XF Season Eight Reviews: "Roadrunners" and "Invocation"
"Roadrunners"
On the internationally recognized The Wrath of Khan scale of gross wriggly parasites, this episode rates off the chart. I watched significant portions of it peeping between my fingers. Still, I don't think that I missed anything important.
An episode that is so Scully-centric has to be celebrated. An episode that implicitly comments on how difficult it must be for her walking long distances in those high heels gets extra credit. It isn't that there are epic quantities of character development for Scully, but it is a good, creepy, horrific adventure episode. Frankly, after what she's just been through, she deserves a little time off from character development.
At the beginning and the end we do get a little look into the development of the Doggett/Scully partnership. While Scully is in Utah on the case, she calls back to Doggett asking him to look through the X-Files for a case involving "glycoproteins" found as evidence. She doesn't remember much more than that, and in fact this is an example of Scully giving Doggett the old "hiding in the light" assignment that Mulder gave to her back in Folie a Deux. I guess you can do this sort of thing when you're The Boss. Run off on interesting cases and leave your subordinate back at home combing through the files.
Except that Scully is both nicer and more apologetic than Mulder, as becomes clear at the end of the episode. Now, God knows that Mulder could have stood to apologize more often than he did. But have a look at this exchange...
SCULLY: Look, I, uh... I wanted to apologize. I … I left you out of this case, and that was a mistake on my part. It was almost a fatal mistake.
DOGGETT: It was. You screwed up.
(SCULLY takes the reprimand.)
SCULLY: And I won't do it again.
DOGGETT: I appreciate it.
Huh? What was that? In what sense did Scully's rather gracious (if I do say so myself) apology sound like she was inviting Doggett to play big boss man? Blunt, sure, Mulder was blunt too, but where is the guy getting this from? Who, to be blunt about it myself, does he think he is? The end of the scene is very subtle but the power dynamic is clear, and I think the transcript expresses it simply but eloquently:
(SCULLY picks up her bag. Without hesitation, DOGGETT takes it from her hands and carries it out of the room. SCULLY nods to herself and follows.)
Yes, Scully is just getting out of the hospital. Yes, she is probably weak. Yes, she is also pregnant. It is very nice of Doggett to carry her bag for her. Yet coming right in the wake of the above exchange, it reinforces the theme that Scully is inevitably made vulnerable by her biology. It plays up the rightness of Doggett's role as the alpha male, the one who carries the bag and comes to her rescue. And Scully's nod implicitly accepts this.
It's not unrealistic. It's not unrealistic at all. Furthermore, I'm sure that the writers knew exactly what they were doing. That doesn't mean that it doesn't smart, after seven seasons of seeing an independent, self-reliant (often too much so) Dana Scully, to see gender issues brought to the fore at this time in the series and in this way. Perhaps I like my television more escapist than I realised. Perhaps I'm a hypocrite... if it were Mulder carrying that bag for her, I likely would see it as a sign of his caring and of their unspoken communication. Yet it's clear that the theme in the last couple of episodes has been Scully being belittled and sidelined, and to some extent acquiescing to the fact. It's a gutsy choice and it takes the series in a new direction. That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.
"Invocation"
More clearly than any other episode that the X-Files has done, this one is all about the horrors of parenthood. If Mulder were one of the investigators, it would be all about the parallels to his sister's disappearance and his own difficulties in dealing with it. As Mulder is absent, however--and Scully doesn't seem to spare so much as a thought for the closed case of Samantha Mulder--the focus is really on the Underwood family. The parents, their long-gone son Billy, and the boy who has been born since. The episode's plot is not of the best--why did Billy come back, anyway? why did he go after his brother?--but the mood and the theme is really good. Very suspenseful and creepy.
Insofar as the episode is about anything else, it is about Doggett and about his differences from Mulder. In his interview with Billy Underwood, he reveals himself to be most definitely not a child psychologist, leaving Scully in need of Mulder's expertise. We get to witness Doggett's take-no-prisoners, "string em all up" approach to child kidnappers, leaving sympathy and understanding by the wayside in his drive to get the evildoers. Mulder sought to get inside the heads of criminals; Doggett clearly doesn't feel the need. He knows how they think already. It is also interesting to note that while Mulder and Scully were pretty casual when it comes to, say search warrants, they apparently respected the sanctity of juvenile records.
We also learn that the case resonates with Doggett in a different way than it would have with Mulder. For one thing, Mulder told Scully about Samantha on their very first case together, whereas Doggett is keeping his own counsel. So now we have a parallel between Doggett and Scully, in that they are both keeping secrets concerning children, or children in potentia. I wonder what Doggett will say when he finds out? Could be some drama there, especially if Scully doesn't back down from wanting to keep working. I hope she doesn't back down.
Another interesting aspect of the Doggett/Scully partnership is that neither of them is very certain in their roles. Doggett makes a very poor sceptic because, to be honest, he's not that much of an intellectual. He doesn't have the scientific background to back up his disbelief. Scully, by contrast, is uncertain and embarassed about her beliefs, lacking the faith of her convictions and for once unable to articulate what she really thinks. Both of them are feeling their way. It's not that their viewpoints are any closer than Mulder and Scully's were back in season. They disagree, but they're not really able to discuss why that is the case, and in a sense this keeps them from coming closer together.
Further reading:
If you want to read more about the way that the theme of Scully's pregnancy dominates this season, I highly recommend "Mothership", an essay by Joyce Millman of Salon Magazine.
All of the transcripts used here are from one excellent website: http://www.insidethex.co.uk/
Gratuitous song quote:
You can stop reading now, as I have nothing so classy as Emily Dickinson to give you this time around. Still, for what it's worth, here is "Truth Doesn't Make a Noise" by the White Stripes.
My baby's got a heart of stone
Can't you people just leave her alone
She never did nothing to hurt you
So just leave her alone.
The motion of her tiny hands
And the quiver of her bones below
Are the signs of a girl alone
And tell you everything you need to know.
I can't explain it
I feel it often
Everytime I see her face.
But the way you treat her
It fills me with rage
And I want to tear apart the place.
You try to tell her what to do
And all she does is stare at you
Her stare is louder than your voice
Because truth doesn't make a noise.
On the internationally recognized The Wrath of Khan scale of gross wriggly parasites, this episode rates off the chart. I watched significant portions of it peeping between my fingers. Still, I don't think that I missed anything important.
An episode that is so Scully-centric has to be celebrated. An episode that implicitly comments on how difficult it must be for her walking long distances in those high heels gets extra credit. It isn't that there are epic quantities of character development for Scully, but it is a good, creepy, horrific adventure episode. Frankly, after what she's just been through, she deserves a little time off from character development.
At the beginning and the end we do get a little look into the development of the Doggett/Scully partnership. While Scully is in Utah on the case, she calls back to Doggett asking him to look through the X-Files for a case involving "glycoproteins" found as evidence. She doesn't remember much more than that, and in fact this is an example of Scully giving Doggett the old "hiding in the light" assignment that Mulder gave to her back in Folie a Deux. I guess you can do this sort of thing when you're The Boss. Run off on interesting cases and leave your subordinate back at home combing through the files.
Except that Scully is both nicer and more apologetic than Mulder, as becomes clear at the end of the episode. Now, God knows that Mulder could have stood to apologize more often than he did. But have a look at this exchange...
SCULLY: Look, I, uh... I wanted to apologize. I … I left you out of this case, and that was a mistake on my part. It was almost a fatal mistake.
DOGGETT: It was. You screwed up.
(SCULLY takes the reprimand.)
SCULLY: And I won't do it again.
DOGGETT: I appreciate it.
Huh? What was that? In what sense did Scully's rather gracious (if I do say so myself) apology sound like she was inviting Doggett to play big boss man? Blunt, sure, Mulder was blunt too, but where is the guy getting this from? Who, to be blunt about it myself, does he think he is? The end of the scene is very subtle but the power dynamic is clear, and I think the transcript expresses it simply but eloquently:
(SCULLY picks up her bag. Without hesitation, DOGGETT takes it from her hands and carries it out of the room. SCULLY nods to herself and follows.)
Yes, Scully is just getting out of the hospital. Yes, she is probably weak. Yes, she is also pregnant. It is very nice of Doggett to carry her bag for her. Yet coming right in the wake of the above exchange, it reinforces the theme that Scully is inevitably made vulnerable by her biology. It plays up the rightness of Doggett's role as the alpha male, the one who carries the bag and comes to her rescue. And Scully's nod implicitly accepts this.
It's not unrealistic. It's not unrealistic at all. Furthermore, I'm sure that the writers knew exactly what they were doing. That doesn't mean that it doesn't smart, after seven seasons of seeing an independent, self-reliant (often too much so) Dana Scully, to see gender issues brought to the fore at this time in the series and in this way. Perhaps I like my television more escapist than I realised. Perhaps I'm a hypocrite... if it were Mulder carrying that bag for her, I likely would see it as a sign of his caring and of their unspoken communication. Yet it's clear that the theme in the last couple of episodes has been Scully being belittled and sidelined, and to some extent acquiescing to the fact. It's a gutsy choice and it takes the series in a new direction. That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.
"Invocation"
More clearly than any other episode that the X-Files has done, this one is all about the horrors of parenthood. If Mulder were one of the investigators, it would be all about the parallels to his sister's disappearance and his own difficulties in dealing with it. As Mulder is absent, however--and Scully doesn't seem to spare so much as a thought for the closed case of Samantha Mulder--the focus is really on the Underwood family. The parents, their long-gone son Billy, and the boy who has been born since. The episode's plot is not of the best--why did Billy come back, anyway? why did he go after his brother?--but the mood and the theme is really good. Very suspenseful and creepy.
Insofar as the episode is about anything else, it is about Doggett and about his differences from Mulder. In his interview with Billy Underwood, he reveals himself to be most definitely not a child psychologist, leaving Scully in need of Mulder's expertise. We get to witness Doggett's take-no-prisoners, "string em all up" approach to child kidnappers, leaving sympathy and understanding by the wayside in his drive to get the evildoers. Mulder sought to get inside the heads of criminals; Doggett clearly doesn't feel the need. He knows how they think already. It is also interesting to note that while Mulder and Scully were pretty casual when it comes to, say search warrants, they apparently respected the sanctity of juvenile records.
We also learn that the case resonates with Doggett in a different way than it would have with Mulder. For one thing, Mulder told Scully about Samantha on their very first case together, whereas Doggett is keeping his own counsel. So now we have a parallel between Doggett and Scully, in that they are both keeping secrets concerning children, or children in potentia. I wonder what Doggett will say when he finds out? Could be some drama there, especially if Scully doesn't back down from wanting to keep working. I hope she doesn't back down.
Another interesting aspect of the Doggett/Scully partnership is that neither of them is very certain in their roles. Doggett makes a very poor sceptic because, to be honest, he's not that much of an intellectual. He doesn't have the scientific background to back up his disbelief. Scully, by contrast, is uncertain and embarassed about her beliefs, lacking the faith of her convictions and for once unable to articulate what she really thinks. Both of them are feeling their way. It's not that their viewpoints are any closer than Mulder and Scully's were back in season. They disagree, but they're not really able to discuss why that is the case, and in a sense this keeps them from coming closer together.
Further reading:
If you want to read more about the way that the theme of Scully's pregnancy dominates this season, I highly recommend "Mothership", an essay by Joyce Millman of Salon Magazine.
All of the transcripts used here are from one excellent website: http://www.insidethex.co.uk/
Gratuitous song quote:
You can stop reading now, as I have nothing so classy as Emily Dickinson to give you this time around. Still, for what it's worth, here is "Truth Doesn't Make a Noise" by the White Stripes.
My baby's got a heart of stone
Can't you people just leave her alone
She never did nothing to hurt you
So just leave her alone.
The motion of her tiny hands
And the quiver of her bones below
Are the signs of a girl alone
And tell you everything you need to know.
I can't explain it
I feel it often
Everytime I see her face.
But the way you treat her
It fills me with rage
And I want to tear apart the place.
You try to tell her what to do
And all she does is stare at you
Her stare is louder than your voice
Because truth doesn't make a noise.