"Dr. Scully, who do you think you are?"

After seven years portraying her, it is Gillian Anderson who 
gets to answer that question in "all things" which she both 
wrote and directed. And no matter what you felt about this 
episode you cannot deny one thing: She did it with heart. 
Taken as a whole from the actress, the writer, and the director 
this was an hour where everything happened on screen for a 
reason. There were no accidents, or anything that did not 
make sense in the scheme of this story or serve to further 
it. There was a strong theme and current that pushed the 
episode forward with each beat making sure we, along with 
Scully, were paying attention.

In a season where character loose ends are being wrapped 
up (Mulder is now "free" of Samantha and CancerMan is off 
alone in a cabin waiting to die) how does Gillian Anderson 
the writer choose to give Scully some resolution? She stops 
to "examine the path" and "take stock of each precious 
moment." Scully's occasional dissatisfaction with her place 
and her life is a theme that has been revisited time and 
again on this show but never resolved. We see it strongly 
in "Never Again," but it crops up in places like wanting 
to stop and get out of the car in "Dreamland" or complaining 
about what they will gain by pursuing something or wondering 
if she has made the right career decisions or looking for 
family approval. She asks herself and has been asked, is 
it worth it? Has she done the right thing? Scully is also 
struggling with her belief system, no more strongly than 
this season as her skepticism has started to erode away 
even bringing her to tears in "Amor Fati." Anderson chooses 
to examine these two aspects of Scully and in doing so also 
illuminates her relationship with Mulder. Plus, we get a 
healthy dose of Psychic!Scully tossed in for fun.

I've never been one of those people who boxes in the X-Files. 
I like it when the show experiments with its content, style, 
and structure. I don't watch it for aliens or monsters. I 
watch it for the characters - to learn more about them and 
watch them grow. For this reason I enjoyed this look at Scully 
greatly and was thrilled at the opportunity to see her learn 
from mistakes and open her mind further. Anderson starts the 
episode with something we've seen before: Cranky!Scully. 
Cranky at being rushed to do an autopsy for ectoplasmic 
margarita mix, cranky at another crackpot theory, cranky 
that it is Saturday, cranky the she has to schlep over and 
get a chair, cranky at Mulder bopping to music, cranky at 
the slideshow. She (in what I thought was a very funny bit 
between Duchovny and Anderson) goes overboard in fixing and 
eating her salad while Mulder tries to gain her attention. 
She asks with a whiny voice "why don't you ever just stay 
still?" to Mulder and he tells her "I wouldn't know what 
I'd be missing."

Just then fate or an angel or whatever you want to call it 
steps in and shows Scully a man in Daniel who has stood 
tragically still and teaches her by being with Mulder she's 
made the right choices. Fate starts as a nurse with a tapping 
pencil and a "PAY ATTENTION" sign in big red letters behind 
her who hands her the wrong file and we see the same woman 
throughout the episode at critical junctures making sure 
Scully is still paying attention. So she meets a man from 
her past with whom she shared a relationship that ultimately 
caused everyone pain, but who she could have chosen to stay 
with. Leaving the hospital, still not paying attention even 
to stop lights, fate steps in again to save Scully from a 
car crash. This time she notices her and is rewarded with 
a smile. However, the familiar rigid Scully is back as she 
visits Colleen for the first time forming her judgments over 
that which cannot be scientifically categorized. It's a hard 
habit to break even with Colleen talking about paying attention.

When Daniel's health crisis brings her back, Scully takes a 
huge step forward in that she finally starts trusting these 
"feelings" she has had all along. Anyone who has watched the 
show for a length of time knows that Scully is indeed more 
open to things than she thinks. She's amassed quite a catalog 
of visions over the years. Now perhaps she is ready to be 
more open to this phenomena and to the idea that everything 
happens for a reason. I had no trouble with Scully following 
the woman and praying in a Buddhist temple or opening herself 
up to these new ideas simply because there has been a journey 
to this point along the way. It's not like it was her first 
vision. It's not like she hadn't been becoming more open minded 
about things she does not understand.

I thought the idea of the vision was wonderful. Scully is 
clearly awed by the spiritual nature of the place, travels 
through a tunnel of important moments in time and sees a black 
heart beating in Daniel. She has a dream where she leaves her 
comfortable home for the cold room and ends up seeing herself 
as the sick one. Hmm. Someone is trying to tell her something. 
It's a nice idea that when she follows the woman who has led 
her for the final time she unexpectedly finds Mulder. Which 
is where she is supposed to be in her life.

In her attempt to do acting, writing, and directing I think 
that Anderson struggled most with the writing. I thought 
she did a great job of weaving the themes of heart and 
paying attention in throughout. She also had a good ear 
for the dialogue between Mulder and Scully. However, some 
of the parts with Colleen came across as a little too 
textbook, and even though she was just acting her little 
heart out during them I wished there could have been more 
of the fluidity she exhibited as a director in the writing 
of the scenes with Daniel. 

What surprised me most of all in "all things" was the 
directing. I simply never expected something this precise 
from a first effort. I've always been a fan of more stylish 
directing. In using all the resources available to you and 
taking advantage of your medium to support a story. Gillian 
Anderson does this completely. She used inventive shots, 
sound, music, effects, colors, lighting, and texture all 
together to serve the story. I could spend pages talking 
about what I liked in the directing of this episode starting 
with the opening office scene with the slide projector 
clicking away first to a musical beat and in the end to a 
defeated Scully betrayed even by a sandwich falling. I'm 
torn even to decide my favorite shots - the wooden toggle 
tapping in the breeze beating like a metronome, that fabulous 
swirl through the smoky light in the temple, Scully walking 
out the hospital doors holding those bright red flowers, 
the Buddha peering over Colleen's shoulder as she speaks 
to Scully - they were all wonderful.

I thought the use of sound to remind us of the heartbeat 
of the episode gave an effective through line. I'm sure 
I'm missing some, but the beat of the dripping water, music, 
slide projector, pencil, monitors, window toggle, rattling 
wheel, turn signal, ratcheting sprinkler, echoing footsteps, 
and a swaying sign all conspired in the background as the 
episode progressed. Much like Morgan and Wong, who have 
used music effectively in their episodes, she weaves in a 
Moby song and even echoes some of the lyrics in her dialogue. 
Sometimes all the sounds but one would fall out so we could 
concentrate on a chiming triangle even while the busy sounds 
of a hospital surrounded her giving us an auditory example 
of Scully's complete focus.

I found that I really liked the slow motion effect as a 
way of underscoring what Colleen says to Scully about time 
expanding at important moments. I enjoyed the contrasts 
in lighting and color to convey mood. Daniel's hospital 
room was dark and cold and blue. Even the close-ups were 
lit harshly and sometimes unflattering. The room was 
filled with pain, tears, and anger. There was a noticeable 
difference between his room and the happy room one door 
down where we first meet both Colleen and the healer. 
Outside of his room (and especially at Colleen's) the 
colors were warm, rich and bright even when it rained 
outside.

As a director she seemed to bring out the best in those 
working with her as well. Director of Photography Bill Roe 
did some of his best work of the series on this piece 
between capturing the diffused gorgeous lighting of the 
temple or the wind blowing past Scully in slow motion as 
she walks. Corey Kaplan's Art Direction was fabulous in 
capturing the personality and feel of Colleen's home. 
Editor Lynne Willingham worked with Anderson to pull off 
some wonderful cuts. My personal favorite had Scully in 
the warmth and glow of her home cutting seamlessly through 
a lamp to the cold starkness of Daniel's hospital in a 
dream.

My fear is that she might enjoy directing too much because 
I'd hate to lose her as an actress. Truly an inspired 
performance of Scully at a crossroads, she gave us her 
all in the hospital scenes with Daniel. Especially riveting 
was the scene where she discovers that Daniel moved to DC 
for her as a myriad of emotions play across her face. There 
is something in how Gillian Anderson delivers "I want everything 
I should want at this time in my life" that allows multiple 
interpretations of what that might mean, none of which are 
really wrong. Then of course as the medical emergency happens 
we get to see my personal favorite Dr. BossyPants ordering 
nurses around and asking ironically "Who is paying attention?"

I thought David Duchovny was outstanding in his limited 
scenes, giving his all in this episode and playing Mulder 
with a sensitivity I wish we saw all the time. With the 
exception of Stephen Hornyak as Dr. Kopeikan who I found 
too mannered, the guest actors were really standouts. I 
had liked retread Colleen Flynn in "Detour," but I loved 
her even more in this episode as Colleen Azar. Looking 
rather like Geena Davis, she played this role with a 
straightforward openness and honesty that was able to 
crack Scully's rather tough outer shell and get her message 
through. Stacy Haiduk had laser-like eyes as the troubled 
Maggie and I loved the way she simply radiated anger at 
Scully throughout. Nicolas Surovy had the task of playing 
one of those "fathers" in Scully's life still judging her 
by belittling her job or her efforts to save him as "crap" 
and yet arrogant enough to expect her back. He pulls it 
off with equal parts charm and annoying selfishness. I 
have to say the thought of him hanging around in DC for 
ten years waiting for a chance meeting was creepy and sad 
beyond measure. All in all his presence was manipulative, 
as it was no doubt when they first met. Now, she knows 
enough to be sure when she walks away. He's "running from 
the truth." Mulder is running towards it.

So, in one of the nicest scenes in the series, we see 
Mulder and Scully really talking with a comfort we rarely 
witness. Scully talking about visions like it's no big deal 
(which is not lost on Mulder), Mulder starting to wax 
philosophical (I loved Duchovny's "a lot a lot a lot a 
lot" line reading) as she falls asleep. I thought it a 
nice touch that the last time we see the slow motion effect 
used is at an important moment for Mulder in the end as he 
lovingly cares for Scully. Then a UFO bobs, a Buddha smiles, 
and there's the teaser.

The teaser certainly was aptly named. Since Scully has shown 
no known tendencies to be like Seinfeld's George who for some 
reason felt the need to remove his clothes when he used the 
facilities, it seems to me that the X-Files has done what 
some folks have asked for all along.  The "don't show us, 
just let us know it happened" types should be happy with 
this. I don't need to see it either. Personally, all I've 
ever wanted at the end of the series was to know that Mulder 
and Scully were happy, as I don't really give a flying flip 
about the aliens anyway. This episode seems to indicate that 
in the end they are. 

All in all, I loved all things about this episode. And I 
certainly appreciated the obvious effort that went into it 
as a gift from Gillian to those who love Scully. 
Thank you Ms. Anderson.

Random Musings
-----------------------
-Perhaps someone can explain to me why in the world this 
episode had a violence tag on it under the PG rating. It 
was in my memory the only X-Files episode ever with 
absolutely no violence of any kind. Unless you count the 
way Scully was stabbing at her salad. 

-It's official. Scully just expects people to break into 
her apartment so she's decided little things like shutting 
windows just delay the inevitable. 

-I was delighted to see that Mulder even does that pencil 
in the ceiling thing at home. Check out the ceiling during 
the scene where the television tells us "you're breaking 
my heart" - which was another example of nothing in the 
episode being left to chance.

-OK, the visual of Scully hiding in the hallway behind a 
copy of "Feng Shui Life" was just too funny. To bad Melissa 
is no longer around to see and enjoy this one.

-Speaking of Melissa, one of the things I found interesting 
was that the healer in this episode was doing to Daniel 
essentially the same thing we saw Melissa doing to Scully 
in "One Breath."  As we know that Scully was present in a 
way, that she could hear what was going on - I bought her 
willingness to try this technique as part of her attempt 
to open her mind up.

-Frank's Fashion Spot: goes to the lovely ensemble Scully 
was wearing at the end. With the green sweater and long 
skirt she looked classy again. No ill fitting blouses in 
this one, thank God. And I'm also thankful she decided not 
to wear the push-up bra to bed. Think Gillian had any say 
in the costuming in this episode as well? Also, while I 
thought Mulder looked good in this one, after seeing him 
in that jacket I was concerned that he might go through 
his own unfortunate beige period. Lets hope not. It is 
not his color.

-Seeing that heart chakra apparently really freaked Scully 
out as she practically screamed "hello" into her cellphone 
when it rang.

-As fascinating as I found Colleen and Carol's home and 
artist workshop, I just couldn't get past thinking it was 
also a huge fire hazard with all those candles lit up 
everywhere. 

-Huge kudos to Gillian Anderson for doing something seen 
so rarely on network television: treating a gay relationship 
not with a fanfare or brouhaha, but just as another part of 
life.

-Well, it seems we have sealed the spiritual nature of 
Scully. All gods talk to her. Doesn't matter if they are 
African spirit men, Indian spirits, the Christian God or 
Buddha. She's got a hotline.

-In what must have been her way of getting back just a 
little Gillian could not resist making Mulder wrong on 
both "X-Files" in this episode. The crop circles were a 
"waste of time" and the initial mystery more of a Jose 
Cuervo Project than a Blair Witch.

- Unlike the "did they or didn't they" crisis in "Never 
Again" there was not even a pantyhose issue this time 
around. Scully is wearing them on the couch and she's not 
wearing them as she zips up her skirt. I suppose if you 
really think Scully undresses and redresses in Mulder's 
bathroom with an open door while thinking about the 
important paths one follows in life, you could still 
feel they did not sleep together. She must have been 
talking about choices between toothpaste instead...

Autumn
"I didn't say that God spoke back, I said I had some 
kind of a vision."