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24 January 99 Sunday

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Last week, in S.R. 819, I was really glad to have Skinner and Krycek back-- even though the plot was a direct steal from an old Popular Mechanics magazine article about making window drapes superfluous in the homes of the future by using beamed electrical current to polarize carbon crystals within the glass. (What will they think of next?!) But this week's episode was the best episode ever. Kudos to Vince Gilligan for Tithonus*. You should get an award. The epitome of everything an X-Files episode ought to be. Simple, clean, inspired! And I loved watching Scully lying in that hospital bed, tied in a mental knot wondering whether she might have somehow become immortal, and knowing there was no way in hell she could ever voice even the hint of such a bizarre thought to Mulder! Of course, the writer could have allowed for some small measure of chacter development in this most interesting situation, but, I suppose that's a quibble... still, it's the only shortcoming standing in the way of having the episode declared "perfect." Unfortunately, I do not look forward to the next two episodes. I have never been interested in the explanations for what I consider to be the ridiculous and inept "alien" plotlines. (I didn't mind the movie, but I've always considered that Mulder was hallucinating when he "saw" the saucer depart.) And I have always entertained a hope that Samantha's "abduction" will turn out to have a completely mundane explanation, but, I have never been tempted to bet on that hope. It also ocurrs to me that DD's eleven episode contract is up with the next two episodes. I suppose I can put up with Scully, and Skinner, and Krycek, and Langly, and Byers, and Frohike, and Cancer Man all scouring the landscape for traces of Mulder. But if they can't come up with a personality for Spender, I hope they kill him.