X-Files 5.17 "All Souls"

Well, I'll count my blessings--we DID get a lot of Scully, and saw her
dealing with her faith and the loss of her daughter. This wasn't a
rip-off of a crappy rival, like the dark Skies clone we had few weeks ago, but
this was a rip-off. They cribbed from a third season stand-out,
"Revelations". From the scary looking angels, to Scully's reluctance
to admit her beliefs to Mulder's mocking, angry attitude towards scully's
theory to Scully's belief that she has been chosen by God to fulfill a
mission of rescue and the final confessional scene, this was a shabby
clone of Kim Newton's fine work two years ago. I liked some of what they did
here, but I can't support it because they didn't break any NEW ground, they
just rehashed the old stuff. OK, I really liked what they were
wearing. Shallow, but true, hey what's with Scully wearing shorter skirts in
Church than she does at work? I dug her pretty dresses though, and the
sweater she was wearing later--hopefully she burned that damned grey sweater
she wore all of last year. And anytime they put Mulder in jeans and the
leather jacket, well, that goes a long way with me. Hey who is Mulder
"tailing", peeWee herman? Ugh. You own a VCR, Mulder, at least be
discreet. Anyway, is it just me or does scully forget she wears a gold
cross around her neck? When that woman asked if she was religious,
Scully asks "Why do you ask/" and it happens a lot. The cross has never
symbolized the expression of faith that others seem to get from it--her
Mom knows this: When Mulder asked why Doubting Dana wore it, Mom said "I
gave it to her on her 15Th birthday" (or Christmas, grrrrr) She doesn't
even bother (at that point in Dana's life) to say "well, we're Catholic,
so's Dana, she's professing her faith." But it is a sort of lifeline, a
cord that Scully can't seem to sever, and good for her, because she has
found her way back to her church. The element I liked about this was the fact
that Scully brings Mulder in to keep her from believing what she doesn't
want to believe: that there are angels, and demons, that faith and God are not
tidy sterile things that can be weighed, discected and filed away in some
folder in her lab. She basically wants Mulder there to shame her into
reasoning away any supernatural vision she might have--she learned this from
"Revelations", in that episode, the anger that Mulder has for the
Church is a surprise to her, but here, she calls him in counting on it. Now,
even though Mulder was being a jerk, I'm gonna cut him some slack. His
extreme reaction towards organized religion has been seen in other episodes,
and in"revelations" (notice how I CANNOT escape that episode in dealing with
this one?), he tells Scully that he waits for a miracle every day--in
essence he says "I'll believe in God as soon as he gives my sister back' He
cannot accept his loss, and he blames God for the mess of his childhood.
Perhaps he had some bad experiences with the Church during the time of her
abduction, heard one too many ministers tell him too tritely about God'
will. It's a conversation Mulder and Scully really should have.
Scully calls him on it in "Rev", wondering why he'll go to the ends of the
earth to follow a light in the sky, but won't believ in a miracle. that's
when he tips his hand. Scully needs to believe in order, in a plan, in
God's plan. She can accept that it doesn't make sense to her, so long as it
makes sense to SOMEONE, GOD. But Mulder WON'T believe in that plan,
that order, if that meant that Losing his sister made sense to ANYONE, even
GOD. That blinds him to the fact that he's driving around Virginia with an
Angel, but Scully eventully discerns what it is. She also listens to
God, and no Mulder, i doubt she's schizoprenic :) .

Another reason I'm
gonna cut Mulder some slack, is Scully spent the first two years, and on and
off in the past few as well, mocking Mulder's beliefs. Look back at your
first season tapes, and you'll see Dana smirking and scoffing at the UFO's,
the ghosts, the monsters, at Mulder's deeply personl theory about his
sister--her instinct is to protect him from being hurt by his wacky
beliefs--that's his instinct here. Now, as a Christian who doesn't
believe in UFO's (not ruling out something OUT THERE, but I don't think they've
been here) or Big Foot (OK, I believe in the Loch Ness Monster...I want
to believe...) my instinct is to side with Scully, but Mulder has taken a
lot of guff from Scully, and stood up to her. Scully needs to be a little
tougher with him. She cops to her faith, staring at the ground,
willing it to swallow her whole, refusing to look him in the eye. Come on, Dana,
you stand up for your doubts with such zeal, but your faith is whispered?
One dynamic at work here, is Scully knows her faith hurts Mulder (again,
this came up in "Rev"). For years, she told him she didn't belive in
anything she couldn't see, she needed proof. But in "Rev" He asks her if she
believes they are witnessing a miracle, and she says something like
(looking down, embarrased) "I beleive that God's hand can be witnessed" and
Mulder asks "even if you can't prove it?" and she reluctantly wonders "Maybe
that's what faith is" (sound familiar?). And that's the horrible
truth:It's NOT that she won't believe ANYTHING, it's she won't believe
in HIS stuff--and that hurts, and Scully knows it. Still, Mulder's a
little too angry, as though Scully can't believe in anything he doesn't
approve of, and his comment about Scully not allowing her "personal issues" to
cloud her judgement was pretty ridiculous, considering Mulder's WHOLE
career has been based on his personal quest to find ot what happened to
Samantha! This episode also did a "reverse Cheat" since, mulder didn't
get to see the angel, only scully--thus his worldview is left unchanged
this week. Were we supposed to be happy for those girls? I wasn't sure.
Even though that was apparantly an angel, he was still pretty
scary--although,
in the Bible, whenever angels appear to humans, they often say "Fear
Not," so they must be a little scarier than, say, Roma Downey...

Well, that's all for this week. It raised some interesting facets to these
characters, but again, they didn't move on from "Revelations." It'd be nice to see
these two cover Some new ground regarding their faiths and
doubts...Have a great week everyone ;)

Christine

X-Files 5.16 "Mind's Eye"

Well? What did you think? I had a few problems, but overall, I liked
it a lot. It was pretty cool and engrossing--extremely well directed, I
thought and photographed very well. Lily Taylor, always good. She's played a
lot of criminals lately, but I will always think of her first and foremost
from "Say Anything", singing all her songs at the party ("Joe lies, when he
cries") Heehee. Love that movie. The scene with marty lighting her
cigarette with the oven was a nice character moment: right away, we
knew we were dealing with a tough cookie. I really dug this character--and so
did Mulder--what was going on between these two? That is my main complaint
with the episode, there was so little interaction between Mulder and
Scully. This would have worked as a stand alone episode for
Mulder--Scully was almost irrelevent. When Scully says to Mulder,
re: Marty's visions "Well, if any of this is true..." I was like, "Huh?"
That's it? It's as
though Scully's skepticsm would be tedious or something, so she just
shrugs it off. "Visions? Whatever..." Hmmmmm. I would have liked ONE
scene, where Scully mentions Mulder's connection to this girl--she brings him
to tears for goodness sake!!! Admittedly, Scully wasn't around at the
time, but Scully should have picked up on Mulder's...Crush? And said
something, even a joke would have worked for me, one line where she says "Yo
Mulder, whasss up with you and this blind chick?"

But, Ok, enough
complaining--force of HABIT, X-Files, I'm still a little miffed about
the last couple months. I was so relieved that this wasn't just a "Eyes of
Laura Mars" rip-off. The Father thing may have been a bit obvious, but
the whole element of Marty's having been sort of institutionalized her
whole life, the way a convict would be, and then her dad gets out, and like
an ex-con, she can't adjust--she wants to be in prison...that was cool.
Also cool, Scully has put on a little weight--I was getting worried about
Gillian. It's Ok to be in shape, but she was looking a little too
thin, and she looked better this week. I loved that Scully found the glove
within minutes of arriving at the first crime scene and i loved her
line "well, when you figure it out, give me a call. She seems a bit tired
of Mulder--she's not enjoying him. I like this pattern--Mulder and Scully
go through phases where they really dig each other, and then they merely
tolerate one another. Is this a prelude to the cliff hanger? Mulder
and Scully tend to start to really disagree before season cliffhangers. I
liked when Mulder asked Scully for her OPINION, about whether she
thought marty was capable of murder, and Scully replied "I'll let you know when
I get the tests back" No speculating for our Scully--she won't even
venture a guess without some precious scientific data to back her up. I
thought the music was a little hammy, too heavy, especially during the Mulder
and Marty scenes. So, a mixed bag, but mostly good, I thought. The scene
at the end was almost...romantic...Mulder's got a pen-pal, at the very
least.

Bye bye for now, here's to new episodes! Next week: Scully+ her
Catholic faith = a good episode, I hope! Yes, there look to be some kooks, but
it's always good to see Scully confront fanatism, since she tends to lean a
little too far in the other direction. Have a great week all, love,

Christine :)