Case 05, File 06: Christmas Carol

AKA: The Ghost Of Plots Past

So as you may be aware, this season ends on a cliffhanger that needed to be resolved in a big expensive movie (we'll get to it, don't worry). What that means, unfortunately, is that throughout the season there were episodes where either Gillian Anderson or David Duchovny wouldn't be available, because they'd be off shooting their movie scenes (and at least one episode where neither of them could be available). The affects the way they write the episodes, since there are multiple episodes this season which have to be centered around either Mulder or Scully, to give them time to be off set, and writing an episode to suit an actor's availability first and to tell a good story second is always a backward way to write it.

Our story opens with one Dr. Dana Scully visiting her family on Christmas and immediately getting a mysterious call from someone who sounds like Melissa! Melissa...Scully's sister? She got shot in season 2? Okay now you remember. Anyway she traces the number back to a house where a woman has just committed suicide, leaving behind her adopted daughter Emily and her not-super-bummed-out husband.

There's a record of Scully receiving the call but no record of it leaving the house, which everyone agrees is odd but no one feels like dealing with. So she hangs around the house a bit more, feeling bummed out that her brother is having a kid when she can't and having flashbacks until she gets another mysterious call. She heads over to the house again to find the still-not-bummed-out husband who is meeting some mysterious men.

Scully, between mysterious dreams and weird calls, begins to believe that there's something suspicious about the death and also finds a picture of Emily that reminds her of a picture of Melissa at that age. So she keeps digging and does an autopsy and finds a puncture on the dead woman's foot, which is enough to get a search warrant and for Scully to order a DNA test. It's close to Melissa's, causing Scully to think that she's a daughter Melissa had when she was wandering on the west coast.

"Accidentally killed your rabbit huh? That's rough sis."

Scully gets a call from the detective that the father has been getting payments from a pharmaceutical firm and after an interview with the company where they find out that the payments had been intended for Emily's father and that he had been prescribed the chemical they found in the dead mother, which is enough for an arrest. He immediately confesses, is visited by the two mysterious men and kills himself (probably not a coincidence) and the rest of the episode is devoted to Scully failing to adopt Emily but also finding out that Emily isn't Melissa's daughter, but in fact hers! Pretty tame cliffhanger but it'll do.

Christmas Carol is one of several episodes where Mulder or Scully (or both) aren't involved and the plot has to revolve around only one of them (and yes, I know that Duchovny was actually off promoting some movie I've never seen during this episode but the point stands) and this one is an interesting attempt to make a story about Scully's emotional journey and the fallout from some of her previous storylines, and while that's conceptually interesting, it's just never clicked with me the way some of the better episodes on Scully's storyline can.

I guess one of the big problems is that it doesn't commit to its style enough. I'm not one to complain about breaks in reality like getting a DNA test back in like 12 hours or seeing an adoption agent on Christmas Eve, the episode is clearly leaning towards a fairy tale feeling, but I wish the episode would telegraph that more. Yeah we've got a couple of semi-strange dreams and flashbacks, but you can do more with lighting, or maybe a filter on the camera. The last episode got shot in black and white, you're saying you can't slap a soft filter on the camera.

Look episode, I was under the impression that Scully appeared in the world as a fully formed Gillian Anderson and I'd appreciate you not disabusing me of that notion.

It's also got a problem that a lot of two part episodes have, in that it knows where it wants to end the first episode but doesn't really have enough content prior to that and just ends up either padding it out or pacing itself really slowly, and Christmas Carol does both. The padding I don't mind so much, since we get some good flashbacks and dream sequences out of it, but the pacing does feel a little slow at times. It's not that it's boring, but it just sort of never grabs you the way a good episode should.

I suppose the big issue is that the episode is aiming too close to being a much better episode, in this case One Breath. The dream sequences and flashbacks really do put me in that mindset and I don't think it's a coincidence. There's no shame in taking another crack at a concept to try and get it right but One Breath is a staple of "Best of the Series" lists and doesn't really need another take. Maybe trying to build your own style would make me feel less like we're missing a Don Davis monologue.

If the episode has one shining trait, it's Gillian Anderson. Okay yes, she's always there and she's always excellent, but she is doing some incredible work here. Her interview with the adoption agency is some of the best acting of her career, and given how great she is consistently, that's quite saying something. Season 5 was the season that finally gave Anderson her one and only Emmy for The X-Files and I wouldn't be surprised to learn her performance in this episode clinched it.

"Hey, courier with some DNA tests for you."
"...you deliver on Christmas?"
"Don't worry about it."

I was on another guy's stream a few weeks ago, as he played the X-Files FMV game and one of the things we discussed is how, upon rewatches, the Myth Arc episodes of the series get frustrating because you know that they aren't going anywhere. And I feel like that's the major problem I'm having with this episode. There's stuff I like about it, but I just have so much trouble getting emotionally invested, given that I know Emily is not long for this world. So maybe if I didn't know that, I could get more swept up in the plot.

Case Notes:

• I had honestly forgotten that Scully's brother returns for this episode. Does he actually do anything this time or just yell at Mulder some more?
• The soundtrack in the opening reminds me of One Breath, for some reason I can't quantify. Maybe that's intentional?
• Opening with a "From beyond the grave call" from Scully's sister is a hell of a declaration of intent, I'll give you that.
• The cop who gives Scully shit for showing up at the woman's house is the lamest guy on the face of the planet. Calling her "Scully, FBI" is dumb but understandable, but the 1-800-The-Great-Beyond joke? Do not make jokes sir, you're bad at them.
• I am 90% certain that they used the same shot of the father turning around while holding Emily twice.
• I love Mulder running into his apartment wearing a shirt on his head. I just love that visual.
• Scully's brother's wife going on and on about how great having kids is, is really annoying at the best of times, but in front of Scully it's really insensitive.
• I get kind of tired of the "Women always want kids" storylines. I never got the sense Scully was pining for children in the previous seasons.
• I do love how the flashbacks don't try to romanticize childhood. Scully's brother is a bastard to her, just like kids often are.
• Scully gets the douchey cop to show him the suicide case evidence with "In the spirit of the season." I love you Scully.
• I feel like you can't just look up if someone is adopted online. Maybe if you're FBI but the site Scully looks it up on seems like it's public.
• Hey, Scully calls Danny. Has she ever done that before?
• Between a flashback to Scully's childhood and the weird dream of young-Scully at the funeral with the water filled coffin, I'm starting to feel like the One Breath comparison is apt.
• The pathologist is completely useless. He can't find evidence of pills in the victim's stomach, and then finds a puncture on her foot and is like "Oh well, maybe she stepped on a tack." Useless.
• Wait, the dude says that his daughter's at a friend's house, but she's three years old? Do three year olds go over to friends house on their own?
• I like the bit where Scully and her mom talk about their expressions of grief. More of that might make this episode great.
• The doctor who Scully goes to see couldn't look more villainous if he tried, but he's mostly just helpful. I forget if he turns out to be villainous too.
• I'm not big on kids, but the actress playing Emily does not look 3 years old at all.
• Scully is acting broody at a party which is supposed to show that something is wrong but honestly, that's just how I act a party.
• The San Diego lockup just let two mysterious guys through claiming to be the killer's lawyers and then didn't notice he'd been hung to look like a suicide. They're also useless.
• Bill is a douchebag. That is all.
• Cutting to black on Scully realizing Emily is her daughter is a solid cliffhanger. 
• As always, these reviews are supported by my Patreon. Check it out so that my college workload doesn't become more important than these reviews. 

Future Celebrity Watch:

John Pyper-Ferguson, who plays the sarcastic detective, is a well traveled actor who has never been out of work and you've probably seen him somewhere. He had a recurring role on Caprica (a show I wanted to like more than I did) and currently has recurring roles on both Suits and The Last Ship, neither of which I watch.