AIR DATE:  April 26, 1996
Written by Howard Gordon
Directed by James Charleston

	When I first heard the plot line for "Avatar" I was a little
worried because it sounded like your typical '70's tv cop/detective plot
where the hero/s come out and save their boss or friend from an unjust
charge. I didn't exactly have high expectations for this episode, but this
being the X-Files neither did I think it would fall under the typical
pitfalls of this plot.  Well, what we got with "Avatar" is a mix of both
an X-Files in the form of the old woman appearing to Skinner and your
typical tv cop/detective with Mulder and Scully defending Skinner in the
face of all evidence to the contrary.  Did it work?  Kind of, but it left
too many questions to be fully satisfying as an episode, and Mulder and
Scully did do all the leg work to find the evidence to somewhat prove
Skinner's innocence in your typical '70's cop/detective show except they
didn't have to come to Skinner's rescue.  (Gee, where were the DC Cops
during all of this, I guess budget cuts must have hurt them since it was
always Mulder and Scully who did all the real investigation). We've had
episodes in the past where things haven't been fully explained or there
were plot holes that didn't need to be there so it isn't surprising when
it shows up in "Avatar"  especially since this episode is partly a part of
the conspiracy arc. 

	Of course, this is the long awaited Skinner episode where we get
to learn more about him and to see what motivates him to stick by Mulder
and Scully at any cost.  Scully said it for all of us when she said we
don't really know that much about him and I think they and us learn things
we most likely never wanted to learn.  What did we learn from this
episode:  1) that Skinner has been married for 17 years and is about to
get divorced because of his slowly distancing himself from his wife (makes
one wonder why no kids if they were married that long), 2) Skinner is a
man of principle, but who is having a hard time dealing with the
contradictions of his job.  We did learn quite a bit in the episode about
Skinner and it has added a bit of depth to the character especially his
speech to his comatose wife about why he started to distance himself from
her as the years progressed.  Quite moving in how decisions made
throughout life can have profound consquences for the rest of one's life,
and Skinner has realized he'd decided to put his job with its
contradictions ahead of any type of normal family life.  Also, we see that
Skinner sees in Mulder the person he wishes he could be in that Mulder
doesn't care what the consequences are as long as the truth comes out.

	It was interesting to see Mulder and Scully's reaction to certain
revelations about Skinner's private life.  The shock and disappointment in
Scully's face when she finds out the dead woman was a prostitute says it
all in how hard it was for her to find out the person she has come to
trust and admire is not the person who she thinks he is, instead he has
the same weakness as others.  The contrast between Mulder and Scully's
reaction to Skinner's situation is a contrast to how they both view the
world. Mulder being the more cynical one finds it easier to see how
Skinner could end up with a prostitute while at the same time never
doubting for a moment in Skinner's innocence, to him this wasn't a
character flaw, but just human nature.  Scully on the other hand isn't as
cynical and comes from a different background than Mulder and finds it
hard to believe Skinner would be the type of person who would need to have
sex with a prostitute.  It is this that makes it easier for her to have
doubts about Skinner and not take his innocence on blind faith. Skinner
wasn't explaining himself which Mulder could understand since Mulder is
the same type of person i.e. keeping everything private while Scully would
expect someone she imagines Skinner to be to defend himself since that is
what she would do. It was a good decision to not have both of them blindly
believing in Skinner's innocence, and who else to play devil's adovcate
than Dana Scully, the logical and down to earth one.  Sure Mulder got a
bit annoyed at times with Scully's doubts, but one could tell he
understood why she had her doubts.  Scully's doubts didn't stop her from
defending Skinner at the hearing or looking for evidence to help Skinner. 
She was most likely more afraid to find out he really was guilty of the
murder as she indicated to Mulder during their first conversation about
the murder.  In "Avatar"  you learn just as much about Mulder and Scully
as you do about Skinner. 

	There is still the problem of not fully explaining things making
for confusion.  The most glaring problem I see is how killing the bad guy
at the end proves Skinner's innocence.  It never was made very clear how
it all worked out with the escort service and the woman the bad guy was
trying to kill.  I guess it can be assumed she was the other woman's
assistant and somehow could identify the person who hired the woman who
was murdered, but I don't know if that would have been enough even if they
had caught him alive.  It might be enough not to put Skinner on trial
though one has to wonder how it all looks since it was Skinner who killed
him.  For all the police know the bad guy and Skinner could have known
each other.  Just because the bad guy hired the prostitute doesn't mean
Skinner didn't kill her. 

	It always amazes me how the Smoking Man and his gang can pull off
killing a woman in the same room that Skinner is in without disturbing
him, but in the end are too incompetent to finish the job.  Was it really
necessary for the bad guy to attempt to kill off the escort woman's
assistant?  I don't think so, even though there wouldn't be enough
evidence to convict Skinner there would still be enough doubt about his
innocence to prevent him from being reinstated to his job.  All Mulder and
Scully had was a woman who claimed some other man hired the woman who was
killed, but does that put the other man in the same room as Skinner?  It
shouldn't really surprise me since they couldn't competently kill him off
earlier or even Scully and Mulder.  What is amazing is how long they have
been able to keep everything so secret since they can't do the little jobs
competently. 

	A few general comments on "Avatar":

- You would think by now Scully would known better than to put her guard
down the second she gets near a bathroom.  Just like Mulder's lack of gun
holding ability is the bane of his existence, Scully's are bathrooms.  How
many times has she been attacked in them?  Well, not just her, it seems
almost anytime we see a bathroom in the X-Files we know something bad is
going to happen to someone.

- Best scene had to be the scene where Scully is explaining the sleep
disorder Skinner has to Mulder and she hands him the sheet of paper that
explains everything.  After she hands it to him he opens it up like he is
about to read it, but once Scully continues to explain he just throws it
on his desk like oh you're just going to tell me what's on this paper,
well, then I'm not going to waste my time reading it.  When he does this
the scene switches to an over the shoulder shot of Scully looking at him
throwing the paper away.  Now to me this was great attention to detail on
the director part since that is something which could easily be missed.

- One thing I like about TV shows is how characters who are suppose to
wear glasses have this ability to still see clearly even when they don't
have them on.  We have seen Mulder and Scully do this numerous times
throughout the show's history.  Now we see Skinner has this ability too
when he is able to see the old woman's image in his wife's place through
the hospital window though one could surmise he was just imagining it and
didn't need the glasses.  He did seem to not be wearing them quite a bit
throughout the episode and I know from my own experience if I don't have
my glasses on I can't even read the computer screen I'm typing this on so
it did annoy me every time he didn't have his glasses on.

- It took me a second viewing to realize how gruesome the dead woman's
death was when you see her head was totally twisted around from the front
of her body.  Yuck, just thinking about it. 

	"Avatar" was not quite the X-Files episode we expected about
Skinner, but it did give us insight into the man who has put himself on
the line for Mulder and Scully more than anyone else which was its
intended purpose so faults and all it was still a fine episode.  The
episode did fill in the gaps on why Skinner does what he does for them. 
Looking at the time line for the X-Files:  "Anasazi/BW/PC" took place in
April 1995 which makes "Piper Maru/Apocrypha" take place around Oct/Nov 95
since it had been six months since Melissa Scully's murder and "Avatar" 
takes place in March 1996.  This means Skinner separated from his wife in
July 1995 shortly after the ABC trilogy making one wonder how much more
did he sacrifice to save Mulder and Scully from the Smoking Man and his
gang.  It is just these kind of complicated characters that makes X-Files
one of the best dramas on tv.

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

4/28/96

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