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The Cave's
X-Files Commentary Archives: Post: When Investigating Becomes Personal From the very first scene of this episode, where we witness Scully in Blevins' office being subtly probed as to her position on the subject of Mulder's latest (frivolous) case request, the subject of Mulder's personal investment in his work finds itself at the thematic forefront of this story. It's been obvious from the beginning of the series that his sister's disappearance has given Mulder's life direction, driving him to search for evidence of alien life and to explore people's claims of having encountered said aliens. But we also see, in this first scene, a hint of Scully's personal involvement in their casework in terms of the way she watches out for and tries to safeguard Mulder's mental/emotional well-being. The case, of course, is ideally suited to resonate with Mulder: it involves a missing girl who has possibly been abducted--a girl whose mother once reported seeing an alien craft as a child. No matter how much Mulder may want to remain objective and solve the case, it would be all but impossible for the situation not to call up memories of Samantha's disappearance. And no sooner have Mulder and Scully arrived at Darlene's home than Mulder is drawn to a photograph of a much younger Ruby--one, we can surmise, of approximately the same age as Samantha when she disappeared. Mulder does not merely look at the photograph, or study it; he carefully sets his fingers over the length of the image, as if he could draw through them something of the essence of this missing girl which will help him find her. Scully understands, from the outset, the personal parallels this case holds for her partner, and for quite some time she keeps her concerns to herself. But while she may easily see the connection in Mulder's mind between Ruby and the missing Samantha, I don't believe she realizes how strongly Mulder may identify with young Kevin. Granted, Mulder would be open to 'extreme possibilities' in terms of evidence gathering anyway. (When Scully meets him in the basement office after meeting with Blevins, Mulder says, "This is the essence of science: you ask an impertinent question and you're on your way to a pertinent answer.") But not only is Mulder intrigued by Kevin's rows of 1's and 0's and his comment that the information is emanating from the TV, but he understands with every fiber of his being what it is to be a boy with a lost sister. While he may not have been receiving information about Samantha's abduction through the fuzz of a television screen, he was once a boy with painful, echoing questions--maybe even some gut feelings he couldn't explain--about his sister's disappearance that fell in vain on the resolutely closed ears of his parents who, as Mulder explains in a later episode, refused to talk about what had happened. This experience no doubt contributes to Mulder's attitude in the sheriff's office, where he presses the sheriff to admit that Darlene's statements about what happened have been completely ignored. "If there was an abduction," Mulder tells Scully later, "it's likely that Kevin was touched in some way." And he know the truth of this statement from personal experience. Mulder's insistence on continuing to investigate the case after Tessa's questioning seems to provide a plausible motive for murder finally brings Scully to challenge Mulder. "Stop running after your sister," she says, holding her ground as he walks away from her outside the police station. And Mulder doesn't deny the connection; he simply tells her to "Come with me or don't come with me..." And why? Because "until they find a body, I'm not giving up on that girl." He can't give up on this girl, or on Kevin who, like him, has had his sister taken. If he couldn't stop Samantha's abduction, and hasn't been able to find her, perhaps at least he can save Ruby and spare her family what he himself has lived with for so many years. Mulder not only isn't giving up on this girl, he can't. Call him driven or obsessive or simply empathic and dedicated (and he is, to one degree or another, all of these), Mulder will keep working the case until the Ruby's fate is known. As for Scully, by episode's end she's returned to the Mulder-protector mode we've seen subtle touches of right from the beginning. While Mulder sits in an empty church thinking of his sister, we see Scully at home, listening thoughtfully to Mulder's regression hypnosis tapes and trying to get a feel for what this still-new partner of hers has lived through. Many times throughout the series--especially within the first five seasons--we'll see Scully subtly mothering* Mulder, not in an intrusive sense, or from a superior position, but simply from an inner reservoir of quiet caring that lets him know he's not alone in his search for the truth. *More about
what I see as Scully's mothering in an older essay
here. |