The X-Files: Closure (Part 2/2) Rewatch
July 26, 2020 7:12 PM - Season 7, Episode 11 - Subscribe
After the remains of a number of children are found at Ed Truelove's Christmas ranch and he confesses to twenty-four murders, but denies any involvement in the disappearance of Amber Lynn LaPierre, a self-professed psychic approaches Mulder and Scully, claiming that he can help them find Amber Lynn.
Mulder's pretentious monologue was a total bummer.
Pretentious monologues were one of the clearest-cut indicators that "oh hey, Chris Carter co-wrote this episode."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:36 AM on July 27, 2020 [3 favorites]
Pretentious monologues were one of the clearest-cut indicators that "oh hey, Chris Carter co-wrote this episode."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:36 AM on July 27, 2020 [3 favorites]
lolol, have we seen that footage of Mulder in '89 getting hypnotized before? That's... that's got to be a wig, right?
I don't believe we have. And the scene probably should have been left unshot. That wig was a travesty and Mulder was supposed to be 27/28 at the time, and he soooo didn't look it.
That was probably the worst monologue of any in the entire run of the show. My eyes rolled back in my head as I listened.
Okay, so if I understand this properly, Samantha was not taken by aliens, but was abducted from the Mulder home at the age of 8 (although her birthdate, January 22, 1964, and the date of her abduction, November 27, 1973, would actually make her 9), and taken to the base where CSM raised her with Jeffrey and she was used as a test subject, until she reached the age of 14, at which point she ran away. She was found by authorities, and admitted to a hospital, and CSM arrived to pick her up, only to find she had disappeared from her locked hospital room.
So the idea is that walk-ins, who are "beings composed of starlight" (seriously?) take children to save them from a terrible fate. Thus, they took Samantha. Amber Lynn wasn't in pain, but it seems that Ed Truelove was targeting her and planned to abduct her, and I suppose the same was true of Kathy Lee Tencate's son. The suffering it causes the parents of the children doesn't seem to be an issue for these compassionate, celestial walk-ins. It's a pretty cheesy concept, and it's out of character for Mulder to just have accepted it without question/further exploration. Were the adult Samanthas we have seen all clones, then?
Jeffrey Spender would have had memories of Samantha. I can't remember if he ever subsequently talks about her. I do find it odd that, if he really did grow up with Samantha, he wouldn't have connected Mulder's missing sister, whom he surely knew about, with the Samantha he lived with, or that he wouldn't have recognized his own father when he saw him. I don't know how old Jeffrey is supposed to be, but Chris Owens was born in 1961, which would make him the same age as Fox Mulder, and 3-4 years older than Samantha. And did Cassandra Spender raise Samantha for those six years?
Also odd: Jeffrey Spender is gunned down in the X-Files office by CSM, and there's no mention of it at all. Is the idea that CSM had him somehow smuggled off FBI property unnoticed (?!) and then used as a test subject? Even if no one at the FBI knows about Jeffrey being shot/abducted, it's still weird that no one seemed concerned with his disappearance.
Harold Piller was such an odd character. It's odd that he wouldn't appear as he did seem to have genuine psychic ability. It did make me laugh that he woke Mulder in the small hours and that Mulder was all, "It's three in the morning!" Serves you right, dude.
posted by orange swan at 7:53 AM on July 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
I don't believe we have. And the scene probably should have been left unshot. That wig was a travesty and Mulder was supposed to be 27/28 at the time, and he soooo didn't look it.
That was probably the worst monologue of any in the entire run of the show. My eyes rolled back in my head as I listened.
Okay, so if I understand this properly, Samantha was not taken by aliens, but was abducted from the Mulder home at the age of 8 (although her birthdate, January 22, 1964, and the date of her abduction, November 27, 1973, would actually make her 9), and taken to the base where CSM raised her with Jeffrey and she was used as a test subject, until she reached the age of 14, at which point she ran away. She was found by authorities, and admitted to a hospital, and CSM arrived to pick her up, only to find she had disappeared from her locked hospital room.
So the idea is that walk-ins, who are "beings composed of starlight" (seriously?) take children to save them from a terrible fate. Thus, they took Samantha. Amber Lynn wasn't in pain, but it seems that Ed Truelove was targeting her and planned to abduct her, and I suppose the same was true of Kathy Lee Tencate's son. The suffering it causes the parents of the children doesn't seem to be an issue for these compassionate, celestial walk-ins. It's a pretty cheesy concept, and it's out of character for Mulder to just have accepted it without question/further exploration. Were the adult Samanthas we have seen all clones, then?
Jeffrey Spender would have had memories of Samantha. I can't remember if he ever subsequently talks about her. I do find it odd that, if he really did grow up with Samantha, he wouldn't have connected Mulder's missing sister, whom he surely knew about, with the Samantha he lived with, or that he wouldn't have recognized his own father when he saw him. I don't know how old Jeffrey is supposed to be, but Chris Owens was born in 1961, which would make him the same age as Fox Mulder, and 3-4 years older than Samantha. And did Cassandra Spender raise Samantha for those six years?
Also odd: Jeffrey Spender is gunned down in the X-Files office by CSM, and there's no mention of it at all. Is the idea that CSM had him somehow smuggled off FBI property unnoticed (?!) and then used as a test subject? Even if no one at the FBI knows about Jeffrey being shot/abducted, it's still weird that no one seemed concerned with his disappearance.
Harold Piller was such an odd character. It's odd that he wouldn't appear as he did seem to have genuine psychic ability. It did make me laugh that he woke Mulder in the small hours and that Mulder was all, "It's three in the morning!" Serves you right, dude.
posted by orange swan at 7:53 AM on July 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
I meant to write, "It's odd that [Harold Piller] wouldn't appear again in the show as he did seem to have genuine psychic ability." You'd think Mulder would have wanted his assistance with at least some of his cases.
posted by orange swan at 8:48 AM on July 28, 2020
posted by orange swan at 8:48 AM on July 28, 2020
...and this is where I first learned about Moby.
posted by acrasis at 9:00 AM on July 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by acrasis at 9:00 AM on July 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
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It's also a bummer that there's some psychic sniffing around cold reading Mulder during a period of intense grief and vulnerability. Dude also totally got on my nerves.
"Why do you care so much about what I feel? Why is it so important to you?"
Usually its Anderson who showcases acting chops, but I thought that Duchovny had some great scenes.
lolol, have we seen that footage of Mulder in '89 getting hypnotized before? That's... that's got to be a wig, right?
That Samantha had left a diary behind is beyond plausible. So, uh, that's it?
posted by porpoise at 9:40 PM on July 26, 2020