AIR DATE:  February 23, 1997
Written by Howard Gordan & Chris Carter
Directed by Michael Lange

	I know it will be said or has been said that "Unrequited" has a
real "Sleepless" feel to it.  I haven't seen "Sleepless" for a while, but
let me put it this way, a co-worker came up to me and asked me if this was
the same vet from before, and this came from a casual X-Files viewer who
was still able to remember this plot from 2 years ago.  This is the big
problem with "Unrequited", that it is too similar to "Sleepless.  In both
we have former Vietnam vets who were wronged by the government and come
back for revenge on those responsible for their fate.  At first this
bothered me because earlier this year it seemed they might have been
running out of ideas with "Teliko" who seemed liked a lame attempt at
creating a mutant in the Tooms vein, but then I thought why would there
only be one scum bag thing the government did to Vietnam vets.

	The problem with "Unrequited" is some of things that happened in
the episode didn't make much sense.  We can gather that Teager heard about
the three Generals from the newspaper story written about them being
involved in covering up POWs still being held in Vietnam.  What was his
purpose in killing the two generals?  He always seemed like he wanted to
go beyond simple revenge, but all he ended up doing was killing two of the
Generals and not really accomplishing much beyond shutting them up, though
I doubt the Generals would have said anything. Also, why would the
Conspiracy people be scared of a Congressional hearing (this is most
likely who the generals would testify in front of), after we saw what a
farce Congressional hearings were in "Terma".  By having them killed off
by a former vet would only bring it out more in the open.  Let's consider
what would happen if this was the real world and not the tv world.  Two
Generals are murdered within two days who happen to be two of the three
generals recently mentioned in a newspaper story about Vietinam vets, and
there is an attempt on the other General's life.  Now are the X-Files
people trying to have us believe this wouldn't have been a big deal and
the Conspiracy people would think no one would want to further investigate
it.  Just notice how the Vince Foster suicide is still kept alive with
Whitewater.  You would think wanting to have these generals killed would
be the worse thing to do. Someone even recognized Teager in the crowd and
Teager gave him a list of names of soldiers left behind in Vietnam.  I'm
just finding it harder and harder to believe the Conspiracy can be this
efficient in keeping things quiet.

	Okay, have you noticed what else is missing from this episode,
that's right Scully and Mulder.  Sure they were there, but once again it
was just another episode where they run around a lot, people get killed
and nothing much happens except Mulder gets high and mighty with Skinner.
At least in "Sleepless" it was a part of the story line to get rid of
Scully and introduce our favorite rodent, but in "Unrequited" there wasn't
any of this continuation of the conspiracy or how it affects Scully and
Mulder.  I guess it could be said they were trying to give some kind of
example of what Skinner might have compromised for them in "Memento Mori".
But what more could Skinner do, the case was taken out of his hands and he
only has so much power.  Did anyone else get annoyed with Mulder's
attitude towards Skinner at the end?  I sure did, considering how much
Mulder hasn't bothered exposing over the years, from this current case to
the UFO in the missile silos out in North Dakota.  Who's calling the
kettle black?  Otherwise Scully and Mulder didn't really do much in the
episode and Anderson's and Duchovny's acting seemed to be on autopilot.

	Now a few miscellaneous comments:

- I found the discussion between Skinner and Mulder and Scully about the
reason why Skinner was assigned this case so as to discredited him and the
X-Files quite funny.  I felt like yelling at the screen like how much more
do they need to do considering how much Mulder has claimed over the years.
We even saw some snickers from the group at the first meeting when Mulder
started going off about how it could be true that no one saw Teager.

- Did anyone think General Bloch didn't look like much of a general? 
There was just something about him that didn't seem he would be a general
in the Marines.  He's short, small and seemed a bit old to still be in the
military.  I guess the actor didn't have enough presence for me. 

- How did Teager make it better for Mrs. Davenport by telling her that her
husband is still alive?  Was it so she would start asking the military
harder questions about what happened to her husband or did he think it was
going to make her feel better?  Considering her reaction I don't think it
was too successful, if anything it only put the guilt on her for giving up
and getting on with her life and I think it was part of the message of
"Unrequitted"  to not forget.  Once again what was Teager trying to do in
this episode?  Was it simple revenge or was his purpose to expose the
government?  If it was revenge then at least he partly accomplished it,
but if it was to expose the cover up then he failed miserably.  Yeah, he
gave that list to the other vet, but the list proves nothing.  He himself
was the proof and now that he's dead there isn't even that anymore.  So
for all his intention he didn't accomplish much. 

- I have to admit the first time we see Teager disappear I couldn't help
thinking he has a cloaking device.  Also, how did his cloaking abilities
work?  It seemed from Mulder's explanation if you were looking straight at
him you couldn't see him, but you could see him out of the corner of your
eye.  It just seemed to me this would work fine in the jungle, but in
crowded Pentagon building and the rally it would be a little bit harder to
do it with so many people.  He goes through the metal detector at the
Pentagon and only one person bothers to look up.  What about all those
kids and the tour guide?  Not only did Teager have the ability to cloak
himself, but he has superhuman speed to get ahead of the General, put down
the playing card and not even break a sweat.

- Funniest scene was when Mulder and Scully are talking about Mrs. 
Davenport's eye and Mulder asked Scully if she had asked the doctor if he
thought the blind spot could have prevented Davenport from seeing Teager,
and she replies that she did and he laughed at her.  Boy, now she knows
how Mulder feels.

- It was kind of rude of Skinner and Scully to walk right through the
Marching Band.  Also, after about the fifth time Skinner asked her if she
was sure she saw Teager.  I thought she should have said something like
"What the hell did I just say, sir?"  But being the polite Scully she
doesn't say anything back to him.

- The Uniblonder makes an appearance for no other reason than to expose
herself and to move the story along.  Oh well, at least they are starting
to use her like they did Deep Throat and Mr. X.

	Both "Sleepless" and "Unrequited" were written by Howard Gordan
(though Chris Carter helped out in "Unrequited") with basically the same
plot.  As I stated earlier where "Sleepless" succeeded in making a
believable conspiracy twist to it, "Unrequitted" failed in its ability to
have us believe all these things could happen without anyone noticing. 
Also, "Sleepless" truly was a government experiment that went wrong while
in "Unrequited" the soldiers were left behind and one of them learns how
to cloak himself.  What is never made clear is whether the government was
involved with the chopper crash and wanted them captured to cover up their
bad deeds in Vietnam. I keep thinking of the final scene where we see
Skinner looking at the Wall, and I'm thinking why couldn't they have made
the case more personal for Skinner, such as having him know Teager or some
such deeper connection to the case.  As it was, "Unrequited"  didn't do
much to expand the Conspiracy plot line.  It was an episode that wanted to
be so much more than it ended up being, and maybe that is because Scully
and Mulder didn't really have much to do in it.


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

2/25/97

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