X-Files--"Redux, Part II"

I was disappointed by the weak first part of the fifth season finale yesterday, but speculated it could be saved by a strong conclusion. Indeed, it was. ‘Redux, Part II” possesses many of the same elements of the character relationships and mythology that makes the fourth season my favorite. It is both poignant and monumental.

The most important theme in “Redux, Part II” is the restoration of faith. Both Mulder and Scully enjoy epiphanies. Remarkably, mulder’s is just as powerful even though he is not experiencing his last moments on earth as Scully is. That writer Chris Carter is able to pull that off without maudlin melodrama is a testament to his writing ability. For a former surfing freelance journalist, he knows what makes the human heart beat.

Mulder and Scully are being broken down in other to build them back up again. While she lays on her deathbed, slowly but surely coming out of the protective shell of her skepticism to admit she is afraid of what lies beyond and is hoping for a miracle, mulder is off on his own journey with the Cigarette Smoking Man in a last ditch effort to find a cure for her. Their plights complete the journey they begun in the last episode in which Mulder was rapidly losing his faith in the existence of aliens as scully was just as quickly learning to accept that a global conspiracy may actually exist right under her nose.

So why exactly is Mulder’s journey as poignant as the dying Scully’s? it is because je gets everything he wants here--the ‘truth” about aliens, the CSM brings his sister back to him, and he exposes the Syndicate mole inside the FBI--but he gives up all that to save Scully. It is a bitter pill to swallow. While he does offer up the cure thr Csm gave him and scully opts to go for it, her family rips him to shreds, not only for putting her in this spot in the firtst place, but because they believe she is still indulging him right to the end. In fact, we never see Mulder and Scully together after her cancer goes into remission. Mulder is not only alienated from the victory he caused, he sits alone, crying over a photo of his lost sister, whom he knows he will never find now that--as far as he knows, at any rate,--the Csm is dead and can never lead him back to her.

So when I say “Redux, Part Ii’ is about the restoration of faith, it is really about the restoration of faith Mulder and Scully have in each other. It is true she was willing to try the Csm’s cure solely because she trusts Mulder. In the inquiry in which Mulder is ready to blow open the conspiracy by naming Section chief Scott Blevins as the guy who set up Scully with cancer, he acknowledges for the first time Scully has been a great asset to him, not the spy he first suspected and Blevins likely intended. Her loyalty to Mulder is a mark of her professionalism and integrity. I am not so certain mulder would have acknowledged that at any point in the past because of how much his quest for the truth meant to him--more than anyone else did.

Blevins and the Csm wind up killed by the Syndicate for their actions. Specifically, for Blevins getting caught and Csm helping Mulder along. I take issue with the former, because Blevins has not had a large role in the series. The revelation he is a traitor does not offer much emotional sting. For the former, I have to blind myself to Csm not being Mulder’s father. Thinking that at the time, it appeared Csm was saving Scully and bringing Samantha back in the way an estranged father might make offerings to his distraught son. These gifts came after CSM believed Mulder was dead. Many times it takes losing someone forever to find out what he or she really meant to you. Taking into account only the knowledge I possessed at the time, the CSM/Mulder dynamic was quite poignant here, too.

I thought “Redux, Part Ii” was a vast improvement over the fifth season premiere. Shippers consider this the point at which Mulder and Scully begin falling for each other. That is not a big deal for me, but I can see where they are coming from. This episode is a fan favorite to the romantics at heart for that reason. I give it high marks myself.

Rating: **** (out of 5)