The X-Files: Patience   Rewatch 
August 9, 2020 5:48 PM - Season 8, Episode 3 - Subscribe

Scully and Doggett go to Idaho to investigate the gruesome murder of an elderly couple by an unidentified creature that has four toes and leaves footprints twenty feet apart.
posted by orange swan (6 comments total)
 
Happy birthday, Gillian Anderson!
posted by porpoise at 12:20 AM on August 10, 2020


Doggett tries to play nice and shows that he's a stand up dude. Interesting that Scully still doesn't feel that the office is hers (even as half of a partnership?) until she grows into it after taking Doggett on board - and offers him a desk.

Doggett bought into the X Files thing pretty damn quick. I recall that there were Doggett haters, but despite the T-1000 thing I was fond of the character and characterization. He looks so young.

And dang, Robert Patrick had a busy career. Not the brightest, but very prolific and continues to be. He was absolutely hilarious in 'True Blood.'

Bat costume was pretty good, but a little too similar to Flukeman.
posted by porpoise at 4:03 PM on August 10, 2020


The Bat Man could get Ernie's scent off everyone who came into contact with his dead wife's body, but couldn't track him to his island?

I thought the Bat Man was a pretty good and terrifying monster. I'd class it with Fluke Man and Raven Lady -- and I think one would have less chance of escaping the Bat Man than either of the other two.

The way that cop turned his back on Scully and ignored her completely while talking to Doggett -- ugh. No one ever did that to Mulder. It's "crazy theories" + misogyny.

Scully's easing into her partnership with Doggett, and beginning to accept him as a partner, which necessitates her treating him with a certain level of care and respect. She tends to his wounds and gets him a desk.
posted by orange swan at 6:09 PM on August 10, 2020


Yeah, that's definitely a thing - I can't say whether its the writer's prejudices or the writers projecting prejudice or acknowledging the prevalence of misogyny.

Scully gets no respect on her own. Writers definitely double-downing on disrespect from misogyny and anti-science (and anti-X Files).

Dogget serves as the beard, and the writing (and Patrick's performance) this episode pretty explicitly shows that Scully has a real hound on her side to back her up physically and to knock down misogyny-derived resistance to accepting the truth. But Scully shouldn't need that, in a perfect better world.

A difference I've seen between Mulder and Doggett is that Mulder goes after the most "interesting" conjecture and shrugs aside criticism, whereas Doggett is open minded and goes after the most "reasonable" conjecture (and comes up with/ acknowledges alternate conjectures!).

Around this time I had elevated hopes that the show might regain some of its legs - Scully with convictions as the new Mulder, Doggett with healthy skepticism but open mind and able to provide deep "other" experience as the new Scully.

If this was 'real life' = Scully is incredibly lucky that either AD Kersh actually believes in the X Files and assigned the very best person available to be her partner despite his hostile demeanor, or AD Kersh is a huge dummy and sees Doggett as only a meathead and is trying to straighten Scully out and keeping the X Files open because of politics.
posted by porpoise at 7:06 PM on August 10, 2020


Another difference between Mulder and Doggett - Mulder has a certain look and demeanor of being in a position of authority and just expects it. A socio-economic class-type thing. He gets trod over sometimes on that.

Dogget has the look where he'll break your arm if you question his legitimate position of authority (that you've already acknowledged as legitimate because of psychology that Doggett already did on you).
posted by porpoise at 7:14 PM on August 10, 2020


If this was 'real life' = Scully is incredibly lucky that either AD Kersh actually believes in the X Files and assigned the very best person available to be her partner despite his hostile demeanor, or AD Kersh is a huge dummy and sees Doggett as only a meathead and is trying to straighten Scully out and keeping the X Files open because of politics.

I've never gotten what was going on with Kersh. I'm inclined to think he's simply a badly written character, that he exists as a plot device to create conflict/problems for the X-Files agents, and then suddenly he turns out to be a good guy after all when that serves the plot.

In the previous episode, Skinner told Doggett he is considered a very likely future director's chair occupant, and then tells him he's been given this assignment because it will ruin his career. I can see it. I'm reminded of how someone I knew years ago told me about a cousin of his who was a Catholic priest, and who was very, very successful at his work. He was widely considered someone who was going places in the church, and would be a cardinal someday, maybe even more. He was given a document to sign that stated he would never change/challenge the church's stance on birth control, homosexuality, and women in the priesthood, and was told that if he didn't sign it he would never be promoted. He refused to sign, and that was the end of his career. He ended up leaving the church entirely. This is how corrupt organizations perpetuate themselves.

Doggett is a stellar agent, and is also a genuinely principled man. Someone corrupt and powerful like CSM would see him as a threat and want to nip his career in the bud, because if he does get the director's chair he'll clean house, and that would mean the end of their career. I can definitely see his assignment to the X-Files as a means to sideline him. No one takes the X-Files seriously, and it's not a path to promotion. His fitness for the X-Files and/or the good of the X-Files themselves would be considered irrelevant.
posted by orange swan at 3:41 PM on August 11, 2020 [1 favorite]


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