"I see now the value of such insight. For truly to pursue monsters 
we must understand them. We must venture into their minds. Only 
in doing so we risk letting them venture into ours."

In last week's "Teliko" we had a weak conglomeration of old 
X-Files ideas and episodes. This one really made it look bad 
in comparison. Yes, Vince Gilligan shows us, there are still new 
ideas to pursue in X-Files Monster of the Week episodes. When 
they are well done the audience will more than forgive a somewhat 
standard formula. Sure, Scully is abducted for what? The sixth 
time? And yet, he never seems to let her become the stereotypical 
victim during her reacquaintance with duct tape. When she 
wanders alone into the construction site because Mulder has run 
off on her - despite the fact that she has the best lead - she does 
not fall victim. Instead she calmly hangs up on Mulder (which I 
must admit I loved) and confronts and arrests the towering Goliath. 
Even though I knew that Mulder was going to pull a photo of Scully 
out of that photomat booth the moment still worked. The episode 
contained enough twists that I easily forgave any indiscretions. It 
was moody and, more importantly, used the characters in an 
integral way to the story.

Scully literally and figuratively drives this episode, and gives the 
talented Gillian Anderson another chance to let us glimpse at 
Scully's soul. I was quite interested in the whole effect of these 
events on Scully's psyche. "I have no unrest!" she yells at Gerry 
in German, but we can easily recognize this as another great Scully 
lie. Oh Dana, you've got oodles of unrest, and the audience isn't 
the only one who can see it. You've been chasing the monsters too 
long now and it is taking its toll. The moment in the interrogation 
where Gerry (wonderfully played by Pruitt Vince) who has been 
literally shifty eyed and nervous suddenly fixes on her with 
realization and states "You look troubled" engaging Scully in an 
oddly hypnotic stare down was chilling. This episode proves an 
interesting counterpoint to last season's "Grotesque" - Mulder's 
embracing of the killer's mind versus Scully's angry disinterest. 
She is clearly bothered by this case - visibly wincing at every 
description of the use of the ice pick - and yet wants to dig no 
further. The juxtaposition of a pondering Mulder still trying to 
get to the bottom of unruhe, howlers, and the photos after 
finding the second victim versus Scully's "What the hell does it 
matter?" says it all. She doesn't want to go there.

And yet, she has to. You've got to know that abductions of 
women and the fact that she once again falls victim must shake 
her to the core. Her denial of her own fears has always been a 
driving character point with Scully. These emotional layers take 
this well beyond just another "Scully in Jeopardy" type episode.
We see the terror in her eyes as she realizes the situation and 
tries desperately to escape, and yet with Gerry she calmly 
prolongs her life by talking with him and empathizing with him 
about his pain and guilt concerning his family tragedy. This 
allows Scully to buy Mulder time and instead of becoming 
another flannel nightgown wearing sister substitute that he 
can "save" she is spared. Perhaps it was the end that struck 
me the hardest, as we move from a shaken and quiet Scully 
escaping her confines to what may be one of the saddest 
and most effective voice over moments on the show - a clearly 
depressed Scully, hair mussed, and glasses slightly askew 
typing in the dark about her encounter.

The X-File itself - the "Thought-O-Graphs" was an interesting 
twist, though it did lead to some downright superhuman logical 
leaps in Mulder's mental process. From gazing at a surrealistic 
photo the amazing Mulder can get that the killer looms and 
means to pass judgement like a God. Then, even more incredibly, 
links six fingers to tombstones. They don't call him "Spooky" 
for nothing. The actual process of what was creating them - 
Gerry's nightmares - or a glimpse into the future was left a 
bit up in the air.

Some great visuals in this episode from director Rob Bowman. 
The photos themselves were very artistic - even the shocking 
death of the officer was stunningly done. The stilt-legged 
chase scene was a unique twist, and the stark dark trailer 
with the dentist chair eerie.

This episode may have had one of the more amusing SRE (Scully 
Rational Explanation) moments that I can remember. We had Scully 
spouting off one of her more ridiculous theories about heat and 
expired film that by the end even she knows is stupid with Mulder 
giving her just enough rope to hang herself on it. Quite funny 
to see her just stop in mid stride as she hears herself. Actually, 
their interplay of ideas was quite comical on the whole as she 
tries to figure out where he is going and then he tries to hedge 
the argument he knows is coming with "What if ... what if". They 
know how the game goes now and seem to be trying to find new ways 
to amuse themselves with it.

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

-Retread Alert. Officer Trott was a Doctor in "Fallen Angel".

-The date stamp on Scully's report matches the original air 
date for this episode: October 11, 1996.

-Initially I thought to express my incredulity at Scully's 
ability to still speak and understand German when after 4 
A-student years of spanish I can only seem to remember "Juan 
es un muchacho", but then I remembered my brain is walnut size 
compared to Scully. Heck, I bet she even rents "Das Boot" every 
so often and just plays it as background to keep up on the 
language.

-I really liked the scene during the PET scan with that 
otherworldly sounding "unruhe ... unruhe" coming over the 
speaker as they discovered the failed transorbital lobotomy.

-Apparently they are tired of the "Scully never gets to drive" 
whining as it appears to be equal opportunity thus far this 
year.

-Is it just me or do our heroes seem a bit trigger happy 
this season? They're shooting these folks left and right 
so far.

-Didn't you love the way Scully managed to draw her gun 
before entering "twilite sleep" so very artfully arranged.

-Another great guilt-o-graph for the Mulder scrapbook. 
He can put this lovely photo of Scully next to that trunk 
shot he has. 

Autumn
"Your film is out of date." "Is that against the law?"