Sestra Amateur:
Speaking of "Revelations" (this episode’s title), I just finished watching the third season of Gillian Anderson’s series The Fall, in which she plays an English detective superintendent leading a serial killer investigation in Northern Ireland. The years have been good to Gillian, but when you switch immediately from one show to the other, you can’t help but get the impression that DSI Stella Gibson and FBI Special Agent Dana Scully could be the same person. Gibson has the weary look of a woman whose law enforcement career has shown her the worst of humanity, to the point where almost nothing surprises her anymore. In Season 3 of The X-Files, Dana has seen a lot but Gillian – as Scully – still maintains an optimistic and wide-eyed look and perspective. I need to re-watch The X-Files Season 10 to see whether Gillian exudes more of Stella’s or early Dana’s traits.
"Revelations" is a religious-themed bottle episode. A priest in Pennsylvania is giving a sermon and his palms start to bleed. His congregation is full of believers, except for Simon Gates, played by Kenneth Walsh, a Canadian character actor you’ve seen everywhere but probably can’t place specifically. For me, his Twin Peaks character Windom Earle, single-handedly shanghaied and ruined that show. But I digress.
Simple Simon – who was not a pie man -- meets with the Reverend “Garfunkel” after the sermon and strangles him to death. At the reverend’s crime scene, Mulder promptly licks up the victim’s blood. Well, we knew it would happen sooner or later. Turns out it’s fake blood from the reverend’s fake stigmata wounds. Of course, Fox has been “tracking a series of international, religiously motivated murders." Eleven, to be exact. Scully shows her Sunday school background when she points out the fact that only 12 true stigmatic sufferers exist in the world at one time, one for each of the apostles.
In Ohio, a schoolteacher calls young Kevin Kryder to the chalkboard, but his palms start to bleed. This is actually the second time something like this has happened to poor Kevin, the previous year he suffered wounds to his hands and feet. Sculder make it to Ohio in record time. The school nurse hasn’t even finished treating him yet. Kevin thinks the feds want to arrest his father for child abuse. His mother gets to the school – after the agents – and they warn her Kevin may be in danger. The main question on my mind is why can’t Dr. Scully tell the difference between a cut and a puncture?
Sculder visit Kevin’s father, Michael, in a psychiatric institution but he’s cryptically useless. Later that night at the children’s home, Kevin is telling the other kids a creepy story. Suddenly, Pluto from Wes Craven’s The Hills Have Eyes arrives – actor Michael Berryman has a very unique look. He scares the other kids away and takes Kevin. Susan Kryder arrives at the group home and realizes the suspect composite is their gardener, Owen Lee Jarvis. Sculder find and disarm Owen, who says Kevin is not safe. Scully looks for Kevin, but he hides from them. Jarvis claims he’s on a mission from God, but Owen’s mission is not nearly as entertaining as the one in The Blues Brothers.
Jarvis gets handcuffed in the attic, but he throws himself out the window, breaks the cuffs and makes a run for it. Kevin makes it back home, but Simon is looking for him there. Gates notices Kevin bleeding in the laundry basket, but Owen saves the day again. Unfortunately, Simon kills Jarvis when Sculder arrive. Poor Gates looks like he died with a smile on his face. I hope he made it into heaven.
Scully conducts Owen’s autopsy and notes his body isn't exactly showing the usual signs of deterioration, like rigor mortis or cooling body temperature. Dana is leaning toward the St. Owen theory, but is not ready to say it outright. Mulder tries to rein in Scully’s religious beliefs. It’s always interesting when they experience role reversal – Fox with aliens and Dana with religion.
After the autopsy, Mulder runs the prints from Owen’s neck wound and comes up with Gates’ ID. Simon drives up to assist Susan and Kevin, who are having car trouble. "Simon Says" Susan should thank him for his help. Kevin tricks Gates into chasing him on foot and Susan hits Simon with her car – which looks like it hasn’t been simonized -- then crashes into a ditch, killing herself in the process.
Scully thinks the agents should keep an eye on Kevin. Later that night, she admits the wounds on Kevin’s hands were similar to crucifixion wounds after seeing another one on his chest that wasn’t a result of the car accident. Somehow, someone has bent the bathroom window bars and Kevin is gone again. Sculder reinterview Kevin’s father, but the hospital staff upped his anti-psychotic medication dosage, so he’s incoherent.
Fox gets a tip that Simon is at the airport, but Dana thinks Gates took Kevin to Simon's recycling plant in Jerusalem, Ohio. So who do you think is on the right path, Scully or Mulder? Scully, “Simon ese!” which loosely translated on Urban Dictionary means “Of course, dude!” Dana and Fox split up to check out both leads. Doesn’t anyone from one of the FBI’s Ohio office want to assist them? Or even local police?
Scully easily finds Simon and Kevin at the recycling plant. Maybe it really is Dana’s divine duty to protect the kid. Gates carries Kevin up to the shredder and we see a bloody mess coming out the other end. Luckily, it’s not Kevin. This one ended pretty abruptly. Jeez, Scully’s not going to adopt Kevin like she did Queequeg, is she? “Simon no ese!”
A couple of days later, Dana goes to confession at a local church. I’m curious, if you say it’s been six years since your last confession, do you lose points if you downplay the time? Let’s say it was actually six years, 11 months, 29 days. That’s really more like seven years. So is that considered a sin by omission? And does it affect the overall penance? It’s too bad Scully can’t talk about religion with Mulder. Maybe they’ll have better luck discussing politics or abortion.
Sestra Professional:
After immersing ourselves in the mythology for two episodes, it must have seemed like a good idea to revisit Scully's faith. That's almost as much of a recurring series theme as Mulder's search for Samantha. Having this episode -- one of two this season credited to Kim Newton -- air around the holidays (Dec. 15, 1995) was certainly an interesting choice totally in keeping with the show's vibe.
For me, the episode is a bit of a hot mess. Scully's beliefs were addressed in a much cleaner way in Season 1's "Beyond the Sea." Here they might be hitting it too hard, or maybe it's just because the script was still being revised during filming. Maybe it's Mulder's stance -- discussed at length in two different conversations between the agents. As Dana says, he's willing to go out on a limb for every light in the sky, but not believe in miracles.
In this episode, we bid farewell David Nutter, one of the directors who helped set the standard for the show early on. He had many more pilots in the genre to set the stage for -- Millennium, Space: Above and Beyond, Roswell, Smallville and Supernatural, to name a few. In the Season 3 episode guide, he praised Gillian Anderson's performance -- "she's got such an ability to emote and give from the inside" -- and he's right, she really delves into this ep with style and substance.
So all the changes made during the course of filming seemed to create some loose ends, starting with Kevin's visit to the hospital nurse. As Sestra Am said, how come Scully can't determine the difference between a cut and a puncture? Why would she say he was "a little" hot when she felt his forehead when he winds up exploding the thermometer? And most of all, why are they putting a rectal thermometer in that kid's mouth? But don't feel bad, Kevin, math makes me bleed too, although generally not from my hands.
It's safe to say this guy carries a grudge: There's a lot of mileage gained from the guest performances by Kenneth Walsh and Michael Berryman. It's easy to understand both characters' viewpoints, although I'm at a loss about why Gates exterminates all the pretenders and then also wants to take Kevin out too.
I also get a bit confused about that one who was meant to save Kevin. It was Dana and not Owen? Or it was also Jarvis until he was unable to fill his obligation any more and became the sweetest smelling corpse this side of St. Francis? You know what it is? It's St. Owen's fire.
Don't think for a moment that you set the rules for me: Maybe Jarvis was supposed to show Scully what she was meant for. He really gives her the business, pondering how Dana thinks she can help Kevin if she doesn't believe. That scene almost works better than the two stand-off ones in which the agents change their usual sides. Almost.
There's good stuff to be found in those moments too. So Fox considers the "fanatics behaving fanatically" to be giving bonafide paranoids like him a bad name. The relationship reversal is compelling, but one still would think Mulder would be more open to things like the unexplained stigmata and flesh burns on a victim's neck, since even in non-conspiracy episodes, he's quick to jump on the supernatural bandwagon.
Coming full circle to find the truth: Does anyone else roll their eyes when Fox says that the whole thing is testing his patience and not his faith? He tests Scully's all the time when he doesn't check out the obvious solution before going off half-cocked, even though his conjectures usually have merit. They must have been really into that argument, though, if they didn't hear Gates bending bars and breaking a window to get to Kevin.
And one last thing to take issue with in the script, how exactly can Mulder handle the sheriff's formal statement on Simon's death alone? She's the one who was there when Gates died. Ya coulda done that and then gone to confession, Scully. You're just going to backtrack there anyway, wondering if you imagined all the signs that you saw before switching yet again for the last line, one I'm convinced was penned by executive producer Chris Carter -- "Mostly it makes me afraid ... afraid that God is speaking but that no one's listening."
Anyway, Sestra Am's comparison of Gillian's characters intrigued me, although I think Stella gave into her impulses a lot more freely than Dana ever will (save a certain Season 4 episode). I'm not sure faith fits into Gibson's overall profile, but then again, I didn't get to Season 3 of The Fall yet.
Guest star of the week: Michael Berryman, best known for the wild 1977 Wes Craven ride that is The Hills Have Eyes, was cast against type as Kevin's protector for this episode, and afterward, the unusual-looking actor -- who suffers from a rare condition that left him without sweat glands, hair, fingernails or teeth -- reportedly said the show completely changed the way he was regarded in Hollywood.
Sestra Amateur:
If Sestra Pro and I had planned this a little better, "731" might have been reviewed closer to 7/31, but 7/15 it is. We left off with Stunt Double Mulder jumping onto a train even though Scully – via Mr. X – warned him not to. Instead of picking up there, we see an Army vehicle ram through the locked gates of Hansen’s Disease Research Facility. Which is more unnerving, breaking into a disease-research facility or breaking out of one? After gaining access, soldiers start herding figures who look suspiciously like Close Encounters of the Third Kind aliens in light-blue pajamas. Someone with horrible skin and white hair watches from the trap door of an oubliette. (See what I did there?) The unseen patient follows the truck on foot and watches a firing squad assassinate the pajama party and leave the bodies in a mass grave. Looks like this is going to be one of those lighthearted X-Files eps.
Back to the cliffhanger. Mulder lands on the train and loses his phone. Scully gets annoyed because he won’t (can’t) answer her. Dana pulls a gun on Mr. X to get answers, but he quickly disarms her. X lets her know everything is related -- what’s on the train, who killed her sister and whatever is on the implant in her neck. At least he gives her gun back. It’s dark outside when Fox finally gets inside the train. He seeks help from the conductor, who looks familiar probably because he’s played different roles in several X-Files eps. At least Millennium shows him some love and lets him play the same character twice. The conductor directs Mulder to the compartment of Dr. Shiro Zama – aka Takeo Ishimaru -- but it’s empty except for a briefcase. Fox gives the briefcase to the conductor for safekeeping as well as his backup gun to keep Dr. Zama there when he comes back.
At FBI headquarters, Dana learns more about her implant. It sounds like the technology really has the potential to mess with her mind. Scully finds out it was made by a Japanese company linked to good ol’ Dr. Zama in Perkey, West Virginia. Fun fact: The scientist analyzing Dana’s chip has a bit of a crush on her.
Back on the train, that Red-Haired Man is about to assassinate Dr. Zama with piano wire when Fox strolls down the hall to save the day. Actually, Mulder doesn’t see them enter the bathroom and he has no clue what’s going on behind the closed door, so let’s bid a fond farewell to the doctor. When Mulder does find Zama’s body, he’s clearly irked (Fox, not the doc, who just looks surprised). Unfortunately, a passenger and her son see the corpse. Mulder, in the future, don’t touch a dead body then try and console a boy by patting his head, at least wash your hands first. Zama’s bad karma may seep its way into the kid’s psyche.
Meanwhile, Scully makes it to Perkey – alone, at night – and sees some blue pajama-clad people running away from her. Dana finds the severely skin-damaged group hiding below her. They beg her not to hurt them and reveal they live on the Hansen facility grounds as an unofficial leper colony. The lead leper tells Scully about the death squads that eliminated hundreds of deformed Hansen patients. Sounds like the cure was worse than the disease. The leper in charge takes Dana to the mass grave, which is still exposed. A helicopter arrives and scares off the leader. Foot soldiers find Scully and hold her at gunpoint while she hears shots fired behind her, probably killing the lead leper.
Mulder’s searching the train for Zama’s killer -- maybe it was suicide – but finds an “alien” instead. Fox finally sees an alien! Unfortunately, Red gets the drop on him and tries to take Mulder out with the piano wire too. The gun-toting conductor shows up and saves his life. Now subdued, Red claims to work for the NSA, but he doesn’t seem to know Mulder. Is it my imagination or did Fox seem a little irritated by that? Red claims there’s a bomb that's been accidentally triggered on the train, so if Mulder shoots Red he might set off the bomb.
Scully gets brought before the Elder – one of Cancer Man’s inner-circle peeps. He really needs a better nickname. He’s not Cigarette-Smoking Man, Red-Haired Man or Well-Dressed Man. How about Somber-Exposition Man, since he’s actually going to give up some information? Dana says she knows Zama and Takeo Ishimaru are the same person. In turn, the Elder knows a lot about her.
The Red-Fox standoff continues back in the locked train car. Mulder’s about to try and get them out when Red’s cell phone goes off. Turns out, it’s the Elder calling so Dana can talk some sense into Fox. She reveals she is in the train car where her implant was … implanted. And finally, she tells him there really is a bomb on Mulder’s train. So, do answers that Fox doesn’t want to hear still count as answers? Apparently not, because Mulder pretends he has a bad connection and hangs up on his partner.
Fox puts the conductor to work so they can safely separate the bomb car from the rest of the train as the timer quickly counts down. Mulder passes the time questioning Red and learns Zama found a way to make soldiers immune to chemical weapons. Since Fox can’t give up his quest altogether, he assumes it’s an alien-human hybrid locked in the car with them. Red makes a good point that if it was an alien, no one has come to save whoever – or whatever – is in that compartment.
Scully goes in an interesting direction, she calls Senator Matheson and tapes an X to the window in Mulder’s apartment. She kills time while watching the Alien Autopsy video and sees Zama entering the code to get out of the train car: 1013 (“I made this!”) 31. Fox is momentarily relieved to see it worked. Red then clocks him upside the head and stomps on him a bit. Yeah, Red seems like the type who would kick a person when he’s down. So the assassin escapes – and promptly gets shot and killed by Mr. X. He checks on Mulder who is bloody and unconscious, then tries to get to the person/thing locked in the car. With seconds left, X chooses to save Fox just before the explosion.
One week later, Mulder can’t get any answers. And now we’ve come full circle. Dana brings Zama’s briefcase to Fox, and he’s convinced they’re not the same Japanese journals he saw earlier. Turns out Mulder’s right, somehow Cancer Man has them. You know, it really takes a lot of work to keep a conspiracy alive. Fox just doesn’t appreciate that.
Sestra Professional:
Cough, cough. Remember, David Duchovny made the jump, his stunt double only went over the railing. And c'est la vie, we'll be off July 31, so we wouldn't have delivered a blog done on that date anyway. Actually, "731" was a reference to a unit of the Japanese Army that experimented on prisoners of war, as the Japanese doctors -- with the U.S. government's knowledge -- have done here.
I find the conclusion of this two-parter to be somewhat unsatisfying. As we learned last week, The X-Files made these two episodes together because of the big action sequences, the controversial train jump and subsequent explosion. But that means there's not a lot of meat on the bones of these two stories. I'll give them some credit for the emotional impact of the death of the leper test subjects since we've all been implanted by the horrors of the Holocaust. And at least Mulder gets to see his alien.
I don't have time for your convenient ignorance: Holding a gun on someone just doesn't glean the amount of information it used to. I was distracted by Scully's "you smug son of a..." line anyway, since the Season 3 blooper reel shows Gillian Anderson going a little overboard to the giddy delight of the crew. But X's declaration that Dana's implant holds more than I can ever tell you feels so hollow, he obviously could impart quite a bit more information.
But I have to say I was pretty pleased for that conductor, played by Michael Puttonen, who has Sestra Am stated has been seen on the show before as the motel manager in "Deep Throat" and Dr. Pilsson in "Sleepless." That conductor had a pretty exciting story to tell about his day after he gets home, if he made it home.
Agent Pendrell also can make some entries into his diary. He sure knows his stuff, giving Dana lots of info on the neural network that had been placed in the back of her neck. But I'll take him to task for one particular line -- "there's no information, except for this." Well, Pendrell, if there's a this, then there is information. That piece of paper.
Back on North by Northeast, that Red-Haired Man doesn't look so red-haired to me, even when he's out of the shadows. Where's Damian Lewis when you need him? "You're gonna die, you know that?" Red chides Mulder. "What do you care? You were going to kill me anyway." Thanks for voicing our concerns, Fox.
The protracted Sculder phone conversation lays out the agents' positions pretty succinctly. Scully's firmly believes that the government has been experimenting on human subjects, be it the disease and radiation tests on the lepers or the implementation of the tell-tale chip in her own neck. And Mulder's not going to budge from believing it's all about human-alien hybrids.
This non-red-headed Red-Haired Man knows an awful lot for an assassin. Why would he be toting his piano wire across the country killing people and not sending others to do it in his place? But his line about someone showing up to save the hybrid certainly seems to back Mulder's case when X shows up in the nick of time. That's a pretty big step for a guy who didn't want to get as involved as Deep Throat.
And according to Steven Williams in the official third-season episode guide, that choice came none too soon. "X was starting to get a little bit irritating to the fans," he said. "He'd come on and say some nebulous shit, some ambiguous sort of thing, and people would say, 'Come on! Just give him the information.'"
Apology has become policy: The show deftly utilized the fact that the United States had, at the time, recently expressed regret for secret radiation experiments conducted into the mid-70s. So Scully's speech to Mulder at the end about apologizing for what couldn't be covered up holds water, although we didn't seriously think she'd be able to sway him from what he just saw, did we?
It was the heat of the meta: Director Rob Bowman took some heat for accidentally destroying two cameras during the filming of the train bomb, according to the third-season episode guide. ... Also noted in the guide was special effects makeup artist Toby Lindala's big challenge, creating the mass grave with 25 masked actors -- most of whom were children -- along with 25 prop bodies. The job needed to be completed in five days, and some of the masks used were modified from those used in previous episodes.
Guest star of the week: I gave Stephen McHattie some guff for not looking particularly ginger, but the tense scene between Mulder and Red stands out as the acting highlight of the episode. It manages to hold the tension despite the fact that even the most naive viewer would guess the assassin wasn't going to be long. Nice symmetry in the fact that McHattie's well known for some other numerical titles, -- 2012 and 300.
Sestra Amateur:
This is a mythology ep, and we all know how few and far between these are, so I’ll try refresh your recollection the way I pretty much needed to myself. Also, the title – "Nisei" – is never addressed in this episode, but it basically means second generation. That will make a little more sense as the episode unfolds.
In Knoxville, Tennessee, train car No. 82594 is intentionally detached and left in the rail yard. Japanese men enter the car, which looks like an operating room. It appears they are performing a surgical procedure on what looks like an alien with green blood. Armed guards invade the starch-white lab and shoot all of the men, so now there’s red blood everywhere. It looks like the Christmas from hell with the world’s creepiest looking elf. Or a New Jersey Devils game circa 1987. The armed men pack up the alien and leave. By the way, if you were wondering if 8-25-94 has any special significance, it might be meaningful to Chris Carter, Howard Gordon or Frank Spotnitz. But according to the Internet, nothing special happened on that exact date in history.
Scully catches Mulder watching video footage of an alien autopsy in their FBI office. After a nice dig against Fox (the network, not her partner), Dana tries to convince him it’s not real. Mulder is sure it is real because they’re not showing a lot. Got that? The footage is actually of the opening scene and cuts off when the gunmen storm the lab.
Sculder visit Steven Zinnzser, the video producer in Allentown – that’s a decent song to have stuck in your head – Pennsylvania, but someone broke into his boarded-up house. The poor guy is found dead in his own bed. Guess you shouldn’t be selling footage you pull off satellite feeds, Steve, especially for $29.95 a pop. Fox chases a Japanese man out of Zinnzser's house and through the neighborhood. He disarms Mulder, but Fox eventually subdues him. Unfortunately, there’s a communication breakdown because of the language barrier. Too bad Google Translate wouldn’t be available for another nine years.
There's no translator available at the Allentown Police Department either. Luckily(?), Skinner shows up and tells them their murder suspect, Kazuo Sakari, has diplomatic immunity and will be released. This must be as frustrating for Fox as it was for Riggs in Lethal Weapon 2. Mulder minimizes their reason for being in Allentown -- video piracy. I guess technically it’s true, but their lead pirate is dead so that ends that. Or does it?
Fox searches the briefcase he took from Sakari during the arrest and finds satellite footage and a list of names. The Lone Gunmen identify the boat in the image as the Talapus, which was tracked to a Virginia naval shipyard through the Panama Canal. Sakari makes it to the Japanese embassy but doesn’t live long after that, because The Red-Haired Man – IMDB.com’s description, not mine – takes him out.
Scully goes to meet Betsy Hagopian, a Mutual UFO Network supporter, but other women in the house recognize Dana as one of them – an abductee. Scully learns Steven was also a member of MUFON and the women know Dana had an unexplained event happen to her (See "Ascension": Season 2, Episode 6 and "One Breath": Season 2, Episode 8).
At the shipyard, Fox meets with Captain Peters, who claims the Talapus was sent back out to sea. Mulder isn’t buying it and asks for records. Scully meets a roomful of women who all claim they’ve been taken to the “bright white place” and operated on by men who made them forget. The women suggest Dana undergo regression hypnosis. I’ll bet Fox would love to watch that. Too bad he’s too busy running around the harbor trying to get his own answers. He’s on the Talapus when armed guards storm the boat, but they completely miss Mulder diving overboard.
Scully remembers bits and pieces from her abduction and learns all of the women carry their implants in tiny containers in their purses. Dana learns Betsy is dying of cancer and that she too has a death sentence because of the experiments.
Mulder is still trying to get evidence so he’s creeping around the shipyard again. He finds scientists working on an unidentified sitting object – yes, a USO. Shouldn’t someone have been watching his car or something? Would have made him a lot easier to find. Somehow he makes it back home and, of course, his door is unlocked. Skinner is waiting inside and Fox points his gun at him. So, if you’re keeping track, we’re nine episodes into the third season and both Scully and Mulder have held Walter at gunpoint. But Fox puts his gun down a lot faster than Dana did.
Skinner tells Mulder that Sakari is dead and the Japanese are looking for the briefcase. Fox admits Scully has it. Walter leaves and Mulder reaches out to Senator Richard Matheson for the first time since way back in the first episode of Season 2. (We know Sestra Pro will impatiently be waiting to see the episode with his final appearance: "S.R. 819, way down in Season 6. But not because of the senator, because of Jesus Krycek). Matheson tells him about the four murdered Japanese nationals in Knoxville, but doesn’t admit it was an alien autopsy. He also gives Fox the names of the dead doctors so Mulder can get some answers on his own.
Dana finally catches up to Fox in their office and tells him about the other implanted women. She sees Mulder’s photograph of the Japanese scientists and claims she knows Takeo Ishimaru, who has been dead since 1965 but was known for his horrific experiments on humans during the war. Four of the men were the doctors murdered in Tennessee. Scully is still in full denial mode even though Mulder reminds her of the proof she’s seen, like in Season 3, Episodes 1 and 2.
Dana learns her chip is man-made and it's hard to tell if she’s impressed or disturbed by the possible uses of that tiny piece of technology. Meanwhile, Fox skulks around a train yard in West Virginia – yet another exotic locale you can visit when you join the FBI – and finds a white van with someone (something?) being escorted into a train car by Japanese men. One of the guys looks like he shops at Mulder’s suit store. At least Fox’s dressed more appropriately this time in slacks, a sweater and a leather coat. Swimming in his suit and overcoat last time had to be awkward.
The train leaves and Mulder runs after it but can’t catch up. Quitter. I thought he was supposed to be in shape. Scully’s watching the autopsy videotape and recognizes Ishimaru as one of her abductors. He was the only one nice enough to leave his mask off as he stared down at her on the table. Fox calls Dana and they update each other. Meanwhile, Japanese Mulder is at the train station in Ohio and the Red-Haired Man kills him in the bathroom. Fox arrives but learns he just missed the train. Mr. X contacts Scully and warns her Mulder is in danger. Is it really that difficult for him to call Fox from an untraceable phone and say, “Hey, don’t get on that train”? Dana warns Fox as his stunt double prepares to jump from a bridge onto the train. (Sorry, but that guy looks nothing like David Duchovny.) Of course, Mulder jumps and loses his phone. Will he be able to get a replacement phone without having to sign a new two-year contract with Nextel? We’ll find out next week.
Sestra Professional:
Now that the two-part conspiracy episode has become something of a trademark, The X-Files has license to take things at a more leisurely pace. Not everything has to be crammed into 40 minutes, and the Carter-Gordon-Spotnitz script gives Mulder the opportunity to scout around shipyards before mindless gun-toting baboons sent by whomever try to keep him from learning anything that would clear up the ongoing mysteries.
Even more compellingly, Scully gets time and space to learn about other women like her who were taken and experimented on ... and that later they'll be diagnosed with cancer. I suppose since Clyde Bruckman told Dana she doesn't die a couple episodes ago, we don't have to be too overly concerned, though.
The teaser's a high-tension moment, and all I can think about is how marvelously Darin Morgan's going to spoof the alien autopsy later this season. And in that vein -- get, it vein? -- that alien's bodily fluid is green, but it's a little too green.
What do you want for $29.95? There's lots of humor to be gleaned in the fact that Mulder paid to see abbreviated footage of the episode's teaser. Scully gets off the previously mentioned quip about the alleged alien autopsy being even hokier than the one they aired on the Fox network, in the wake of the show's pop culture success, of course.
As I said last week, this season, the agents are on the money. Mulder halts a suspect apparently schooled in the martial arts by having a backup weapon. It's not his fault that the dude got off on diplomatic immunity, although we know Sakari's grace period doesn't last too long. This conspiracy is big on getting rid of people involved in it when the chips are down.
We do find out the plot has gone global, it's not just Americans trying to keep their own countrymen from the truth, but there are Nazi and Japanese war criminals involved -- because who wouldn't want to go into business with those upright citizens? I am a loss over why the scientists are conducting alien-human hybrid experiments on U.S. soil, but maybe they just thought they had a green light to do so and are overplaying their hand.
I get tired of losing my gun: There are
a ton of quips in this one, in fact, I'll go so far as to say maybe a
few too much (particularly in the Mulder-Skinner confrontation). I think
the writers' room had been saving them up due to to the rash of recent serious stand-alone episodes.
I've never really understood Senator Matheson's ongoing role in the series. As Sestra mentioned, we saw him at the beginning of the second season in "Little Green Men." If he's not a source in the mold of Deep Throat and X, I
guess he's there to fill in Fox on details he won't be able to get through those guys. But it's too nebulous of a connection, he's used so sparsely that he doesn't seem to fit in the greater picture without a shoehorn.
Something's being tracked in my office and I don't like the smell of it: Skinner's not entirely come into his own either, but that's OK, because there's time and space for that. And it's not as far-fetched to think the assistant director hasn't seen and done enough yet to take up arms or even put himself on the line for his charges.
Scully's reeling too much from the information she's learning to be completely on board either. She states "I don't think I'm ready to discuss this," and we can believe that she's afraid to remember. Her line about needing more proof is a little misguided, because she did see the documentation -- which included medical information on herself -- but overall, we can get her general gist.
The idea of a manmade chip would take her even farther away from Mulder's premise and more into the realm of government conspiracy. At least until Fox reminds her she had the sensation of "beings rushing past her" the day they discovered the vault containing documentation of all the abductees' information.
"Nisei," directed by the sure hand of David Nutter, would be a bit dry with Fox doing a lot of running
around transportation facilities if not for the shift in Dana's story. And I'm not sure why Scully buys X's theory so quickly and tries to call Mulder off the train when it very well could have been one of the informant's attempts at misdirection.
Now Duchovny's double jumped off the overpass, but like in "Ascension," when the actor was atop the cable car, David indeed did do the landing on the train. According to the official third-season guide, the show worked six weeks to bring that to fruition, and that movie-level scope more than anything led to the episode becoming a two-parter. "I'm not a guy that says I have to do all my own stunts, I'm just the guy that says 'Is it going to look better if you see my face?' If it doesn't matter, then I'll let some other guy hurt himself, for sure," Duchovny said in The Complete X-Files.
There's always room for meta: So Aug. 25, 1994? That date marked the first time Carter ever stepped behind the camera to direct Season 2's Emmy- nominated "Duane Barry," which started the Scully abduction saga. ... The "mindless gun-toting baboons" were actual trained Rangers, although they might want to go back to camp since -- as Sestra Am pointed out -- they completely missed the guy diving off the ship. ... Mulder's line about being too busy getting his ass kicked to determine his prisoner's diplomatic immunity led an uproarious moment between Duchovny and Mitch Pileggi on the Season 3 gag reel.
Sestra Amateur:
I hear the word "oubliette" and I think of Jareth and Sarah in Labyrinth. This goes in a slightly less whimsical direction. In Seattle, Washington, high school kids are getting their school photos taken. Carl Wade seems creepily taken with Kaylee Frye (Jewel Staite from Firefly). I mean, early days of Photoshop creepy. It’s more disturbing since she’s only 15 years old. Too bad Kaylee -- I mean Amy Jacobs -- sleeps with her bedroom window open because Carl enters and covers Amy’s mouth which somehow causes a nose bleed. Must be a stress thing; otherwise, the bedroom air must be really dry. Carl abducts Amy while Amy’s little sis calls out for their mother.
Meanwhile, in a restaurant 20 miles away, a waitress named Lucy Householder suffers a similarly bloody nose. She’s also muttering the same disturbing phrase Carl was saying to Amy, “Nobody’s going to spoil us.” The next morning, Mulder arrives at the kidnapping site and meets with Amy’s mother. Agent Walt Eubanks updates Fox, who already knows about the weird link to Lucy. Scully joins Mulder in the Evergreen State, and he fills her in on Lucy’s history as a kidnapping victim. She managed to escape, but her abductor was never identified or prosecuted. They meet Lucy who isn’t very helpful ... yet. I’m sure she’ll come around by the third act.
Carl is having a bad day too. First he has an unwilling abduction victim and then a flat tire. A nice tow truck driver stops to assist him, but Wade threatens to hit the man with a tire iron. Methinks poor Amy is probably in that trunk with the spare. Dana learns something interesting; Lucy’s bloody nose produced O+ blood, her type, and B+, Amy’s type. Fox is convinced Lucy is a victim, not a suspect.
Lucy manages to get halfway home – I mean home to her halfway house. She’s cold and can’t see, just like Amy, who is being kept in a freezer. Mulder tries to get through to Lucy so she can help them find Amy, but she claims she doesn’t care. In the meantime, Amy’s now in a cellar … basement ... OK, an oubliette. Carl is disorienting her with a camera flash while he takes her picture over and over. Fox is watching video footage of Lucy from after her rescue 17 years earlier. Because she’s a great investigator, Scully is already on Wade’s case and learns he had been institutionalized for the past 15 years.
Carl leaves Amy alone in the house and she starts clawing her way through the window. Mulder shows Lucy the kidnapper's picture and she bolts. Wade returns home and hears Amy trying to escape. She gets through the window and runs, but Carl catches her after she trips. Simultaneously, Lucy tries to run from the past and also falls, and she finally breaks down after Fox catches up to her. Lucy is understandably terrified of going through that hell again.
Dana, Agent Eubanks and an agent to be named later arrive to arrest Lucy after confirming Amy’s blood was on Lucy’s uniform. So much for that “she was 20 miles away” alibi. Back in the oubliette, Amy begs Wade for some water. He complies. She asks for her mom. He doesn’t comply. Mulder tries to convince Eubanks that Lucy bled Amy’s blood, which destroys Fox’s credibility with the not-ready-to-believe Special Agent in Charge. Scully leans toward her default skeptic setting and thinks Lucy suffers from Stockholm syndrome.
The tow truck driver meets with the FBI agents and shows them where he encountered Carl, just outside the town of Easton where Lucy was found 17 years earlier. The feds arrive in town and blow past Wade. See, that’s where it makes a difference to have your suspect’s vehicle description and maybe some less eager FBI guys. Sculder and the feds storm Carl’s house in the woods and Fox sees the cellar door is open. Mulder finds a traumatized girl downstairs, but it’s not Amy … it’s Lucy. Now Agent Eubanks really thinks Lucy is in on it.
Fox walks a handcuffed Lucy to the car, but she's consumed with worry about Amy. Since Lucy is cold and wet, Mulder surmises Wade is dragging Amy through the water. Carl starts to drown Amy and Lucy’s mouth fills with water. Sculder finally catch up to them and Fox takes out Wade with one shot. Sculder perform CPR on the unconscious Amy which brings back Lucy ... and eventually Amy. Don’t be so pessimistic after only 30 seconds of CPR, Doctor Scully. Unfortunately, Lucy dies anyway. Good luck trying to explain how she drowned in the back of a police car.
Two points about this episode: Why did writer Charles Grant Craig (get this man a last name, stat!) feel the need to let Lucy die? So he can push the theory that Lucy had to die in order for Amy to live? I guess it’s not enough that Lucy spent her life trying to overcome the trauma of her abduction and recover from drug addiction. She even helped Mulder save Amy, despite literally reliving the horror. Which brings me to the second point. Whether intentional or not, CGC really set it up for the reveal that Lucy was Amy’s mother. To wit: Lucy was recovered 17 years earlier and Amy was just shy of her 16th birthday. Carl’s obsession could have been more so with Amy as his own daughter (or even if she was just Lucy’s daughter). There’s also Lucy’s extra-sensory connection to Amy. Maybe he didn’t go in that direction because it not only would have been predictable, but might have actually explained away the unexplained parts. And apparently, we can’t have that on The X-Files.
Sestra Professional:
Fine work, Sestra Am. I don't think it's ever crossed my mind that the connection between the two women could have gone even further. I just focused on the more unique aspects of this episode.
To start with, they've really brought the creepy in Season 3. It's probably because a lot of the situations at the core -- and before any kind of supernatural element enters into the equation -- don't feel so out of the realm of possibility. We all have concerns about the Carl Wades of the world getting their grimy hands on girls like Lucy and Amy and the ramifications of that.
Our heroes have been doing some good work this season. Mulder and Scully's moves have been reasonable and well thought out. They've figured out who the bad guys are relatively early in the episodes, utilizing their unique skill sets, and just need to quantify the less mundane aspects of the stories.
In this episode, we get a different look at Mulder and the way he relates to women -- particularly those in tough spots due to their unique abilities. We saw this delivered unsuccessfully in our least favorite episode to date, Season 2's Scully-less "3." It seems to work much better in "Oubliette," since Dana is on hand to challenge his premise with a reasonable alternative, even if his theory ultimately proves to be true. Fox's affinity for these types of women will continue to be a hallmark, and one that can stretch him past the all-consuming focus of his search for Samantha. More on this in a bit.
What's your point? All of us kidnap victims got to stick together? I find it also intriguing that this episode filters through the victims. The two girls are in two completely different places on the same timeline. We see Amy living out everything that Lucy's already gone through. In most of the stand-alone shows, there's something weird in the neighborhood, so who ya gonna call? Sculder! Then the agents go about figuring out the perpetrator's methodology and rationale to get us to the all-important climax.
So Mulder's not as single-minded and one-dimensional as we come to expect of a television character. Even when he's showing sympathy for Lucy, he doesn't bark at Scully's genetic testing. He just doesn't want the former kidnap victim treated like a suspect until they've confirmed that she actually is one.
Not everything I do and say and think and feel goes back to my sister: Now in regards to Fox's outburst to Scully. Yes, I believe he believe what's he's saying, but is that actually true? He does feel for Lucy, that's more than evident. But does his compassion come from what happened to his sister so long ago? Probably on some level, it does. Mixed with the fact he's intrigued by the supernatural element of the case, it's a pretty tasty concoction for our Mulder. But I do appreciate them breaking him away of that one childhood experience and the fact that he's cognizant of 1.) his typical reaction and 2.) when a situation doesn't stem from that fact.
Dana gets to be the empath for the empath's empath in the end, pointing out to Fox that they were able to save Amy because he became part of the connection between the two victims. Not to mention the fact Sestra Am previously mentioned that Mulder continued CPR long after the medical doctor was ready to give up.
We really get a sense of director Kim Manners' style in this episode. He draws the unenviable task of switching back and forth between the two victims and and their assailant. The river sequence is particularly chilling, literally and figuratively, with the camera down at the victim's level with the rushing water. According to the third-season episode guide, severe weather wreaked havoc with production. But they weren't too rushed to deliver suspenseful and gorgeous visuals.
Guest star of the week: Spoiler alert! This won't be the last time Tracey Ellis cops this honor as we see her dominate the canvas again in Season 9's "Audrey Pauley." Here she's almost too believable as ill-fated Lucy Householder. She draws a very fine performance out of David Duchovny, who forsakes some usual affectations in favor of his rapport with Ellis' character.
Speaking of "Revelations" (this episode’s title), I just finished watching the third season of Gillian Anderson’s series The Fall, in which she plays an English detective superintendent leading a serial killer investigation in Northern Ireland. The years have been good to Gillian, but when you switch immediately from one show to the other, you can’t help but get the impression that DSI Stella Gibson and FBI Special Agent Dana Scully could be the same person. Gibson has the weary look of a woman whose law enforcement career has shown her the worst of humanity, to the point where almost nothing surprises her anymore. In Season 3 of The X-Files, Dana has seen a lot but Gillian – as Scully – still maintains an optimistic and wide-eyed look and perspective. I need to re-watch The X-Files Season 10 to see whether Gillian exudes more of Stella’s or early Dana’s traits.
And one last thing to take issue with in the script, how exactly can Mulder handle the sheriff's formal statement on Simon's death alone? She's the one who was there when Gates died. Ya coulda done that and then gone to confession, Scully. You're just going to backtrack there anyway, wondering if you imagined all the signs that you saw before switching yet again for the last line, one I'm convinced was penned by executive producer Chris Carter -- "Mostly it makes me afraid ... afraid that God is speaking but that no one's listening."
