This may prove to be a turning point in the show.
So far X-Files has been a mixed bag, but scrap the often silly 'monster' aspect and at root what is worth investigating in the show is the noir notion of an extralogical reality that comes alive according to the narrator's desire. So far Scully's raison d'etre had been to provide the logical counterpoint to spooky Mulder, inserting again and again the possibility of logical explanation to phenomena.
Here she has her own breakthrough, tied to loss and bereavement of her dead father. Usually in the context of the show we have 'hard' presentation of extralogical forces as 'real' outside of mind, but for the first time we have some 'soft' ambiguity; the thing may be only as real as the story we choose to remember, and yet no less ontologically real for that.
Anchored on one end in a powerhouse performance by Brad Dourif as spiritual conduit (or charlatan), on another we have what another reviewer astutely noted as the Twin Peaks connection. I did make a note of resemblance in my post for the Pilot, so it's nice to see it confirmed here.
So far X-Files has been a mixed bag, but scrap the often silly 'monster' aspect and at root what is worth investigating in the show is the noir notion of an extralogical reality that comes alive according to the narrator's desire. So far Scully's raison d'etre had been to provide the logical counterpoint to spooky Mulder, inserting again and again the possibility of logical explanation to phenomena.
Here she has her own breakthrough, tied to loss and bereavement of her dead father. Usually in the context of the show we have 'hard' presentation of extralogical forces as 'real' outside of mind, but for the first time we have some 'soft' ambiguity; the thing may be only as real as the story we choose to remember, and yet no less ontologically real for that.
Anchored on one end in a powerhouse performance by Brad Dourif as spiritual conduit (or charlatan), on another we have what another reviewer astutely noted as the Twin Peaks connection. I did make a note of resemblance in my post for the Pilot, so it's nice to see it confirmed here.