This is perhaps my favorite "Religi-Files" episode - The Religious 'Sodes, usually have something to do with Skully.
And that is true here. This episode represents the two halves of Skully fighting it out. On one hand, she is a Doctor and a Scientist. On the other, a devout Catholic. I say "Catholic" as opposed to "Christian" because I was raised Catholic, and I learned painfully that "Catholic" is not necessarily "Christian." But the two do use some of the same Mythology and they both use the same Bible, and Skully herself leans toward a more Practical Faith. So in my eyes, she can represent my own personal Spiritual interests when it comes to The X-Files.
Skully is asked by her priest to talk to the parents of an unusual girl who had been killed in a mysterious way. The "talk" becomes an Investigation and what starts out as a small mystery soon becomes a large convoluted one.
It seems that the girl was 1/4 of a set of Quadruplets, all of them having 6 fingers and 6 toes, all of them having twisted spines, all of them very special girls.
Very quickly in her investigation Skully starts seeing visions of her lost daughter "Emily" from "A Christmas Carol" and "Emily." It seems that Emily is trying to tell her something, but Skully will not hear it, at least at first.
She gets Mulder involved, and where Mulder's usual easy-belief would be helpful, he puts of an unexpected wall of skepticism about religious matters- About this particular religious matter. He's usually more open, but for some reason here he is a real turd.
Now this is a great switch which Carter gives us: All long term X-Files fans know, that Usually, Mulder is the one who sees the "paranormal" events, and Skully just happens to miss them by seconds. From the Pilot Ep to "The Truth" this is so. Skully NEVER sees the events Mulder sees: But she always believes Mulder's account, because she has Faith in Mulder.
Mulder is a being of Belief, Skully is a being of FAITH. This Episode shows us exactly why the two are different and HOW they are different.
This episode is a reversal - Mulder not only is very skeptical about this matter, he simply refuses to admit the possibility of these things happening. So in this 'sode, it is Skully who sees, and Mulder who does not see.
Mulder basically cannot return the same courtesy Skully grants him when she puts her Faith in Him. It's basically why the two need each other to complete themselves. But not so here, his participation in this episode is a hindrance, because Mulder cannot render Faith the same way Skully can.
I don't want to get very deep into the Religious Mythology that is suggested in this episode, except to say that these Beings: Cherubim, Nephilim, and the Man in the Dark Clothes with the face of a man and the four animal faces, I've been familiar with these images since I was a small child. And so when in an Episode of The X Files, I SEE a graphic representation of these beings looking just as I imagined they'd look, it was almost a verification of my own Faith.
No, the stories are not in the Bible, but they are in the Apocrypha- Meaning that these stories are not neglected by the Church as a whole, the Church keeps all of these texts regardless of if they are Canon or Not. These stories are actually part of the Qaballa, the books of Hebrew Mysticism that I've been interested in for the last 20 years.
In this episode, when these matters are extrapolated, they are done in a way respectful of the subject matter, as The X-Files usually treats Religious subjects with great respect - When the Priest explains it to Skully, he is fairly accurate- I actually fished out my books of Apocrypha and checked, they did not add anything to it, they used it, just as it is in the Book of Enoch.
This was a very appropriate way for Skully to have the arc about Emily finished- It was "done" earlier in this season, but this episode answers some of Skully's "Why" questions.
The 'Social Worker" played by Glenn Morshower is a great kick in the pants. Group Him with "Donnie Pfaster."
10 out of 24 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink