The Cave's
X-Files Commentary Archives:
Episodes: 2x06, Ascension
Title: The Cost of What You Do
Author: bardsmaid
From the Mulder-Maggie Scully scene in the original*
Ascension script (changed before it aired):
MULDER: I keep thinking this wouldn't have happened
if--
MAGGIE: (cuts him off) She knew the risks.
In this second part of this critical mythology arc,
there are risks for everyone, but the fact is that although any of us
may understand risks in theory, often we don't really recognize
them for what they are until they're staring us in the face and there's
no way to back out of the predicaments they've landed us in. Let's look
at some of the ones facing our characters:
Scully
When she joined the FBI, Scully knew that potential danger was involved.
Even if she'd joined with a rose-colored view of Bureau work, her
Quantico training would have brought the potential risks into focus.
And yet the one her training surely didn't emphasize was that of
becoming endangered through working with a partner who was continually
poking into shadowy areas that certain dubious but influential men
didn't want touched.
She's been warned, in a roundabout way, by the fact
that the X-files were shut down at the end of Season 1, and yet the
message wasn't clear to her at that point. She continued to do what the
shadow men considered most egregious: support her former partner. So
here, with the simple act of swiping a mysterious metal fragment over a
scanner--an urge any true scientist would arguably have--Scully sets off
a series of events that make the dangers suddenly very real and
personal. The X-files, for her, will no longer just be about science
vs. belief, reality vs. delusion or even about Mulder's quest to find
his sister or to prove alien life a reality. It will also be about her:
about the damage she will suffer, about loss, about literally fighting
for her life, and about the search for the very personal truth of what's
been done to her. In the beginning she investigated X-files; in this
episode, she becomes one.
Skinner
Over the years Skinner has surely learned that there's a game to be
played within the FBI just as within any other organization. He reminds
Mulder at one point that 'We all answer to someone", and we've seen how
often CSM has made himself at home in Skinner's office, puffing
languidly away on a Morley and observing what goes on. It's also
absolutely clear that in order to be in a position to do some good,
Skinner has to remain operational. He doesn't have the luxury of
flagrantly bucking the system the way that Mulder does and still
remaining within it to have any influence.
And yet at the end of this episode we see Skinner
going out on a limb. It's our first glimpse of this man standing up to
the shadow powers, rebelling against being a mere puppet or a bland
yes-man in the face of Consortium influences. At some point it's
bound to cost him, but he makes his move regardless.
Mulder
For years, Mulder has lived the risks of being the one who believes in
things nobody else finds rational or possible. He's resigned himself to
his pariah status, though, and has come to accept the price of the role
he plays. And yet he seems completely blindsided during this entire
episode--shell-shocked, even--by the fact that his interests have now
come to exact a personal price upon his ex-partner. Even though
the lines of dialog printed above were removed from the episode's
script, you can almost hear Mulder thinking throughout this hour that 'I
keep thinking this wouldn't have happened if--'. If only she hadn't
been partnered with him. If only she hadn't kept helping him once the
X-files division was dissolved. If only his work had been in violent
crimes, or some other 'legitimate' part of the Bureau. If only he
weren't so damned invested, so damn curious. (So eager, as Grimilkin
puts it, 'to poke figurative knives into metaphorical toasters.')
Mulder tends to be so driven by his need to know or to
investigate a given phenomenon or case that he doesn't always think
about how Scully is affected by their work. It was serendipity that she
came into his life when she did, the supposed spy turned supporter, and
he all too easily, I think, has come to take her and her support for
granted. Now, when she's suddenly gone--and possibly dead--may be the
first time he's really understood the place she's come to hold in his
life. Beyond that, her abduction is the other shoe dropping for Mulder:
they took his sister, and now they've taken the one person who's
actually given him hope since Samantha disappeared. David, it should be
noted, does a wonderful job of playing angry/lost/confused/regretful/driven/dazed
Mulder. (And that final scene, of Mulder alone in the dark on the top
of Skyland Mountain, with Mark Snow's haunting musical accompaniment, is
so very evocative.)
Krycek
No, Krycek doesn't escape the heavy hand of fate in this episode,
either. He's been playing a highs-stakes game since he first appeared,
posing as a concerned, dependable new partner for Mulder and risking
exposure in the process, but the real threat, it turns out, doesn't come
from Mulder but from his own mysterious employer. In the scene in the
parking garage near the episode's conclusion, it's clear that Krycek had
been recruited under the assumption that he'd be making quick progress
up the Consortium ladder, that promises had been made to him. He
doesn't act like a typical bottom-of-the-pecking order newbie. He's
talking strategy with CSM, posing critical questions. But when he asks
for the specifics of what's been done to Scully (and adds, casually,
that "I think I have a right to know"), he's met with the chilling reply
that he "has no rights, only orders to be carried out." Obviously, he's
shaken by this revelation. This is not what he signed on for,
and now he's trapped just as surely as is Scully. If he doesn't like
the terms of his employment, the syndicate will make other arrangements,
but surely Krycek realizes that those 'arrangements' aren't going to
include letting him simply walk away to potentially spill what he knows
to others.
(And of course we know what happens: he's pulled from
the FBI assignment so that all suspicion immediately falls on him. Then
he's given the assignment of playing a consortium thug, until CSM
decides he's had enough of Alex Krycek and tries to blow him up with a
car bomb.)
There are, btw, some interesting differences in the
shading and presentation of Krycek between the original script (see link
below) and what actually aired, as well as more strongly expressed
sentiments--both coming from characters and in stage directions--about
Mulder's feelings for his abducted partner. If you're the type who's
intrigued by the differences in sequential versions of a work and how
they alter the shading of character or plot, I'd recommend giving the
Ascension script a good looking over.
--------------------------
*Available from
this
page. There aren't a vast number of scripts, but what's there
is fascinating. All in PDF format.
