Last week, you were either thrilled, annoyed or creeped out to learn Scully had a 3-year-old daughter named Emily. You probably were also thrilled or annoyed after realizing Mulder was practically nowhere to be seen. But worry not, David Duchovny is done Playing God and back earning his weekly paycheck. Unfortunately, we first have to endure that age-old narrative crutch -- the voiceover -- with Dana in a bleak, metaphorical dream. At least in the dream she gets back her gold-cross necklace. 
Fox finds Scully and Emily at the San Diego Children’s Center and tells his partner Frohike identified Emily’s surrogate mother as Anna Fugazzi. The last name means “fake.” Mulder is worried for Dana's safety since anyone who takes care of that little girl dies. His need to protect Sculder may overshadow her desperation to adopt Emily.
The Scully family and Fox testify at a hearing at which presiding Judge Maibaum is this week’s non-believer, because he doesn’t even buy Dana's abduction and ova removal story from years earlier. Too bad we can’t give him the blogs of those episodes as references, but I do appreciate his Michael Crichton crack about the unprecedented science experiments performed on Scully and other women. Bottom line, Fox comes through in support of Dana's adoption petition.
Scully gets a phone call which Mulder traces back to the Children’s Center. They hurry over there where Dana finds Emily burning up with fever. There’s a strange green cyst on the back of her neck. Sculder rush her to the hospital where emergency room Dr. Vinet asks if they are Emily’s parents. The awkward momentary silence could have been a good first use of the phrase “It’s complicated.” Dana steps up with Emily’s medical history. Another doctor punctures the cyst over Mulder’s objections and releases toxins in the air which take down the physician but leave Emily unscathed.
Fox suggests putting the doctor in an ice bath like Scully did for him to save his life (End Game, Season 2 Episode 17 … no, I didn't remember on my own and yes, I had to go back through the blogs and research it.) Dr. Vinet is unable to get medical records from Dr. Calderon, Emily’s medical trial physician. Mulder goes to the pharmaceutical company in charge of Emily’s medication. After getting nowhere, Fox beats and threatens Dr. Calderon with a gun. Security just lets Mulder walk away. Fox then follows the “good” doctor to the two men in suits from the previous episode. Calderon gets stabbed in the back of the neck with a silver ice pick-like weapon and a green acidic substance bubbles out. The men in suits are bounty hunters! They morph into Calderon and one leads Mulder on a wild goose chase.
Back at the hospital, Emily undergoes an MRI. Scully learns her medical prognosis is pretty bleak. Dana finds “Dr. Calderon” leaving Emily’s room but the bounty hunter changes his looks, so it appears Scully just mistook him for someone else. Dana doesn’t know what her “Dr. Calderon” injected into Emily, but she calls Mulder, who is still tracking the "other" one. Fox thinks Scully’s Calderon might be trying to help Emily. Detective Kresge arrives at the hospital with local police to help protect Emily. Mulder follows his Calderon to a nursing home where he stumbles across 71-year-old Anna Fugazzi. Maybe the medical miracle the government has been secretly working on is using elderly females as surrogates to carry babies to term. Or, as Mulder said in the beginning, the name on Emily’s birth certificate is a fake.
Miss Chambliss from Child Services confronts Scully about Emily’s medical condition and Dana’s attempts to make medical decisions for Emily without proper authority. Scully continues to fight for her rights as Emily’s mother. Back in the nursing home, Mulder learns from Frohike that eight of the elderly women who reside there are listed as mothers for recent births. They’re also all on the same hormone medication. Lucky for Frohike, Mulder thinks he has a shot with these women. Emily’s next painful test puts her in a hyperbaric chamber. Fox finds several elderly women enjoying their medicated beauty sleep. (Is this what our taxes are paying for??) He finds an embryo with Dana’s name and birth date on it. Oh good, Emily can have a sibling. After Calderon returns, Mulder steals several vials, but he gets caught by Detective Kresge and drops them. Fox very, very quickly explains the situation and the detective seems to be on board. Unfortunately, he doesn’t listen when Mulder tells him not to shoot Calderon. Should have briefly mentioned the alien stuff, Fox. Kresge shoots Calderon twice and gets overcome by the toxins. “Calderon” then morphs into the detective and gets away.
Mulder joins Scully at Emily’s deathbed, but she’d rather be alone so Fox leaves. He still has one vial in his possession, though. Epilogue time: Emily’s funeral is short but sweet and Dana pontificates over what has happened. Detective Kresge is luckily still alive; maybe next time he’ll listen to Mulder. The nursing home has been cleaned out and there is no evidence of Calderon’s work. All of the evidence is literally gone -- Emily’s body has dissolved into sand, but at least Dana gets her gold cross back. Oh, and Tara Scully finally had her baby, probably with a lot less trouble.Sestra Professional:
So as interesting as last week's build proved to be, the second part seemed to back the show into a corner. There wasn't a great way to extricate Dana from this story, so it's tough to blame our three-headed monster writing machine -- Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz. Of course, I deemed them "amazing" last time and monsters this time, so maybe there's a wee bit of residual blame still hanging in the air.
The ridiculousness of the opening monologue does nothing to alleviate the situation, and in fact, exacerbates it. I'd be all right with pointing the finger at show creator Chris Carter for at least the concept of the teaser, that kind of pretension tends to fall into his purview on a regular basis.
How did she come into this world? So when Scully introduces a 3-year-old to Mulder, she just can't call him Fox? That might have been a little bit easier for a young girl to remember. Not that Emily could even do that for very long since she falls violently ill very quickly. So violently that she reminds me of a sweat-soaked Drew Barrymore in Firestarter when the doctor examining Emily tries to get a sample of the cyst on her neck.Now it's true we didn't want Emily clinging to Dana's trenchcoat forever. It might have been easy to saddle her with Mom Scully and see her occasionally during holiday episodes. But it was thirtysomething enough watching Fox and Dana discussing the attempt to get custody of Emily. In short, the air went out of this episode long before its denouement.
She's just a lab rat to you: But it was sharp of our writing trifecta to raise the tension between our leads, even in the slightest of ways. Mulder kept the fact children were being created through genetic experiments from Scully. And even though that's just a moment passing in the context of this particular episode, it's still serving a greater purpose in their ongoing story. We see how much Dana means to Fox several times in the context of "Emily" and keeping that kind of information from her does seem true to his character.
Also brought up in this episode is a concept that we see time and again in the show's run -- medical rape. It's something that's woven through the tapestry of the story, even in a couple of light-hearted episodes. Given the current landscape and one particular series injustice we'll get to later on, The X-Files taken some hard hits on this front of late. At least we have Fox front and center proclaiming the very notion is wrong at this juncture.The decisions I make are reasonable and right: It's tough -- and slightly annoying -- to see judges and Child Service agencies disregarding Scully's advice. She's a medical doctor and the girl's mother. Neither of these things seem to carry much weight. But then again, not a lot comes up Dana's medical or maternal instincts during this episode either.
Whereas "Christmas Carol" packed emotional punch, "Emily" fails to do so. It's not the fault of Gillian Anderson or David Duchovny, there's just not a lot of meat on this story's bones. Maybe for that reason, ultimately it's easy for us to let this little girl go. We can ponder at a later date why she's not factored into the telling of the ongoing narrative.
Guest star of the week: Lauren Diewold. It's not because she delivered an amazingly poised performance for her age. As revealed in the series' official guide, another actress originally cast as Emily freaked out when put in the hyperbaric chamber. Almost two episodes worth of scenes had to be restructured and reshot. Brava to Diewold for saving the day. Twice.
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