AIR DATE:  November 3, 1996
Written by Glen Morgan and James Wong
Directed by Rob Bowman

	Ever begin to watch something and know within the first five
minutes you are going to enjoy what you are watching.  This is the feeling
I got with the opening scene of this week's episode, I knew I was going to
enjoy it and I wasn't disappointed.  I will say this, Glen Morgan and
James Wong are now forgiven for "Home" with "The Field Where I Died", a
potent episode about one's devotion to another and how it never dies
through time. Of course, this idea isn't new, but Morgan and Wong bring
something to it with Mulder realizing there might have been someone for
him.  Throughout the episode Mulder is disturbed especially whenever he
gets near the field, and he is drawn to Melissa in a way I don't think he
ever felt before in his life.

	The episode begins and ends with Mulder standing in the field
where his civil war past is supposed to have died with Sarah/Melissa
looking over his dead body.  It's one of the more powerful beginnings for
an X-Files episode. We don't quite know what Mulder is talking about in
his voiceover of his arrogant self reliance ages ago and how a prayer in
the best intention can bring hope until the last scene when we come full
circle to find the meaning behind the words.  In those words and the
second to last shot of Mulder leaning over the dead body of Melissa we see
in these scenes a hope and dream in Mulder of what might have been for him
and Melissa/Sarah if events once again didn't pull them apart.  It ended
for Melissa in a sea of dead people with Mulder over her dead body as it
did back in the Civil War when it was Sarah/Mulder standing over the dead
body of Sullivan/Mulder which is how everything had come back full circle
because now it is Mulder, not Sarah, who has to wait for the soul to be
reborn.  I cannot quite explain what it is about this episode that touched
me in such a way.  I guess maybe I am an old romantic at heart. 

	I don't normally comment on Mark Snow's music even though it is an
important part of the show, but I have to say the music he provided for
this episode has to be one of his best.  The scene with Mulder out in the
field by himself and the scene when Melissa is explaining what happened on
the Civil War battlefield had the feeling of human tragedy.  Also, the
scene where Melissa started to leave the house for the field you could
almost hear a Civil War battle going on in the music.

	One can't help thinking how Mulder and Scully will be looking at
their working relationship differently since throughout this episode it
seems as if their souls were always interlinked together.  It makes one
wonder how much control they have over things and that no matter what
somehow their souls will be matched up in some other life.  It is kind of
a scary idea that no matter what, you are always meant to be linked up
with someone.  Mulder brings this up and Scully says in so many words at
this point it doesn't matter because she wouldn't have changed anything
which setup the great line about the Fluteman.

	The only drawback to the episode was the one-dimensional religious
leader whose only purpose seemed to be your typical wacko religious
fanatic.  Okay, there might have been more purpose for him, but the
opening interrogation with him dragged the episode down a bit other than
having him say some stuff about if you do this then God will decide what
will happen to your soul.  It wasn't until we got to Melissa that the
episode began to get interesting when we started to see the connection
between her and Mulder.

	The acting this week was outstanding by everyone especially by
Kristen Cloke who played Melissa.  She really was able to convey the
different emotions and characters Melissa's had to play throughout the
episode.

	A few misc. comments:

- At least this time there was an attempt at a lame reason why Scully and
Mulder were there by having Skinner commenting they were there to
investigate the religious guy supposed paranormal activities.  Yeah,
right, like that was a top priority of the ATF men. 

- Scully once again can read right into Mulder when she sees Mulder's
interest in Melissa is more than just trying to prevent the religious cult
from doing a Jonestown.  It is also hard to see how Mulder couldn't have
acted this way since the second he saw that door in the cult's house he
began feeling a closeness to the area and when he saw Melissa it only
brought it out more.  Scully being Scully even though she doubted his
motives supported him which is most likely why their souls always end up
together in some form.

- I have to admit I don't quite get this reborn thing especially if the
way I thought it was supposed to work and then I'm confused by when some
of these souls are reborn.  Mulder when he is going back to his past life
mentions Cancerman as being one of the Gestapo.  If this was the case even
if Cancerman's soul was killed later on in WWII, I always thought the
Cancerman we all know and love was a young child during WWII.  In the
beginning of "Apocrypha" where Cancerman is interviewing the sailor I
believe it is supposed to be 1952 so I don't see how he could have been
reborn into his current self.  Unless, these souls can go into a body and
become a part of the person.  When Melissa was first being questioned she
basically says in so many words that everything began for her in the past
year, so maybe Sarah went into Melissa knowing what was going to happen so
she could meet up with Mulder/Sullivan for that brief period.  I was just
a little confused by all this though it isn't important to the story.

-  Glad to see they are still driving the Ford Explorer.

- Anyone else think Scully's comment about how she wouldn't have regretted
not having seen the Flukeman was Morgan and Wong's jabbed at Darin Morgan
who we all know got his start on X-Files playing the Flukeman.  Darin
Morgan went on from there to write some of the best X-Files episodes and
wins an Emmy.

	Don't really have much to say this week other than it was an
outstanding episode.  Nothing major happened in "The Field Where I Died",
it wasn't an arc episode and we didn't get any creepy crawler monster.
"The Field Where I Died" ended up being an episode about how one's love
never dies and how souls keep coming back to one another.  Mulder ends up
being quite affected by the case since he now knows there was someone out
there waiting for him.  Sometimes it is the little episodes that say the
most. 

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

11/4/96

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