X-Files Episode Guide: Piper Maru

Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz

Directed by Rob Bowman

From a purely logical standpoint, I must first comment on Gillian's Anderson daughter. I realize there is a tendency for celebrities to give their children unusual names; but given some of the Zappa family, for example, I suppose her daughter got off relatively lucky. And it was awfully nice of Chris Carter to name an episode after the child whose birth caused him such trouble back in Season 2. Even though it wouldn't have been the same ring if she'd named her daughter 'Gertrude'.

Yes, this a rather silly digression about Piper Maru,  but frankly one feels more comfortable dealing with the trivialities of episode names because far more serious problems are about to come afoot, because without any real signposts, we're back in the mytharc, and it's about to take a long, and frankly unnecessary slouch towards incomprehensibility. Because after such marvelous and dark territory that was explored in Nisei/731, we now lurch all the way back from reality to alien life. Now this wouldn't be a huge obstacle if Carter and Spotnitz would've been willing to stay within the confines that they've already established. So far in the series, they haven't really steered us that wrong. But rather than do that, they decide to invent new aspects. Even this wouldn't be the worst thing if they would've  had some consistency within the elements they established. Unfortunately, they don't. At this stage in the series, it's not necessarily a bad thing, but if you know what's coming--- as I, and all other fans do, it becomes rapidly depressing.

So rather than follow the far more dramatically arresting storyline involving Scully's abduction, we find ourselves following a French team of divers trying to find a submarine. And lo and behold, when a diver does, he finds that there's something still moving within it. When the diver emerges a few hours later, he seems fine, but his eyes have a black mist behind them. How exactly he got the mist through the submarine, never mind his diving suit,  is a mystery that Carter and Spotnitz don't seem remotely interested in solving, though God knows the viewers have to have been. So we spend most of the episode following what is (for the purposes of this episode anyway) an alien consciousness. What it wants is never made clear., although it does seem to have some rather neat special effects that cause major radiation burns on anyone unfortunate enough to be within in striking distance. Oh, and just for this particular story arc, it has the ability to body jump, leaving its host bodies relatively intact, albeit covered with a messy black oil.. We don't see how it does this, either (yet). For a series that seemed to have a mission statement of dealing with alien life, they don't seem really interested in explaining what the aliens do, although, perhaps to be fair, this doesn't bear a remote resemblance to any of the aliens we've already seen. I'm sorry, did I say fair?

Perhaps its not very surprising that its not the mystery about this episode that's arresting as the human elements. As always, Scully seems to get a better end of the deal. Learning at the start of the episode from Skinner that the file on her sister's murder is about to be rendered inactive, the rage that Scully is able to display is quite brilliant, reminded us that Scully, too, has lost a sister to the madness. It's just a shame that she spends the rest of the episode dealing with the Navy and reliving  an old memory at a navy base with an old friend of the family. Admittedly, the segment that involves Christopher Johansen's experience during World War II looking for a sub is arguably the best part of the episode--- not because of the alien mystery, but because it tries to examine a key part of the mythology through the eyes of someone who never understood  what the hell he got dragged into. It's angry and it's real, it's the closest thing to the anger that was present in 731.

Meanwhile, once again, poor Mulder seems to be wandering all over the world for the truth or a UFO, whichever comes first. Chasing the submarine that he thinks had a UFO in Nisei, he goes cross county and then across the globe, all on what appear to be the flimsiest of excuses. He never does quite explain how he manages to pull off the aha moment as to how the French found out about the UFO at the bottom of the Pacific, but the poor slob is so busy chasing a salvage operator, he doesn't know that the alien he's been looking for is right under his nose. Guy can't seem to see the forest for the trees. Then again, for once he has a genuine reason for shock once he gets to Hong Kong, and finds the black market salvager is working hand in glove with... Alex Krycek. (I will hand it to the credits people, kudos for manage to keep his appearance a surprise.) Once again, it's here that we get the most genuine part of the episode, when Mulder's righteous anger at finally having the man who murdered his father back in his clutches. Mulder will never be able to see clearly when it comes to Krycek (which is actually good, considering that the series will soon not know how to handle him properly) but this burning mad Mulder is by far the most interesting part of his arc.

Oh, and Skinner gets shot. Sorry for burying the lead there, as this is actually by far the most chilling scene of the episode. We've barely seen Skinner since he managed to trump the Smoking Man, but seeing him actually being defiant in the face of the same people who have been taunting him for awhile reminds us why we're glad that he's an ally. The fact that he's not  a major character also adds a serious threat when he gets shot ---- this is, after all, a series that has the habit of killing off people who help Mulder and Scully too much, so the threat to his life is very real.

Given the muck that we will end up wading through (and no, I'm not just talking about the black oil), I'm surprised that despite all the mytharc sturm und drang, this episode comes out better than the mythology episodes will eventually end up taking. At this point in the series, Carter still knows enough about this series that the search for the truth is really the most important aspect of the quest, its the personal touches that matter more. Eventually, he'll forget this, and the series--- and the viewers--- will end up suffering as a result.

My score: 3.5 stars.