I don't know what other people thought of this one, but I found it to be an outstanding episode. The obvious one to compare it to is 'Jose Chung's From Outer Space', but it also had elements of another of Darin Morgan's excellent episodes, 'Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose'.
It wasn't quite up to the standard of either, but it's still one of my favourites so far.
Another episode with a literal unreliable narrator. I like the way this story was told, and while it was far less silly than 'Jose Chung', I think it played on many of the same elements that that episode did that made it work. Especially the scene where we see Padgett just sitting in his apartment on the surveillance camera, but in his mind, talking to Ken Naciamento.
When Ken finally confronted Padgett and completely deconstructed his entire story, I was very much reminded of the scene in which the unnamed killer in 'Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose' asked Bruckman why he killed people, and even said, out loud, "You do the things you do because you're a homicidal maniac." It's the basic truth behind such brutal killings. But in this case, it's Padgett who is the homicidal maniac, not Ken - well, it was Ken, until he, you know, died.
And Padgett himself, in addition to being a murderer by proxy, was also very very creepy. His whole idea centered around Scully in the first place? And because he couldn't stalk her at her own place, he rented the apartment next to Mulder that just happened to be available? If I were Scully, I'd have arrested him at the church for stalking, because that was seriously unnerving.
I think it's interesting that in the end, he decided to save Scully, even though from a literary perspective, that would have been the better ending. Thankfully, though, he realised that the only way to truly stop the killings in his novel-within-a-novel of sorts was to die himself, which was a better ending for the story actually being told.
In the end, this is a story about perception, but also about compulsion and about loneliness. Scully makes a good point - loneliness is a choice. Some people do like being alone and unattached. They aren't lonely, but they choose to be alone. A person who dislikes being alone, or rather, who feels lonely, will seek out company if they choose not to be lonely. There are obviously plenty of people who make the mistake of assuming that any company is better than no company, but again, it comes back to what Scully said about herself. She's not lonely. She chooses not to be lonely.
Padgett, on the other hand, is incredibly lonely and claims, in one of the eeriest conversations anyone has had on this show, at least since 'How the Ghosts Stole Christmas' (another episode this bore some similarities to), that he wrote the novel and imagined the crimes to draw Scully in so he could meet her. How'd that work out?
He thought he could meet her and make her love him, which is pretty creepy when you think about it, even if his whole thing didn't involve stalking. I was sure Scully wouldn't actually sleep with him, even if Mulder hadn't shown up. Though she's not so sure herself because she gets pretty defensive about it when Mulder (not that it's any of his business) brings it up.
And then the bombshell, which of course we already knew, or at least suspected, Scully is already in love. Of course she is. Some might argue she's in love with her work, but I'm reasonably sure Padgett was talking about Mulder. And wow has season six been strong with the shipping.
The problem is that like in 'Jose Chung', we don't really know what happened here. For all we know, this entire episode could have taken place in Padgett's head, and Mulder and Scully won't even remember it, because obviously the book won't be published. It certainly brings up the interesting idea of genre awareness, because what if Scully and Mulder suddenly realised they were on a science fiction TV show (I suppose there was a mild sense of that awareness when Mulder turned Scully around so she could argue his side, as if they always faced a certain direction relative to an outside observer when doing so - that was an amusing moment) just saying lines and playing out their actions as written and directed by someone else?
What if you realised you were on a science fiction TV show? Or in the Matrix? Or an Active? What if you found out your entire life was made up?
The real question is, would it matter?
Also, the writer and his character played into my idea that to some extent, the people who write grisly stories must in some way be sociopathic themselves. To even come up with the idea of ripping out a person's heart as the central theme in a horror story really requires a certain kind of mind. Which means I know I'm ascribing that thought to Chris Carter and John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz, too, but come on, they write The X-Files, there's a LOT they've done that's horrifying.
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