“Monday, Monday, bah-daaaa bah-da-da-da” by The Mamas and the Papas. What a beautiful song. It keeps popping into my head because of this episode, more so than Jimmy Buffett’s "Come Monday." I’m also partial to New Order’s "Blue Monday," but they don’t even use the title in the song lyrics. Mondays are difficult for most people, especially those who work a typical Monday through Friday schedule. But this particular one has been even more so for a woman named Pam, played by gone-too-soon Carrie Hamilton, daughter of Carol Burnett. Pam's a stranger to us since she’s never been mentioned in any other X-Files episodes. But she’s going to get to know our intrepid heroes and Assistant Director Skinner clearly more than she wants to.
So Sculder are at the bank where Fox is depositing his paycheck. A completely mundane activity, one that is almost obsolete in this day and age. But something goes wrong, very wrong. Mulder’s been shot by a bomb-wearing bank robber. The SWAT team makes its entry and the crook sets off the bomb, killing our heroes and everyone else in the bank. So how did things go sideways? Let’s go back to the beginning of the day. Mulder’s waterbed has sprung a leak. Can you believe he still has that thing? He even kept the mirrored poster bed frame from "Dreamland" (Season 6, Episode 5). The water shorted out his alarm clock and cell phone and leaked into his neighbor’s apartment. (This is the exact reason renters aren’t allowed to have waterbeds. Good luck dealing with that aftermath, Fox.) I’m sure he’s wondering, “How much worse can this day get?” Much, much worse, Mulder. He misses the morning meeting at FBI HQ. Luckily, Scully is there to run interference.
Pam and her boyfriend, Bernard, arrive at the bank. There’s something very off about this couple. Bernard is nervous, Pam is … resigned. She’s repeating dialogue to herself that a normal person would not/should not know. Bernard -- played by Darren Burrows who I just loved in Cry-Baby but everyone else probably knows from Northern Exposure -- goes into the bank just before Fox, who needs to deposit his check immediately to cover the water damage costs. He stares at Pam, which startles her, because he’s never done that before. Bernie can’t get his robbery note just right so he whips out a gun and starts robbing the tellers. Mulder, who hasn’t revealed he’s packing, sees Scully heading their way so he tries -- but fails -- to convince Bernard to lock the front door. Dana enters and Fox uses the distraction to pull his gun, but Bernie shoots Mulder. Scully’s about to do the same to Bernard, but sees he’s wearing a bomb vest. Skinner gets the call and heads to the scene. Pam tries to talk them out of storming the bank, knowing it will lead to everyone’s deaths. SWAT charges in anyway and, well, you know how that played out.
Still not sure what happened? That’s OK, the episode resets with a soggy Mulder having a slightly varied version of his morning from hell. Too bad he doesn’t get the phone call from Pam, who tries to change the outcome by not going with Bernard, but that doesn’t work. Sculder also try to change fate when Dana goes to the bank so Fox can attend that never-ending meeting. But Mulder screwed up and gave Scully the check stub instead of the check. When he gets to the bank, Pammy tries to keep him from entering, but Bernie’s gunshot gets his attention. He sees the standoff between Bernard and Scully (Scullard?) and tries to talk some sense into him while Dana checks on the female gunshot victim. This time, Bernie activates the bomb before SWAT even arrives. So Pam’s intervention causes the deaths to occur sooner. That’s not a good sign.Fox is retaining bits from the previous Mondays. He knew the landlord was calling about water damage and he’s maneuvering around the soaked bedroom a little better than before. Dana isn’t as good with the retention. Pam tracks her down at the FBI office to warn her not to go to the bank, but Scully’s just confused. She finds Mulder in his office where they discuss déjà vu and the ability to change fate or right and wrong. When Fox says he’s heading to the bank, Dana tells him about Pam’s weird prediction. Mulder decides to use the ATM instead. Nice plan, but it’s out of service. He sees an upset Pammy, who explains the day is repeating and she does not know why. She does however blame Sculder for the deaths, not her bomb-wearing, bank-robbing boyfriend. Fox believes enough to return to the office. Too bad Scully went to the bank looking for him. So Bernard starts robbing the bank, Mulder enters and Dana shoots Bernard, who blows them up. This time, Fox tries to remind himself to remember the bomb.
During the next reset, Mulder approaches Pam, but he still doesn’t really remember her. Inside the bank he notices Bernard and remembers “he’s got a bomb.” Fox calls Dana out of the boring meeting to retrieve Pam while he talks some sense into Bernard (Mulnard? Berder?) before Bernie even starts the robbery. Well, not so much as talk as give him a second gun to rob the place! Scully and Pam (Scum?) enter the bank and Pammy tries to convince Bernard they’re reliving the same day over and over. They get through to Bernard until he hears the sirens. Bernie shoots at Mulder, but Pam takes the bullet and dies. At least she’s no longer in hell. Bernard, who claimed he was doing this for Pam, surrenders without setting off the bomb. Tuesday finally arrives and brings with it paperwork for our intrepid heroes. No good deed goes unpunished. I wonder whether there’s some backstory fanfic explaining how Bernard and Pam got to that "Manic Monday" point in the first place. It must have been a really bad Sunday (that should have been their fun day, their I-don’t-have-to-run day)…
Sestra Professional:
What a tragic story for Pam. Mondays will just keep repeating unless she dies. For the rest of us, it's a perfect bottle episode, showing that The Twilight Zone -- and, of course, Groundhog Day -- can be spun into The X-Files as easily as War of the Worlds and/or The Night Stalker.
At the center of it all is a bravura performance by Carrie Hamilton. When we talk about the best guest stars on the series, we often bring up those playing the flashy sociopaths -- Brad Dourif in "Beyond the Sea" (S1E13), Tom Noonan in "Paper Hearts" (S4E10), Robert Wisden in "Pusher" (S3E17), Nick Chinlund (S2E13) and the like. Occasionally, there have been splashy roles for Peter Boyle in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (S3E4) or Charles Nelson Reilly in "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" (S3E20) that garnered a lot of attention. Hamilton didn't even get an Emmy nomination for her work here, but she delivers such a remarkable depiction that we don't mind Mulder and Scully stepping aside to some degree.In that respect, "Monday" is a lot like "Mind's Eye" (S5E16) in which blind Marty Glenn (Lili Taylor) was at the center of the action. But "Mind's Eye" isn't as much of a fan favorite as this one. What's the difference? Both were keenly directed by Kim Manners, who propels the action forward with some outside-of-the-box movements and crafty editing. "Mind's Eye" was written by Tim Minear, who only crafted two episodes during the show's run before going on to greener pastures with Angel and American Horror Story, while "Monday" was penned by two of the show's superstars, Vince Gilligan and John Shiban.
Gilligan and Shiban's script finds a way to do what Minear's really didn't, it advances the story of Mulder and Scully even while they're roaming about in someone else's crisis. Obviously it's theirs too since they both die if a way out isn't found, but our protagonists can only aid in the resolution as opposed to coming to it themselves. So there's time built into the script to talk about the nature of déjà vu. Having our leads not speak the same words while covering similar terrain adds to the mystique of the subject matter. As Mulder points out, there are too many variables that can change the course of our lives. Everything is not slotted to repeat exactly as it had the time before and so what seems preordained comes with slight alterations. Did you ever have a day you just wanted to start all over again? And that also leaves room for comedic moments in an episode it, by all rights, should be much more difficult to do so in. Watching Fox battle his waterbed, deal with angry neighbors and trip over his own shoes certainly has its charms. It's very deftly worked into a show that started with Dana holding Mulder's bloody body. That point can't be driven home too many times.
Fox's not so good at managing the money, is he? His check's going to bounce if he doesn't deposit his paycheck. I wonder what dubious occupations have eaten up all his money, it kind of boggles the mind to mull over the possibilities. But that's nothing compared to Pam's hell. She's lived the day hundreds of times (possibly even more than Bill Murray in Groundhog Day if she's tried absolutely everyone else). That's the only real flaw in an otherwise almost-perfect script, like Sestra Am said, it's the boyfriend who's the reason people die and not the two agents trying to prevent that fate. For example, it's difficult to believe drugging him or having him arrested wouldn't prevent it from happening.I'm having the best damn day of my life: Perhaps you've considered a "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" scenario dictating the outcome of "Monday." Even though writer Darin Morgan has since said that the title character telling Dana she doesn't die was just a throwaway line in the script, fans quickly glommed onto it and bring up that fact every time Scully's life is in danger. I've always thought it was something Bruckman kind of said to Dana to get into her good graces, but if we utilize that theory here, the episode can't end with Scully dying because Scully doesn't ever die. That's a potential reason why the world might have been stuck in a time loop, at least until the outcome didn't wrap up that way.
By the way, it's certainly good to see Skinner's glistening pate again, even though he doesn't have a lot to do here outside traditional FBI business. A budgetary meeting must be exponentially more dreary if you've already lived through it a hundred times or so.Meta Mondays: In The Complete X-Files, Gilligan called "Monday" the biggest rush job for a single episode that he had ever been involved in. It was delivered in six days. ... In the official episode guide, Shiban said the premise owed more to The Twilight Zone ep "Shadow Play" (Season 2, Episode 26) than Groundhog Day. ... It must have been déjà vu all over for Manners when he helmed the Supernatural episode "Mystery Spot" (Season 3, Episode 11), which followed a similar premise. In The Complete X-Files, the director said he approached "Monday" as though it was four different episodes and ignored the fact it was the same story. ... And if you're keeping up with Gilligan's references to girlfriend Holly Rice, there are two here -- she grew up in Cradock, Virginia, and her mother's maiden name is Bernard.
Guest star of the week: As mentioned earlier, Hamilton dazzles as the ill-fated Pam. Her horror at reliving the tragedy every single day of her life is palpable and heightened through the resets. Her character's beaten down by having to go through with it over and over again. And Hamilton gives it everything she has. It's far sadder than Pam's fate that we didn't have the opportunity to see a lot more of what she had to offer.
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