REVIEWED BY: Jennifer J. Chen ON: April 18, 1999
ORIGINAL AIR DATE: February 15, 1998
"Imagine being mingled
so completely with another, you no longer need your physical self-–you’re one."
I find most stories, movies, TV shows, that have anything to do with computers pretty annoying. It just doesn't seem realistic. I'm no major computer buff but I know nothing's ever as simple as "to blow up such-and-such, press enter." And everything seems to prompt you for a password. But if you ignored that part about this episode, it was really quite good. How can you ignore it, you ask, when it was what the episode was built upon? Ah yes, on the surface, it was...but what I got from it was much more. The question of what life is, and some very interesting possibilities. I'm going to try and fit it all in.
The teaser: I really enjoyed the idea of getting all those people together, and the big shoot out that blew everything and everyone away. I found it to be a refreshing twist, the concept fun in itself. But the forced suspense grated on my nerves. If Gelman was so afraid of his "invention," if he was so intent on destroying it, why did he hesitate on the "enter" button? I mean, it was like, press the damn button already! The time he took to yell "No!" he could have pressed "enter" ten times over. This entire sequence would have been so much more effective had all the action happened just after Gelman muttered triumphantly to his laptop, "Now you know what’s coming, and there’s nothing you can do," and not have seen the hit coming. As it was, it was too close a shave—it didn't make me respect the ingenuity of the artificial intelligence (AI)—it made it more of a chance thing that Gelman was stupid enough not to just press the damn enter button immediately.
Scully was acting the part of Ms. Skeptical, probably on the defense in case Mulder took a liking to the gothic and strangely fascinating Invisigoth. But the moment that Esther Nairn breaks down over another man, Scully lets down her barriers and finds it in herself to console the sobbing Esther. Mulder doesn't take more than professional interest in her, though the Lone Gunmen are obviously smitten. Maybe Scully was also a little resentful at no longer being the female drooled over—it makes her look like yesterday's news in front of Mulder.
I love the way Mulder and Scully can tell when a hang-up is really an emergency or not. Scully gets mysteriously cut off while Mulder's talking on the phone with her, but he just says her name a couple of times and then goes about his business. What if she had been in danger? But that never happens—they always just know. How very convenient.
I really enjoyed Mulder's virtual reality. It sure knows what he likes, all those busty virtual babes for him to drool over. Still, they're no comfort when he loses both his arms. I love the way he asks for his "doctor." All right, but now even Nurse Nancy calls him Fox? Then she presses his face into her breasts! Good Boy Mulder doesn't even enjoy the moment. But I guess he's got other things on his mind, like his missing arm. My absolute favorite part was when Virtual Scully comes busting in and kicks some major ass. Boy, has that woman got skills. Gillian Anderson is just terrific, even though it was probably a double most of the time. And it's when Scully shows absolutely no concern for his well-being that Mulder realizes that this isn't really Scully.
Now, on the theme of life...and what consists of life...and what makes life worth living. Whew, those are some pretty heavy topics to cover in a show an hour long, but I think it was pretty successful in at least making us think about these things, as well as introduce a concept that I had never considered before, and fascinated me.
I think it's safe to say that part of what makes life worth living is the people we share our lives with. Love. All the different kinds of love that exists. Esther Nairn and David Markham had a romantic love. They wanted to upload their memories and experiences into a computer in order to "live together forever" by intermingling their consciousness. To "give up our inefficient bodies" and become inseparate beings. Part of me thinks that that is a very romantic idea...after all, the idea of being with the person you love for all eternity is always an appealing idea. Yet, as Scully points out, "That isn't life." No matter how inefficient our bodies, how pure our souls, how brilliant our minds, our bodies are still part of what makes us us, like it or not.
I enjoyed the parallels that were drawn between Esther/David and Scully/Mulder. Both of their men are trapped inside the mobile home, and it is up to the two women to save them and destroy the AI. The moment when Esther finds David and then Scully sees Mulder is especially evidence of this parallel. Esther can no longer save David, but Scully can still save Mulder...and she does. She no longer cares about the higher purpose; the second the computer starts torturing Mulder with shocks breaks her. She demands that Esther give the computer what it wants; the sight of Mulder being harmed makes every other intention fly right out of her mind. Such a sweet look of concern and pain on her face when he is helplessly under the control of the machine!
So Scully and Esther both choose what they believe to be a life worth living—Scully chooses a life with Mulder in it with bad programs "loose on the Net" rather than a life without Mulder while possibly saving the world from a dangerous form of AI. Esther uploads herself, as she had always planned—perhaps she believes that David managed it before he died...or perhaps she is convinced that this electronic existence is better than the life her physical body could offer. Her love, after all, is gone from here...she has no reason to stay. Whereas Scully's love (romantic or partner-based) is still here...they still have each other. There is the theme of just being together, that the relationships we have with other people is what consists of life. We are constantly striving, like Scully, to keep that reason to live with us. And perhaps if, like Esther, we were to lose that reason, we might seek an existence elsewhere.
"Electrons chasing each other through a circuit--that isn’t life, Mulder."
Please feel free to
"Yeah, but what are we but impulses? Electrical
and chemical through a bag of meat and bones."
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me at jenu1bruin@centropolis.org
1999 by Jennifer J. Chen