Soft Light

This is one of Mulder's most hideous ties. Even Scully is questioning his judgment.

Two pictures, two models !

Mulder, is this the Fashion Week ? Scully, are you modelling in a shampoo ad ?

M&S, are you selling matching raincoats in a teleshopping ?

As Mulder figured out, Dr. Banton has been trying to control this thing from the start, and he had been focused on not letting it harm others. He had been unable to prevent the other deaths, even though he tried. Here, though, for the first time he controls this power by using it to kill. The scene shows how desperate Banton has become and just how high the stakes are.

The final scene is poignant: I like the single tear dropping down the cheek.

In the whole episode I don't really empathize with Banton, except in the end.

Can I say that I really don't care about Kelly Ryan, when she dies or at her funeral ? Would you find me inhuman if I say that I'm smiling when she dies: the special effects are vintage, she's swallowed by the shadow in a funny way...

I may be cheating, because this can hardly go unnoticed, but I have to choose this moment. Scully has been talking to her student about Mulder, and he shamelessly flirts with her when he learns this, and she shamelessly flirts back, right in front of a police detective! I love this so much I don't care if there are flaws in the episode.

This moment is so visually poetic and metaphoric: M&S profiles in shadow upon 'Polarity Magnetics'.

I think it's a starting point for a fanfic.

The two scenes talking about spontaneous human combustion are subtly hilarious. When Mulder first suggests it Scully thinks he's joking, but he maintains that it's a legitimate theory despite the lack of scientific support. Then when Scully comes around and thinks that may be the answer, Mulder has moved on to something else. It's a great joke which highlights their characters nicely.

I like the Squeeze reference ! Very funny !

We have to revisit all the classical locked-room mysteries thinking about how Eugene Tooms could have been involved.

The teaser to this episode is fantastic. The way this man, really an innocent bystander, dies is so unexpected, and it perfectly sets up the phenomena Mulder and Scully will be investigating.

M. X's apparitions and actions are surprising... as much as he seems surprised himself when he went picking up Banton.

This dinette set in the kitchen screams Americana to me. I covet this dinette set.

I have done some shopping in a Walmart, when visiting Canada. We don't have them in France. But you know, a supermarket is just a supermarket... Though, it seems a very huge thing in the US.

"Darkness covers a multitude of sins." It's only in soft light that we're safe. Eh, I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I should just pick Mulder's line: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."

"For your birthday, I'll buy you a utility belt".

I'd want to see that. A starting point for a fanfic ?

Mulder's openness to extreme possibilities helped him put the pieces together to figure out what was going on, and he acted quickly to keep Scully safe. He's not such a bad shot after all.

As often, Mulder's intuition and leaps drive the investigation forward. In the railway station his prompt hunch and skills are saving Scully (and himself) from a dead encounter.

Have always a Mulder with you can make your day !

Scully is very protective of her former student and friend because she understands how difficult it is for a woman to make it in a man's world. I love that she points this out to Mulder when he criticizes Detective Ryan for being ambitious.

I find that Scully has not a great role in the investigation, whereas she's the scientist/physicist in the team !

Her best moment is when she stands up in front of the Detective and protects Ryan as a woman in a boys' club.

I like also a lot of her banters and jokes with Mulder ! Have always a Scully with you can make your day shine !

The obvious link here is to Squeeze, where Scully checks out the heat register because she knows it's possible something could have gotten into a locked room that way. The episodes are also linked in that Mulder and Scully have the case because of a connection from Scully's past.

My heart leapt when I saw all the banters about spontaneous combustion, leading me to mature M&S nostagically remembering it in Familiar.

They have really triggered my imagination in this episode: magnetism, combustion, utilitary belt...

There is so much I like about this episode. I think Tony Shaloub is great as Chester Banton. His performance is desperate and uncomfortable, and the end scene with the single tear running down his face is heartbreaking.

Mulder and Scully keep up their banter throughout, and it's a nice portrayal of their friendly partnership.

I like the way the story builds incrementally until all the pieces come together and we see it as part of a larger whole.

And I love Mulder's realization that X can't be trusted.

I like Scully jokes and M&S banters, and I like that Mulder confronts X in dark mysterious places.

I would like to like it more but the whole episode (written by Vince Gilligan!) is for me an average episode...

I have a soft spot for this episode and it's hard to come up with anything I dislike, even if I should. But I guess the one criticism I have is that there may be just too many parts to the story and it becomes muddled.

It's like Vince Gilligan wanted to be sure everything he loved about The X-Files all made it into this one episode. Banter: check. Call back to prior episode: check. Strange/unexplainable phenomena: check. Government coverup: check. At least there wasn't an alien!

... indeed, I didn't succeed to be emotionally involved in the plot and the characters. We don't have the chance to know more Detective Ryan, or Banton and empathize with them. It's weird because Tony Shalhoub is a great actor. I would have preferred if he had explained us (M&S) what happened in the lab. The fact that it's the other scientific who describes the accident, with all the techno-science-gibberish, doesn't help.

Moreover, I'm too focused when watching the episode on the silly/illogical things that happen with the shadow: Under the door ? Switch of shadow direction with the cops ? No safety measures in the lab ? The shadow is a black hole but only humans, their clothes and shoes disappear, not the other objects ? No hole on the floor ?

Dark matter, dark secrets, but they kept me in the dark !