all things
Scully's past
catches up with her when she discovers a former lover is seriously ill.
I think this episode is a prime example of why I should
filter out and ignore hype until after I've seen the episode for myself. I was
expecting to love all things as much as I loved, for example, Irresistible
or Beyond the Sea, and I'd been ready to start this review with a
sentence something along the lines of "Not only is Gillian Anderson a
wonderful actress, she can also write and direct as well as anyone on the X
Files team." And it wasn't a bad episode, but I didn't enjoy it as
much as I was expecting to, so I feel a little let down - which isn't the
episode's fault, so I'm trying not to let it colour my review. But it probably
will.
My first impression wasn't good as Scully launched into a
monologue over a silent scene - what can I say, I have issues about monologues being
overused and over-worded on The X Files. Once I actually listened to it,
though, it did raise some intriguing issues and was a lot better than many
other such speeches we've been subjected to over the years. I have to admit to
being fascinated by the idea of every single little decision making an impact
upon your life, and your current position in life being the result of every
decision you've ever made and everything you've ever said or done. So the theme
of this episode, as Scully took stock of her life and how she'd ended up where
she was, was interesting to me, even if there were some things I disliked about
it.
Scully was very blunt with, even harsh towards, Mulder
right at the beginning, and it seemed odd for her to pay so little attention to
his slide show. She had obviously been considering the way her life had turned
out even before she found Daniel in the hospital, and the scene with Mulder
demonstrated that nicely. I wondered if her shortness was a result of
resentment towards her partner, or at least towards the X Files - she has
devoted much of the last seven years to them, and they have shaped her life
significantly, often in ways beyond her control. So is she regretting that
choice she made to stand by Mulder and investigate these cases? Does she want
out, to try and regain some degree of control over her life? Possibly she did
at that point. By the end of the episode, though, she seemed to have made some
kind of peace with herself and to be content with the place to which her
choices had led her.
It was certainly interesting to be given all that Scully
history, not least to find out some more about her reasons for joining the FBI
- not as "an act of rebellion" as she claimed her parents saw it, or
even really because she saw it as a place where she could
"distinguish" herself (see the pilot). No, she was running away from
her mistakes, even if I don't see why she had to join the FBI rather than just
setting up practice or working in a hospital far away from Waterston. Although
I can't imagine the Scully of today having an affair with a married man, we
know that she has not only a dark side, but a much less responsible past (think
back to Jack Willis in Lazarus- she really does like
her older men). Now, however, she seems to regret the affair with Daniel and is
determined not to let herself fall for him again because she doesn't want to
get hurt, or to hurt anybody else. I'm on thin ice here because I'm not trying
to defend Scully's actions, but it seems to me that she was trying to put
things right by ending her relationship with Daniel, and did, at least then, do
the right thing. Of course she shouldn't have got involved in the first place,
but after realizing what a mistake she'd made, she did the only thing she could
that could possibly have compensated for it. Only it didn't - the Waterstons
still got divorced. And the absent Scully was probably portrayed as the brazen
hussy who seduced Daniel. Her comment to Daniel at the end about taking
responsibility probably referred to this - the family had to live with Daniel,
which made it hard to hate him; their resentment was instead channeled towards
Scully. Who was hardly innocent in all of this, but was still only one of the
two guilty parties.
I was glad Gillian Anderson chose to explore Scully's
regrets (or otherwise) over not spending her life with Daniel, rather than
writing a script in which Scully embarked on another relationship with him.
From the beginning, it was apparent that Scully did not want to get involved
with him - she couldn't do that without feeling guilty. When she found out he
had moved to Washington to be near her, she was mortified - distressed that he
still had feelings for her, and that she was still affecting his life ten years
after leaving him.
It seemed like a pretty lax hospital. First they handed
over the autopsy report without asking for any identification (anyone could
forge a signature) and then they let Scully use the defibrillator on a patient?
I appreciate that Daniel would probably have died if Scully hadn't been there,
and of course she's a doctor, but there must be some major insurance issues
related to that. Despite that, I enjoyed seeing Scully practicing some real
medicine. You'd think after all those years working with corpses she might have
lost touch with emergency medicine, but it was good to see she obviously still
has time to keep up with developments. Also, what was the doctor's problem with
the alternative therapy? As Maggie said, "if it isn't hurting him, we
should at least be open to it."
I wasn't too keen on the character of Colleen. She was just
slightly too hippy-ish for me to really take seriously, and she spoke in a
mixture of text-book explanations and tired clichés, such as "everything
happens for a reason" and "literally dying inside." I think she
could have been a little less extreme and still been a strong enough character
to nudge Scully further in the direction she was already going in so she could
reconsider her priorities and her place in life. She told Daniel that she wants
"everything I should want at this time in my life." Presumably a
partner, children, a respectable job with good career prospects and a
reasonable salary, a nice house, family holidays….and how much of that does she
actually have? More importantly, would she change what she does have for those
things? Does she regret the decisions that took her away from that ideal life?
And does she believe that anyone actually has that perfect existence? I would
say no to those last three questions, the first two for the reasons I gave in
the third paragraph, and the last because I think she appreciates that the
proverbial grass is always greener on the other side.
I'm really not a fan of slow-motion unless it achieves
something other than an artistic looking shot, and I didn't feel that the
slow-motion in all things really added a lot. Especially when it was
combined with that Moby soundtrack, which I hated (Mark Snow has done great
work on this show, why did he need to be replaced for this episode?). The scene
of Scully walking in slow motion down the street reminded me of a bank
commercial, and a couple of friends of mine of a car commercial - either way, it's
not really what you should be thinking about during an episode of The X
Files. While I'm complaining, I wasn't at all convinced by Scully's vision
in the Buddhist temple. I don't really know why. It's not the fact that she had
it since it had already been explained why she was being open to unusual
phenomena. I guess I just didn't like the "life flashing before her
eyes" effect, which seemed a little lacking in originality. Maybe this is
just one of those times where I dislike something for no good reason. It
happens a lot J.
I liked Mulder's Stonehenge baseball cap J.
So, the "big question" - did Mulder and Scully
sleep together? I've thought about this and I reached the following, somewhat
surprising (at least to me) conclusion: I don't care. It just felt so
contrived, crafted to make us ask, but not to provide any answers. They might
have done, they might not have done. Shippers can jump in the air screaming
"YES! They had sex!" while Noromos can point out that the evidence is
purely circumstantial. On TV, things are only "real" if we either see
them happening or are given sufficient evidence to conclude that they have
happened. Quite deliberately, neither criterion applies in this case. And since
I very much doubt that any reference is going to be made to it in the future,
I'm left indifferent. If I was pushed, I would probably say that they didn't
sleep together. It seems unlikely to me that Scully would wake up, peer
bleary-eyed at Mulder and think, "hey, let's do the naked pretzel."
all things was a beautiful study of Scully
and the ways in which she has changed since her slightly wild youth. It was
self-indulgent, but you can't really blame Gillian Anderson for that. While I
had some problems with it, it did seem to communicate Anderson's feelings for her
character, and the obvious affection and respect with which she regards her.
Enabling Anderson to express that is reason enough for making this episode.
Best Lines
Scully: We're always running. We're always chasing the next
big thing. Why don't you ever just stay still?
Mulder: I wouldn't know what I'd be missing.
Maggie: You moved on, but we had to live with what you left
behind.
Scully: I'm not the same person, Daniel. I wouldn't have
known that if I hadn't seen you again.
Scully: I didn't say that God spoke back, I said that I had
some kind of a vision.
Mulder: For you, that's like saying you're having David
Crosbie's baby.
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