8ABX01 - Within

Summary

It's ten months after the original airing of Requiem when I finally watch this and I'm not feeling very charitable. This was quite simply unsatisfying and I think I would have found it that way even if I had watched it back in November and not March. After ten months in which to become jaded and cynical, however, I can also say that it was annoying and far-fetched. Most annoying was that lamenting, mournful dirge that followed the "Widow Scully" around. (I hadn't realized when I watched Per Manum that this has likely been Scully's anthem all season.) Beyond that little bit of irrelevancy, I found the characterizations lacking. Oh, Doggett was fine — in fact, I don't think that this season will go down as the year in which we all hated the arrival of the new male lead — but Scully was "off" (that water throwing scene seemed inappropriate to me), the "sensitive, caring" version of Skinner (who needs the reassuring touch on the arm from Scully) seems to come across as missing much of his edge, and Kersh is simply a waste of screen time. He is so incredibly one-dimensional (except during his conversation with Doggett, but that was to give us some background on Doggett, not Kersh) that he makes you want to say to him, "Oh yeah? Make my day." Here again we have that godawful theme from the movie of placing some sort of blame on someone (even on Mulder) for what's happened. I don't claim to know what would be standard procedure at the FBI when one of their own goes missing, but I somehow think it would involve more sympathetic treatment of the missing agent's closest colleagues, less ripping up of his office, and just perhaps a bit of searching in the actual area in which he was reported missing (given that they don't buy that "alien abduction into a flying disc" story). So what about the far-fetched part? Mulder has been dying all last year and is so accepting of it that he's purchased himself a family headstone in advance? Give me a break. The Mulder that I "know" would sooner put a gun to his head than go to such pomp and ceremony. (So, tell me, CC — has Mulder been planning babies with Scully this past year or putting his life in order in preparation for death? It's one or the other, Chris baby, you can't have both extremes of absurdity.) Oh and one final thing — that poor dear Gibson. Ignored for two years and he's been at a school for the deaf in the middle of the desert this whole time. Why the hell didn't Scully make that connection earlier??

Best or Worst Moment

You know, it's odd that I would choose this, but I think those segments of Mulder being tortured are the best moments of this one — although I guess I am speaking from a production point of view. They were extremely stylish in a technical sense. Not having seen the continuation yet at this writing, I can say that it did not occur to me those scenes were anything other than Scully's dreams.


Original Rating: * *