Scully and the Smoking Man, together at last. Wait, that sounded wrong and wasn't what I meant. Seriously, though, this could have been a great 'buddy cop' kind of caper if only there'd been more witty banter.
Oh yeah, and it was also pretty fucking pointless. They went on this whole big adventure, entirely orchestrated by the Smoking Man and whoever his new goons are, to retrieve a disc that would ostensibly give Scully some knowledge, and perhaps her own form of closure, like Mulder apparently had back in 'Closure' regarding his sister, and then she ends up with a blank and he tosses the presumably non-blank one into the lake.
What the hell did I just watch? More importantly, why did I watch it?
Was it meant to be purely character development for the Smoking Man? Was his throwing the disc into the lake meant to show his growth and that he no longer desired immortality or near-immortality or whatever the technology would grant him? Did he just decide to give up his own life because saving it would mean sacrificing so much else?
And also, does this mean that the chip implanted in people's necks cures not just cancer, but all diseases, as he implied? When was the last time Scully even got sick?
There's one other major implication in this episode, though, which is probably the most interesting part of this story. Because the episode opened with a boy who had cancer but was not otherwise abducted - that is, his cancer was apparently natural and not a result of any external forces - it made me think that maybe Scully's was also natural. That is, she had cancer already, and this was discovered when she was abducted, and they implanted the technology to cure her of it, only to have her later remove it and allow the cancer to progress. Maybe she wasn't given cancer during her abduction at all.
I mean, do we know for sure that what we're told - or what Scully has assumed - is even true? I don't expect we'll ever really get an answer on that, but it would be nice if by the end of the series, they'll explain everything, kind of like they did to some degree in the middle of season six when the Syndicate were finally wiped out.
But the more I think about the main plot of this episode, the more I wonder if it really had nothing to do with collecting or protecting information, or even any kind of global conspiracy, but simply the Smoking Man enjoying playing games with people and manipulating people and situations. And here, maybe his goal is simply to mess with people to prove to himself that he's still good at what he does. He seems the type to care about that sort of thing.
The other part I really noticed, only well after the fact, is that Scully kind of plays the role of Mulder in this episode. Normally Mulder is the one to run off chasing some lead without telling anyone else where he's gone. Scully's always giving her reports to Skinner and making sure she's reachable (even when she's on vacation!) so it's extremely unusual for her to be going off on her own, especially with a known enemy.
However, I hope they've all learned a lesson from this, though if Mulder's continued occasional trust of Krycek is any indication, I'm sure we can look forward to more apparently positive interaction between Scully and the Smoking Man. I hope the next time, though, she figures out his game early and just shoots him at the end. (I'm pretty sure I said that a few episodes ago, didn't I?)
Based on the timing of this, I'm guessing it will play into the finale, which, after seven seasons, I've pretty much come to expect will arrive out of nowhere after a longish string of unrelated episodes, which is kind of unfortunate.
While some of the show's best episodes have been the standalones, it would certainly be interesting to see how this could work if it were re-imagined in today's more heavily serialised form of television and had a specific 3, 5, or 7 year plan and that string of episodes from say, 16-22 that build towards a climactic finale every season.
It's kind of amazing how spoiled I've become watching more 2000s television before watching this very 1990s show.
No comments:
Post a Comment