Summary
This one is somewhat painful to watch for anyone who's ever thought "shippy thoughts", but it's a half-decent X-File and the surrounding tension was probably a very realistic scenario for M&S at this point in their partnership. For some reason, this ep gave rise to major screams of protest from Scullyists over her partner's apparent treatment and ignorance of her needs, but anyone who has any basic understanding of men knows that Mulder had no idea what had gotten her panties in a knot. (The question of why Scully doesn't have a desk in this office or a nameplate on the door wasn't the issue of this episode and shouldn't have been an issue among fans.) This was the story of a woman who hides her insecurities well and appears to be in control of her destiny, but in truth — underneath the facade — she is plagued by needs that she doesn't understand and doesn't know how to fulfill. Too bad she didn't learn enough from this outing to have figured it out, because we eventually see it repeated in future experiences. Oh, and with regards to the overnight stay — did she or didn't she? I've heard tell GA seems to think so (although perhaps she was projecting what she would have done in Scully's position) but as a viewer, it was my interpretation that she didn't.
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| Love this wide shot of our heroes |
Okay, so given that we know that Scully has not yet been diagnosed with cancer, just what the hell crawled up her butt to start all this? Well, she says that every now and then, she likes to rebel against authoritative, controlling "father figures". Wouldn't have thought that Mulder filled that role in her life, but what the hey, let's just go with that for now. She is apparently a little peevish that she has allowed someone to take over her world to the extent that she now has no control over how it spins... or something like that. As a grown woman, it no longer makes any impact to steal her mother's cigarettes (Maggie's probably quit that nasty habit, anyway), so she decides — somewhat unwisely no matter how you look at it — to get a tattoo! Of course, with her luck, it turns out that the ink is bad in a really bad way and the end result is that she almost gets herself killed while winding up as a side entry in an(other) x-file. All while she manages to go on a date! Oh, and the worse part yet, Mulder is so totally not sympathetic!
[And all kidding aside, you really have to feel somewhat sympathetic here. It's not often that Dana Scully goes off and does something impulsive and yet she's probably the type who will always suffer for that choice in such situations!]
By the way, I liked Morgan & Wong's small bit of "continuity" here re: Mulder being an Elvis fan. In Home, Mulder holds up an old newspaper announcing Elvis' death. Here he takes a personal journey to Graceland to see how Elvis lived. (And there are actually a lot of other "Elvis" references in the series, but I won't bother trying to find them all right now.)
Picayune Peculiarities
It just occurred to me while watching this that the boys in S6 may have been doing an "homage" to Morgan and Wong with Milagro. Surely two "weird guys who find Scully attractive who are fixated on coal-burning furnaces/incinerators" are not coincidental, are they? (By the way, I did my own "Study in Scully" in my fic, Soul on Soul.)
Best or Worst Moment
Loved that bittersweet moment at the very end of the episode where both agents are wondering where to go from here. Life shouldn't be so difficult, should it? Well, stay tuned, because the difficult part has only just begun.
Original Rating: * * *
Revised Rating: * * *
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