X-Files S7E10: Being and time

Sestra Amateur: 

I immediately went to Google Translate when I saw this episode’s title because I was unintentionally embedding Seinfeld into my head and knew this was not going to be a comedic bottle episode. "Sein und Zeit" translates to "being and time."  Now that Seinfeld’s quirky theme song is stuck in my brain, on with the episode!

In Sacramento, California, a little girl is saying her nighttime prayers while Marvin the Martian stares at her. After the parents put her to bed, Dad – played by Mark Rolston of Aliens and The Shawshank Redemption (I’ll let Sestra Pro address his previous X-Files appearance) -- watches TV in the living room while Mom is writing a kidnapping note in their bedroom. Dad checks on his daughter and briefly sees her as a corpse, but she is actually OK. Dad gets locked out of her bedroom, and by the time he breaks down the door, little Amber Lynn LaPierre is gone. Alien abduction? Don’t blame Marvin, he’s just a doll.

The FBI is brought in to investigate. Mulder wants the case, but since it’s not an X-file, it, must go through the proper protocol channels. You should have stayed in Behavioral, Fox. They get first dibs. Luckily, Assistant Director Skinner is a little disgusted with the cavalier attitude of the assigned agents, so he gives Mulder a few hours to get some answers from the parents. I think that’s going to taint the pool results, Walter. Fox arrives at the media circus outside the LaPierre home and hits the first roadblock: Bud and Billie LaPierre’s underqualified attorney Harry Bring. Mulder conducts his follow-up interview with the LaPierres together, which is always a bad idea, especially since we know Billie wrote the note. We just don’t know if she knows she wrote it.

Scully arrives to check on Fox since he didn’t contact Skinner after re-interviewing the parents. Somehow he knows the LaPierres are innocent but he can’t prove it. He also thinks Amber Lynn is still alive. Sculder attend the FBI briefing and learn Billie’s prints are the only ones found on the ransom note. Their handwriting expert also makes a tentative link to the mother. Mulder claims they’re wrong and finds evidence of a 1987 abduction in which the ransom note had the same handwriting and the same signature: "No one shoots at Santa Claus." Meanwhile, someone is observing a future victim.

The agents interview Kathy Lee Tencate – played by Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark’s Kim Darby. (Now that’s a creepy movie!) Kathy Lee is in an Idaho prison for killing her own son, even though his body was never found. Kathy Lee claims she did it, but Fox doesn’t believe her. Dana accuses Mulder of personalizing this case, but he’s determined to find both kids – not just Amber Lynn. Kathy Lee sees a vision of her son and begs for Sculder to return to her cell. Fox records her statement and plays it for the LaPierres. The feds release the LaPierres for “lack of evidence” and they return home. Meanwhile, Teena Mulder learns her son is on the case and starts acting sketchy, leaving cryptic messages and burning family photos.

Somehow, Fox has become the FBI spokesperson and the suspect watches Mulder’s statement on TV. While Fox gets reamed by Skinner, Scully breaks the news of Teena’s death. The duo arrives at his mother's Connecticut home and sees evidence of suicide. Mulder thinks it’s a staged scene and begs Dana to do the autopsy. Fox returns to Idaho (I would love his frequent flier miles account) and wants Kathy Lee to help him understand his sister’s kidnapping. Tencate calls them the "walk-ins," old souls looking for new homes and starts to ramble incoherently. Mulder has no choice but to listen and hope what she says is true. Meanwhile, at Santa’s Village, the offseason makes it seem very depressing. Our suspect runs the place and dresses as Santa Claus for the eager children.

Fox finally goes home and hears his mother’s final message on his answering machine. Scully arrives and Mulder realizes his memories of his sister’s abduction are false. (Considering what Chris Carter made X-Files fans endure about Samantha’s alien abduction for seven seasons, this must have come across as either a major copout or just one piece of revisionist history too many. So Fox is just going to ignore decades of government conspiracies?! ::heavy sigh:: Let’s put a pin in that for now … or forever.) Dana reveals Teena was terminally ill and was trying to tell Fox to stop looking for answers. Mulder breaks down and Scully comforts him.

Back at the LaPierre house, Billie sees a vision of Amber Lynn, just like Kathy Lee saw of her child. She reaches out to the FBI but only will talk to Mulder, so Sculder and Skinner fly back to Sacramento. Billie said Amber Lynn was silent but trying to say something that looked like “74.” Fox is convinced a spirit version of Amber Lynn means the girl is dead. Just because you haven’t seen something yet doesn’t mean it isn’t real, Mulder. Boy, you’ve become such a Negative Nellie since your mother died. If Dana mentioned she couldn't hear what her late father was saying when she saw his spirit in "Beyond the Sea" (Season 1, Episode 13), it might have bolstered Fox's argument. But Mulder knows he’s off his game and asks Walter for some personal time. Luckily, Scully is paying attention and realizes they’re near Route 74, which leads to Santa’s North Pole Village. When the trio searches the place, Dana finds a videotape with pre-abduction footage of Amber Lynn. “Santa” catches Sculder in his surveillance room and locks them in, but that only slows down our intrepid heroes briefly. Skinner chases their suspect and subdues him in a homemade cemetery. Unless that’s where the dead reindeer are buried, “Santa," aka Ed Truelove, has a lot of explaining to do.

Sestra Professional: 

We haven't been hearing much about aliens since the start of the season, but at least we get back to the mythology that's at the heart of The X-Files with this two-parter -- namely whatever the heck happened to Samantha Mulder.

The emotional component of "Sein und Zeit" was apparent right from the opening teaser when this episode originally aired on Feb. 6, 2000. It's impossible not to draw a line between the kidnapping of Amber Lynn LaPierre here and the still-unsolved real-life high-profile murder of JonBenét Ramsey in 1996. There's even a photo of the child beauty queen briefly shown on the television during the scene between Mulder and Scully at his hotel room.

Intensify our search where ... the twilight zone? This episode really gets back to the essence of Fox. The show had been paying lip service to him ever since his miraculous recovery from that overcharged brain problem in the season's opening two-parter. This is the guy who obsesses over cases, particularly when they venture into territory that reminds him -- or at least Dana and us -- of his sister. I really appreciate seeing Mulder put pieces together that the brightest minds in the FBI can't. And one of the finest performances by David Duchovny in the entire series run really brings that home.

Even without reading the credits, diehard fans will recognize this episode as the handiwork of Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz. The show's creator and executive producer work hard to find an explanation for us when it comes to the most horrific of real-life crimes involving children. As Fox himself says, it's incomprehensible in any kind of real-world way to think that parents would do this to their children. The duo uses their affinity for philosophy to back their theory.

I've been looking for my sister in the wrong place: It's somehow easier to accept the kids' passings under the walk-in theory. Not only are these parents not guilty of the worst possible transgressions, they're guided through unspeakable traumas with the help of visions of their children who have passed on.

Mulder understands that so well, but the facts indicate he's completely wrong about the untimely departure of his mother. It's somehow easier to believe Fox's supposition about the missing children than his theory about the staged death of Teena. And since Dana's subsequent autopsy proves he's wrong about his mother, it casts doubt on the rest of his belief system. He's at least smart enough to know he needs to take some time off.

You can't see a ghost and hope to find her alive: With Mulder all but incapacitated, it's up to Scully to make the connection about the highway and the Santa Claus village. Good thing she was looking up at that precise moment, and not back at Fox like she had been doing just seconds before. Then it's up to Skinner to take care of the chase portion of the program. And from there, Mulder just has to lift his head up to see that Ed Truelove doesn't really live up to his name.

I plan to address Sestra Am's comment about the revisionist history after the conclusion of this two-parter. There certainly was a "that's what this was all about?" fan reaction to the ultimate revelation about Samantha, but it's not completely laid out yet, and I don't want to jump the gun until after "Closure" next week. So we'll keep that pin where it is for now. 
  
Meta beta: Sestra Am's research paid off, Sein und Zeit was the German title of philosopher Martin Heidegger's 1927 book we know as Being and Time. ... Harsh Realm, the Carter creation that had been canceled by the time of the original airing of "Sein und Zeit" was the show Amber Lynn's father watched. (I remember lobbying for Nicholas Lea to be the male lead of the program, but they went with D.B. Sweeney. I still think it would have had a better chance for survival with our Krycek in that role.) ... Mark Rolston was indeed in a previous episode of The X-Files, another one referencing walk-ins, "Red Museum" (S2E10). Speaking of Harsh Realm, Rolston also had a part in the second episode of the series he seemed to like at the beginning of this show. ... The LaPierres' fish-out-of-water attorney Harry Bring was named after The X-Files' unit production manager. 

Guest star of the week: The performances across the board are so strong and truly serve the story. I'm giving the nod to Kim Darby as the mother serving a sentence for her son's death who realizes she has to help Amber Lynn's parents ... with help from her own boy. Because of her, I want to believe.