CHRISTMAS CAROL * EMILY * THE POST-MODERN PROMETHEUS
Directed by Peter Markle. Written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz.
RATING: **
Scully spends Christmas with her family, and immediately receives a mysterious phone call from someone who she believes sounds just like her late sister, Melissa. She traces the call to a nearby house, where the local PD are on the scene. Detective Kresge (John Pyper-Ferguson) informs her that resident Roberta Sim has been found dead in her bathtub, an apparent suicide. Kresge says no one had made a phone call from that address. Scully becomes intrigued by the dead woman's three year old daughter, Emily (Lauren Diewold), and soon becomes suspicious of Mr. Sim's (Rob Freeman) involvement in the death. Realizing Emily is something special, and alone in wake of the facts about her father, Scully decides she is prepared to adopt the young girl, but then discovers something that will change her life forever.
'Christmas Carol' is the first part of an extremely crucial two part story that dramatically effects Scully, although we really don't get to deal with that until the second episode. Anderson does some effective work in this piece, as Scully has to face her emotions surrounding the loss of Melissa and her inability to conceive children following the cancer saga. The actress hits the right note several times...although Scully is boardline whiny throughout. The notion of Scully still haunted by the death of Melissa is a noble one, but it seem more of a plot device to get to the Emily mystery. The development of Scully's interest in the death of Emily's father isn't really creditable alas. I just didn't buy the way she was brought into the scenario, nor how she acted once involved. Hard to put my finger on why it doesn't click for me.Scully's family just come across too cold here, or at least, the script allows them to look that way. An aloofness hangs over all the family scenes, which is a shame because Sheila Larken (Scully's mom) and Anderson usually gel together well. I don't know why, but Carter and company always insist of making Scully's brother...Bill (Pat Skipper)...seem like an unsupportive asshole. Snow's score seems to coy and sentimental throughout, as if it's trying to prop up the scenes emotions. Pyper-Ferguson is a good addition as the cynical cop who eventually comes to see eye-to-eye with Scully. At first he appears to be a bit of prick, but as he warms to Scully, we do to him. Solid performance there. Some interesting conspiracy-related angles come to the surface towards the end, which would prove to be crucial in the following show, but they don't bring any tension to the proceedings.
Though it's good to see a Scully-orientated episode (in which Mulder only appears once), it's not an especially good one.
Directed by Kim Manners. Written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz.
RATING: **
In the wake of learning that little Emily is apparently her own daughter, Scully fights to gain legal custody of her. Reluctantly, she asks Mulder to come and assist. Mulder has learnt that Emily's adoptive mother of record was in fact a fake identity, further confirming that the young girl is a product of Scully's abduction experience years earlier. Emily becomes hospitalised and isolated when a poisonous (and familiar) green substance oozes from the back of her neck, and falls into a coma. The girls doctor, Calderone seems to be a lead to what is behind Emily's condition, and who is pulling the strings. While Scully stays by her daughter's side, Mulder pursues his own leads, desperate to find a way to help Emily.
'Christmas Carol' and 'Emily' tell a major storyline in the life of Scully, yet maybe it was one that shouldn't have been done. The fact that, hey, howaboutthat...Scully actually has a daughter, and loses her...is such a life altering event that it, realistically, would effect her to the point where she would be a different person in it's wake. But it's hardly even mentioned again over the rest of The X-Files four season run. Sure, we get a show dealing with her sadness and unresolved feelings later in the season...and it's a humdinger ('All Souls')...but the further reaching effects are never really handled. No one seemed to be planning ahead. The problems with this show are pretty much the same as 'Christmas Carol'...the basic plot is not convincing, and the emotional impact is blunted too many times. Scully's scenes with her family are again flat.
That said, 'Emily' is not really a bad episode, despite many less-than-successful elements. There's more of a suspenseful approach to the material here, with Mulder inserted into the storyline essentially in the place of Pyper-Ferguson. There's one scene in which Mulder totally loses his cool, with Emily's life hanging in the balance, and proceeds to slap the unhelpful Dr. Calderone around. Duchovny is believably pissed. This leads to the introduction of a couple of new shape changing tough guys, complete with this cool pop-up ice pick-type weapons. Though there's no Brian Thompson on hand, we immediately assume they're bounty hunters. We get a pretty cool standoff finale involving a Calderone look alike, Mulder and Detective Kresge. Following the death of Emily, we thankfully have a satisfying scene inside a church where Mulder and Scully reflect on what has happened, and how they deal with it. Both actors are great, and their rapport is total. A brief cameo by the lone Frohike is another nice touch to the show.
However, 'Emily' (and 'Carol') are episodes of interest that simply misfire and paint themselves into a corner.
Directed and written by Chris Carter.
RATING: **
Mulder and Scully are contacted by a woman in a small Indiana town, claiming eighteen years she was impregnated by a human-like monster. The agents are rather dubious of her claims, but other citizens of the town have also seen the creature (Chris Owens, buried under makeup lest anyone mistake him for Jeffrey Spender), who is still in the area. The creature was the inspiration for his apparent son's comic book creation "The Great Mutato". Although both Scully and Mulder witness and pursue what appears to be mysterious, misshaped figure, the investigation doesn't really discover anything major until they meet a local scientist, Dr. Frances Pollidori (John O'Hurley), who specializes in genetic manipulation. Following the murder of Pollidori's father, the town is no longer fascinated and amused by the presence of Mutato, and seek lynch mob revenge. Both Mulder and Scully locate the creature first, and find him somewhat different than they'd expect.
Here's an episode thats nothing more than a gimmick, shot in black and white and crammed with Tales From The Crypt-ish humor. Carter seems to have known what he was aiming at with this odd episode, so it's a shame that it's not very good. In fact, it's one of the weakest shows of the fifth season. It comes off as a mish-mash of ideas and jokey references, but few of them actually pay off. Essentially a spoof of classic 20s/30s gothic horror, particularly Frankenstein, complete with villagers waving torches and a suitably hammy mad scientist performance by Seinfeld's O'Hurley as Pollidori. Carter doesn't bother to make any of the guest characters three-dimensional...they're portrayed as hicks, morons or trailer park trash. Maybe he thinks it's easier to gain sympathy for the creature by making everyone else unappealing dullards. The damning thing is that it's just so pointless (not that all previous X stories actually did have points), and pretty flat throughout. The happy ending just seems wrong despite good intentions...maybe because he just seems fake and obvious. Another element that doesn't sit right is the fact that the Mutato-inspired character is essentially drugging and raping several of the towns woman. By the end, no one actually seems to think that is the slightest bit wrong!
It's a shame that the show is ultimately such a train wreck, because it's technically well done. The cinematography and art direction is very good, and Mark Snow's score is nicely appropriate. Owens is pretty much is dialogue-free until the conclusion, where he does a nice little piece of subdued acting, in contrast to the over-the-top-ness of O'Hurley and the assorted townsfolk. The cameos of Jerry Springer are decent because we see him the way we should on all his TV gigs: very briefly. But these qualities are not enough to turn this style-over-substance episode around to the good where it's actually good. Nice try, but no dice.
Still, people more important than I obviously enjoyed dug it. Carter received a Directors Guild Award nomination. Then again, they also nominated him for 'The List', and that was another dud. And check out the Emmy nominations. This episode was nominated for 7: writing, directing, cinematography, single-camera picture editing, makeup, music composition and art direction. It won for art direction.
Chris Carter on 'Post-Modern Prometheus': "I very much liked Post-Modern Prometheus. I took non-actors and put them into pretty big starring roles. I took a lot of faces that I'd seen in the talent pool here and cast them as extras and what really became starring parts. I pulled one guy out of Delaney's, where he's a busboy. Another was a snake wrangler on the movie. The kid who played Izzy I found on the street in Los Angeles. I went up to him and said, 'I want to bring you in for an X-Files part.' There were a lot of things that provided joy because there were a lot of risks."
Directed by Daniel Sackheim. Written by Vince Gilligan and Tim Minear.
RATING: ***
Our heroes must cross paths with a deadly opponent from the past: the "Pusher" Robert Modell (Robert Wisden), who has the mental ability to force his will on others. When we last saw the Modell, he was thought to be brain dead and expected to spend the rest of his life in a hospital bed. But suddenly he somehow wakes, and escapes from the hospital, resulting in a massive manhunt from the police and FBI. Mulder, Scully and Skinner are hot on the trail, which leads them to the paint-covered corpse of the attorney who prosecuted Modell. But Mulder suspects that Modell himself is not responsible for the death, though Scully and Skinner disagree, and begin to think that Modell may have influence over their fellow agent.
One of season three's highlights was 'Pusher", thanks in no small part to the presence of Wisden, who gave us a truly startling villain. 'Kitsunegari' is a pretty good sequel, but not in the league of the original. Of course, the return of Modell himself is the big selling point of the show, and he's great to watch, even if he's somewhat declawed. Whether playfully baiting a uniformed cop or smugly playing the expected cat-and-mouse games over the phone, Modell is still such a strong nemesis. The other key guest character is Linda Bowman (Diana Scarwid, Oscar nominated for 1980's Inside Moves), who we establish immediately is the wife of the murdered district attorney. Scully and Skinner think she herself is Modell's latest target, but Mulder suspects something different. When the final revelation of the connection between Modell and Bowman is revealed, it's a little hard to believe. It also feels a little contrived and tacked on.
Luckily, Sackheim's direction is sharp throughout, using slick touches to show Modell's pushing abilities in effect. There's also a humdinger of a finale where either Mulder and Scully have been influenced by pushing, but neither believe they have been. It's a good, dramatic scene...although it seems like everyone involved are attempting to outdo the superb, edge-of-seat climax to the original episode. Another great scene features a doctor (Colleen Winton) casually electrocuting herself to death after receiving a phone call from the villain, with Mulder in the room.
'Kitsunegari' is a worthwhile follow up, if not quite the stunner 'Pusher' was.
Directed by Ralph Hemecker. Written by Jessica Scott and Mike Wollaeger.
RATING: **
Teenager Bobby Rich (Chad Linberg) is harassed and pursued by his stepfather, but the man turns up dead, buried up to his neck with mud seeping from his nose and mouth. Scully performs an autopsy and says the dead man was held in the ground until he choked to death. Bobby is obviously the key suspect in his death, and more heat goes on him when his friend's father falls to his death. Both deaths have more than Rich in common; both victim's kids were patients of a local therapist, Karin Matthews (played by Sarah-Jane Redmond, Millennium's deliciously evil Lucy Butler), and Mulder believes that both deaths were the work of someone who has the ability to control plants and earth.
This is a mediocre entry that struggles to overcome such a unbelievable, and kind of silly, premise. The script just asks us to swallow too much and doesn't bother to try to really explain any of it. The plot holes and unanswered questions seem more clumsy than mysterious. We can understand and appreciate the characters fears and traumas, but that doesn't explain in the slightest why things are happening as they are. The character of the gardener Ramirez (played by George Josef), provides some suspense and menace, but Scott and Wollaeger do literally nothing to tell us who the hell he is, or hell he relates to the deaths. There are a couple of good scattered scenes, most notably the sequence in which an innocent woman is killed by tree branches while trying to aid her niece trapped in a basement. And the shady, abrupt axe-wielding finale has a good atmosphere to it...feeling like something out of an EC comic. Unfortunately, some good directorial touches just can't save the disappointingly underplotted 'Schizogeny', which ultimately is one of the season's weakest.
THE TRUTH IS DOWN HERE