AIR DATE:  January 24, 1999
Written by Vince Gilligan
Directed by Michael Watkins

	"Tithonus" was a lot better episode when it was called "Clyde
Bruckman's Final Repose".  Alright it wasn't quite like "Clyde Bruckman's
Final Repose" but it came close.  Here are some of the differences:

1) In "Tithonus" Alfred Fellig could only sense within an hour or so when
someone is going to die and he doesn't know how they are going to die.  In
"Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", Clyde Bruckman knew the second he saw you
how you were going to die.

2) In 45 minutes we care and like Clyde Bruckman whereas in 45 minutes we
don't care or like Alfred Fellig. 

3)  Whereas in "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" Scully and Mulder work as a
team and we see how both react to Clyde Bruckman's abilities.  In
"Tithonus" we get a too common experience that Scully and Mulder are not
working together and we don't get Mulder fascination with Fellig's
abilities.

4)  Peter Boyle is a far superior actor to Geoffrey Lewis.  I can't
totally blame Lewis for this since he is a fine character actor who wasn't
given much to do with his character.

5) "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" was a far superior episode to
"Tithonus". 

6)  This episode will not win an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Drama
Series.

	Vince Gilligan should have taken advise from Darin Morgan's book
and quit while you are ahead.  I know I'm in the minority that didn't like
Gilligan's "Bad Blood" episode and while "Folie A Deux" was an excellent
episode last season, "Drive" from this season wasn't exactly a riveting
episode and now with "Tithonus" I don't think Gilligan has the ability to
write an X-Files episode that takes Scully and Mulder further.  What's
really disturbing about "Tithonus" is that it tries to feel like an old
episode, but Scully and Mulder are not working together as a team. Instead
it was like in "Chinga" where Scully calls Mulder throughout the episode.
At least this time Mulder is doing the legwork in the episode instead of
Scully.  Now there was something different. 

	Now some miscellaneous comments on "Tithonus":

- For a man who is in his 60's Alfred Fellig sure can run down 17 flights
of stairs fast and not even be out of breath when he makes it to the
basement. 

- I hate to say this, but Mulder and Scully's attitude towards background
checks sometimes bugs me because background checks are very important and
if they don't do them correctly it could let the wrong person into an area
they shouldn't be.  I suppose they find it beneath them to do this kind of
thing when they could be attempting and failing to uncover a massive
government conspiracy.  They have no one else to blame but themselves
since the last time they let them out into the field they ran off to
Nevada. 

- It isn't too surprising Agent Peyton Ritter would be stuck scanning old
files into a computer database since he is such an incompetent agent. 
What agent would enter a room and shoot first without first assessing the
situation as he did at the end of the episode when he shot Fellig?  As a
matter of fact, I would be really surprised if he was even allowed to stay
in the F.B.I. because he shot an unarmed man and almost killed another
agent by his actions. 

- Also, wouldn't the F.B.I. have hired a private company to scan those old
files into the computer database instead of wasting their agents time in
scanning them.  Would the F.B.I. really have old newspaper photos instead
of the ones the police would have taken themselves?  Of course, if that
was the case then we wouldn't have an episode. 

- Does Kersh really think he has any influence over Scully?  Doesn't he
realize she has lost all respect for him and doesn't really care whether
he thinks she is a lost cause or not. 

- I know an episode is bad when I start thinking how the director is
directing an episode.  This happened to me whenever they showed Fellig
just looking at the people before they died.  I could imagine director,
Michael Watkins, telling actor Geoffrey Lewis to stand there with a morose
look on his face and act mysterious. 

- With a name like Peyton Ritter it is hard to take him seriously, and we
thought Fox was a funny name.  We knew there was something wrong with
Agent Ritter when he called Scully, "Dana" which I thought was kind of
presumptuous of him since he had only started working with her.  I loved
it when she made him call her Scully as a way to tell him you don't have
my respect so don't call me Dana. 

- Boy, you get to live forever as a 65 year old man, wow, sign me up.  It
wasn't made clear when Fellig first cheated death so I couldn't figure out
if he was 65 years old or younger, but I'm going to go with 65 because if
he still aged then he should have looked 149 years old. 

- Malcolm Wiggins wasn't too smart a murderer when he goes back to kill
Fellig who was taking his picture as he murdered the young man and leaves
the knife in Fellig's back.  The whole point of him going back was to kill
Fellig and take his camera with the pictures in it.  Of course, if he did
take his knife then there would be no reason for the police to take Fellig
in for questioning. 

- Another example of why Agent Ritter was an incompetent agent.  When he
speaks the date into the tape deck he doesn't say the year which I know
was so it wouldn't put a date mark on the episode, but I'm sure the year
would be important if it was ever going to be used in any further police
procedures.  Also, wouldn't it have been good to have two microphones
during questioning since with one microphone we will only hear Fellig's
replies and Agent Ritter's question in the distance. 

- Oh yeah, if it is January 4th why was everyone walking around like it
was April 4th?  Not only did Fellig have a window open in his apartment
and the police station had a window open (can we say freezing pipes), but
Agent Ritter has his car window open during a stakeout.  I'm fairly sure
at that time of year in New York City it gets down in the 20's at night
and Ritter would be freezing sitting in that car.  Only shows the
difference when you film in sunny California and portray cold old New York
you forget what the weather is like at certain times of year.  Let's not
even get into how they were dressed for that time of year. 

- Shouldn't there have been two police officers on that stakeout of
Fellig's home. Oh well, must be the budget cuts.

- The funniest scene was the hooker getting hit by the truck after Scully
thought she "saved her".  It was made even better by the graphic way they
showed the hooker getting killed. 

- There is no way I can even believe that Agent Ritter would be so blinded
by his own ambitions that even he would believe Wiggins story if it wasn't
being used as a plot device.  It is hard to believe any of the other
officers in the building would believe.  It is bad enough they only took
one set of fingerprints off the knife before deciding to see if there were
more than one set on it.  You know what would have made this episode
different is if they didn't make Ritter as much of a career climber jerk. 
Instead they could have made him a competent agent who is trying to get
out of scanning old files, but is also willing to go along with Scully in
some incidents. 

- Boy, what a threat.  Ritter will tell Daddy (Kersh) if Scully doesn't
start behaving and stop being right about the case. 

- Not only can Fellig tell when people are going to die, but he is a
pickpocket too.  I guess is you live that long you pick up a few things. 

- Best line was Scully asking Fellig to help her find some science to hang
this on.  Still looking for the science in everything.  Of course, without
it Fellig could go to jail and it would make Scully question the whole
death thing since she's faced it twice.

- I suppose they were trying to get us to empathize with Fellig during his
conversation with Scully, but it didn't come close to the ones she had
with Clyde Bruckman.  It is easy to see why Fellig would feel he was being
cheated out of one of life's big mysteries by not finding out what happens
after death and he didn't care about the people who had died because to
him they find out what happens.  But it just didn't have the same impact
as Clyde Bruckman's fatalistic attitude towards his ability.  Once again
we cared about Bruckman, we don't care about Fellig. 

- Did it look to anyone else like Scully didn't close the handcuffs around
the pole when she handcuffed Fellig.

- So does this mean the off-handed comment Darin Morgan put in "Clyde
Bruckman's Final Repose" when Bruckman tells Scully she doesn't die is
true since they give a hint that Fellig has passed on his ability to cheat
death to Scully. 

- I have to say "Tithonus" had one of the worse endings I have seen in a
long time on the X-Files.  It was so contrived and predictable they should
have put a red shirt on Scully.  Also, at this point we know Scully is not
going to die so there isn't any suspense when Fellig is in the room alone
with her and she gets shot by Ritter.  It takes a good script and
direction for us to fear for a main character's life. 


	There isn't much to write about "Tithonus" except we've been there
in a much better episode.  I've said it before and I'm going to say it
again, get Scully and Mulder back on the X-Files and working together as a
team. Everytime one of them isn't in an episode I now think, well Duchovny
or Anderson must be off doing a movie or something, why else would their
characters be so little in the episode.  It sure isn't to develop each
others characters further. If they are not going to have them work
together at least give them interesting people to work with.  A very
disappointing episode considering it came from the once mighty pen of
Vince Gilligan. 


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

1/25/99