122 BORN AGAIN

"Revenge is a dish best served cold."
Khan
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

SYNOPSIS

BUFFALO, NEW YORK
Is an eight year old girl the reincarnation of a police officer killed in the line of duty eight years ago?

SCULLYVISION

Because of their work on the Tooms case, a brother of a cop in Buffalo asks Mulder and Scully to investigate the sudden, unexplainable death of a cop asking a little girl where she lives. When the detective tells them that she called on them because of their experience with things out of the ordinary, Scully gives a look to Mulder as if that's an embarrassing aspect of the reputation they've made. She realizes that they're known outside the bureau for their experiences.

She gets right to the matter of the case using the words, "It stands to reason..." but isn't given the chance to finish. The detective tells her that there wasn't anyone in that room except the slain detective and a little eight year old girl.

During the autopsy of the detective, Scully sees evidence of the 'localized electrocution' (from psychokinesis) that Mulder asked her to look for, and quickly quantifies it with 'further tissue analysis will be necessary'.

She and Mulder have another discussion about Scully's not being able to believe. She gives him a very plausible explanation that doesn't need to be 'out there'. The picture of the man who Michelle said was in the room with her and the detective was a cop who had been dead for nine years. According to Scully, Michelle could have walked by the picture of the cop on the honor wall and made up the story that he was there. She starts to listen to Mulder when he has her describe how Charlie Morris (the dead cop) was killed. He was killed by a severed right arm and his left eye was gouged out, exactly what Michelle had been doing to dolls in the psychiatrist's office when she was left alone with a doll.

Scully spots Detective Fiore's lie when they went to question him since he was Charlie Morris' beat partner. He said his wife was asleep and needed to talk on the porch so they didn't wake her, but when she interrupted their meeting, her hands had flour on them.

Scully shines once again on this case. She uses her medical skills to do an autopsy, her detective skills to investigate the long dead cop and her powers of observation to detect the flour on the woman's hands. Who says Mulder is Sherlock?

Scully's best moment however, comes when she confronts Mulder about his relentless pursuit of regression hypnosis on a very upset eight year old girl. Mulder wants to put Melissa through it again ASAP but Scully confronts him. "I saw a traumatized little girl," she tells him. He was too busy looking for the truth and missed the more important point. Scully finally gets him to back off when she explains another point he has missed, the fact that all of these regressions will not hold up in court.

OH COME ON!

Flour is usually not called 'baking flour'.

The therapist is explaining Melissa's problems to Mulder: "As with many dissociative disorders, the intensity of the patient's emotions is often too much for one personality to process. So in defense, part of the personality splits itself off." Mulder responds "As in Schizophrenia?" Sounds more like Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder). Come on Mulder, you went to Psychology school, didn't you? If we are questioning Mulder's psychological prowess, what is up with his forcing the regression-to-past-lives-hypnosis when it clearly didn't seem to be in the patient's best interest at the time.

Why didn't the cop who's scarf was stuck in the bus door simply lift it up over his head? There was a lot of gap there.

No wonder Michelle's a 'problem child'. She's able to go out at night by herself.

Why is it that almost every time a police station is shown, there had to be a scene of a hooker being brought in?

Would Fiore's wife actually leave her dead husband's (Charlie's) hobby (Origami) on a special place on the mantel? Especially when Fiore had something to do with Charlie's death?

Dr. Sharon Lazard, Michelle's psychiatrist is upset about the hypnosis being done on her, so why didn't she holler at the hypnotist to stop instead of Mulder outside?

Since when do bedroom doors lock from the outside?

Why did it take eight years from Michelle (Charlie) to strike?

Michelle (Charlie) knew Mulder and Scully were outside and blocked the doors and windows, but she couldn't tell that they were coming in through the basement?

THINGS LEARNED
or All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From the X Files

The by-product of psychokinesis is that a burn mark is left on the victim.

Don't wear a long scarf when exiting a bus.

SFX

I suppose it wasn't hard to do, but the flash of the correct mustache on the computer likeness of the 'other man in the room' was pretty cool.

WRITER
Howard Gordon/Alex Gansa

This duo wrote a couple favorite episodes, Conduit and Fallen Angel, a mediocre one, Lazarus, and the atrocious Ghost in the Machine. I like ghost stories and this one is a good premise. The script could have used some fine tuning to smooth out the leaps in logic. Even though it was stupid to have a wife have her dead husband's hobby out on display, the appearance of the one animal Charlie didn't have the chance to make on her doorstep was cool. Later, when the wife and Michelle were looking at each other, couldn't there have been some hint of recognition of Charlie for the wife? That might have been more pleasing than Tony Fiore spilling his guts. We can make the leap that the truth will come out and we've already figured it out. Did the wife even have a name except for Mrs. Fiore?

DIRECTOR
Jerrold Freedman

For the man who directed the deeply flawed Ghost in the Machine, this one went a little better. But it was still a basic effort. Was it a coincidence that the bad cop was lighted so that it looked like he didn't have a left eye when talking to Tony? Charlie's left eye was gouged out. Why the long close up of Mulder looking at the scuba diver in Fiore's fish tank? Fish envy? No. It's going to be a plot point later. At the end, using the slo-mo for Michelle's actions added nicely to the suspense.

CASTING

This show can cast kids, that's for sure. The Eves were appropriately spooky. In this episode, Andrea Libman plays Michelle, the reincarnation of a cop bent on revenge. Even in the teaser we can see she has knowing eyes, old eyes, eyes which has seen more than her eight years could have possible shown her.

RUNNING TALLIES
Flashlights
Guns
Scully wears glasses
Scully does an autopsy
Mulder writes out a report, in long hand in a journal
Necklace

Side note: On the DVD, when you push play on the episode title Born Again, a really cool thing happens. It flashes to screen snow with the bare outline of a person, as in the episode. You have to look more closely to see the menu to play amidst the garble. I, of course, thought there was a glitch as I still can't make Fallen Angel play. Cool!

Was the Fiore's house also Lauren Kyte's house in Shadows?

ATHENAEUM

One day long after Michelle was feeling much more like herself again, she went in to her bedroom having just completed her swimming lesson and sat on the edge of her bed staring at the paper giraffe. It was a memento of that awful time she had recently gone through but it no longer held meaning. Instead it fascinated her because all she could make out of paper were airplanes that couldn't fly.

The very next day an old scratchy looking paper was delivered to her house inviting her to learn the magic of Origami in the Athenaeum. Even though she had been able to appear anywhere, at any time during the case, this time she asked her mom to drive her. Her mother, having regained her parental responsibilities for the girl, accompanied her into the creepy building. Downstairs they were greeted by an elderly gentlemen with a long thin grey beard. He introduced himself simply as the Curator.

Michelle asked right away, "Sir, what is Origami?"

"That is a very complex question. The simple answer is that it is the ancient art of paper folding."

"How ancient is it?"

"Paper was invented in China in the first century AD. From the start, people began folding it into various shapes. When paper was brought to Japan by Buddhist Monks in the sixth century it quickly became integrated into the culture including architecture, religion and various ceremonies. Early on, the act of folding paper served to certify certain documents such as diplomas for Tea Ceremony masters or masters of swordsmanship. The Japanese transmitted their designs by oral tradition, with the recreational designs being passed from mother to daughter. The first written instructions appeared in 1797. The name Origami was coined in 1880 from the words oru (to fold) and kami (paper).

"Modern creative paper folding owes its existence to Achira Yoshizawa. Beginning in the 1930's, Yoshizawa created tens of thousands of models of every conceivable subject. Today the art of paper folding is celebrated in many countries throughout the world.

"In modern Origami art only one sheet of plain paper is used. Objects are made purely by folding."

"Will you teach me?"

"Of course, it's what I do," replied the Curator as he pulled out sheet after sheet of paper and displayed them on the counter. Michelle, her mother and the Curator began to fold.

QUOTES

MULDER Of course jumpers tend to open the window before they jump.

MRS. BISHOP She's not like other girls, Agent Scully.

MULDER Psychokinesis is usually associated with an electrical charge.
SCULLY Are you saying Michelle possesses the ability to psychically project her own will?
MULDER How else could a 60 pound kid throw a 200 pound detective out the window?

MULDER Have you observed any unexplained phenomena in Michelle's presence?
DR. BRAUN Unexplained phenomena?
MULDER Inordinate physical strength, psychic ability, telekinesis...
DR. BRAUN You're joking, of course.

DET. LAZARD Could I talk to you for a second?
SCULLY I just started the autopsy.
DET. LAZARD Yeah. Um, I don't think he's going anywhere.

SCULLY Well, where is he now? Has he been transferred?
DET. LAZARD You could say that. Agent Scully, this guy's been dead for nine years. Which means that little girl saw a ghost.

MULDER Why is it still so hard for you to believe, even when all the evidence suggests extraordinary phenomena?
SCULLY Because sometimes looking for extreme possibilities makes you blind to the probable explanation right in front of you.

MULDER Is it me or did we just get the brush-off?

SCULLY Do me a favor, Mulder. Let me say it... Reincarnation.
MULDER Metempsychosis, transmigration, reimbodiment, call it what you will.
SCULLY All based on the coincidence that Michelle Bishop and Officer Morris both practice the obscure art of paper folding?

SCULLY So where does that leave us?
MULDER One short step away from proving the pre-existence of the human soul.

SCULLY How? And to what end? I mean, what exactly do you hope to discover by all this?
MULDER The truth.

MULDER Short of her growing a moustache, how much more apparent does it have to become for you to accept it?

MULDER (voice over) End of field journal, April 19, 1994. Agents of record, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Status, Unexplained.