First of all... even a recap of this episode gets me choked up. And you cover everything so well. Augh, the cancer arc is seriously so good I can't take it. Although for me the Anasazi-Blessing Way-Paper Clip arc shares Top Favorite status with this, there's something a little bit campy about it that, while it really enhances it and makes it so lovable and good, in a certain way, does restrain it from being as balls-out stunningly excellent as the best episodes of the cancer arc. (But A, B, *and* C are all superb, whereas parts of Gethsemane and Redux get a little boring. But since I also include Memento Mori in the cancer arc...)
Anyway - whenever I rewatch this episode, I feel like I have a moral obligation to share it with the entire world. It is impossibly excellent. David and Gillian either instinctively or consciously took it up a notch, and they are to be praised either way. (Also Sheila Larken, like you say! Oh Ma Scully!)
The one part of your recap I disagree with is the Samantha-diner scene. For whatever reason that scene has always struck such a "siblings" chord with me - watching them, I could really believe that they are siblings, or think they are siblings. There's something to the way they put their heads together, furtive, secretive, dead serious, but without the tension that he and Scully have when they bond them-against-the-world. Even the way David cries, I actually love, because it looks like he's trying not to cry, and it's almost childish-looking. I've always loved the grown-Samantha actress, though; I think she and David either had or concocted a weird sort of strange-familiar chemistry. And there's something intriguing about the feeling that, even as grown adults who are almost strangers, Mulder and "Samantha" would still slip into that natural affinity as co-conspirators and allies.
I've also always wondered what would happen if David Duchovny and Megan Leitch were walking down the street and ran into each other. Samantha and Fox? I love how David used to joke that whenever Nick Lea called him up, David would respond, "You killed my father!"
Although for me the Anasazi-Blessing Way-Paper Clip arc shares Top Favorite status with this Oh, yes. I actually think those might win for me, just because they're so succinct, everything in those three, tight episodes. There's nothing better than CSM spitting out "Burn it!" as he stands above the boxcar in the desert.
Your feelings about Samantha will make me watch it differently next time, I think, but...man. I always get really disappointed when that chunk of the episode starts. I can't explain what it is about her or about them together that makes me just stop caring altogether.
I'm with you on Samantha and Mulder in the diner scene, actually! I have a tougher time with fake!grown!Samantha in Colony/End Game than I do here, actually. Plus I always just kind of loved how closely David and Megan resemble one another; I think I once did a side-by-side comparison for Naraht, but they have the same strong chin, the same slightly large nose, and very emotive eyes. Seeing them both struggling with emotions at the same table is pretty intense, actually.
Anyway - whenever I rewatch this episode, I feel like I have a moral obligation to share it with the entire world. It is impossibly excellent. David and Gillian either instinctively or consciously took it up a notch, and they are to be praised either way. (Also Sheila Larken, like you say! Oh Ma Scully!)
The one part of your recap I disagree with is the Samantha-diner scene. For whatever reason that scene has always struck such a "siblings" chord with me - watching them, I could really believe that they are siblings, or think they are siblings. There's something to the way they put their heads together, furtive, secretive, dead serious, but without the tension that he and Scully have when they bond them-against-the-world. Even the way David cries, I actually love, because it looks like he's trying not to cry, and it's almost childish-looking. I've always loved the grown-Samantha actress, though; I think she and David either had or concocted a weird sort of strange-familiar chemistry. And there's something intriguing about the feeling that, even as grown adults who are almost strangers, Mulder and "Samantha" would still slip into that natural affinity as co-conspirators and allies.
I've also always wondered what would happen if David Duchovny and Megan Leitch were walking down the street and ran into each other. Samantha and Fox? I love how David used to joke that whenever Nick Lea called him up, David would respond, "You killed my father!"
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Oh, yes. I actually think those might win for me, just because they're so succinct, everything in those three, tight episodes. There's nothing better than CSM spitting out "Burn it!" as he stands above the boxcar in the desert.
Your feelings about Samantha will make me watch it differently next time, I think, but...man. I always get really disappointed when that chunk of the episode starts. I can't explain what it is about her or about them together that makes me just stop caring altogether.
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