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sinkwriterThe X-Files: "Paper Hearts"
Recap, Part Two
(Part One of the recap found here.)
ACT 2
SCENE 3
Skinner watches prison videos?
FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Mulder bursts into Assistant Director Skinner's office, asking why he's been denied further access to John Lee Roche. Skinner snaps at him: "Could you tell me why you saw fit to strike a prisoner in federal custody?" Oooh... did Scully tell on him?
Mulder whips around and gives his partner a look. She approaches quietly, concern all over her face. Skinner admits that Scully didn't report that to him, but snarks pointedly that she should have. "The whole thing was videotaped as per prison policy. I saw it. You're lucky I don't have your ass in a sling!"
Skinner, I gotta tell you, you're hot when you get all bossy like that. Heh.
Mulder's voice is soft and pleading: "Sir..."
Skinner leans in, just as honest as Scully: "You've gotten too close to this. You've let this man get to you."
Mulder makes his case: "I have reason to believe he can tell us what happened to my sister Samantha."
Skinner looks to Scully for sane confirmation. She says it's looking more and more possible. Mulder looks to her gratefully as she continues: "John Lee Roche apparently spent most of 1973 in Boston. He did take one sales trip up to Martha's Vineyard in October of that year. The timing is right."
Mulder listens to her words and takes a deep breath, shaking his head. It's such a nightmare for him. He looks to Skinner and says simply: "I need to know. I just need to speak to him one more time."
Skinner shakes his head. He thinks it's a bad idea, especially because it's so personal for Mulder. Scully again wonderfully speaks up for her partner: "Sir, the fact remains that we still have two more victims that we need to find and identify. And no one has more insight into Roche than Agent Mulder, and this is still Agent Mulder's case."
She makes good sense, and Skinner finds he can't argue with her. He looks away, considering her words, then sighs heavily. He looks up at Mulder, pointing a finger at him, and warns him to tread very lightly. Mulder nods and keeps his mouth shut. Smart man. Skinner looks to Scully and warns her too: "You see that he does." Poor Scully. Always has to babysit her partner and make sure he doesn't get into too much trouble. Heh.
Scully and Mulder immediately turn and exit Skinner's office. Hurry! Before he changes his mind!
***
ACT 2
SCENE 4
John Lee Roche: Manipulative Bastard.
John Lee Roche sits down at the table in the same visitors' room. This time both Scully and Mulder are waiting for him. Roche sniffs petulantly and looks at Mulder for a lengthy moment before saying, "I'm not talking to you if you're gonna hit me again." Oh, cry me a river, Roche.
Mulder smiles as innocently as possible. Scully sits next to him, clearly uncomfortable. She looks to her partner, who pulls out the two evidence bags. He sets the hearts down on the table and slides them across to Roche.
John picks up the plastic bags, barely containing a pleased smile. He's getting what he wants. He gets to see his hearts again. He makes a move to open one of the bags, but Mulder reaches across the table and grips the man's hand: "No. You don't get to touch 'em. They stay in the bag." Roche smirks, his eyes gleeful as he gazes at Mulder.
Mulder pauses, pulling himself together, and then tells Roche to name the two hearts. Roche looks down at the evidence and says softly: "Well, I think you know one of them already." He slowly lifts his eyes to meet Mulder's, gently testing him. The two men stare at each other, expressionless, but Mulder's body language is weak -- he's hunched over so that Roche is taller than he is. He seems small and vulnerable. Scully, on the other hand, is rigid and strong, her voice firm as she snaps at Roche: "Prove it."
John cannot contain his smile any longer; it widens into a great big grin, his eyes amused. "Watergate was on TV." He looks to Mulder, checking for a reaction. Mulder doesn't move or say anything. The camera stays on Mulder's reactions as Roche continues: "You and your sister... were sitting in front of it... playing a board game, uh, with little red and, uh, blue plastic pieces." Mulder’s face falls and he lowers his gaze to the table, remembering. "Anyway, you wanted to watch a TV show..." Mulder's head jerks up at that, his expression clearly thinking, how could he possibly know that detail?
Roche keeps talking: "...the one with Bill Bixby. What the heck was the name of that thing?"
Mulder: "How could you know what I said?"
Scully's face is a stern scowl. She looks cautiously from Roche to her partner, just in case he needs her. Roche explains: "I was watching... from the window. I was -- I was very careful."
Mulder studies the convict before speaking softly. "If that's true, tell me where my sister is." His voice is even, but his face is open and vulnerable.
Roche looks down at the two cloth hearts and back up at Mulder. "Pick her out." Mulder is confused, so Roche explains, touching the two evidence bags: "You choose the one that was your sister, and I'll tell you where she is."
What a manipulative bastard.
As Mulder squints at him, Roche nudges: "Hey, come on. It's a 50-50 chance. Either way, I'm giving you a victim." He looks to Mulder, a slight smile in his eyes.
Mulder's forehead wrinkles as he studies the two fabric hearts. He reaches out and taps the bag on the right.
Roche taunts him with a sickeningly gentle voice: "That one. You sure you want that one?"
Mulder looks down at the hearts, uncertain, his face troubled and scared. Scully stares at Roche, disgusted, her head twitching with pure fury. She looks like she wants to take a swing at him. Get in line, Scully.
Roche laughs. "No, just kidding. It's -- it's a good choice." Mulder's eyes slowly move from the hearts back to Roche. His brow furrows. He looks weary and sad and so needy.
***
ACT 2
SCENE 5
The Mad Hatter strikes again.
Mulder's hand pulls back branches and leaves to reveal a massive, graffitied rock with the words MAD HAT carved into its side.
As he and Scully look around the base of the rock, the Magic-Typewriter-on-the-screen informs us that this is FORKS OF CACAPON, WEST VIRGINIA. What an odd name. I wonder who came up with that little bit of wackiness. Anyway. Moving on...
Mulder begins to dig into the black earth with his hands. His face is a mask of extreme concentration, like the veins in his forehead might explode at any moment if he doesn't find what he's looking for. He looks like he's on the brink of losing his mind, he's so intensely focused on his task, his eyes wild. Scully rests her hand on his back and implores him to let a team come out and do the excavation. He keeps going, not answering. Scully tries again: "Let somebody else do this."
Mulder shakes his head minutely and digs furiously. "Help me, Scully."
She studies her partner for a moment, then reaches in and puts her hands into the ground. They dig together, both breathing hard, hands working quickly.
Eventually they uncover bits of fabric, and their hands slow down. Scully gasps as she sees the cut-out shape, just like the others. She exhales heavily and looks to Mulder. He sits back on the ground, staring at the find, his face in agony.
Cut to a close-up of the heart-shaped fabric remnant, nestled in the dirt.
***
ACT 3
SCENE 1
Unimaginable horrors.
Strips of florescent light flicker on. Mulder stands at the far end of the room, holding files in his hand. With the autopsy table in the foreground, the camera shot makes him look so small and helpless in his distance from where the skeleton of the newly found victim is covered with a sheet. He takes his time, pausing for several long seconds before he slowly makes his way to the lab table.
Mulder sighs, looking to the covered body for a moment. He sets the files down, and pulls out an X-ray, holding it up to the light for closer scrutiny. He tucks the X-ray back into the folder, and looks to the mound on the table, his mouth small and tight. He looks down at his hands, pausing again, gathering himself, before he turns and reaches out to uncover the skeleton.
A close-up reveals the terrible anguish all over his face. His eyes appear wet like he's been crying, and he looks physically and emotionally exhausted. He takes a breath, and another, before finally reaching out his hand to brush along the bone of the clavicle.
The door to the room opens a small fraction, and Scully peeks in on her partner. She watches him from the entryway for a moment as Mulder delicately examines the skeleton.
She speaks up very carefully: "Mulder?"
His face is anxious, on the verge of tears. He breathes heavily, his voice breaking as he answers her: "It's not her, Scully. Am I right?"
Scully moves quickly to join him at the table. Mulder points to an area on the body: "Samantha broke her collarbone when she was six. It was her left collarbone. We had a -- we had a rope swing out in the backyard. It's not broken, is it?"
Scully feels along the bone and acknowledges that he's correct. It's not a match. It's not her.
Mulder closes his eyes and breathes out in extreme relief, bending over, leaning against the edge of the table for support. He smiles momentarily as Scully touches him, her hand supportively pressing against his shoulder. Scully exhales, her face still concerned.
Mulder sobers, looking to the skeleton once more. "It's somebody, though." He turns his back to Scully, lowering his head in grief.
***
ACT 3
SCENE 2
Borrowing from the words of Clairee Belcher: Hit him, Scully! Hit him hard!
Back for another torturous visit with John Lee Roche.
Mulder and Scully sit on one side of the table, Roche on the other. Thank goodness for Scully -- I don't think Mulder would be able to handle such an interview on his own, in his mental state. Mulder sits back in his chair, his arms folded, his face drawn, as Scully sits forward, taking charge.
Roche: "Like I said, it was a 50-50 chance."
Scully: "Tell us the name of that girl."
Roche is casually rocking back and forth on the back legs of his chair. He seems more serious than usual, more contemplative. He says the victim was a girl named Karen Ann Philiponte. She lived in East Amherst, New York. Scully jots this down in a notebook as Roche continues to muse, smiling fondly now: "Mint grew outside her window. I -- I stood outside her window atop sprigs of mint. It smelled wonderful."
Scully pauses at that, tightening her jaw in irritation. Her voice is strained as she asks him what year it was. July 1974.
Roche says he had her mother on the hook for an ElectroVac Argosy, but at the last minute she changed her mind. He looks a little ticked off at that, even after all these years. As if that's a good enough reason for him to take her child and kill her. So evil.
Scully stares at him, but he smiles, shrugging, and says, "Oh, well." He's so damn creepy, I can't possibly convey it well enough.
Cut to a terribly amusing shot of Mulder and Scully both glaring at the man. Mulder's slouched down in his seat, his arms folded across his chest, while Scully sits rod-straight, frowning, her hands folded in front of her and resting on her notepad. They both look like they want to pull out their weapons and shoot the guy. (I get the feeling the guard standing in the next room wouldn't "see" that, either.)
Mulder gives Roche a weighty look and then reaches into his pocket, withdrawing the final heart. He sets it in front of John, and returns to his previous defensive posture, arms folded across his chest.
Roche picks up the plastic bag, looking at the heart, turning it over and over in his hands, before responding: "It's your sister." But he doesn't meet Mulder's eyes when he says it. Interesting.
Mulder's voice is tight: "If that's true, tell me where."
Roche's eyes are all over Mulder now, pushing him: "You want to know a lot more than that, don't you? You want to know everything, right? The big mystery revealed?"
Scully tells the bastard to drop the mind games. Mulder blinks but says nothing.
Roche ignores Scully, his eyes never leaving Mulder's face: "I can't just tell you. I mean, I know you don't believe me yet. You need me to show you. You need me to lead you through it, because... after all these years, anything less than that's not gonna satisfy you, right?" He smiles slightly.
Mulder sneers. "You just want to get out of here." He gets up from his chair and turns his back on Roche, hands on hips.
John jumps in quickly. "You're damn right, I do. If only for a day or two. I'm realistic." He sniffs, looking down at the heart again, pushing at the plastic bag with his fingers. Then he goes in for the kill: "I mean, more than that, I--" He looks up at Mulder. "I can't wait to see your face."
Mulder turns, eyebrows raised, his eyes wide and incredulous, as Scully gasps. She stands up, her chair scraping loudly against the cement floor. She defends her partner: "You're gonna see the inside of your cell instead. You're gonna rot there." I love it when she gets all valiant on Mulder's behalf.
She turns to Mulder. "Let's go." The door buzzes open, and she moves smoothly through the space. But Mulder lingers a moment, considering Roche, looking him in the eye. Roche's expression is mildly challenging. Mulder reaches down and takes away the cloth heart. Scully is waiting for him, holding the door open until he exits through it.
As they pass by the viewing window, they stop for a moment. Scully breathes heavily and studies her partner with concern: "Are you okay?" He nods slowly. She is his conscience, his logic, once again: "Mulder, the last thing we should do is give this man his way on this. If we do, he could string us along forever. I know you appreciate that." He nods again, but his eyes are on Roche. Scully says gently, "There has to be another way to come to the truth."
Mulder turns his head, his eyes meeting hers. He nods wordlessly and returns his gaze to the man in the visitors' room. Roche rubs his hands across the top of his head, running them down his face until his eyes peek out at Mulder from between his long fingers. He tilts his head playfully, smiling, as he stands and saunters out of the room, returning to his cell. Scully watches Mulder and turns away, closing her eyes and shaking her head, worry all over her face, as Mulder impassively tracks Roche.
***
ACT 3
SCENE 3
Bad idea, Mulder.
Mulder's apartment. Shiny happy fish tank bubbling in the background.
Mulder is stretched out on his couch, his knees bent, his hand resting near his mouth. He seems to be pondering something, perhaps weighing his options.
He sits up and reaches for the phone, dialing. The Clerk's Office.
As the scene cuts to a flight attendant cracking open cans of soda from a beverage cart in the aisle of a plane, we hear Mulder's voice, still on that phone call: "This is Special Agent Fox Mulder with the F.B.I., badge number JTT 047 101111. I need a removal order for a federal prisoner."
Oh, Mulder.
SEABOARD AIR FLIGHT #1650
WASHINGTON TO BOSTON
Mulder now sits on an aisle seat in the plane, John Lee Roche in the middle seat next to his. Roche's hands are cuffed, but he has a suit jacket draped over them so no one can see he is a criminal. Roche looks around, happy to be out of his cell. Casually, he asks if he can use the lavatory. Mulder considers him, studying for tricks, but eventually nods. As Mulder gets up from his seat and stands in the aisle, Roche notes the gun in the holster on Mulder's hip, tucked underneath his suit coat.
The criminal gets up and moves smoothly, 'accidentally' positioning himself so that the flight attendant with the drink cart blocks Mulder, allowing Roche to travel freely down the aisle by himself. As he tries to get around the cart, Mulder's eyes never leave Roche.
John stops to chat with a woman and her daughter, asking the little girl if it's her first time flying. She's eagerly looking out the window, so Roche squats down to her level, an expression of excitement crossing his features. He barely looks at the child's mother, his full attention concentrated on the young girl. He asks her if she's having fun, and she nods happily.
Mulder instructs the flight attendant to move the damn cart already. (Only he says it a little nicer than that.) He pushes past, trying to reach his prisoner.
Roche asks the girl what her name is, and she answers brightly, "Caitlin." Roche notices Mulder getting closer, so he stands again, ready to head for the bathroom as originally planned. Mulder reaches his side, nudging him along, away from the woman and her child. Caitlin watches the 'nice man' leave.
***
ACT 3
SCENE 4
Scully and Skinner: Two people who really should know better by now.
Skinner's sitting in his office, looking frustrated. "What do you mean, he checked out Roche?" Oops. Way to keep an eye on your partner, there, Scully.
Apparently Mulder convinced a judge that it was an emergency situation. Skinner wants to know where the hell Scully was when this event occurred. Excellent question, Skinman.
Scully says she had left Mulder for the day. Scully, Scully, Scully... you've worked with the guy for four years. Don't you know by now that he always waits till your guard is down and then he goes off and does stupid things without you?
Scully: "I suggested that he get some sleep."
That's probably the worst thing to say to a man whose slumber during the last three or four days has been tormented by bad childhood memories, manipulative serial killers, and visions of dead bodies. The last thing he wants to do is go to sleep!
Scully looks very contrite as she tells Skinner that she thinks she knows where Mulder is headed and that she believes she can catch up with him. Skinner's not taking any more chances on his two chucklehead troublemakers. He insists that he will be the one to catch up with his rogue agent.
He asks where Mulder is. Martha's Vineyard.
Scully defends her partner valiantly: "I would hope that you'd appreciate the uniqueness of this situation and its effect on Agent Mulder."
Skinner gets quiet and deadly serious: "I fully understand the effect it has on him, Agent Scully. As I recall, that was the sum and total of my last words to you on the subject. You let me down."
Ouch. Low blow. It's like getting reprimanded by one's father.
Scully looks properly chastised as Skinner continues: "Let's clean up this mess before it gets completely out of hand."
Oh, Skinner. You've worked with Agent Mulder for years. Don't you know by now that things will always get more out of hand before they get resolved?
***
ACT 3
SCENE 5
I adore Fox Mulder and this scene.
Mulder holds a door open for Roche. John makes his way through the foyer of the home and into the living room. He turns to look at the agent and smirks, "No one home?"
Mulder's face is almost entirely enveloped in shadows as he steps toward Roche. It's kind of a scary moment. I briefly wonder if he's going to beat the guy to a bloody pulp and bury his body in the woods behind his childhood home.
Mulder says nothing. Roche has a creepy, teasing smile on his face as he moves to sit on the plastic sheet-covered couch. He gestures to it, patting the cushion next to him: "I sat on this couch. You know, when your dad bought the vacuum."
Mulder is illuminated now, his face impassive.
Roche: "You ready?"
Mulder's not anguished anymore. His face is serious and stony: "Go."
Roche begins, his eyes looking all around the room, his voice dreamy and low: "November 27, 1973. I watched the house for hours. I parked across the way, out over there. I was just casing. I wasn't planning for this to be the night. But then all of a sudden your parents leave, and I figure--" He looks to Mulder, a tiny smile on his lips.
Mulder's unmoved. "Where'd they go?"
Roche gets up, Mulder's eyes follow his every move. "House next door... to play pinochle, I don't know. Whatever it was people did back then."
Mulder urges him to keep going.
Roche says, "So after they're gone, I get out of my car and I move closer..." He looks down at the ground, at the very spot where Mulder and his sister had sat in front of the television with their game. He continues, "...and I watched you and your sister... playing that board game."
The mention of this seems to rattle Mulder a little bit; his brow furrows and he takes a breath as if he wants to express something, but he doesn't say a word.
Roche wanders about the room, remembering. He says that it was a little after 8 pm and he was ready: "I cut the power, and the lights go off. And then I moved around to the front door..." Mulder's face is a bit anxious, like he's reliving the nightmare.
Roche looks to Mulder, his voice easygoing like they're simply having a casual conversation, rather than talking about how he kidnapped and killed a little girl. "...and I was ready to kick the door in. It was unlocked." He revels in the absurdity of that tidbit for a moment, his voice marveling. "It was 1973. It was... was a different world back then."
Mulder's back to stony mode: "And then what'd you do?"
Roche smiles at him. "Well, you remember that. I -- I came in the front door, and you tried to get to your father's gun." Mulder takes a breath, his jaw tightening. "I give you credit for that. But then you sort of froze, and then..." Mulder's breath quickens. Roche looks off in the distance, as if he's picturing his actions as something noble. "I took your sister away from all this... to a happier place."
Mulder steps up into Roche's personal space. "That's exactly how it happened?"
Roche jerks his head back to face Mulder. He nods. Mulder looks up at him: "Right here in this room?" Roche studies Mulder, as if hoping for a more tortured reaction, and slowly says, "Yeah."
Mulder gets a different look on his face, one of defiance and anger. He waits a beat, then says the most awesome thing ever: "Wrong house."
Roche stares at him, but Mulder keeps going, his voice elevating with each word. "My father bought this house after he and my mother divorced. This house is in West Tisbury. The house that Samantha was abducted from is in Chilmark. That's six miles from here!" Roche looks down at his feet as Mulder keeps yelling: "You screwed up. You were never here. You didn't take Samantha."
Roche seems thoughtful, still not meeting the agent's eyes as he tells Mulder that's just wishful thinking.
Mulder disagrees. "No, but I think I know what happened. Somehow you got inside my dreams."
Roche faces off with him: "Come again?"
Mulder sneers: "I profiled you. I got inside your head. Maybe you got inside mine. Maybe some nexus or connection was formed between us. And through that, you got access to my memories of my sister Samantha, and you used them against me for this."
Roche denies it: "You're just resisting me."
Mulder gets to one of my favorite lines of the entire episode, yelling in Roche's face: "And you're in the wrong house, you stupid son of a bitch!"
Heeeeeeeeee. Go, Mulder.
He keeps going, "You were never here, you liar!"
I love it, I love it! That just never gets old.
Roche gets defensive, talking rapidly: "It's geography, man. It's just geography. It was 23 years ago. That was geography we're talking about."
Mulder's got him now: "Yeah, but you remember all the other details so vividly. That's because you watched it through my eyes, through my dreams." He's got a challenging look on his face, standing up for himself in front of this bastard at last, and it's fantastic.
Roche turns away with a smile on his face. As he sits down on a plastic-covered armchair, he starts to chuckle. He grins up at Mulder as he switches tactics, ever the emotional exploiter: "I hear things about you, Mulder. You know what I heard? I heard you go after aliens... from space."
Mulder nods and eye rolls -- he's heard this kind of teasing before. No big deal. He puts his hands on his hips and waits for more abuse. Roche needles the agent: "It's like your world will be okay as long as you can believe in, like, flying saucers."
He grins and spins his finger in the air, imitating the whirring sound of a flying saucer. It's kind of funny. (Sorry, Mulder. Really sorry.) Even Mulder looks like he might laugh -- maybe it's David Duchovny that wants to laugh in that moment -- but he doesn't. He stifles a smile and simply stands there, waiting.
Roche gets serious, the smirk sliding off his face. He looks Mulder directly in the eye: "But I'm telling you the God's honest truth." He pauses, studying Fox. "And I can see you're not as open-minded as you think you are."
Mulder considers this for a moment, then smiles. "You must've been one hell of a salesman, Roche."
This time Mulder's the one towering over him, as Roche sits hunched over in the chair, looking disappointed. Mulder tells him their flight back to the prison is at 6 am.
"Enjoy your last few hours of freedom."
***
ACT 3
SCENE 6
A Big Ooops.
Night. A car sits in a motel parking lot.
Cut to the inside of the motel room. Roche sleeps, his right wrist handcuffed to the furniture. Mulder is awake, sitting at a table, staring at the final cloth heart like he wishes it would speak to him and identify the victim's name. The delicate, starry music begins to play...
Nothing's really changed; Mulder sits at the table as if he's still awake and alert. But then a muffled voice is heard. Mulder looks up, curious. Suddenly the voice becomes clear. Samantha calls out to him: "Fox!"
Mulder jumps up from the chair, looking around the room as if uncertain of what he's hearing. Samantha keeps calling to him: "Fox! Help! Unlock me! Help!"
Mulder moves to the window and peers outside, searching the parking lot. Roche's El Camino is now parked across the space. Mulder gasps. Samantha is trapped in the car, pounding on the glass. "Fox, help me!"
Mulder whips around, looking to Roche. The convict is still sleeping. Samantha pleads: "Help me! Unlock me! Fox!" Mulder yanks open the door to the room and races out into the parking lot. The engine of the El Camino revs loudly. He hurries over to the car and pulls desperately on the door handle. It's locked. Samantha looks behind her as if something or someone's coming to get her. She looks back to her older brother, begging: "Fox! Fox, help me! Unlock me!"
Mulder pulls keys from his pocket and briefly struggles to find the right one in order to unlock her door. His sister keeps pounding on the door, crying. As the car engine continues to rev, Mulder finally gets the door open. He reaches inside and pulls his sister from the vehicle, hugging her to his chest as she wraps her arms around him, smiling. He holds her tightly, a look of relief and utter joy spreading across his face. He lifts her from his body, holding her up in the air like a baby, looking at her like he can't believe she's there and real and safe, then he hugs her close again. The smile on his face is wide and beautiful.
As he tucks his face against her shoulder, he looks down at the ground. There is a red neon dot resting on the pavement. The smile slowly dissolves from Mulder's face, the car engine revs and the dot stretches into the word BYE.
Stunned, Mulder whirls around with Samantha in his arms, but as he turns the full 180 degrees, suddenly his arms are empty. He's standing in the middle of the parking lot alone, his arms still outstretched. He looks down at himself, confused, and lowers his hands. A pounding sound is heard nearby.
Mulder lifts his head from the motel table as he wakes from his dream. Breathing heavily, he looks around the room, trying to get his bearings. As he looks to the bed on which Roche was sleeping, he sees it is now empty, the covers pulled back, the handcuffs missing. The man is gone.
Oh, crap. How the hell did that happen? Is Roche some kind of magician, or did Mulder unlock him in his sleep?
Mulder looks down. His hands are cuffed together in front of him. He shoves the table out of the way, knocking it over. Scully's voice is heard through the door: "Mulder?"
Mulder spins around the room, as if Roche will somehow magically appear if he looks at the room from another angle. He stares at the empty bed as Skinner's angry voice comes through, insisting that he open the door.
***
ACT 4
SCENE 1
Mulder sorry.
F.B.I. agents search the motel room in the background of the scene as Mulder faces the firing squad... that is, Skinner and Scully. Skinner's livid: "You let Roche go?"
Mulder looks really, really sorry, Dad. "I must have done it in my sleep." He looks to Scully as he says, "I had another dream."
Skinner sighs, exasperated, and tells the other agents to check if anyone saw Roche leave the motel. Meanwhile, Mulder helpfully points out that Roche took the last cloth heart. Scully sounds weary: "He also took your badge and your phone."
Skinner asks a very important question: "Where's your gun?" Mulder gives him a look, opens his mouth and closes it. Yeah. Oops.
Skinner's pissed. He wants Mulder to explain himself. Mulder can't. Skinner points out that a predator is on the loose because of Mulder's mistake. To his credit, Mulder doesn't get defensive or talk back. He looks very serious, like he's well aware of what could be happening right now. Skinner calms down and asks if Mulder has any idea where Roche might be headed.
Mulder ponders, then gets a revelatory look on his face. Ding! Light bulb moment.
He borrows Skinner's cell phone. He pulls out his plane ticket as he dials, telling the agents about a child on the plane. Scully tries to get more information, but Mulder's trying to talk to the airline. He requests a passenger manifest for his previous flight. As he starts to provide his badge number, the airline official interrupts, informing him that an Agent Mulder already called ten minutes before, requesting that same information. He hangs up on the airline supervisor. Guess who won't be getting his in-flight snack on the way back home?
***
ACT 4
SCENE 2
I'll never look at Alice in Wonderland the same again.
NEW FRIENDS DAYCARE
SWAMPSCOTT, MASSACHUSETTS
As Mulder and Scully drive up to the entrance of the daycare, a woman's voice is heard, explaining herself: "He told me he was with the F.B.I. He said her mother was in an accident. He needed to take Caitlin."
Two police officers stand in a huddle with a very distraught, strawberry blonde-haired woman. The police officer confirms that the kidnapper was a white male, about six feet five in height, as Mulder and Scully hurry over to the group.
As Mulder reaches the woman's side, she reveals the guy said his name was Mulder. The poor woman's practically hysterical, she's so upset. "He had a badge. He said he was official. Oh my God, what have I done?"
One of the cops tells Skinner that they sent a unit to pick up the girl's mother. The daycare worker sobs, "What am I going to tell her? It's all my fault."
Mulder steps in, his face lined with guilt, and takes the woman's arm, looking her right in the eye. "It's not your fault. It's my fault." She starts to calm down.
As Skinner and Scully stare at Mulder, he begins to walk away. Scully follows him, and he tells her that she was right, that Roche was playing him the whole time.
Scully catches up to him. "You don't think he took Samantha?" Yay! We’re back to alien abduction conspiracy theories!
Mulder's distracted and worried: "None of that really matters now, does it?"
Scully wonders where Roche would take Caitlin, if he would follow his old M.O. and take her out of state. Mulder leans on his arms against the car, thinking, profiling. "There's no reason for that. He knows we're gonna catch him. He just needs it to be later rather than sooner. He's gonna stay in the Boston area. He'll be somewhere nearby."
Scully digs deeper, wondering if Roche might try to take Caitlin someplace familiar, maybe relive his past glories. She's got an idea.
Skinner joins the conversation as Scully pulls out the case file. She points to Roche's former address from when he lived in Boston in the early seventies. Revere. 9809 Alice Road, apartment number 6. Mulder hears the address and immediately says, "He's there. Alice. Alice in Wonderland. He's the Mad Hatter."
Skinner thinks that's a pretty weak connection, but Mulder insists that's where he got the idea in the first place. As Mulder and Scully get in their car, Skinner whistles at his law enforcement team, signaling them to come with him. Go get him, team!
***
ACT 4
SCENE 3
Sever the connection.
A door busts open, Mulder leading the way. (Guess he borrowed someone else's weapon.) As the other agents sweep the apartment, Mulder, Scully, and Skinner look around the main room. There's a mattress on the floor, but not much else. Scully doesn't think Roche brought her there, after all.
Mulder goes to the window, looking out across the yard. Over a fence in the distance, there is a lot containing rows of school buses. He stares at the sight, and murmurs, "He never brought anyone here." He runs out of the apartment.
Cut to Mulder jogging across the field. In the background, we can hear Skinner telling his other agents to spread out and find the entrance to the bus lot. Meanwhile, Mulder has another way in. He's climbing up on a rusty barrel and over the metal fence wall. Pretty impressive, given that he's in a suit and tie. Smooth moves, Mulder.
He climbs down the other side, dropping down the final few feet, and moves down the aisle between the buses. He pauses to pull a gun from his ankle holster. (Ah, that's where he probably got the weapon he used at the top of this scene! Nice.)
As he tiptoes around the buses, looking up at the windows, trying to figure out where Roche and Caitlin are, suddenly a little girl screams. Mulder takes off running in the direction of the sound.
The scream stops, and Mulder's pace slows. He's not sure which way to go anymore.
A part of the bus (antennae or something that extends up?) noticeably begins to sway in the air, perhaps from movement within one of the vehicles. Mulder follows the antennae until he reaches the proper bus. He crouches down, watching carefully, stepping slowly around the front of the vehicle until he reaches its entrance. He slides it open very carefully. It scrapes and squeaks a bit.
Mulder steps up into the bus, his gun drawn in front of him.
Sitting in a seat at the back of the bus is John Lee Roche. Caitlin sits in the seat directly in front of Roche's. He doesn't move, so Mulder climbs the rest of the way into the vehicle, lowering his gun to his side, at the ready.
Roche speaks: "I'm beginning to believe we do share that... nexus you spoke of. You always seem to find me."
Well, maybe he's just an excellent profiler and you're not as clever as you think you are, Roche. Ever think of that? No? Right. Sorry. Moving on...
Mulder's head dips down a little, as he gently addresses the little girl: "You okay, Caitlin?"
She nods, and Mulder smiles at her. "Good. My name is Fox. I'm going to take you home." She nods again, big tears under her eyes. Poor sweetheart.
Roche murmurs, "I have your gun, Fox."
Mulder studies Roche, weighing his options. Finally, he looks to Caitlin again, speaking lightly as if it's all a game. "Can you do me a favor? Can you count to twenty? Can you do that? Will you close your eyes and count to twenty out loud, quietly and slowly?"
She nods. Mulder begins to count with her. One... two...
As Caitlin's eyes close and she keeps counting, Mulder cocks the hammer on his gun and steps forward, pointing it directly at Roche. He glances down at the little girl, checking to make sure she doesn't see this, then glares at the predator. His gun is inches from Roche's chin.
Three... four...
John looks up at Mulder and says quietly, "I will shoot."
Five...
Mulder's jaw clenches. "Don't make this end badly."
Six...
He looks down and sees that Roche has his gun pointed at the back of Caitlin's seat. His finger is already on the trigger.
Seven... eight...
Mulder casts a worried glance at the little girl, then sends a pleading look to Roche. The sounds of two more guns cocking -- Skinner and Scully are positioned together at the entrance to the bus, pointing their weapons. Backup has arrived!
Roche's grave eyes are on Mulder. "You're not giving me very much choice."
Nine...
He actually looks like he might cry. "I really don't want to go back to prison."
Ten...
Skinner hollers, "Put the gun down, Roche!"
Caitlin keeps counting. Eleven... twelve...
John reaches into his pocket and pulls out the final heart in its plastic sleeve, holding it up for Mulder to see. "You have one left."
Thirteen...
Mulder's eyes widen. He swallows. Roche taunts him one last time: "How are you gonna find her without me?"
Fourteen...
The two men's eyes don't leave each other's faces. Roche continues, his voice wavering: "How sure are you it's not Samantha? Huh?"
Fifteen... sixteen... seventeen...
Mulder's eyes cast downward, then up again, troubled and uncertain.
Roche nudges him: "How do you know?"
Eighteen...
Roche looks pleadingly at Mulder. In this moment, they're both desperate. Mulder works his jaw, staring at the man, trying to figure out what to do, what to believe.
As Caitlin counts out nineteen, everything happens at once. Mulder looks down, Roche's finger starts to depress against the trigger on his weapon, Mulder makes a split decision and fires, Caitlin screams and takes off running down the aisle of the bus, and John Lee Roche's head snaps back on his neck. Blood spatters against the window behind his head.
Caitlin runs into Scully's open arms. Skinner calls out for an ambulance. Really, Skinner? I think that ship has sailed at this point.
Proof positive: we get a nasty close-up of Roche, his face grey, his mouth open, his eyes half-closed, as his body slides sideways, slumping in the seat. His hand still clutches the final cloth heart.
Mulder stands in place, still pointing his gun at the man, as if he thinks the creepy bastard might actually get up and challenge him some more. Eventually, gradually, he lowers his weapon. His face is devastated. The opportunity to find the last victim is lost.
***
ACT 4
SCENE 4
"Mulder, it's not Samantha. And whoever that little girl really is, we'll find her."
Mulder's basement office.
The camera pans across the room, over all the newspaper clippings and photographs tacked to the bulletin board, past the famous "I WANT TO BELIEVE" alien poster...
...coming to rest on Mulder's despondent expression, as he sits at his desk, gazing mournfully at the final heart. He looks like he might cry.
He lifts watery eyes to the sound of a knock on his door. Scully slowly enters the room, coming to stand before her partner, giving him a compassionate look. He watches her quietly, his eyes a bit dazed and lost, as she sets a folder on his desk.
Scully's voice is low and gentle: "I got back some lab results. The dye analysis determined that the fabric of the last heart was manufactured between 1969 and 1974, but beyond that there's nothing more they can tell us."
Mulder looks down at the file. He swallows and takes a breath, sniffling a little, as Scully promises: "Mulder, it's not Samantha. And whoever that little girl really is, we'll find her."
Mulder can't meet her eyes. His voice comes out in a whisper, small, childlike and disbelieving: "How?"
He looks completely broken and miserable. David Duchovny is killing me here, he's just so heartbreaking.
Scully says tenderly, "I don't know... but I do know you."
He looks up at her gratefully for a moment, but then his emotions overcome him again, and his face crumples into a wince. He returns his mournful gaze to the cloth heart. He looks wistful.
Scully suggests softly, "Why don't you go on home and get some sleep?"
Oh, Scully. What did I already tell you about that idea?
Mulder looks up at her again, this time his face breaking into an incredulous expression as he begins to laugh. Like he can't believe she just said that, either. Scully closes her eyes momentarily, cringing and smiling. See, she gets it now. It's a terrible joke.
She reaches out, squeezing his shoulder lovingly, and Mulder leans in, resting his head against her hip. He's still smiling. He reaches around her, holding on tight. Scully's face sobers and she runs a hand through his hair, cupping the back of his head before pulling away entirely. Mulder closes his eyes, savoring the smile a little longer.
As his partner exits and the door closes with a soft click, Mulder's eyes open. The smile slips away. He stares down at the cloth heart, picking it up, holding it, studying it one last time. Eventually, he opens the drawer next to him and sets the evidence bag inside. We get a close-up of the pretty, pink-flowered fabric heart as Mulder looks upon it, finding it difficult to let go. Like he's thinking of all the lost opportunities, destroyed childhoods, and missing sisters. Everything that's slipped through his fingers in one brutal instant.
As the fairy tale music continues to play, Mulder closes the drawer. He looks down at it for a moment, letting go. Then he turns to look forward, a sorrow-filled expression lingering on his face.
The screen fades to black.
End of episode.
***
If you've made it this far, thanks so much for reading.
If you love this episode as much as I do, you might be interested in some further reading material: the lovely and talented![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
leucocrystal has written a brilliant, thought-provoking essay for this episode, entitled Down The Rabbit Hole: Dreams, Memory, Subjective Reality and Mulder as Alice, that is well worth your time. I highly, highly recommend it.
Thank you again for reading my take on this marvelous episode.
Recap, Part Two
(Part One of the recap found here.)
ACT 2
SCENE 3
Skinner watches prison videos?
FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Mulder bursts into Assistant Director Skinner's office, asking why he's been denied further access to John Lee Roche. Skinner snaps at him: "Could you tell me why you saw fit to strike a prisoner in federal custody?" Oooh... did Scully tell on him?
Mulder whips around and gives his partner a look. She approaches quietly, concern all over her face. Skinner admits that Scully didn't report that to him, but snarks pointedly that she should have. "The whole thing was videotaped as per prison policy. I saw it. You're lucky I don't have your ass in a sling!"
Skinner, I gotta tell you, you're hot when you get all bossy like that. Heh.
Mulder's voice is soft and pleading: "Sir..."
Skinner leans in, just as honest as Scully: "You've gotten too close to this. You've let this man get to you."
Mulder makes his case: "I have reason to believe he can tell us what happened to my sister Samantha."
Skinner looks to Scully for sane confirmation. She says it's looking more and more possible. Mulder looks to her gratefully as she continues: "John Lee Roche apparently spent most of 1973 in Boston. He did take one sales trip up to Martha's Vineyard in October of that year. The timing is right."
Mulder listens to her words and takes a deep breath, shaking his head. It's such a nightmare for him. He looks to Skinner and says simply: "I need to know. I just need to speak to him one more time."
Skinner shakes his head. He thinks it's a bad idea, especially because it's so personal for Mulder. Scully again wonderfully speaks up for her partner: "Sir, the fact remains that we still have two more victims that we need to find and identify. And no one has more insight into Roche than Agent Mulder, and this is still Agent Mulder's case."
She makes good sense, and Skinner finds he can't argue with her. He looks away, considering her words, then sighs heavily. He looks up at Mulder, pointing a finger at him, and warns him to tread very lightly. Mulder nods and keeps his mouth shut. Smart man. Skinner looks to Scully and warns her too: "You see that he does." Poor Scully. Always has to babysit her partner and make sure he doesn't get into too much trouble. Heh.
Scully and Mulder immediately turn and exit Skinner's office. Hurry! Before he changes his mind!
***
ACT 2
SCENE 4
John Lee Roche: Manipulative Bastard.
John Lee Roche sits down at the table in the same visitors' room. This time both Scully and Mulder are waiting for him. Roche sniffs petulantly and looks at Mulder for a lengthy moment before saying, "I'm not talking to you if you're gonna hit me again." Oh, cry me a river, Roche.
Mulder smiles as innocently as possible. Scully sits next to him, clearly uncomfortable. She looks to her partner, who pulls out the two evidence bags. He sets the hearts down on the table and slides them across to Roche.
John picks up the plastic bags, barely containing a pleased smile. He's getting what he wants. He gets to see his hearts again. He makes a move to open one of the bags, but Mulder reaches across the table and grips the man's hand: "No. You don't get to touch 'em. They stay in the bag." Roche smirks, his eyes gleeful as he gazes at Mulder.
Mulder pauses, pulling himself together, and then tells Roche to name the two hearts. Roche looks down at the evidence and says softly: "Well, I think you know one of them already." He slowly lifts his eyes to meet Mulder's, gently testing him. The two men stare at each other, expressionless, but Mulder's body language is weak -- he's hunched over so that Roche is taller than he is. He seems small and vulnerable. Scully, on the other hand, is rigid and strong, her voice firm as she snaps at Roche: "Prove it."
John cannot contain his smile any longer; it widens into a great big grin, his eyes amused. "Watergate was on TV." He looks to Mulder, checking for a reaction. Mulder doesn't move or say anything. The camera stays on Mulder's reactions as Roche continues: "You and your sister... were sitting in front of it... playing a board game, uh, with little red and, uh, blue plastic pieces." Mulder’s face falls and he lowers his gaze to the table, remembering. "Anyway, you wanted to watch a TV show..." Mulder's head jerks up at that, his expression clearly thinking, how could he possibly know that detail?
Roche keeps talking: "...the one with Bill Bixby. What the heck was the name of that thing?"
Mulder: "How could you know what I said?"
Scully's face is a stern scowl. She looks cautiously from Roche to her partner, just in case he needs her. Roche explains: "I was watching... from the window. I was -- I was very careful."
Mulder studies the convict before speaking softly. "If that's true, tell me where my sister is." His voice is even, but his face is open and vulnerable.
Roche looks down at the two cloth hearts and back up at Mulder. "Pick her out." Mulder is confused, so Roche explains, touching the two evidence bags: "You choose the one that was your sister, and I'll tell you where she is."
What a manipulative bastard.
As Mulder squints at him, Roche nudges: "Hey, come on. It's a 50-50 chance. Either way, I'm giving you a victim." He looks to Mulder, a slight smile in his eyes.
Mulder's forehead wrinkles as he studies the two fabric hearts. He reaches out and taps the bag on the right.
Roche taunts him with a sickeningly gentle voice: "That one. You sure you want that one?"
Mulder looks down at the hearts, uncertain, his face troubled and scared. Scully stares at Roche, disgusted, her head twitching with pure fury. She looks like she wants to take a swing at him. Get in line, Scully.
Roche laughs. "No, just kidding. It's -- it's a good choice." Mulder's eyes slowly move from the hearts back to Roche. His brow furrows. He looks weary and sad and so needy.
***
ACT 2
SCENE 5
The Mad Hatter strikes again.
Mulder's hand pulls back branches and leaves to reveal a massive, graffitied rock with the words MAD HAT carved into its side.
As he and Scully look around the base of the rock, the Magic-Typewriter-on-the-screen informs us that this is FORKS OF CACAPON, WEST VIRGINIA. What an odd name. I wonder who came up with that little bit of wackiness. Anyway. Moving on...
Mulder begins to dig into the black earth with his hands. His face is a mask of extreme concentration, like the veins in his forehead might explode at any moment if he doesn't find what he's looking for. He looks like he's on the brink of losing his mind, he's so intensely focused on his task, his eyes wild. Scully rests her hand on his back and implores him to let a team come out and do the excavation. He keeps going, not answering. Scully tries again: "Let somebody else do this."
Mulder shakes his head minutely and digs furiously. "Help me, Scully."
She studies her partner for a moment, then reaches in and puts her hands into the ground. They dig together, both breathing hard, hands working quickly.
Eventually they uncover bits of fabric, and their hands slow down. Scully gasps as she sees the cut-out shape, just like the others. She exhales heavily and looks to Mulder. He sits back on the ground, staring at the find, his face in agony.
Cut to a close-up of the heart-shaped fabric remnant, nestled in the dirt.
***
ACT 3
SCENE 1
Unimaginable horrors.
Strips of florescent light flicker on. Mulder stands at the far end of the room, holding files in his hand. With the autopsy table in the foreground, the camera shot makes him look so small and helpless in his distance from where the skeleton of the newly found victim is covered with a sheet. He takes his time, pausing for several long seconds before he slowly makes his way to the lab table.
Mulder sighs, looking to the covered body for a moment. He sets the files down, and pulls out an X-ray, holding it up to the light for closer scrutiny. He tucks the X-ray back into the folder, and looks to the mound on the table, his mouth small and tight. He looks down at his hands, pausing again, gathering himself, before he turns and reaches out to uncover the skeleton.
A close-up reveals the terrible anguish all over his face. His eyes appear wet like he's been crying, and he looks physically and emotionally exhausted. He takes a breath, and another, before finally reaching out his hand to brush along the bone of the clavicle.
The door to the room opens a small fraction, and Scully peeks in on her partner. She watches him from the entryway for a moment as Mulder delicately examines the skeleton.
She speaks up very carefully: "Mulder?"
His face is anxious, on the verge of tears. He breathes heavily, his voice breaking as he answers her: "It's not her, Scully. Am I right?"
Scully moves quickly to join him at the table. Mulder points to an area on the body: "Samantha broke her collarbone when she was six. It was her left collarbone. We had a -- we had a rope swing out in the backyard. It's not broken, is it?"
Scully feels along the bone and acknowledges that he's correct. It's not a match. It's not her.
Mulder closes his eyes and breathes out in extreme relief, bending over, leaning against the edge of the table for support. He smiles momentarily as Scully touches him, her hand supportively pressing against his shoulder. Scully exhales, her face still concerned.
Mulder sobers, looking to the skeleton once more. "It's somebody, though." He turns his back to Scully, lowering his head in grief.
***
ACT 3
SCENE 2
Borrowing from the words of Clairee Belcher: Hit him, Scully! Hit him hard!
Back for another torturous visit with John Lee Roche.
Mulder and Scully sit on one side of the table, Roche on the other. Thank goodness for Scully -- I don't think Mulder would be able to handle such an interview on his own, in his mental state. Mulder sits back in his chair, his arms folded, his face drawn, as Scully sits forward, taking charge.
Roche: "Like I said, it was a 50-50 chance."
Scully: "Tell us the name of that girl."
Roche is casually rocking back and forth on the back legs of his chair. He seems more serious than usual, more contemplative. He says the victim was a girl named Karen Ann Philiponte. She lived in East Amherst, New York. Scully jots this down in a notebook as Roche continues to muse, smiling fondly now: "Mint grew outside her window. I -- I stood outside her window atop sprigs of mint. It smelled wonderful."
Scully pauses at that, tightening her jaw in irritation. Her voice is strained as she asks him what year it was. July 1974.
Roche says he had her mother on the hook for an ElectroVac Argosy, but at the last minute she changed her mind. He looks a little ticked off at that, even after all these years. As if that's a good enough reason for him to take her child and kill her. So evil.
Scully stares at him, but he smiles, shrugging, and says, "Oh, well." He's so damn creepy, I can't possibly convey it well enough.
Cut to a terribly amusing shot of Mulder and Scully both glaring at the man. Mulder's slouched down in his seat, his arms folded across his chest, while Scully sits rod-straight, frowning, her hands folded in front of her and resting on her notepad. They both look like they want to pull out their weapons and shoot the guy. (I get the feeling the guard standing in the next room wouldn't "see" that, either.)
Mulder gives Roche a weighty look and then reaches into his pocket, withdrawing the final heart. He sets it in front of John, and returns to his previous defensive posture, arms folded across his chest.
Roche picks up the plastic bag, looking at the heart, turning it over and over in his hands, before responding: "It's your sister." But he doesn't meet Mulder's eyes when he says it. Interesting.
Mulder's voice is tight: "If that's true, tell me where."
Roche's eyes are all over Mulder now, pushing him: "You want to know a lot more than that, don't you? You want to know everything, right? The big mystery revealed?"
Scully tells the bastard to drop the mind games. Mulder blinks but says nothing.
Roche ignores Scully, his eyes never leaving Mulder's face: "I can't just tell you. I mean, I know you don't believe me yet. You need me to show you. You need me to lead you through it, because... after all these years, anything less than that's not gonna satisfy you, right?" He smiles slightly.
Mulder sneers. "You just want to get out of here." He gets up from his chair and turns his back on Roche, hands on hips.
John jumps in quickly. "You're damn right, I do. If only for a day or two. I'm realistic." He sniffs, looking down at the heart again, pushing at the plastic bag with his fingers. Then he goes in for the kill: "I mean, more than that, I--" He looks up at Mulder. "I can't wait to see your face."
Mulder turns, eyebrows raised, his eyes wide and incredulous, as Scully gasps. She stands up, her chair scraping loudly against the cement floor. She defends her partner: "You're gonna see the inside of your cell instead. You're gonna rot there." I love it when she gets all valiant on Mulder's behalf.
She turns to Mulder. "Let's go." The door buzzes open, and she moves smoothly through the space. But Mulder lingers a moment, considering Roche, looking him in the eye. Roche's expression is mildly challenging. Mulder reaches down and takes away the cloth heart. Scully is waiting for him, holding the door open until he exits through it.
As they pass by the viewing window, they stop for a moment. Scully breathes heavily and studies her partner with concern: "Are you okay?" He nods slowly. She is his conscience, his logic, once again: "Mulder, the last thing we should do is give this man his way on this. If we do, he could string us along forever. I know you appreciate that." He nods again, but his eyes are on Roche. Scully says gently, "There has to be another way to come to the truth."
Mulder turns his head, his eyes meeting hers. He nods wordlessly and returns his gaze to the man in the visitors' room. Roche rubs his hands across the top of his head, running them down his face until his eyes peek out at Mulder from between his long fingers. He tilts his head playfully, smiling, as he stands and saunters out of the room, returning to his cell. Scully watches Mulder and turns away, closing her eyes and shaking her head, worry all over her face, as Mulder impassively tracks Roche.
***
ACT 3
SCENE 3
Bad idea, Mulder.
Mulder's apartment. Shiny happy fish tank bubbling in the background.
Mulder is stretched out on his couch, his knees bent, his hand resting near his mouth. He seems to be pondering something, perhaps weighing his options.
He sits up and reaches for the phone, dialing. The Clerk's Office.
As the scene cuts to a flight attendant cracking open cans of soda from a beverage cart in the aisle of a plane, we hear Mulder's voice, still on that phone call: "This is Special Agent Fox Mulder with the F.B.I., badge number JTT 047 101111. I need a removal order for a federal prisoner."
Oh, Mulder.
SEABOARD AIR FLIGHT #1650
WASHINGTON TO BOSTON
Mulder now sits on an aisle seat in the plane, John Lee Roche in the middle seat next to his. Roche's hands are cuffed, but he has a suit jacket draped over them so no one can see he is a criminal. Roche looks around, happy to be out of his cell. Casually, he asks if he can use the lavatory. Mulder considers him, studying for tricks, but eventually nods. As Mulder gets up from his seat and stands in the aisle, Roche notes the gun in the holster on Mulder's hip, tucked underneath his suit coat.
The criminal gets up and moves smoothly, 'accidentally' positioning himself so that the flight attendant with the drink cart blocks Mulder, allowing Roche to travel freely down the aisle by himself. As he tries to get around the cart, Mulder's eyes never leave Roche.
John stops to chat with a woman and her daughter, asking the little girl if it's her first time flying. She's eagerly looking out the window, so Roche squats down to her level, an expression of excitement crossing his features. He barely looks at the child's mother, his full attention concentrated on the young girl. He asks her if she's having fun, and she nods happily.
Mulder instructs the flight attendant to move the damn cart already. (Only he says it a little nicer than that.) He pushes past, trying to reach his prisoner.
Roche asks the girl what her name is, and she answers brightly, "Caitlin." Roche notices Mulder getting closer, so he stands again, ready to head for the bathroom as originally planned. Mulder reaches his side, nudging him along, away from the woman and her child. Caitlin watches the 'nice man' leave.
***
ACT 3
SCENE 4
Scully and Skinner: Two people who really should know better by now.
Skinner's sitting in his office, looking frustrated. "What do you mean, he checked out Roche?" Oops. Way to keep an eye on your partner, there, Scully.
Apparently Mulder convinced a judge that it was an emergency situation. Skinner wants to know where the hell Scully was when this event occurred. Excellent question, Skinman.
Scully says she had left Mulder for the day. Scully, Scully, Scully... you've worked with the guy for four years. Don't you know by now that he always waits till your guard is down and then he goes off and does stupid things without you?
Scully: "I suggested that he get some sleep."
That's probably the worst thing to say to a man whose slumber during the last three or four days has been tormented by bad childhood memories, manipulative serial killers, and visions of dead bodies. The last thing he wants to do is go to sleep!
Scully looks very contrite as she tells Skinner that she thinks she knows where Mulder is headed and that she believes she can catch up with him. Skinner's not taking any more chances on his two chucklehead troublemakers. He insists that he will be the one to catch up with his rogue agent.
He asks where Mulder is. Martha's Vineyard.
Scully defends her partner valiantly: "I would hope that you'd appreciate the uniqueness of this situation and its effect on Agent Mulder."
Skinner gets quiet and deadly serious: "I fully understand the effect it has on him, Agent Scully. As I recall, that was the sum and total of my last words to you on the subject. You let me down."
Ouch. Low blow. It's like getting reprimanded by one's father.
Scully looks properly chastised as Skinner continues: "Let's clean up this mess before it gets completely out of hand."
Oh, Skinner. You've worked with Agent Mulder for years. Don't you know by now that things will always get more out of hand before they get resolved?
***
ACT 3
SCENE 5
I adore Fox Mulder and this scene.
Mulder holds a door open for Roche. John makes his way through the foyer of the home and into the living room. He turns to look at the agent and smirks, "No one home?"
Mulder's face is almost entirely enveloped in shadows as he steps toward Roche. It's kind of a scary moment. I briefly wonder if he's going to beat the guy to a bloody pulp and bury his body in the woods behind his childhood home.
Mulder says nothing. Roche has a creepy, teasing smile on his face as he moves to sit on the plastic sheet-covered couch. He gestures to it, patting the cushion next to him: "I sat on this couch. You know, when your dad bought the vacuum."
Mulder is illuminated now, his face impassive.
Roche: "You ready?"
Mulder's not anguished anymore. His face is serious and stony: "Go."
Roche begins, his eyes looking all around the room, his voice dreamy and low: "November 27, 1973. I watched the house for hours. I parked across the way, out over there. I was just casing. I wasn't planning for this to be the night. But then all of a sudden your parents leave, and I figure--" He looks to Mulder, a tiny smile on his lips.
Mulder's unmoved. "Where'd they go?"
Roche gets up, Mulder's eyes follow his every move. "House next door... to play pinochle, I don't know. Whatever it was people did back then."
Mulder urges him to keep going.
Roche says, "So after they're gone, I get out of my car and I move closer..." He looks down at the ground, at the very spot where Mulder and his sister had sat in front of the television with their game. He continues, "...and I watched you and your sister... playing that board game."
The mention of this seems to rattle Mulder a little bit; his brow furrows and he takes a breath as if he wants to express something, but he doesn't say a word.
Roche wanders about the room, remembering. He says that it was a little after 8 pm and he was ready: "I cut the power, and the lights go off. And then I moved around to the front door..." Mulder's face is a bit anxious, like he's reliving the nightmare.
Roche looks to Mulder, his voice easygoing like they're simply having a casual conversation, rather than talking about how he kidnapped and killed a little girl. "...and I was ready to kick the door in. It was unlocked." He revels in the absurdity of that tidbit for a moment, his voice marveling. "It was 1973. It was... was a different world back then."
Mulder's back to stony mode: "And then what'd you do?"
Roche smiles at him. "Well, you remember that. I -- I came in the front door, and you tried to get to your father's gun." Mulder takes a breath, his jaw tightening. "I give you credit for that. But then you sort of froze, and then..." Mulder's breath quickens. Roche looks off in the distance, as if he's picturing his actions as something noble. "I took your sister away from all this... to a happier place."
Mulder steps up into Roche's personal space. "That's exactly how it happened?"
Roche jerks his head back to face Mulder. He nods. Mulder looks up at him: "Right here in this room?" Roche studies Mulder, as if hoping for a more tortured reaction, and slowly says, "Yeah."
Mulder gets a different look on his face, one of defiance and anger. He waits a beat, then says the most awesome thing ever: "Wrong house."
Roche stares at him, but Mulder keeps going, his voice elevating with each word. "My father bought this house after he and my mother divorced. This house is in West Tisbury. The house that Samantha was abducted from is in Chilmark. That's six miles from here!" Roche looks down at his feet as Mulder keeps yelling: "You screwed up. You were never here. You didn't take Samantha."
Roche seems thoughtful, still not meeting the agent's eyes as he tells Mulder that's just wishful thinking.
Mulder disagrees. "No, but I think I know what happened. Somehow you got inside my dreams."
Roche faces off with him: "Come again?"
Mulder sneers: "I profiled you. I got inside your head. Maybe you got inside mine. Maybe some nexus or connection was formed between us. And through that, you got access to my memories of my sister Samantha, and you used them against me for this."
Roche denies it: "You're just resisting me."
Mulder gets to one of my favorite lines of the entire episode, yelling in Roche's face: "And you're in the wrong house, you stupid son of a bitch!"
Heeeeeeeeee. Go, Mulder.
He keeps going, "You were never here, you liar!"
I love it, I love it! That just never gets old.
Roche gets defensive, talking rapidly: "It's geography, man. It's just geography. It was 23 years ago. That was geography we're talking about."
Mulder's got him now: "Yeah, but you remember all the other details so vividly. That's because you watched it through my eyes, through my dreams." He's got a challenging look on his face, standing up for himself in front of this bastard at last, and it's fantastic.
Roche turns away with a smile on his face. As he sits down on a plastic-covered armchair, he starts to chuckle. He grins up at Mulder as he switches tactics, ever the emotional exploiter: "I hear things about you, Mulder. You know what I heard? I heard you go after aliens... from space."
Mulder nods and eye rolls -- he's heard this kind of teasing before. No big deal. He puts his hands on his hips and waits for more abuse. Roche needles the agent: "It's like your world will be okay as long as you can believe in, like, flying saucers."
He grins and spins his finger in the air, imitating the whirring sound of a flying saucer. It's kind of funny. (Sorry, Mulder. Really sorry.) Even Mulder looks like he might laugh -- maybe it's David Duchovny that wants to laugh in that moment -- but he doesn't. He stifles a smile and simply stands there, waiting.
Roche gets serious, the smirk sliding off his face. He looks Mulder directly in the eye: "But I'm telling you the God's honest truth." He pauses, studying Fox. "And I can see you're not as open-minded as you think you are."
Mulder considers this for a moment, then smiles. "You must've been one hell of a salesman, Roche."
This time Mulder's the one towering over him, as Roche sits hunched over in the chair, looking disappointed. Mulder tells him their flight back to the prison is at 6 am.
"Enjoy your last few hours of freedom."
***
ACT 3
SCENE 6
A Big Ooops.
Night. A car sits in a motel parking lot.
Cut to the inside of the motel room. Roche sleeps, his right wrist handcuffed to the furniture. Mulder is awake, sitting at a table, staring at the final cloth heart like he wishes it would speak to him and identify the victim's name. The delicate, starry music begins to play...
Nothing's really changed; Mulder sits at the table as if he's still awake and alert. But then a muffled voice is heard. Mulder looks up, curious. Suddenly the voice becomes clear. Samantha calls out to him: "Fox!"
Mulder jumps up from the chair, looking around the room as if uncertain of what he's hearing. Samantha keeps calling to him: "Fox! Help! Unlock me! Help!"
Mulder moves to the window and peers outside, searching the parking lot. Roche's El Camino is now parked across the space. Mulder gasps. Samantha is trapped in the car, pounding on the glass. "Fox, help me!"
Mulder whips around, looking to Roche. The convict is still sleeping. Samantha pleads: "Help me! Unlock me! Fox!" Mulder yanks open the door to the room and races out into the parking lot. The engine of the El Camino revs loudly. He hurries over to the car and pulls desperately on the door handle. It's locked. Samantha looks behind her as if something or someone's coming to get her. She looks back to her older brother, begging: "Fox! Fox, help me! Unlock me!"
Mulder pulls keys from his pocket and briefly struggles to find the right one in order to unlock her door. His sister keeps pounding on the door, crying. As the car engine continues to rev, Mulder finally gets the door open. He reaches inside and pulls his sister from the vehicle, hugging her to his chest as she wraps her arms around him, smiling. He holds her tightly, a look of relief and utter joy spreading across his face. He lifts her from his body, holding her up in the air like a baby, looking at her like he can't believe she's there and real and safe, then he hugs her close again. The smile on his face is wide and beautiful.
As he tucks his face against her shoulder, he looks down at the ground. There is a red neon dot resting on the pavement. The smile slowly dissolves from Mulder's face, the car engine revs and the dot stretches into the word BYE.
Stunned, Mulder whirls around with Samantha in his arms, but as he turns the full 180 degrees, suddenly his arms are empty. He's standing in the middle of the parking lot alone, his arms still outstretched. He looks down at himself, confused, and lowers his hands. A pounding sound is heard nearby.
Mulder lifts his head from the motel table as he wakes from his dream. Breathing heavily, he looks around the room, trying to get his bearings. As he looks to the bed on which Roche was sleeping, he sees it is now empty, the covers pulled back, the handcuffs missing. The man is gone.
Oh, crap. How the hell did that happen? Is Roche some kind of magician, or did Mulder unlock him in his sleep?
Mulder looks down. His hands are cuffed together in front of him. He shoves the table out of the way, knocking it over. Scully's voice is heard through the door: "Mulder?"
Mulder spins around the room, as if Roche will somehow magically appear if he looks at the room from another angle. He stares at the empty bed as Skinner's angry voice comes through, insisting that he open the door.
***
ACT 4
SCENE 1
Mulder sorry.
F.B.I. agents search the motel room in the background of the scene as Mulder faces the firing squad... that is, Skinner and Scully. Skinner's livid: "You let Roche go?"
Mulder looks really, really sorry, Dad. "I must have done it in my sleep." He looks to Scully as he says, "I had another dream."
Skinner sighs, exasperated, and tells the other agents to check if anyone saw Roche leave the motel. Meanwhile, Mulder helpfully points out that Roche took the last cloth heart. Scully sounds weary: "He also took your badge and your phone."
Skinner asks a very important question: "Where's your gun?" Mulder gives him a look, opens his mouth and closes it. Yeah. Oops.
Skinner's pissed. He wants Mulder to explain himself. Mulder can't. Skinner points out that a predator is on the loose because of Mulder's mistake. To his credit, Mulder doesn't get defensive or talk back. He looks very serious, like he's well aware of what could be happening right now. Skinner calms down and asks if Mulder has any idea where Roche might be headed.
Mulder ponders, then gets a revelatory look on his face. Ding! Light bulb moment.
He borrows Skinner's cell phone. He pulls out his plane ticket as he dials, telling the agents about a child on the plane. Scully tries to get more information, but Mulder's trying to talk to the airline. He requests a passenger manifest for his previous flight. As he starts to provide his badge number, the airline official interrupts, informing him that an Agent Mulder already called ten minutes before, requesting that same information. He hangs up on the airline supervisor. Guess who won't be getting his in-flight snack on the way back home?
***
ACT 4
SCENE 2
I'll never look at Alice in Wonderland the same again.
NEW FRIENDS DAYCARE
SWAMPSCOTT, MASSACHUSETTS
As Mulder and Scully drive up to the entrance of the daycare, a woman's voice is heard, explaining herself: "He told me he was with the F.B.I. He said her mother was in an accident. He needed to take Caitlin."
Two police officers stand in a huddle with a very distraught, strawberry blonde-haired woman. The police officer confirms that the kidnapper was a white male, about six feet five in height, as Mulder and Scully hurry over to the group.
As Mulder reaches the woman's side, she reveals the guy said his name was Mulder. The poor woman's practically hysterical, she's so upset. "He had a badge. He said he was official. Oh my God, what have I done?"
One of the cops tells Skinner that they sent a unit to pick up the girl's mother. The daycare worker sobs, "What am I going to tell her? It's all my fault."
Mulder steps in, his face lined with guilt, and takes the woman's arm, looking her right in the eye. "It's not your fault. It's my fault." She starts to calm down.
As Skinner and Scully stare at Mulder, he begins to walk away. Scully follows him, and he tells her that she was right, that Roche was playing him the whole time.
Scully catches up to him. "You don't think he took Samantha?" Yay! We’re back to alien abduction conspiracy theories!
Mulder's distracted and worried: "None of that really matters now, does it?"
Scully wonders where Roche would take Caitlin, if he would follow his old M.O. and take her out of state. Mulder leans on his arms against the car, thinking, profiling. "There's no reason for that. He knows we're gonna catch him. He just needs it to be later rather than sooner. He's gonna stay in the Boston area. He'll be somewhere nearby."
Scully digs deeper, wondering if Roche might try to take Caitlin someplace familiar, maybe relive his past glories. She's got an idea.
Skinner joins the conversation as Scully pulls out the case file. She points to Roche's former address from when he lived in Boston in the early seventies. Revere. 9809 Alice Road, apartment number 6. Mulder hears the address and immediately says, "He's there. Alice. Alice in Wonderland. He's the Mad Hatter."
Skinner thinks that's a pretty weak connection, but Mulder insists that's where he got the idea in the first place. As Mulder and Scully get in their car, Skinner whistles at his law enforcement team, signaling them to come with him. Go get him, team!
***
ACT 4
SCENE 3
Sever the connection.
A door busts open, Mulder leading the way. (Guess he borrowed someone else's weapon.) As the other agents sweep the apartment, Mulder, Scully, and Skinner look around the main room. There's a mattress on the floor, but not much else. Scully doesn't think Roche brought her there, after all.
Mulder goes to the window, looking out across the yard. Over a fence in the distance, there is a lot containing rows of school buses. He stares at the sight, and murmurs, "He never brought anyone here." He runs out of the apartment.
Cut to Mulder jogging across the field. In the background, we can hear Skinner telling his other agents to spread out and find the entrance to the bus lot. Meanwhile, Mulder has another way in. He's climbing up on a rusty barrel and over the metal fence wall. Pretty impressive, given that he's in a suit and tie. Smooth moves, Mulder.
He climbs down the other side, dropping down the final few feet, and moves down the aisle between the buses. He pauses to pull a gun from his ankle holster. (Ah, that's where he probably got the weapon he used at the top of this scene! Nice.)
As he tiptoes around the buses, looking up at the windows, trying to figure out where Roche and Caitlin are, suddenly a little girl screams. Mulder takes off running in the direction of the sound.
The scream stops, and Mulder's pace slows. He's not sure which way to go anymore.
A part of the bus (antennae or something that extends up?) noticeably begins to sway in the air, perhaps from movement within one of the vehicles. Mulder follows the antennae until he reaches the proper bus. He crouches down, watching carefully, stepping slowly around the front of the vehicle until he reaches its entrance. He slides it open very carefully. It scrapes and squeaks a bit.
Mulder steps up into the bus, his gun drawn in front of him.
Sitting in a seat at the back of the bus is John Lee Roche. Caitlin sits in the seat directly in front of Roche's. He doesn't move, so Mulder climbs the rest of the way into the vehicle, lowering his gun to his side, at the ready.
Roche speaks: "I'm beginning to believe we do share that... nexus you spoke of. You always seem to find me."
Well, maybe he's just an excellent profiler and you're not as clever as you think you are, Roche. Ever think of that? No? Right. Sorry. Moving on...
Mulder's head dips down a little, as he gently addresses the little girl: "You okay, Caitlin?"
She nods, and Mulder smiles at her. "Good. My name is Fox. I'm going to take you home." She nods again, big tears under her eyes. Poor sweetheart.
Roche murmurs, "I have your gun, Fox."
Mulder studies Roche, weighing his options. Finally, he looks to Caitlin again, speaking lightly as if it's all a game. "Can you do me a favor? Can you count to twenty? Can you do that? Will you close your eyes and count to twenty out loud, quietly and slowly?"
She nods. Mulder begins to count with her. One... two...
As Caitlin's eyes close and she keeps counting, Mulder cocks the hammer on his gun and steps forward, pointing it directly at Roche. He glances down at the little girl, checking to make sure she doesn't see this, then glares at the predator. His gun is inches from Roche's chin.
Three... four...
John looks up at Mulder and says quietly, "I will shoot."
Five...
Mulder's jaw clenches. "Don't make this end badly."
Six...
He looks down and sees that Roche has his gun pointed at the back of Caitlin's seat. His finger is already on the trigger.
Seven... eight...
Mulder casts a worried glance at the little girl, then sends a pleading look to Roche. The sounds of two more guns cocking -- Skinner and Scully are positioned together at the entrance to the bus, pointing their weapons. Backup has arrived!
Roche's grave eyes are on Mulder. "You're not giving me very much choice."
Nine...
He actually looks like he might cry. "I really don't want to go back to prison."
Ten...
Skinner hollers, "Put the gun down, Roche!"
Caitlin keeps counting. Eleven... twelve...
John reaches into his pocket and pulls out the final heart in its plastic sleeve, holding it up for Mulder to see. "You have one left."
Thirteen...
Mulder's eyes widen. He swallows. Roche taunts him one last time: "How are you gonna find her without me?"
Fourteen...
The two men's eyes don't leave each other's faces. Roche continues, his voice wavering: "How sure are you it's not Samantha? Huh?"
Fifteen... sixteen... seventeen...
Mulder's eyes cast downward, then up again, troubled and uncertain.
Roche nudges him: "How do you know?"
Eighteen...
Roche looks pleadingly at Mulder. In this moment, they're both desperate. Mulder works his jaw, staring at the man, trying to figure out what to do, what to believe.
As Caitlin counts out nineteen, everything happens at once. Mulder looks down, Roche's finger starts to depress against the trigger on his weapon, Mulder makes a split decision and fires, Caitlin screams and takes off running down the aisle of the bus, and John Lee Roche's head snaps back on his neck. Blood spatters against the window behind his head.
Caitlin runs into Scully's open arms. Skinner calls out for an ambulance. Really, Skinner? I think that ship has sailed at this point.
Proof positive: we get a nasty close-up of Roche, his face grey, his mouth open, his eyes half-closed, as his body slides sideways, slumping in the seat. His hand still clutches the final cloth heart.
Mulder stands in place, still pointing his gun at the man, as if he thinks the creepy bastard might actually get up and challenge him some more. Eventually, gradually, he lowers his weapon. His face is devastated. The opportunity to find the last victim is lost.
***
ACT 4
SCENE 4
"Mulder, it's not Samantha. And whoever that little girl really is, we'll find her."
Mulder's basement office.
The camera pans across the room, over all the newspaper clippings and photographs tacked to the bulletin board, past the famous "I WANT TO BELIEVE" alien poster...
...coming to rest on Mulder's despondent expression, as he sits at his desk, gazing mournfully at the final heart. He looks like he might cry.
He lifts watery eyes to the sound of a knock on his door. Scully slowly enters the room, coming to stand before her partner, giving him a compassionate look. He watches her quietly, his eyes a bit dazed and lost, as she sets a folder on his desk.
Scully's voice is low and gentle: "I got back some lab results. The dye analysis determined that the fabric of the last heart was manufactured between 1969 and 1974, but beyond that there's nothing more they can tell us."
Mulder looks down at the file. He swallows and takes a breath, sniffling a little, as Scully promises: "Mulder, it's not Samantha. And whoever that little girl really is, we'll find her."
Mulder can't meet her eyes. His voice comes out in a whisper, small, childlike and disbelieving: "How?"
He looks completely broken and miserable. David Duchovny is killing me here, he's just so heartbreaking.
Scully says tenderly, "I don't know... but I do know you."
He looks up at her gratefully for a moment, but then his emotions overcome him again, and his face crumples into a wince. He returns his mournful gaze to the cloth heart. He looks wistful.
Scully suggests softly, "Why don't you go on home and get some sleep?"
Oh, Scully. What did I already tell you about that idea?
Mulder looks up at her again, this time his face breaking into an incredulous expression as he begins to laugh. Like he can't believe she just said that, either. Scully closes her eyes momentarily, cringing and smiling. See, she gets it now. It's a terrible joke.
She reaches out, squeezing his shoulder lovingly, and Mulder leans in, resting his head against her hip. He's still smiling. He reaches around her, holding on tight. Scully's face sobers and she runs a hand through his hair, cupping the back of his head before pulling away entirely. Mulder closes his eyes, savoring the smile a little longer.
As his partner exits and the door closes with a soft click, Mulder's eyes open. The smile slips away. He stares down at the cloth heart, picking it up, holding it, studying it one last time. Eventually, he opens the drawer next to him and sets the evidence bag inside. We get a close-up of the pretty, pink-flowered fabric heart as Mulder looks upon it, finding it difficult to let go. Like he's thinking of all the lost opportunities, destroyed childhoods, and missing sisters. Everything that's slipped through his fingers in one brutal instant.
As the fairy tale music continues to play, Mulder closes the drawer. He looks down at it for a moment, letting go. Then he turns to look forward, a sorrow-filled expression lingering on his face.
The screen fades to black.
End of episode.
***
If you've made it this far, thanks so much for reading.
If you love this episode as much as I do, you might be interested in some further reading material: the lovely and talented
leucocrystal has written a brilliant, thought-provoking essay for this episode, entitled Down The Rabbit Hole: Dreams, Memory, Subjective Reality and Mulder as Alice, that is well worth your time. I highly, highly recommend it. Thank you again for reading my take on this marvelous episode.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-07-30 01:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-30 02:51 am (UTC)(BTW, I'm still working on my fanfic... I'm anxious to hear your thoughts on Merlin, hahaha!! I'm motivated by this *nods* ;D)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-30 04:28 am (UTC)I love the visuals in this ep--especially the dot and the words, and how the music blends with them so well to create a really unique/intriguing atmosphere that pulls the viewer in right away. What's going on here, we ask ourselves. Is it real? What will happen next? Certainly this ep is as good an example as you'll find of so very many storytelling factors that made the show the classic it was.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-30 07:06 pm (UTC)And look! Our icons are twins. But yours has a cooler font. ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-30 07:11 pm (UTC)Seriously, thank you for being so encouraging, Mel. I really appreciate it. *hugs*
And aren't these episodes the best?? Seriously. I'm sorry that person had to drop out of recapping "Paper Hearts," but at the same time I was like, whooopeee for me! I know. I should be ashamed of myself. *head bowed* But seriously, come on, it's Paper Hearts! So good. And Tunguska/Terma is such a pivotal and exciting part of the mythology; I just love all the tension and surprises and shocking, intriguing details. Love it, love it, love it.
Can't wait to hear your thoughts about it all. When you have the time. :)
You know, after you finish writing your Merlin story. HAHAHHAHA *poke poke* I'm glad my comment was a good motivator. Hee.
And don't feel bad... you're not the only one who still has writing commitments. I believe I owe four of you stories from that meme, and I'm not backing down from that. I simply allowed myself to get sidetracked by XFilesy goodness for a little while. Now that I'm done with those three eps, I can get my head back in the storywriting game. (Oh, help.)
:D
P.S. Look! Our icons are twins, too! ;) But I like how close-up yours is.
P.S. again. Could I seriously say the word 'seriously,' like, one more time in this post? Sheesh. Seriously. (Hee hee.)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-30 07:20 pm (UTC)It was fun, though. :D
My hat's off to you! A marathon recap.
Thank you! Is it a marathon recap because it was good, or because it was simply reeeeeally lengthy? ;)
Certainly this ep is as good an example as you'll find of so very many storytelling factors that made the show the classic it was.
Well said, and so true, my friend. Man, I really do love this episode. I love many XF episodes, for many different reasons, but this is one of those that's just so terrific in an overall sense, in so many ways. I ♥ it. *GRIN* I'm really delighted I got the opportunity to recap it. Tunguska, Terma, and Paper Hearts are definitely in my top ten favorite XF episodes. They're just so fantastic. I'm not sure I can really narrow things down to a top ten, but if I did, these three would have to be in it. No question. Paper Hearts because of David's spectacular work, and Tunguska/Terma for David and Gillian and Mitch but especially for Nick. Great, great stuff.
I'm going to be heading to Green Bay for the weekend to see a childhood friend in a musical, but I'll try my very best to send you an email before I go. Much to say, not enough time in the world to write it all out! *wry smile*
P.S. No matching/twins icon for me and you... I don't have a good Tunguska/Terma user pic. Alas. Here, at least I'll give you a little Krycek. Heee.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-30 08:14 pm (UTC)Man, I know what that's like!
No matching/twins icon for me and you... I don't have a good Tunguska/Terma user pic.
Whereas my one and only icon is all about Tunguska/Terma. :D
no subject
Date: 2009-07-30 08:48 pm (UTC)That's because you are wise and focused on something really wonderful. Whereas I'm currently scattered in life (heh) and in my various favorite programs, so I wanted a little something for each one. (West Wing & X-Files, of course, along with Bones, a little bit of the current Doctor Who, and then a writery Snoopy theme because it makes me smile.) Though there are too many good XF moments to have an icon for each! You chose a good one.
*hugs you* How are you today?