ONE YEAR LATER: Requiem -- Off the Top of My Head (SPOILERS) (June 3, 2001) This is a repost of "Off the Top of My Head" originally posted on May 21, 2000, with year-later new comments added between "***". = * = * = * = * = * = * = * = * = * = * = * = * = * = * = * = Oh, my. Oh. MY. Some of you may have already seen my posting on ATXA earlier today regarding my doubts about the pregnancy arc. Let's just say I still have serious concerns. *** Well-founded, as it turns out. ::sigh:: How much better would S8 have been if CC/1013 had done away with the "who's the daddy?" crap? As others have posted recently, we could have had much better drama if we had known exactly what Scully had known all along. *** That's not to say that I didn't like this ep. Good timing/pacing, good lighting for the CSM scenes, and I didn't get the sense of "everything and the kitchen sink" being thrown at us in terms of the supporting characters, even though there were so many on hand (we could have gotten through this ep without Marita, though, IMO). I thought the story was well-written, and the emotions convincing. But damn, I don't want to have to wait 6 months to find out what happens next. ::sigh:: *** Sadly, a year later I don't have that sense of urgency or enthusiasm. Sure, I want to see what Scully will be up to in S9, and how William's and Mulder's whereabouts will be explained, but since I have very low expectations for S9 I'm not in any rush to get there. *** What I liked: - Protective!Mulder (motel scene and FBI hallway scene) and Protective!Scully (FBI hallway scene and hospital scene). I don't love, admire, or respect these characters any more than I do when they're looking out for each other. *** Yup. Yup. Yup. Stuff like that was by *far* the best thing about S8. *** - Tunisia! Who cares how Krycek got there. I'm just delighted with that bit of continuity. :) *** Rest in peace, Alex. Who knew it would end this way? *** - CSM smoking through a hole in his throat. Very high creepiness factor for me -- thank you, CC. :) - Did I mention the hotel scene? Mulder helps Scully into bed and wraps himself around her to keep her warm? I just about melted, even if he seemed a bit *too* overprotective. (What, he's never seen Scully in the same room with a baby before? Where was that Mulder during Terms of Endearment?) But clearly Scully set him straight about her going back to DC, since there she was getting out of the car the next morning. :) *** Still a great scene... one I'd gladly watch over and over. *** What I didn't like: - Come on, CC, enough with the teasing. Did they or didn't they? Scully doesn't know how she could be pregnant, which could either mean, "Because I haven't had sex since the Bush administration," or, "Well, sure, Mulder and I have been doing the naked pretzel, but who the hell thought I could conceive?" Just TELL US one way or the other. But I certainly vote for "they didn't." If they've done it, and you haven't shown it to us, I'm going to be very, very, very cross with you, Mr. Carter. *** How ironic that we're now in the second Bush administration. You know, looking back, I *never* would have expected CC/1013 to pull the IVF scenario out of their collective... well, you know. ;) I'm glad that we can infer that our heroes did the wild thing at *some* point, but really, will I ever be able to watch S7 again without the specter of "gee, where were they in the IVF process in this ep?" hanging over my head? :-PPP Man, retcons *really* suck when they mess with the stories so much. On what occasion Scully got her cross, or whether Mulder was colorblind -- that bit of discontinuity doesn't give me headaches. IVF does. I'll shut up about that now. *** - Is CSM dead, or isn't he? He's been "maybe dead" before. I don't like playing this game twice. *** One of the great TV villains of all time, pushed down a flight of stairs... going out on a whimper. Ridiculous. But I still wouldn't put it past CC/1013 to bring him back during sweeps next year... just to grab some ratings. Baby in peril, anybody? :-PPP *** What's got me puzzled: - Weird brain activity? How did Scully get that information on the other abductees? I thought the brain activity that Mulder experienced during Biogenesis/6E/AF was something the doctors had never seen before. Surely then he would have been written up in medical journals, and his information would have been on the Internet, yes? Had the Oregon abductees experienced the same catatonia that Mulder did? Neither Billy nor Teresa mentioned that they had had such experiences. Didn't any doctor notice a pattern? Particularly if both Teresa and her husband experienced the same thing? Did I miss something? *** I guess not, since it didn't play any significant role in S8. Oh, but we did have that brain disease thing. Gee, maybe the alien artifact/mind-reading was all part of that. Ya think? Oh, never mind. Mulder's perfectly healthy now. Say, how many times has Mulder been dead now? Just wondering. *** - Was there some point to Billy being divorced? And still wearing his wedding ring? I thought it was going to turn out that Teresa was his ex-wife, but that didn't seem to be the case. I don't know about the rest of you, but I was nearly in tears at the end with Scully and Skinner. We all know that Mulder will be back, but I can't wait to see how 1013 does it. I only hope they do it well, and that Scully's pregnancy is not turned into a soap opera. The possibility is very real, and it makes me very nervous. But Requiem worked very well for me, so I will keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best. *** ::sigh:: Such promise. And it all went to hell (mostly, anyway). (BTW, is it my imagination, or does Greta look like a blonde, chubbier Monica Reyes? Just an observation... ) Hey, didn't Mulder act like he was dying of a brain disease in this ep? And wasn't the fact that Teresa Hoese's baby was unaffected by the ABH handled well in S8? The importance and references were so clear this year. ::snort:: Ah, the wasted potential for S8. Or, as Unbound put it so politely, "missed opportunities." I wonder whether a year from now I will care about this show enough to do a "One Year Later" version of OTTOMH for "Existence." I sure hope so. I'd like my happy/satisfied memory of those last few minutes of "Existence" to remain untarnished. ***