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PLOT:Mulder and Scully investigate a claim by a bowling alley owner of seeing a ghostly vision of a female murder victim right at the moment of her death while the body was more than a block away.
Mortality has been a prevalent theme throughout all four seasons of the "X-Files." This past season showed different variations of that theme. Lately, it has become more personal since the discovery of an inoperable cancerous tumor in our very own Dana Scully. From that moment, she has had to contemplate her own mortality every single day. And with it, the anguish of knowing death much too intimately along the way.
As usual, Scully takes the scientific skeptical side and believes that the supposed apparitions were due to stress and other explainable causal factors. Mulder believes otherwise.
A possible suspect is a mental patient named Harold Speuler, who apparently made a 911 call from the mental hospital concerning the victim. Mulder is convinced that Harold knows something about the murders and the ghostly visions but is not thoroughly convinced that he is the killer. In the meantime, Scully goes about the investigation in a rather indifferent and unamused mood. Her whole attitude on the case is extreme skepticism. All that changes to uncertainty when *she* is the one who sees a ghostly vision of a murder victim right before Mulder informs her that there was another body found.
Yet, she doesn't tell Mulder about her paranormal experience. Instead, Scully confides to an F.B.I. counselor (the same one from Season Two's "Irresistible") and admits how much she depends on Mulder's passion to draw strength from. An interesting part of this scene is when the counselor asks Scully why she is still working even though she has cancer. From "Memento Mori", we saw that Scully was determined to find a cure through the X-Files. However, she reveals to the counselor that she is afraid in failing Mulder. In reality, her cancer is becoming worse, which is something that she has yet to reveal to him and admit the eventual outcome even to herself.
But Scully ends up being the one to catch the real killer, Harold's nurse. Though it was not too much of a surprise that she was the killer, her character was not fleshed out as much as Harold's. That made it the biggest weakness of the episode, because the explanation of her motives seemed too convenient.
The final scene where Scully is telling Mulder about her seeing the fourth victim prior to finding the body is very tense. The one thing that she was afraid to do, fail Mulder, is already done. Their trust is brutally shaken, because Scully was so adamant in denying what was right in front of her and not confiding in Mulder.
There are many insights revealed in "Elegy" concerning Scully's character. Throughout many episodes of the "X-Files", we take it for granted how strong-willed Scully is. She is a highly competent agent and medical doctor, who walks a very thin line between proper Bureau protocol and her loyalty and trust to Mulder. She reveals in "Elegy" her biggest fear: failure. In this case, it is failing Mulder when he needs her the most.
Mulder never seems to question why Scully continues to work through her sickness. In effect, *he* is taking her skills and her competence for granted just as the audience is. That is a main reason why Scully had difficulty answering the simple question from the counselor about continuing to work. She is doing it for Mulder as much as she is doing it for herself. She *needs* to work as a way to prove to Mulder that she will not fail him even through this tough time.
However, Scully also reverts back to the close-minded skeptic that was so prevalent in the first two seasons. Even though she actually witnesses a paranormal event right in front of her eyes, she fails to mention it to Mulder. In effect, she denies that it ever truly happened. And just as she tries to explain the visions from the other witnesses, she reverts back to her medical and scientific knowledge to explain the unexplainable.
Yet, the main point of "Elegy" and a painful reminder to the audience is that Scully is dying. Her nose bleeding and the medical tests she undergoes are just examples of the traumatic journey that our heroine has to endure. Death is staring her in the face, and she is slow to accept that.
Mulder, brilliant as ever, believes that the witnesses saw the murder victims' "disembodied spirits", because they were dying as well. The bowling alley owner died of a heart attack at the moment that Harold saw his ghost. Mulder suspects that Harold is dying, and he was. Scully hears this explanation and the knowledge drains all the blood from her face, which Mulder never noticed. She finally begins to understand why she saw the victim.
This understanding gives Scully the resolve to admit to Mulder of her own experience. It is to Gillian Anderson's and David Duchovny's immense talent and chemistry that make this heart-wrenching scene so dynamic. The facial expressions with Scully feeling ashamed and Mulder noticably hurt brought about very strong feelings that their words never fully expressed. As much as Scully trusts Mulder, she is still hesitant in revealing any kind of weakness to him. As much as Mulder is concerned over Scully, he is deeply hurt and saddened by her not confiding in him sooner. It was brilliantly played out by both.
For a John Shiban-scripted episode, it was very fluid and non-action oriented. His last episode, "El Mundo Gira", seemed devoid of any flow of logic or interesting story-telling. Anderson and Duchovny seemed as interested in the plot as the audience: not very. It was admittedly one of the worst episodes from the fourth season. That is why "Elegy" was a nice surprise because of its depth of characterization and a rather plausible and interesting plot. Of course, I'm sure Chris Carter and the other writers learned from the earlier Shiban episode.
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