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"She was trying to tell you to stop. To stop looking for your sister."
Couldn't Mrs. Mulder have tried to tell him this like, say three seasons ago? Before the fans were so tired of the Samantha run around that even a fairly well done episode such as this is pulled down by the weight of countless red herrings and lies surrounding little Miss Stratego-Pants? When they have to find yet another young actress to play Samantha (this time luckily only in a photo which unluckily doesn't much look like the other Samantha in the photo right next to it) because the others are now too old, then maybe, just maybe things have drug on far too long with this particular story line. This time around we revisit the "Paper Hearts" Samantha theme of a serial killer rather than the ever popular clone theme, the "One Son" she's still out there theme, or my personal favorite the "Redux 2" all growed up and livin' in the burbs theme.
And frankly, if those of us who practically cringe now at the mere mention of Samantha can get past that, what we have here is a rather good outing on the X-Files. At least they've stopped throwing everything and the kitchen sink into the mytharc these days and instead just concentrate on hopelessly confusing one aspect of it. This time writers Carter and Spotnitz board the MAN PAIN EXPRESS and poke at Mulder repeatedly with the proverbial sharp stick until he snaps so bad he does something virtually unheard of: he actually asks for time off. That could have been the shocking cliffhanger right there. Anyway, the little girl abducted angle isn't enough to tweak Mulder properly anymore so they killed off the last member of Mulder's family. Well, the family he grew up with.
David Duchovny really stepped up to the material for a very strong performance this time around. His quiet desperation throughout as Mulder's intuition goes wacky on him was effective and touching. I especially liked his delivery when he tells the LaPierre's "I hope so, I really do" to their question about the FBI finding their daughter. I found his trip to his mother's apartment when he goes into denial mode and doesn't think about her death by trying to think about everything else and his breakdown scene with Scully especially moving.
With Mulder out of leap commission, duties automatically fell to Scully by role reversal default as outlined in the Robert's Rules of Orders Special X-Files Mytharc Edition, and our old pal psychic!Scully makes an appearance long enough to put together that a ghost of a little girl saying "74" to her mother meant a California Highway. I won't even get started on how this idiot who buried kids mere yards from the reindeer pen in obvious graves got away with this since the 60s.
When she wasn't performing the requisite leap, Scully's role in this episode is limited to trying to keep Mulder on a leash and getting to be the dutifully concerned and caring friend. Scully's been down the route of Mulder personalizing this type of situation enough times to know just what is happening. Gillian Anderson makes the most out of the important moments when she gets to do more than stand around and listen and is especially good as Scully asks Mulder "please don't ask me to do this" about his mother's autopsy. That whole sequence between the two of them was golden. I also enjoyed, as I always do, when Scully gets bossy with Skinner. For him being the manager she knows just how and when to put him in his place. I especially enjoyed her protectiveness at Mulder's door after she'd just had to go through what was most likely a very unpleasant night.
They did a really nice job with the supporting casting in "Sein Und Zeit". Kim Darby was oddly eerie as the jailed Kathy Lee, and I especially liked Shareen Mitchell as the distressed mother Billie LaPierre. Everything she did just rang very true for me. I'm really hoping that the automatic writing angle is followed up on because I found that aspect of the episode very interesting. Director Watkins uses the patented BellyVision technique to clue us into the identity of our voyeur and did and nice job bringing out the more intimate moments in the episode.
Here's hoping that "Closure" next week will finally put this Samantha thing to bed, because right now Mulder is the only one that needs any closure on that issue. I sure don't need to hear about it again.
-Frank's Fashion Spot: I'm starting out with this as my first random musing this week because I am getting increasingly annoyed with whatever this style (and I use the term loosely) is with Scully this year. The hair is just bad. It looks and moves like a fiberglass helmet. You could douse Scully in Gatorade like the coach of a football team and it wouldn't move. Gillian does a better job styling it herself these days for her public appearances. What's next? Scully wearing a bunch of barrettes in her hair? And make a decision with the damn buttons on the shirts and jackets and freaking stick with it. Pretty soon she'll just be buttoning one middle button in her shirt and leaving the rest undone. It might be also nice to actually tailor her jackets so they fit instead of having her hands barely peaking out as well. At least whoever is picking out Mulder's ties is doing a good job this year. That's about all I have to hang onto from a fashion perspective.
-While I'm annoyed I might as well talk about the whole "Harsh Realm" thing. How utterly petulant to toss in the self reference along with "this is great" to that *riveting* hallway scene or trying to tweak FOX about not promoting it by saying "I never heard of it before." Move on guys, it just came across as sour grapes.
-Since Frank and Chris just couldn't exhibit some self control about the "Harsh Realm" thing it does really screw with the whole time stamp issue. There is no explicit stamp in the episode so you have to go by what is on TV. Either the "Harsh Realm" premiere on October 8th or the fact that the news was also recapping the State of the Union Address (which was on January 27th).
-Boy those LaPierre's are quite the exciting couple. They're headed for bed at 9:30 on a Friday night. Party animals...
-Speaking of, Mulder's up late nights listening to his Spooky Scanner (TM) again since the little girl disappeared at around 12:30AM and he was all over it and at the FBI by 3:14AM. I certainly did not get the impression Skinner invited him to the party. He then apparently found some D.C. to Sacramento red eye (no doubt a popular route) to manage to get at the site by 8:12 the next morning. Probably the same airline that runs the red eye back from Sacramento so they could get to that meeting the following morning after the scene at the motel stamped at 10:12PM.
-O.K., it's probably me just reading the sign wrong, but I looked really really carefully and when Mulder gets out of the car at the LaPierre's it looks like the street sign behind him reads "Alien Ave".
-Retread Alert: So when someone asks you what was the episode that guest starred Mark Rolston about some pervert video taping kids and walk-ins what will your answer be? "Red Museum" in which he played Odin or "Sein Und Zeit" as Bud LaPierre?
-We always knew Lariat was the coolest of the car rental places, but now we find out that they have amazingly detailed road maps for their cars as well. I'm lucky when I rent to see a vague approximation of major cities and this thing had a run down roadside tourist trap marked on it. Does it also have every Stuckey's listed on it too?
-Our Little Sailor: Well, it's not the best swearing example, but "Skinner is royally pissed" is the best we can come up with this week.
-Perhaps Skinner should switch from boxing to running as exercise since that out of shape old toad seemed to give him quite the run for his money. Heck, Mulder and Scully had to bust down a door and they still arrived mere seconds after Skinner.
-To be honest, I've been a little disappointed in Mark Snow's scores of late. I miss the inventiveness of "Soft Light" or "Grotesque" so it was nice to hear this gentle but effective piano and string combination.
-Apparently the big activity at the Idaho State Women's Prison is to stick your arms through the bars holding onto something. It just looked so odd seeing Mulder and Scully walk down this hall of arms just sticking out for no reason.
-Looks like Mrs. Mulder moved to an apartment building since "Demons".
-After years of reading about it in fanfic we finally get to see a pizza box on Mulder's coffee table. Next thing you know Scully will be coming over for take out Chinese.
-The Attorney Harry Bring in this episode was named after the Unit Production Manager.
-Aren't all those smug FBI Agents in D.C. going to be hacked off once again that the Spookys managed to track this case down when they could not. Someday they may even learn Mulder and Scully's secret of actually leaving D.C. to solve these things.
Autumn
"It's been a hard night for him."