The X-Files: Avatar Rewatch
May 6, 2020 7:14 PM - Season 3, Episode 21 - Subscribe
Assistant Director Walter Skinner refuses to sign his divorce papers at his lawyer's office, saying it can wait one more day, goes for a drink at a hotel bar, meets an attractive woman, spends the night in a hotel room with her, has one of his recurring nightmares about an old woman... and then wakes the next morning to find the woman he spent the night with lying dead beside him.
I am coming to feel that Skinner is the unsung hero of this show. He's such a great character -- everything's internalized with him, but there's so much depth that he's compelling. Mitch Pileggi really is an excellent actor who had no trouble carrying this episode -- he did a better job of that than we've seen David Duchovny do when Gillian Anderson was off giving birth. He can do deadpan humour, he can do action, he can do inner conflict. It's nice to think we still have at least one more Skinner-centric episode ahead of us.
The whole succubus thing didn't get resolved. I take it that the succubus was real (as opposed to just a figment of Skinner's imagination), given the luminescent residue on Carina's face, but that she didn't kill Carina, who instead was murdered (and hired) by someone working for the Syndicate -- this episode is one of those monster of the week/mythology arc hybrids. Okay, so what is the succubus about? Is she trying to get him to salvage his marriage and protect him from being framed for murder (as well as having saved his life in Vietnam), or is she a kind of manifestation of his trauma/grief?
posted by orange swan at 1:11 PM on May 7, 2020
The whole succubus thing didn't get resolved. I take it that the succubus was real (as opposed to just a figment of Skinner's imagination), given the luminescent residue on Carina's face, but that she didn't kill Carina, who instead was murdered (and hired) by someone working for the Syndicate -- this episode is one of those monster of the week/mythology arc hybrids. Okay, so what is the succubus about? Is she trying to get him to salvage his marriage and protect him from being framed for murder (as well as having saved his life in Vietnam), or is she a kind of manifestation of his trauma/grief?
posted by orange swan at 1:11 PM on May 7, 2020
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"Also Staring Mitch Pileggi" - haven't noticed if he's ever been billed as such - but this really brings Skinner fully into the core. I like how Mulder acknowledges that Skinner has been stepping up for them, now it's their turn to return the favour.
I liked the background reveal for why Skinner might have an open mind about the paranormal (near death experience in Vietnam).
posted by porpoise at 8:55 PM on May 6, 2020