The Sixth Extinction: Amor Fati
Episode 7 X 04
November 14, 1999

All right, you know how last week I noted that Scully was at long last displaying an ability to bypass her usual scientific roadblocks and accept without difficulty the seemingly impossible yet still obvious truth? Well, I was wrong. Sort of. Scully's getting there, all right, starting to accept that there are things that, though she can't readily explain them, are nevertheless true.

What I was wrong about was the apparent seamlessness of this transition. Scully standing on Mulder's doorstep, crying as she tells him she doesn't know who to trust or what to believe anymore, is a scene I won't soon forget. And even if nothing comes of this, if Scully's back floating happily down her Egyptian river next week, at least I'll know that, for one shining moment, we had character growth.

Like The Sixth Extinction (and please pardon me for having left off the definite article last week - I'm usually so picky about these things, too), The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati is driven more by internal than external conflict. Yes, there's the usual business about the coming apocalypse and the alien virus, but what this episode comes down to is a crossroads in Mulder's life, and a crossroads in Scully's. Mulder, with Scully's help, finds that he's made the right choice for his life and that he has the strength to continue; and Scully, with Mulder's help, finds she's able to begin to see what he sees in the world.

Maybe it's because it's my favorite episode, but I saw a lot of parallels to One Breath in Amor Fati. One Breath's Mulder, out of his mind with grief and fear over newly returned, comatose Scully's hopeless condition, spends a good part of the episode chasing futilely after the men who've hurt her, hellbent on making them pay. Although he's acting out of love for Scully, he can't see that the thing every fiber of his being is screaming at him to do - avenge her - is the last thing she needs from him. After some convincing from Melissa, he's able to let go of his rage, and he blows off a virtually certain opportunity to have it out with the bad guys in order to sit by Scully's bed and hold her hand, just in case it might help. It does, of course, and she comes back into the world just as he's hit the depths of his despair.

In Amor Fati we have much the same situation, in reverse: it's Mulder who lies helpless and ill this time, while Scully tries frantically to find him and save his life. Instead of looking for revenge, she throws herself into scientific research, studying the evidence she's collected from the spaceship, sure that she can pull answers out if it if she tries hard enough. She bullies Kritschgau, entreats Skinner, badgers Mulder's mother, and finally confronts Diana Fowley. When she returns home, unsuccessful, Albert Hosteen is waiting for her. "There are more worlds than the one you can hold in your hand," he tells her, and encourages her to look into herself for what she needs. She prays with him, falls asleep, and in the morning finds the key - literally, for once - to Mulder's whereabouts. She goes after him and brings him home, weak but whole.

There are other congruities: Scully, in One Breath, and Mulder, in Amor Fati, each have visions of lost loved ones while unconscious (though Mulder's, of course, are considerably more involved), and both in their more aware moments are able to hear loved ones speaking but can't answer them. My preference is for the way it was done in One Breath, with the exquisite scenes of Scully in the boat, staring fixedly at Mulder and Melissa on the shore as they discuss her condition, unable to so much as move a facial muscle, yet never taking her (mental) eyes off of them. Mulder calling for his mother in Amor Fati was affecting, but I liked his eerie silences in The Sixth Extinction better - and once he and CSM were having their mental chat I felt the device had degenerated into silliness (at least they didn't use that echo-chamber effect the way they always did when Counselor Troi and her mother beamed their thoughts back and forth). Finally, the music during the hallway scene in Amor Fati haunted me for days before I realized it was lifted from the equivalent reconciliation scene (and into the final scene) of One Breath. I don't know whether David Duchovny and Chris Carter were intentionally echoing this episode, but it definitely struck a chord with me.

While Scully searches, Mulder's making his own journey. Coaxed by CSM (who may as well be called "Child-Spawning Man" at this point - I'll bet he tells his dry-cleaning guy that he's his father too) into believing that it's all right to abandon his quest and settle into a contented domestic existence - tellingly, with the one person who always says what he wants to hear and doesn't question him - he's never free of the distressed little boy in his mind trying to get his attention.

Mulder's dream has an almost fairy-tale feel to it - he wanders into the gingerbread house in his nightie and finds the sunflower seed collection (his equivalent of candy, I suppose); later, when he still seems hesitant to stay, the witch waves a cup of coffee in front of him like a poison apple. He's relieved of all his responsibilities; he lives a long full life (reminiscent of the Star Trek: TNG episode "The Inner Light," not that there's anything wrong with that - as well as, of course, The Last Temptation of Christ); he grows old, loses everyone in a seemingly natural fashion, and lies down to die himself. But Scully, stubborn, contrary, unshakeable Scully shows up at the last minute, and - in a scene that caught me way off guard but which I ultimately decided I liked a lot - bitches him out. "Traitor. Deserter. Coward," she snaps at him, and poor sickly Mulder is understandably taken aback. Maybe it's because it's been so long since anyone argued with him in this little haven of agreeability, but it seems to jolt him back to his senses, even if he doesn't appear to appreciate the irony of Scully saying scornfully, "No aliens? Have you looked outside, Mulder?" (I sure got a kick out of it, though.)

So there's Mulder with his epiphany, and Scully with hers, and one of them ends up in bandages and a smile while the other ends up in really nice shoes and tears. Like Mulder forsaking the revenge promised him in One Breath, Scully has to struggle to let go of her need to rely on science and analysis, and it doesn't come without a price - she's still struggling at the end of the episode. "I don't believe it. It's impossible," she insists as Mulder tells her that Albert Hosteen couldn't have been in her apartment, he's been lying in a coma in New Mexico. Mulder is wondrously gentle with her - "Is it any more impossible than what you saw in Africa, or what you saw in me?" Confronted with the reality of what's happened, she breaks down, finally, telling him that she doesn't know what to believe now. It's her turn to fall apart and Mulder's turn to hold her together. This whole scene astonished me - not only are we basically witnessing a tectonic shift in Scully's belief system, but we've never seen the two of them so unguarded with each other. If this is character continuity, if after six years the barriers are finally coming down, well, color me pleasantly surprised. I'd like to see what happens in episodes to come before I upgrade that to "overjoyed." They've evidently crossed out of "no touching" land, at the very least. The forehead kiss (I think maybe Scully was getting back at Mulder for gnawing on her arm two years ago - she looked like she was nibbling his eyebrow a bit there) definitely spoke to the removal of barriers of all kinds, and there was no mistaking that lip caress.

I appreciated the exchange about touchstones, but the line I liked most there was Mulder's: "You were my friend, and you told me the truth." That's where I started to get teary. Something about the directness of it, and David Duchovny's intense, even beatific delivery, just got me. It was just a gem of a line, maybe my favorite Mulder line since "I will be right there" in "Memento Mori." I would have kissed Mulder's eyebrow for ten seconds too. And touched his lips. Oh yes. Duchovny was altogether wonderful in this scene, and Gillian Anderson bowled me over with the force of her emotion.

For those not swept away, yes, the ending did feel tacked on. I tend to roll my eyes a bit at anything that begins with a legend saying "One Week Later" or "The Next Month" or the like. The whole "And then the water monster came out of the ceiling and we poured more water on it and it disappeared and then the baby was born and we escaped and it was OK" kind of thing can be tiresome. In addition to that, it was obviously shot much later (I admit to being very curious to know why, and what it replaced). I didn't mind it, though. Witnessing Fowley's death wasn't necessary, I don't think. We got to see how it affected Mulder and how it affected Scully, and that was all I cared about. The fact that it was an absolutely stunning scene probably made me mind even less.

Two things that I couldn't help but notice: First off, if the shot of Scully walking down the hallway was meant to convince us that Gillian wasn't standing on one mother of a box, or maybe a footstool or perhaps a small automobile, during the entire dialogue, it didn't work. There are some shots where she almost seems to be looking down at him. I know they need close-ups of the two of them, but it would be nice if they could keep it within the realm of extreme possibility. Second, I'm glad we got a little preview of Scully's upcoming new hairstyle. I'll start emotionally preparing myself now. I loved her hair for the rest of the episode, and while I want to be able to say I think the new, shorter style is a nice change, I just can't. I absolutely do not care for it one bit and I hope it grows out really quickly. I guess I'll just have to savor each moment of the few precious weeks we have left before it gets chopped off for real. The emotional rollercoasters I go through for this show.

We did get some fairly significant mytharc developments in this episode (she says reluctantly). CSM has apparently scooped the alien goop out of Mulder's brain and put it into his own (conveniently enough, healing Mulder's mysterious ailment in the process). Mulder's mother is either up to no good or extremely gullible. CSM either is Mulder's father or thinks he is (or just likes to tell everyone he is). Oh, and Fowley's dead. Right after her metamorphosis from "probably bad" to "maybe kind of not that bad sometimes," too. Shame. She did get more of a sendoff, emotion-wise, than almost any other recurring, morally ambiguous character who's kicked the bucket in the past. Scully weeps for her, tells Mulder how sorry she is and says she helped to save his life. Deep Throat? Binocs at the funeral, not bad. X? Introduced us to Marita (thanks a lot) with his own blood; no one cared after that. Entire Consortium? Excuse for another lecture from Kersh. Spender? Uh, did maintenance take the body out? Good.

Then there's Skinner. He was a crucial element of The Sixth Extinction, but here he gets short shrift. I enjoyed the tension when Scully tries to enlist his support and he hints that he can't get involved, then finally has to spell it out for her. Too bad she forgot that when she called his office and started blabbing all about the "explains everything" book. Skinner gets zapped, Scully chases the Mysterious Stranger (come on now), and we never hear a word about it again. My vote would have been to wrap that up better or else cut the Krycek deal entirely - they didn't really have the time to flesh it out properly.

Another problem I had with the episode was that Scully was basically handed both the book and the key - you could argue that she guilted Fowley into giving the key to her, as well as that her prayers had been answered, but it sort of takes some of the punch out of the rescue mission. However, they had a lot to cover in one episode so I guess it's understandable that they took shortcuts.

Small details I liked: Scully uses a PowerBook. I knew she was a Mac kind of gal. I loved the push in on the fire-escape sign in Scully's apartment building - it was a fantastic ref back to "Know Your Exits" in the pilot. I found it very amusing that, after 50 years living the happy suburban life down the road from his friendly neighbor-who-wasn't-dead-after-all, Mulder still refers to him as "Deep Throat." I liked Mulder beginning his new life with a hospital gown and no pants on. It was good to finally see Scully's apartment again - it looked humongous to me in this episode; I literally thought she had wandered into somebody's house and was wondering why on earth she was looking in their fridge. I guess it's been so long I just forgot. I liked the apocalypse effect, as seen by CSM (or was it? Whose POV was that, anyway - it was Mulder's dream, after all). I liked when Mulder expressed disbelief that CSM could make him disappear, and he replied that "we've made entire cultures disappear" - a nice veiled nod to the Anasazi even as Scully is reading up on them.

I thought Amor Fati was altogether a very satisfying episode. It wrapped up a few mytharc loose ends, freaked us out a little, and, more importantly, provided us with some very significant and stirring moments in the lives of Mulder and Scully. If the rest of Season 7 is this good, I'll be a happy Phile.

Hungry
Episode 7 X 01
November 21, 1999

Well, I think it's safe to say that "Hungry" lived up to my expectations. I expected it to be filler, and severely Mulder-and-Scully light, since David and Gillian weren't available for most of it. I expected it to be above-average filler, since it was written by Vince Gilligan. I didn't expect to get too involved in it, since it was focused on guest characters, but I expected there would be some good lines and some believable emotions. At the end, I expected I would nod and say, "That wasn't too bad for filler." And that's what I did.

I don't have a whole lot to say about "Hungry." I didn't think it was a horrible episode and I didn't think it was a terrific one either. Rob the brain-eating genetic freak, as played engagingly by Chad E. Donella, was an interesting enough fellow. I could sympathize with him (sort of) and feel his hunger (though the stomach-growling noises were a tad unsubtle). I liked the bit where he described, fairly convincingly, how delicious brains tasted - even if it made me a little nauseous - and his visions of brains frying on the grill and pulsing out from the bald guy's head were great.

The "sympathetic monster" tack is nothing new; not for storytelling in general, not for The X-Files, and not for Vince Gilligan. To be fair, when we have a sympathetic mutant we don't usually see him doing graphically reprehensible things such as slurping brains out through his proboscis, so that was new, at least. Still, it was the same old formula - compulsion to kill, killing, compulsion to kill, killing, being killed at the end, and we're whapped over the head with the message that it sucks (literally, huh-huh) to be different in this crazy world of ours.

A brief aside here: Is Rob more sympathetic because he has funny eyes and teeth and (sometimes) pasty skin? In other words, do we empathize with his brain-eating urges more because he looks so different? What if there was a human who had an insatiable craving for brains? Wouldn't he be just as tormented? Did we even need all the ooky makeup?

Even in its most obvious attempt to be innovative - the presentation of the story from the monster's point of view - "Hungry" fell a bit flat. First of all, nearly every X-Files story is told from the monster's point of view at one time or another during the episode. We saw more of the monster this time, yes, and we didn't see Mulder and Scully unless Rob had them in view. But I didn't think it that radical in execution, especially from Vince "Bad Blood" Gilligan, who so masterfully and delightfully demonstrated the fun that can be had with points of view in that episode. In "Hungry," if Mulder and Scully's portrayals were intentionally altered to represent what the monster was seeing, then I didn't see much evidence of it. They seemed like the usual Mulder and Scully that we see in the less engaging episodes - with Mulder maybe a little dorkier, and Scully a little duller (perhaps she was jealous of Catatonic!Mulder of the past couple weeks - she spent a good amount of time just sort of staring at Rob while Mulder talked). "Good cop, insane cop"? I guess so. There were no particularly interesting "outsider perspective" revelations, though, unless you count learning that Mulder has a terrible haircut (well, give the guy a break, he was in the loony bin) and that Scully was wearing a bathing suit, apparently, under her jacket (is there no happy medium, fashion-wise, for this woman?).

I do think there were ways to make the whole "Mulder and Scully through the eyes of others" thing interesting. I just don't think this quite did it, or even tried very hard; it seemed too occupied with the plot devices necessary to make the whole trick work. The bit where Rob sets up the microphone so he can hear Mulder and Scully talking through the speaker seemed awfully contrived; it made me feel that the POV gimmick was hindering more than helping. And even so, if I hadn't known that was what they were going for I don't know if I would ever have picked up on it.

Indulge me for a second in this nitpick: I didn't put much stock in M & S's investigatory method of checking to see who had their "Free Fer Fridays" buttons. As a former retail worker (book, not burger), I know that promotional pins like that usually arrive by the boxload and seem to multiply like gypsy moths. In addition to that, they break constantly. I don't think someone's not having his could really be considered suspicious, nor do I think it at all unlikely if someone did lose his - say, in the cranium of an unsuspecting customer - that he would have another one within five minutes. Maybe the pin-distributing regulations are more stringent at burger joints, but somehow I doubt it.

And while I'm on that topic, it bugged me a little when Derwood (I was expecting Endora to show up) referred to the deceased as a "guy" and Scully immediately went on red alert: "I don't believe that we said the victim was male." Oh, come on..."guy" is a pretty neutral term, and even if it weren't, he had a 50 percent chance of being right. Not that it mattered, since Mulder had basically solved the case by that time anyway. (But at least I got to hear him say "proboscis.")

OK, but I did like in that scene the little exchange that followed the manager's declaration that there were 30 Lucky Boys in Orange County. Scully breaks in with "Thirty-two," and Mulder adds wearily, "Yeah, long day. So let's make this quick..." Right from that we knew that they were more familiar than they probably wanted to be with that figure, that they were slated to spend their day going from one to another, and that they were none too excited about it. It was an explicative that implied more than it said, giving us a little clue of what was going on with Mulder and Scully without changing the point of view.

If only all the expository elements had been that seamless. In addition to the microphone thing, we also got the lame device of Mulder and Scully (well, Mulder) telling Rob how they were progressing on the case. Why would they do that? Even with the intent of trying to psych him out? And since even with these hints we barely knew what was going on with their investigation, the episode seemed to meander without ever really being headed toward any sort of climax. Rob chomped his diet pills, offed David Duchovny's double, visited Dr. Mindy, offed his sleazy co-worker, went to OA, offed his neighbor (geez, did she HAVE to die? She was the only really likable character in the whole episode), and generally lived his life, unusual as it was, as he had been doing all along until Mulder and Scully, having figured it all out offscreen, burst in. There was no real buildup to anything. We got a mechanical "Oh my God" from Scully, Rob decided to listen to his inner brain-sucker and lunged, they shot him, he died. Fade out. Eh.

I guess what I'm saying is, we have a show already, about Mulder and Scully, and this new one in which they guest-starred, while not entirely bad, probably isn't one I'd necessarily want to watch again. It's nothing personal. Maybe the WB would like it.

I know, I know, they had no choice but to leave Mulder and Scully out of it, because David and Gillian weren't there. Under those tight constraints, I think Vince did a decent enough job. I did like some of the lines - "The most handsome man in the world...Peter Jennings"; "Single guys are just bears who own furniture" and, to be sure, "good cop, insane cop." I liked the robot garbage-collecting thing (until it became clear it was yet another plot device, since a human garbage collector would have noticed poor Sylvia in the barrel). I liked seeing Chase Hampton, late of the New Mickey Mouse Club, in the teaser. The effects, particularly the way Rob took off his "human" face (it's a good thing this burger-flipping slacker can, apparently, afford state-of-the-art prosthetics, which he appears to have procured in the first place without anyone's being the wiser), were stomach-turning, as they were meant to be. And boy, does David's double look like him - I didn't see that strong a resemblance when they were both on the Tonight Show, but wow, it's amazing what they can do with a haircut and lighting. That was, frankly, the spookiest part of the episode for me. (Good gigs all around for the doubles on this show, what with Gillian's look-alike Arlene Pileggi getting to be Skinner's secretary, and DD's stand-in Jaap Broeker having been immortalized as the Stupendous Yappi way back in Season 3.)

All in all, though, I was less than thrilled. Vince did do an OK job, but he can do better. And he doesn't need Mulder and Scully to do better - Unusual Suspects was a great episode. Maybe if this had been written by someone else I'd have liked it more. That's not really fair, but there it is. It must be tough to be Uber - it's a lot to live up to every time.

This episode was filler, all right. The bottom line is, they needed an M/S-light because they didn't have their leads. I must say I'd rather sacrifice an MOTW to the black hole of lead-less episodes than have it come in the season premiere like in Season 5 (God, those voiceovers). Still, though, that's what this episode was for me - a non-alcoholic beer, a bread sandwich, a car with no engine, a box of styrofoam peanuts with no present inside. It was a monster-of-the-week episode without the element - Mulder and Scully's attempt to solve the case - that is their reason for being. And I can't help but be disappointed in this "make-do" episode when we have so few left. I really hope "The Goldberg Variation" (the second one filmed, scheduled to air in late December, I believe) doesn't turn out similarly.

Conclusion: This wasn't too bad, for filler. But I'm still hungry.

Happy Thanksgiving all...and happy birthday La.. :)

Millennium
Episode 7 X 05
November 28, 1999

I never did write a review of "Millennium." So here's a slapdash facsimile <deep breath>:

I liked it. Reminded me of old-school XFs, with the rain and the coffin and all. Nice to see Frank again - I liked Millennium very much (eventually) and I miss it. I don't think it was any kind of grand wrap-up of the entire series, but as a Frank cameo/epilogue it worked fine IMO. Scully: Purty. I continue to mourn the inevitable hair-chopping that my prophetic sight tells me will soon occur. I don't normally like turtlenecks that much but this one was of the good. Mulder: Dorky. Nice hair. Come on. I can't believe that beaver is still at large. But they played, sorry, worked nicely together. Loved the "math geek" line. Loved the bit with Scully peeking into the grave. Loved the cool icky-slurpy noise when they pulled the note out of the deputy's mouth. The necroprancer's house reminded me a little too much of "Shapes." (A guide to viewing that esteemed episode: Fast-forward until about the last thirty seconds, when you will see Scully in cute little fur-lined boots. Try not to look at her hair.) I thought the big zombie brawl at the end was kinda silly, but it was fun. Scared little broken-armed Mulder standing in his kosher salt circle with his eyes darting around made me giggle. I think Scully is a spoiler slut for wanting Frank to tell her the end of the ultimate battle between good and evil. I think Vince has another girlfriend somewhere named Hartwell (Psych. Hosp., Vampire Sheriff). I wanna know how that freshman with the glasses got in the staff meeting - is she another Gillian double? I think Scully's doing OK kind of not necessarily disbelieving in stuff like zombies, which sorta smacks of conta-something, but it could be too soon to tell, and Vince "Only guy who consistently remembers from week to week that other episodes of the show have already aired" Gilligan was involved in this so it's sure not to last. It's nice for now, though.

Now, the Thing:

I thought it was sweet and entirely appropriate for those characters and that situation. I saw shyness and caution but not disillusionment or regret. I enjoyed Scully's "Well how about that, didn't know you had it in ya, cowboy" grin. It was sufficiently vague that CC can weasel out of it when he decides sucking up to Noromos will get him better ratings. Felt the Dick Clark cameo was at last a good use of L.A.'s easy access to celebrities. Thought Mulder's "Ding!" moment when inspiration hits was great and that Scully has a nice jawline. All in all, it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. And I want to see the outtakes. So there.

Final thought: Why won't you love me, David Duchovny? Why? No, no, final thought: What was the point of putting this in sweeps if they weren't going to hype the kiss? The mass appeal of Lance Henriksen? (I like him, but he's no Britney Spears in terms of Q-ratings.) The time-tested Hollywood golden rule that necromancy and end-time prophecies always draw in the kids with the disposable income? Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the Thing wasn't milked to death. But if it wasn't GOING to be, I don't know why they couldn't run this episode at New Year's where it belonged. Maybe they had a reason that I just don't get. In any case, all this episode-juggling is wreaking HAVOC with the CHarc. <sigh>

This is what my reviews look like when I mentally write them in the shower. :P

Rush
Episode 7 X 06
December 05, 1999

I know, it's only current for about another 45 minutes, but what the hey. :)

Well well well, David Amann. It seems he's fulfilled the promise he showed in - don't laugh at me, now - Agua Mala. Yes, that episode was ludicrous in every way, but buried in there somewhere were morsels of, not brilliant, but thoroughly decent Mulder/Scully interaction. For Rush, it seems, Amann has managed to tone down the ridiculousness of his plots to a dull roar, and has at the same time refined his character moments nicely. Mulder and Scully are more unified in this, a very ordinary monster-of-the-week episode, than they have been in a long time.

Let's hash out the plot first. There's some crazy Paranormal Thing in a cave in the woods. Standing in it, or near it, or under it, gives you the ability to move incredibly fast - but only if you're a hormone-addled adolescent. In the process it jiggles you around a lot, giving you football injuries. And to top it all off, it's more addictive than smack (and twice as useful for killing people).

A Luke-Perry-like thug, trendily named Max, and his snarly girlfriend, bafflingly named Chastity, decide for whatever reason that Tony, the clean-cut new kid in town, is the perfect person to share this fabulous secret with. Max offs a deputy 'cause he's cool like that (it hasn't been a good month for deputies on The X-Files) and Mulder and Scully come hippity-hopping to the rescue.

I found some of the teenyboppery a tad hard to take in places. Snarking, leather-jacketed rebel-without-a-shave Max was pretty annoying from beginning to end, no more so than during his confrontations with his sneering, evil (he must be evil, he's a GROWN-UP), red-shirted teacher. (In spite of his inexplicable evilness, it still bugged me how the kids all laughed when he dropped his lunch - I'll buy that teenagers can be cruel, but they're usually sneakier about it.)

Then there was the faux-high-school dialogue: "Don't make it if you're gonna break it," "Man, you're whistlin' Dixie" - come on now - and do kids actually use the term "Betty" unless they're Clueless-spawned fictional hipsters? (Maybe they do, and I just haven't noticed.) Some of the dialogue reminded me of the kids on Bev Niner, as my sister refers to that venerable Fox institution (which I used to watch, back in the day), who always seemed to be saying things like "bro" and "Them's the breaks, my man" and clapping each other on the back in macho sympathy.

Anyway. Out of this silliness emerged, in fact, a reasonably interesting premise. Even if it was never made clear just how it worked (and thankfully I don't understand physics so I can't complain about the, I'm sure numerous, scientific impossibilities), it was a neat concept nevertheless. And the end scene with the bullet, reminiscent as it was of The Matrix and that Korn video, was terrifically done. I did wonder why there wasn't more of an investigation afterwards - wouldn't a forensics team instantly conclude that Tony had shot the two of them, fingerprints or not? But nobody seemed to mind.

One mildly annoying thing that I couldn't let go of, grammar freak that I am: At the beginning of the teaser, there's a closeup on the bumper sticker on Tony's car (or his mom's, presumably), which I could swear reads, "My Son Is A Honor Student at Adams High." I guess it wasn't the honor students who designed the bumper stickers. Unless, of course, it was intentionally ironic (sure).

I've always said I'll forgive a lot in an episode if it has decent Mulder/Scully interaction. This one did, to put it mildly. There was nothing earth-shattering here, no Millennium New Year's kiss (not that I have any complaints about that), just solid teamwork and a nice sprinkling of mutual affection. Maybe it was the writer and director, maybe it was just the actors, but it looked to me as if somebody had decided to make at least some stab at kiss-related emotional continuity (particularly if this was, as I surmise from the episode numbers, filmed right after Millennium). Mulder and Scully seemed so interested in each other that I almost thought I was back watching "Deep Throat" (the episode, not the movie). Mulder looks practically overjoyed to see Scully when he catches sight of her in the first act, and I could swear Scully was playing with Mulder's tie or something while she asked him if they could talk to Tony's friends, "for me." More importantly, they're functioning as a team, even as they disagree, instead of being at each other's throats for half the time and in different states for the other half.

The little references to Mulder and Scully getting old were a nice touch. It's true, Fox "Later, duuude" Mulder and Dana "I joined the FBI to piss off my dad" Scully aren't kids anymore. I for one have watched in fascination as they have aged over the years - their seen-it-all weariness is a stark contrast to the kids' easy flippancy. As for other signs of maturity, in the Scully Sorta Believes Now department, she never out and says that she buys Mulder's theories, but she never really says she doesn't, either. "Well, that's doubtful. But no more so than any other theory. I mean, it's worth checking out," she hedges in the last scene. I want to believe it all follows from the season premiere. Works for me so far.

I emerged at the end of this hour feeling pleasantly invigorated. Rush was no classic, but it was solid MOTW fare and I had a good time watching it. So keep 'em coming, David Amann - just stay away from the bad water.