartment finally made it down from Vancouver somewhat intact. While the layout seemed off, and she now appears to be ready to host a dinner party of epic proportions with that table, Scullyists around the world were just glad to see the fridge was finally out of the living room right off the bat.
-I suppose the Krycek fans will tell us Kritschgau actually killed himself and Krycek just happened to find him there. Yeah, yeah, we didn't see him pull the trigger. Yadda yadda. Face it. He's a bad bad boy. It's OK to admit it. Really.
-Oh how jaded she's become. Remember the days when Scully would hear a noise and pause and cock her head? Now that gun just whips out every time.
-How convenient that the little bit of video camera not covered was just enough to show CancerMan and Ma Mulder sharing a moment.
-"As before, you can reach me at your son's office at the FBI... Why not my own office? Well, er, I don't really have an office, though sometimes I pretend the handicapped stall on the third floor is my office. It's really not the same as you can imagine. Hard to take phone calls there. So, I just like to hang out in YOUR SON'S office. I get my phone calls and mail here too, but don't you dare think I belong here as well. It's obviously not the case." -Let me get this straight. Scully went to Africa when she could have just gone to the library? Interesting tie back to the Anasazi, though you have to love the "let me make this perfectly clear" chapter subheading: "An Entire Native American Indian Culture Vanishes without a Trace. History as myth and end of the world symbolism: Apocalypse and the Sixth Extinction." And here I thought nothing vanishes without a trace...
-In the "it's the little things that count category" I really liked the way Scully wakes up from her vision of prayer still clutching the keys she walked in with.
-So let me get this straight. You too can become a human/alien hybrid if either: A) You survive the black oil and then are exposed to the markings on a hull of a spacecraft. B) You're genetically engineered from harvested eggs and secret alien ingredients. C) You're a loony tunes old gal who spends years getting abducted and operated on. Or D) You simply get another human/alien hybrid and scoop something out of his head and put it in yours. Uh. OK. I hope they didn't scoop out part of Mulder's brain that he needed. Then again maybe CancerMan now has a porno fetish to boot.
-I'm most sorry I think to see Albert go, but they did give him a lovely send off. I loved that last line "there are more worlds than the one you can hold in your hand."
-I puzzled for a while as to why Scully told Mulder that Fowley was the one who gave her the book and the card key when really she had know idea who did that. Did she really believe that or was she saying so to console Mulder?
-Further reasons not to try to make sense of mytharc plot: And why was Fowley murdered? Because CancerMan can now read her mind? How did Scully know where to find Mulder based off of a card key?
-God Bless her. Only Scully, who I'm sure hated Fowley even more than we did, would cry at her death because Mulder cared about her. What a beautiful soul that character has. Then again, it seems the higher powers have noticed that as well.
Autumn
"I don't know what to believe anymore."