My oh my, what a tangled web we weave. I should have loved this episode. Being a rather new Phile when this first aired, I found it exciting and intriguing because it this show is exciting and, not because this episode was. Don't get me wrong; I liked it. But the more reruns I rented from my local Blockbuster Video, the more I realized that this was certainly not at all the best this show can do. Ah well-- no one can do their best all the time.
Being the season four finale, I suppose Carter thought he had to come up with a Big Cliff Hanger to keep all of us hooked. Having just seen (and loved) "The End", I think it is just that much more clear why he should not have gone with a Mulder death since, as countless other reviews I've read have asserted, we all KNOW he's not going anywhere. This as at best annoying and at worst insulting, depending on the viewer (for the record, I was annoyed <G>). Forcing the events of the plot to lead up to this ending resulted in a lot of confusion for me in the acting, direction and the characterization, even if there were some memorable moments that made this episode enjoyable despite itself. And a forced story will *never* be as powerful as one that is allowed to flow naturally from theme and character to begin with.
For one thing, I could not for the life of me clearly define what he was doing with the title, "Gethesmane." As a viewer who enjoys and watches for religious themes, I paid close attention to how that would play out. Gethesmane, of course, is the garden in which Christ wept and prayed for deliverance before His betrayal and crucifixion. Other than perhaps a general sense of things going downhill quickly for our heroes and Mulder theoretically learns his life has been a lie and Scully learns that she is dying, I could not pinpoint thematically what Carter was doing here. I might not harp on such a seemingly small point except that I think it serves as an example of how things life this were not thought through in this episode because the action, not the ideas, was in control.
In many ways Carter was just trying to do too much, although in retrospect I do feel this episode worked pretty well as a set-up for Redux and Redux II. A man we have never seen before has proof that all Mulder has seen is a lie; who is he? Where the heck did he come from? Perhaps most importantly, as I believe Mulder asked, if he's had this information, why didn't he come forward? And why is doubt being cast on the whole entire show AGAIN? That wears thin quickly. And the scenes with the exploration crew were distracting and dull to me-- I kept wanting them to get back to the REAL story already. It again seems like Carter and the rest of the writers throw things like this in without considering. Too much clutter distracted me from some of the very real, significant events going on in the lives of Mulder and Scully and nearly rendered this episode powerless. Is it really evil to be amused that Carter tripped himself up in his own web of lies?
Perhaps most annoying to me was the fact that the control plot had here confused the Mulder/Scully dynamic in my mind. It was no surprise that Mulder would persue his "holy grail" (as Scully calls the alleged new alien corpse found in Canada) to the point of, depending on your stance, either heroism or lunacy. I was a bit startled at Scully's utter refusal to help or cooperate or even being remotely interested; I like to think under normal circumstances she would have been a bit more swayed by his appeal to her passion for science. But she was, after all, dying, so, okay, I'll choke it down. But a better script would have given this more, especially since she seems kind and loyal again when he calls AGAIN at HOME for her help. So she's helping him find the Truth now to fend off Brother Bill? I don't think so! And, most glaringly, which I am sure every other reviewer of this episode picked up on (I would hope, anyway), did she know he's not dead or not? Was she in on it with him? That is exactly what it turns out to be, which I find plausible since she's done it before. But Anderson's flawless performance gaves us a Scully who thought her best friend was gone. Here's that slightly *confused* direction I mentioned; 1013 is trying to have it all ways possible and losing a lot in the process.
However, I must say I enjoyed the performances for the most part from both leads. There was a very real, quiet despair to Duchovny's last scene in which Mulder seems as if he's truly contemplating suicide. He has, after all, just had his worst guilt nightmares confirmed: the bad guys gave Scully her cancer because of him. I firmly believe that if not for Dana Scully, Mulder would have committed suicide a while ago, so the scene was powerful, even if the conventions of television (to borrow a phrase from reviewer Paula Graves) worked against him. Anderson gives her average performance, which is to say she was wonderful as always.
Her having to tell Blevins that Mulder was dead broke my heart (even as it annoyed me for the above reasons<g>). And I would honestly sit through this episode many, many times to see her chasing a suspect in those heels at Mock 1. We're gonna have to start making up prizes to give her. I also enjoyed the set up of what becomes a major theme in the two following episodes-- Scully's struggle with the Church and her faith and the tensions her deeply private nature (private almost to a fault) causes within her family as she hides just how sick she really is. Despite its many flaws, it was not without its moments and it did not work badly as a set up for Redux/Redux II.
I'll give it a rather generous 7 tic tacs.
SWILS Note: It bears repeating: FabulousRunning!Gillian
MulderDrooling: That crying scene was lovely