EN AMI

        Well, hot socks, I actually liked this episode. I’ve become so suspicious of these mythology episodes that I dread anytime I hear there is going to be another one. If it only had one problem it was Scully seemed to believe too easily everything Cigarette-Smoking Man was feeding her and who didn’t guess CSM would have switched the CD-ROM and killed the Hit Man so he wouldn’t shoot Scully. Otherwise it was a fine first time outing for William B. Davis as a writer and shows he does know the characters on the show and how they would react to certain situations.

        What did he know about the characters? Davis knows that to sucker Scully into helping him entrap this Scientist that he will have to tell her something that is believable and not believable at the same time. The second he told her this doctor had the secrets to cure all human disease bells should have been ringing loudly in Scully’s ears that this was too good to be true and that CSM was up to something more than trying to regain his soul. Though I guess if you are given the chance to decide life and death over people you’ll believe anything. I kind of wonder what Scully would think she would do with this power. Who would decide who lives or die? Maybe that’s why CSM threw it into the water because he didn’t think he deserved such power or even the cure to what is ailing him. The few scenes with Mulder spoke a lot on how well he knows Scully and how disappointed he was that she didn’t trust him enough to tell him what she was up to with CSM. The scene where she came back with the CD-ROM and Mulder is standing in the doorway not looking at her has Scully keep looking at him for some type of forgiveness for not trusting him. Also, Mulder knew most likely there would be nothing on the disk so that everything she did was for naught since Mulder has been there many times. We don’t see Mulder disappointed in Scully too often so it had to hurt both of them because as CSM said, Scully didn’t trust Mulder at first though now she trusts him unquestionably (it will be interesting if this holds up in future episodes since the 1013 writers loved to forget what happened with the characters in earlier episodes).

    Now some miscellaneous comments on "En Ami":

-  I was worried about "En Ami" when I saw the religious theme being used at the beginning of the episode since the X-Files has a bad track record on episodes with religious themes. It did bother me that the father would say God gave the kid cancer. Hey, whatever happened to the Devil? What would make someone think God could be so callous.

-  Was the cancer kid sleeping in the living room because it sure looked like it to me. At least they were able to find a very skinny kid for the part of the cancer kid to make it more realistic.

-  Isn’t that how Deep Throat contacted Bob Woodward by making a special note on the paper to tell him he has more inside information.

-  I swear if Scully touched her "hidden" mike one more time I was going to scream. It was harder to not laugh at her "hidden" mike because if made me think of the scene in Duchovny’s movie "Playing God" where he finds this big mike on the mob boss’ girlfriend after she got shot. One couldn’t help thinking how could the mob boss not notice that big hidden mike on her.

-  Nothing like dying to get CSM’s attention though wasn’t he dying of cancer in "Talitah Cumi" and Jeremiah Smith cured him so CSM would release him. I guess brain surgery and only given a few months to live will make you a more reflective person. Of course, he could have been lying to Scully about only having a few months to live, but I think Scully read him right when she told Mulder she believed him to be sincere and the fact we see him throw the CD-ROM into the lake killing any chance for him or anyone else being cured of all human diseases.

-  Even CSM knows better than to smoke in Scully’s car.

-  Favorite scene was Scully’s Apartment Manager telling Mulder how much fellow tenants like having an F.B.I. agent in their building because it makes them feel safe then Mulder commenting on all the people that have died in her apartment, and the Apartment Manager saying they don’t talk about that. Hmm, the same management company must own Mulder’s building too since tons of people have also died in his apartment.

-  Worse filmed scene was after Scully and CSM pull into Irene McPeck’s driveway right behind them pulls the Black-Haired Man. He is following so close he is lucky Scully didn’t stop quickly or else he would have bumped into her. Also, hasn’t Scully ever heard of cleaning her car windows. When we get a shot of Scully and CSM driving we see a nice dirty window.

-  I would like to know what Scully and CSM talked about during the trip, especially dinner instead of just CSM’s pop psychology on why Scully stays with Mulder. This was a good talk between CSM and Scully and her relationship with Mulder and Scully didn’t let him get away saying whatever he felt like she basically told him to stuff it, but I would have liked more of their talking with each other.

-  Mulder got Scully’s code that she really isn’t fine when she tells him that she is fine with CSM. After 6 years of "I’m fine" from Scully when she really wasn’t Mulder knows better then to trust that statement from Scully.

-  Somehow I have a hard time believing CSM would pump his own gas. I would rather see that then Scully playing with her "hidden" mike.

-  I’m not even going to get into how CSM knows Scully’s dress size and the fact he undressed her and put her in her PJ’s.

-  Didn’t Scully’s father ever teach her to wear a life jacket when she goes out on a boat. Oh yeah, it sure looked more like mid-day and not the light of the day as the note says to meet Cobra.

-  I did like Byers new look with the goatee and a small beard for the rest of his face.

-  We can see technology has improved in the X-Files universe because back in "Ananasi" the kid used a digital tape while now the Scientist used a CD-ROM. Just think how much that kid could have put on CD-ROM instead of a digital tape and maybe they would have been able to make copies and print out pages.

        Overall a good episode from William B. Davis about the CSM and it gives us the first time Scully and CSM got to do some tit for tat conversations as CSM and Mulder have done in the past. It was good to see Scully could be taken in by CSM as easily as Mulder has in the past. Too bad they didn’t let her stick her gun in CSM’s face.

Claudia

E-Mail: Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

03/21/00

Back to Top of Page