The X-Files: DeadAlive (Part 2/2)   Rewatch 
August 21, 2020 8:58 PM - Season 8, Episode 15 - Subscribe

Three months after Mulder's funeral, Billy Myers' deceased and decaying body is found floating in the sea, and is miraculously resurrected, leading Skinner to decide to exhume Mulder's grave.
posted by orange swan (3 comments total)
 
There was a month-long hiatus since the Part 1/2 cliffhanger, then the cold open of a funeral.

Scully's private eulogy with Skinner was ok. Her reaction to Skinner's "I don't truly believe that... Mulder's the last." sets up perfectly for Scully to flirt with abandoning the X Files, though (the cadence is weird though, suggesting it's a self-serving line by the producers to introduce Doggett and Reyes as replacements).

Immediately followed by Doggett's commendation and promotion (which he doesn't immediately accept), reminds me of Obi Wan in Star Wars talking about how Luke isn't really the last hope and that he has a sister.

While the decaying body is not bad, I think they won for the skin shedding practical effect.

I wonder what they were supposed to smell like?

Stupid Krycek, I knew that implant in Skinner was going to get used again. Vaccine to save Mulder? I thought Mulder already had it in him? Even if CSM transfused it from him (which is dumb for all kinds of reasons), he'd still have whatever cellular or humoral immunity that confers protection.

I'll stop. The Mythology is beyond broken.
posted by porpoise at 7:24 PM on August 22, 2020


I took Skinner's "I don't truly believe that Mulder's the last" to mean that Fox wasn't the last of the Mulders, because he knows Scully is pregnant and suspects Mulder was the father, though she hasn't said so.

The snow in the graveyard scene was another reminder of the show's age. Raleigh, North Carolina, where the cemetery supposedly was, currently gets an average of 4 inches of snow per year and would be unlikely to ever have the piles of snow we saw in that scene.

Scully's mom went to Mulders' funeral. That was good of her -- she would have had to travel to get there given that she lives in Washington, D.C. -- but after all this was her pregnant daughter's baby daddy and she needed the support. (I'm imagining Bill Scully's reaction to the news that Mulder is dead, and then alive again, and I'm sure it involved at least some irritation and bloviating.)

Wouldn't Krycek's vial have contained an antidote, not a vaccine? How could anyone be vaccinated for a medical condition they already have?

Krycek ought to have known Skinner would never do anything to harm Scully's baby. Why didn't he do that himself if he wanted it done? How stupid and incompetent is he?

That scene with Krycek trying to drive out of the parking lot while Doggett clings to the side of the car and punches him in the head was badass. It's hilarious that everyone who knows Krycek immediately wants to beat the shit out of him, and Krycek will find Doggett a tougher specimen than Mulder ever was, or even Skinner.

That shower scene was both really gross and totally convincing. I felt sorry for the maintenance staffer who had to clean it.

I don't recall Scully ever wearing turtleneck sweaters before this season, and now we've seen her in at least four or five different ones. She wears two turtleneck sweaters in this episode alone. Is it supposed to indicate her need for comfort clothes in Mulder's absence and during her pregnancy, and/or her desire to keep her pregnancy hidden?

How is Mulder's apartment still rented and furnished with his things? He's been dead for THREE MONTHS. He thought he was dying before he was abducted and had had his gravestone prepared, and surely would have written a will, but perhaps Scully, who is the likely executor/heir, couldn't face the task of dealing with his apartment yet.

Mulder talks about Scully's pregnancy as though it's something that has nothing to do with him, which quite understandably upsets Scully. It apparently took him days to even mention her advanced pregnancy, which he hadn't even known about before he was abducted. DUDE. But hey, Mulder's back from the dead, and now everyone's remembering what a narcissistic jackass he can be.
posted by orange swan at 4:29 PM on August 23, 2020


Apologia for Mulder potentially not understanding that it's his; possibly short term memory deficits from being in a coma/ neurological fugue. But yeah, more likely he's just Archer.

The Tactleneck; Scully was a pioneer.
posted by porpoise at 10:10 PM on August 23, 2020


« Older Lucifer: Lucifer! Lucifer! Luc...   |  Lucifer: ¡Diablo!... Newer »

You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments

poster