AIR DATE:  February 9, 1997
Written by Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, John Shiban & Vince Gilligan
Directed by Rob Bowman

	"Memento Mori" is what these mythology episodes should be like
with unexpected twist and turns and only giving a little bit more
information on everything going on for the past four seasons.  Whereas
"Terma"  failed as a mythology episode because it asked us to suspend our
disbeliefs in too many ways and ended up being a complete mess in
explaining anything.  "Memento Mori" didn't do that to us this time.  It
dealt with the real issue of Scully trying to face the fact she might have
been abducted and having to deal with a fatal cancer.  Also, the episode
didn't do the old resolve an issue in an hour plot device by not having
Scully suddenly cured of her cancer instead, if anything, things look more
bleak for her and Mulder.  At least this time they finally have allowed
Mulder to keep something as proof by allowing him to not lose the vial
from the reproductive center.  Hurrah, now what is Mulder going to do with
it is questionable. Will he show Scully or even tell her everything he has
found out like she had been made infertile by what has happened to her? 
These most likely will be answered during the May sweeps when most of
these seem to take place, and with next week's episode being an episode
that was suppose to be shown about four episode earlier we cannot except
any reference to it.

	After watching X-Files I watched the latest Babylon 5 episode and
one of the main plot lines was these Shadow creatures who made secret
deals with others in order to get what they wanted out of people.  One of
the main characters on the show made deals with them in order to gain more
power while his assistant (Vir) refused to have anything to do with them.
In the latest episode Mr. Morgan, the middleman behind the secret deals,
gets his comeuppance and Vir flashes back to what he said to Mr Morgan
when he sees Mr. Morgan head on a pole which was he "... wanted to live
long enough to see his head on a pole as a warning to the next ten
generations that some favors come at too high a price."  This is something
that comes to mind with Skinner and Cigarrette Smoking Man.  Has Skinner
paid too high a price by making a deal with CSM in an attempt to save
Scully's life?  As it always is with X-Files we don't know what deal
Skinner has made, but you can bet it has come at too high a price.  He
should have heeded his own advise to Mulder that there are some things you
shouldn't compromise.  One can't help but think he was doing it just as
much for Mulder as for Scully because he understands how much anything
happening to Scully would crush Mulder.  The fact Mulder was willing to
deal with CSM for Scully showed how far he was willing to go for her since
we can only imagine the deal he would have made with CSM would be to close
down the X-Files and maybe start working for them.  It makes one really
admire Skinner more for being willing to give up so much for Scully and
Mulder.

	What more can be said about Scully and her strong determination to
deal with her cancer.  One would almost think she was being strong more
for Mulder's sake than for anyone else and we can take what she is writing
in her private journal to Mulder as to how she was really feeling about
everything.  The look Mulder gave her in the alley was one of concern and
helplessness.  His helplessness in that he feels there isn't anything he
really can do to help her and concern that she continues to not face up to
what happened to her.  It is interesting that it is Scully who wants to go
back up Allentown to further investigate what is happening to Betsy
Hagopian, meaning she is slowly facing the fact that with her cancer there
truly is a connection between them and her.  Mulder says to her in the
hospital after Penny Northern has died, "The truth will save you, Scully,
and I think it will save the both of us."  This statement sums up the
whole episode and maybe the X-Files in general where the truth behind
Scully disappearance and what has happened to Mulder's sister will save
them both from a fate of relentlessly chasing aliens or whatever
conspiracy there is going on and set them free to live a normal life. 


	Now a few comments on "Memento Mori":

- It was great to see Mrs. Scully again.  She lets everything out from her
frustration of the thought of another daughter dying to her feeling of
being left out by Scully not telling her first about the cancer.  Let's
face it, it was Mulder who had to tell her over the phone since Scully
asked him to call her mother to bring some things up.  Most likely Scully
did this so she wouldn't have to face telling her mother.  Having Mrs. 
Scully babble on about driving up was just right in showing her worry
about her daughter.  You can see where Scully got some of her strength. Oh
yeah, once again there wasn't any mention of Scully's so called brothers
such as having Mrs. Scully mention them in pasting to Scully.  I think
I've said this before, but I want to see these two so called brothers who
are never around in emergencies or even have a picture of them in Mrs. 
Scully bedroom.  It is time we meet them. 

- All right now I'm an assassin so what is the best way to make myself
less conspicuous in a quiet neighborhood.  Let's see Mulder leaves
Hagopian house so I think I'll turn my car on with its parking lights on
and drive up a few yards then stop the car and get out.  Oh, did I tell
you there are some people walking their dog across the street who will see
me doing all this, but they won't wonder why I'm going into a dead woman's
house.  Just getting out of the car and walking up to the house that would
make it too obvious. 

- I liked how Mulder after Scully's phone call from the hospital just gets
up and leaves without telling Crawford where he was going or when he was
coming back.  It's good to see he doesn't just do it to Scully, but to
everyone else.  Considering Crawford feared for his life you would think
he would be a little bit worried being left alone in the house.  Also,
wouldn't the now decomposing body of Crawford have left a mess on the rug. 
Considering what it did to Scully's shoe in "Colony" one could imagine
what it did to the rug.  I guess assassin had in the trunk of his car a
super duper rug cleaner so when Mulder came back not only did he find all
the files were gone, but a damn clean rug.

- Did anyone else love the look of utter fear on Byers face when Mulder
told him to go back alone to tell Scully about Dr. Scanlan?  Byers had the
look of what you're going to leave me by myself, I'm not used to doing
this stuff.

- I always liked how in tv shows instead of using a door they will use
some other kind of entrance, hence, we get Mulder and Crawford both coming
through the window and not the door at the reproductive center.  Also, I
did like how Mulder finds the computer on in the records room and then
Crawford comes in a minute later like he just came back from using the
rest room.  I won't comment on how fast it was for them to find the
password.

- Anyone else creeped out by the fact the Crawford's all had red hair
meaning they could be from Scully.  I wonder if Mulder is going to tell
her that one.

- I just wanted to note it took four guys to write "Memento Mori".


	"Memento Mori" is the first solid mythology episode we have had in
a long time.  It didn't throw everything at us with the vague hope that it
will all add up in the end.  In "Memento Mori" we have the main characters
having to make choices about their lives.  Scully having to deal with her
cancer and abduction, Mulder having to deal with the fear of losing Scully
and maybe being powerless to help her, and Skinner selling his soul to CSM
for Scully's life.  The best part was that nothing was nicely resolved in
the end which isn't unusual in the X-Files, but this time one of its main
characters has a fatal disease and it is something that has to resolve
sometime in the future.  This is what makes the X-Files such a good show
in that it goes beyond the concept of having them chasing aliens or
whatever weird things.  There are consequences to their relentless pursuit
for the truth in ways they never could have imagine, and it makes us care
what happens to them. 


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

2/10/97

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