X-Files Episode Guide: Memento Mori

Written by Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan, John Shiban & Frank Spotnitz

Directed by Rob Bowman

As we begin the second half of Season 4, we reach one of the darker and more problematic arcs X-Files would ever do--- Scully's diagnosis with cancer. Some of the problems with the arc were typical of the TV of the era. Most, however, seem to be deliberate choices made by Carter.

First of all, the series shot itself in the foot. At this point in TV history, no one would believe the writers capable of killing of a central character of the series. Had The X-Files come a few years later, it would have been a viable option. But for a series that centered only on Mulder and Scully (and had just made a very public bid for a movie franchise) it was not believable that the writers would ever kill Scully off. Thus the arc was all but shot in the foot before it began.

Had the cancer storyline been handled better, it might still have been possible for dramatic payoff. But the sad truth of the matter was, neither Carter nor any of the other writers for the series would ever make the cancer arc particularly pertinent or movie. Apart from having Scully suffer the occasional nosebleed (and look a little paler by the end of the season) there were never any signs that Scully was ill. Even this would've been manageable had the partners, who have over the past four seasons basically become each others support system, at least talked about what was going on. But no, even as the cancer would begin to worsen, all we ever got from Scully at any point was the refrain "I'm fine." (A drinking game could be formed based on how many times Scully will say it from this point on.) Therefore, what could've been potentially a different approach for the series to take was completely hobbled at almost every opportunity.

All of these obstacles are not yet apparent in Memento Mori, but don't worry. It has enough baggage on his own. For one thing, there's the fact that poor Scully, in addition to being diagnosed with cancer, has now caught the same disease that causes her to deliver long, especially purple prose monologues that have until this point mainly been the province of the male elders of the conspiracy and occasionally Mulder. At least, she's given an excuse this time out--- the long passages of the journal on cancer that she decides to keep while she's undergoing her treatment. She scores one of the episodes few laughs (shame it's unintentional) by saying that she was going to throw it out. Would that we could dismiss the long, rambling monologues that are supposed to be fraught with emotion, and really don't give us anything constructive.. It is a credit to Gillian Anderson's power as an actress that she is able to make it work as much as it does.

This would be acceptable, if not particularly bearable had we gotten anything else out of the episode. Unfortunately, once we're given the admittedly shocking news that Scully has cancer, and the evidence that it is connected to her abduction, what we seem to get is the usual mythology rigmarole. Mulder encounters a man, who we've never seen before (and will never see again, despite their supposed importance to this process) who is eventually revealed to be an alien. An alien clone as a matter of fact. Which leads to Mulder calling on Skinner yet again demanding to set up a meeting with the CSM. Oh yes, this time it's different. He wants to make a deal, but Skinner talks him out of it. And then Mulder is sent to a facility in Pennsylvania, which supposedly will reveal answers--- and even seems to, for a few brief moments. When we hear what the Kurt Crawfords have to tell us, about being the offspring of the abducted woman, of how they're trying to save their mothers, and what they've been gathering over the years, it seems important--- until we realize that it's just more of the same. The men in tanks are holdovers from The Erlenmeyer Flask, the many copies of the same people is right out of End Game, the branched DNA is from One Breath, and by now, we've heard the term 'alien-human hybrid so many times we don't even know what were looking for. All of this would be at least forgivable if it had any relevance to the cancer storyline. But not only does Mulder not tell his partner any of this, he doesn't bother to bring up the fact that he's carrying her ova with him for the next three years. (Oh we'll get to the problems that storyline will bring up).

One would be prepared just to write the whole thing off as just more of the mytharc mish-mash we have come to get from The X-Files. What makes the episode work at all is the few moments, we get of genuine humanity--- and fortunately, there are more than a few. Anderson is strong in this episode, but Duchovny has some of his best moments of the season, as he plays Mulder as someone who can't accept what is happening to his best friend. Holding on to the strength of his beliefs that he had when Scully lay near death in One Breath, his increased anger and desperation show him as more of a loose cannon then he's been in awhile. He seems to ground himself when he realizes what he has to give up in exchange for saving his partner's life. (Unfortunately, he'll make a major reversal on it.

William B. Davis gives one of his best performances in quite some time--- he was so demystified in Musings, and has been made to feel soften or speaking in Carter double-speak that it's actually refreshing when he emerges from this with some of his old menace and smugness in the scenes he has with Skinner. Considering that Skinner has basically had him exiled from his office since Paper Clip, it says a lot about his level of desperation that he's now gotten back in.

And of course, there's the fine work of Sheila Larken. It's a great pity that the only times we ever seem to see Maggie Scully is when someone from her family is in peril. She's such a bulwark of sympathy that there's something refreshing about how angry she is when she learns of what has befallen her daughter, and how she chose to tell Mulder before this.  It's good work, and its well worth the time.

Memento Mori is one of the episodes that time has not done wonders to. When I first saw it, I thought it was one of the high points of the fourth season. Now it seems like an uncomfortable mesh of two story arcs that really were never that strong. Now I'm cynical enough about how TV works to understand why it received an Emmy nomination for Best Teleplay, when its one of the weakest and most overwritten episodes of the season. There are still some very good moments, and compared to how the majority of the cancer arc goes, its miles above most of it. But the high points that the episode lands emotionally are awash in Carter-speak and a tangled storyline.  The truth may save Scully, but this storyline won't do her any favors.

My score: 3.25 stars.