Sestra Amateur:
“In West Philadelphia, born and raised, on the playground was where I spent most of my days…” Sorry, the beginning of this episode put The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme in my head. In West Philadelphia, a homeless “relocation” project brought to you by the fine, upstanding members of the Department of Housing and Urban Development is underway. Things don’t end well for head pencil pusher Joseph Cutler. A man made of trash dismembers him, then leaves the area. Special Agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder are called to the scene. (Apparently, they are “special” again after all.)
Lead detective Gross isn’t quite sure what to do with his “spooky” murder case. (This isn’t spooky; it’s gross.) Mulder and the forensic tech notice there isn’t actual forensic evidence which can be processed to help identify their suspect. Dr. Scully realizes Cutler’s limbs were torn off, not severed. But her analysis comes to an abrupt end after a phone call from her brother, Bill Scully. Their mom, Margaret, has suffered a heart attack.
Back outside the crime scene, Fox interrupts a spat between H.U.D. man Daryl Landry and School Board president Nancy Huff. He learns about the Band-Aid Nose Man from one of the homeless men. (I wonder if Band-Aid paid for product placement here. Maybe it should just be Bandage Nose Man.) Unfortunately, while distracted by these three fine Philadelphia residents, the graffiti image Mulder was dying to see up close and personal managed to disappear.
Dana is sitting at her mother’s bedside, remembering Fox sitting by her own bedside once upon a time. Bill calls from Germany for an update. Scully talks about their mother’s wishes while watching another patient in the Intensive Care Unit die. She soon finds out her mother updated her living will without Dana’s knowledge and she chose to not be resuscitated after all. Meanwhile, Fox learns the results of the analysis of the bandage from his shoe; it is devoid of organic and inorganic material. It’s not alive or dead. It’s Schrodinger’s Band Aid. The graffiti image of the Band-Aid Nose Man has been stolen right out from under Mulder’s nose. Now that’s just embarrassing. But the "man" takes care of the two thieves, and he even takes out the “trash.”
Fox goes to the hospital to give Dana moral support and Huff serves Landry with an injunction to prevent the homeless relocation. Too bad she’s not doing it for altruistic reasons; it’s more of a N.I.M.B.Y situation (Not in My Back Yard). Back at the hospital, Scully has so many unanswered questions, like why was her mother wearing a quarter around her neck like a charm? And why did she ask for Charlie and/or change her living will? But more is going on in her head -- every time her cell phone rings, she thinks it’s William. Not brother Bill, not Mulder, but her son, William, who would be about 15 years old. Pretty sure she doesn’t have his cell phone number so that’s kinda weird.
The Band-Aid Nose Man has come for Huff. You just knew parts of her were going to end up in that trash compactor she couldn’t stop using. Charlie calls Dana and talks to their comatose mother. She responds and opens her eyes. Her dying words are, “My son is named William too.” Scully thinks her Mom was referring to Dana and Fox’s son. (There are too many people named William in the Sculder families.) Too emotional to stay at the hospital, Scully wants to return to their investigation in Philadelphia. Now wearing her mother’s quarter necklace, Dana and Mulder chase a graffiti artist who points his gun at Scully. She quickly disarms him and gives Fox a condescending dressing-down when he lets the kid escape.
They search and find a homeless man who tries to explain he’s not the killer, just an artist trying to get the garbage message out there. The Trashman's Band-Aid Nose Man is a tulpa – a thought form – he accidentally created. For some reason, Dana starts thinking of baby William’s young life during the exposition. She claims the Trashman is responsible for Band-Aid Boy's actions if he thought him into existence. But they have no time to waste; Sculder learns Landry got the injunction lifted and relocated the homeless people. Mr. Band-Aid is stalking Daryl when the agents and the Trashman arrive at the new group home. They just miss Landry being torn to pieces. I guess the tulpa's work is done.
And now that the grotesque criminal case is over, Dana can focus on her mother’s final words. Scully still experiences regret for giving William up for adoption, even though it was to keep him safe. It seems she’ll never find peace when it comes to her son. Too bad it’s only going to get worse.
Sestra Professional:The revival's comedy episode is out of the way and tribute has been paid to the series' most prolific, and dare I say, influential director. It's time to get back down to the business of 1.) getting gross in that patented X-Files way and 2.) moving our leads' story along.
Writer/director Glen Morgan is just the man to handle these tasks. With co-writer James Wong, Morgan blazed the trail for the series' spooky cases -- those monsters of the week that we remember so well. From liver-eating Tooms (Season 1, Episodes 3 and 22) and the worm of death in "Ice" (S1E8) to human aberration Luther Lee Boggs in "Beyond the Sea" (S1E13), a template was set that the series forever tried to live up to during the rest of the regular run. And let's not forget the original "Home" denizens -- the Peacock family from the S4E2 episode that bore that moniker.
We can eliminate any 76ers, 'cause those guys can't find the rim: Mulder's still recognizing the ridiculousness of his former hypotheses during his initial examinations. Not that it stops him from making them, mind you, just that he's tagging the note of impossibility the rest of the world sees onto his comments. Scully's forever the scientific whiz, she can elaborate in excruciating detail about a victim's demise. But her cell contact list probably shouldn't be as precise, or she wouldn't think at first glance that brother Bill is long-lost son William on the phone. Dana's shaky-cam departure gives Fox a chance to work out some nuts and bolts -- such as attaching importance of street art to the murder.
Margaret Scully asked for Charlie after being hospitalized, and if you don't remember who that is, you're not alone. Dana informs us that her brother is estranged (makes sense, we haven't seen him since a youthful flashback in S2E8's "One Breath") and now there are two mysteries to solve in 44 minutes. We feel for her as Scully the doctor deals with a daughter's pain, particularly when she finds out her mother changed her mind about her living will without filling her in on it. However out of left field the story seems to be, Gillian Anderson gives us all the feels when Dana reacts to Margaret being taken off life support.
Meanwhile, Fox is sussing out the Band-Aid Nose Man. My initial reaction to the case was that it seemed reminiscent of the monster from "Arcadia" (S6E15). Morgan had departed the series by then, but series creator Chris Carter had a hand in that one. I'd like to see the Wilt Chamberlain of monsters take on the Gogolak created by the strident homeowners' association in "Arcadia." That would be a monster match for sure. Morgan's affinity for pop music is evident -- and reminiscent of the Peacocks -- with the playing of Petula Clark's "Downtown." Putting that setting into the context of the predicament of the homeless, we can visualize an underbelly of the song that we probably never considered before.
All of that is juxtaposed with the loss of Scully's mother. Poor Dana doesn't even get to hear her mom's last words said to her as Margaret directs them to Fox. Scully's more concerned about the content, though. And despite Mulder's best efforts, she wants to get back to work rather than think of the ramifications (again!) of giving up their child.
Back in the day is now: Dana's using that laser-like focus that helps you get through a personal crisis by concentrating her attention elsewhere. So as a picture of the gigantic monster gets literally painted by numbers for us, Scully gets to point out an old Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers axiom -- she did everything her male counterpart did, only in high heels. Then the Trashman imparts an extended lesson about how people treat people like garbage and why problems exist long after we stop thinking about them.
So the Band-Aid Nose Man's a tulpa ... it is just like the "Arcadia" monster, even if Mulder now thinks tulpas can't be used for that purpose. He's forgotten his own opinion, and Dana's too busy with William flashbacks to contradict him. She's taking the Trashman's words to heart when it comes to her son, even as she blames the artist for causing the rash of deaths. All the reasons why William was moved off the canvas for his own safety and the sanity of the rest of us who didn't want the series to turn into thirtysomething have been discarded alongside the other refuse.
With the case ... um, solved, I guess ... Scully figures out the other great mystery of the story. Why was Charlie foremost on her mother's mind? Because William's grandmother wanted her daughter (and Fox, I guess) to find their son. I don't think lines associated with the series like, "She made him" and "I want to believe" needed to be encapsulated in Dana's final speech. It may have not lessened the impact of another fine Gillian performance, but it does take us out of the moment. I'd like to recycle that monologue and give her another crack at it.
Guest star of the week: Sheila Larken. Everyone in the trash-homeless story was painted into a one-dimensional corner. The emotional resonance and the impetus for us to move forward was provided by someone we'd become very attached to over the course of the series, even if we only saw her now and then. Dana's loss was our loss too.
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