X-Files 8.15 "deadalive" As good as can be expected?

I was not thrilled with this installment, but it had some great moments,
and...it might be as good as it gets from here on out. The fact that
Mulder is decomposing, yet still alive, is actually a pretty damned good
metaphor for the show, if you ask me. It's dying and often stinky,
yet...it's still on. I'm going to go into more detail than usual for those
of you who aren't watching but still reading--I don't want to lose your
viewership ;)

We begin with Mulder's funeral in Raleigh, North Carolina. You may recall
that I was confused early on in the season when we learned that this is
where Mulder's family is buried--I'm still confused. All previous Mulder
backstory has been centered around Massachusetts and Rhode Island,
but...whatever. Maybe his Dad's the New Englander, but his Mom was from
NC.

Note on the headstone (shared with his parents and sister) that Samantha's
"death date" is listed as 1979. That is referring to last years (I thought
disappointing) revelation that Samantha died in California years after her
abduction, having been raised by the Spenders. I hope there will be more
to all that eventually, but I will always disagree with Mulder's calm
acceptance of that story. Anyway, Sam's birth year is listed here as
1965--consistent with the Season 3 change of her birthyear--early in season
one, she born in Jan 64, just a month before Scully. Mulder's birth and
death years are obscured, for whatever reason.

They probably STILL don't want to nail down when this is all taking place,
but, those of you who argued with me all year that the season was taking
place over a much more compressed period of time than I'd been assuming
were proved right. After the funeral teaser, the episode is said to take
place three months later, and Scully is finally showing. By the snow, and
the May abduction, what are we thinking here, December 2000? It would have
made so much since if they had just told us that, but I think they really
relied on viewer confusion to double as suspense.

Scully tells Skinner that Mulder was the last of his family (which
means...she's NOT carrying his child? Huh?) and that he died before he
really learned the truth he was trying to find...yet, he did find his
sister (he claimed)...shallow but true, Scully had really cool funeral
hair.

I think my biggest problem with the show is that they tied up all the wrong
loose ends. Samantha should still be missing and the conspiracy should
still be in place--all those creepy guys smoking in dark rooms. It was
stupid to gut the mythology arc like that--it took away a lot of the
suspense and motivation (for M and now S to stick around on the X-Files).

The lone gunmen are at the funeral, looking sad. Has anyone gotten in to
their new show? I just couldn't do it. I mean, there's a reason "Newhart"
never spun off Larry and Darryl and Darryl, you know? There are some
characters that only work in contrast with others. Mrs. Scully makes her
first appearance since CHRISTMAS 1997 (!!!!!) and says....nothing. Nada.
She just stands there looking sad. Grrr. Mulder had a Christian burial,
which is interesting, and...not really justified, in my opinion. Carter
does it here so that the minister's reading of the Bible "whosoever
believes in me shall not die.." will foreshadow Absolom's use of the same
Scripture to back his claims of Messiahdom with Dogg later on in the
episode. Mulder's reaction to anything Christian has usually been pretty
negative. Of course, mulder probably converted to Christianity off-camera,
as he wrestled with his imminent death--why would he tell Scully about
either?

Is anyone else disturbed by the fact that Ray Liotta is playing Johnny
Depp's father in a movie? How can that be? I can only hope that Liotta
ages in the film from younger dad to older dad to explain why this is
happening. I doubt Liotta is even ten years older than Depp.

THREE MONTHS LATER: Dogg gets props from Kirsch for finding Mulder (it
took three months?) and Kirsch tells Dogg he's gonna be out of the X-Files
and back on the fast track in no time. Skinner sits there sulking--what's
with Skinner this year? Carter and Spotnitz seem determined to castrate
Skinner, and I'm unclear on the why. Kirsch is displeased when Dogg seems
reluctant to leave the X-Files (why?) Dogg goes down to the XiFiles
basement where Scully (now finally visibly pregnant) is filing files.
She's going on maternity leave in six weeks. Scully seems tired. Dogg
tells her about the promotion rumors, and that he doesn't want to leave the
X-Files. He still wants to know what happened to Mulder and doesn't feel
that's been answered. Scully is amused--get out while you can, she
advises. She tells him she made the same vow to stick it out in the
basement seven years ago. I just don't buy Scully--especially pregnant
Scully--being caretaker of the X-Files at this point. I think she'd move
on. In fact, I still don't get why Kirsch keeps the X-Files open at all,
if he hates them so much. My HOPE here is that "higher-ups," such as a
not-so-dead cancerman (he can't actually be dead, c'mon) are still using
the X-Files to as a place to monitor Scully the way they did with her and
Mulder in the past.

Billy Miles' bloated body turns up in the ocean. Carter and Sponitz insert
a joke here about how (hee hee) his penis would be enlarged as well. It's
the opposite of funny. Miles starts talking, even though he's bloated and
very dead, it would seem. It's pretty gross. When Skinner gets wind of
Billy's situation, he concludes that Mulder could also be alive yet dead,
and has his body exhumed. He brings Dogg (why?) and Dogg argues the whole
time. He keeps reminding Skinner that this could just hurt the still
fragile Scully. Why they have Dogg telling Skinner about Scully's
emotional sate, I don't know. Skinner's just getting the shaft here.
Also, we still haven't seen any scenes between Scully and Dogg to explain
the depth of his concern for Scully. He's a decent guy, it would seem, but
they are still (stupidly) calling each other "Agent" instead of Dana and
John. One scene, his opening up to her about his kid, her talikng about
her childhood in the military--would go along way with me. As it is, they
still seem like polite strangers to me. Yet it's Dogg here, telling
Skinner how BEST to look after Scully.

When they open the coffin, wasn't it lame to have Dogg lean in just before
they cracked it open to say "for the record, I still think this is
insanity."?? Like...we forgot he didn't believe in any of this? Or
Skinner would? Of course, Mulder is decomposing...but yet, still alive,
sort of. At the hospital, Scully shows up, desperate to see Mulder. She
does the trembly lip crying thing she does so well, and Dogg lets her see
Mulder despite his better judgment. Scully collapses on Mulder's
chest--which...if his flesh was actually decomposing...I won't go there.
Let's pretend its NOT gross.

Kirsch summons Dogg and tells him to drop the case. He also says he's been
director for 6 months, which means it's November or December 2000. Dogg
doesn't want to drop the case. Asking Dogg to NOT investigate a case where
an FBI agent has been buried alive for THREE MONTHS is a bit too overtly
suspicious, even for Kirsch, no?

Scully visits gross bloated Billy and he has a seizure. when she looks at
his equipment, she thinks she see two heartbeats, and reports it to the
nurse and a malfunction. Later, she postulates that this was when an
alien life form sprang to life in Billy ...or something. None of that
makes sense to me. Anyway, the nurse is peeved to find Scully in the room,
and Scully tells her she's a doctor. it cracks me up that Scully uses the
"I'm a doctor" excuse to justify her doing anything or being anywhere
involving sick people and disease and it always works. Liked when Scully
got emotional and had to leave. Gillian is back in great acting form,
following last months terrible outing. I think she should submit this one.

Skinner collapses in the hall of the FBI Headquarters, but tells everyone
he's fine and they shuffle off. Krycek appears--yay! Krycek is such a
great villain. I hope he dies a violent death in the last episode, but
until then, I'm glad when he pops up. Ratboy is back to remind Skinner
about the fact that he can kill Skinner with the flick of a switch (can't
remember if that happened last year or the year before). Skinner tells him
to go to hell, but, after another death-blast, quickly recants and wonders,
hypothetically, what he might have to do to get Krycek to stop torturing
him. Krycek says he wants Skinner to help him save Mulder. He claims
Mulder has an alien disease and he has the cure--developed in part by
Mulders dead dad. Skinner thinks Mulder is beyond help. Note: Dana won't
call Doggett "John" but Skinner calls Krycek "Alex." Why? Because calling
someone by their first name, in this country anyway, is both normal and
meaningless and not a sign of some deep relationship.

Bloated Billy wakes up and showers, all the bloated skin and a bunch of
blood comes off in the shower (in a truly disgusting scene) to reveal good
ol' Billy underneath. Scully keeps vigil at Mulder's side, and Dogg shows
up, worried about her. She tells him she has come to appreciate him as a
partner and as a person--you're a good man, agent dog! BUT, then she laces
into him for not agreeing with Skinner about digging up Mulder, which is an
odd thing to get upset about. I mean, its a good thing Skinner was right,
but, since Dogg was in no position to talk his boss out of digging up
Mulder...what harm was done? Why would Scully still care at this point,
with Mulder alive (sort of). They are distracted when they encounter a
naked and confused Billy Miles walking around the hospital (Billy
miraculously comes out of a coma in the Pilot episode, if you recall.
Rising from the dead is old hat for Billy Miles). He feels fine, but has
no strong memories of his experience. Scully coaxes him to admit he
remembers being on a spaceship, which pisses off Dogg. Billy tells them
that the aliens are here to save us, and Dogg mutters "Well, that's good
news."

In the hallway, Scully can't understand why Dogg won't accept that aliens
are clearly behind all this (despite the face that it is NOT clear, and she
was just as reluctant to believe such things--in the face of much stronger
evidence--for eight years). Dogg wonders why the hell its so important for
her that he believe in this UFO crap anyway--hey, good question! She says
"I thought you were just merely resistant to paranormal stuff, turns out
you're...(wait for it) BULLHEADED!" Like, its some major accusation or
revelation into Dogg's character. Really, the dialogue continues to be
very lacking. Later, with Skinner, Scully fears that Billy's recovery is
too good to be true. She speculates, vaguely, that Billy is not actually
Billy, but an alien in his body (or a clone of his body??) and they must
stop it from happening to Mulder. Skinner fesses up about the vaccine that
Krycek claims to have for the alien virus Mulder may have, but warns her
that the price may be too high.

Dogg goes to see Absolom, the weird guy that was helping Smith heal the
abductees in the last episode. Absolom implies he is Christ and insists
Dogg believe in him. Dogg is unimpressed.

Skinner goes to visit Mulder and finds ratboy lurking. Krycek tells him
that he will save Mulder if Skinner makes sure that Scully's maybe doesn't
make it to term. Skinner is horrified and insists he won't be party to any
such plan. It remains to be seen why Krycek needs Skinner's help on this,
since we learned earlier this year that there isn't an OB-GYN in the
country, nay the World, that isn't involved in the alien conspiracy. For
that matter, why doesn't Alex just kill Scully? Perhaps this will be
addressed in later episodes--maybe Scully is still important to
someone--remember how cancerman took a shine to Dana on their very weird
"date."? Perhaps Krycek is just a sick little bastard yanking on Skinner's
chain because he can. Does this mean the baby is alien? Or some sort of
hybrid? Or somehow resistant to the virus? Or is it the fact that its
Mulder's baby (maybe??)? Is Mulder some sort of hybrid? Has he always
been an alien or hybrid or something? I have no answers guys, sorry. But,
at least I find myself curious about the answers in this one. I'm back to
caring, though not as deeply as I once did.

Dogg passes Krycek in the hall and gets a bad vibe off of him. He realizes
this man (stranger to him) was in Mulder's room talking to Skinner and is
suspicious. He runs into to Scully who tells him about the alien virus
theory. He tells her that Absolom told her that the abductions were all
part of an alien invasion plot--they are replacing people with pod people (
I think). Dogg goes to Mulder's room to see about the virus theory from
Skinner, to find that Skinner has disconnected Mulder from life support.
Skinner tells Dogg that Krycek wants Scully's baby dead for the vaccine,
and he won't let that happen, no matter what.

Dogg runs after Krycek and tries to wrestle him out of his car as they race
around at high speeds--I thought it was a pretty cool action scene. Dogg
gets his face smashed up a bit when Krycek shakes him off the speeding car.
He comes back to taunt the injured Dogg by breaking the vaccine in front
of him (like, that's really all there is, riiiight.) Dogg goes back to the
hospital to find out that Mulder's in OR. Skinner's bummed to find Dogg
has failed to regain the vaccine, but Dogg tells him he was right not to
trust slimy Krycek. Scully has scrubbed in to observe Mulder's surgery
(of...what?) because, she's a doctor and thus can scrub into any procedure
anywhere. Considering she believes Mulder has an alien virus that they
know NOTHING about, it seems odd that the other doctors aren't in hazmat
suits or something--and odder that Scully would stand there exposing her
unborn child to it. I hate to say it, but at least half of Scully's
"difficult pregnancy" is her own damn fault. She tells Dogg that they had
been unwittingly helping the virus incubate by having Mulder on life
support--turns out Skinner helped Mulder by taking him off of it. Scully
puts on a brave face for Dogg and tells him everything's going to be cool.

Kirsch, full of contempt, tells Dogg he's back on the X-Files. Now...if
Kersh wants to punish Dogg, and he doesn't want him investigating Mulder's
case, or X-Files in general, why not just transfer him to some podunk field
office in Montana or something? Why put him back where DOGG said he wanted
to remain in the first place?

OK, call me a sucker, but the last scene got me all emotional. Mulder woke
up to see Scully there. She got all joyful and said "Hi." and he said "Who
are you?" Which, was a pretty effective April Fool's joke, I gotta admit,
Carter. Ya got me. Scully gets scared and them Mulder smiles--he's
kidding. And, it's so like Mulder to wake up having been tortured by
aliens and in a virus coma in a coffin for three months and make a bad
joke, it really is. They are both thrilled to be the others company once
again, and its so great to have them back together, since the show is about
THEM. MULDER and SCULLY. Together. Dogg walks in, realizes he's
interrupting, and skulks out. Scully sees him, Mulder doesn't. David is
supposedly bck for the rest of the year. I really really hope this is the
end, but fear we will be spending the next seven episodes watching Mulder
and Scully "pass the torch" to Moonbeam and Dogg (shudder).

So, I'm intrigued, but I'm too gun shy to believe its gonna pay off in a
way I like. We'll see. Scenes for next week show lots of friction between
Mulder and Dogg and Skinner and Dogg. I hope they don't go overboard
making Dogg a "victim" that has to prove himself...AGAIN.

We shall see. I hope you all have a good week.
Baseball season starts tomorrow, go A's! They have a good shot this year,
I think. I realize the Rangers will be tough, with A-Rod and all. I am
making a vow to go to more games this year, even if it is to see the
hard-to-get-excited-about Dodgers--its such a pretty stadium, at any rate.
Christine :D