"That's a long way to go for a hoax."
"If you're gonna go, why not go all the way?"

It sure was a long way to go. "Believe the lie"? No thank you
Mr. Carter, I'm just not that gullible. I prefer "The truth is
out there" even though right now the truth is we've been given
a cliffhanger, that while an interesting ride with some truly
wonderful moments, was rendered impotent by its insinuation
that we actually worry that Mulder may be dead. Please. They
even used the rather cheap ploy of not allowing us to see the 
body that Scully identifies. You know what the cliffhanger is 
for me? Wondering how Chris Carter can possibly resolve this 
next season without insulting our intelligence. If you ask me 
it is Carter in the boxcar this summer - he's going to have to 
be a lot more clever in the season premiere next year than he 
was in this finale. My frustration with this episode stems
from the fact that it had the potential to be great. It was 
as if all these wonderfully written little scenes tied together
by the ideas of faith and belief were callously dismissed by an
impossible to swallow overlying theme.

What worked for me here were the potent emotional cliffhangers
and keeping the focus on these instead of the obvious boring 
one would have made this episode much more successful. We all 
know Mulder isn't dead so all we need to figure out is who 
perpetrated that hoax. As appealing as the idea is, I'm never 
going to buy that Mulder and Scully are in on it together for 
the simple and true reason that while Gillian Anderson once 
again proved tonight she is without compare as an actress we 
all know that Dana Scully is a *terrible* liar. Unless she's 
been taking acting lessons on the sly, she believes Mulder is 
dead. If Carter intends on making Scully a party to this then 
they gave Gillian Anderson the wrong direction for this episode.
So that leaves either Mulder faking his own suicide (who would 
have to have a throw down Faux Mulder body good enough to fool 
Scully stashed away for such a purpose) or someone else faking 
Mulder's death - which is confusing to me as well. I'm sorry, 
but I just don't understand anymore why the hell Fox Mulder is 
so damn important to stage such a huge, intricate, and murder 
filled hoax. It is, I believe, firmly established that the 
Yukon E.B.E. is a fake - beyond that who knows. If the greater 
hoax is on Scully why in the world would they go to these
lengths to try to fool her? They've made it clear that the poor
girl is now on death's door (no matter how lovely she continues
to look) - it won't matter what the heck she believes or doesn't
believe soon.

Speaking of the cancer, that is another corner that Mr. Carter
has painted himself into. I read so many interviews this week
talking about how there would be no miracle cure - that it would
not be trivialized, but that is going to be close to impossible
to pull off now that they have moved the cancer to a point where
is has spread throughout her body. They do an excellent job of
continuing to handle the emotional impacts of the cancer though.
The tension in the Scully family was wonderfully rich, and our
first glimpse of one of Scully's brothers (complete with naval
uniform as expected) provided us with what was, in my opinion,
one of the finest scenes in the history of this series. That
confrontation where Scully claims her cancer is too personal to
share with her own family members (what is that?) because she
doesn't want sympathy was breathtaking. Pat Skipper as the
ScullyBrother is a welcome addition to the family as far as I'm
concerned. He asks the questions that we want answered: "What
are you doing at work?", "What are you trying to prove?", and
"Where is he Dana?".  Poor Scully doesn't really have any good
answers here. This scene alone should nail the Emmy for Ms.
Anderson.

As for the much speculated "betrayal" by Scully I certainly
didn't see it. Her report to the committee, while certainly
filled with confident and strong statements, was post mortem 
(yeah right) and her version of the truth or lie or believed
lie or whatever. Before then, despite her understandably
fatalistic attitude given the news she has received ("I have
no opinion actually"), she was still working with Mulder,
leaving a family gathering because he asked (perhaps because
it gives her a way to escape that uncomfortable discussion of
her faith). If there was a betrayal here it was Mulder's suicide,
hoax or not, which frankly is the penultimate ditch from the man
who has perfected it - not only does it allow Scully to think he
is dead, but in what we are led to believe are the last few
weeks of her life allows her to believe she was partially
responsible.

One thing I have grown quite weary of over the years on the
X-Files is the constant need the writers feel to level set
Scully back to square one. It just isn't realistic any more.
This isn't that same fresh faced character that Blevins first
assigned to the X-Files - she has been allowed to see and
experience fantastic things despite her "analytical perspective"
through the lens of science. It is OK to allow her to grow and
become slightly less skeptical (this is what made her admission
to congress so powerful in "Terma"), but instead we are thrown
back to black and white - it has to be all or nothing - the
total "illegitimacy" of Agent Mulder's work - she is allowed
to forget morphing bounty hunters, green blooded clones, and
the like just so the writers can feel they have Skeptical!Scully
back. For me this made her report to the committee lack some
punch. No matter what you think about aliens, there is no way
that you can brand all of Mulder & Scully's work for the last
four years a lie.

Director Bob Goodwin has always had a flair for the panoramic
and "Gethsemane" was no exception. The mountain vistas that
Tundra!Mulder trod through were breathtaking. He also gave us
a wonderful view of one of Gillian Anderson's very best
performances from the exciting Action!Scully where her ballsy
behavior in barking out orders and running full tilt in those
heels makes her far surpass her diminutive size to her fear of
weakness even in the face of death with the priest to her
breakdown in the end - her face a series of small tremors.
There was also that beautiful fade at the end from Mulder's
tear streaked face to Scully on the verge of tears. What a
happy ending to this one. Both our heroes crying in the end.

David Duchovny, while I felt he had some fine moments here, 
left me confused at times. Even though the confrontation scenes
between the partners worked wonderfully, and for once he didn't
have that scrunched up face when he cried, I was mystified at
the lack of excitement he brought to the alien discovery/autopsy.
He asserts strongly that he believes it to be real but I just
didn't get that during the scene. I kept flashing back on a
Mulder barely able to contain himself in the pilot episode over
another body. This one looked like it was putting him to sleep.


Random Musings
-------------------------

-Retreads: Ostelhoff was last scene as Mr. Kiveat in "DPO",
and Arlinsky was Surnow in "Roland".

-What a let down after seeing Sheila Larken but once this
season previously to have her spend her brief time this episode
lighting candles. (You can tell where Scully gets her fondness
for candles as the Scully house was a virtual fire hazard of
burning wicks!) Ms. Larken, as usual, makes the most of her
limited screen time exchanging a wonderful look with Scully
during the conversation with the priest.

-Where in the heck was Skinner at this big brass meeting? Off
cleaning another bathroom? Blevins is only still a Section
Chief. I also must admit I missed that sour faced OPC woman
who never speaks, It just doesn't seem right when she isn't
there.

-Well, Mrs. Scully certainly isn't hurting for money - she must
have got a heck of a life insurance settlement after the captain
died because that dinner party was flawless - complete with
expensive floral arrangements and maid.

-Casual!Scully really is in a fashion rut. She just can't seem
to break out of that button up long sleeved sweater model.
While they do look great on her she really needs to expand her
wardrobe.

-When we enter the party Scully is relating a story about
brother Bill taking a tumble down the stairs - apparently
this runs in the family. Speaking of that tumble Scully took -
OUCH! It looked bad (and Gillian Anderson had the perfect look
on her face as she lost her balance), but enough to make her
back bleed like that?

-Those who long for Scully skin got a quick flash of her bra
while she put her shirt back on. 

-I find it amusing that while Scully never laughs at Mulder's
clever jokes Dana laughs at even bad ones told by family
members.

-The closest we get to a date stamp here is the April 97 stamp
we see during the computer search on Michael Kritschgau.

-Why in the world didn't Mulder call Scully to witness the
alien autopsy? That seemed like a huge hole to me. She said
she wouldn't go with him to the Yukon not that she wouldn't
look at whatever he brought back. You would have thought if
he really wanted to prove it was real he'd trust Scully to do
that - if he could convince her he could convince anyone.

-The Action!Scully sequence was the first time I can remember
her holster hanging out like that - it's huge! How in the heck
does she keep that thing hidden under those tailored suits?

Autumn
"I have strength, and I'm not going to come running back now -
it's not who I am - I'd be lying to myself and to you."