Oubliette

An out of character episode to say the least; to me they both seem so bizarre. Scully is portrayed almost as a bad guy, complete with a scene where bad-guys-are-coming music pays as Mulder looks out the window to see Scully pulling up with the police. Scully totally deserves the bad-guy treatment in this one though, because she's not only unsympathetic and callous, but openly.. catty? When Lucy is in a rush to leave the hospital room after discussing her kidnapping experience, Scully tactlessly mutters to Mulder"I guess she’s not too big on confined spaces." WTF is that about?

Or, because not everyone aspires to be a bipolar drug-addicted waitress;

M: It’s amazing she’s gotten anywhere in life.

S: Well, by most yardsticks, she hasn’t, Mulder.

And Mulder becomes scarily and inappropriately obsessed with the victim, even crying when they find her dead. Just what is going on here?


I'd love to lay blame on an inexperienced (with the X-Files, anyway) writer who just doesn't really know the characters, but that's a boring answer. Tension is high in this episode, and not in a good way; let's pretend we can put it into context.

I think Mulder hasn't dealt  with his father's death yet. At the end of that arc, we see a united partnership, but in the episodes since, we don't see a lot of cohesion really. Ultimately, I believe in certain ways Scully must (even if unconsciously) blame Mulder for her sister's death, and likewise Mulder must blame Scully for giving up the digital tape that contained all of the secrets and all of the answers to the questions he's been asking for his entire life.


With this being such a seriously tumultuous period, Mulder never was able to make sense of his dad's death. Perhaps this Lucy is not only a symbol of Mulder sister, as Scully insists-for which Mulder snaps at her; "And not everything I do, say, think, and feel goes back to my sister. You, of all people should realize that sometimes motivations for behavior can be more complex and mysterious than tracing them back to one single childhood experience. 

Maybe Lucy is also a target for these feelings Mulder has about his father; how he absolutely refuses that either of them are capable of doing anything wrong, even when Lucy is a suspect, and even when his father is ready to confess some horrible secret to him.


Mulder comes up with the lamest, least likely (but true somehow??) excuse for Lucy's shirt being covered in the victim's blood...

AGENT EUBANKS: How did she get the blood on her?

M: She may have bled it.

AGENT EUBANKS: She bled Amy Jacobs’ blood?

M: Yes. It may explain why there was so little of it on the carpet in Amy’s bedroom. 

(That also might explain why you don't have any friends anymore...) 

S: I hate to say this, Mulder, but I think you just ran out of credibility.


So he gets emotional about the case, and when it's all finally over, the whole thing falls apart, and all of his pent up despair comes pouring out. Catharsis- the end.

A handful of gems:

M: Whether she knew it or not, she was repeating the exact words spoken by Amy’s abductor the exact same time 20 miles across town.

S: Well, that’s spooky.

M: That’s my name, isn’t it?

And Firefly's Jewel Staite (who is so young here!!) as the victim!