Medusa: Off the Top of My Head (SPOILERS) (February 11, 2001) ***Caution:*** SPOILERS for next week's ep (based on the trailer) is in the "Etc." section AND toward the beginning of this commentary. MEDUSA (8ABx13): In a nutshell: The character assassination of FBI Special Agent Dana Scully, MD. What I liked: - Promos for "The Lone Gunmen." - Seeing Mulder in the preview for next week, even though the spoilers suggest that Bad Plot Things Are Going To Happen. - I liked the effect where we first see the green fluorescent stuff on the Lieutenant's face. - I liked that Scully did *not* go down after Doggett after the Lieutenant knocked him out. But, see my bitch below, which totally negates that positive point... - Modest!Doggett in the hospital gown was amusing. What I didn't like: - Stupid!And!Useless!Scully. Version 1: Scully: "Uh, okay, I see it" (regarding the first man who knocked down Doggett)? Version 2: Doggett: "What are we looking for?" Scully: "I don't know. Anything." Version 3: Seemed all tongue-tied about what to do about Sparking!Arm!Guy. What happened to the competent Dana Scully we've seen all these years? Well, thanks for your time, Dr. Scully. We'll call you if we need you again. - Way to go, Doggett, getting close enough to the Lieutenant to let him knock you out. What, you couldn't say, "Put your weapon down and take three steps back"? Don't they teach you something like that at the Academy? - I can't emphasize this point of disgust too much, so please excuse me for shouting: "BUT MY PARTNER IS DOWN THERE AND I FEAR THE WORST." Attention, 1013! The *real* Dana Scully would refer to *no one* as "my partner" except for Mulder. NO. ONE. :-ppppppppppppp - The mute boy who came out of nowhere. One of the stupidest plot contrivances I've ever seen on the show. - Nonsensical science. I realize that TXF often stretches the boundaries of physics, medicine, and everything else, but did *anybody* follow the Calcium!Critter nonsense? - "These guys were just doing their jobs -- keeping the trains running." Did Scully really say that? Did I miss the sarcasm that should have been there? I sure didn't hear it. What's got me puzzled: - What the hell was the Pregnant!Scully doing checking out a body that was potentially infected with a pathogen?! Given that she examined the body before getting to the subway system, and especially that she later met with Dr. Lyle and others who were in HazMat suits while she was unprotected (is it just me, or did that not make sense?), I can't see that concern about the pathogen was the reason that she sent Doggett down into that tunnel without her. - And while I'm mentioning the pathogen, why didn't Scully remember the events of "Pine Bluff Variant"? Once she saw the first body, shouldn't that have been her first consideration, especially since (if I'm remembering PBV correctly) the PBV stuff left no trace? ::sigh:: Ah, for the good ol' days of well-told stories... - Glad to see that Pregnant!Scully is still looking so svelte at nine months. Due to the reference to the Boston commuters getting home to watch "Survivor 2," that puts this story no earlier than... when did Survivor 2 start airing, mid-January? And if Scully was one month pregnant when Mulder was abducted in mid-May... - The "eyes and ears" gizmo that Doggett wore reminded me, painfully, of "Pusher." Ah, for the good ol' days of well-told stories, part 2... ::heavy, sad sigh:: - Why wasn't anybody concerned about Doggett becoming infected when that crazed guy knocked him down? - Why didn't Scully demand a full quarantine and shut-down of the subway after Doggett got knocked down and they found those extra bodies? - When Doggett referred to Scully as "the boss," was he actually being deferential to her experience, or was there sarcasm there that I missed? The rest of this ep made Scully look so stupid, I'm not sure (although I initially thought that this line from Doggett was A Very Good Thing, and would have included it in the "Things I like" section had I not thought about it some more...) - Why did Doggett, talking about Scully, say, "*She* works on something called the X-Files" (emphasis mine)? It made it sound like *he* didn't work on the X-Files. I realize he was being asked about Scully, but wouldn't it have been more natural for him to say, "*We* work on something called the X-Files"? - Why didn't Scully order those stations cleared when she saw them on the monitor? Surely she had enough evidence of a contagious pathogen to have the power to do so...? - Why did Doggett just follow that kid? Why didn't anybody ask him his name? Why didn't anybody wonder why he didn't speak? - So what exactly did Doggett do with that gun on the rails? Short something out? How did he manage to do that without electrocuting himself? Or did the Calcium!Critter! protect him from electrocution, sacrificing themselves to the Electricity Gods? - Why wasn't Doggett quarantined in the hospital? Just because he didn't show symptoms doesn't mean he wasn't infected with whatever this strange thing was. - Why is Scully upset at the end of the ep? Does she feel bad that she sent Doggett down into the subway by himself? If so, why? Is she feeling guilty that she put Doggett in danger but protected her unborn baby? Given the way she exposed herself to the pathogen earlier in the ep, described above, this just makes no sense at all. What did I miss? Why did she react that way? - Why, why, why? Etc.: - Unless something major happened recently that I missed, there is no "Clay Street Station" in the Boston subway system (a.k.a. "the T"). However, I was pleased to see what looked like "Downtown Crossing" (an actual station name) on a sign in the background at the second stop in the teaser, when Screaming!Woman got on the train. Downtown Crossing is the intersection of the Red and Orange Lines on the T; I'm assuming that "Clay Street" was supposed to be on the Red Line judging by the color of the seats on the train. - OTOH, those stations and the trains were *way* too clean for the T. - When I heard the line about "the moron" who started the trains rolling, my reaction was to wonder about the moron who started the *cameras* rolling for this ep. I can't believe they put this piece of nonsense on during sweeps. Or at all, for that matter. - So, to sum up: I'm appalled. The story made no sense, and even worse Scully looked idiotic. She came across as powerless and virtually clueless to me. She had a few good take-charge lines, but in the end she just didn't do her job, IMO. This was not the Scully from "Pine Bluff Variant." Perhaps that's the point -- that we're supposed to view Scully in this ep as a shell of her former self, due to her grief about Mulder's abduction -- but I have to grasp at straws to come to that conclusion; there's no evidence to support it that I saw. I am very, very sad about how Scully was portrayed in this ep. :( - Next week's ep: I've read the spoilers, and.... s p o i l e r s p a c e I am very afraid of this IVF stuff. I'm fearful that even wonderful acting from GA and DD won't be able to save it. But after the travesty of tonight's ep, maybe next week's won't seem so bad.