The X-Files 3x01: The Blessing Way
Jun. 10th, 2019 12:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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tori_reviewsThe X-Files 3x01: The Blessing Way
I quite liked that episode, but I’m not sure I liked it as a season premier. And even in that, this is what it needed to be, and it does a lot of things well, it’s just not exactly kicking things off with a bang. Season 2 ended with tension and excitement quite high, while this episode is fairly low energy and more low key tension. Not exactly helped by the fact that some of what might have been gripping at the time isn’t on reflection.
To the point where I can’t even decide what I’m supposed to think regarding Skinner here. I trust Skinner completely, and while I get the sense that I’m not necessarily supposed to here, that isn’t something I can turn off. Scully doubting his capacity to do much good in the face of the big opposition I can at least sort of understand; and sure I get not assuming that some of the things that seem to be going wrong are actually him keeping them in control; and yes he absolutely has terrible timing considering everything going on, but doubting his intent to do the right thing to the best of his abilities is harder for me to get my head around.
I’m not quite sure how one should feel about Mulder here; I hesitate to even call it Mulder’s journey here because he’s kind of a lump in it (although in a more literal sense, how did he get back from New Mexico, and somehow just know not to call Scully and tell her he’s alive?). As I observed in the finale, worry over his survival isn’t something I can really feel these days, and I’m not sure if at this point we were still supposed to or not. But trying to say it’s foreknowledge doesn’t quite cover it, because the episode itself never quite feels like it’s really dealing with the possibility of Mulder being gone. Either on his side, if there had been more doubt in his survival, or on Scully’s as if he really is gone. I do get some sense that she just hasn’t started to deal with that yet; even though she does say he’s probably dead so isn’t in denial about what happened; aside from maybe her breakdown with Maggie it never feels like Scully’s actually allowing herself to feel Mulder’s supposed death.
Part of that is that, while it’s slow moving, there is a lot of plot here, so there’s not a lot of time spent feeling. We don’t deal with Teena (fine I’ll look up the spelling, I’ve been calling her Ma to avoid it because I knew it was something weird) Mulder’s feelings about all the crap going on. Yeah, she and Bill had been divorced for a while and I’m not sure (if I ever knew) how she feels about him now, but she is the only one apparently standing in for the family at the funeral and that’s awkward, on top of being a reminder that Fox is also supposedly dead (and so is Samantha). Why is Mulder such an asshole to his mom when he does come back; for that matter, while I get that he wants information on Bill’s history, why does he go to his mom before telling Scully he’s alive? Why go to his mom at all, unless they were actually at Bills house and she just happened to be there?
In other news, Scully has about 99 problems going on and the chip is one, and I’m not sure I’m really with her through all this. I’m watching it happen and most of her responses make sense, but I’m not feeling them. And GA is definitely a good enough actress that I should be.
I don’t think I really understand Well Manicured Man’s actions here, but maybe he just thinks Smokey hanging around Skinner’s office isn’t the best way to handle the problem. I’m not exactly saying he’s playing good cop in this, though l though there might be some of that, but if not I just don’t understand why his views are different from the others in the conspiracy. On one hand, showing that the conspiracy members are still their own people rather than a monolith of conformity could be interesting, but we don’t actually do anything with that. And isn’t it convenient that Teena doesn’t remember any names of Bill’s colleagues? I don’t remember if she’s lying (aside from the at least one she had an affair with), but as a writing trick to let them keep using silly names and not give Mulder a leg up on finding who they are it’s really obvious. Also, I’m glad the conspiracy has access to more than one gun thus not having to shoot people with the same gun every time, making it easier to get away with it.
Small point, but I also sort of wonder about the whole idea that Mulder’s not supposed to do work for a few days after the healing ceremony. What does that include? Apparently he’s good to drive across country, break into his mom’s house and interrogate her about his dad’s work, and I know he’s going to take off with Scully to look into more stuff next time, so either he’s going against witch-doctor’s orders or those are more like guidelines.
Previous status
I feel like I should have seen it before, and like I probably did, but I don’t really remember it. I did however recently watch sfdebris’ review of it.
When are we?
The days following Anasazi for one, also post April 16 as that’s the date in the newspaper. I’m not quite clear on how many days it covers (at least 3-4 while Mulder was in the tent) especially since they apparently decided it was more important to hurry Bill’s funeral along instead of waiting to see what happened to Fox.
People allowed to call Mulder Fox
I’m going to be happy to go back to not having so many Mulders to talk about; but his mom does call him Fox. Amusingly, Scully does not, just talking about ‘your son’ instead of using his name.
Vancouver spotting
I’m pretty sure the Arrowverse has used the location in the pictures, I’m pretty sure they go there next time so I’ll get a better look.
Are we saying it’s aliens?
We’re not saying there aren’t aliens, we’re just not real concerned with them right now.
Scully’s convenient miss of the week
She manages not to find anything when she goes out to look for Mulder, she also doesn’t seem to try very hard. Because of WMM’s convenient warning, Scully not getting shot is less of a convenience in the moment. Also, I’m not sure it says great things that the goon squad beat up three generations of Navajo guys, but barely roughed up the pretty white girl.
Who’s driving?
I’m also not quite sure why the goon squad caught up with Scully near Los Alamos when she was in Farmington last episode. Maybe that works with where the Navajo reservation is and I didn’t look into finding a map of that, just enough to confirm my memory that those two cities are not that close together. Though at least it appears Scully did drive back from New Mexico, so I don’t have to question where her car got to, but does leave the question how Mulder got back.
The gang that’s here
Skinner, Smokey, WMM, Krycek, Frohike, Maggie and Melissa Scully, ghost-Bill and still-alive-Teena Mulder, and ghost-Deep Throat. Plus I think a couple other to-become-familiar faces in the conspiracy meeting.
Revolving door of death
Mulder is less dead that thought (maybe somebody thought it), Bill and Deep Throat get to wander in and give some advice, Samantha does not.
Pretentious voiceovers
Albert gets several, might also count dream-Mulder
Break-ins
Scully’s place, Mulder breaks into his mom’s (or maybe dad’s), and ‘someone’ is about to break into Mulder’s.
Kill counts
Krycek, or the guy with him, kills Melissa, though that’s more a next time thing.
Is that continuity?
I’d call it anti-continuity; Scully has to have gone through some (many) metal detectors in the last six months since she got back. And surely she would have been given some scans to check her health after everything that happened. And what about all her stints in quarantine?
Noteworthy injuries
They do however keep Mulder’s gunshot wound from the previous episode, though it’s pretty small and looks a lot more healed than it should.
Can DD act?
He’s a serviceable lump, but no, not really
Does GA deserve an Emmy?
She’s trying to give Scully some inner life that the script is barely leaving room for. And she is definitely carrying the episode. I don’t know if I’d call that Emmy work, but this would be a lot worse without her. Also, her little ponytail is adorable.
Are they in love?
I don’t think anyone really knows at this point. She has dreams about him monologing about coming back from the dead, but they don’t give her any other room to react to him being gone.
Who’s your daddy?
I would say at this point Bill is meant to be Fox’s father, Deep Throat is kind of uncle-ish and CSM is in full arch-nemesis territory.
Wow that’s uncomfortable in hindsight
Think I’ll better understand what the chip is about this time? For the moment my attitude is ‘No Scully, don’t take that out.’
I quite liked that episode, but I’m not sure I liked it as a season premier. And even in that, this is what it needed to be, and it does a lot of things well, it’s just not exactly kicking things off with a bang. Season 2 ended with tension and excitement quite high, while this episode is fairly low energy and more low key tension. Not exactly helped by the fact that some of what might have been gripping at the time isn’t on reflection.
To the point where I can’t even decide what I’m supposed to think regarding Skinner here. I trust Skinner completely, and while I get the sense that I’m not necessarily supposed to here, that isn’t something I can turn off. Scully doubting his capacity to do much good in the face of the big opposition I can at least sort of understand; and sure I get not assuming that some of the things that seem to be going wrong are actually him keeping them in control; and yes he absolutely has terrible timing considering everything going on, but doubting his intent to do the right thing to the best of his abilities is harder for me to get my head around.
I’m not quite sure how one should feel about Mulder here; I hesitate to even call it Mulder’s journey here because he’s kind of a lump in it (although in a more literal sense, how did he get back from New Mexico, and somehow just know not to call Scully and tell her he’s alive?). As I observed in the finale, worry over his survival isn’t something I can really feel these days, and I’m not sure if at this point we were still supposed to or not. But trying to say it’s foreknowledge doesn’t quite cover it, because the episode itself never quite feels like it’s really dealing with the possibility of Mulder being gone. Either on his side, if there had been more doubt in his survival, or on Scully’s as if he really is gone. I do get some sense that she just hasn’t started to deal with that yet; even though she does say he’s probably dead so isn’t in denial about what happened; aside from maybe her breakdown with Maggie it never feels like Scully’s actually allowing herself to feel Mulder’s supposed death.
Part of that is that, while it’s slow moving, there is a lot of plot here, so there’s not a lot of time spent feeling. We don’t deal with Teena (fine I’ll look up the spelling, I’ve been calling her Ma to avoid it because I knew it was something weird) Mulder’s feelings about all the crap going on. Yeah, she and Bill had been divorced for a while and I’m not sure (if I ever knew) how she feels about him now, but she is the only one apparently standing in for the family at the funeral and that’s awkward, on top of being a reminder that Fox is also supposedly dead (and so is Samantha). Why is Mulder such an asshole to his mom when he does come back; for that matter, while I get that he wants information on Bill’s history, why does he go to his mom before telling Scully he’s alive? Why go to his mom at all, unless they were actually at Bills house and she just happened to be there?
In other news, Scully has about 99 problems going on and the chip is one, and I’m not sure I’m really with her through all this. I’m watching it happen and most of her responses make sense, but I’m not feeling them. And GA is definitely a good enough actress that I should be.
I don’t think I really understand Well Manicured Man’s actions here, but maybe he just thinks Smokey hanging around Skinner’s office isn’t the best way to handle the problem. I’m not exactly saying he’s playing good cop in this, though l though there might be some of that, but if not I just don’t understand why his views are different from the others in the conspiracy. On one hand, showing that the conspiracy members are still their own people rather than a monolith of conformity could be interesting, but we don’t actually do anything with that. And isn’t it convenient that Teena doesn’t remember any names of Bill’s colleagues? I don’t remember if she’s lying (aside from the at least one she had an affair with), but as a writing trick to let them keep using silly names and not give Mulder a leg up on finding who they are it’s really obvious. Also, I’m glad the conspiracy has access to more than one gun thus not having to shoot people with the same gun every time, making it easier to get away with it.
Small point, but I also sort of wonder about the whole idea that Mulder’s not supposed to do work for a few days after the healing ceremony. What does that include? Apparently he’s good to drive across country, break into his mom’s house and interrogate her about his dad’s work, and I know he’s going to take off with Scully to look into more stuff next time, so either he’s going against witch-doctor’s orders or those are more like guidelines.
Previous status
I feel like I should have seen it before, and like I probably did, but I don’t really remember it. I did however recently watch sfdebris’ review of it.
When are we?
The days following Anasazi for one, also post April 16 as that’s the date in the newspaper. I’m not quite clear on how many days it covers (at least 3-4 while Mulder was in the tent) especially since they apparently decided it was more important to hurry Bill’s funeral along instead of waiting to see what happened to Fox.
People allowed to call Mulder Fox
I’m going to be happy to go back to not having so many Mulders to talk about; but his mom does call him Fox. Amusingly, Scully does not, just talking about ‘your son’ instead of using his name.
Vancouver spotting
I’m pretty sure the Arrowverse has used the location in the pictures, I’m pretty sure they go there next time so I’ll get a better look.
Are we saying it’s aliens?
We’re not saying there aren’t aliens, we’re just not real concerned with them right now.
Scully’s convenient miss of the week
She manages not to find anything when she goes out to look for Mulder, she also doesn’t seem to try very hard. Because of WMM’s convenient warning, Scully not getting shot is less of a convenience in the moment. Also, I’m not sure it says great things that the goon squad beat up three generations of Navajo guys, but barely roughed up the pretty white girl.
Who’s driving?
I’m also not quite sure why the goon squad caught up with Scully near Los Alamos when she was in Farmington last episode. Maybe that works with where the Navajo reservation is and I didn’t look into finding a map of that, just enough to confirm my memory that those two cities are not that close together. Though at least it appears Scully did drive back from New Mexico, so I don’t have to question where her car got to, but does leave the question how Mulder got back.
The gang that’s here
Skinner, Smokey, WMM, Krycek, Frohike, Maggie and Melissa Scully, ghost-Bill and still-alive-Teena Mulder, and ghost-Deep Throat. Plus I think a couple other to-become-familiar faces in the conspiracy meeting.
Revolving door of death
Mulder is less dead that thought (maybe somebody thought it), Bill and Deep Throat get to wander in and give some advice, Samantha does not.
Pretentious voiceovers
Albert gets several, might also count dream-Mulder
Break-ins
Scully’s place, Mulder breaks into his mom’s (or maybe dad’s), and ‘someone’ is about to break into Mulder’s.
Kill counts
Krycek, or the guy with him, kills Melissa, though that’s more a next time thing.
Is that continuity?
I’d call it anti-continuity; Scully has to have gone through some (many) metal detectors in the last six months since she got back. And surely she would have been given some scans to check her health after everything that happened. And what about all her stints in quarantine?
Noteworthy injuries
They do however keep Mulder’s gunshot wound from the previous episode, though it’s pretty small and looks a lot more healed than it should.
Can DD act?
He’s a serviceable lump, but no, not really
Does GA deserve an Emmy?
She’s trying to give Scully some inner life that the script is barely leaving room for. And she is definitely carrying the episode. I don’t know if I’d call that Emmy work, but this would be a lot worse without her. Also, her little ponytail is adorable.
Are they in love?
I don’t think anyone really knows at this point. She has dreams about him monologing about coming back from the dead, but they don’t give her any other room to react to him being gone.
Who’s your daddy?
I would say at this point Bill is meant to be Fox’s father, Deep Throat is kind of uncle-ish and CSM is in full arch-nemesis territory.
Wow that’s uncomfortable in hindsight
Think I’ll better understand what the chip is about this time? For the moment my attitude is ‘No Scully, don’t take that out.’
