X-Files--"Elegy"

As if to make up for her absense in the previous episode, Scully subtly becomes the main interest in a run of the mill monster of the week case as the series ratchets up the tension over her brain tumor. The focus on Scully is the selling point of the episode. The monster of the week aspect is competently done in its build up to the big reveal, but the reveal itself is a huge letdown.

The story revolves around people who are about to die themselves seeing the ghosts of people who have just died themselves. Mulder refers to them as wraiths, or death omens. He and scully are called to a bowling alley when the owner, Ageleo Pintaro, sees an injured woman trapped in the workings of the pin set up at the end of a lane. He runs to get help, fortunately sporring several policemen near by, but unfortunately realizing they are handling a murder case--the girl pin taro just saw in the bowling lane.

Mulder instantly believes Pintaro saw a ghost, though he does not mention anything about it being a possible death omen for Pintaro. Too bad, because Pintaro suffers heart failure in the middle of the episode. That possibility only becomes part of the story after scully has seen the second murder victim after she has been killed. In other words, Mulder only offers up the aspect of wraith visions at a time when it would have the sharpest emotional impact--when we are worried Scully is closing in on the end of her life. His witholding is even more bizarre considering Scully does not tell Mulder about her vision until the case has been solved and he scolds her for--wait for it--keeping vital information from him. Hypocrite much, Spooky?

The agents zero in on two leads. One is a recurring message--”She is me” scrawled at the locations of wraith sightings. The other is Howard Spuiler, an OCD suffered who lives in a mental institution, but whom Pintaro has hired to organize his bowling shoes. Someone from the mental institution alerted police to the first victim by phone. The agents suspect Puiler tipped the cops, but he quickly becomes a suspect instead.

I say quickly, but I should also say peculiarly. Scully, who is not an oxford trained psychological profiler, believes Spuiler, who has become prone to violent verbal outbursts of late, stalked customers of the bowling alley and murdered them. Mulder, who is an Oxford trained psychological profiler, believes Spuiler’s outbursts are the result of of the murdered women. It will not surprise you that mulder is correct.

Perhaps to keep us from dwelling on the absurdity of the investigation, the episode detours into scully’s psyche. After seeing the wraith of the second victim, Scully visit’s a psychologist to sort out her feelings over seeing something she does not believe exists. The session segues into why she has continued to work though she has little time left. Scully allows she is fearful of letting Mulder down. He has been supportive--a change in her attitude about him from the mid-season, no/--and feels like her debt to him is more important than crossing items off a bucket list. A sweet sentiment, and a welcome change from the tension from earlier fourth season episodes. It is the saving grace of “Elegy.”

The saving grace is redeeming the truth about the killer. Spuiler’s nurse as been stealing his respiratory medication. The medication causes psychotic mood swings in her. In turn, she is mentally and emotionally abusing Spuiler. The unkindest cut of all is she murdered the girls because they were sweet to him at the bowling alley, causing him to develop crushes on each of them. The nurse attacks Scully with the murder weapon--a scalpel--once she is discovered, but is subdued. Spuiler runs off and dies--offscreen, for heaven’s sake--of respiratory failure because of lack of medication. He was dying, so that is why he saw the wraiths. In the final scene, Scully gets in her car, sees Spuiler’s wraith, and bursts into tears.

How much of that do you buy into? The nurse appeared briefly in the first act. She had only two lines, none of which gave any indication she was a psycho. She has been stealing Spuiler’s respiratory medication, which for whatever reason turns her into a brutal murderer. Why she wanted to hurt Spuiler by killing his “girlfriends” can only be chalked up to mania. It is unsatisfying. Making the killer someone we suspect is an extra on screen for such a short time we do not even recall she was there is cheating the drama. I have a difficult time believing Spuiler has the wherewithal to anonymously drop clues as to the real murderer off screen, but cannot communicate at all onscreen. None of it really adds up.

But I am Team Scully, so what can I tell you? The emphasis on her plight keeps “Elegy” from earning a bad rating. There are some serious flaws in the main plot, which is a bigger disappointment considering how many homage there are to the great One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but the arc elements save the episode.

Rating: *** (out of 5)