"It's been taken care of. The details are unimportant."
"Details are everything."

I have those mythology blues. You know the symptoms - you've 
watched something that you know thinks it is important, but you 
can't help but wonder what details really are important and what 
were thrown in just because it seemed cool at the time. Sometimes, 
as we are told by the CSM, "a man digs a hole - he risks falling 
into it." I always wonder what will be important and what is just 
in there to make my head warm. I wondered that after "Herrenvolk", 
but now the bees are back in town. This episode felt to me like 
they wanted to say *something* about the mythology, but not too 
much of course - can't have that. With the dynamic duo pretty 
much out of the picture (Mitch Pileggi's also starring credit 
could have read "Only Starring") we were subject to a bit too 
much padding and not enough meat. Gratuitous shots abounded, and 
yes, the underwear shot was in there for no reason except to be 
an underwear shot and we all know it. Despite that the camera 
lingered. See Skinner scrub (I guess he got plenty of practice 
scrubbing latrines in the marines), ride the elevator, walk up 
stairs - see CancerMan smoke, see him crush a cigarette - gee 
that's new. I didn't actively dislike this episode, but I was 
just disappointed that it couldn't seem to bee all that it could 
bee.

Though we were denied seeing Scully in this episode her presence 
permeated it. We learn that Scully's oncologist believes her 
cancer to be spreading, and though Mulder is concerned he isn't 
concerned enough to be with her. Skinner's deal with CancerMan, 
cemented in "Memento Mori", drives this outing. I was curious at 
the time the deal was made (and I'm more curious now) about 
Skinner's motivation. He is to the point where he actually tells 
CancerMan his only concern is for Agent Scully: "I don't care what 
happens to me". Now, while I am the first to understand the appeal 
of Scully, this is a pretty huge sacrifice Skinner has made for 
her health. He has totally sold himself out - an officer of the 
law covering up crimes and endangering lives for the health of 
one woman. From Mulder this I would understand - from Skinner I 
really am beginning to wonder at his motivation - does he harbor 
some deep seated guilt - does he carry a hidden torch for Dana - 
what has compelled him to for all practical purposes trade his 
life for hers? I also can't help but think that Scully would not 
want this. Her sense of justice and right would make a deal with 
CancerMan to save her life, despite those of others, a sickening 
and wrong thing to her. If she ever finds out what is going on 
behind the scenes - that souls are being sold to insure her a 
long and healthy life - look out because it ain't gonna be pretty. 
They do leave Scully's fate ambiguous though - we still aren't 
sure, despite CancerMan's assurances that he may save her life 
again, that anything will really happen.

I'd like to get into a few details here that didn't make sense 
to me. How many folks out there were desperately trying to now 
connect small pox vaccinations with these small pox carrying bees? 
While in a way it makes sense, I was sort of stumped about how 
genetic markers in vaccination scars tied into to a plague 
infestation of this supposed dead disease. It was like small pox 
was supposed to tie things together without the string. I'll be 
the first to admit that the bees crawling out of the drain were 
cool, but we learn later the bees are behind the walls - how did 
they get in the pipes and just know when to crawl out to attack 
one person and then crawl back into a drain in mass? Bugs are a 
lot smarter than I thought. And what was that with that little 
bit of honeycomb Skinner brought in somehow creating like a 
kabillion bees to kill the entomologist? Yeah right. Why the 
huge coverup when they were just going to expose the same sort 
of evidence in the trial run anyway?

Skinner isn't the smartest guy on the block this time around. 
He was practically begging for Mulder to find him out. Like 
Mulder wouldn't notice crime files deleted off his computer. 
To make matter worse he impersonates Mulder (even has a badge 
made with his picture and Mulder's name) and thinks wiping 
prints will cover his tracks. Even if he hadn't been caught 
on video (which also should have captured him ditching the 
blood sample) he could have been easily identified by a 
sketch artist taking a description from the desk sargent. 
Mulder usually has to work harder to figure things out. We're 
talking about the guy who sees fingers in a photo and figures 
out a graveyard site. This was child's play.

What about that scene with Skinner and Marita? Was that 
supposed to have some sort of an edge or be threatening? It 
certainly didn't play that way to me. I suppose that we are 
also supposed to wonder over the purposely blurred figure in 
the background when Marita revealed that she was a minion of 
the consortium - like that was a big surprise - I'm willing to 
bet here and now that it was just a silly red herring and we 
will never know the identity of that lurker. Just another 
"cool" thing.

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

-Well, I thought for being "best friends" those postal girls 
were pretty darn snippy with each other. Plus, what was Jane 
thinking? She not only went into a bathroom on the X-Files, 
but she was also smoking (and for some reason reading a women's 
lingerie catalog). TV's Toilet terror claims another bathroom 
body.

-Being a person who works in the computer industry it always 
amuses me the way the show seems to mix and match MAC and 
windows interfaces freely. Computer stuff just never really 
looks right on this show.

-Skinner is so anal about his job that even his home phone 
looks like an office phone. What was that taking it off the 
hook deal? In case people call him in the middle of the night 
they'll think he is talking instead of, say, sleeping?

-Skinner also seems to have one of those season 4 flashlights 
sported by Mulder & Scully. Am I the only one who misses those 
big old airport landing lights they used to lug around?

-As a huge Hitchcock fan I can't help but notice the little 
birds and the bees homage in the playground.

-What an exciting basketball game that orderly was trying to 
tune into: Citadel vs VMI (Virginia Military Institute).

-Even without showing us Skinner nearly naked we know he is 
in good shape - given his ability to lug around 190 pounds of 
dead weight even up stairs.

-Sure, we've seen bathroom deaths more than we can count, but 
I'm seeing a new trend here - the furnace death/disposal. 
F. Emasculata, Hell Money, Never Again, well you get the picture.

-Episode time stamp: We started out March 28th early AM 
according to the log book at the police station.

-The music group  "Foo Fighters" got another bit of free 
advertising that made sense - of course Mulder would have a 
file on the phenomena.

-What was with that rolodex entry for Marita? It was almost 
ridiculous in its detailed content.

-Well folks at my house laughed out loud when Marita *finally* 
said "bee husbandry" - we'd been waiting for that moment all 
night long. It's funny what amuses we the obsessed. 

-Boy Skinner did a Mulder - pull a gun on CancerMan and don't 
follow through - at least Skinner scared him a little first 
before backing down.

-What was that PC doing on Mulder's desk? It usually sits on 
that other desk that isn't Scully's.

Autumn
"If anything happens to her I will expose you."