Audrey Pauley: Off the Top of My Head (SPOILERS)
(March 17, 2002)

Caution: spoiler for the next ep (based on the trailer) is in
the "Etc." section.

AUDREY PAULEY (9ABX13):

In a nutshell:  The Monica Reyes version of "One Breath," albeit
not a carbon copy.  Some serious flaws, but by far the best
episode of the season so far.


What I liked:
-  Most of the guest stars.  I didn't much care for the doctor,
but I think that's a matter of the writing and not the acting. 
But in the short time we had with Stephen Murdoch and Mr.
Barreiro (he didn't speak at all, did he?), I cared about both
of them and was sorry that they died.  And, a BIG round of
applause for...
-  Tracey Ellis as Audrey Pauley (previously Lucy Householder in
"Oubliette").  She was absolutely brilliant.  Audrey's
explanation for what was going on was crazy, but Ms. Ellis's
delivery was so wonderful that I believed what the character was
saying.  And her haunted look was just what the role needed.
-  Nice makeup job on the Mr. Barreiro character.  Appropriately
gross without being gratuitous, IMO.
-  Excellent work by RP with the emotional scenes.  It reminded
me of the great job he did on "The Sopranos."
-  Nice work, too, by AG.  I got a clear sense of Reyes's mix of
fear and determination.



What I didn't like:
-  The "hospital floating in the sky" and Monica falling looked
pretty damn cheesy to me.
-  Sorry, 1013, but I really don't care about a Doggett/Reyes
romance.  Please don't spend any more significant time on it in
the remaining eps, OK?  Or at the very least, skip the beer
dates and be less heavy-handed than this ep.  (I mean, "you love
her" -- and that was said twice, wasn't it? -- is a bit too much
for me.  A variation on that worked in "Milagro," but here it
felt like I was getting hit over the head with a brick.  Note to
1013:  SHOW, don't tell.  Doggett's obvious anguish and his
mental instant replay of his last moments with Monica, ending
with a kiss, said everything that needed to be said.)
-  Was all the Cleavage!Monica really necessary?
-  Dr. Preijers.  Did this guy just suddenly become real keen on
pronouncing people dead?  If not, then hasn't anyone noticed
before that an awful lot of people croak on his shift?  I mean,
really -- three dead patients (OK, two and an almost), one dead
nurse, and one dead flower delivery person all in one day?  And
was he really just getting off on people dying?  I wish this had
been explored further.  Just having him be evil/demented without
any kind of explanation left a big hole in the ep for me.  I was
almost hoping that there was something in it for him financially
to get organ donations out the door as fast as possible.  I
don't know that greed is any better than insane as a
storytelling device, but it would have felt more realistic to
me.
-  Oh, and what kind of injected stuff did Scully say could have
killed Nurse Whitney?  Wouldn't chemicals like that be, say,
closely monitored at a hospital?  If a few hypos' worth went
missing, wouldn't somebody notice?
-  Paging Dr. Scully.  Didn't the dead nurse clinch it for you? 
Did you even bother to do those tox screens that Doggett asked
you to do?  And what happened with the autopsy that you did on
the nurse?
-  Paging former patient Dana Scully.  Why didn't Scully mention
her own near-death experience?  Surely she remembers some of it.
 At the very least we know she remembered Nurse Owens.  And she
knew there was nothing to fear in the next life; did she try to
tell Doggett that?  Or has she changed her mind since her faith
has been tested by the existence of the alien craft?  And
wouldn't it have been wonderful continuity to have that brought
up?  Oh well, this ep wasn't about Scully.  ::shrug::



What's got me puzzled:
-  What happened to the guy in the car that hit Monica -- the
man who had had 15 beers?  I was hoping that he would show up
somewhere in an important role.
-  Why didn't Monica ask Stephen and Mr. Barreiro how long they
had been there before she arrived?  That might have given her a
clue as to what was going on.
-  In Act I, why were Doggett and Scully involved in a
discussion about organ donation?  Isn't that discussion reserved
for the next of kin?  I know that it turned out that Dr. Death
-- er, Dr. Preijers -- was eager to pull the sheet over Monica,
but that really seemed out of place.  Maybe it was *supposed* to
be out of place, but if that were the case then Doggett should
have mentioned it later when he was arguing with Scully about
why he thought something funny was going on.
-  BTW, how was it that Monica was scheduled to be sliced and
diced before her parents had even arrived?
-  So why did Preijers have a nice chat with Audrey instead of
just stabbing her with the hypo?  All he did was give her a
chance to defend herself.  (Not that it worked, but...)
-  So why *did* Audrey build that mini hospital?  She said at
the end that she knows who told her to build it.  Huh?  Did God
tell her to build it?  If so, why?  At least three people died
unnecessarily (including Audrey), and I'm willing to bet that
Dr. Death killed some other people, too.  Does that mean that
the Bigger Purpose was solely to save Monica's life?  Is there
some implication here about Monica needing to be alive later in
the season for some greater purpose involving Mulder, Scully,
and/or William?
-  When Monica regained consciousness, why didn't one of her
monitors indicate brain waves?  What am I missing?
-  Three days later and Monica's home from the hospital?  And it
looked like she and Doggett were on another date?  When did she
get released?  What's going on?



Etc.:
-  In spite of all my complaints (including the fact that this
was the second ep in a row where one of the leads is in a coma),
this ep was pretty good, IMO; certainly the best of the season
so far.  I had Dr. Death figured out pretty early on, but I was
drawn into the story, cared about the characters and how they
would wind up, and didn't once look at my watch.  And if nothing
else, this ep just goes to show what good casting can do for
you.
-  And I'm glad that "Audrey Pauley" did NOT turn out to be the
total rip-off of "One Breath" that I had feared it would be.
-  Next ep (in two weeks): People are being killed left and
right.  The bad guy seems to be able to get in and out of places
without being seen.  Haven't we done this before?


***