"In the end a man finally looks at the sum of his life to 
see what he'll leave behind. Most of what I worked to build 
is in ruins."

You almost have to wonder if this was William B. Davis' reason 
for writing this episode of the X-Files. The desire to pick up 
the pieces that the mythology has been left in, to cut out some 
of the maddening ambiguity of his character, and try to leave 
behind a little more than ruins in the end. In doing so he does 
the show a service and he proves himself to be a writer that 
actually cares about character motivation and continuity. Most 
of the mytharc may have been stripped away,  scooped out, burnt, 
ruined, and walk-in'd all over, but at least the power of Scully's 
experience with the chip remains and so it is that he focuses on.

Sure, in some ways you could say this script is a selfish one. 
A case of an actor having to write resolution for his character 
himself, but he also proves that he understands the other 
characters as well. One would actually think he's been paying 
attention all these years. Davis has often joked about wanting 
to work with Gillian Anderson, so he crafts a tale of seduction 
in which he can. He's mentioned in interviews that he pulls from 
the wonderful scene in Shakespeare's "Richard III" where Richard 
tries to convince Lady Anne that he is more than a "lump of foul 
deformity." Richard eventually says enough of the right things 
to temper her anger, gain her wary trust, and even marry her.

So, how do you go about seducing Scully to do your bidding? The 
art of seduction and manipulation is interesting in this one and 
quite different from the way one approaches Mulder to divide and 
conquer. In Mulder's case for years all you had to do was whisper 
something about his sister in his ear and he was off, but to get 
to Scully you have to appeal to the unselfish part of her to get 
her to go along. You start with a miracle cure for a child that 
involves the same technology trapped in her body for better or 
worse. You say you're just a dying man who wants to help. You 
even try to get points for treating Scully like a player rather 
than a smudge and saying "I'm tired of Mulder's mule-headedness." 
However, he hits the nail on the head by using the fact that she 
is a "doctor and a woman of compassion" and letting her know she 
could save people. This is the only reason that despite feeling 
anger and defiance, despite saying "you think I'm fooled by this," 
despite standing when asked to "please sit," despite walking away 
several times, she always comes back. It is because the risk is 
too great not to. The offer has too many implications - she could 
use this power for good, to help, and it is just the right button 
to push with her.

From a character perspective with Scully it is also important 
to note her complete lack of denial for a change when faced with 
a cure for all human disease that is extraterrestrial. It really 
appears as if they are allowing her to not backtrack anymore. 
Thank God. Also I like the way that Scully plays a pivotal role 
for them in getting the information from their leak. She asks 
what her importance is, but it is obvious. She is the right person, 
someone who can be trusted with the information. The right hands 
to deliver a cure into.

So, what really was CancerMan's motivation here? I think that 
while yes, he was obviously using Scully, there was a lot more 
truth in there than he would have liked. Scully as a partner 
would have been a fabulous way to become a "respectable person". 
After all she is Mulder's human credential. There is truth in 
the fact that he has destroyed a lot of things, even those 
precious to him. He's long tried to cobble together some odd 
family with Mulder, but it appears that his little father-son 
brain surgery experiment did not even work. Scully is right 
to question about what he expects to receive, because I don't 
really think it is her trust he is truly after. He'd like the 
whole package. CancerMan appears to really be smitten with 
Scully. He makes a show out of tossing out cigarettes and 
switching to LifeSavers (nice touch), he admits to a "particular 
affection" that he quickly backtracks on as honorable when she 
gives him a look, and he offers her power of life and death. I 
think knowing that she has complex issues with male authority 
figures he thought he'd make a play. There's the romantic cabin, 
gift of the dress, calling her Dana, flirting with her by 
offering her the "holiest of grails," and the sincerity that 
Scully recognized as the truth when he said he was a lonely 
man. He thinks he's on a date. He was, as Scully notes "longing 
for something more than power" - something in a black dress. 
I really believe he wanted to make Scully his Queen much as 
Richard eventually wooed Anne. 

I thought the acting was great all around in this one. I 
especially enjoyed the scenes between Davis and Anderson as 
they dance around their uneasy alliance. The scene where 
CancerMan pulls the not that far off "pop psychology" on her 
and delves into the "powerful men" (read: "Fathers" a la 
"Never Again") territory and her relationship with Mulder 
was very well done - fearless devotion and a life alone. 
Davis shows his character's weakness as he snaps at his 
henchmen to do his job when he is reminded "Scully won't 
stick around forever."  The last scene between Anderson 
and Davis is priceless. She is clearly disgusted with him 
and leaving now that she has the disk, and his dream is 
deflated as he whispers "go" after sparing her life again. 
Duchovny has fun with his limited role as he just can't get 
over the fact that Scully would do something like this without 
telling him. I mean she ditched him. She's not supposed to do 
that. Ditching is his department. I especially liked the way 
he kept trying to get the phone from Skinner when she was on 
the line.

I think what I liked most about this episode was that, for 
the first time in a long time I had fun thinking about an 
hour of the X-Files. It seemed to mean something. It had 
continuity and emotional connections. It had motivations to 
guess and analyze. Yes, I will admit I felt a little let down 
by the end - I take it we are to see CancerMan in his lonely 
life succeeding at getting the disk, but failing at wooing 
Scully deciding to toss his cure aside rather than extending 
a life alone. I knew Scully could not end up with the CD of 
everlasting life, but I wish they'd have found a tighter 
resolution to the plot. Still, that's my only real complaint 
about this entertaining and interesting hour. I'll take this 
look at CancerMan over "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" 
and the tale of a failed writer any day.

Random Musings
-----------------------
-Since they've killed off most every other consortium guy 
they brought back the "Black-Haired Man" (whose hair has 
always been gray) to kill. You may remember him as an all 
purpose thug following Mulder around in the movie or from 
"The End." As a side note fun fact this character was 
originally slated to die in "The Beginning" but instead 
some other consortium throw down bad guy got lizard aliened 
to death.

-I thought it a bit odd to see such a raging fire next to 
the sleeping child at two in the morning. Maybe they were 
trying to see if they could sweat the cancer right out of 
him.

-I guess we can be thankful for the recent spate of bad 
weather in the Los Angeles area as not only did we finally 
get an episode that was not set somewhere in California, but 
we actually got a little rain and mud for a change complete 
with overcast skies.

-Bad Liar Scully: This one was full of that particular 
endearing trait from her unconvincing message to Mulder to 
that very conspicuous attempt at mailing a letter 
inconspicuously to, my favorite, the pitiful excuses she was 
offering up when the security guards started questioning her 
in the building. Plus there was her need to constantly check 
her wiring, which brings us to...

-Frank's Fashion Spot: So there we see Scully, her blouse 
unbuttoned in that new season 7 way when all of a sudden 
the camera becomes a cleavage!cam just so the audience can 
get a close up of Gillian's chest. Oh, and so we could 
realize Scully's underwire was wired before she proves to 
us she does indeed know how to button a blouse. I have two 
suggestions for Scully: tape that thing down so you don't 
have to spend half the episode digging around in your bra 
in front of an old letch, and in this case perhaps the 
trademark black bra would have actually concealed the 
microphone better.

-Just when do things get going at the FBI in the morning? 
Scully is just leaving her house at 8:50? Must be nice to 
traipse out of the house at that hour and not even have to 
worry about carrying a briefcase or a laptop to the office 
(unless those things are hidden in her magical pockets 
along with all the things every other woman carries in a 
purse).

-I did enjoy the Roma Downey/ Della Reese joke, but judging 
from the cure it sounds like it might have been an episode 
of "Pinched By an Angel."

-Speaking of the pinch, I guess Scully is really lucky that 
she's always sported a rather petite, well hidden scar. Both 
the boy and Marjorie looked like they'd been ripped into with 
a staple remover.

-Our Little Sailor was busy this episode: "What the hell are 
you doing?", "What the hell is this?"

-I love the way CancerMan keeps implying that he somehow saved 
Scully himself - I guess he's trying to convince her that he 
let Mulder steal that chip for her since she has no other way 
of knowing he watched Mulder leave the building and he wants 
the credit.

-Nice touch: Those pencils still poked in the ceiling above 
Mulder's desk.

-Wow, even CancerMan has a nameplate on his door. Maybe that's 
the reason she was so pissed off when she entered his office.

-Kudos to the set dressers and Director of Photography for that 
office as it fit the character perfect. Dark, diffused lighting, 
dark wood and leather, smoky glass, and even the artwork is dark. 
Plus, I loved the fact that in his office there is an ashtray 
thoughtfully placed between the two visitor chairs.

-Frank's Fashion Spot II: Yes, I'm going to talk about the 
little black dress. So, I'm predictable. Deal with it. Pity 
we've had to wait this long to see Scully look so fabulous. 
Though I do think part of it was a deliberate challenge by 
CancerMan for her to just try to find a place to hide that 
microphone in there.

-Scully needs a little practice at Agent school on recognizing 
a tailing car if goon boy was that close behind them all the 
time and she did not notice.

-It's the little things that count department: The goofy 
smile on C.G.B.'s face when he says "This is Dana Scully, 
she's a very good friend of mine" and the look Scully shoots 
him at that.

-I can appreciate the fact that Marjorie really, really likes 
planting flowers, but perhaps her good buddy can bring her buy 
some more planters so she doesn't have to use old toilet bowls 
on her porch to hold them.

-So Scully's mother doesn't know anything about a family 
emergency. Would it have killed them to have let us see her 
say that? We miss Ma Scully.

-Why doesn't Mulder have a key to Scully's apartment? Did 
he just forget because he's so used to just banging the door 
open? What about those handy lock picks?

-If they just needed an exposition scene between Mulder and 
the Super, he could have spied Mulder letting himself in or 
something. I must admit I got quite the chuckle out of the 
exchange. Something tells me Mulder's neighbors don't go 
around saying he's a great guy or that they feel safer with 
him there. The whole "Do you know how many people have died 
in there" / "Oh we don't really talk about that" was hilarious.

-I guess the Super had seen Smoky there before during one of 
his many break ins to her apartment where he forged email or 
just hung out going through her drawers or moving her 
refrigerator. 

-What exactly was with that email? It's the only kind I've 
ever seen that comes from an "ftp server" and doesn't have 
a date stamp.

-I know Scully can sleep almost anywhere, but even I was 
having a hard time buying that she would be so knocked out 
that she wouldn't even realize that she was being stroked 
(what was up with the leather glove thing - just to make us 
think he was going to be menacing?), carried, and undressed. 
True, if you do the math Scully is actually up for about 41 
straight hours, but would she really be delirious at that 
point?

-Mulder does not like the shoe on the other foot at all. 
He hates being ditched, even though Scully tried to calm 
his fears from the start and even attempted to communicate 
with him by talking to her breasts. The way he was so pissed 
off at her at the end he could hardly look at her you'd think 
she'd done something like crawled out of a window to have 
holes drilled in her head by stealing his car and leaving 
him with her cranky mother or something...

-Frank's Fashion Spot III: How thoughtful was that CancerDude? 
Here he politely dressed Scully in her silk jammies and he 
even left her bra on to sleep in just the way she likes it. 
Hey, at least I'm not complaining about helmet hair or anything. 
It's growing out finally and they even gave Scully cute bed 
head when she woke up.

-So Cobra tells Scully "you're just as you described yourself, 
certainly more so last night at dinner." Just exactly what 
kind of messages was he being sent from fake Scully? "Hi Cobra, 
I can guess why you picked a snake as your code name! I'm Dana, 
a sexy redheaded Agent with a heart of gold and a recent 
propensity for really tight clothes. Will you hand over the 
secrets of the universe to me?"

-Frank's Fashion Spot IV: The masters of disguise are such 
masters all they can think to do is copy each other. Langly 
dressed as Frohike down to the fingerless gloves, Frohike 
does a Byers with bad hair, and Byers uses some of that gel 
they uses to slather all over Scully's head to get his 'do 
in his Langly rocker impression.

Autumn
"How the hell did I get out of my clothes and into bed?"