AIR DATE:  April 26, 1998
Teleplay by Frank Spotnitz and John Shiban
Directed by Allen Coulter

	After the "Emily" debacle I was hoping they would just drop the
whole Emily thing as an innocent mistake.  Alas, this wasn't to be and we
get the amazing episode "All Souls".  Amazing in what they think we will
believe, but then again they wanted us to believe Mulder had suddenly
switched his opinion on the whole existence of aliens in "Patient X/The
Red and the Black".  The amazing part is to think Scully ever really felt
anything for Emily since we never saw Scully connect with Emily in the
first place hence we never cared about Emily.  Also, considering it has
been ten episodes since "Christmas Carol/Emily" and there hasn't been one
single mention of Emily this seems totally out of the blue that all this
time Scully has been grieving for a child she only knew for a few days. 
This plot line of Scully having a child she never knew she had reminds me
of the continuing Luther Mahoney murder plot line on "Homicide" this
season.  It was a great and unexpected thing when Detective Kellerman
killed Luther Mahoney, but they went the wrong way with it when they
brought in Luther Mahoney's sister to harass Kellerman and the other
detectives involved. Everytime the Mahoney thing is brought up I just
groan because it has taken too many unbelievable turns to enjoy anymore
and I wish they would just wrap it up and drop it.  This is how I feel
about Emily.  It started out as a good idea in "Christmas Carol", but they
blew it in "Emily" when they tried to have us believe too many things,
such as Mulder waiting until the hearing to tell Scully she is barren
because of her abduction experience. 

	Now if we could pretend that Scully really has been grieving for
Emily all this time and was affected by her death because she connected so
much with Emily then "All Souls" would have made a good episode of Scully
questioning her faith in a God who would allow these things to happen. 
This will also work if we forget that "Revelations" did a better job of it
in the third season when in a short time Kevin Kryder and Scully connected
with each other, and Scully questioned her faith and her relationship with
Mulder since he was so dismissive of her beliefs.  Now that we have
forgotten all of these things, "All Souls" did get at the heart of
Scully's beliefs in things and her own doubts on whether she did the right
thing in letting the last girl be taken by the Seraphim.  She has lost her
father, her sister was murdered in her place, she's had to fight off
cancer and she had her daughter taken away from her.  In "All Souls" 
Scully has to face up to letting Emily go and to have the faith to accept
that this was God's way of telling her she was right in allowing Emily to
die. 

	This is what the episode would have been if they had done it right
back in "Emily", but as I mentioned earlier there had been no build up to
this episode so it seems so contrived.  It probably would have worked
better if it was done shortly after "Emily" instead of 10 episodes and 4
months later.

	Now some miscellaneous comments on "All Souls": 

- Why would one put the person who is in a wheelchair on the second floor
while one would sleep on the first floor?  This was just one of the weird
things that the Kernoff family did along with, if I got this right, wait 6
years to have their adopted child baptized even though they are devote
Catholics.

- The Seraphim, like the devil, must like to put on a good show when
instead of just taking care of them in their rooms they would have the
first girl, Dara, run out in the pouring rain in the middle of the street,
walk down the hallway in a psychiatric hospital to second girl's room and
have the third girl run into an abandoned warehouse.  Of course, if we
didn't have Dara run out in the pouring rain we wouldn't have had that
ridiculous shot of the camera panning away to show the telephone pole as
if it is the cross.  I knew we were in for a bumpy ride when I saw that
shot. 

- I have to admit those smoking eyes were a pretty neat special effects,
especially when Dara was killed.

- Lucky for Scully there wasn't a line at the confessional since it opened
up the second she came in the church.

- Everytime Scully would look at the picture of Emily at a birthday party
I kept thinking to myself when was Scully ever at a birthday party for
Emily, then I remember it was Emily's adoptive parents who were there. The
adoptive parents who Emily most likely cared for more than Scully, but we
never saw Emily grieving for her parents either or even ask where Mommy
and Daddy were in "Emily".  Hmm, must be a Scully family thing. 

- You would think Father Gregory after having gone through the courts to
get Paula, he would have checked up on Aaron Starkey's story.  I know I
would if it was that important to me to save her life. 

- It is a good thing Mulder is a good speller and has that photographic
memory since he didn't write down any of the information Scully gave him
before heading back to the movie.  It is good to see Mulder still likes to
see his special movies on the big screen.  I wonder if he was with anyone
or if he was doing a Pee-Wee Herman.

- I thought Mulder had some of the best lines about God and people's
reaction to God's desires.  His talk with Scully after their meeting with
Father Gregory where he says to her, "He (God) may well have his reasons
but he seems to use a lot of psychotics to carry out his job orders."
Scully was trying to say to Mulder that maybe Father Gregory is right
about what was going on and Mulder comes back with that line because he
believes Father Gregory is either involved or holding back.  Mulder
reinforces his notion of how people will look upon Father Gregory when he
says to a praying Father Gregory, "They say when you talk to God it's
prayer, but when God talks to you it's schizophrenia."  Nothing says it
more than that about people's reaction to someone saying God is speaking
to them.

- The actress, Emily Perkins, who played Dara/Paula gave it the old
college try when she laid on her side on the autopsy table and tried to be
as rigid as possible, but still couldn't quite do it since we see her
shake a bit in one of the scenes. 

- Considering the last girl had been in foster care her whole life it was
a little bit surprising the best picture they had of her was a Polaroid. 
Well, if they did have a decent picture then Scully wouldn't have been
able to see the halo effect around her head. 

- It is astounding how only in the X-Files no one seems to have any
basement lights so they have to use their flashlights.

- Scully sure does have a big keychain.  What do all those keys go to?

- I just loved how Scully goes to Father McCue about seeing a man who had
four faces and he whips out an old book and shows her a picture of the
Seraphim.  After doing this he tells her it was a figment of her
imagination.  I just couldn't believe he said that to her.  You would
think he would give her the benefit of the doubt.  I would like to know
what Scully told Mulder after her encounter with the Seraphim since she
was on the phone with him.  It bothers me that she didn't feel she could
tell Mulder what she saw after all this time they have worked together,
but Mulder wasn't important to the story so she goes to Father McCue.
Also, did anyone think of Giles from "Buffy" when Father McCue takes out
the old book and flips right to the correct page. 

- Why would Scully go in Aaron Starkey's car instead of following him in
her own car to Father Gregory's church since it meant she was dependent on
someone taking her back to her church for her car.  I just found this
strange. 

- It was a nice touch to have the devil not having the ability to go into
the church though you would think the devil would figure out the horns
showing in one's shadow is a dead giveaway. 

- Why did this episode scream out for Mrs. Scully to be there for her
daughter? 

	"All Souls" was a good attempt at having Scully question her faith
and what it meant to her when she let Emily die, but it was ruined by the
lack of a build up to it.  As I stated previously we have been through 10
episodes since "Emily" and there wasn't any mention of Emily or the
aftereffect it had on Scully, and it didn't help any that Emily and Scully
never really connected as mother and daughter.  Heck, Mulder related
better with Emily than Scully ever did in "Emily".  Forget certain things
and "All Souls" is a good episode.  Remember some things and it isn't such
a good episode. 

Claudia
E-mail:  Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

4/27/98

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