A priest arrives at a family home in the dark of night. No, it’s not a scene from The Exorcist. Well, I guess it could be a similar situation, but let’s keep an open mind. Turns out, it’s a baptism for a 16-year-old wheelchair-bound girl named Dara Kernof. Later that night, lightning flashes! The grandfather clock chimes! And Dara walks … down the street … in the pouring rain. It’s a miracle! Her father chases after her as Dara approaches a shadowy man. He disappears in the flash of lightning and poor Dara dies a quick, horrible death. Oh good, I was wondering when we were going to have another feel-good episode.
Scully enters a church in Alexandria, Virginia, holding a picture of Emily. You remember Emily, don’t you? It’s the “daughter” the writers bring out whenever they want to give Dana a “very special episode.” Scully goes to confession and discloses a kinship between her personal loss and Dara’s parents. Flash back to Easter Sunday when the non-Exorcist priest Father McCue asks for Dana's help, not because she is an FBI agent assigned to the X-Files because, well, that would just make sense now, wouldn’t it? (And why are local police investigating her death? How has Mulder not even heard about this one?) Scully meets with Dara’s parents and learns about the medical history that should have prevented the girl from getting out of the wheelchair, let alone walking out of the house. Dana learns the cause of death was probably lightning, which could account for her burned-out eyes. Dara also “rigor mortised” (is that a thing?) into a kneeling position and the crime-scene photographs of her death pose are pretty creepy. Physical scars indicate Dara once had extra fingers and toes.
Meanwhile at a psychiatric hospital in Lebanon, Virginia, social worker Aaron Starkey arrives with some red-tape issues for patient Paula Koklos, who looks just like Dara. It’s probably important to note Starkey’s rearview mirror has an inverted cross hanging from it. Probably better than a dreamcatcher. I’ve always wondered why car owners hang dreamcatchers from their rearview mirrors. They’re supposed to give people good dreams while they sleep, so why would a driver ever need that kind of protection?! But I digress. Father Gregory is not happy about the mix-up because now he cannot take Paula with him. Mulder pops up 14 minutes into the episode, agrees to help Dana, then “tails a suspect” into an adult movie theater. At the same time, Paula gets a visit from the shadowy man and things get all glowy. Let’s see them try and write her indoor death off as a lightning strike too.
Fox joins Scully at the crime scene (where there is an inverted cross above Paula’s bed – I doubt she was able to put it there herself). He reveals Dara and Paula are part of a set of quadruplets. Mulder thinks they have a religious serial killer on their hands. Starkey arrives and claims not to know who put up the cross. He does, however, disclose that Paula’s adoption involved Father Gregory and the Church of St. Peter the Sinner. Gregory claims he wanted to protect Paula, but clearly he knows about Dara’s death. He also won’t divulge their mother’s identity and refers to the girls as messengers. Fox thinks they’ve found Scully’s suspect. I hate when Mulder is the rational one. That only seems to be the case when it involves Dana's family or her faith.
During Paula’s autopsy, Scully notes the extra digits and the possibility of wing buds on the shoulder blades. No offense to the actress, but the director should have chosen a freeze-frame shot of the actress instead of holding the camera on the “dead body” for several seconds. It was clearly impossible for the poor girl to keep from trembling while posed in such an awkward position. On the upside, it actually made the scene a little creepier, more so than Dana hallucinating Emily on the table instead of Paula. Fox calls with a lead on the third sister. He and Starkey track her to an abandoned building, but the shadowy man gets there first and the poor girl assumes the fatal position. Mulder finds Father Gregory and holds him at gunpoint. He finds the girl’s posed-in-prayer corpse and arrests Gregory. You’ve got the wrong man, Fox. During the interrogation, Mulder learns about St. Peter, who only would be crucified upside down. He leaves to find the fourth girl, Roberta Dyer, while Father Gregory hints that Scully actually knows what’s going on. Dana admits she saw a vision of Emily, and while disguised as a tender moment of support, Fox makes the most hypocritical statement I’ve ever heard on this show: “I think you should step away. Personal issues are making you lose your objectivity, clouding your judgment.” Scully gives her partner the move-along. Starkey, alone with Father Gregory, tortures him for information. Aaron does make one interesting comment -- He didn’t kill the girls, they were taken from him.
Mulder and local police storm the home of the fourth sister. Her father isn’t very cooperative, probably because he only cared about her disability checks. Turns out, Gregory has been hiding her and keeping her safe. Mulder calls Scully who seems just plain annoyed that the Father died – in police custody! Talk about your unsung heroes. I hope she tries to make it up to his parishioners. The glowy guy drops in on Dana and changes form before her very eyes. It’s not exactly one of their better special effects, but maybe that was the intention. Too bad we don’t get to see how their meeting plays out. The next day, Scully meets with Father McCue and recounts what she saw. How come Dana is only willing to admit to something supernatural when it’s related to religion? And it’s not even all religion, just her own personal beliefs. The priest shows her the Seraphim -- an angel with four faces -- and his children with a mortal woman, the Nephilim. Soooo … cause of death -- smoting. Amusingly, McCue thinks Scully is seeing things.
Starkey tracks down Dana and offers to take her to Mulder’s location. Sure, that’s where he’s taking you. Aaron waits outside, probably because he is physically unable to enter the church. Scully sees Starkey’s shadow which reveals his true nature: Dude’s got horns! Dana finds Roberta hiding under the stairs and tries to get her away but the Seraphim finds them instead. Scully lets the girl – and her vision of Emily – go and Roberta’s soul is saved (at the expense of her body). Aaron unceremoniously gets away. It’s an abrupt Mulder-less ending to the story. Maybe Scully will be a little more open-minded from now on, but I seriously doubt it. Sestra Professional:
"All Souls" might be the saddest episode of the entire run for me. I'm kind of glad that the show at least made reference to Emily, the self-titled episode -- the seventh of the season -- was one of the more somber offerings. Maybe it's because this one starts with an apparent miracle -- the wheelchair-bound teenager walking -- that's taken away before we get to the opening credits. Or maybe it's because it reminds us that Scully had so much to be sad about, finding out she had a daughter only to have her quickly taken away.
Mommy, let me go: That brings us back to midseason. Even though a wide array of things have transpired in the lives of our leads, we kind of needed some genuflecting from Dana. Utilizing Emily as a way to make Scully buy into the sentiment ultimately feels like kind of a cheap way to get her involved in the crisis and then able to move on from it. Still, it's effective. That's in no small part due to Gillian Anderson, who rocks "All Souls" with the usual effort she's given to the personal episodes. I genuinely feel for her during the ongoing battle between Scully the scientist and Dana the faithful. I'm not quite sure why she's in the confessional blaming herself for helping Roberta Dyer's soul get to heaven when the case that's built over the course of the show doesn't really back that up.
It's interesting to note that none of this comes out of the blue. Scully's been thinking about Emily and attending Mass in her off hours. That's definitely more interesting than what Fox has been doing in his down time, namely tailing suspects into a theater showing the likes of A Decade of Dirty Delinquents. As Sestra Am mentioned, we do tend to see a more grounded version of Mulder during episodes in which Dana's suppositions swing the other way. Maybe the show felt like one of them always needed to have his/her head on straight when the other leans toward the supernatural, but I don't think that was particularly necessary. At least not every time. Mix it up a bit, we won't mind.
They say when you talk to God, it's prayer, but when God talks to you, it's schizophrenia: Because Fox has come to the conclusion that religion masquerades as the supernatural, he sees the deaths of the girls in the plainest possible terms. He doesn't know why or what the justification is for the burning of the eyes, just that whoever is killing them "thinks he's doing God's laundry." There's no moment in which Mulder questions that possibility. The man who will question anything and everything when religion is not involved doesn't even offer that as a possibility. Oh, and he's found someone he considers more paranoid than himself in Father Gregory.We haven't a lot of strong Sculder interaction the past couple of episodes. In this one, we get a glimpse at what we've missed. There's no way Fox believes what the Father's putting forth. But when he hears Dana had a vision of Emily, he softens. He doesn't alter his stance, in fact, he tries to dissuade Scully after deeming her -- as Sestra Am properly described -- as delusional. But there's a change in his manner and it's both palpable and welcome.
I appreciate how "All Souls" takes us in different directions. At first, Father Gregory seems to be the baddie or at the very least, as Mulder refers to him, a "bona fide super crazy religious wacko." But then, it turns out to be the social worker who is being more than anti-social. In fact, he's the devil ... or at the very least, one of the hellion's minions. That made me wonder whether story editors Billy Brown and/or Dan Angel had more to say on the subject in their original story. Frank Spotnitz and John Shiban then adapted their concept of angels into the final product. So a lot of hands were involved in bringing this script to the screen.Most of the images in the episode are very striking -- particularly when it comes to the corpses of the unfortunate quadruplets. The makeup department did a truly amazing job. Some might say too amazing, cause it kind of shakes you to the core. I agree that Paula's slight movements during the autopsy heighten the tension. So intentional or not, it works for me.
I get a little sketchy on why the struggle between good and evil for all souls comes down to those four girls at that very time, but I think that this episode provides a reasonable litmus test for the viewer's own beliefs and faith. At least until the Seraphim shows its four faces as man, lion, eagle and bull. If the acceptance holds beyond that, it's due entirely to Anderson's performance. I believe she sees something that I myself wasn't able to grasp. All I behold is the cheesiest shape shifter yet.
Mortal meta: According to the official episode guide, the CGI for the Seraphim wasn't completed until hours before airtime. ... "All Souls" was directed by Allen Coulter. While it marked his only X-Files credit, he also did three episodes of Millennium during the second season as well as the pilot for Jackie and 11 Boardwalk Empire shows. By the way, that's not the same person as Alan Kalter, who served as announcer on The Late Show with David Letterman for over 20 years. ... The confessional scene was a late addition after principal photography wrapped, according to the official episode guide. After 2 1/2 pages became 5 1/2 the night before they were to shoot, Anderson convinced the show to give her an extra day to work on the emotional scene. "I'm glad that we did it that way, because I was pleased with the outcome," she said.
Guest star of the week: Emily Perkins doesn't have much dialogue, but invests all four of the severely impaired girls with heart and soul. It's not difficult to understand why Scully becomes so invested in trying to stop what's happening to them. Nor why Mulder wants to get to the truth of the deaths. Those images with smoke coming out of her/their eyes are among the macabre the show has delivered thus far as a result.
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