AIR DATE:  December 7, 1997
Written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Peter Markle

	"Christmas Carol" is a tough one to judge since it finally has
Scully deal with being barren from her abduction.  Of course, it would
have been interesting to have seen if it was Mulder or the doctors who
told her and her reaction to it, but it wasn't really important for us to
see this anyway.  Was it?  Scully heads off with her mother to spend some
time with her brother in San Diego only to be reminded of her state via
Tara Scully's pregnancy.  Poor Scully she can't go anywhere without
something bad or depressing happening.  Scully was so downbeat and
depressed I kept hoping someone would tell her to lighten up especially at
the Christmas party.  But be that as it may, "Christmas Carol" was a good
episode to explore this and it had her family asking her tough questions
about where she is going in life.

	Once again the Scully family shows why they are such a decent
family.  Mrs. Scully is her usual supportive self in trying to get Scully
to understand her motivation in wanting this baby to be Melissa's and
Scully still trying to deal with Melissa's death.  There has to be some
feeling of guilt on Scully's part for Melissa's death so when it appears
Melissa is speaking to Scully from the grave to help her child it touches
upon feelings Scully most likely didn't know she had.  As Scully says to
her mother she never really thought about having children until she no
longer had the ability to have them.  I have to say I really liked Bill
Scully in this episode because he was the only one not afraid to say what
needed to be said to Scully about what she was doing on her "vacation". 
From his trying to get her to actually go on vacation and relaxing, to
empathizing about her desire to have a baby and using Emily as a
replacement, and having her question her reasons for these desires.  The
frustration could be seen in Bill Scully's face with Scully's inability
not to stop working when Scully went off to see Detective Kresge. Someone
has to say something to her since both she and Mulder are the queen and
king of deny.  Now if only Mulder had family like this to help him face
his problems who knows how much more well adjusted he would be. 

	I'm still trying to decide whether this storyline was a good idea,
and how it works out in part two will effect my opinion of it.  But as it
stands on its own, "Christmas Carol", is a fine episode to have Scully
deal with some aftereffects of her cancer and abduction.  One thing I am
sure of is there is no way Emily is going to end up with Scully at the end
of "Emily" because we know anyone who gets close to Scully or Mulder falls
prey to the Bonanza syndrome. 

	Now lots and lots of miscellaneous comments on "Christmas Carol": 

- Poor Bill Scully has to prove what a man he is when no one would offer
to help him carry the suitcases up the stairs.  He must have been carrying
about 5 bags while Scully carried one little bag.  Those 5 bags must have
been Mrs. Scully's since we all know how light Scully can pack, but yet
still have everything she needs.

- When the ghost of Melissa hung up on Scully I expected Scully to dial
*69 to have the phone automatically dial the last incoming call.  Maybe I
don't understand how *69 works and it only works when you don't answer the
phone. 

- I'm not even going to comment on what Mulder was wearing on his head
when he came back from jogging.  I'll leave that to the fashion police
along with some of Scully's outfits.  Did anyone else half expect Mulder
to say "Scully" when she called him, but didn't say anything after he
picked up the phone? 

- I guess the Navy is too cheap to provide dishwashers for its officer's
base housing since Scully was washing the dishes.

- We get to see Scully's first touch with death when she fails to take
care of a rabbit and it dies.  Symbolizing her own barrenness since I
think it used to be the rabbit died to show a woman was pregnant.  She
sees Emily on the staircase staring at her symbolizing life to her.

- Good to see Scully can't separate herself from her cellular phone when
it still has enough juice to ring in her suitcase.  I half expected it to
be Mulder on the line since it was so late at night.

- I can see Scully approaching Bill's room to ask if she could borrow his
car at 2am then deciding against it and just taking the car.  Everyone in
the Scully family much be a sound sleeper since no one heard her take the
car.

- I see Scully has learned a lot from Mulder on the fine art of ditching
people when she tells Bill she'll be around for lunch, and of course
doesn't show up.  Poor Bill here he is ready to spend some time with
Scully for the first time since her illness and she just takes off.  Of
course, the real ditcher is the mysterious younger brother "Charlie" who
can't make the time for the gathering or even be mentioned by his family. 
Also, he has to be the one with kids since we know from the episode "Home"
that Scully babysat her nephews for the weekend.

- The leaves must change late in San Diego since the streets were filled
with unraked leaves and the leaves were still changing colors on the
trees.  Somehow I never thought San Diego got that cold for the leaves to
change or had trees such as the ones we saw in the background.  You know
sometimes it would really be nice if they did film on location just to
avoid these location inconsistencies.

- Lucky for Scully, Bill has all the old family albums so she could
conveniently locate a young photo of Melissa.  

- When is the Consortium going to realize that Danny is the real threat to
them since he always is able to help Scully and Mulder in a heartbeat.  We
all know why she went to Danny and not Mulder because she knows Mulder
would want to know why and probably fly out there to help her. The last
thing she wanted to deal with was Mulder getting involved in something she
considers personal.  

- I thought the report on Melissa's death was supposed to go to the
F.B.I.'s field office in San Diego instead of her brother's house where we
see it waiting for her.  The whole point of it not going there was so her
family wouldn't find out what she was doing.

- Do the Scully's ever turn off there Christmas tree?  We see it lit in
every scene even when Mrs. Scully talks with Scully at 2am it is shining
away in the background.  I suppose the government pays the electric bill.

- Did writers Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz not think we
obsessive X-Files fans wouldn't check to see when Mrs. Scully gave her the
cross necklace she has worn throughout the past four seasons?  I can see
why they had it appear to be a Christmas gift Mrs. Scully gave both Scully
and Melissa to only strengthen the connection between Scully and Melissa,
but give us a break that was an important scene between Mrs. Scully and
Mulder in "Ascension" when Mulder commented about Scully always wearing
the cross necklace even when she always wanted physical proof something
existed while God is something you can't prove with physical evidence. 

- "Hotel California"?  I would like to make fun of this, but I can't
because I had copy of it too at that age.  It was one of the few albums I
owned before I saw the light and found The Clash.  I'm surprised it wasn't
Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album since I think it was a Federal Law that
everyone own a copy in 1977. 

- Both Scully and Detective Kresge must be psychic since they knew that
was the Doctor at the clinic they were looking for without ever having
seen him before.

- Scully doesn't wait long to start the adoption process.  The Sims could
have family (brothers, sisters, parents, etc.) who might want to take care
of Emily instead of a stranger.  If anyone is an unlikely candidate for
adopting a child and one who is sick it is Scully and the adoption woman
was right when she sensed Scully wasn't ready to abandon her work (i.e. 
Mulder) to take care of Emily.  I don't care what Scully said to the
adoption lady, she is not ready.  Oh yeah, I liked the adoption woman
saying Scully hasn't had any longterm relationship.  What the heck would
you call Mulder?  This is the person she has spend more time with in the
past 4 years than with anyone else, but not in the way the adoption woman
was talking about. 

- "How you are going to change the life of others", Melissa says this to
Scully in a flashback right before Scully is to go into the F.B.I.
academy.  Of course, we all know whose life Scully did change by going
into the F.B.I..  If it wasn't for her who knows where Mulder would be
without her guidance and assistance in his search for the truth.  Another
interesting part of their talk was Melissa saying it could be Scully's
fate to join the F.B.I. and Scully's says she doesn't believe in fate. 
Mulder tells her basically the same thing at the end of "Paper Clip" after
Melissa had died, and Scully says nothing back to him.  So how fated is
Scully to work with Mulder and expose the truth? 

	It is doubtful that Emily is not Scully's daughter (hey, it should
be a piece of cake for Scully to adopt her now), but how this all works in
the grand scheme of the conspiracy can only be guessed.  How much did the
Sims know about their daughter and her medical problems?  What are her
real medical problems and was the doctor at the clinic a part of the
conspiracy?  As I stated earlier I'm still on the fence about this whole
Scully wanting a baby, but it would be unrealistic for Scully not to think
about it.  It is just in the X-Files universe we usually don't get to see
these type of questions being asked.  We still haven't seen Mulder
confront his mother about her relationship with the Cigarette Smoking Man. 

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

12/8/97

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