The X-Files 2x13: Irresistible
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tori_reviewsThe X-Files 2x13: Irresistible
This episode is...quite frankly, a confused mess. It has a lot of ideas and hints at even more ideas that may or may not have been thought through, and if you step back and squint they form a decent picture, but the more you look at it the less it goes together.
This is an episode I’m sure I saw when I was younger, but I don’t really remember how I felt about it then. I’m sure the climax was a lot more tense at the time (although I would have known Scully was going to survive largely unscathed since I’d seen later episodes) and I’m fairly confident I took it as more a string of effective moments than stepping back and realizing the whole doesn’t quite fit together.
Note to self, next season we should probably add ‘pretentious voiceovers’ to the closing topics. I sort of think of them being an escalating thing as the series progresses; I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the first but it’s the first time I’ve gone “Oh right, pretentious voiceovers.” Mulder and Scully both get to weigh in like that this time out.
While the episode is trying very hard to give us a lot of Scully focus in this one, it doesn’t really succeed at getting into her head. Why does this case affect her so much? We’re never really given an answer. After the fact, when she looks back on this case, yes it should affect her, but it doesn’t really give us an answer what’s bothering her during it. And I know psychology often doesn’t provide a hard answer; as a person, Scully is allowed to have whatever feelings the case brings out in her, but as a character the writer should know what they’re doing exploring those feelings and I don’t quite think they do here. The episode tries to point towards it being related to her abduction, but the only place it even kind of works (the bright headlights consuming her before she’s taken again) is long after Scully’s been thrown off her game by the case.
The show rarely gets so real that it deals with the kind of prejudice a real Scully would have faced as a woman in both medicine and the FBI. It isn’t even really an implied attribute 90% of the time, but it might be here (whether or not Carter meant it to be). She’s supposed to be strong and unaffected by the things she sees, and Scully herself doesn’t really have anyone to turn to that isn’t part of that system but would also understand the darkness she looks into as part of it.
I can’t help but feel this episode either should have come a few episodes earlier, or been part of a more planned arc leading into it. If this had come right after Firewalker, then the idea that Scully’s still feeling a bit uncertain, and like Mulder is seeing her as weakened would have made a lot of sense. Or if since then Mulder had consistently been trying to shield her from danger and treating her like something broken or breakable (and it would be understandable because he is deeply committed to never coming that close to losing her again, or fearing that next time it wouldn’t only be close) but then this hits her and it makes her feel like when she is legitimately upset she can’t let him know. It would move his early concern from seeming like understanding, to even though he’s right her feeling like he’s also being overprotective.
But you notice what almost all of these meandering thoughts would imply about the story? That it should have been about Scully reclaiming her own power and...it’s not. Scully isn’t the hero of this story, she’s the damsel in distress, and it’s not even that she ends up in that situation because of her own actions. She wasn’t chasing down a lead and got captured, she wasn’t even leading the interrogation at the jail that caught Donny’s attention, neither of which would have quite saved this problem, but might have helped. She gets an atta-girl for almost saving herself at the end but she doesn’t get say she saved herself or anyone else. Her rescue could have at least been more her own doing, if it was her profile for example that pointed them to where Donny would go; hell, from where we are, even if she had just found the print that gave them Donny would have been better.
One reading I’m considering as I write this, which I think is certainly a stretch to think was the intended reading (and is still timed wrong in the season) would be about reestablishing the fullness of Scully’s trust in Mulder. I’d be willing to concede to a retcon reading that said there had been some distance between them since her return; if nothing else there’s clearly a lot they still both aren’t talking about. And the episode is about her remembering that she can let herself lean on him when she needs to and that he will always come for her. The second would actually be quite important as he wasn’t the one who saved her the last time. That this time he did, would slightly heal something in both of them that had been broken by Duane Barry.
But for that to work as the ‘intended’ arc would have needed Scully to actually express her renewed faith in him and would have been helped a lot by Mulder acting like her being taken again strikes a way-to-sensitive nerve with him as well. To make it about restoring the partnership, the partnership should have been cracked or frayed to start with, or even in any kind of danger of being damaged, and it never is.
One problem with this episode is the fact that it’s just a normal case, and Mulder still has to be right. If Mulder was all up on some wild theory, and Scully was creeped out because all the evidence pointed to just a sick human, I feel like something in that could have maybe worked. As much as I prefer my sci-fi stories, sometimes I think that they should have let there be a rational explanation a bit more often just to keep us guessing. But this dismisses anything supernatural right out of the gate; and if you’re going to do non-supernatural stuff in a show that most people watch for the supernatural, your character work had better be impeccable and really powerful, and...this tries, at least GA tries to sell it, but it just doesn’t quite work.
I don’t know that any of the rambling in this review solved anything, but those are my ramblings.
When are we?
Wait; I don’t watch football, but even I’m pretty sure it’s played on Sunday (with outliers on Monday and Thursday). But the game is on when the local guy talks about it being difficult to get people in on a Saturday. And it’s not college.
Are we saying it’s aliens?
No, it very explicitly is not, just plain old human evil (until it’s not later on).
How crazy does Mulder sound?
Not at all. It’s potentially interesting to see the non-Spooky (just spooky good) agent who made such a name for himself that now he gets away working on this pet project of his, but it’s not handled in an interesting way. And he should absolutely be on or over the edge at the end once Scully is taken.
Can DD act?
He’s adequate. The writing just doesn’t let him go places he realistically should and he still isn’t really putting in layers that the script doesn’t call for.
Does GA deserve an Emmy?
She working on it. I’m not sure she actually deserves it, but she’s sure trying for it.
Who gets abducted?
I never quite know if this question is specifically alien related or not; yes I wrote the question but I waffle on interpretation. Scully...but not by aliens.
Is it rapey?
There’s pretty clearly no actual sex going on, but that doesn’t stop it from being rapey.
Is that continuity?
They bring up Scully’s dead dad, though it doesn’t really connect to anything.
Who’s driving?
Mulder, though we only see them in the car together a couple times.
What’s the FBI’s travel budget?
They came out in the first place even though Mulder was pretty sure they weren’t needed. Then Scully flies back to and from DC.
Are they in love?
Mulder seems to have abandoned being the official umbrella holder (though now he has to stoop to get under it when held by Scully, so I’m not sure it’s any less shippy); he clearly wants to take her on a date to a football game, and basically spends the entire episode going ‘Scully, are you okay? It’s okay if you’re not okay you know that right? I’ve always got your back either way.’ Basically, in spite of the under-emotional reaction during the climax and finale, I’d say that the boy’s pretty into her. As for Scully, she trusts him with her life, and the story might have been about trusting him with her weakness too; it’s probably love though I’m less settled on in love.
Forehead kisses
We may have gotten our first forehead kissing at the end. It’s a close thing and may have just been a hug, but I felt the need to note it.
This is sort of a weird case where I had several similar thoughts, but I came a fairly different conclusion that the episode was fine. Though even after cleaning it up a bit I don’t think I wrote about it very well.
2x13: Irresistible (2016 thoughts)
(Previous status: this one I have seen before, maybe a couple times)
This one is...pretty good, but I wish it was better. The plot of this one doesn’t necessarily make a ton more sense than the last few did, but it’s not hampered by that fact so much because it doesn’t make sense in human ways as opposed to not explaining how the para-skience works. Even though I think in the follow-up episode they retcon that Donnie is some kind of demon, for this one the story is entirely human so while they don’t explain the motivations necessarily because they’re assumed to be ‘human,’ it goes over a bit easier.
I feel like there’s two problems with the characterization with Mulder and Scully here. The first is 90s TV rules to not draw much in the way of connections between stories, so it feels a bit shallow. While eventually we’re reminded somewhat of things that had happened to Scully recently it never quite connects with why the case upsets her so much. And when Scully’s taken again we don’t see the ‘again’ factor influencing Mulder’s attitude.
The second problem is that both of them seem to be precognitive about how the case will go. Mulder doesn’t fall for the idea of aliens at all for even a moment nor does he ever propose anything paranormal, from a guy who seems to always jump to the paranormal explanation for things long before there’s real reason to, like he’s clairvoyant that this time that would clearly be wrong. Now, a pull back from immediately jumping to the paranormal explanation is somewhat in character for Mulder this season, and as they keep finding evidence that this is a human crime one could argue it makes sense that he doesn’t end up making those assumptions; and I’d probably allow it if that was the only aspect of this. Since Scully’s extreme reaction to the case is never fully explored it comes off a little as if she’s aware that it’s going to end up being a danger to her by the end.
Again, I can hammer this to work, that this situation slips past her defenses for a few reasons. She’s gotten used to cases where even her more rational explanations are not exactly normal situations; that there is no grand conspiracy or shadowy force here, just plain human evil. That her curiosity isn’t piqued by this case the way it is by so much of why they investigate that helps keep her from seeing them as so horrible. And because she starts reacting badly she’s afraid to seem weak, when she’s able to be strong in so many other extreme situations. And that’s where the real connection with her abduction comes in; after what happened she worries about seeming weak, being less-than in anyone’s eyes but especially Mulder’s. I think it’s clear they haven’t really dealt with the effects of what happened to her, Scully hardly seems to have dealt with them at all up to now; or even really still.
I would like to say that the shippiness is in full swing here. They’re always fairly adorable when they decide to share an umbrella, Mulder wants to take Scully on a date to a football game, and he’s really good with her throughout the episode. He manages not to be pushy, although he tries to nudge her to be a little more honest about what’s going on; he tries very hard not to make her feel weak or less-than for her reactions and feelings, it’s just that Scully feels it anyway; and he still carries it through to the end. Plus there’s Scully’s stuff, which is mainly GA acting her little socks off, but does have some ship-relevant bits naturally.
This episode is...quite frankly, a confused mess. It has a lot of ideas and hints at even more ideas that may or may not have been thought through, and if you step back and squint they form a decent picture, but the more you look at it the less it goes together.
This is an episode I’m sure I saw when I was younger, but I don’t really remember how I felt about it then. I’m sure the climax was a lot more tense at the time (although I would have known Scully was going to survive largely unscathed since I’d seen later episodes) and I’m fairly confident I took it as more a string of effective moments than stepping back and realizing the whole doesn’t quite fit together.
Note to self, next season we should probably add ‘pretentious voiceovers’ to the closing topics. I sort of think of them being an escalating thing as the series progresses; I’m pretty sure this wasn’t the first but it’s the first time I’ve gone “Oh right, pretentious voiceovers.” Mulder and Scully both get to weigh in like that this time out.
While the episode is trying very hard to give us a lot of Scully focus in this one, it doesn’t really succeed at getting into her head. Why does this case affect her so much? We’re never really given an answer. After the fact, when she looks back on this case, yes it should affect her, but it doesn’t really give us an answer what’s bothering her during it. And I know psychology often doesn’t provide a hard answer; as a person, Scully is allowed to have whatever feelings the case brings out in her, but as a character the writer should know what they’re doing exploring those feelings and I don’t quite think they do here. The episode tries to point towards it being related to her abduction, but the only place it even kind of works (the bright headlights consuming her before she’s taken again) is long after Scully’s been thrown off her game by the case.
The show rarely gets so real that it deals with the kind of prejudice a real Scully would have faced as a woman in both medicine and the FBI. It isn’t even really an implied attribute 90% of the time, but it might be here (whether or not Carter meant it to be). She’s supposed to be strong and unaffected by the things she sees, and Scully herself doesn’t really have anyone to turn to that isn’t part of that system but would also understand the darkness she looks into as part of it.
I can’t help but feel this episode either should have come a few episodes earlier, or been part of a more planned arc leading into it. If this had come right after Firewalker, then the idea that Scully’s still feeling a bit uncertain, and like Mulder is seeing her as weakened would have made a lot of sense. Or if since then Mulder had consistently been trying to shield her from danger and treating her like something broken or breakable (and it would be understandable because he is deeply committed to never coming that close to losing her again, or fearing that next time it wouldn’t only be close) but then this hits her and it makes her feel like when she is legitimately upset she can’t let him know. It would move his early concern from seeming like understanding, to even though he’s right her feeling like he’s also being overprotective.
But you notice what almost all of these meandering thoughts would imply about the story? That it should have been about Scully reclaiming her own power and...it’s not. Scully isn’t the hero of this story, she’s the damsel in distress, and it’s not even that she ends up in that situation because of her own actions. She wasn’t chasing down a lead and got captured, she wasn’t even leading the interrogation at the jail that caught Donny’s attention, neither of which would have quite saved this problem, but might have helped. She gets an atta-girl for almost saving herself at the end but she doesn’t get say she saved herself or anyone else. Her rescue could have at least been more her own doing, if it was her profile for example that pointed them to where Donny would go; hell, from where we are, even if she had just found the print that gave them Donny would have been better.
One reading I’m considering as I write this, which I think is certainly a stretch to think was the intended reading (and is still timed wrong in the season) would be about reestablishing the fullness of Scully’s trust in Mulder. I’d be willing to concede to a retcon reading that said there had been some distance between them since her return; if nothing else there’s clearly a lot they still both aren’t talking about. And the episode is about her remembering that she can let herself lean on him when she needs to and that he will always come for her. The second would actually be quite important as he wasn’t the one who saved her the last time. That this time he did, would slightly heal something in both of them that had been broken by Duane Barry.
But for that to work as the ‘intended’ arc would have needed Scully to actually express her renewed faith in him and would have been helped a lot by Mulder acting like her being taken again strikes a way-to-sensitive nerve with him as well. To make it about restoring the partnership, the partnership should have been cracked or frayed to start with, or even in any kind of danger of being damaged, and it never is.
One problem with this episode is the fact that it’s just a normal case, and Mulder still has to be right. If Mulder was all up on some wild theory, and Scully was creeped out because all the evidence pointed to just a sick human, I feel like something in that could have maybe worked. As much as I prefer my sci-fi stories, sometimes I think that they should have let there be a rational explanation a bit more often just to keep us guessing. But this dismisses anything supernatural right out of the gate; and if you’re going to do non-supernatural stuff in a show that most people watch for the supernatural, your character work had better be impeccable and really powerful, and...this tries, at least GA tries to sell it, but it just doesn’t quite work.
I don’t know that any of the rambling in this review solved anything, but those are my ramblings.
When are we?
Wait; I don’t watch football, but even I’m pretty sure it’s played on Sunday (with outliers on Monday and Thursday). But the game is on when the local guy talks about it being difficult to get people in on a Saturday. And it’s not college.
Are we saying it’s aliens?
No, it very explicitly is not, just plain old human evil (until it’s not later on).
How crazy does Mulder sound?
Not at all. It’s potentially interesting to see the non-Spooky (just spooky good) agent who made such a name for himself that now he gets away working on this pet project of his, but it’s not handled in an interesting way. And he should absolutely be on or over the edge at the end once Scully is taken.
Can DD act?
He’s adequate. The writing just doesn’t let him go places he realistically should and he still isn’t really putting in layers that the script doesn’t call for.
Does GA deserve an Emmy?
She working on it. I’m not sure she actually deserves it, but she’s sure trying for it.
Who gets abducted?
I never quite know if this question is specifically alien related or not; yes I wrote the question but I waffle on interpretation. Scully...but not by aliens.
Is it rapey?
There’s pretty clearly no actual sex going on, but that doesn’t stop it from being rapey.
Is that continuity?
They bring up Scully’s dead dad, though it doesn’t really connect to anything.
Who’s driving?
Mulder, though we only see them in the car together a couple times.
What’s the FBI’s travel budget?
They came out in the first place even though Mulder was pretty sure they weren’t needed. Then Scully flies back to and from DC.
Are they in love?
Mulder seems to have abandoned being the official umbrella holder (though now he has to stoop to get under it when held by Scully, so I’m not sure it’s any less shippy); he clearly wants to take her on a date to a football game, and basically spends the entire episode going ‘Scully, are you okay? It’s okay if you’re not okay you know that right? I’ve always got your back either way.’ Basically, in spite of the under-emotional reaction during the climax and finale, I’d say that the boy’s pretty into her. As for Scully, she trusts him with her life, and the story might have been about trusting him with her weakness too; it’s probably love though I’m less settled on in love.
Forehead kisses
We may have gotten our first forehead kissing at the end. It’s a close thing and may have just been a hug, but I felt the need to note it.
This is sort of a weird case where I had several similar thoughts, but I came a fairly different conclusion that the episode was fine. Though even after cleaning it up a bit I don’t think I wrote about it very well.
2x13: Irresistible (2016 thoughts)
(Previous status: this one I have seen before, maybe a couple times)
This one is...pretty good, but I wish it was better. The plot of this one doesn’t necessarily make a ton more sense than the last few did, but it’s not hampered by that fact so much because it doesn’t make sense in human ways as opposed to not explaining how the para-skience works. Even though I think in the follow-up episode they retcon that Donnie is some kind of demon, for this one the story is entirely human so while they don’t explain the motivations necessarily because they’re assumed to be ‘human,’ it goes over a bit easier.
I feel like there’s two problems with the characterization with Mulder and Scully here. The first is 90s TV rules to not draw much in the way of connections between stories, so it feels a bit shallow. While eventually we’re reminded somewhat of things that had happened to Scully recently it never quite connects with why the case upsets her so much. And when Scully’s taken again we don’t see the ‘again’ factor influencing Mulder’s attitude.
The second problem is that both of them seem to be precognitive about how the case will go. Mulder doesn’t fall for the idea of aliens at all for even a moment nor does he ever propose anything paranormal, from a guy who seems to always jump to the paranormal explanation for things long before there’s real reason to, like he’s clairvoyant that this time that would clearly be wrong. Now, a pull back from immediately jumping to the paranormal explanation is somewhat in character for Mulder this season, and as they keep finding evidence that this is a human crime one could argue it makes sense that he doesn’t end up making those assumptions; and I’d probably allow it if that was the only aspect of this. Since Scully’s extreme reaction to the case is never fully explored it comes off a little as if she’s aware that it’s going to end up being a danger to her by the end.
Again, I can hammer this to work, that this situation slips past her defenses for a few reasons. She’s gotten used to cases where even her more rational explanations are not exactly normal situations; that there is no grand conspiracy or shadowy force here, just plain human evil. That her curiosity isn’t piqued by this case the way it is by so much of why they investigate that helps keep her from seeing them as so horrible. And because she starts reacting badly she’s afraid to seem weak, when she’s able to be strong in so many other extreme situations. And that’s where the real connection with her abduction comes in; after what happened she worries about seeming weak, being less-than in anyone’s eyes but especially Mulder’s. I think it’s clear they haven’t really dealt with the effects of what happened to her, Scully hardly seems to have dealt with them at all up to now; or even really still.
I would like to say that the shippiness is in full swing here. They’re always fairly adorable when they decide to share an umbrella, Mulder wants to take Scully on a date to a football game, and he’s really good with her throughout the episode. He manages not to be pushy, although he tries to nudge her to be a little more honest about what’s going on; he tries very hard not to make her feel weak or less-than for her reactions and feelings, it’s just that Scully feels it anyway; and he still carries it through to the end. Plus there’s Scully’s stuff, which is mainly GA acting her little socks off, but does have some ship-relevant bits naturally.
