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[alone 8x19]
"It symbolizes teamwork, partnership. It means no one gets there alone." Scully says this to Doggett when she presents him with an Apollo 11 keychain, a birthday present she received from Mulder in the Season 4 episode "Max". The loyal and stoic Doggett is at last told how much he has meant to Scully, and she thanks him by saying, "And after this past year, and everything that we've been through, I just...I wouldn't be here without you." What a wonderful scene, in what I thought was a wonderful episode. There were no dramatic revelations in "Alone", no big action scenes, no devastating plot turns or shadowy maneuvering, yet still I think this is one of the best episodes of the season. "Alone" was a love letter to the fans of the show, thanking us for 8 years of a wonderful partnership. It hasn't always been a smooth ride, but "Alone" acknowledges the fact that The X-Files would not be where it is today without us, the fans. The x-file in this episode was fair-to-middlin', a case about a cryptobiologist who has managed to jumpstart evolution and transform himself at will into a sort of Sala-MAN-der. How did he do this? Once again the writers skimmed over this and we never get a good scientific basis or theory, but once again, they have more important things to deal with. We are to assume he took a pinch of DNA from varying species of animal and somehow combined it with his own. Fine, I'll go along with that. This was one episode where I really didn't care all that much about the x-file itself. The monster was sufficiently creepy - I hate things that scurry - and there were no glaring plotholes, imo. Good enough for me this time around. Before I get to the good stuff, I want to get to the shallow stuff. Mulder looked so fine in the scene where he speaks with Stites on the lawn of the estate. Definitely a good hair day for DD. And I approve of the addition of that sexy black leather coat to Doggett's wardrobe. And to be fair and equitable, Scully looked as beautiful as ever. Okay, on to the good stuff. Agent Leyla Harrison, the metaphorical x-files fan, is a character named in tribute to an X-Files fanfic writer who recently passed away. She is us. Naive yet intelligent, she knows the case files almost verbatim and is a Mulder and Scully groupie. Even though she is green and unbeknownst to her has been placed within the X-Files unit by Kersh in order to impede Agent Doggett's progress, Doggett treats her with sympathy and sensitivity and quietly tolerates her exuberance and outlandish theories. I see Doggett as a representation of Ten Thirteen Productions who, despite some overzealous fans (who, me?), do appreciate our involvement and investment in the show. As Agent Harrison said, "I know The X-Files inside and out," and as the ultimate fan, she gets the ultimate prize - she is the one who figures out that Stites *is* the monster. She gets to meet Mulder and Scully and she even gets a souvenir keychain out of the deal. I liked the symbolism of Mulder and Scully being the ones to give Harrison the keychain - they themselves thanking their fans for 8 years of teamwork. As any true X-Files fan would, Harrison asks them for an answer to one of many unanswered questions that have popped up over the years: how the heck *did* they get out of Antarctica? They of course never did answer the question, but I got a good belly laugh when she asked it, and their friendly bickering in response was delightful. The tone of the episode is set not in the teaser, but in the scene where Scully takes out a number of trinkets from the office desk, reflecting upon each one as she packs up for maternity leave. In fact the entire episode is sprinkled with mementos and reminders of past episodes: ~ From the desk drawer, Scully removes a flashlight, the melded coins from the Season 6 "Dreamland" episodes (another nod to teamwork?), Queequeg's dogtag ("Quagmire") and the Apollo 11 keychain from "Max". ~ At the crime scene, Doggett, like Mulder has many many times, sticks his gloved finger in slime and examines it. It would have been a bit more Mulder-like if he wasn't wearing gloves and he sniffed it, but I'll make the stretch anyway. ~ Agent Harrison refers to past cases in an effort to explain this one, indicating that the slime could possibly be the bile of a liver-eating mutant ("Tooms") or the by-product of an alien shedding its skin ("The Beginning"). ~ Doggett finds a book on evolution in Stites' office, "The Sixth Extinction" by anthropologist Richard Leaky. Fans of the show of course know that there was an episode titled "The Sixth Extinction" in Season 7. ~ When Mulder finds Scully in an FBI autopsy room, working when she isn't supposed to be, he says, "Seems like old times, you in scrubs, slicing and dicing." ~ Harrison and Doggett are trapped underground and Harrison postulates that this case could be similar to the one Mulder and Scully had in Florida, referring to the 'mothmen' from "Detour" who would drag their human prey underground. ~ Finally, we get Mulder sitting in a car on stakeout, eating sunflower seeds and talking with Scully on a cel phone while she does an autopsy. The X-Files rarely refers to past episodes, unless it is dealing with the mythology, and even then the tiniest reference to a prior episode is enough to send a fan running to his or her computer to jump online and ask anyone who will listen, "Did you notice that??" These are tiny morsels that we savor. As ardent fans we watch old episodes over and over, know them by heart - sometimes better than their creators. Ten Thirteen seems to be always looking forward, never back, and to have an acknowledgment of a shared history, no matter how slight, is to taste one of these sweet morsels of collusion. We're in on the joke with you, we remember that time, gosh that was a long time ago, wasn't it? With each trinket Scully pulled out of that drawer came a pang, a bittersweet reminder of not only what we have had, but also of what we will be losing. I found myself smiling even as I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. Now that we are so near the end of our journey with Agents Mulder and Scully, the reality and finality of it all is at last setting in. The future of the show is currently in question, thus leaving the future of Scully and Doggett unclear; Scully smiled enigmatically when Doggett asked her if she was returning to the X-Files after her maternity leave, and the episode ends with the solitary figure of Doggett walking down the hospital hallway, the burden of a future in the X-Files alone weighing heavy about his neck. I will continue to watch the show if it is renewed; and although the extent of Scully's involvement in a possible next season is still unclear, we do know that this is the last season for Mulder. The Adventures of Moose and Squirrel will have reached an end with the final 2 episodes of this season, and "Alone" was the perfect opportunity to reflect upon a wonderful 8 years together before we become embroiled in the usual mythology-soaked 2-part season finale. I am sad. But with every pang of sadness comes another memory and another smile. This show has brought us hours and hours of some of the best television of the past decade. Mulder and Scully and the show itself have become pop-culture icons. Most importantly, though, this show has touched and altered countless lives, bringing together people who would never have met otherwise. I have made best friends in the fan community and I've traveled to places I would never have visited had it not been for them. So I say thank you in return, to The X-Files, for providing me the opportunity to participate in a partnership with them. It was a good time, wasn't it? |
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