The X-Files 4x16: Unrequited
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tori_reviewsThe X-Files 4x16: Unrequited
This episode is...strange. All through it I couldn’t make up my mind how I felt about it. It’s not good, but it always feels like it’s going to tip over into being bad, and avoiding that is kind of an accomplishment in itself. It’s kind of like the inverse of how I sometimes say that an episode that is perfectly competent but never rises above that can be really frustrating; in this case a not very good episode that never quite loses me has a weird power to draw me in.
But this episode makes some weird choices. For one, and most importantly, why would you have an episode built around Vietnam, even have Skinner in it, and not make more use of him? If we got more stories that were actually focused on Skinner then I might actually find this an interesting (in a good way) choice, that not all Vietnam stories need to be focused on Skinner’s experience and not all Skinner stories need to be focused on Vietnam. But we do get so few Skinner focused stories that setting up a golden opportunity for one and only giving a few moments that build on his history feels like a problem. Skinner is the first of our characters that we see in this one, both in the cold open and the restart briefing, it feels like this was supposed to be more focused on him.
And there could have been something really interesting in playing a story like this from Skinner’s perspective, not for a different perspective on ‘Nam but from the one who stays behind, the taskforce leader, instead of sticking with Mulder and Scully who go out and do things. I don’t know that we ever get that kind of episode, and seems like such an obvious thing to do that they really should have done it.
Or, if not from Skinner’s background POV, then I wish this episode had been reconceived to be part of the cancer arc (we’ll come to that). If we’re going to stick with Mulder and Scully’s perspectives, then consider throwing in some growing distance between them and Skinner, in the sense that he seems to be shutting them out of something that Mulder feels is an X-file and even Scully finds it weird that he’s not bringing them in as the case gets weirder. Add in just a little suspicion that Skinner is in on the behind the scenes machinations (whether or not he is in this case) and the audience is reminded that he’s made a deal with Smokey and he might be on the wrong side here but only because his goal is to protect them (well, mostly Scully).
Don’t get me wrong, I like the vibe between the three of them here, or at least by implication to me. This feels like a bit like the structure we saw in ‘Field Where I Died,’ where he is the third member of the team as soon as you expand it beyond the two of them. That while he has other agents who work for him, he relies on Mulder and Scully to be *his* agents; and that’s what they consider themselves to be. That their fates are tied together, Skinner is what protects them from a lot of shit that could fall on them, and they have a responsibility to protect him from the dangers that position puts him in. Again, if this dynamic was present more often, or more fully explored, then this episode just kind of having it but not really doing anything with it would be fine; but it’s not a fully fleshed out dynamic, and certainly not equitable in terms of screen time, so I still feel like this episode should have done more.
In a way I’m almost glad this episode made clear fairly early on that it was outside the cancer arc; it did keep me from wondering as it unfolded if I should be looking for references to it. It wouldn’t surprise me if the reason this seems to hit the same dynamic of ‘Field’ is because it was written around the same time, and intended to be placed around that time. This episode is set in November (I don’t think it mentions a year), and this is episode 16 and aired in February; while ‘Field’ (ep 5) was aired back in November. I would just about bet that they had this episode ready to go and then just kept getting to other episodes first and never bothered to rework it at all when they finally got to it; but because with a bit of extra attention it isn’t hard to place this at the earlier point I just want to reorder the episode rather than get angry about it.
But seriously, unless they actually filmed it earlier on and just kept it in the can to show when they needed an extra weeks for something, they should have reworked it at least a bit and taken out the spontaneous eye-bleeding. It never comes up again in this story and is really awkward since this is currently placed in the cancer arc when Scully’s nose-bleeds are such important cues to her condition. I sure hope she doesn’t start having eye-bleeding issues too.
Hmm, I don’t know if this is a cause or effect necessarily, but I think it’s definitely connected to the fact that I had an okay reaction to this one; all I want to talk about is the characters. The plot is never as important to me as the characters, and this gave me things to consider about them
I had a few thoughts on Teager; I kept expecting there to be some explicit comment on the invisibility of veterans, especially from Vietnam, but I didn’t feel like they ever went there. I’m not sure if I think that was a good choice or not; in a way I suppose if even I picked up on it, it wasn’t that subtextual and not going even more blatant with a message isn’t bad. On the other hand I don’t feel like we ever got a real reason for his power, or much exploration of his situation. We know just enough that I’m kind of frustrated that I’m pretty sure we’ll never hear of this plot again; the supposed POWs, or the investigation of the general they saved, or the (not red) Right Hand. They even made sure to give the other vet a list of names to look into, but we’ll almost certainly never follow up on this hanging plot thread.
A few final notes: Mark Snow could stand to cool it with the martial drums throughout this one. Also, why is this called ‘Unrequited’?
Previous status
Never seen before. Although weirdly my kind of lenient attitude these last few episodes makes me feel like the show just *feels* familiar now, like this is the show I remember now that we’re in times I remember even if there are still episodes I never saw. A show I don’t always like but I just kind of accept for what it is; or maybe it’s more along the lines of ‘something that I feel like I understand won’t hurt me the way a lot of the things I didn’t know about the last season or two did.’
When are we?
November 12 (no year given). Why make that pretty obvious in the captions (when even I catch it I consider it obvious) but not reference that this is happening around Veterans’ Day? Again part of what makes this feel like an episode they just threw in wherever and tried not to draw too much attention to that but left it open to those who noticed to speculate.
Vancouver spotting
I’ve only been to the Vietnam memorial once but I’m pretty sure that’s not where we are when they say we are. On the other hand if they did make a trip out to DC to do a few bits of filming (maybe just got some B roll), they probably also filmed the opening of ‘Never Again’ while they were at it, and that’s yet more proof that they didn’t consider where this episode would end up; that one is hard enough to place.
The gang that’s here
Skinner and Marita
Other ships at sea
Skinner seems pretty tetchy with Scully; and Mulder and Marita are making some serious sex eyes; I don’t particularly care for either of these things.
Who’s driving?
Mulder
Are we saying it’s aliens?
Teager either has a some kind of perception filter so no one sees him, or a somebody else’s problem field if we’re going with the more metaphorical reason for him going unnoticed. Mulder says Teager learned it in Vietnam and the Vietnamese also have the ability, but whatever.
How crazy does Mulder sound?
I’m not sure why Team X-Files is on this case (aside from Skinner wanting them around), Mulder has nothing crazy to speculate on until fairly late in the game. But when he does he goes pretty hard into talking about Teager being able to be invisible; so sometimes crazy.
Scully’s convenient miss of the week
I’m not sure anyone sees anything that interesting, but she doesn’t get the full exposure to Teager’s disappearing act, she could have just lost him in a crowd or him be in shadows.
Noteworthy injuries
I do hope people get their eyes checked after this; the whole crowd might need it, but certainly everyone who went looking for Teager and had him disappear on them. There may be another cause of the one lady’s bad eyes, but with only one data point they should probably get checked.
Bad investigation alert
Mulder pick up the card on general #2 without gloves, although it does later get properly bagged. He orders Scully (again, shades of ‘Never Again’) to go get the lady’s eyes checked, leaving her to explain why they’re doing that (not that the lady was probably super suspicious since her eyes were bleeding). Scully does not seem to ever try to save Teager in the end. I don’t understand why they keep using the old raggedy picture to ID Teager from after they have him on video as he currently looks. It’s not a great showing for them.
Kill counts
Somebody kills Teager in the end, I’m not quite sure who though.
What’s the FBI’s travel budget?
I sort of question why Mulder and Scully were the best choice to send to deal with the (not red) Right Hand man, there must have been closer agents to at least bring him in or at least make sure he’s home. I partially allow this in that I’m not sure the characters knew the time crunch they were under or if just the viewers already understood from the cold open (at least I don’t remember them knowing the time crunch, maybe it just didn’t register with me). Also, for once they bring backup (who somehow aren’t seen until necessary).
This episode is...strange. All through it I couldn’t make up my mind how I felt about it. It’s not good, but it always feels like it’s going to tip over into being bad, and avoiding that is kind of an accomplishment in itself. It’s kind of like the inverse of how I sometimes say that an episode that is perfectly competent but never rises above that can be really frustrating; in this case a not very good episode that never quite loses me has a weird power to draw me in.
But this episode makes some weird choices. For one, and most importantly, why would you have an episode built around Vietnam, even have Skinner in it, and not make more use of him? If we got more stories that were actually focused on Skinner then I might actually find this an interesting (in a good way) choice, that not all Vietnam stories need to be focused on Skinner’s experience and not all Skinner stories need to be focused on Vietnam. But we do get so few Skinner focused stories that setting up a golden opportunity for one and only giving a few moments that build on his history feels like a problem. Skinner is the first of our characters that we see in this one, both in the cold open and the restart briefing, it feels like this was supposed to be more focused on him.
And there could have been something really interesting in playing a story like this from Skinner’s perspective, not for a different perspective on ‘Nam but from the one who stays behind, the taskforce leader, instead of sticking with Mulder and Scully who go out and do things. I don’t know that we ever get that kind of episode, and seems like such an obvious thing to do that they really should have done it.
Or, if not from Skinner’s background POV, then I wish this episode had been reconceived to be part of the cancer arc (we’ll come to that). If we’re going to stick with Mulder and Scully’s perspectives, then consider throwing in some growing distance between them and Skinner, in the sense that he seems to be shutting them out of something that Mulder feels is an X-file and even Scully finds it weird that he’s not bringing them in as the case gets weirder. Add in just a little suspicion that Skinner is in on the behind the scenes machinations (whether or not he is in this case) and the audience is reminded that he’s made a deal with Smokey and he might be on the wrong side here but only because his goal is to protect them (well, mostly Scully).
Don’t get me wrong, I like the vibe between the three of them here, or at least by implication to me. This feels like a bit like the structure we saw in ‘Field Where I Died,’ where he is the third member of the team as soon as you expand it beyond the two of them. That while he has other agents who work for him, he relies on Mulder and Scully to be *his* agents; and that’s what they consider themselves to be. That their fates are tied together, Skinner is what protects them from a lot of shit that could fall on them, and they have a responsibility to protect him from the dangers that position puts him in. Again, if this dynamic was present more often, or more fully explored, then this episode just kind of having it but not really doing anything with it would be fine; but it’s not a fully fleshed out dynamic, and certainly not equitable in terms of screen time, so I still feel like this episode should have done more.
In a way I’m almost glad this episode made clear fairly early on that it was outside the cancer arc; it did keep me from wondering as it unfolded if I should be looking for references to it. It wouldn’t surprise me if the reason this seems to hit the same dynamic of ‘Field’ is because it was written around the same time, and intended to be placed around that time. This episode is set in November (I don’t think it mentions a year), and this is episode 16 and aired in February; while ‘Field’ (ep 5) was aired back in November. I would just about bet that they had this episode ready to go and then just kept getting to other episodes first and never bothered to rework it at all when they finally got to it; but because with a bit of extra attention it isn’t hard to place this at the earlier point I just want to reorder the episode rather than get angry about it.
But seriously, unless they actually filmed it earlier on and just kept it in the can to show when they needed an extra weeks for something, they should have reworked it at least a bit and taken out the spontaneous eye-bleeding. It never comes up again in this story and is really awkward since this is currently placed in the cancer arc when Scully’s nose-bleeds are such important cues to her condition. I sure hope she doesn’t start having eye-bleeding issues too.
Hmm, I don’t know if this is a cause or effect necessarily, but I think it’s definitely connected to the fact that I had an okay reaction to this one; all I want to talk about is the characters. The plot is never as important to me as the characters, and this gave me things to consider about them
I had a few thoughts on Teager; I kept expecting there to be some explicit comment on the invisibility of veterans, especially from Vietnam, but I didn’t feel like they ever went there. I’m not sure if I think that was a good choice or not; in a way I suppose if even I picked up on it, it wasn’t that subtextual and not going even more blatant with a message isn’t bad. On the other hand I don’t feel like we ever got a real reason for his power, or much exploration of his situation. We know just enough that I’m kind of frustrated that I’m pretty sure we’ll never hear of this plot again; the supposed POWs, or the investigation of the general they saved, or the (not red) Right Hand. They even made sure to give the other vet a list of names to look into, but we’ll almost certainly never follow up on this hanging plot thread.
A few final notes: Mark Snow could stand to cool it with the martial drums throughout this one. Also, why is this called ‘Unrequited’?
Previous status
Never seen before. Although weirdly my kind of lenient attitude these last few episodes makes me feel like the show just *feels* familiar now, like this is the show I remember now that we’re in times I remember even if there are still episodes I never saw. A show I don’t always like but I just kind of accept for what it is; or maybe it’s more along the lines of ‘something that I feel like I understand won’t hurt me the way a lot of the things I didn’t know about the last season or two did.’
When are we?
November 12 (no year given). Why make that pretty obvious in the captions (when even I catch it I consider it obvious) but not reference that this is happening around Veterans’ Day? Again part of what makes this feel like an episode they just threw in wherever and tried not to draw too much attention to that but left it open to those who noticed to speculate.
Vancouver spotting
I’ve only been to the Vietnam memorial once but I’m pretty sure that’s not where we are when they say we are. On the other hand if they did make a trip out to DC to do a few bits of filming (maybe just got some B roll), they probably also filmed the opening of ‘Never Again’ while they were at it, and that’s yet more proof that they didn’t consider where this episode would end up; that one is hard enough to place.
The gang that’s here
Skinner and Marita
Other ships at sea
Skinner seems pretty tetchy with Scully; and Mulder and Marita are making some serious sex eyes; I don’t particularly care for either of these things.
Who’s driving?
Mulder
Are we saying it’s aliens?
Teager either has a some kind of perception filter so no one sees him, or a somebody else’s problem field if we’re going with the more metaphorical reason for him going unnoticed. Mulder says Teager learned it in Vietnam and the Vietnamese also have the ability, but whatever.
How crazy does Mulder sound?
I’m not sure why Team X-Files is on this case (aside from Skinner wanting them around), Mulder has nothing crazy to speculate on until fairly late in the game. But when he does he goes pretty hard into talking about Teager being able to be invisible; so sometimes crazy.
Scully’s convenient miss of the week
I’m not sure anyone sees anything that interesting, but she doesn’t get the full exposure to Teager’s disappearing act, she could have just lost him in a crowd or him be in shadows.
Noteworthy injuries
I do hope people get their eyes checked after this; the whole crowd might need it, but certainly everyone who went looking for Teager and had him disappear on them. There may be another cause of the one lady’s bad eyes, but with only one data point they should probably get checked.
Bad investigation alert
Mulder pick up the card on general #2 without gloves, although it does later get properly bagged. He orders Scully (again, shades of ‘Never Again’) to go get the lady’s eyes checked, leaving her to explain why they’re doing that (not that the lady was probably super suspicious since her eyes were bleeding). Scully does not seem to ever try to save Teager in the end. I don’t understand why they keep using the old raggedy picture to ID Teager from after they have him on video as he currently looks. It’s not a great showing for them.
Kill counts
Somebody kills Teager in the end, I’m not quite sure who though.
What’s the FBI’s travel budget?
I sort of question why Mulder and Scully were the best choice to send to deal with the (not red) Right Hand man, there must have been closer agents to at least bring him in or at least make sure he’s home. I partially allow this in that I’m not sure the characters knew the time crunch they were under or if just the viewers already understood from the cold open (at least I don’t remember them knowing the time crunch, maybe it just didn’t register with me). Also, for once they bring backup (who somehow aren’t seen until necessary).
