Cheryl Duckworth
A Review of "Beyond the Sea"
by Morgan and Wong
dir: David Nutter

"Mulder, I never thought I'd say this, but what if there's another 
explanation?"
	~Dana Scully

"Beyond the Sea" is a true "X-Files" classic, combining so much of what 
is great about this show.  The script is taunt and tense, original, 
delightfully tricky and carefully calulated to reveal new facets of our 
heroes and the themes this show explores regarding the elusive, 
dangerous nature of the truth.

Dana Scully is its subject from the very beginning, and the aspects of 
Scully being explored in this episode are still being worked out today.  
For the first time, Anderson is really given a chance to explore Scully 
as someone more than Mulder's partner, and she fills each line and all 
the spaces in between with layers and nuances in a powerful, honest, 
multi-faceted performance.  We see that Scully's work with "Spooky" 
Mulder is affecting her, that she questions and wonders "what if" far 
more than she lets on, even at this early stage of the game.  In what I 
believe was the "X-files" first "role reversal" where Scully plays the 
(perhaps) believer, she is taunted by Luther Lee Boggs, a man on death 
row, (put there naturally by the Profiling Golden Boy Mulder himself) 
shortly after her father's death as to whether or not Boggs can 
psychicly channel her father's spirit so she might speak with him once 
more.  The teaser, a dinner Scully shares with her mom and father, works 
quite well to show us Scully as the   dutiful daughter, a woman who 
wants her parent's approval, especially her father's, and who wonders 
whether or not she has it.  Scully's love for her father radiated from 
Anderson espcially in the final scene during her conversation with 
Mulder and during Capt. Scully's funeral.  Scully's combination of 
vulnerability and determination to be strong are powerful in this scene 
and throughout the episode.  We are finally treated to seeing the woman 
behind the agent;  we are let into the thought and feelings she hides 
behind that "enigmatic" mask.  And this revelation is all the more 
powerful because we so rarely see it.

Fans have debated since this episode, I imagine, whether or not Scully 
herself is really psychic regarding her vision of her father shortly 
after his heart attack.  For the record, I think it's...possible.  The 
sight of him in Scully's living room, speaking to her soundlessly, was a 
visually chilling moment.  It also provided the emotional ammunition 
Boggs needed to play with Scully's head as she and Mulder race against 
the deadline of Bogg's execution day trying to find a couple who had 
been kidnapped and tortured.  Boggs claims he can tell the agents where 
the victims are via his talents;  a for-once sternly skeptical Mulder 
believes Boggs knows their whereabouts because he's in on the crime (and 
for a split second of humor, Scully's dry "Mulder, do I detect a hint 
of...skepticism?" was quite entertaining.)  And for once, Scully, shaken 
by her father's death, visibly wonders and opens herself to this 
possibility.  For characters to seem real, they must change and develop;  
I appreciate this role reversal   because it shows us a new side of 
Scully and proves that she is not so narrow-minded as some believe.  
This is a woman determined to find her own answers, someone who is 
willing to question and explore even if it is painful.  Not that she was 
thrilled about having to reconsider-- but she is honest enough to do so 
when necessary.  Consider that shot of her, still and solem, trying in 
vain to summon up the soul of her dead father.  Her child-like pain when 
Boggs first tempts her with seeing her father shows this as well.  She 
is also someone who feels enough and loves deeply enough that those 
feelings can be used to hurt her.  Mulder, I'm afraid, was right when he 
told her she shouldn't have gone exploring that warehouse Boggs told her 
about-- but he would have done the same, and emotionally, what choice 
did she have?  Like him, she wants the truth.

So, what does a strong, independent person do when left scared, alone 
(Mulder having been shot at this point) and vulnerable?  She fights.  In 
this focused, unflinching look at the vulnerable, more personal side of 
Scully, we are also given the tigress we know and love.  I admit, I am a 
sucker for SWAT!Scully and she makes a show several times.  This is 
Scully in her element, tough, fearless and in-control.  In the "it's the 
little things that count", even Anderson's running here is Scullyesque-- 
athletic and unhesitating.  I especially loved her running after one 
Lucas Henry (the actual kidnapper), red hair flying and gun ready, 
shouting orders she knew would be obeyed.  Moments like these are why I 
so believe her when she tells Mulder, "I love this job."  I am glad for 
this;  I don't want to watch a show about someone who doesn't care about 
what she's doing.  

But "Beyond the Sea" gives us even one more side to Scully;  her raw 
fury as she screams at Boggs, red faced, slamming her fist down, was 
incredibly  powerful.  Anderson's transition from anger to red-faced 
rage to child-like fear and fragility was effortless.  I believed every 
feeling (though I have to admit, I didn't like the hands-over-the ears 
bit.)  She does NOT take well to her loved ones being harmed or 
betrayed.  Her threat to Boggs that if Mulder died, she would "be the 
one to gas [him] out of this life forever" was the first of many 
wonderful scenes where our heroine avenges and protects.  (It will also 
interest my 'shipmates to know that this speech was originally written, 
"If I lose him because of what you've done...", much more personal and 
revealing than the final take: "If he dies because of what you've 
done.")  This burst of fury from our usually composed, professional 
federal agent was powerful, surprising and most of all, welcome.  I only 
wish they writers would allow her to be as angry now about all that has 
been done to her, not just others, as wonderful as that is.  

Mulder was extremely well-written (with the exception of his 
unaccountable flip-flop of opinions in the final scene-- all of a sudden 
he does believe Boggs? huh?) and well played by David Duchovny, too.  
>From the very beginning, he sees the pain Scully is in and responds with 
compassion and protectiveness, suggesting that she take time off if she 
needs but supporting her when she came, insisting, "I need to work."  
(How very Scully.) It's also refreshing that yes, under the right 
circumstances, Mulder is able to summon up some healthy skepticism.  He 
knew Boggs previously and knew what he was capable of.  His description 
to Scully of a man who "kills because he likes it" was quite effective.  
We also get another hint at who Mulder was and what he did before the 
X-files;  Boggs himself requested to speak to Spooky, profiling god that 
he is.  

And any episode that explores so many aspects of Scully and that 
features Sensitive!Mulder cannot help but shed light on their tender 
relationship.  It's incredibly significant, I think, that when Mulder 
challenges her about believing Boggs, she responds with, "I thought 
you'd be pleased that I'd opened myself to extreme possibilities."  In 
Anderson's hands, Scully's admiration for Mulder and her desire for his 
approval come through clearly.  For his part, Mulder also certainly 
displays a concern that is more than partnerly with that rough-and-silky 
voice and those tender carasses of the cheek.  Scully's reaction to 
this, and to his unexpected use of her first name, is tell also.  She 
swallows hard and is barely able to summon up her voice, overcome by the 
emotions his compassion and her father's death stir in her.  

The final scene in which Scully visits Mulder, newly healed from his 
gunshot wound, and they (can it be) discuss how the case has effected 
her was well-played.  I loved that she felt she knew her father's 
messgae to her without Boggs simply because, "He was my father."  I was, 
however, confused about her saying she was "afraid...to believe" when 
Mulder asked her why she couldn't accept his        channeling "after 
all you've seen."  Perhaps I'm wrong and she is afraid, but it's always 
seemed to me like she was just not willing to jump to conclusions 
without any evidence.

But Mulder and Scully were not the only well-conceived characters here.  
Luther Lee Boggs, who Mulder tells us killed all the pets in his project 
and murdered his family over Thanksgiving dinner, was an amazing 
creation, one that I imagine helped make Morgan and Wong...Morgan and 
Wong.  He was incredibly tricky in his dealing with Scully, which as a 
viewer I found delightful.  I never knew where he stood, what he was up 
to, or which of what he told Scully was the truth or not.  Nor do we 
ever learn for certain if he was indeed channeling.  And while he was 
obviously manipulating her, but their dealings took on a strange 
unexpected compassion as he warns both Scully and Mulder of danger, 
saving their lives and ever polite, Scully returns to thank him.  Even 
more credit to Morgan and Wong, the white cross and the blue devil, 
where the dangers where, are thematically very appropriate for Boggs, 
whose worst fear is going back to the electric chair where he will 
surely face judgement.  Brad Dourif's  performance  as Boggs was 
haunting and ferocious, catapulting this character into instant X-files 
villian history.  I literally shivered as he hummed "Beyond the Sea" (an 
incredibly appropriate song for Ma and Pa Scully, the one to which he 
proposed) to Scully and nearly every time he played with Scully's mind, 
but I think my favorite was when she announced, finding some security, 
"Luther, if you really were psychic" and he cuts her off with "I'd known 
you lied."  Another unexpected reminder that we never really do know 
what the truth was.

Best Mulderism:  "It was 5 hours of Bogg's "channeling".  After 3 hours, 
I asked him to summon up the soul of Jimi Hendrix and requested "All 
Along the Watchtower."  You know the guys' been dead 20 years and he 
still hasn't lost his edge."  

SWILS Note:  One more cheer for SWAT!Scully
MulderDrooling:  That cheek caress.  He may not get it right much, but 
DA-HAM when he does, he does!

Cheryl

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