Review of Terms of Endearment by Sue Brody I'M ONLY HAPPY WHEN IT RAINS... Here are some random musings on ToE, and then some subsequent thoughts. Why was Spender in this ep AT ALL? Is it because 1013 is contracturally obligated to put Chris Owens in a certain number of eps, and they are going to off him soon, as rumors purport (guess he's going to be in CC's new show, "Harsh Realm")? I am glad to see The X-Files returning to its old self...demons, scary music, darkness, spooky houses, TREES, Skeptical!Scully, Quippy!Mulder (though not that much...not enough for me). On the other hand, this wasn't exactly the most interesting MOTW ever. I mean, what makes a great MOTW is your caring about the protagonist, or at least being intrigued by him...I wasn't. As opposed to someone like, say, Pusher a.k.a. Robert Modell, I just didn't feel very much for Wayne. I wanted to, but I didn't think he was a strong enough character. I felt badly for his first wife (okay, third...whatever), and initially for the second one, but not really for him, because you could see how demonic he was (pun intended) right away. Where was Kersh? Aside from a little reference to his being annoyed...not there. And where the hell is SKINNER? Wouldn't Spender get in HUGE trouble for shredding this case? Wouldn't Mulder and Scully get in HUGE trouble for following up on this? I love Garbage. I was glad to see that song used. Did seem kind of Party of Fiveish, however. Generally, 1013 doesn't use a currently popular group; they go for the Hokey Pokey or Twilite Time, instead. The ending *did* surprise me...I mean, when Gail saw Wayne, I wondered how that was possible, and then when SHE turned out to WANT the baby, I said,Ohhh...*that* is why he saved Nancy...he felt badly for her (I guess) and wanted to die instead. That breath of life was pretty cheesy, however, both times it was used. Normalcy certainly does seem to be this season's theme. Everyone wants a normal house, normal kids, normal life. I could *not* get Small Potatoes out of my head, esp. after Wayne calls his wife that SP-like nickname (Sweet Patootie, I believe). I liked SP a lot better. I want Tithonus to air, already!!! I need a really good Vince Gilligan ep!!! Mulder and Scully seemed so grim in this ep, didn't they? Not that they shouldn't, but I don't know...other eps featured more levity. Not enough Mulder quips (but I did like when he gave Wayne the *knowing* look and referred to the devil...). I thought they might use "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" or something like that... Scully really was an afterthought in this ep. I found that kind of disappointing. This reminded me of a first season ep...Mulder is right, Scully disbelieves, Scully comes around at the very end. Alas, they hardly worked together. Okay, those were my initial reactions. A very minor MOTW in the XF library...but it happened. *That* made me happy! If 1013 believed in continuity, you might see them reprimanded for this, or an explanation as to why Spender didn't follow up...but don't hold your breath. Further reactions... A member of the XF-Main list on Chaos wrote the following: <> I know someone would catch me on this. See, I am like the Littlest Bear...I like eps that are not too cutesy, not too grim, just right. I am an Angst!Ridden fan, but only when the angst is between Mulder and Scully or is happening to M or S (think Paper Hearts, MeMo, Unruhe, Ouebliette, Demons, Ice...just a few of my favorites). To be honest, I wasn't really disturbed by it being grim...I just though Scully (who was in the ep for, what, about 3 minutes?) looked very unhappy (of course, being put on a dumb ass assignment, and then worrying yet again that Mulder might get you fired, could cause some stress...though she should be used to this by now!!!). It *was* a *lite* comment (not that big a deal)...didn't matter that much to me. I thought the ep was kind of silly...this was just a rumination. Actually, I thought the ep could have been SO MUCH MORE (going into the pain of losing a child in an in-depth way, ala Emily or All Souls, but w/out the manipulation I saw there), but it didn't go that way. Or I thought there could have been more character development...but hey, I didn't hate the ep. It was a MOTW, and I have been asking for one, and it was dark and gloomy and tree-filled, so I can't complain about those elements! :) I can complain about how little time M&S spent in it together, but at least they were WORKING on a case (or at least Mulder was, primarily), which is what I have been seeking this season. I also would have liked more Spender in ToE, but I can see some viewers' point--how you *assume* it will be Mulder (at least, it would have been in the past), but of course it isn't, and how differently they deal with the job (as in, Spender couldn't give a damn, it's a joke to him, and Mulder's passion is still in it). I just think they could have done a bit more with it. (And where was Fowley, by the way? I hate her, but I'm curious...it's called CONTINUITY.) I also would have liked a COMMENT about Skinner--he didn't need to be there--and I detested Spender even more after this ep, so if he gets offed, I am fine with it now. I was actually, almost, liking him for a second or so (I recently rewatched Patient X and TR&TB and felt kind of sad for him)...I had forgotten how irritating he really was . Another Phile brought up the similarities between this ep and Leonard Betts... My response? That Scully was intricately involved in Leonard Betts. That's what this ep is missing for me, I guess. In LB, the issue that resonates is that LB needs something from SCULLY because she, too, has cancer, like his other victims, and he feeds off it. Same thing in Elegy: she can see visions of forthcoming death b/c she, too, has a life-threatening illness like Harold. What about in this ep? Is it the need for normalcy that Mulder raised in Dreamland? Okay, that can be faintly tied into this, but it wasn't enough for me. M&S weren't in it enough for me. It wasn't the "ditch" that some refer to that somehow irked me a bit...it was that M&S seemed secondary to this ep. It was far more about Wayne and his wives than it was about M&S, and while that's fine, *if* M*S are somehow inextricably involved, I felt they weren't really in this case, that it all would have turned out the way it did whether or not M&S (or really, M) were involved with the case. What I would really like to see, and a Shipper raised this on the XF-Romantics list, is to see M&S race against Diana Fowley and Spender on a case. But it won't happen. Why: Because Fowley is nowhere to be found. What the hell is she doing? Because Spender clearly doesn't care about The X-Files. He is either doing someone else's bidding (CSM's), OR he's investigating his own role in this (possible), or he's trying to find his mom, or he's hanging out in the office, watching videos. Just kidding. But seriously, what are he and Diana doing? Isn't Skinner involved with this at all? And while I hardly love Spender, I think enough time has been invested in him for me to feel invested in his role. So I think ONE ep where we see what Fowley and Spender do, and compare it to what Scully and Mulder do (or even *did*), could be neat. Doesn't look as if it's going to be addressed this season (or any season), however, judging by the spoilers I've read. *This* is what I would have liked to have season six do...compare/contrast the two sets of partners. And aside from a bit of it in "The Beginning" (which, IMHO, was just tying the movie to the series), you don't get a sense of what the *new* partners (which is a laugh...they are hardly partners) are doing. If Fowley does care about Mulder, wouldn't she have any stake in how things are turning out? And I also feel as if this has been drawn out way too long, which is why I am desperate for the mytharcs...I mean, it sure didn't take this long the FIRST time The X-Files were closed, and I wish it hadn't this season, either! I think I *was* less harsh on this ep than on previous ones, Triangle excepted, because it was a MOTW. Is that fair? Maybe not, but shows grow, evolve, change, and so on. So it's NOT a third, fourth, or fifth season ep, and therefore I can't look at it this way. I look at it within the context of the season primarily, and I *needed* a bit of a return to the way things were. Which isn't to say there were things I would have liked changed--there were many--but at least it *happened*, and some of the things I like in a MOTW were there (such as the darkness, such as a man's desperate search for something, in this case a family, such as Mulder's disobeying authority to search for the truth and being right in his theory, as usual). More M&S certainly would have been appreciated, and having this pertain to M&S would have gone a long way toward keeping more of my interest (so maybe more Dreamland parallels *should* have been drawn, but I realize this isn't how 1013 works...these are stand alone eps, and we don't need no friggin' continuity). But I was so happy to have a return to what The X-Files had been that this compensated, perhaps overly so, for what I felt was a somewhat weak script and not particularly strong characters. I did like that Bruce Campbell didn't seem to "hog" the scenes...I mean, like a Lili Taylor, for example, he fit the role, and didn't just seem to be "celebrity" placement. OTOH, we really do need another Pusher-like villain. Another Luther Lee Boggs. And so on...Esther Nairn, even. Remember, in this eps how intrisically involved M&S were in the case, and how invested we felt in the MOTW or the G(guest)OTW...but not so much in ToE. This is why I felt very ambivalent about the ep. Happy to see some old elements return, but still a feeling that the show is evolving, and not in a way that I'm enthralled with.