Meta for "Patience"
Mulder is the absent center of Season Eight. Does the center hold?
Season Eight was difficult. In some ways it was meant to be a re-boot of the series, but
there was the matter of Mulder's abduction and Scully's pregnancy. Chris Carter said that
Mulder would be the "absent center" of the season, and I think in "Patience" that's true.
The title "Patience" refers mostly to the "man-bat's" patience waiting more than 40 years
for the vengeance he wanted. It could also be referring to a request to the fans: have
patience. Give this season a chance.
I came to S8 with an open mind, although I did find my patience tried sorely throughout
the season. I tried to go into the viewing of this first non-Mulder episode with an open
mind, too. I was curious to see what kind of an MOTW they'd come up with, and how Scully
would handle it without Mulder. We'd already been told that Doggett was a skeptic, and
a "by the book" cop. How would two people of similar mindsets handle an X File?
This week I watched the episode for the first time in many years. Although my feelings
about this as a MOTW didn't change, I found that my appreciation of the fine line Scully
was trying to tread had grown.
Q: What do you think of this as a monster of the week episode? Was it one of the worst,
one of the best, or somewhere in between?
A: Then: I thought it was a pretty awful one -- a man-bat? Really? And the special
effects were not very good. To me it looked like a kite on a zipline when the man-bat
flew. The best effect was the man-bat's eye in the knothole of the tree.
Q: What was your original reaction to this episode? Has it changed over the years?
A: Originally, disappointment. Looking back, I can see now that it was mostly due to
missing the give and take that Scully and Mulder had on these cases. This time around, I
really noticed the subtleties.
From the very beginning of the episode, Scully was defending Mulder's turf. She was also
at war with herself -- she wanted to do justice to the way Mulder would look at things; she
was doing her best to keep herself open to extreme possibilities. As a result, she was
ridiculed by local law enforcement, and not supported very well by Agent Doggett, who
seemed at first to want to distance himself from her theories as much as he could. And
she had a hard time switching gears between her need to examine the evidence in a
scientific way and her need to try and solve the case the way she and Mulder used to do it
together.
Q: This is Scully's first case with Agent Doggett. Do you think her method of
introducing Doggett to his first X File (other than Mulder's disappearance) was
deliberate, or was she unconsciously mimicking Mulder's style?
A: I think it was deliberate. Mulder used his tactics to intimidate Scully on her first day
on the X Files; Scully was demonstrating to Doggett just how strange it would be -- and
also making sure he knew whose office it was.
Q: Many fans were upset to see Scully putting Mulder's nameplate away at the end of the
episode. How did you feel about it? Do you still feel the same way?
A: It was a bitter moment, and really brought home that Mulder was not there. I found it
just as bitter this time, but tempered with a better understanding of why Scully did it.
At the beginning of the episode, she used the replacing of the nameplate on the front of
the desk to show Doggett that she hadn't forgotten who was really in charge of the X
Files, and to put Doggett in his place. By the end of the episode, I think she realized that
she had to take charge if the X Files were going to be able to continue -- if she was going
to be able to continue. I didn't see it as giving up, or wanting to forget about him, but the
beginning of a realization that she couldn't "hide" behind Mulder's desk. She has to keep
moving forward -- not just for her, but for Mulder, too.
In the episodes ahead, we will see more of Scully's struggle to be true to the X Files and
to Mulder, while trying to maintain her scientific integrity ("I am a scientist who's
happened to have seen a lot").
In summary, I think that the MOTW part of this episode was pretty lame -- but as a
character study of Scully, pretty darned good.
Season Eight was difficult. In some ways it was meant to be a re-boot of the series, but
there was the matter of Mulder's abduction and Scully's pregnancy. Chris Carter said that
Mulder would be the "absent center" of the season, and I think in "Patience" that's true.
The title "Patience" refers mostly to the "man-bat's" patience waiting more than 40 years
for the vengeance he wanted. It could also be referring to a request to the fans: have
patience. Give this season a chance.
I came to S8 with an open mind, although I did find my patience tried sorely throughout
the season. I tried to go into the viewing of this first non-Mulder episode with an open
mind, too. I was curious to see what kind of an MOTW they'd come up with, and how Scully
would handle it without Mulder. We'd already been told that Doggett was a skeptic, and
a "by the book" cop. How would two people of similar mindsets handle an X File?
This week I watched the episode for the first time in many years. Although my feelings
about this as a MOTW didn't change, I found that my appreciation of the fine line Scully
was trying to tread had grown.
Q: What do you think of this as a monster of the week episode? Was it one of the worst,
one of the best, or somewhere in between?
A: Then: I thought it was a pretty awful one -- a man-bat? Really? And the special
effects were not very good. To me it looked like a kite on a zipline when the man-bat
flew. The best effect was the man-bat's eye in the knothole of the tree.
Q: What was your original reaction to this episode? Has it changed over the years?
A: Originally, disappointment. Looking back, I can see now that it was mostly due to
missing the give and take that Scully and Mulder had on these cases. This time around, I
really noticed the subtleties.
From the very beginning of the episode, Scully was defending Mulder's turf. She was also
at war with herself -- she wanted to do justice to the way Mulder would look at things; she
was doing her best to keep herself open to extreme possibilities. As a result, she was
ridiculed by local law enforcement, and not supported very well by Agent Doggett, who
seemed at first to want to distance himself from her theories as much as he could. And
she had a hard time switching gears between her need to examine the evidence in a
scientific way and her need to try and solve the case the way she and Mulder used to do it
together.
Q: This is Scully's first case with Agent Doggett. Do you think her method of
introducing Doggett to his first X File (other than Mulder's disappearance) was
deliberate, or was she unconsciously mimicking Mulder's style?
A: I think it was deliberate. Mulder used his tactics to intimidate Scully on her first day
on the X Files; Scully was demonstrating to Doggett just how strange it would be -- and
also making sure he knew whose office it was.
Q: Many fans were upset to see Scully putting Mulder's nameplate away at the end of the
episode. How did you feel about it? Do you still feel the same way?
A: It was a bitter moment, and really brought home that Mulder was not there. I found it
just as bitter this time, but tempered with a better understanding of why Scully did it.
At the beginning of the episode, she used the replacing of the nameplate on the front of
the desk to show Doggett that she hadn't forgotten who was really in charge of the X
Files, and to put Doggett in his place. By the end of the episode, I think she realized that
she had to take charge if the X Files were going to be able to continue -- if she was going
to be able to continue. I didn't see it as giving up, or wanting to forget about him, but the
beginning of a realization that she couldn't "hide" behind Mulder's desk. She has to keep
moving forward -- not just for her, but for Mulder, too.
In the episodes ahead, we will see more of Scully's struggle to be true to the X Files and
to Mulder, while trying to maintain her scientific integrity ("I am a scientist who's
happened to have seen a lot").
In summary, I think that the MOTW part of this episode was pretty lame -- but as a
character study of Scully, pretty darned good.