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PLOT:Mulder is forced to take a vacation, while Scully goes through a dark period and impulsively acts on her feelings with almost dire consequences.
This was the last episode written by Glen Morgan and James Wong before they went off to work on yet *another* series. Though far from being classic or brilliant, "Never Again" brought up significant points within the Mulder-Scully partnership that seemed to be only previously mentioned in fan fiction: Does Mulder consider Scully an equal or underling? How important is the X-Files to Scully both personally and professionally? Does Mulder *ever* take a vacation? And the number one question on many X-Philes minds: Does Scully have a desk?
All of these questions as well as others were significantly answered. For the first time, Scully is finally opening up emotionally but unlike anything she has ever shown before. Her frustrations and desires have all been locked within her for over four years that it seems strange it would take something as seemingly insignificant as the Vietnam War Memorial and a faded rose petal to unlock them. Yet, like the many people whose names are carved on the Memorial Wall, Scully wonders if her work really means something or has she been stuck in a "quagmire" for the past four years losing both her professional (distinguishing herself within the F.B.I.) and personal (raising a family?) goals?
The plot itself is rather immaterial. Ed Jerse, a newly divorced father of two, decides to get a tattoo after a night of binge drinking. Oh yeah, this tattoo *talks* to him. It gets so bad that he gets fired from his dead end job, kills a downstairs neighbor for playing a Partridge Family record too loudly, disposes the body in a furnace and almost kills our favorite female F.B.I. agent.
Meanwhile, Scully isn't interested in the latest X-File even though Mulder needs for her to follow up on it. The Bureau is forcing him to take a week off after four years of *not* taking a day off work. Scully is at a crossroads in her life, and Mulder doesn't seem to care. She ends up going on a date with Ed Jerse after bumping into him in a tattoo shop while on a stakeout. She admires his tattoo and after his encouragement, gets a tattoo as well. Oh yeah, did I mention that she stayed overnight at his place? If that wasn't enough, do you know where Mulder ended up taking his "spiritual journey" for a week? None other than Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley.
Looking beyond all of these rather strange events, the meat of the episode is the partnership status of Mulder and Scully. Ed was just thrown in as a type of escape for Scully and her frustrations at both Mulder and her job. This story was more about the interaction and breakdown of communication between our favorite duo. Their quarrel was what made the episode shine.
Having been forced to read "Men are from Mars; Women are from Venus" by my significant other, I have a better grasp of the female perspective on things. Understanding it is another thing. The opening scene with Mulder and Scully just cries out as an example of miscommunication from the book.
Scully is sitting behind Mulder's desk contemplating her life while fingering the rose petal. The rose petal comes to symbolize the fragility of life and her own vulnerable existence as of late. Mulder barges into the office and babbles off about being forced to take a week off (Gee, I wish I had that problem) or the Bureau won't pay him for four weeks. Scully asks him, "Why don't I have a desk?" It seems a simple enough question that I'm sure many X-Philes have been asking for years. It throws Mulder off. He replies that he always thought the back part of the office was her area. Scully looks behind him and wistfully says, "Back there..." Right away, Mulder failed the test!
In essence, Scully wanted to know why he never thought it important enough to get her a desk or put her name on the door or basically, make her feel *important* to him. His response that the back area of the office was hers only shows to Scully that he never thought it important enough to consider her feelings on their office space or any other matters it seems. Being self-centered and obsessive, Mulder just doesn't think of those things and ends up giving a smart-ass reply of putting the desks together and playing battleship. He goes into "Mr. Fix-It" mode and tells her to order a desk rather than wonder what brought about this behavior. For having an Oxford degree in psychology, Mulder can be so dense at times!
As for Scully, she rebels against following up on what she believes to be a bogus case based on a "Rocky and Bullwinkle" plot-line. She also resents that Mulder is treating her as an underling rather than a partner. Angry, Mulder mistakenly tells her that she was only "assigned" to the X-Files while he busted his butt to work on them. He easily reverts back to a 12-year-old when things aren't going his way, while Scully reverts to the "Ice Queen" syndrome that many fan-fiction authors have dubbed her.
Scully would most likely never have gone out with Ed Jerse if Mulder didn't check up on her. She did what he asked as both a courtesy and loyalty to Mulder. The rest of her motives were a reaction to his insensitive remarks regarding her personal life. She takes it as a challenge and impulsively jumps into a liaison with Jerse unaware of his psychotic and murderous tendencies.
Of course, this brings up the biggest question among fans, did Scully sleep with Jerse? It was rumored to have been scripted, but I don't see it as a reality from what I saw. It did look like CC and company copped out at the eleventh hour, because everything from the date, the orgasmic scene with the tattoo, the attraction between Scully and Jerse and Scully's own desire to rebel against Mulder made it a perfect situation for sex. Didn't Scully's absence give Mulder a perfect situation for sex in "3"? How is that scenario any different from this one?
I always find it puzzling how a majority of fans hate having Mulder and Scully romantically together but totally despise the idea of them with someone else even more. That double standard does not make for interesting drama. Though fictitious characters, Mulder and Scully are two non-perfect human beings with wants and desires just like us. Their faults are what make them believeable to us and endears the characters more to the fans. Yes, Scully has a dark side whether we like it or not, and this episode captured it extremely well. Surprised with fans' reactions towards this episode's obvious abandonment of Scully's no-nonsense attitude, Gillian Anderson replied, "...I don't think what I did was out of character for Scully. It's just something that people have not seen before."
In the final scene, Mulder tries to be more sensitive after what Scully has been through. He congratulates her on being in the X-Files twice and admits that their initial case was bogus. It is here that Mulder realizes just how much he depends on Scully. She is as much a part of his life as he is in hers. Her rebellious nature both surprised and worried Mulder. He *does* take her for granted and relies on her more than he readily admits. Before, he had lost her to outside forces, but what can he do if Scully actually left on her own accord? It would be more devastating to him than he would ever realize. But he clings to the ideal. When Scully tells him that the X-Files is "her life", he assumes that she forgot it was his to begin with and defensively states, "But it's my...." as the camera pans away with only silence between them. Mulder is slowly learning.
This episode was originally supposed to air before "Leonard Betts". Shown after that episode makes "Never Again" seem reactionary than what it truly should be: internal conflict, both within Scully herself and between Mulder and Scully. This incident will make Mulder become more aware of how much he truly relies on Scully. He also makes it known to Scully that she is important to the X-Files and her life does have a purpose. Her original goal of distinguishing herself within the F.B.I. has truly been realized or else she wouldn't have the respect of her colleagues or Assistant Director Skinner. As for her personal goals, the current cancer arc will definitely make a major impact.
Both Anderson and Duchovny did a brilliant job in showing Scully and Mulder as bickering partners without ever showing true spite. A healthy relationship will always have snags, and it is a minor miracle that they haven't killed each other up to this point. For a swan song, Morgan and Wong did good.
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