REVIEWED BY: JJC ON: November 16, 1999
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: November 14, 1999
"Amor Fati": love of fate. In X-Files canon, we have seen the characters deal with the concept of fate before. In most recent memory, the episode Monday. In that episode, Mulder seems to advocate the idea that free will reigns over fate - "Free will. With every choice, you change your fate." Yet in Paperclip when Melissa Scully dies, Mulder comforts Scully by saying, "I don't think this is about justice, Scully...I think it's about something we have no personal choice in. I think it's about fate." Personally, that sounds a lot more like something Mulder would believe in. Like most of us, however, he seems to waver in between believing in one over the other. I tend to think of "free will" as the culpability we have to make a certain decision over another, therefore influencing the outcome, or "fate." For instance, Mulder saving Scully from the Arctic. He could have just said, to hell with it, it's Scully's fate to get infected with this alien virus and if she's going to live, then she'll live. Of course, he didn't do this. Some could argue that it was his free will that led to her rescue, his choice in going to save her. This is true. But perhaps she was fated to live, and he was fated to rescue her, because of his natural penchant to act in a situation such as that.
One of the dominant symbols in this episode is of Mulder as a Christ figure. It's all over the place: CSM refers to it, Mulder's placed on the operating table in a manner resembling the Crucifixion, and his head/hair have been made to look like a crown of thorns. At the beginning of the episode, CSM tells Mulder, "You're not Christ." Technically, of course, no, he's not. But it turns out that Mulder is a Christ-figure. In him is the information that will save the world from the coming viral apocalypse. He is capable of saving all of mankind.
This is where "The Last Temptation of Christ" comes into play. I have not seen the movie, and for those of us not as familiar with the Bible as others, the general story goes like this: while on the Cross, Jesus Christ is tempted by Satan one last time to turn away from God. This last temptation that Satan offers is one of a simple life in which Jesus is not a savior; he is just a regular man, able to live life as any other man with all of life's pleasures. He doesn't have to be a martyr, he doesn't have to die on the cross.
At first, I was disturbed by the lack of his concern over where Scully is in this alternate life, disturbed by the way he so easily goes along with seeing what this life was all about. Then, I remembered Mulder from Dreamland. CSM, in Amor Fati, tells Mulder to see what it is he would be missing before he throws it away. Mulder, being the ever-curious, ever need-to-know man that he is, cannot resist at least that. Like in Dreamland, Mulder goes around poking about before anything else - he's in another man's body, but he's not as concerned as perhaps the rest of us would be about such a situation. So that helped me deal with at least that part of it, to remember the kind of personality he has, and the likely way he would approach this new situation.
I personally believe that the dreams begin right after CSM injects Mulder with the substance in the syringe. Everything after that is potentially only in Mulder's mind - including CSM's outright admission that he is Mulder's father. I'm not saying that he's not; from the rest of the episode it appears that he, at least, believes he is, or at least, has told Fowley so. But The X-Files has made me wary on this subject, so until DNA tests are run and we are told conclusively that CSM is Mulder's biological father, I'll harbor that seed of doubt.
More importantly, it offers a suggestion about Scully's presence in Mulder's life. In his mind, she cannot be compromised - her ideals, her strength, her love for him, are all pure. For her to appear in his dream, it would have to be as she does later appear to him, as someone who is unwavering in her ideals, who will confront him with what he's done with his life. So for him to be "tempted" with a normal, simple life, Scully cannot be there. In his mind, she would never herself succumb to the same weakness as he and be living a comfortable life. She would continue with their quest. And no matter how much I would have enjoyed seeing Scully living a normal life in Mulder's radius (for his reaction), what they actually did, of course, makes much more sense and is, in fact, much shippier. Aside from what it tells us about how Mulder sees Scully, it also doesn't risk the one thing that would concern me about Mulder seeing a happy Scully who hadn't gotten involved in his quest. If Mulder saw that she was happy without having known him, I truly believe that he'd give up his "fate," his life, his quest, for her happiness. So, we don't have to consider that, because it's even better - Scully is unwaveringly a hero.
We are shown that despite perhaps some of our own distaste with what has already happened, Mulder is more uncooperative than they expected him to be. CSM has already stated that he wouldn't be surprised if Mulder chose imminent death and Scully over this alternate life, but stick around to see what Mulder would be missing. Once experiencing life's simple pleasures, however, he was clearly not expected to balk so soon: "I didn't expect to see you so soon! I thought you'd take a few days to settle in." Fowley and he go over to CSM's house (it's a regular old Syndicate neighborhood), where Fowley can't hide her displeasure that Mulder's not embracing this life as easily as they had wanted/expected him to.
This is when we are shown two things: One, while living his "normal" life, the earth has been overtaken by colonization. Mass destruction occurs while Mulder's in his comfortable bed. I thought they did a spectacular job with those particular shots. He is told by CSM that Samantha is dead, as is Deep Throat. Mulder does not ask about Fowley but is told that she too, has passed on.
Two, a young Scully comes to confront an old, dying Mulder. She has no pity for him, calling him a traitor, a coward, a deserter. He attempts to gain her sympathy by informing her rather pathetically that he is dying. Still, she does not waver. She tells him how it is. She, like CSM in the beginning of the episode, tells him to rise.
It is interesting to compare these two "rise!" scenes. CSM offers Mulder undeserving absolution, an easy way out. Scully does not. She confronts him with the truth, and tells him that he must "fight the fight." She encourages him to find the strength within himself to continue, to rise from the bed, whereas CSM gave him false strength. Scully wants him to do it for himself. "Especially you," she tells him. "You're not supposed to die, Mulder. Not here...Not in a comfortable bed, with the devil outside."
Meanwhile, Scully has exhausted her search for a cure for Mulder. She doesn't even know where he's disappeared to, and his mother isn't answering her phone calls. (A side note: fan fiction often depicts Mulder's relationship with his mother as being very cold and/or estranged. I don't believe that's the case at all. If we look at this episode, along with Talitha Cumi/Herrenvolk, I think it's pretty clear that they love one another very much - even if they don't express it in conventional mother/son ways.) Scully is visited by what we learn at the end of the episode is Albert Hosteen's spirit. He encourages her to look for Mulder in her heart. She says that even if she could find him, the science doesn't make sense to her and she won't be able to save him.
Scully also has a confrontation with Fowley. As a friend pointed out, if it were not for Scully's intervention, Fowley may not have had the same doubts she eventually had, spurring her to finally give in and lead Scully to Mulder. Scully could have let her personal feelings about Fowley color the confrontation, which could have led to an outright argument, and would have been to Mulder's detriment. She is able to put aside her feelings for a woman she doesn't trust and whom Mulder seems to side with, so that she can convince that same woman to save him. It nearly made tears spring to my eyes when Scully implored Fowley to think of Mulder when Fowley first met him, "the promise and the life in front of him." It doesn't take much to recall Season One Mulder - his exuberance, his infectious enthusiasm combined with a sweet innocence - and think that he was probably even more so when Fowley knew him. And though many Scullyists are already up in arms about Scully's lack of action in this episode, I believe that Scully has never been painted in a more favorable light.
She can't do everything. Mulder has informants; he doesn't do it all alone. Scully goes to the people she knows can save him. She gives him strength. She gives him the will to go on. She is the one to plant doubt in Fowley's mind. She is untarnished, infallible, uncompromising, and a pillar of strength in Mulder's mind. I don't see how anyone can claim that she didn't do a lot to save him. She did it all.
Spender's usefulness as a character was put into play in this episode. Without him, CSM's callousness in his treatment of Mulder would have been a little hard to take. But seeing how he treated his other son, and likely killed him, it's unsurprising that if Mulder really is CSM's son, CSM should be unconcerned with the idea of Mulder's death. "Then he suffers a hero's fate," he tells Fowley.
"Help me," Scully pleads to the catatonic Mulder. It's a beautiful moment when he finally wakes up and tells her that she is the one who has helped him. My first heart-attack moment: when he moves to hug her, they really look like they're going to kiss. He seems to be aiming for it, and she's staring at his mouth...and then at the last second it turns away. I've seen it at least a dozen times since, and each time I'm still waiting for their lips to connect. *g*
Scully tearily confesses, "I don't know what to believe anymore. Mulder, I was so determined to find a cure to save you that I could deny what it was that I saw. And now, I don't even know. I don't know...I don't know what the truth is, I don't know who to listen to, I don't know who to trust." The delivery is impeccably delivered by Gillian, who inserts just the right level of uncertainty and confusion into the words.
Mulder, I believe, knows this as well. And while he looks suitably sad about the demise of someone he cared about and trusted in the past, he looks truly disturbed when Scully hugs him to offer him comfort and in not so many words, ask him for his forgiveness. It's obvious, at least to me, that he doesn't believe there's anything to forgive, and is appalled that she thinks there is. He's more concerned with Scully's distress than he is with the news.
And of course, Scully replies, "And you are mine." Continuing with the idea that Chris Carter began with, Mulder is given more feminine attributes - not just his tendency to go by intuition, but now, he is also the one more prone to speeches about his feelings while Scully responds as succinctly as possible, if with feeling.
Now - I'm sorry, but Scully very obviously wants to kiss her partner.
Mulder is relieved by her acceptance and reciprocation of his words; he closes his eyes and reluctantly opens them when she replaces his baseball cap. Oh, but only after the second heart-attack moment: when Scully moves in to kiss him on the forehead, I thought - again - that they were going to kiss. Then he closes his eyes again, and we are nearing the end of this awesome episode.
I've said this before and I'll say it again: David Duchovny is more than welcome to write more episodes for our consumption. All in all, one of the best episodes in X-Files canon to date, chock full of angsty themes and unwavering love.
"Even when the world was falling apart, you were my constant. My touchstone."
Please feel free to
"Extraordinary men are always most tempted by the most ordinary things."
Oh. My. God. Not the most articulate way to begin this review, but it accurately expresses my thoughts during the closing credits of this episode. I have since seen it several times more in order to fully appreciate all that we are being told in this episode. That, and because I loved it.
In any case, the concept of fate is again dealt with in this episode, pretty blatantly. We all know by now what Mulder's fate is as the man who can save us from the coming plague, and I think it's very significant that the byline is "love of fate." He's glad for the life he's living now; he's seen the alternative and doesn't want it. He embraces his fate.
Mulder's last temptation is the same: the idea of living life as a regular man. No X-Files, no worries about having to save the world, no need to do anything more than live. As CSM answers Fowley's query as to what Mulder dreams in his catatonic state, "The dreams all men who are owned by the world have. A simpler life, full of small pleasures. Extraordinary men are always most tempted by the most ordinary things." What we see in this episode is that life, the life Mulder could be living.
Once in the car with CSM, Mulder is already dreaming. No doubt he is physically being transported somewhere in the meanwhile, but what we see is a dream. One of the first things CSM tells him is that to have contact with Scully is to put her in danger. With that, many things are explained, and also conveniently solved. First, aside from his curiosity, Mulder has been told that he will put Scully in danger by contacting her. While he wouldn't necessarily believe CSM about that indefinitely, it would at least make sense to figure things out before risking it.
Mulder enters his new house (beautiful, of course) and finds lots of sunflower seeds in the fridge (not where I would keep them, but...whatever). He encounters his old friend Deep Throat, whose first line is, "They can change your name, but they can't change the things you love." Well, yes - I believe Mulder's stint as Morris Fletcher proved that one. I have to say that this is a very clever way to hit at Mulder. Aside from Scully herself, Deep Throat is probably the most effective character to absolve Mulder of his perceived sins. It's already been theorized why Scully can't be in the picture - her integrity is never besmirched - so here is Mulder's old informant, back from the dead, to tell him that Mulder isn't responsible for Deep Throat's death. 
Everything Mulder can possibly blame himself for - "Scully's sister, and the man you thought was your father, and Duane Barry, and, and even Scully's mysterious illness, and on and on" - is brushed aside like so much lint. Deep Throat tells Mulder, "You can let go of all that guilt. I'm here to tell you that you're not the hub of the universe, the cause of life and death. We - you and I - are merely puppets in a master plan, no more, no less. You've suffered enough. Now you should enjoy your life." What a wonderful way to capture Mulder's attention, to hit at a weak spot. We know that he has a high capacity for self-recrimination and guilt. He carries all of that responsibility within himself. Now he is being told that he's not "the hub of the universe" (ironically, of course, we learn in this episode that he is) and he can let go of all his guilt. He is being absolved, or as CSM puts it, "your account is squared." Just as Christ, Mulder is being told that he does not have to carry the weight of other people's livelihoods on his shoulders. He can be an ordinary man, with no more burden than the next guy. And he is being told this by one of the people whose deaths he felt responsible for.
So perhaps it's not surprising that Mulder immerses himself in this alternate reality, experiencing for himself the simple pleasures of life. Fowley, in role as would-be wife, describes some of them: "Hundreds of little joys, to open a door and have a woman beckon you in, to have her make a fire and lay the table for you. And when it's late, to feel her take you into her arms..." I can't say I'm thrilled that we saw Mulder initiate their lovemaking, but it must be again attributed to his willingness to go along with things, to throw himself into the scenario. The next morning he is adorably awkward with her, which I also could have done without...but then, when is Mulder not adorable? He now expresses his doubts about what's been going on (didn't see you doubting the night before...). Prior to watching the episode, I had read this dialogue, and was disturbed by his describing this entire scenario as "perfect." After seeing it, however, it's obvious that he means "perfect" in its most general sense - not that it's perfect for him. It's a storybook perfect, and he feels that he doesn't belong.
As for the "I sleep with you one time" line, I'm not exactly sure what that's supposed to mean. Most likely, of course, it refers to their activities the night before - but some people have expressed the idea that he means in the whole of their relationship, reality included, it was the one and only time he's ever slept with her. It's true it's never been explicitly stated that he and Fowley had a sexual relationship in the past, but I almost hope they did. Otherwise, his easy acceptance that she is the woman who should be his wife in this scenario would be even more disturbing. Of course, he did just recently hear her confess her love for him, and he'd been able to read her mind, so, subliminally, it would have made sense. Before the episode aired, I was expressing my horror that Mulder should sleep with Fowley, even in a dream, and was told, "Jen. They're married." Well, that no longer holds water since we see that Mulder and Fowley don't marry until after they sleep together. Oh, well.
Then, of course, he is shown his Grail - Samantha. She appears to be happily living her own simple life, and from there is a series of rapid transitions, before Mulder himself even knows what's going on - he and Fowley get married, she's pregnant, they have kids, she's in a casket (that was my favorite part - except for the shot of the wedding ring). Pretty soon he is old and decrepit (flashbacks of Dod Kalm) and in his own deathbed.
Through this, Mulder has been sad - but when CSM informs him that Scully is dead, Mulder is disbelieving, with more reaction to that news than any of the others. His face scrunches up, looking like a little boy (despite the makeup that makes him look about 180)
After Scully's confrontation, Fowley is faced again and again with CSM's lack of compassion for Mulder. Fowley "loves" Mulder, if we will remember from her "now we can be together" speech in the last episode. She has to know the consequences of her actions, yet she does it anyway. She provides Scully with the key to the Department of Defense building where Mulder is being kept. Fowley as a martyr figure is one that is not what I would have chosen for her, but since it did not negatively impact the Mulder/Scully relationship I suppose I can live with it. The way Scully dealt with it is fantastic; she is the bigger person, the one who admits that despite her own distrust, Fowley came through for Mulder. She gives Fowley more credit than necessary, and believes it, which is a credit to Scully. Before we go into that, however, let's first look at the scene where Scully goes in to rescue Mulder.
Albert Hosteen has told Scully that she must look for Mulder in her heart, telling her in not so many words that that is what will save him. Up to this point, she has despaired of finding a cure for Mulder, because the science "makes no sense" to her. Scully doesn't realize that she's had Mulder's "cure" all this time - her love. Even if you're not a shipper, this is obvious, and made abundantly clear. Scully has no medical instruments with her. She has no salve, no drug, nothing but her words, her voice, her touch when she goes in. He's not even conscious. He can barely open his eyes and she's telling him to get up. Inside himself, he fights between the two worlds he's been presented with, and with Scully's encouragement, Scully's love, he is finally able to summon the strength to choose to fight. No doubt that while she was whispering to his prone form, he was dreaming of the Merciless!Scully telling it to him straight.
Scully calls him to her, using his name a total of eight times during that one scene. She needs him to remember who he is, what he is fighting for, who he is fighting for. It actually reminded me of the movie The Matrix, which also abounds with the Christ theme. Neo is brought back to life by Trinity's love - and here, Mulder is brought back by Scully's. The symbolism of Scully's tear dropping onto Mulder's face, which eventually wakes him, is unutterably poignant. One could even say that he cries her tear.
The final scene in Mulder's hallway (soon to be voted "most romantic place on the planet") is a shipper's dream come true. It's right up there with the other angsty confrontations, including the Reduxes and Fight the Future. Their light banter in the beginning is as laced with UST as ever, along with a healthy dose of DAL. Mulder is dismayed to see her appear on his doorstep, because he obviously wanted to surprise her by showing up at the office on his own.
Scully then delivers the news that Diana Fowley has been murdered. Immediately, she gives Fowley credit for her part in Mulder's recovery and admits that she never trusted Fowley, BUT. This is what bothered me about this. While I believed that Scully handled this with aplomb and admirable style, it disturbed me greatly that she was almost made to take back all the bad things she had once thought of Fowley, which should not be the case. Up until her last actions, Fowley was guilty of the infractions Scully had accused her of - she was working against Mulder. However, what makes this all right is the fact that Mulder knows the truth. Fowley told him that she knew he knew that her loyalties weren't just to him. I think it's safe to assume that he read her mind (though, apparently, we're never going to be officially told what happened in his apartment after she took her shirt off) and knew all there was to know about her part in it all, even that she wasn't a completely bad person. Of course, I don't believe that in Mulder's mind, she was a threat to Scully in terms of their positions in his life.
This, I believe, is evidenced by the way he takes the news of Fowley's death - yet another to add to his collection of people who've died for his quest. Scully breaks down and says, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I know she was your friend." She's practically in tears for him, and hugs him, both to offer comfort and to glean some for herself, I imagine. I think she wants him to forgive her for not having had more faith in Fowley, for accusing him of believing in the wrong people, when apparently Fowley is the one who saves him. I must reiterate that it is Scully who saves him. That book and that key would have done shit if Scully's love and her fortitude hadn't been there to talk him back to life.
His words are meant to allay her fears, to tell her, once and for all, that his loyalties are with her, and that no one could ever mean what she means to him. "Scully, I was like you once. I didn't know who to trust, and I...I chose another path, another life, another fate where I found my sister. And even though my world was unrecognizable and upside-down, there was one thing that remained the same. You were my friend, and you told me the truth. Even when the world was falling apart, you were my constant. My touchstone." This speech also supports what was suggested earlier, that Scully could not have been in Mulder's alternate reality because in his mind, she isn't capable of being less than she is.
One may hug a friend. One may make impassioned speeches to a friend about how much s/he means to him/her. One may even kiss a friend on the forehead, or on the cheek, or even on the lips. But one does not - I repeat, does not - run one's fingers over one's friend's lips. That action has nothing but sexual connotations. And they touch each other's faces way too much. I almost want to be a noromo right now, just to see what it's like to live in that much denial.
Throughout, Mulder has escaped to a place in his mind where a boy on a beach comes to him. This boy, I believe, represents all the children in the world, as well as Mulder's idealism. One of the strongest images we are presented with in this episode is when the boy takes apart the sand sculpture he'd made of a spaceship. "Why are you destroying your spaceship?" Mulder asks in horror. The boy replies, "It's your spaceship and you're destroying it." Then, "You were supposed to help me." Mulder is confronted with the fact that he has failed in his most important quest - or at least, will fail, if he doesn't go back to his life and continue. He has let humanity down by his passivity, by his willingness to embrace the easy road, "the road not taken." It is only right that at the end of the episode, we return to this image. Only now, Mulder is helping the boy rebuild the spaceship with even greater detail - and wonderfully brings us back to the end of Biogenesis, when Scully stood on a beach and saw the real version of what they're making in the sand.
"And you are mine."
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1999 by JJC