The Cave's
X-Files Commentary Archives: Avatar (3x21)
Title:
Skinner and Sharon and Mulder and Scully Author: bardsmaid (aka LoneThinker)
I think the first time I watched this ep
my brain was on vacation. The second time I saw some interesting things in it,
but the third time--boom!--I hit characterization
pay dirt! Can't believe all the great material in this episode.
The most obvious character revelations, of course, center on Walter Skinner himself. Not only do we find out he's married, but that he's been married for 17 years! That's a long time to be married without your associates really knowing, a lot of time in which
not to have told your spouse what she means to you (though he does at the end.)
In general, a lot of time in which to have put things off, in the same way he puts off signing the divorce papers in the teaser. This man has a lot on his mind--a lot of conflict he feels unable to dump on his wife, the recurring dreams he doesn't understand that involve the old woman, etc. 'Silence is strength' is his operating principle according to Sharon Skinner, who seems to be genuinely concerned about him and his well-being.
The Skinner we see in *Avatar is a man who is not looking for someone to understand him. His walls are solid and he has no intention of taking them down; perhaps letting them down would be like releasing a toxin that would kill him, emotionally or mentally. (Sharon, in the apartment, offers him comfort which comes at a price of letting her in, and he can't do it; the prostitute at the beginning offers him a lack of loneliness without the need to open himself up; this he is able to accept.) Mulder tells him at one point, "Look, if you don't start trusting someone, you don't stand a chance," yet Skinner, though appreciative of Mulder's help and confidence in him, repeatedly shuts him out, including in the scene at the end where Mulder asks Skinner to tell him, off the record, how he knew to go to the hotel. Skinner only replies that he has to clean his desk.
I couldn't help seeing the obvious parallel between Skinner and Scully, both with their walls to protect raw or vulnerable inner selves. But what I noticed most was something I hadn't recognized before in Mulder: that he seems to need to be let into the lives of people he cares about in much the same way he has so willingly let Scully into his own inner life. He would like Scully to reciprocate, but she finds herself unable to let down enough of her emotional wall to allow him entrance. Mulder shows a great degree of concern in this episode for Skinner's well-being. I think he feels the need to be inside Skinner's inner life here, too, probably
in part because he is a profiler, but also because the INFP/'Healer' in
him needs to see and understand Skinner from the inside out so he can do
something to mitigate Skinner's obvious pain.
This same dynamic is visible in *Oubliette, where Mulder is clearly affected by Lucy Householder and the hard life she's led, and he keeps pressing gently until finally she lets him inside where he can do something to
change the downward direction of her life.
But Mulder has a history of being shut out of the inner lives of the
people closest to him. Scully is unable to open up to him (or anyone
else), and Skinner can't do it here. Mulder's mother shuts him out every
time he visits her and needs to know something that will help him
understand his own past, and we know his father had done the same. David
posed some questions about Mulder in an interview, including "Why is
[Mulder] in so much pain?" Personally, I can't help thinking that this is
an element--perhaps a significant element--of the pain Mulder lives with:
he has a natural caring, a desire to help--to better things--and yet when he wants to help, those who are closest to him shut him out.
Mulder's sense of loyalty shows up strongly in this episode. From the very beginning he believes in Skinner's innocence, based, I think, on the gut feeling he has gotten as an
innate profiler. He
knows what kind of man Skinner is, and he knows the crime he's hearing about doesn't fit the profile. Therefore, there must be another explanation for the crime. It visibly pains him to confront what appears to be evidence of Skinner's involvement, but he never really believes Skinner could be guilty. Mulder reminds Scully that Skinner has "put his ass on the line for us a number of times" and that therefore they owe him a search for the facts of the case. This same natural sense of loyalty shows through again when he and Scully are talking to the second prostitute.
The woman begs Mulder not to make her go through with the hotel meeting, and Mulder replies, by way of convincing her, "Look what they did to your friends." Obviously this is an argument that would move
him to action, so he uses it to try to convince the woman.
I also saw a Mulder/Scully contrast here somewhat analogous to Littljoe's
'Calling Out in the Dark' thesis. Mulder often seems to employ 'a priori' reasoning--reasoning from cause to effect--while Scully works from effect back to cause. Knowing what Skinner is
genuinely like makes Mulder reject the crime scene evidence because it doesn't fit what he knows of Skinner. Scully, on the other hand, while she admits wanting to believe Skinner, is more convinced by the physical evidence in front of her. She is not really ready to admit Skinner's innocence until the material facts support it. This harks back, I think, to Mulder's faith in things unseen and Scully's need for scientific proof. It also seems to reflect a lack of hope or faith on Scully's part, or perhaps a darker world view, as Littljoe posits in 'Calling
Out'.
[We will further witness this dynamic at work in *Dreamland, where in
spite of Morris/Mulder's inconsistent behavior, she refuses for a long
time to believe he isn't the Mulder she knows, based on what her
eyes--not her intuition--are telling her.]
All in all, this episode was a real goldmine for characterizations, motivations, background, etc. If you haven't seen it--or noticed all the gems in it--I'd suggest going back and viewing this one again.
