DEADALIVE

AIR DATE: April 1, 2001
Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Tony Wharmby

        I’m sure it will be no surprise to anyone if I knock "Deadalive" and guess what, you would not be wrong. I’m getting to be as predictable as this show. Well, "Deadalive" isn’t exactly predictable as borrowing or stealing depending on how you look it of another Sci-fi movie. In the X-Files movie "Fight the Future" they "borrowed" from the "Alien" movies. In "Deadalive" they decided to "borrow" from one of the all time Sci-Fi classics "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" where people are being replaced with aliens, the only difference is the aliens in the X-Files aren’t as efficient as the ones in the movie. It makes you wonder if they really want to take over the world because it just seems as if their hearts aren’t in it. They take all these people then leave them in the middle of nowhere to "die" so 3 months later they can be resurrected as aliens. What happened to the "Alien" rip-off aliens who we haven’t seen I believe since season 6? What’s their story in all this or will there ever be a story to it? Do we care? On top of all this we have Scully’s pregnancy (or as I like to think of it the longest pregnancy in history) which was a distraction throughout the episode where we are supposed to be feeling her pain for Mulder instead all I can think is she doesn’t look 6 months pregnant. Why do I say 6 months? Because Kersh said he has been in that job for 6 months which began the same time Mulder disappeared and when we found out she was pregnant. What do I know maybe that is how a 6 months pregnant woman looks like since I haven’t had a baby.

        Let’s go to the merciless comments on "Deadalive":

• It still bugs me that they (the writers) decided to move where Mulder’s family came from to North Carolina from Massachusetts. Though what most likely happened is the writers just forgot that fact and moved it to North Carolina because one of them came from there.

• I found Scully’s comment that she can’t believe Mulder’s dead quite funny because of all the times he was supposed to be dead when he wasn’t and since we knew he wasn’t dead it was a meaningless action for us to see Mulder’s funeral. Also, a good undertaker would have made Mulder presentable for an open casket because he just didn’t look that bad. Did they do an autopsy on him? I find it hard to believe they wouldn’t have done an autopsy on him, but if they did that means they would cut up the body maybe taking out his brain. We aren’t supposed to be thinking these things. What’s the point of bringing out Mrs. Scully if you are not going to use her more than to stand next to Scully during the funeral. Maybe I would feel more of Scully’s pain if I actually saw it instead of going on about Mulder being the last one and not finding out the full truth. Yeah, whatever Scully.

• Scully has had a difficult pregency? You could have fooled me since we have never seen it except for that one time where she went to the hospital. This incident is once again meaningless to us since we are never given any details of what the problem is.

• Once again the X-Files express was at work when Doggett and Skinner seemed to get down to North Carolina from D.C. within a few hours.

• Does this make me a bad person when Scully is crying on Mulder’s chest that I can’t help thinking back to the scene when Scully was on her deathbed and Mulder tried to eat her hand.

• Why did Kersh wait 3 months to offer Doggett a new assignment instead of right after they found Mulder and is it really up to Doggett to say no? I’d like to know what Doggett and Scully were doing those 3 months. Oh, I know what, they were chasing Bat Man.

• There are some plotlines I wish the writers would just forget and the Nanites in Skinner’s bloodstream being controlled by Krycek is one of them. Was there really a point to Krycek using it against Skinner other than to remind us that Krycek has this over Skinner and maybe that Krycek has a sadistic streak in him. It most likely would have been easier for Krycek to have just approached Skinner with his proposal. Also, one would think it would be no problem for him to disturb Scully’s pregnancy himself. Well, maybe not since they killed Scully’s sister when he was supposed to kill her.

• Annoying character moment was the typical Doggett leaves the room after someone says it was aliens and Scully goes over to him to tell him he has to be more open minded and Doggett gets all defensive. The worst part was having Doggett leave with a smug look on his face after he asked Scully if she believes what Billy Miles says about the aliens and not having Scully answering him was unbelievable because the Scully we know would not have been at a loss for words. Note to writers: This is getting old.

• It was so good they could show us what a manly man Doggett is by having him jump into the driver’s side of Krycek’s car while Krycek is driving away. Of course, if he hadn’t come into the parking garage with gun draw he might not have alerted Krycek to his presence. Also, I couldn’t help thinking they could have analyzed the vaccination liquid that was still on the parking garage floor to get an idea what is in the vaccination.

        It is just getting harder to take this show seriously anymore. There have been too many times where they have jacked us around where we can’t trust them anymore and when you lose someone’s trust it is hard to win back. This is why I don’t believe anything will be resolved at the end of part three since they never have done so in the past. I had to keep reminding myself to tape it as I watch the Sopranos because I forgot to tape the Fridays editions of "The Lone Gunmen" while I watched "Farscape". This is something I could never imagine 2 or 3 years ago with X-Files.

Claudia

E-Mail: Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

04/02/01

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