Review of Closure by Sue Brody

I can't say that this episode was perfect by any means, but I was drawn in,
probably because the emotions felt so raw and real to me. Perhaps it is
that I was craving it so, but I felt moved to the point of tears and the
souls of the children (and the young boy, Harold, leading Mulder to them)
reminded me of Sixth Sense, one of my favorite movies of 1999. However,
unlike Mulder, I still cannot *rest*. I just don't trust 1013. There was
not enough closure for *me*.

Well, to begin...one can tell that CC wrote the monologue for the teaser. 

Mulder begins, "They said the birds refused to sing and the thermometer
fell suddenly, as if God himself had his breath stolen away."  Classic CC
monologue, but more powerful and realistic than in many instances, perhaps
because it's being heard at the the site of the graves of 24 children. The
scene was eerily reminiscent of Paper Hearts (not unintentionally, I
suspect), with the outcome being, again, that Mulder's sister is not found
(it would have been highly unlikely, though not impossible, given that we
later find she was raised in California w/ her brother Jeffrey by CSM).
Mulder asks, "Were they still dreaming of ice cream and monkey bars?" and
we can only hope so. Mulder continues, "I want to believe so badly, in a
truth beyond our own, hidden and obscured by all but the most sensitive
eyes," and Mulder sees this truth...but Scully doesn't, and that was a huge
disappointment to me. Is it b/c Scully is not a believer? If this is the
truth, why can't others see it? Scully saw the monster in Folie a
Deux...she should be privy to this as well. 

Mulder concludes, "...that that which is born still lives and cannot be
buried in the cold earth but only waits to be born again at God's behest
where in ancient starlight we lay in repose." My only question is that DD
sounded...weary, perhaps? Was that the intention? Perhaps it is that Mulder
has spent so long searching. Or maybe DD is tired of the search and his
voice reflected this. No matter, I found the teaser moving.

"Believe to understand"...the tagline seems perfect for Mulder, and yet I
wonder what he eventually tells Scully about what he sees and also what
*she* now believes. The nurse confirmed what the others said about the
abducted children, and would not have had access to the others' stories. So
Scully would be likely to believe that Samantha was kidnapped (abducted)
again, and perhaps even that CSM knew of her death. However, Scully would
also be unlikely (I think) to believe what Mulder saw, i.e., the souls of
the children, including Harold's child, Amber Lynn, and Samantha. What
would be REAL closure for me would be hearing the conversation that Mulder
and Scully have about Samantha's death (assuming, again, that she is dead).
Please, please, 1013, do us all a favor and let us know if in fact this IS
the truth this time and what this does to Mulder *and* to Scully. Putting
Cops on next week just seems...cheesy, perhaps??? It might be a great ep,
but the timing is suspect. I wanted a part three...

"You told me that all you wanted is for this to be over," Scully says. "I
do, I do," Mulder replies, and then goes off w/ Harold while Scully goes
back to DC and is confronted by CSM. Yeah, me, too. Yeah, us all. And I
wonder if it really is...

Mulder had REALLY bad hair in '89. And I thought the weedwacked was
awful...eek.

Planet of the Apes playing in Mulder's room b/f Harold comes to him at
3:00am...hmm...I am not sure I can explain this, except that in the movie,
we see that we, as primates, first discovered the black oil, back in Texas.
Maybe it's just a coincidence, but there often is a connection between what
is playing on Mulder's TV and what is happening in the scene.

I love the juxtoposition between what Scully hears (the FBI agent,
disputing the hypnosis) and the psychic who sees Mrs. Mulder. What is great
is that Mulder is now skeptical as well, constantly tugged between what
seems logical (or can be easily disputed) and what he intuitively believes
(that his sister was abducted by aliens). The forensics expert does NOT
have a good reason for Mulder to have supported alien abduction (ET?),
though he does have a reason for Mulder to believe in something other than
what really happened (too painful, many years having passed). We want to
believe Harold the psychic, who has also lost a child and *has* seen the
Walk-Ins. This in a sense makes him more credible, at least in the world of
The X-Files, until we discover that not only is he being implicated in the
case but is also being treated for schizophrenia. So we, the viewer, are
being pushed and pulled until the end, when Mulder sees the "children" and
gains his closure (for now, anyway), while Harold, ironically, refuses to
believe. And b/c we have seen aliens on the show, we are naturally going to
support Mulder over Scully and somehow WANT to feel that way. We don't want
Samantha's death to be mundane or in vain.

Yay, a "Mulder, it's me" phone call. Too bad he hung up on her..not the
first time, however.

Good to see air bases again.  I still miss Max.

Wow! CSM in Scully's apt!!!!  That is a first. I enjoyed having her
confront him. Great exchange: "Why can't you just come to the door and
knock?" I did that." I liked having her call him sick. You can say that in
reference to his being ill from the operation, as he tells her, but I think
she also means in general (as in, he's evil). However, he does tell the
truth...there *was* so much to protect before, and CSM *does* believe that
Samantha is dead. Of course, I don't for one second believe he was doing
this out of *kindness*.

Great music in this ep. A nice combination of dramatic movie music and that
sort of *tinkling*  we hear in episodes relating to Samantha.

Interesting to see Samantha's handprints in the mud along w/ JEFFREY
SPENDER'S. Now *that* took me by surprise. I still wish the Samantha we had
seen in Redux II had been the real one, though. That would have made the
most sense to me.

I loved Scully's long black jacket, but she really isn't dressing like an
FBI agent too often anymore, is she??? She also isn't on an assigned case
at this point, however...and what the hell is Skinner thinking at this
point? Why isn't he asking his agents to return home?

I can't say I really bought the seance. That seemed hokey to me. However, I
loved Scully's reaction to it ("Oh yay. A seance. I haven't done that since
high school"), followed by Mulder's wry comment: "And afterwards we can
play postman and spin the bottle." This was just too new-agey for me (the
chill they might feel, etc.) Funny to see Spender in the room. And the
little boy was really Sixth Sense-ish, though the diary was a bit too
convenient, perhaps? You know how they say Show me, don't tell me?
Well...we got told most of this and I am also wary of plot devices such as
this. (And while we're on the topic of convenience plot devices, would the
nurse at the hospital remember so much about Samantha so many years later?)

Still, by far the most touching scene is the one that takes place in the
diner, when Mulder reads Samantha's diary and comes across the part where
Samantha says, "I remember faces. I think I had a brother w/ brown hair who
used to tease me." You remember back to all the previous eps and ache for
Mulder and the sister he will (most likely) never see again. "I hope
someday he reads this and knows I wish I could see his face for real," she
says. I was practically sobbing at this point. However, note that Samantha
does NOT mention Jeffrey in the journal. Maybe he came along *after*
Samantha? This isn't clear to me. (Shock, eh? Something unclear and perhaps
inconsistent in a mytharc. Whoulda thunked it???) We never heard about
Samantha from Jeffrey before. WHY IS THAT? Because 1013 hadn't come up w/
this scenario yet (a scenario they hadn't gone with in the movie)? Who
needs continuity??? But when the journal comes to an end, Scully tears up,
takes Mulder's hand, and says "Let's get out of here," you can feel the
angst and the love. I wish MORE of this ep had concentrated on their search
together and less on Harold, Mr. Psychic, and his involvement, b/c it was
hard to buy into him. We aren't invested in his cause the way we are in
Mulder's...I also wanted more CSM. Does he have any *real* reaction at this
point? What does he think is going to happen to Mulder now that he knows
(if he does know)???

I haven't cried during an XF wp for a long time, but this one got to me,
even if I remain skeptical about Samantha's death. Mulder's brief monologue
about the length of time ("You know we never stop to think...that the light
is billions of years old by the time we see it...") reminded me of Mulder's
opening monologue in "Little Green Men" and how we are not alone. "Maybe
they are souls, Scully. Travelling through time as starlight, looking for
homes" seemed as much a hope and a plea as an answer. Of course, Scully's
helpful response is, "Get some sleep." SOMEDAY, perhaps she might actually
be able to tell him something useful. Then Mulder sees his mom as he lays
in his bed...what a shame Scully couldn't have had the same vision. Then
again, is a vision reality? 

Sooo...I felt a lot of emotion and pain in this ep, if only for the fact
that it showed Mulder coming to terms w/ what I assume to be his sister's
death (and Harold not doing so). We didn't get enough of Scully's reaction,
and I fear we won't, and we certainly didn't get enough CSM (and maybe we
will in the last eps of the season/series), along w/ Krycek (please come
back to the states, Nick Lea, so they can film you!) and Skinner. But at
least we got back to the heart of the show again, and this series has
strayed for too long now. While I still contend that TXF should have ended
after season five, followed by FTF and a continued movie franchise, this ep
might well be the one that ends Mulder and our searching...but then, again,
it might not be. Never say never when you're dealing with 1013.