More XF-Related Grumbling
Feb. 1st, 2018 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
discordantwordsSeason 11 of the X-Files is better than Season 10. By a large margin. Mulder and Scully are Mulder and Scully again, mostly, and the show does best (as it always has) when the pair of them are allowed to share the screen.
So why am I not happy?
Short answer is: I don't know.
I'll preface this by saying that I watched last night's episode, "Ghouli," under less than ideal circumstances. I had a migraine that felt suspiciously like someone trying to jab an ice pick repeatedly behind my right eye. Some of my confusion may be down to things that I just... missed, since I wasn't really concentrating all that hard. But goddammit, was I ever confused.
The Good:
Gillian Anderson. Holy shit, Gillian Anderson. Where would this show be without her? Dismissing, for a moment, the Big Morgue Scene (which was beautifully acted and heartwrenching and HOLYJESUSFUCK, SHOW, CAN'T YOU CUT SCULLY A BREAK?!), there's a stunning moment at the end of the episode where Scully conveys so much emotion and feeling with just a look, this sort of half-bewildered half-wondering smile of realization, and it just broke me.
I've always enjoyed Mulder getting sassy with various government spooks, and this did not disappoint.
Mulder going by "Bob" in the coffee shop because he didn't want to use the name "Fox" gave me a good giggle.
It's REALLY nice to see a mythology-focused episode that actually allows its characters time to be human beings and not just monologue at the audience like weird robots. In other words, it's really nice to see a mythology-focused episode that's not written by Chris Carter.
We get answers on William, which is-- I guess-- something that we were supposed to want. So that's good. I guess.
The Rest:
What was the plot? No-- really-- I don't-- I don't know what happened.
I will try to recap.
So William-- sorry-- Jackson has a blog, which has a whole bunch of posts about a supposed monster called Ghouli. Except Ghouli doesn't really exist, it's just something that he conjures up with his mind powers, because it's funny. And he's practicing. Or something.
But in addition to crazy conjuring powers, William/Jackson Van De Kamp is also kind of a dick? He reads PUA books and has two girlfriends, and decides it would be totally funny to send them creepy dreams and have them go hunting for Ghouli on a derelict boat, only whoops! they bump into each other and slice each other to ribbons with knives because they think they're being attacked. He also apparently hacks DOD files in his spare time on an extra laptop he keeps hidden under his bed.
So--wait. I'm losing the plot here. Maybe it was the migraine.
Mulder and Scully go looking for the boyfriend of the two girls. They get to the Van De Kamp house, only to find both parents dead. They hear a gunshot, run up and find Jackson dead of a self-inflicted wound. He totally has a hole in his head. The police call it a murder-suicide. Scully talks to her son's corpse in the morgue (I find myself torn between wanting to ugly-cry and wanting to scream at the television for inflicting more unnecessary pain on Scully.) Mulder has some DNA tests run.
There's some stuff about snow globes. William/Jackson claws his way out of the body bag after Scully leaves the morgue. Turns out he mentally projected the hole in his head to make everyone think he was dead. I guess no one checks pulses on bodies with visible holes.
Oh, I forgot. Skinner showed up to babble about eugenics and secret alien hybrid projects. I tuned him out. I'll blame the migraine.
Meanwhile, William/Jackson's foster parents (you know, the ones who raised him) are actually 100% truly dead. No one actually cares about this. Except me, I guess. I care. I'm sorry, Van De Kamps. You seemed like nice people. And I figured you were probably doomed from the moment that little ticking time bomb of a baby was delivered to your doorstep all those years ago, but you deserved a little acknowledgement.
William/Jackson visits one of his girlfriends in her hospital room. The other one sees this, gets jealous, and sends a picture of him to the police. I think. Anyway, the Mulder & Scully and police and the evil murder agents all show up. Scully gets shot, only it's not actually Scully, it's just William projecting images to make the evil murder agents kill each other. He makes himself look like a nurse and runs away.
I don't know.
Scully has a conversation with nice man at a gas pump. It turns out to be William, projecting a different face. She realizes after he's gone, and reviews the security footage. It's a beautiful moment.
So it ends, I guess, with Mulder and Scully knowing William is alive. And William, a child of fifteen or sixteen, has driven off into the sunset. To-- I don't know, spend the rest of his life hiding from murder agents. I guess. Maybe he can go hang out with Gibson Praise.
So why am I not happy?
Short answer is: I don't know.
I'll preface this by saying that I watched last night's episode, "Ghouli," under less than ideal circumstances. I had a migraine that felt suspiciously like someone trying to jab an ice pick repeatedly behind my right eye. Some of my confusion may be down to things that I just... missed, since I wasn't really concentrating all that hard. But goddammit, was I ever confused.
The Good:
Gillian Anderson. Holy shit, Gillian Anderson. Where would this show be without her? Dismissing, for a moment, the Big Morgue Scene (which was beautifully acted and heartwrenching and HOLYJESUSFUCK, SHOW, CAN'T YOU CUT SCULLY A BREAK?!), there's a stunning moment at the end of the episode where Scully conveys so much emotion and feeling with just a look, this sort of half-bewildered half-wondering smile of realization, and it just broke me.
I've always enjoyed Mulder getting sassy with various government spooks, and this did not disappoint.
Mulder going by "Bob" in the coffee shop because he didn't want to use the name "Fox" gave me a good giggle.
It's REALLY nice to see a mythology-focused episode that actually allows its characters time to be human beings and not just monologue at the audience like weird robots. In other words, it's really nice to see a mythology-focused episode that's not written by Chris Carter.
We get answers on William, which is-- I guess-- something that we were supposed to want. So that's good. I guess.
The Rest:
What was the plot? No-- really-- I don't-- I don't know what happened.
I will try to recap.
So William-- sorry-- Jackson has a blog, which has a whole bunch of posts about a supposed monster called Ghouli. Except Ghouli doesn't really exist, it's just something that he conjures up with his mind powers, because it's funny. And he's practicing. Or something.
But in addition to crazy conjuring powers, William/Jackson Van De Kamp is also kind of a dick? He reads PUA books and has two girlfriends, and decides it would be totally funny to send them creepy dreams and have them go hunting for Ghouli on a derelict boat, only whoops! they bump into each other and slice each other to ribbons with knives because they think they're being attacked. He also apparently hacks DOD files in his spare time on an extra laptop he keeps hidden under his bed.
So--wait. I'm losing the plot here. Maybe it was the migraine.
Mulder and Scully go looking for the boyfriend of the two girls. They get to the Van De Kamp house, only to find both parents dead. They hear a gunshot, run up and find Jackson dead of a self-inflicted wound. He totally has a hole in his head. The police call it a murder-suicide. Scully talks to her son's corpse in the morgue (I find myself torn between wanting to ugly-cry and wanting to scream at the television for inflicting more unnecessary pain on Scully.) Mulder has some DNA tests run.
There's some stuff about snow globes. William/Jackson claws his way out of the body bag after Scully leaves the morgue. Turns out he mentally projected the hole in his head to make everyone think he was dead. I guess no one checks pulses on bodies with visible holes.
Oh, I forgot. Skinner showed up to babble about eugenics and secret alien hybrid projects. I tuned him out. I'll blame the migraine.
Meanwhile, William/Jackson's foster parents (you know, the ones who raised him) are actually 100% truly dead. No one actually cares about this. Except me, I guess. I care. I'm sorry, Van De Kamps. You seemed like nice people. And I figured you were probably doomed from the moment that little ticking time bomb of a baby was delivered to your doorstep all those years ago, but you deserved a little acknowledgement.
William/Jackson visits one of his girlfriends in her hospital room. The other one sees this, gets jealous, and sends a picture of him to the police. I think. Anyway, the Mulder & Scully and police and the evil murder agents all show up. Scully gets shot, only it's not actually Scully, it's just William projecting images to make the evil murder agents kill each other. He makes himself look like a nurse and runs away.
I don't know.
Scully has a conversation with nice man at a gas pump. It turns out to be William, projecting a different face. She realizes after he's gone, and reviews the security footage. It's a beautiful moment.
So it ends, I guess, with Mulder and Scully knowing William is alive. And William, a child of fifteen or sixteen, has driven off into the sunset. To-- I don't know, spend the rest of his life hiding from murder agents. I guess. Maybe he can go hang out with Gibson Praise.
