AIR DATE:  November 9, 1997
Written by Chris Carter
Directed by Kim Manners

	These mythology episodes sometimes can be such a hoot because of
what Carter and gang always are trying to get us to believe.  In "Redux
II", Carter and gang try to have us believe that Mulder still wouldn't get
into trouble for killing Ostelhoff, Mulder is able to accuse Section Chief
Blevins as the mole in the F.B.I. without any proof to back up his claim,
Mulder would so easily believe that was his sister Samantha, and once
again the Consortium gets away with murder and the evidence.  But "Redux
II" wasn't about any of that, instead it was about what has happened to
the people around Mulder in his quest to find his sister, and how Mulder
would be willing to sacrifice his soul for those he cares for. 

	Once again we see how important Scully has become in Mulder's
life, that he goes to her to see if he is doing the right thing by not
taking the deal with Cigaratte Smoking Man, and he doesn't seem to really
care that the bad guys are covering everything up because all that was
important in the end was Scully was going to be alright.  The Mulder of
old wouldn't have even considered making a deal with CSM and he would have
been out there trying to gather evidence on the cover-up instead of being
there at the hospital.  It was interesting that he was sitting outside her
hospital room most the time while her family was inside Scully's room. 
He'll never fully be accepted into her family since I'm sure most of the
family, except Mrs. Scully, blames him for her plight.  The Scully's are
the strong supportive family that he'll never have in his life.  There is
no one to comfort him in his hour of need, instead he sits outside her
room depressed and despondent.  It isn't surprising that he would
seriously consider CSM's offer to join them, and he would allow Bill, Jr. 
to talk to him like he does considering the emotional state he was in
throughout the episode.

	Did CSM really give everything Mulder has searched for?  We can't
be sure what really cured Scully since not only did they put the microchip
back into Scully, the doctor said he was going to try some unconventional
medical treatment at the same time.  Was that really Mulder's sister
Samantha?  I would believe it more if they hadn't had the same actress who
played her clone in "Colony/End Game".  Mulder should have voiced some
suspicion towards her considering who brought her to him, but I guess he
was too much of a gentlemen to say anything or he was in such an emotional
state he couldn't think straight on what was the truth.  But it did bring
up a good point in showing us how the reunion could go if Mulder does find
his sister.  What if she was living a normal life with kids and a husband? 
Would reunioning be such a good thing for them? Well, it might be good for
Mulder so that he could finally get on with his life, but it could bring
back some unwanted memories for Samantha who as his sister she didn't want
to remember.  It can be reasonable she would trust CSM over Mulder because
she has known CSM most of her life while she doesn't know Mulder at all,
and unlike Mulder she has never made an effort to find him or her family. 
Which makes her suspect, that she would take at face value CSM's story,
and never want to find out for herself what happened to her real family.
Whether it is his sister or not it was still painful for Mulder to go
through as we could see how difficult it was for him to let go of her. 
Scully's brother got it wrong when he said Mulder's quest was only to find
little green aliens because as Mulder stated in "Redux" he always believed
if he could find them he would find his sister. 

	The one major problem with "Redux II" was the last 10 minutes
seemed to feel rushed as if they realized they only had ten minutes to
cure Scully, have Mulder expose the F.B.I. mole, have said F.B.I. mole and
CSM assassinated.  This wouldn't have been so bad if only this storyline
hadn't been dragged out into 3 parts.  After taking their time with
everything else they could have allowed us to see Blevins deny Mulder's
allegations instead of suddenly seeing him run into his office only to be
killed by the other Senior Agent.

	Miscellaneous comments on "Redux II":

- Where was Mulder's proof that Blevins was in on it?  Was his proof that
Blevins tried to get him to implicate Skinner?  Yeah right, but this is tv
land so we don't have to worry about such things.  Did Mulder's big scene
with the F.B.I. brass, where he accuses Blevins, seem straight out of any
'60's or 70's cop or detective show where the hero accuses the bad guy we
hardly knew even existed?  Considering we haven't seen Blevins since the
first season it seemed lame that he was the one?  Well, they couldn't make
it Skinner so I guess they had to make Blevins the fall guy.  I do find it
hard to believe Blevins F.B.I. buddy could get away with making it look
like Blevins commited suicide. 

- Great hospital scene that was reminiscent of the time Mulder entered the
hospital in "One Breath".  The look on Mulder's face when he saw Scully
all wired up had to bring back memories of her from "One Breath" and that
he has failed her again.  Skinner was trying to prevent Mulder from going
in because he remembered how Mulder was in "One Breath", and didn't want a
repeat performance.

- All I could think of when they said the forensic evidence showed
Ostelhoff was killed by a point blank shot to the temple then shot again
with a shotgun was the two part season finale of Homicide, where Sweaty
Baldwin's character (sorry, I always thought of him as that name and not
as his character's name), was murdered in the same way.  Hmm, I wonder if
this is where they got their idea.  Oh yeah, I can't wait for next week's
episode with Munch from Homicide being on the show since Homicide is one
of my favorite shows.  I really liked the trailer for next week's episode
where they even mention Munch comes from another network's show.

- Didn't it seem like CSM was a little bit too cheerful throughout this
episode?  I guess he was happy that he was finally going to get Mulder to
work for him.  I wonder though how quitting the F.B.I. would have been a
good thing for CSM and the Consortium since it would be in their best
interest if it appeared Mulder was still working against them. 

- Bill, Jr. proves in this episode how much he doesn't know or understand
his sister.  He practically tells Mulder to stay away and not burden
Scully with work problems as she is about to die.  We saw that is exactly
what Mulder tried to do, but Scully wouldn't allow it since she hates
having the truth kept away from her.  Scully would have been willing to
take the rap for Mulder if it would save him even though it would mean she
would be disgraced, and everything she stood for would be washed away. 
Bill, Jr. just doesn't understand that Mulder is as an important part of
her life as he is.

- Speaking of brothers.  Where was Scully's other so-called brother?  Once
again Scully is dying and one of the brother's couldn't find time to visit
her? 

- I found the use of the fade out, fade in technique a refreshing change
to show us the passing of time since it is so seldom used in tv or movies
anymore.  This is the one time I was glad FOX puts that annoying symbol on
the bottom right hand corner because it meant they weren't going to
commerical break since it was still in the corner and usually it
disappears from the screen a few seconds before a commercial break.  It
did make for quite a different effect in the episode.

- What was the assasin guy waiting for if he was supposed to kill CSM? 
Was he bored having to spend the past 48 hours in the building across the
street so he felt like aiming his gun from Mulder to CSM.  Boy, I almost
thought he was going to kill Chubby Italian Guy.  Alas, it was not to be. 
Personally, I think they should have made the Well-Manicured Man the one
to have killed CSM since he is ten times more menacing than Chubby Italian
Guy and he had motive. 

- Why would Skinner show up at a Senate hearing if he wasn't there to
testify?  He could easily watch it on C-Span (Opps, that's WNN in X-Files'
world) as the Chubby Italian Guy was doing.  What was he getting out of
the hearing?  All we got here was Senator Harkin blabbing on about clones. 
Never was explained what the connection this hearing had on anything that
was happening in the episode. Wow, what a surprise that is. 

- It was heartbreaking when Scully confesses to her mother how much she is
afraid to die and finally admits that it is faith that has kept her going
all these years, but when she truly needs it she turns her back on it. 

	"Redux II" wasn't an action packed episode nor did it give any
answers.  What it was, was a quiet episode that dealt with the inner
feelings of the main characters and their loyalty towards each other. The
episode did give us the annual season's beginning of killing off someone
in the show.  Let's just hope CSM stays dead like Deep Throat, Mulder's
father, Scully's sister and Mr. X.  I'm somewhat mad they did the old
there wasn't a body found, but there was enough blood bit.  Kind of like
not showing us the body in "Gethsemane".  Anyway a nice ending to the
three parter.  X-Files doesn't always feel the need to have car chases to
beef up an episode instead it lets the human elements take over. 

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

11/10/97

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