THIS IS NOT HAPPENING

AIR DATE: February 25, 2001
Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Kim Manners

        Naming the episode "This is Not Happening" after a line that was used fairly freely in Darin Morgan’s last X-Files script, "Jose Chung’s From Outer Space", is not a good thing to do because it only reminds us how good X-Files used to be. Actually this episode wasn’t that bad for a season 8 episode especially compared to last week’s episode. It was just there. It wasn’t really going anywhere except killing time until the end where we see a supposedly dead Mulder and an upset Scully running back to find Jeremiah Smith to save Mulder. This would be fine except I couldn’t get out of the back of my mind once again for a woman who is supposed to be pregnant a few months (remember the line from Doggett saying they have been looking for a break for months which means to me at least 3 months or more) she isn’t showing and for a pregnant woman she sure can run fast through those woods. The whole plotline of Scully being pregnant has been very distracting throughout this season because she doesn’t appears to be pregnant. On the tv show "ER" a viewer at least feels Elizabeth Corday is pregnant because at least she is showing. Why don’t the X-Files producers go back to season 2 and observe how Gillian Anderson looked when she really was pregnant in real life to know how a woman is supposed to look pregnant. The other thing we know as viewers is that there is a good chance Mulder isn’t dead and if he is why not kill him off last season in a more intelligent way instead of this stupid alien abduction plotline where we get a whole season of Scully and Doggett not looking for Mulder.

        As I was watching last week’s "ER" my mind wandered to why I don’t care if any of the current characters don’t mention any of the characters who have left the show over the years. It occurred to me this is because they left in a way that there isn’t any reason for the characters to mention them. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that it is an ensemble show where there are a lot of characters to play off whereas the X-Files was built around two agents with one of them being the driving force behind the X-Files. But I can’t help thinking if it was done differently then Mulder’s not being in the show anymore wouldn’t be dragging down the show.

        A few comments on "This Is Not Happening":

• Somehow I think Richie needs a better camera than the disposable one he was using to get a picture of the alien ship. This shows us how unmemorable X-Files episodes have become that I don’t even remember Richie from last season’s finale.

• I was surprised to see Mulder’s nameplate still on top of all that paper work I would think by now it would have been pushed to the end of the drawer with a bunch of paperwork on top of it.

• "Circling the Drain" – What the hell does that mean? Who says things like this?

• Scully and the others discussing the aliens and the experiments they appear to be doing on people made me think of an old Simpsons episode where aliens Kang and Kodos kidnap Homer. Homer says to them "I suppose you want to probe me. Well, you might as well get it over with." Kang responds "Stop! We have reached the limits of what rectal probing can teach us." This is what comes to my mind everytime Scully and everyone else goes on about aliens experimenting on humans, etc. How much more can they learn that they don’t know already.

• Good thing Jeremiah Smith knew who the doctor was that was taking care of Theresa. He loses a point by walking into the hospital and waiting until he reaches the hospital desk to shape shift into the doctor. What if the nurse hadn’t been looking at paperwork? This was done just for the viewing audience which makes it even more aggravating.

• You’re got to wonder why Jeremiah Smith ran away from wimpy Richie. Smith should have been able to take him down. Where was Smith’s pal who helped him all the other times? Why are the aliens just dropping these people in the middle of nowhere? Just for Smith and his pals to find them and fix them up? At least there is one thing I can be certain of, we will never know why the aliens are dropping these people off in the middle of nowhere because the writers can’t think of a good reason.

• Scully better be careful and suspicious about this new agent, Monica Reyes, since she smokes Morley which means we will find out later on that she works for Cigarette Smoking Man or for someone else. Was there a point to Doggett having Scully and Skinner meet her in the middle of nowhere? Couldn’t they have the same conversation anywhere in town? Was she supposed to be a big secret? Anyone else feel like we were seeing Deanna Troi’s (of Star Trek: The Next Generation) lost sister in Reyes who kept saying things to Doggett and Scully that sounded just what Troi used to say to people on the Enterprise.

• Oh boy, we get a reference to Doggett’s son who we find out went missing for 3 days and we presume ended up dead. I can’t wait till we have the ex-wife episode.

• Even in the short time Doggett has been on X-Files he has seen a lot, such as being brought back to life, but he can’t believe Scully when she says it is one of those shift changing aliens they were seeing on the video which she has seen firsthand.

• Smith should have known better than to ask Scully to protect him because we know her track record of being able to do that is bad.

• I have to stop watching Matt Groening’s animated tv shows because my mind flashbacked to this week’s "Futurama" where the plotline had Dr. Zoidberg’s uncle making a movie with the robot Calculon and the end of the movie had Calculon becoming President after his father dies and he goes down on his knees and yells "Nooo". Scully’s "Nooo" at Smith’s abduction and Mulder’s "death" at the end of the episode seemed to be that kind of overdramatic "No" we see so often on tv shows.

Claudia

E-Mail: Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

02/27/01

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