The X-Files: Talitha Cumi (Part 1/2) Rewatch

May 9, 2020 8:00 PM - Season 3, Episode 24

Mulder and Scully search for a man who miraculously healed both the shooter and his victims at a fast food restaurant hostage situation, then disappeared when being questioned by the police.
posted by orange swan (3 comments total)

'Vassili's Souvlaki' across the street from the fast food place is still there. So's the fast food place (an A&W irl). Gas was 60.9 (cents per liter)! Before covid and the oil war, it peaked at 163.9 around here.

Bit weird seeing a nurse's uniform instead of scrubs. Fancy/ old school private hospital? The nurse in the hallway during Fox/ CSM's encounter was scrubbed up.

I liked the themes here, the sins of the fathers, generational secrets. Had forgotten about the possible ambiguity of Mulder's parentage and how that played out in the future.

This is the first reference to the Cabal's goals (surviving the upcoming colonization event)?

I'm not familiar with the bible, but Jeremiah was the "weeping prophet" - a persecuted reformer?

Felt a bit weird about Mulder rifling through his mother's stuff at the cottage, especially after she "vowed never to return after the divorce" - and the cottage was left essentially untouched since then.

Wow, Scully wearing sensible ass-kicking boots. The heel, though chunky, is still a little high.

"But there was substantial blood loss during the stroke event which put a lot of pressure on the brain." Derp. Not really. Stroke causes ischemic damage (no blood, no oxygen) or if the blockage is profound, it might cause an abscess/ ruptured aneurysm which can lead to glutamate toxicity as dying neurons release their glutamate stores and overexcites neighbouring neurons causing their deaths in a (routinely lethal) cascade.

I hate cliffhangers.
posted by porpoise at 3:53 PM on May 10, 2020 [1 favorite]

Felt a bit weird about Mulder rifling through his mother's stuff at the cottage, especially after she "vowed never to return after the divorce" - and the cottage was left essentially untouched since then.

Who got the cottage in the divorce? If it was his mother, it was strange that she hasn't sold it. If it was his father, it's odd that Mulder, who would surely have been his sole heir, wouldn't have cleaned it out and sold it by now.

I found it a bit odd that Jeremiah Smith would happen to be at a fast food restaurant. Do alien hybrids eat? Do they eat fast food?

Also odd: that the alien project people would have multiple Jeremiah Smiths working for the Social Security offices. I mean, really? The alien hybrids can make themselves look like whomever they choose, but they went with a single look/name? They didn't think anyone would notice? And no one has noticed until Scully did?

CSM to Teena Mulder: He was a good water-skier, your husband. Not as good as I was, but then... that could be said about so many things, couldn't it?

Of course CSM is the kind of man who thinks he's good in bed, and preens himself on having gotten Teena to cheat on her husband with him, to her clear digust. (Fun fact: Davis was actually a championship-level water-skier in reality.) So much of his smarminess is simply hot air. He loses control so quickly when things don't go his way.

What on earth did CSM want from Teena Mulder? It doesn't make any sense that he would want the stiletto weapon -- surely he could get those if he wanted them. Did he want information from her, or did he just want to see her again? And if the former, what could she possibly know that he wouldn't know?
posted by orange swan at 1:03 PM on May 11, 2020 [1 favorite]

I always though the Jeremiahs were a silly tribute to the John's in 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the 8th Dimension' or a quirk of alien psychology (all those clones, Samantha clones, ABHs).
posted by porpoise at 2:31 PM on May 11, 2020