"I'm trying not to take offense."

I had high hopes for this episode, but I've come to the 
conclusion that the X-Files should get out of the sequel 
game. They just don't know how to do it right anymore, 
especially when it comes to great episodes. It worked the 
first time with "Tooms," failed miserably the next with 
"Kitsunegari" and while "Orison" was significantly better 
than that, it still paled to "Irresistible." 

There are things I liked about "Orison", but it never 
felt fully realized, despite a strong fourth act. I have 
to suspect that there were more hands in this script than 
former "Millennium" writer Chip Johannessen's because this 
had all the feel of two episodes forced together because 
someone really wanted to bring back Donnie Pfaster, and 
thus neither idea was given its full due. First we had the 
story of Orison, the trepanning ex-con priest with amazing 
hypnotic skills which was left half told so we could bring 
in Donnie Pfaster to tell us Scully is "all I think about." 
However, instead of really revisiting the internal conflict 
this character caused for Scully (a la that fabulous EAP 
scene in "Irresistible") and either showing us how she's 
dealt with it or hasn't we have her cocking her newly coifed 
head repeatedly to listen to some R&B tune. That, and going 
through the same old, same old debate about God with Mulder 
(who continues to be his usual mocking self about such things). 

Actually, considering the situation, it seems until the end 
Scully had done a pretty admirable job of dealing with Pfaster. 
When she tells Mulder at the start that "this case doesn't 
bother me" it's not the same, laughable level of lie as her 
"Irresistible" statements of "I'm fine". She does seem to 
have steeled herself to "get to work" on this case because 
she believes it is important that Pfaster is caught. Well, 
that is until the end when both Mulder and Scully, despite 
their knowledge of the perp suddenly decide since Orison is 
dead it is not their problem anymore and it's time to go home 
and catch a nap.

We have to wait until the very end for Scully to deal with 
Pfaster, and the answer they came up with, while certainly 
dramatic, has serious and not very nice ramifications for 
the character. Yes, wasn't it something to see that wonderfully 
constructed fight sequence in which the diminutive Scully rails 
against her attacker. Yes, wasn't it nice to see her struggle 
to and successfully escape her confines and find her gun. Yes, 
wasn't it nice to see that even though Mulder arrived he was 
not there to save her. I only wish, for once, she'd taken his 
advice as we see him yelling in slow motion "don't shoot!" 
Dramatic? Damn yes. Scary in intensity. Stunning. And wrong. 
So now the same Dana Scully who believes in the sanctity of 
life so much that she argued for Pfaster to have a life 
sentence instead of the death penalty, the same Dana Scully 
who was pissed at Mulder for *punching* a child murderer in 
custody, the same Dana Scully who shot Mulder to prevent him 
from killing a murderer, the same Dana Scully who in "Tunguska" 
railed against "men who have no respect for the law and who 
flout it with impunity" did a bad bad thing. We can argue all 
we want about state of mind, about Pfaster being evil, how 
she was not in control of her own actions, but those are the 
things that are to be argued in a court of law. And they won't 
be. And that is where the real crime occurs, when a Dana Scully 
who *is* herself and fully understands what she did ("but the 
law doesn't") goes along with Mulder to cover up her crime. 
The writer (or writers) of this episode backed themselves into 
a corner to which cover up was the only real answer. In doing 
so they made Dana Scully into every other TV cop we've seen 
over the years. I know for the sake of television we can't 
just have them trotting Scully off for a lengthy trial and 
possible jail time after being tossed out of the Bureau for 
what she did. However, the real crime is, knowing what we do 
about how things work on this show, that it is highly unlikely 
that it will ever even be addressed again. Closed case. Oopsie 
about that whole murder thing. Now where are those pesky 
magicians?

There were good things about this episode. I did like the 
whole clock reading "6:66" concept. Surprisingly, out of 
all the things that bothered me, the demon morph did not. 
I found that consistent with "Irresistible" in that people 
saw the evil in Donnie. It stunned Scully into not shooting 
in "Irresistible" and obviously stunned Orison enough for 
Donnie to attack here. Scott Wilson as Orison was good, but 
underused. Nick Chinlund's Pfaster was as creepy as ever. As 
I mentioned, I thought the fourth act was wonderfully done 
from a technical perspective. The editing, directing, music, 
and slow motion moments made for very exciting television. 
Even if we never found out really what the heck that song or 
all the spiritual mumbo jumbo meant for Scully, Gillian 
Anderson did a nice job with Scully revisiting the faith 
puzzle. Though one would think after the season opening two 
parter it would be even more puzzling, but since they were 
having to shove two episodes into one there was no time to 
cover that ground. Despite the troubling nature of the ending, 
the acting cannot be faulted. From the look of terror as she 
struggled on the floor to the shooting sequence Gillian Anderson 
was chilling. She shows us a Scully clearly troubled with her 
actions in the end. Pity she's not troubled enough to do the 
right thing.

I can appreciate the dramatic intensity of this episode. I was 
on the edge of my seat for the fourth act. The entire episode 
held my interest. I always enjoy seeing Scully struggle some 
with her faith or trying to understand how she is supposed to 
act on it and trying to listen when He is speaking. I don't 
expect her to be perfect, but I do expect her to do the right 
thing. In "Irresistible" we explored Scully's fears for the 
first time and it gave wonderful character insight and made 
for powerful television. In "Orison" they assassinated a piece 
of that character that "Irresistible" created. Powerful 
television again, but was it worth the price?

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

-Retread Alert: Steve Rankin who played Marshall Daddo 
played a Dallas area FBI Agent in the movie. He's the one 
who brought them the bones when they flew back to Dallas.

-Whoever was responsible for painting those walls with 
biblical sayings and the like had some serious spelling 
issues. My favorites were the "t" faded out so it said "Rust 
in the Lord" and the ode to Cake "Sheep go to heven. Goats 
go to hell." One really should learn to spell heaven before 
writing it on the wall of the chapel.

-The cut off fingers effect in the teaser was very gruesome. 
Especially considering how slow that blade was moving you 
know he would have had to really work at it to cut off all 
ten. I imagine this hallucination was an intentional mimic 
of what Pfaster does to women.

-I did like the way that the end of the teaser paralleled 
"Irresistible" in that it had Pfaster walking directly into 
the camera with a malevolent look on his face.

-I find it curious why they choose to put Scully's Bible at 
the foot of her bed rather than on a nightstand. It just 
seemed odd unless it was there simply for the planned camera 
shot.

-And why do Scully's lights come on with the power? Had it 
been off all night long or does she just sleep with the 
lights on these days?

-I'm really starting to hate the X-Files hairdressers. First 
we have to deal with Mulder's annual weedwack, and then after 
finally liberating Scully from the evil that was season six 
flat hair they chop it all off just when it was looking really 
good. Someone take the scissors away from these people now.

-How can Mulder know Pfaster escaped at 6:06 if no one 
remembers anything and they didn't even know he was missing 
for a while? Plus, this is a maximum security prison? Did 
they put the whammy on the whole prison at once? Shouldn't 
their be guards watching cameras or multiple gates, etc?

-Yet another case of the fabulous Mulder leap when inspiration 
suddenly tells him to move his arm up and down to solicit the 
"glory, amen." Maybe he's so smart because of all that blood 
rushing to his brain after the holes he drilled in his head. 
It's no wonder he's such an expert on the subject after "Demons."

-Stupidity quiz: a creepy looking guy tells you he just got 
out of prison and wants to give you a manicure do you a) get 
the hell out of there or b) convince yourself he must be 
kidding because people always joke about prison to pick up 
girls and think "hey, let me get in your car!"

-I guess after seeing it at the super's apartment in "Agua 
Mala" Scully decided that a phone next to the toilet was the 
way to go and had one installed pronto.

-Well, I don't think I will recover soon from having to 
witness "pure evil" packing his lunch and prancing around 
an apartment wearing only tighty whiteys and blue slippers.

-Does Rev. Orison just keep a carton of milk in the corner 
of his bathroom under the sink or did Donnie bring that in 
for his snack?

-Frank's Fashion Spot: Despite the too short reappearance 
of the black mock turtleneck and actually having Scully 
also briefly wear a skirt this episode we must focus instead 
on Scully sleepwear. In a psychic moment, Scully decides to 
eschew her usual bedtime favorites of the silk jammies and 
matching push up bra for something a little more suited to 
crawling around in the rubble of your bedroom. This week's 
sleepwear was a nice little gray pinstripe flannel combination, 
and since Scully apparently doesn't own a matching gray 
pinstripe flannel push up bra she actually wore her jammies 
the way most women do. Complete with scary slippers. Someday 
she may even go to bed again without make up on.

-Speaking of the sleepwear, Mulder and Scully seem to be 
headed to bed in the middle of the day or those streetlights 
outside the apartments are extra bright. Despite the fact 
Mulder's clock reads 10:06, a significant amount of light 
comes through Scully's window during the whole fourth act.

-Apparently Scully is the queen of the candle party circuit. 
We always knew she liked candles, but my God I never suspected 
she had a closet full.

-Interesting bit of Scully past in learning of the Sunday 
school murder. I imagine this even had something to do with 
her future career choice.

-One of the little things I have always found amusing is 
that I don't think we have ever heard the same answering 
machine message twice at Mulder's and it is always a 
straight-forward boring message. Why in the world does 
he keep rerecording it?

-When Pfaster is drawing Scully a bath we see steam rising 
from it. Hmm, I thought he liked his girls cold...

Autumn
"Well nobody can stop the world Mulder, I don't care how many 
holes they have drilled into their head."