CHIMERA

        "Chimera" is one of those X-Files episodes that is just there. It is neither good nor bad, it is just your run of the mill X-Files that you wish was better. Boy, could "Chimera" have been better. It started out good with a not too original concept of not everything being so nice and perfect in a small town. But as the episode progressed it became obvious this was a David Amann episode, the man responsible for "Aqua Mala", because "Chimera" slowly falls apart as it becomes so desperate to find an ending to its story that it has to fall back on that old plot device of the Amazing Mulder figuring out everything in a split second, and the villain suddenly breaking off an attack on Mulder just because she saw how she truly was in the reflection of the water. Oh, brother, talk about a cop out ending, couldn’t Amann think of anything better to get Mulder out of this situation that he got Mulder into. Until about the time Mulder suddenly figured out that the Sheriff was having an affair with every woman in the small town and that stupid Red Herring of making us think it was the Sheriff who was doing everything when they had the evil Ellen going after the good Ellen the episode was fairly decent even with the little Scully we got in the episode. Personally I’m sick and tired of this plot line of the moral decay of American small towns or suburbia. It’s one of the main reasons I haven’t wasted my time seeing "American Beauty" because I’ve seen this plot line a hundred times and if I see one more clip of Annette Bening’s character screaming and her eyes bulging I’m going to yell. Why does her character seem more one-dimensional than three-dimensional.

        A few comments on "Chimera":

-  Pity the poor bird, the Raven, it always gets the bad rap of meaning evil is lurking around the corner. Let’s not forget mirrors breaking are another bad sign and everyone in that house is going to have 7 years bad luck. Well, I guess if it’s the evil part of you don’t want to see then you might want to break all the mirrors. My favorite part of the episode was when the Sheriff commented to Mulder that Mulder keeps saying the broken mirrors means something, but he never says what. Maybe the writer couldn’t think of anything logical to explain it beyond the evil spirit not wanting to see itself so he gives Mulder no explanation.

-  Let’s not forget we have the classic Mulder ditch when he just leaves the stake out without telling Scully why he is leaving. I hope he called her later on to say Skinner has assigned him to another case. Isn’t it normal procedure to have two people on a stake out? If not to give someone a rest room break, but for safety’s sake.

-  This will teach the husband of Martha Crittendon not to come home from a conference when she asks him to. Ha, ha, let’s call her Martha Crittendon so we can do some Martha Stewart jokes. Nope, never heard any of those before.

-  Even though it was found out that Martha Crittendon was cheating on her husband, birth control pills are sometimes prescribed for other reasons than for birth control. If she was having an affair why didn’t Mrs. Crittendon call her lover, the Sheriff, who was right in town, to comfort her instead of her husband who was in Miami. Yeah, she might have been having an affair, but it would look like official duty. Oh, I know why she didn’t, because if she did then we know right off the bat that she was having an affair with the Sheriff ruining what little suspense there was in this episode.

-  Funniest comment was Martha Crittendon’s little girl Michelle saying to her now widowed father that the food he made for her tasted different than the way Mom made it. Hey, nothing like rubbing it in, kid. Also, what else would the father be cooking but macaroni and cheese.

-  Boy, for a small town they sure have real good equipment to investigate the one or two murders every 10 years they must have in that small town unless it’s Cabot Cove. Unless that was the State Police we were seeing and in most New England states it would be the State Police doing the main investigation especially for small towns.

-  I’m so glad Mulder doesn’t even bother to shave when he’s on assignment. It only shows what happens when Scully isn’t there to keep him in line.

-  Second favorite line was Ellen Adderly telling Mulder how wonderful it is to have a good family and how he should try for one. Yeah, right, is what Mulder is thinking, considering how wonderful his family is.

-  Should the Sheriff really leave his gun hanging on a chair from his holster giving his young child easy access to it. Safety first.

-  I’m still amazed at how Mulder was able to figure everything out the second the Sheriff came back from his overnight love-in with Jenny Gurgich. Just like that without any real evidence other than an old skeleton key and I won’t get into how improbable no matter how run-down a motel is that the motel would be using a skeleton key for their doors.

-  No wonder the Sheriff ran off with every woman in town with that answering machine recording done by his wife saying "leave a message for Phil, Ellen and Caty". How cute is that.

-  Mulder + Gun = trouble for Mulder. As I mentioned earlier this is the scene I hated the most, not the Mulder in danger business, but how convenient the evil Ellen decides at the last minute to stop drowning Mulder. Was just too pat and unbelievable an ending.

        At least they tried to make it a good X-Files with Scully barely in it since we know how weak these type of episodes can be when they are not working together. It was a failure in the end because of bad plot devices. When an episode, a book or a movie grabs you in a certain way one can forgive these plot devices because everything else is so good in it. This isn’t what happened in "Chimera" .

Claudia

E-Mail: Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

04/4/00