Summary
Good old fashioned edge-of-your-seat excitement underscores this episode. I thought the symbolism of the white buffalo was well used (and again, it speaks to the history of this show not doing things halfway by including footage that really wasn't necessary to move the plot along). I loved the entire sequence of the "lots and lots of files", along with the first real appearance of "aliens" and their spacecraft. (Of course, this was back when we weren't innundated by forty thousand-odd variations of them.) And while the whole "one and only copy" digital tape plot is lame, I appreciated the difficulty of the decisions that Mulder, Scully and Skinner had to deal with, in terms of personal and professional consequences.... Speaking of consequences, great scene with Krycek as he bolts from certain death. As with The Blessing Way, however, certain things stick out in hindsight that make me wonder about lost opportunities. Ma Mulder said in this one that "I couldn't choose", implying that Mulder's parents had full knowledge of what Samantha's fate was/would be. Didn't sound to me like she would later send out search parties after having visions of her child travelling through space in starlight... or whatever it was that Closure said happened.
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| A Mexican Standoff of the most intriguing kind |
Isn't it interesting that the ancient tradition of the Navajo accomplishes pretty much the same result as our social media does in the 21st century? Hard to keep a secret these days... Nice bluff by Skinner. Not a great choice, on the other hand, to keep the tape on his person so that he can be assaulted for it.
But I have to say that watching Paper Clip this time made me sad. Why? Because it set up such a wide range of possibilities that could have culminated in some great future resolutions. Instead, as I revisit the episode with full knowledge of what came afterwards, I was left to lament the fact that so much of that potential ended up being lost, misplaced, whatever.
I remember being quite thrilled by the whole saucer sequence and the "little beings" who scurried past Scully in the dark. It seemed like a bit of a payoff for those who had watched a couple of seasons expecting to see some aliens. But those scenes turned out not to have any meaning whatsoever. Like Scully says at the end of the episode, I want answers! Was Mulder just lucky to have seen that saucer take off or was this a daily/weekly ritual at the Strughold Mining Facility in rural West Virginia?? Regularly scheduled take-offs for the mother world every Wednesday at 6:00 pm... be there or be square. Why was this facility never looked at again? You would think that if data and actual tissue samples were stored there and "little beings" were on site, it would merit a return visit. Surely CSM didn't say, "Burn it!" to this too, did he?
On a serious note, I found the discussion that Mulder, Scully and Skinner have at the diner very realistic. Scully says, "Those answers mean nothing if we're going to be hunted down like animals... we've turned ourselves into outsiders." I'm pretty sure that 99.9% of us — apart from hardened criminals who really are trying to get away from the law — would feel the same way. Because in truth, there is no thrill in being on the run, having no place to call home, constantly looking over your shoulder. And it doesn't matter if you're sharing this situation with the greatest love of your life. That's the part of the X-File canon that I have tremendous difficulty coming to terms with, the fact that this is precisely where Mulder and Scully are at the end of the series. (I have no knowledge of how that may have changed by the end of the second movie; it probably didn't.) Nothing — except bad writing — should have led them to that point.
Y'see, I appreciated the story that we were given at the time of Paper Clip. I liked the explanation given by the Well Manicured Man; he was a great character who made sense in a way that the rest of the conspirators didn't. I liked that he saved Scully in The Blessing Way and was honest enough with her to admit that he was doing so for his own purposes. [An aside here: I decided to include the WMM in my story The Sum of My Tomorrows based on what happened in Fight the Future. In coming back to this episode and its predecessor, I feel very confident that I chose the right route to resolving the conspiracy as far as Samantha's "abduction" was concerned, as well as the planned colonization. Oddly enough, in my story — which I wrote in 2000 — the colonization effort ends up being abandoned in 2021, which is a reversal of the number that CC came up with in going with the now elapsed 2012. Curious, huh? If Fox and 1013 want to make that third movie based on my story, feel free to contact me. ;-)]
Picayune Peculiarities
Okay, apparently M&S spent a lot, a lot, of time inside that "vault" that we weren't privy to. When they pulled up to the mine, it was daylight and by the time Mulder bolted outside just in time to see the saucer lift off, it was dark. (The "small army" of MIB operatives wasn't very effective, it seemed.) Did our duo then spend the night out in the bushes? When they meet up with Skinner the next morning, he says that "this place" isn't even on the map, so how many services might be available in the area? Maybe Charlotte's Diner is a 24-hour joint. They obviously didn't go back to their vehicle for safety reasons.
There seemed to me no logical reason why were there so many electronic doors leading into what seemed like one large interconnected storage facility. Even if each entrance led to a different floor (in which case, Klemper knew exactly what floor our heroes needed to access to get the info that pertained to them), having multiple access doors lined up in a row like that is just odd. However, it was probably useful in allowing Mulder and Scully to get away from the MIBs who obviously became lost once they got inside.
Can't copy the file, can't print the file. Can you take a photograph or video of what appears on the computer screen? Hey, I know it would be time consuming, but that's one way.
Best or Worst Moment
Oh those glorious days of UST. (My first fanfic experience was a post-ep story dealing with the aftermath of Scully's vigil at her sister's bedside.) Anyway, I thought the concluding scene of this hour was wonderful, highlighted by strong dialogue choices. It clearly demonstrated Mulder and Scully's innate strengths as individuals and as partners. Having been involved with TXF fandom, however, I also immediately associate Paper Clip with "that elevator scene". Problem is, even when I go back to rewatch it now, I don't see where all that fanfic interpretation came from...
Original Rating: * * * *
Revised Rating: * * * *
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