X-Files 7.9 "Signs and Wonders"

"...lots and lots of snakes." And...not much else.

This was like the cuisinart episode of the X-Files, a bunch of stuff
we've seen before sliced up, spit out, and served as new. The most tiresome
element being the X-files take on Christianity as "creepy." This is
probably the sixth or seventh episode that has centered on some Christian
fringe group or a person claiming to be a minister or a priest whatever,
and rather than dig deeper into Mulder's disdain for Christianity or into
what, exactly Scully believes--does she leave things out when reciting
the Apostle's Creed, or does she actually profess her faith with the rest of
the Catholics? That alone is interesting! Have them talk about the
Virgin birth or Christ or ANYTHING! But no, instead we hit the same tired
notes, Mulder's smug insults, Scully's mild annoyance, and creepy religious
mumbo jumbo. This reminded me of the voodoo episode, it reminded me of Satan
high School, it reminded me half a dozen others--including the end, where
the bad guy has moved on to a new congregation--remember the horrible
plastic surgery episode a few year's back? Same ending. Look out, an
evil man might be in a place of authority. Real groundbreaking stuff, Chris
Carter. You have 12 hours of TV left to tell your story--how bout making
it worth our while?

Take away the snakes, you've got nothing except, as i said, the same old
"kooky religious person" telling Mulder and Scully to believe but they
don't--or do they? And what was the minister's deal anyway? He is seen
in the last frame being praised for his "open and modern" interpretation of
the Bible. If they had explored what exactly that meant, given us some
kind of opinion or something, then maybe I'd care. I'd be interested.
But we really don't know what these people believe, except in terms of
snakes. I was just relieved to see they quoted actual Scripture, rather than make
it up as they have in the past. It annoys the hell out of me that I
don't think the writer knew either. Just have people calling on Jesus and lots
of snakes--that'll be creepy.

Speaking of old episodes, when Scully walks into mulder's office and says
"snakes" and mulder replies "lots and lots of snakes,' it's a nice inside
joke between them. In season threes...paper clip, i think, when they
find the warehouse of files, Mulder says "files" and Scully replies 'lots and
lots of files." Hated Mulder sans tie, but his unprofessionalism fit in
with the overall slapshod quality of the episode as a whole. Mulder's
Catholic school girl quip was tasteless and serves to remind us why a guy
as great looking and smart as Mulder never gets laid. The guy is so
pathetic sometimes. i mean, Scully grew up on the military bases and in
the boys club of the FBI--I mean, she's heard it all. But Mulder...do
you want to be her man or her stupid little brother? Decide.

Now, there is a sect or movement in Christianity that does this, handles
snakes as part of their worship. There's also a lot of middle ground
between handling snakes or being part of the false 'tolerant" church.
Again, if they had bothered to explore the "nice' ministers church and
told us what exactly he was being tolerant of, what exactly he was being open
to, I'd be interested. but I guess that would ruin the "surprise" ending
(oh, the bad guy isn't the weird Christian it's the nice one. Oh okay.)
Were the snakes real? It sure seemed like they materialized out of thin
air--something Mulder and Scully never discuss after the first scene.
Guess it doesn't matter. Real snakes/fake snakes, real God/fake god,
continuity/half-assed characterizations, new ideas/recycling from
previous seasons. Eh, whatever.

Maybe the problem is they can't surprise us anymore. Certainly not with
red herrings and "shock" endings. Mulder seemed to be trying to goad
Scully into explaining to him what it is she actually believes, who God
is to her, but, ultimately, Scully's faith is just a prop she wears around
her neck. When Snake guy escapes the hospital she utters, "that's
impossible, he was on his death bed." Well, Dana, so were you! remember being
miraculously cured from cancer a few years back? I do.

It's not like I didn't know they were running out of ideas, but I know
there are talented imaginative people out there who'd like to write for
this show, and Chris Carter's not finding them. In the next few months
we'll have episodes penned by three of the shows actors: David, Gillian,
and Cancerman. I'm not saying that's a bad thing--i loved David's
baseball episode. I just wonder what else the Writers are doing (because it sure
ain't researching or fleshing out a story) Unless Fox convinces them to
come back for another year (which would mean 22 or so more hours of story
I don't believe they have in them at 1013) , they have only a few more
stories to tell, and why on earth was this one of them? I still believe
this whole last season should have had them as fugitives, rogue agents
trying to find answers on their own. It feels like it's just a job to
them now--Mulder and Scully have to make rent, so, off to Tennessee. Where's
the quest? The passion? Maybe next time.

In two weeks, Samantha,mythology, Mulder angst. Thank goodness!

Enjoy the superbowl--I'm so glad Jacksonville won't be there. I'm
leaning towards the Rams but like the Titans too. Should be a good game. Have a
great week. Christine :) Even the great season three had that horrible
episode with the killer kitty-cats, right?

X-Files 7.8 "the Amazing Maleeni"

"there's still one thing you haven't explained..."

Hey hey everyone.

This was the "remington Steele" episode of The X-Files. This had all the
earmarkings of an seventies/eighties detective show--except there were no
big name guest stars like Dick van Dyke and...who would have played the
young guy...Dirk Benedict! The campy flashbacks that show us as they
recap everything that happened, and the final "but...there's one thing you
still haven't explained..." line, a classic. Now, I loved Remington Steele
(hey I loved Charlie's Angels!) so this isn't a complaint. i found this to be
a charming and delightful episode. It had sort of a "Moonlighting" vibe to
it, but in order for me to actually say it was LIKE moonlighting would
require much better dialogue. Tonight's wasn't bad or anything, but
moonlighting was genius.

Interesting to bring up Remington Steele and Moonlighting, both being
similar to X-Files in terms of delicious sexual tension. It was never
resolved on Steele, and it was annihilated on Moonlighting (not just
becasue they slept together but because of the reasons they slept
together--you could feel the producers saying "let's get it over with",
and it was an utterly meaningless act that didn't change the characters the
way it should it have.) ANYWAY, both shows ended very badly--Pierce Brosnan
was forced to come back for a season that i don't believe they even
finished, and Moonlighting just sank under the weight of all the egos
involved. I mention this because i keep reading that Fox is desperate to
get Duchovny back for one more year. Gillian is signed through "next
season" but contracts don't mean all that much, i don't think (ask David
Caruso and Sherry Stringfield). She says she won't do it without him, he
says he won't do it. Now, all Fox cares about is the fact that all their
execs have been doing for the last few years is greenlighting horrible
"animals attack" and "car chase" crap and haven't developed anything to
take the place of the X-files. My concern is that it seems to me
everyone involved with the show wants out. they want to end it. Take some time
off, come back and do some movies. And I'm fine with that. I don't want
to look back on X-Files the way i look back on the last few years of
Moonlighting and Remington Steele and say "Man, remember how good that
show used to be? And then they wrecked it."

i work with a guy who's a magician, and whenever we have an office party
he does a little show. I love the card tricks. i love card tricks where i
can't tell what happened. I've never been into the whole David
Copperfield disappearing statue of liberty etc. stuff, but card tricks rule.

Even the LA setting fit in with the old detective show deal, including
glamorous North Hollywood (hahaha). Also, the "i heard he racked up some
pretty serious gambling debts" is probably in not less that 50% of every
detective -themed teleplay written between 1965 to...i dunno 1985? From
Mannix to Simon and Simon, "pretty serious gambling debts" are why good
folks go bad. Probably still this way on CBS, since nash bridges and
Walker texas Ranger ARE bad eighties shows.

Twins! Of course! My sister and i were such fraidy cats we never even
switched places as a joke ONCE. We've never ever done it. We'd probably
start crying or something. I enjoyed Mulder and Scully's interplay,
their amusement at the stupidity of the case, at the young guy's theatrics (so
amused and smug that they allowed themselves to be misdirected). WHich
leads me to wonder...what business did they have staying on the case? I
mean, in the end they thwart a major bank heist (finally, a gold star in
the personnel file) but it seemed like they stayed on longer than the
case they had in the beginning warrented. That's another thing I liked about
moonlighting, they dealt with that. they'd solve the case, but because
they did more than the people hired wanted them to do--and very often got
their own client arrested, they almost never got paid. Sometimes they'd
luck into a reward of some kind. Anyway, basically, they hang around on
what might be a fraud case at best.

I liked how Scully stared down all the pool playing hoods. AGAIN, their
rental car is WAY TOO NICE. And we're paying for it folks. next week, i
want to see the crappy...Aw, I'm afraid to say it cuz I don't know what
you all drive ;) You know what I mean. Not the snazzy silver luxary car
they drive off in. Boring, small, American sedan. With some foreign
substancen(possibly blood!) in the back seat, if it's anything like the car an
unnamed rental company tried to foist on me and my Dad in St. Louis last
year. I actually think i'd be cool to do an X-file centered around
returning a rental car or being at the airport baggage claim or some such
thing that Mulder and Scully obvioulsly do a million times a year.

One thing I determined on our trip to St. Louis (besides always needing
to check the back seat, even if no one's going to sit there right away), is
the world's worst job IN THE UNIVERSE is customer service at baggage
claim. No one you deal with will ever be in a good mood. My Dad and i were
like, annoyed but tolerant (maybe because we were mad at each other, but that's
a whole different story) and i think that's as good as it gets with people
who don't know where their stuff is.

I loved the Mulder and Scully magic scene. Mulder trying to impress
Scully--she returns the favor at the end with a trick of her own. C'mon
people, you don't really think Mulder and Scully would flirt like normal
people, do you? :)

Maleeni's "Who raised you?" retort to Scully's disbelief that he wouldn't
cheat at cards only served as a painful reminder of how long it's been
since we've seen the answer to that question! I don't care if Sheila
Larkin (Momma Scully) lives in Canada, there's such a thing as Airplanes!

Anyway, I liked this one. As i said before, charming. And i like it's
twists. I also hope they make this year their last: The great ones know
when to leave the stage..."

X-File department: Could I actually be rooting for the RAMS(!!??!!??) to
go to the Superbowl and win??? I dunno, they're not as evil now that
they're not in LA. And, as my St. Louis native Dad is always quick to
point out, they don't have much else to get excited about out there.
MarkMcGuire and riverboat gambling. The Arch. Fireflies. That's about it.
So, Go ScRams. Have a great week everyone :)

next week lots and lots of snakes--I know several of you (including my
Dad, the surpring and no-doubt surprised star of this review) who won't be
able to watch. No spiders, so I can take it. :D

X-Files 7.7 "Orison"

Hey everybody! It's 2000 and nothing happened! And, in my case, I do
mean nothing. I watched so much New Year's coverage all day from Paris and
Sydney and Washington DC that by the time it was 10:30 Pacific time I was
sick and tired of the whole dang thing and had to force myself not to go
to sleep before 12.

Adam has voted for "Dod Kalm" as his favorite, the one where Mulder and
Scully go up to the arctic and get all dehyrated and old looking form
someweird chemical reaction, but Scully's awesome science skills save them
both. An interesting second season choice. Hey Dad, tell me yours again? I
forgot.

What did you think? I don't have a clue as to the "theology" of this
episode, and, if you ask me, neither did the writers. I mean, I liked
it, and it was cool and creepy, but I'm not sure I agree with what they were
getting at. This was actually the "Green Mile" episode of X-Files, the
end scene was very Green Mile, and I had similar objections over the idea of
God possessing people to commit vengeance. But, let me start at the
beginning (a very good place to start...)

For newbies, or those who just need a refresher, this is a sequel to an
episode from the second season called "Irresistible." It aired almost
exactly five years ago. Mulder and Scully fly to Minneapolis to
investigate some grave robbings. Mulder actually uses the case, which he
doesn't view as an X-File, to fly to Minnesota on the taxpayers dime so
he can take Scully to a Vikings Redskins game. This is so we can see Cris
Carter (get it?) catching a pass on TV. The case is very creepy and the
usually stoic Scully has a hard time with it, but refuses to open up to
Mulder and let him see how freaked out she is--this is actually one of
the first "I'm fine, Mulder" episodes. Scully goes to counseling, and
reveals her fear of being a burden to Mulder. After Scully escapes her attacker,
she tries to be brave for Mulder but ultimately breaks down in his arms
and allows him to comfort her. It was also the first episode where we really
saw her dealing with her "alien" abduction, or "government" abduction.

This was an ok sequel, and there were no real continuity problems. the
Vikings were even on TV today, stomping the evil Cowboys (yes, my team
was 4-12 and eating cheetos in front of the widescreen tv's in their
mansions, I know, but Dallas losing always warms my heart regardless). Pfaster is
serving his sentence in Illinois, which didn't make sense to me until
Scully said that thing at the end "You're only alive because I asked the
judge for life." Pfaster's attack on Scully, a federal agent, was thus a
federal offense, so Pfaster wouldn't necessarily be imprisoned in
Minnesota. It's intriguing that Scully isn't hard-core death penalty, or
wasn't five years ago, at any rate.

Whenever I see preachers on TV I say "uh-oh." This guy was a trip, the
hypnotizing false minister who uses psychic power to liberate killers and
then reform/kill them???? Right? Is that how it goes? Hey, no one
becomes an X-Files fan by getting questions answered. This was also the
first "Scully in jeopardy" we've had in a long time. For a while, she
was getting kidnapped and held at gun point and what not all the danged time.

I don't have a big problem with it because Scully has had to rescue
Mulder's butt plenty of times too. I don't get how Scully has her window
open in the first scene. She has a ground floor apartment in Washington
D.C., what is she crazy? I liked the 666 on the clock, as they've used
the clock (10:13 and 11:21crop up all the time) before, and liked how she
reacted as though she'd imagined it. I like the whole "Scully is
special" thing, the visions she has etc.

When Scully describes Pfaster as not being supernatural, "just plain
evil," I thought, isn't "evil" supernatural? I suppose it's open to
interpretation. Loved Scully's determination to stay with the case "I
don't have a choice." Scully is stronger then most people and her sense
of duty is absolute. Quitting is never an option for Dana. The song was an
odd choice, I thought. I thought it could have a clearer lyrical
significance. Scully says she heard it when she was 13 (1977) and hasn't
heard it since high school ( she would have graduated in 82). Now, the
version I know of that song came out in 84, but it wasn't the one played
so I'll just assume it's a seventies song and they didn't mess up. I really
like the slow motion stuff in this episode, it was shot very cool.

Scully's faith is so personal. She wears a cross, but is always
surprised and miffed when anyone mentions it. The preacher calls her Scout, which
she identifies as a childhood nickname. Between Scout, Scully and
Starbuck did ANYONE ever call her Dana? Sheesh. though I can see Scully being
very much like "To Kill a Mockingbird"'s Scout, when she was kid. Mulder's
contempt for God and Christianity show's up again, but Scully's "I'm
trying not to take offense" is a BIG improvement, as she seems to be finally
owning up to her (gulp) BELIEFS. I've said this before, but I like the
idea of Mulder's not being able to accept a God that would allow his
sister to be taken from him. He's not interested in knowing a God that would
make Mulder's tragedy part of His plan. Also, again, Scully can't REALLY take
offense at Mulder's scorn re: her beliefs since she has certainly leveled
enough mockery and rolled eyes and disdain at Mulder's beliefs over the
last seven years. Scully's recollections of being in San Diego in 1977
fit the time frame of the Christmas flashbacks to Scully's childhood we
had two years back.

God talks to me through the radio all the time, although it usually
involves my throwing some kind of hissy fit and God letting me know how
ridiculous I'm being.

Okay, Scully's apartment. First of all, the view from her window, seems
too rural for me, based on what we've seen in other episodes--we've seen
that she lives on a tree-lined, but very urban Georgetown street. The
sunlight just seemed to bright. but the big thing about her place is,
however cool it might be, and maybe it's rent-controlled or whatever
but...she's been assaulted several times, abducted from the place, her
answering machine was also stolen from the place by the rare intruder who
DIDN'T try to kill her. Oh yeah, and her sister was fatally shot there.

I'd move. Maybe it's a reaction to all the moving she did as a military
brat, she now stubbornly refuses to pull up stakes ever again.

I'd still move. The dead sister thing would be the breaking point, I
think.

Now, the fight kicked some serious ass. I complained earlier this season
about an episode that used darkness and bad camera work to obscure the
action, but this was a straight up fight, and Scully was awesome. She
also got her head banged around a LOT, and I have long maintained that Scully
will be punch-drunk by her her forties if she doesn't start wearing a
helmet or something. She has suffered more concussions than my beloved
Steve Young (sniff). I loved how strong she was, even when he seemed to
have the upper hand, defiant, angry, not to be beaten, determined to
fight for her life. Cancer, scumbags, demons--Scully beats em all down. I
liked Mulder's hearing the song and answering God's call. I kinda wished he
had a psychic "bad feeling" and just knew his beloved was in danger, but oh
well. I forgot to mention that his response to Scully's beliefs about
God communicating to her was also a BIG improvement over earlier episodes
(third season's "Revelations" and the episode in the fifth season that
was basically a rehash of "Revelations). This time, he is respectful and
open to the idea, maybe because Scully's finally owning up to actual weird
beliefs and not being a hypocrite.

Then we have the end. I liked Scully blowing the guy away, but the whole
idea of her feeling as though she was controlled by an outside force, one
and two, that she wasn't sure whether it was good or evil, was just...it
doesn't sit well with me. Scully controlled by Satan? Never. But I
don't believe that God "possesses" people to act out His vengeance. (Mulder's
understandably weak grasp on the Bible: "The Bible allows for vengeance,"

Uh yeah, Mulder...If you're GOD. No wonder Mulder doesn't like the
Bible, to him it's full of revenge killings and zombies.) But, it's a really
muddy issue: I mean, is the government executing a person after a trial
the only way to make a killing "moral"? I mean, I don't like the death
penalty myself, but...Maybe Scully IS morally justified in killing this
man, I think she was . Can a man so evil ever really be "unarmed?"
"Innocent"? I like those questions, and in keeping with The powers that
be at the X-Files, won't answer any of them :)

I believe in free will, and think that Scully just plain killed the guy,
and that she needs to come to terms with that. For those of you who've
seen "the Green mile", that was my major objection to the film: It seems
to preach redemption but presents revenge instead, really, and in a
context of God's using people without their active participation.

Religious imagery can be cool and creepy, and ultimately, I doubt anyone
at 10 13 knows or cares what they were trying to "say" here, or where
they're going (and if they're going to make Scully go evil like Twin Peaks did
to my beloved Dale Cooper I'll quite simply die). Maybe Scully's just going
to go Calvinist on us. Predestination and all that. I mean, she's not
going to die, right? Several episodes have eluded to Scully's status as
a messenger or agent of God, entrusted with protecting the weak. I hope
that won't be demonic now, I always envisioned her going out like Elijah.

Anyway, I still liked this episode...Mulder wants to help Scully pack a
bag and "get her out of this place" are they headed to his place? ;) Mulder
on the couch, of course. Hope you all have good weeks, and fellow
football fans: It WAS a lateral pass. Christine :D