X-Files Episode Guide: Audrey Pauley

Earlier this season, after the particularly wretched mythology based Trust No 1, Vince Gilligan delivered an incredible episode in John Doe, a series which seemed to completely redefine what the X-Files could be capable of in a world with no Mulder and Scully. Now, after an even more dreadful mythology two-parter, Steven Maeda delivers in Audrey Pauley an equally impressive episode that makes you simultaneously realize the series has room for growth, but makes you see the new direction the series could've gone in.

Steven Maeda in last season's Redrum and 4-D earlier this year delivered a couple of stories that were very capable and entertaining episodes, but seemed to be a little too much of the Twilight rather than the X-Files. Now, in what would be his final script for the show, he manages to at last merge the two worlds, and yet in the process create a story that is finally unique an X-File. By all accounts, this shouldn't work - its another episode set in a hospital with another cast member on the verge of death; certainly it was mangled spectacularly in Providence. But what makes this episode spark is that it finally does something that the series never really could do with Mulder and Scully and that is acknowledge a romantic spark between the two leads. Indeed, if this episode had been played out with Duchovny and Anderson, it would have seemed tired and worn out even if it had been done with the characters in their prime. Its because Doggett and Reyes are still getting to know each other, and are still become aware of each other on a romantic level that this episode plays so well. Maeda was already hinting at the idea in 4-D, which, not coincidentally, dealt with the reverse of the situation - John was stuck in a hospital bed with no chance of recovery, and Monica needed to be the one to pull the plug. Now, Doggett is trying to deal with everybody telling him that Reyes is dead, and his refusal to accept it, based only on faith alone - and some message from a source he doesn't think is reliable - is gutwrenching, because John is trying to throw away his natural inclination for skepticism in order to save the woman he loves.

We'll come back to Doggett in a moment, because the majority of this episode belongs to Annabeth Gish. Its been hard trying to get a handle on Reyes' character - there have been moments of clarity and genuine emotion, but she seems to be stuck based entirely on the whims of the writer. Perhaps its not a coincidence that Maeda, who enabled her character to reach its real potential in 4-D, now gives her a story where she finds herself in a situation that she will not accept. Stuck in what appears to be the model of the hospital she's in, convinced by the few people she sees that she is already dead, this is a situation that she refuses to accept her belief. And her utter belief that Audrey - a nurse aide suffering some developmental disability that has robbed her of any self-confidence - can somehow change the rules of this limbo she appears to be stuck in - is what finally gives her enough strength to literally take the final leap. It's a great performance that finally shows Gish's capability as an actress and Reyes ability as a character.

Though Reyes is at the center, the episode is anchored by two magnificent performances by Robert Patrick and Tracey Ellis as the title character. Patrick has always given good work since his debut on the series, but most of that has been measured by his level of restraint, and the even rarer displays of anger. Now, he finally gets to deliver an even greater range as he refused to accept the fact that his partner is dead, despite all logic and medical science. For much of the episode, he sinks lower as he finds less and less evidence, until he finally breaks down in front of Audrey and admits to himself that he can't lose Monica. This is a level of angst and emotion that Duchovny rarely tapped and that Anderson has tapped far too often, but on him, in this experience is a perfect delivery. Equally remarkable is Ellis. In Season 3's Oubilette, she play a victim of a crime so horrible, it caused her to repress all her emotions, so much so that her empathy with the kidnappers next victim came a shock even to her. Now, she plays a character on the opposite end of that spectrum, a woman whose intellectual problems have somehow delivered her with an emotional connection to the near dead, something that her psyche can't deal with, someone who can only see herself as 'the girl who delivers the flowers'. Its arguably the best guest performance we will get in all of Season 9, and that's because it comes from someone who doesn't believe she's special, and yet is willing to give her life to save a stranger.

Complete with some of the most extraordinary visuals the series has attempted in sometime - the teaser with the hospital floating through space, the electric shocks taking the nearly dead - Audrey Pauley is a triumph on almost every conceivable level. Just last week, the viewer was almost grateful that the series was coming to an end; this episode makes you frustrated that end is fast approaching - a story like this would've been the perfect guidepost for Doggett and Reyes going forward. The best part may be that it almost makes you mad that they never tried anything this emotional or riveting with the Mulder-Scully relationship.

My score: 5 stars.