5x02 Redux and 5x03 Redux II

[wendelah1]

Why "Redux" and "Redux II"? It's quite simple. As the resolution to the season four cancer arc, these episodes are essential additions to a Scully-centric episode rewatch.



Writer: Chris Carter
Director: R. W. Goodwin (Part One) and Kim Manners (Part Two)
Originally aired: November 2, 1997, November 9, 1997

Synopsis: Although together Redux and Redux II resolve the multiple cliffhangers from season four's finale "Gethsemane," you don't need to watch it first because they recap it at the beginning of "Redux." Though Mulder isn't really dead, Scully really is terminally ill. As she is giving testimony to a committee of FBI bigwigs, including some Consortium moles, she collapses and is rushed to the hospital and put on a ventilator. This brings Mulder out of hiding just in time to break into the D.O.D. and get her another chip. Lots of other stuff happens too. We'll get to all that in the discussion.

Most Memorable Quote:

SCULLY: I've come so far in my life on simple faith, and now when I need it the most I just push it away. I mean, why ... why do I wear this? (Scully holds up the cross necklace) Why do I wear this, Mom? I put something that I don't even know or understand under the skin of my neck. I will subject myself to these crazy treatments, and I keep telling myself that I'm doing everything I can, but it's a lie!

Links:

Red Wolf's X-Files Episode Guide: Redux | Redux II
Autumn Tysko's Reviews are not exactly raves: Redux | Redux II
Paula Graves' reviews take a contrary view: Redux | Redux II.
A more contemporary take:
A.V. Club Review: Redux | Redux II

Fanfiction: There were hundreds of stories written for these episodes. These are my favorites.
Isometry by syntax6.
Blood and Breath by rivkat.
The Trade by fialka.

Comments

[tri-sbr.livejournal.com]

Oh where to begin? random musings in no particular order:

I really enjoy these episodes, especially the second one, although they kind of run together into one big ep in my head.

First off - that consortium / syndicate guy at the race track has some really horrendous teeth! Yuck!

Lots and lots of information was thrown at us in the first part - the video montage with Kritschgau's explanations about the hoax and all the Mulder and Scully voiceovers - whew! I get that it was the only way to get all that information across, but I still managed to get kind of lost. But I pretty much ignored the confusing parts and just went for the rest of the ride the episodes offered ;) So sue me.

Mulder is so broken down - everything he believed is in question, Scully is dying, and then finally, he does get to meet his sister and it is not at all the reunion he must have imagined.

I love the part near the beginning where Mulder says "Scully would have known" that the alien body was not real - such complete trust in her abilities. And then later, Mulder doesn't hesitate in the slightest when he says the thing he wants most is the cure for Scully's cancer. Even on the rewatch, I thought "Samantha" and was semi-surprised at his automatic response. Guess it's been a while since I watched these...

And, the scene of him turning up in the hospital trying to locate Scully, demanding to be taken to her, finding her with all the tubes - total flashback to when she was returned from her abduction. Fantastic work by DD.

And Scully, poor Scully. She continues doggedly using science to investigate the microorganism and she finds the connection to herself even as she is falling apart under the surface, physically and emotionally. GA does such a great job here - you can see that so much emotion is right below the surface, until it finally comes spilling out toward the end - but in a very Scully-like way.

And, the wonderful hospital scenes between M&S. I know that the plot often demands the two of them are off pursuing different leads, but the interaction between them is the best part of the show, to me.

I think this is the first time I have rewatched these after having read Isometry (by syntax6), and I could not help thinking about that story as I watched. Wonderful story.

I could keep going but I'll quit for now.

[wendelah1]

I have to ignore the messed up, contradictory 1013 myth-arc and just focus on my Scully love to get through these.

I do think the scenes between Mulder and Scully are some of the most compelling of the series. Both DD and GA knock them out of the park.

I love the part near the beginning where Mulder says "Scully would have known" that the alien body was not real - such complete trust in her abilities.

Yes. He does trust her abilities, which makes it all the more dismaying when he dismisses her judgment so out of hand as in "Unruhe." What was the line? "You would say that." I just wanted to smack him.

And then later, Mulder doesn't hesitate in the slightest when he says the thing he wants most is the cure for Scully's cancer. Even on the rewatch, I thought "Samantha" and was semi-surprised at his automatic response.

Well, yeah. He trades his sister (who isn't his sister but he doesn't know that) to the bounty hunter to get Scully back and that was all the way back in season two, right? But as some writer pointed out (Syntax again for sure--and probably others), Mulder is very good at loving people whom he's already lost. Once Scully is saved, he quickly reverts back to the "she's my partner" emotional status quo.

[tri-sbr.livejournal.com]

Yes, the inconsistency of Mulder's appreciation for Scully's abilities (and to some extent vice versa) is frustrating. I have a hard time seeing this as entirely a character trait and not at least partly due to inconsistency in the way his character is written. Or maybe that is my wishful thinking - wanting to see them both as their best selves.

[wendelah1]

Well, I think Fox Mulder is unpredictable. For better or worse, I think that is one of his defining characteristics.

I forgot to mention that I also can't help thinking of "Isometry" as I'm watching these episodes.

[vjs2259.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I don't care for these episodes much. I don't believe in miracles, or micro-chip cures.

It was an interesting counterpoint to Wetwired; Scully blaming Mulder for the death of her sister etc. while she was paranoid and Bill blaming him here.

I liked Scully's doctor. Very straightforward, explained what he knew, admitted what he didn't, and left it up to her.

Also Mulder and Bill in the hospital. Mulder was not challenging or annoying but he didn't stand down either.

I did love the lab stuff. Scully remembered her eye protection this time. Also she spooled DNA. So old school! So much fun! Although she should have used a glass rod. That looked like a bacterial loop. Southern blot! PCR would have been quicker but this was a while ago. It was like a trip back to my first job, only the lab was much cleaner.

[wendelah1]

I'm afraid I don't care for these episodes much. I don't believe in miracles, or micro-chip cures.

I don't believe in micro-chip cures either. I also don't believe in aliens or vampires. We're pretty much stuck with all three with this show. I wish having introduced this plot line that they had handled it better. Anything to do with the mytharc is at best a near miss with this show.

It was an interesting counterpoint to Wetwired; Scully blaming Mulder for the death of her sister etc. while she was paranoid and Bill blaming him here.

Bill is angry at Mulder because he thinks that working with Mulder has cost him one sister and is about to coast him another. He thinks that working with Mulder ruined his sister's life. I can't really disagree with him. Mrs. Scully probably feels the same way but still feels like she has to be nice to Mulder. It's the niceness compulsion. Bill's a man and when men are pissed off, they don't act nice.

I liked Scully's doctor, too.

I did love the lab stuff. Scully remembered her eye protection this time. Also she spooled DNA. So old school! So much fun! Although she should have used a glass rod. That looked like a bacterial loop. Southern blot! PCR would have been quicker but this was a while ago. It was like a trip back to my first job, only the lab was much cleaner.

This is such a cool comment!

So many issues, so little time

[wendelah1]

Having dealt with with cancer on both a personal and a professional basis, I find all of the cancer arc episodes frustrating, beginning with "Memento Mori" and continuing through "Redux" and "Redux II."

A diagnosis of cancer has a huge impact on someone's life, yet aside from an occasional nosebleed, we don't see Dana Scully or her family or her partner very much affected. She continues to work, she shows no outward signs of the effects of undergoing cancer treatments. For Dana Scully, the cancer only exists as an intermittent plot device whereas in real life, getting cancer and undergoing treatment changes everything, even if you do go into remission.

The other important fact that is missing from the cancer arc is that her particular cancer is in fact highly treatable. Of course, her cancer having been caused by an alien virus or whatever the cockamamie story was that they finally settled on would necessarily impact the course of the disease. But it would have been nice if that had been acknowledged as the problem rather than making the "placement and type of tumor" the reason she wasn't cured by conventional medicine.

I don't have that much of a problem with the resolution of the cancer arc. Since her cancer arose from exposure to an alien virus, it makes sense that her medical treatment wouldn't necessarily be effective--although I like Kel's theory in "The Beginner's Guide to Tightrope Walking" that there was a second implanted chip that was causing the cancer that needed to be removed to free her from needing the chip in her neck.

My other issues with these episodes have to do with the writing. The very idea that the Consortium gave Dana Scully cancer to make Mulder believe in aliens is preposterous. What about the other Mufon women? Why did they get cancer then? What on earth could make Fox Mulder so important to the Consortium that they would engineer a hoax of this magnitude? Plus, isn't the net effect the same? Whether it's just the government or an unholy alliance of alien and human conspirators, someone is abducting human beings and conducting tests on them. Someone is implanting the chips in abductees, someone is taking the kids from Bellfleur and putting the implants in them. What about the Kurt clones and the Samantha clones and the vile green goo? What about the shapeshifters and the bounty hunters and the Jeremiah Smiths? One guy weaves a silly story and suddenly Mulder is all, right then no aliens. Uh huh.

There are other more technical issues. How did Mulder drag a dead man from the apartment above him down the hall into an elevator and then down another hallway to his apartment without making one unholy mess. How would he have had the time to do it? Wouldn't the neighbors have called the police as soon as they heard gunshots?

Supposedly Skinner was able to withhold the forensic evidence that tied Mulder to the murder from the Joint FBI taskforce investigating the murder. How? Once the evidence is processed, it's in the FBI database for anyone with the right access to see. And what's other agency the FBI taskforce joined up with?

I can just go on and on like this.

The bottom line is I don't find much of anything that happened in these episodes to be credible.

What I did like:

The scenes between Mulder and Scully in the hospital were touching and real.

I found myself strongly identifying with Mulder's reaction when he first enters the ICU and sees his partner on a ventilator. That part I believed. I'm an RN, I knew what to expect and I still nearly collapsed when I saw my husband in the ICU intubated and hooked up to machinery.

Though the fandom as a whole mostly disagrees, I personally have no trouble understanding brother Bill's anger at Fox Mulder.