Season 4: I'm Sorry, But You've Got Something I Need...

[JanetMacklin]

Discuss Season 4 here at your leisure.

[Bastet]

One of my favorite seasons, which is kind of interesting because there are a number of episodes I find rather ho-hum and some I outright dislike.  But the episodes I love, I LOVE.

[ElleryAnne]

There are some good standalones in S4 - El Mundo Gira, Small Potatoes, and Home, especially.

Zero Sum is the episode that finally made me like Skinner.  Up until then, he'd just been annoying to me, but he wins me over in this one.

Tunguska/Terma is possibly my favorite mytharc storyline.  I also like Herrenvolk, because I've always had a fondness for Jeremiah Smith.

Of course, there are some heartbreakers in this season.  As great as the acting is in them, I tend not to re-watch the ones that make me sad.

[queequeg]

So we watched Unruhe last night, and my heart broke a little watching Mulder try to track down Scully. From the running after the car screaming her name, to the desperation on his face trying to piece together where she might be. It was so damn sad.

[Taryn74]

Unruhe is just a great ep.  It has pretty much everything I love about the XF in one ep.  Just great stuff.

 

to the desperation on his face trying to piece together where she might be.

 

 

I literally get chills every time he figures out what the "six fingers" in the photograph mean (that Gerry took Scully to the cemetery where his father is buried).  I love it because it's one of the few times that we really get to see Profiler!Mulder in action.  He doesn't second-guess himself, he doesn't take time to argue his point with anyone, he just figures it out, knows instinctively that he's correct, and takes off because every second counts.  So much awesome.

[queequeg]

OK, so The Field Where I Died, I'm not sure how I feel about this ep. #1 Sidney was just too much for me. #2 Mulder's crying made me sooo uncomfortable, like embarrassed for him. Former life or not, how did he manage to get himself so worked up over someone he just met?! #3 I can't decide if it's sweet that Mulder and Scully's souls spend life after life together, or if it squicks me out she was his father at one point. I'm also trying to rationalize the whole in your face "See, they're (M&S) not soul mates!!! This other random chick you've never met and will never see again is!!!" that I felt was thrown in our face the whole ep. Like maybe Melissa and Mulder could never get it right in previous lives, and never will? Also, can't someone come up with a name other than Melissa?!

[Bastet]

OK, so The Field Where I Died, I'm not sure how I feel about this ep.

 

"It sucks" sums it up for me.  Kristen Cloke can't act, David Duchovny can't cry, and while Morgan & Wong can write they don't do it very well in this one.  Alas, Mulder and Scully are pretty and they get to close talk in this one, but pretty screencaps do not an episode make.

[Taryn74]

I have a big love/hate relationship with TFWID.  On the one hand, I do enjoy the cult stuff (because that always fascinates me), but I could pretty much quote everything in the above two posts and say "....yeah."

[smrou]

Alas, Mulder and Scully are pretty and they get to close talk in this one, but pretty screencaps do not an episode make.

Totally agree.  But that pretty screepcap was my computer wallpaper for quite a while once upon a time. :)

[queequeg]

Bastet, that is a pretty picture.  Maybe I need to just focus on that and stop trying to make sense of the soulmate crap.

 

In other news, Mulder was infected with black goo last night.  To be continued...

[queequeg]

Uuuggghhhh, we're up to Leonard Betts.  I'm not ready for the whole cancer thing yet.  I realize that in the end she'll be fine, so I'm being totally illogical, but I'm still not ready for it.  I was enjoying the simpler times of the early seasons...

[ElleryAnne]

But that means you're almost up to Memento Mori, queequeg.   Scully's voiceover at the beginning of that episode is one of my favorite things in S4.  It's one of the few times this show actually brought a tear to my eye.

Edited May 23, 2014 by ElleryAnne

[Bastet]

The voice-overs are the only thing I don't like about Memento Mori.  Whenever CC writes inner thoughts, the script goes off the rails.  The rest of the episode makes up for it, and how, but I still cringe.

 

I always watch in the originally-intended order - Never Again, Leonard Betts, Memento Mori - and while I love all three episodes, I do get that "Oh no, here it comes" feeling at the end of LB.  MM is so damn good, but it grabs your heart and twists.

[queequeg]

Bastet, I'm glad I'm not the only one. :) I felt like I was mentally bracing for it last night. Lol

[ElleryAnne]

Whenever CC writes inner thoughts, the script goes off the rails.

 

 

Heh.  When CC tries to write anything, it's prone to going off the rails.  But I still like the VO in MM.

[queequeg]

OK, so last night the H and I watched Leonard Betts, Never Again, and Memento Mori. Here are my random thoughts...

Leonard Betts - we watched in the order they aired, but at the risk of giant dorkdom, I did warn H that LB and Never Again were aired out of order, and to keep that in mind. I honestly don't remember much about this episode, probably because I was just waiting for the cancer shoe to drop. I do wish Scully had told Mulder immediately. She looked so alone and so in need of a hug at the end. Ugh. I did feel better after she knew, though. The build up was worse than the actual event.

Never Again - I'm pretty sure this puts me in the minority, but I really liked this episode. I loved that Mulder's life altering trip was Graceland, and that he called her to share the moment with her. Lol. I get that most people feel that Mulder is a total ass in this episode, and he often is, especially at the beginning, BUT I wasn't so mad at him by the end. While I felt his comments about her 2nd appearance in the x-files, etc. were totally assy, he looked lost, a little hurt, like he couldn't make sense of what was happening. I kinda felt for him as he grappled to wrap his head around her un-Scully like behavior. And I wish he had finished his thought that it's his life too. But alas, he didn't. I also liked seeing that Scully, for all of her control and reserve, went a bit off the deep end. Out of character? Sure. But for me, it humanized her some... made her seem less perfect, less together.

Moment Mori in my next post...

[Bastet]

I love Never Again, and don't think Scully is out of character at all.  She's doing things we haven't seen her do previously, sure, but it fits with what we have seen of her.  One of the myriad reasons I hate the implications brought about by airing the episodes out of order so that NA comes after Leonard Betts' ominous words is I absolutely love that Scully's "rebellion" is a flare-up of a four-year slow burn of frustration, not a highly-emotional response to any one incident.  I find it so much more realistic that way, to just one day reach the "enough is enough" point with something that has been bugging you for years. 

 

And it's nicely juxtaposed with Mulder seeing her attitude - and later, actions - as coming out of nowhere.  Because it's just as realistic for him to be oblivious to how she has been feeling, and his role in that.  So when he suddenly is confronted with it, he's at a loss, and displays his usual lack of social graces -- Mulder is a petulant jackass when caught off guard, and here he's completely out of his depth.  He can profile strangers who fit a pattern, but he can't figure out his own partner when she throws him a curveball.  So he sticks his foot in his mouth time and again, but he does try to understand what's happening.

 

I do wish Scully had told Mulder immediately.

 

Now that, I would have found out of character. 

Edited May 23, 2014 by Bastet

[queequeg]

I would HATE NA if this had really been about her cancer.

[queequeg]

Momento Mori - I should probably just call this the devastated, Mulder puppy dog eyes episode. Even unsentimental H managed a "poor Mulder." Mulder sure is determined to find an answer b/c he can't lose her... again. And poor Scully seems to fluctuate between denial and acceptance that she might die, complete with sappy letters to Mulder.

Overall, I wasn't a big fan of the voiceovers, except the 2nd one:

"In med school I learned that cancer arrives in the body unannounced, a dark stranger who takes up residence, turning it's new home against itself. This is the evil of cancer, that is starts as an invader, but soon becomes one with the invaded, forcing you to destroy it, but only at the risk of destroying yourself. It is science's demon possession. My treatment, science has attempted exorcism. Mulder I hope that in these terms you might know it and know me, and accept this stranger that so many recognize but cannot ever completely cast out. And if the darkness should have swallowed me as you read this, you must never think there was the possibility of some secret intervention, something you might have done. And though we've traveled far together, this last distance must necessarily be traveled alone."

That one to me wasn't over the top, like the others in the ep. I found it kind of beautiful in that she knows him so well, that she knows he will have tried to find a cure, and she doesn't want him to feel as if he failed her. :'( OK, maybe the last sentence is a little much. Lol

Now that, I would have found out of character.

Yes, I know, but I still wish she would have. Only because I felt so bad for her. I may have yelled at the screen... "tell him!!" when she was sitting in the car and was all I just wanna go home or whatever she said. Her poor mom, she took forever to tell her too, longer than Mulder.

[Bastet]

In med school I learned that cancer arrives in the body unannounced, a dark stranger who takes up residence, turning it's new home against itself. This is the evil of cancer, that is starts as an invader, but soon becomes one with the invaded, forcing you to destroy it, but only at the risk of destroying yourself. It is science's demon possession. My treatment, science has attempted exorcism.

 

My mom was just about one year out from her first cancer diagnosis when that aired, and it really hit her.  And, of course, Kim Manners called Rob Bowman to say the episode was the best depiction of cancer and hospitals he'd ever seen.  Horrid opening VO aside, it's just an amazing hour of television.  "I will be right there."  Oh, Mulder, this is why I could never quit you.

 

I love that as we hear "you must never think there was the possibility of some secret intervention, something you might have done," we see Mulder breaking into the lab.  But don't get me started on that stupid snowglobe password.

 

I also love Mrs. Scully all nervously babbling until she finally lets her anger fly.  And Scully's response is so perfect.  That's a terrific scene between the two of them, where they really feel like mother and daughter.  Sheila Larken always physically reminded me of GA's mom, so it was funny years later to hear GA say SL reminded her of her mom in some ways.

Edited May 23, 2014 by Bastet

[queequeg]

The casting for Mrs. Scully was great.  I also love the relationship of Mrs. Scully and Mulder.  I always felt Mrs. Scully understood from the beginning how much Mulder and Scully meant to each other.  They (Mulder and Mrs. Scully) were great in One Breath.

 

Bastet, hope your mom is still well.  Cancer sucks.  I lost my dad to it a few years ago.

[Bastet]

Thank you, queequeg, and I'm sorry about the loss of your dad.  My mom was cancer free for 14 years after that, then it metastasized several years back.  But she quickly went into remission with treatment, and has been doing well ever since.  We kind of live from scan to scan, but things are otherwise normal.

 

Re. Sheila Larken, in case as a new fan you don't know ... She is married to Bob Goodwin, co-exec producer (and periodic director) for the show's Vancouver years.  When she popped up as Mrs. Scully, I immediately recognized her from a terrific early episode of Cagney & Lacey.

 

I've actually never formed a good grip on how I think Mrs. Scully feels about Mulder.  She recognizes their foundation of trust and respect early on, and as time goes on she must know how much they love each other, but I'm not sure she really understands the attachment - or completely forgives either of them for all the trauma they seem willing to walk into over and over.  She's not myopic and dickish like Bill Jr., but I do think she feels separated from Scully in a way she didn't prior to the X-Files coming along.

[AltLivia]

It's your old pal Janet Macklin here. Pardon the  change of username I've finished the series! 

 

 

OK, so The Field Where I Died, I'm not sure how I feel about this ep.

So glad there are people as "what?" about this episode as I was originally. It's less about Scully being Mulder's father in a past life than the one-time guest star being past Mulder's true love. It overshadows all of the cult goings on, and makes the multiple personality angle a total waste. The single saving grace is the"wouldn't change a day" exchange. Mulder and Scully seem so genuinely fond of one another. In fact, as much as Scully is underutilized in the episode, I really feel her concern for Mulder, putting himself through all of that regression drivel. Sometimes I look at it through a  humorous lens and feel her thinking, "Okay, you're at an 11 on the crazy scale. I need you to dial it down to your typical, livable 4."

 

I struggle as to why they mentioned Scully at all in any of the regressions. Not mentioning her proves the same "Look, they're not meant to be!" point without being so darn smug.

Edited May 24, 2014 by ScullyInApt42

[queequeg]

We've watched a ton since Friday, on Elegy now, but poor Pendrell and Max Fenig.  :(   Poor, poor Pendrell... I really liked that kid.

 

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!  Saw Small Potatoes for the first time.  So much funny and so much awkward at the end.   When faux-Mulder moves in for the kiss, I'm so torn on what to think.  Initially, Scully looks freaked out like "Wha?!?!?" and she certainly never really looks comfortable with it, but then she hardly moves away either.  Well until the real Mulder makes his appearance... lol.  And what must Mulder think having walked in on that?! 

 

More on the other eps later...

[AntiBeeSpray]

We've watched a ton since Friday, on Elegy now, but poor Pendrell and Max Fenig.  :(   Poor, poor Pendrell... I really liked that kid.

 

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!  Saw Small Potatoes for the first time.  So much funny and so much awkward at the end.   When faux-Mulder moves in for the kiss, I'm so torn on what to think.  Initially, Scully looks freaked out like "Wha?!?!?" and she certainly never really looks comfortable with it, but then she hardly moves away either.  Well until the real Mulder makes his appearance... lol.  And what must Mulder think having walked in on that?! 

 

More on the other eps later...

Yea he must have really been freaking out in that regard. Talk about a Twilight Zone moment XD. Awkward...

[Taryn74]

Hee!  I can't believe you've never seen Small Potatoes before.  Comedy GOLD.  Faux Mulder falling out of his chair, dropping his gun, etc.  It's all so HILARIOUS.

[Bastet]

Small Potatoes is one of those episodes I will never, ever tire of watching.  Like Bad Blood, it's pretty much perfect from the first frame to the last.  I'm a fan of the humorous episodes in general, but this one is art. 

 

I love that Scully is one big ball of "WTF?" as FauxMulder leans in, and then the look on her face when she's got two Mulders in front of her is priceless.  I also love that Gillian isn't wearing any pants in a shot from behind the couch where we're only supposed to see her upper body (a situation in which actors frequently have on only boxer shorts or the like to avoid wrinkling a costume that won't be seen), yet the camera catches a shot of her bare legs as she moves.  It's the little things that tickle me.

 

"Where do I sleep?!"

[Taryn74]

the camera catches a shot of her bare legs as she moves.

 

 

I never knew about this one!  Dang, I'll have to watch SP again now just to watch for that.  My life is hard.

[queequeg]

I have some other eps to cover first, but I swooned at the dance scene at the end of PMP. My heart leapt, as Mulder would say. *sigh*

Edited May 27, 2014 by queequeg

[Bastet]

That dancing scene is so adorable.  I loathe the episode, but that scene in isolation is made of win.  There's a slightly extended version (really just an extra twirl or something, but it's cute), but I can't remember if it's on the DVD, dailies, gag reel or something randomly pulled off the internet long ago.

 

Taryn, so sorry to put you through the hardship of watching Small Potatoes again, heh.  I remember noticing the pantless shot, calling my friend who was equally obsessed to report it to her, and then by the time we got off the phone it was all over the XF newsgroup from other eagle-eyed viewers.  Ah, such good times watching this show in the early days of the worldwide web.

[Taryn74]

Ah, such good times watching this show in the early days of the worldwide web.

 

 

Oh, yes.  So much yes.  The first forum I ever joined was an XF one (GertieBeth's).  I stumbled across fanfic before we had a computer at home, and ran my SIL's printer out of ink printing them out so I could take them home.  Heh.  Such great memories.

[queequeg]

Zero Sum - I enjoyed this episode. It was cool to get to see just Skinner, and the result of his agreement with the CSM. Apparently, CSM is going to milk this for all its worth and save Scully at the 11th hr. I thought it was interesting Skinner did the very thing he told Mulder not to do. But I suppose Skinner was just protecting Mulder, and clearly Skinner and CSM have a history so maybe Skinner already felt partially "owned" by CSM anyhow?

[Taryn74]

Zero Sum is one I always end up enjoying more than I think I'm going to.

[queequeg]

Elegy - another sad, frustrating episode. Can this cancer crap be over with already (even though they've mostly ignored it since MM)?! Once again, I wish Scully had let Mulder go to the hospital with her to get checked out, he clearly wanted to go and support her, but that's just how Scully rolls I guess... Always putting up a strong front. My heart broke at the end with her crying in the car alone. I also felt Mulder could have been less short with her after she told him about seeing the dead girl, but I get he's probably just frustrated with her keeping him at arms length and generally not being open with him about her health.

[Taryn74]

I think I like Elegy more every time I watch it.

[queequeg]

Maybe I need to watch it a few more times. It mostly made me depressed. :)

[ElleryAnne]

I can't stand Elegy.  It makes me sad almost to the point of feeling ill. 

[Taryn74]

Oh it's definitely a depressing episode.  I just think it's very well done and am more impressed by it every time I watch it.

[ElleryAnne]

Definitely, Taryn74.  The acting is great.  By Gillian, especially.  If she wasn't such a fantastic actress, the episode probably wouldn't get to me so much.  But she makes it hurt to watch.

Edited May 28, 2014 by ElleryAnne

[Taryn74]

By Gillian, especially.  If she wasn't such a fantastic actress, the episode probably wouldn't get to me so much.

 

 

Agreed.  In fact, I think the same can be said about the whole dang series, to be honest LOL.  I hope CC thanks his lucky stars every night that GA auditioned for the role of Scully.

[queequeg]

Thank goodness Gillian can cry without chewing limbs off! Lol. She really is a great actress, though.

Edited May 28, 2014 by queequeg

[Bastet]

One little change by DD could have saved the Elegy scene where Mulder berates Scully for not telling him about seeing an image of the victim -- if his eyes hadn't been as cold as his words, I would find it brilliant characterization for him to be frustrated and trying to anger her into telling him something.  As it played, however, I think it was just a jerk move.  Scully doesn't owe it to anyone to handle HER health crisis the way THEY want.  She processes things alone and then decides what to share, and that needs to be respected.  This "you're working against me" bullshit needs to go; it's not all about you, Mulder.

 

(On my Mulder, It's Me mix tape, that exchange leads into Fiona Apple's wonderfully angry Sleep to Dream.)

 

I love the episode, painful though it is, but I think that scene missed the mark when it so easily could have worked for me.  My favorite part of the episode is the way Mulder says, "Oh, Scully" when she gets a nosebleed.  His heart is in the right place, even when his head is up his ass.

 

Zero Sum just doesn't stand a chance for me -- almost anything would be a letdown after Small Potatoes, but no Scully = no interest.  Plus, tighty-whities.  <shudder>

Edited May 28, 2014 by Bastet

[queequeg]

Oh geez, bastet, why'd you have to bring up the tighty whities?! My brain had totally repressed that part of the episode!

I totally agree that the last scene between Mulder and Scully would have been much better if Mulder hadn't come across so cold. It was so very different from how he'd been treating her up to that point post-diagnosis.

[smrou]

I really really like "Elegy" and it's role in the cancer arc.  As others have said, it's really depressing.  It's pretty hard to watch, I think.  But that's why I think it's so good because it's really effective emotionally.

[queequeg]

Demons - I really loved this episode. I love it all, in all of its dysfunctional glory. I love the typical Mulder/Scully dynamic... Mulder asks Scully to come/help him, Scully runs after him, tells him he needs to go to the hospital, and then he's all "Nah, I'm good," despite the recurring spells. And then he inevitably ditches Scully, leaving her to hang with the most frigid mother ever, Mrs Mulder.

I love the look back at the Mulder fam, even though we're given little in the way of new info, other than CSM seems to have input on the choice of Samantha.

Mulder is reckless in his pursuit of the truth, as he can be. The hug at the end, when Scully hugs Mulder. Scully yelling at the doc in the squad car. Love it!

Question on the end, though. Does he turn and empty his clip because he was afraid he'd shoot her? We saw in Pusher, he can more easily pull the trigger on himself than her.

[Taryn74]

Question on the end, though. Does he turn and empty his clip because he was afraid he'd shoot her?

 

 

Eeek, that never even occurred to me!  I love Demons too because it's just such an intense, well-done episode, but I never stopped to examine why Mulder shot the wall instead of Scully.  I bet you're right.  Egads.

[mstaken]

We've had a lot of fun doing this for S1, so why not tackle the same challenge for the remaining seasons: What are your five favorite and least favorite episodes of the season...and why?!

[Bastet]

Favorites:

 

Small Potatoes - Because this is flat-out hilarious from beginning to end. 

 

Never Again - Because we finally get to see Scully delve into her frustrations.  And, you know, get it on with a hot man.

 

Leonard Betts - Because Paul McCrane makes LB one of the show's most sympathetic villains, and Gillian gets to say pages worth of dialogue with the look on her face and hesitation in her step when he tells Scully, "I'm sorry, but you've got something I need."

 

Memento Mori - Because, horrible voiceovers aside, it crawls right inside my heart and takes up permanent residence.

 

Unruhe: Because it has an even more sympathetic villain in Jerry, and I adore Scully as an investigator in this one.

 

I have to cheat and do an honorable mention:

 

Paper Hearts - Because it's a Muldercentric episode even this devout Scullyist can adore.

 

Least Favorites:

 

The Field Where I Died - Because it sucks.  As I said above: Kristen Cloke can't act, DD can't cry, and while Morgan and Wong can write they don't do it very well here.

 

Zero Sum - Because it has zero Scully.

 

El Mundo Gira - Because it's John Shiban.

 

Teliko - Because literally the only thing I remember is Scully in that white shirt, crawling through something to get to a drooling Mulder.

 

Unrequited - Because it's boring.

[ElleryAnne]

Aw, this is the season where I probably start to be the odd one out on the favorites lists: :)

 

Favorites: 

 

Tunguska

Terma

El Mundo Gira

Herrenvolk

Zero Sum

 

Least Favorites:

The Field Where I Died

Sanguinarium

Never Again

Unrequited

Elegy

[smrou]

Okay, I will once again break the rules and go beyond five favorites:

 

Home

Unruhe

Tunguska/Terma

Paper Hearts

Leonard Betts

Never Again

Memento Mori

Small Potatoes

Demons

Gethsemane

 

Hmm.  Some of those I definitely rate higher than others, so maybe I really can do a top five for this season.  Let me try:

 

Paper Hearts

Leonard Betts

Memento Mori

Small Potatoes

Never Again

 

Yeah, I think that's a legit top five there.  Those are five really great episodes, IMO.  Oh wait, but Home's not on that list.  Crap!  Okay, so I can do a top six.  

 

As for least favorite:

Teliko (What was this even about?)

El Mundo Gira

The Field Where I Died

Zero Sum

Unrequited

Because Paul McCrane makes LB one of the show's most sympathetic villains, and Gillian gets to say pages worth of dialogue with the look on her face and hesitation in her step when he tells Scully, "I'm sorry, but you've got something I need."

It's easily one of the most memorable and important moments of the whole series and it's so. well. done.  By both Gillian and Paul McCrane, I'll add.  I think he was such a phenomenal guest star.  And while that little bit is what makes the episode Important, even without it I think it's just a really great X-File.