Trust No 1: Off the Top of My Head (SPOILERS)
(January 6, 2002)

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

TRUST NO 1 (9ABX08):

In a nutshell:  Remember how Scully got conned in "En Ami"? 
Substitute Terry O'Quinn for CSM and Mulder for "the cure for
all disease," make the story less interesting and more
confusing, and you're there.


What I liked:
-  I liked the teaser, mostly.  Nice use of B&W, nice montage of
photos (underscoring the "They're Watching" tag), nice music.  I
hope Scully won't really talk to her son that way, but for a
Carterlogue it wasn't egregiously awful.  We do certainly get a
sense of Scully's strong feelings for Mulder, although the
love/hate thing that came through to me was a bit much.  (I
don't remember -- did Scully use the word "love" at all?)  The
pictures of Mulder and Scully together were, of course, my
favorite part of the ep. *g*
-  OK, I'm a sap, but... it was nice to hear that Mulder wants
to come home to Scully *and* William.  Awwwww...


What I didn't like:
-  Is Scully going to be stupid every time we have a mytharc ep?
 Let's see:  her e-mail account, Queequeg0925@hotmail.com, is
UNDER THE NAME DANA SCULLY.  Way to cover your tracks, Agent
Scully.  ::rolls eyes::  Then, when distracted by the unattended
baby, she walks away from both her son *and* her open e-mail
message.  And then she printed out her message, making it very
easy for someone to steal the printout and find out the e-mail
address that Mulder is using.  (Not that that happened in the
ep, but it could have.)  I'm sure that there are other idiotic
aspects of this communication link she had with Mulder that I'm
not thinking of right now, but you get the idea.
-  Doggett to Scully: "How else are you going to get him home?" 
Good question!  And it's not that I objected to the question,
it's that it *was* a good question.  Mulder is gone; who is
doing anything to make things safe for him to return?  Is Mulder
doing anything?  It didn't sound that way from his e-mail.  Is
Scully doing anything?  It doesn't look that way from what we've
seen her doing so far this season.  ::sigh::
-  Note to 1013:  you really, really, *really* need to explain
to your viewers why Scully and William stayed behind when Mulder
took off.
-  Another Stupid!Scully moment: when Scully admitted to Patti
that she didn't have anyone/a husband, Patti said to her, "Maybe
he'll come back."  DING DING DING DING!  Um, Scully?  Didn't you
think it at all strange that this woman -- this stranger -- this
person who *conveniently* showed up on your street after the
morning incident at the Internet cafe -- knew that your
significant other had gone away?  I mean, how did she know you
*wanted* him back?  How did she know he wasn't dead?  How did
she know that you weren't a single mother who had gotten
pregnant via an anonymous sperm donor?  How.  Did.  She. 
KNOW?!?
-  Can someone explain to me why Scully went with Shadow Man?  I
mean, a *real* explanation?  Didn't she learn *anything* from
"En Ami"?  If Shadow Man were truly interested in exposing the
super soldiers, why would he only be willing to talk to someone
who was in hiding?  I might be able to buy that he would think
that Mulder might be the only person who could *do* the right
thing with that information, but if Shadow Man had good
intentions wouldn't he have been willing to give the information
to Scully so she could get the information to Mulder?  Answer:
of course he would.  Which is why his scam should have been so
transparent.  Yet the idea that it was a big con game only came
up briefly (by Doggett, IIRC), and was pretty much dismissed.
-  Scully invited Mulder into her bed one lonely night?  ::gag::
 I'm not going to bother touching that one, or else I'm going to
need that blood pressure medication again.  I'll let the rest of
you debate that idiotic bit of information (as well as Scully's
reaction to it).
-  Scully to Doggett:  "I need to see him so bad."  I can
understand that Scully wants to see Mulder, but (a) why is she
telling Doggett that, especially in that forlorn way, and (b) if
she knows that Shadow Man is reading her e-mail and bugging her
home, wouldn't it stand to reason that he knows all about the
pre-arrangement with Mulder for his return?  Why can't she see
that she's just putting Mulder in danger?  Why, why, why?
-  "Dearest Dana"?  "Forever yours, Dana"?  Huh?  When did
Mulder and Scully start talking to each other that way?


What's got me puzzled:
-  When does this ep take place, and how old is William supposed
to be?  We've got several clues: William is old enough/big
enough to be facing forward in his car seat and, apparently, to
have a bottle without help (although he didn't seem to be
holding it; it was just perched on top of his blanket in the
stroller in the Internet cafe scene).  At the beginning of Act
II, it's 5:41 a.m. but the sun is already shining.  That should
make it sometime in the summer.  Also, Patti's husband (did he
ever have a name?) stated that William had moved the mobile
"several months ago" -- how many is several?  At least four or
five?
-  Scully to Patti after her husband had driven off:  "I
understand.  It's hard enough having a child."  What the hell
did that mean?!
-  Shadow Man had at least one camera planted in Scully's living
room.  You mean the Gunmen don't regularly check her apartment
for such devices?  Especially since they all know that Mulder is
(supposed to be) in danger, wouldn't they expect the bad guys to
be taking extra steps to keep tabs on Scully?
-  Scully spent an awful long time on her phone call at home
with Shadow Man.  Why didn't anyone take steps to have the call
traced?  Sure, it probably would have been a waste of time and
effort, but shouldn't they have tried?  Couldn't Doggett or
Reyes have run into the bathroom, run the water to cover the
sound of their voice, and ordered the trace?  (They didn't know
they were on camera, they only thought they could be heard --
and for the first few moments, they didn't yet know that they
were being listened to.)
-  Good Lord -- how long did Scully drive in Shadow Man's car? 
She left very early in the morning and it was dark when she
stopped driving (which I'm guessing was about 9 p.m., based on
how early the sun rose).  So she was driving for 13 - 14 hours? 
Whatever for?  What was Shadow Man's point in making her drive
all that way just to show her that he knew everything about her?
 And didn't she get hungry?  Thirsty?  Need a bathroom, for
Pete's sake?  Wouldn't she have gotten pissed off after, oh,
say, six hours and told the guy to go to hell?  Or, to quote
Scully herself, "This is ridiculous.  This has gone far enough."
-  If Shadow Man just wanted to get to Mulder, and he knew about
Scully's e-mails to him, why didn't he just send an e-mail to
Mulder himself pretending to be Scully (if he knows Scully's ATM
number, he must also know her Hotmail account password!) and
arranging a meeting that way?  Or why didn't he just kidnap
Scully or William and demand that Mulder come out of hiding or
else he'd kill her/him?
-  And for that matter, Shadow Man said that either Mulder or
William had to die.  So why hasn't he just killed William? 
Surely he's an easy target, especially while Scully is at work
and William is (presumably) in the care of Mrs. Scully.  I mean,
Shadow Man could just kill Mrs. Scully and then kill William,
and be done with it.  (Not that I'm advocating that, of course,
but now that I think about it I won't be too shocked if Mrs.
Scully dies this season.  Sad, but not shocked.)
-  Why did both Doggett and Scully assume that it was Mulder who
jumped off the train?  And why did Scully assume (in her writing
at the end of the ep) that Mulder had jumped off the train when
it seemed clear that it was Shadow Man who jumped off?  And why
did Shadow Man jump off anyway?  Was he chasing Mulder?  Or was
he unable to find Mulder and decided to get off before the train
was stopped and searched?  I'm assuming he hadn't killed Mulder
on the train, otherwise Mulder's body would have been found
(either on the train, or dumped somewhere -- that's assuming
that Scully arranged for a search for his body to try to
reassure herself that he's really still alive).
-  When Scully ran to the section of the quarry with the trains,
did it seem to switch from night, to day, and back to night
again?  It looked as though they had edited in some takes that
were shot during daylight hours.  Or was that just me?  (There
were lights in that area, but nothing that seemed to me to be
bright enough to give the appearance of daylight.)
-  Why did Doggett shoot Shadow Man in the *leg* before hitting
him in the chest?  The guy had his gun pointed at Scully and
Reyes!  In that situation (at least), aren't you supposed to
shoot to kill?
-  What ever happened to Joy, Patti's baby daughter?  We saw her
at the beginning of the ep, then never again.
-  I'm confused.  What was the point of this ep?  That the super
soldiers are after Mulder?  We already knew, or at least
suspected from Kersh's conversation with Doggett, that *someone*
was after Mulder; the super soldiers would have been a safe bet.
 So was the point that they may be after William, too?  Well, if
they are, why haven't they grabbed him or killed him already? 
He's certainly not well protected.  Or was the point that Scully
and Mulder have a way to communicate?  I think we could have
assumed that (although I wish the method were a bit more, er,
secure).  Was the point that Scully and Mulder love each other? 
I think we had that one covered. *g*  And what was the purpose
of Patti, her husband, and their baby?  That there are other
babies like William?  But if William's only feat of
"specialness" was "several months ago," is he really that
special?  Is Joy?  Will anyone check into the background of
Patti or her husband to find out if they have weird brain wave
patterns, a history of alien abduction, implants, etc.?  Or will
we never hear about them again?  Will Scully *finally* have some
tests done on William to see if there's something weird about
him?  Or even take him to Chuck to have his aura checked out? 
Something?  Anything?  Please?


Etc.:
-  We have another key!  We have another key!  The iron in the
quarry!  Wheeeee!
-  Is it just me, or did this ep drag?  I think the story could
have been told in 2/3 the time.  Some of the scenes (the long,
long drive; the slow-mo at the train station) just seemed to be
there to take up time.
-  Next week's ep: Doggett has amnesia!  Woo hoo!  Isn't it a
bad sign when a show resorts to that old trick for a plot?

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