"You're a hooker?!? And here I thought
I was doing great with you!"
-- Dudley Moore, from "Arthur" (1980)
This episode purported to show us a side of AD Walter Skinner that we had never seen before. Well, that it did. It showed us a tortured soul who's been battling demons since he was an 18-year-old kid serving in Viet Nam. What this episode also showed us was that despite the best attempts of screen writer Howard Gordon and the multi-leveled talents of Mitch Pileggi, a good X-File is getting harder to find in this, the series' third year.
The episode begins with AD Skinner being served divorce papers (huh? He's married?!? Where was his wife when he got shot in "Piper Maru"?) He goes to a bar, meets an attractive woman and ten minutes later, ends up doing the horizontal mambo with her in a hotel room. Then, in the blissful throes of after-sleep, he awakens from a dream in which he sees a succubus, a mythological old woman who supposedly attacks men in their sleep for sex. Lying next to him, the woman is dead, her body horribly contorted.
This promising beginning quickly deteriorates into a standard, run-of-the-mill-one-hour detective show. Mulder and Scully race to defend their boss, even as the dark shadow of the government conspiracy begins to lengthen over the reputation of Walter B. Skinner. The woman turns out to be a prostitute, and the conspiracy builds from there, culminating in a hearing by the Office of Professional Conduct, where Skinner is relieved of his duties. In a particularly heavy-handed attempt to tie this episode in with the A/GC arc, we see Cancer man puffing away while Skinner is being questioned. This was the first time I've ever seen an actor getting a guest-star credit for only having his silhouette appear on screen.
Just to confuse the issue (and it wouldn't be an X-File if there weren't a certain degree of ambiguity), Scully finds an unidentifiable luminous aura around the mouth and nose of the victim, and we see a couple more appearances of the succubus at various critical junctures in the show. We are finally asked to believe that the succubus is actually Skinners benevolent benefactor, tracing back to his days in Viet Nam, when he did inhale.
The acting in this episode was first-rate. With such a weak story, it had to be. Mitch Pileggi was alternatively stern and stoic and then warm and devoted without the slightest sense of incongruity. David Duchovny turns in a fine performance as Mulder the believer, while never letting his beliefs get in the way of his detective skills. Gillian Anderson turned in another sterling performance as Scully, ranging from the "woman of science" sceptic to the defender of her supervisor. The supporting characters were more than adequate, especially the talented Jennifer Hettrick as Sharon Skinner.
So, what's the problem? Well, I found a lot of things with this episode which were either inconsistent or just plain ridiculous. Let's start with the Skinner's car being used to run his wife's car off the road. When M & S examine the car, the scratches and dents are on the left (driver's) side of the car. I have never seen anyone try to run someone off the road from the right-hand lane. You always try to pass on the left then swing in front of your victim. So how did the scratches get on the driver's side of the car?
Along those same lines, when the DC police came to get Skinner after his wife's car accident, they asked for his keys so they could check his car. It was pouring rain when they arrived. Why didn't they search for any wet clothing lying around (i.e., raincoat, umbrella, wet pants or shoes, etc.)? Why was he allowed to be alone with his comatose wife when he's the principal suspect in her accident? How could the conspirators know he had drunk himself asleep and that Sharon Skinner would be on the road at precisely the same time? How could they know which road she was going to be on and that they would have an opportunity to run her off the road?
Then, there is the problem with the murder of the prostitute. There was no physical, forensic or testimonial evidence that cleared Skinner of the suspicion that he committed the murder. Why did his killing of the conspiracy man exonerate him of that crime? Your guess is as good as mine.
These are just some of the questions to which I could find no discernible, logical answers. I'd be lying if I said that they didn't detract from my enjoyment of the episode.
It is my opinion that The X-Files has run into the proverbial wall this season when it comes to story lines. We have seen more terrible episodes this season than in the previous two combined. What makes this situation worse is that these bad episodes have come close together while interspersed among some of the very best shows, both new and reruns. These bad episodes suffer by comparison even more as a result of this scheduling. New writers appear almost weekly, and while their inaugural attempts are usually acceptable, their second offerings have been less than satisfying. (See Vlaming, Jeff, and Shibon, John.) :-)
This is the kind of thing that ruined one of the best shows ever on TV, Picket Fences. After two years, Picket Fences creator David E. Kelly burned himself out, writing 21 scripts each for PF and Chicago Hope. When he took a rest this year and turned things over to staff writers and a new executive producer, Picket Fences quickly became an also-ran and was mercifully cancelled. I fear that Chris Carter and his staff of writers are falling into the same trap. After writing so many scripts in the first two years, Carter has relegated his activities to co-writing the A/GC arcs with Frank Spotnitz for the Sweeps periods. If Darin Morgan is leaving the show as is rumored, then I fear for the quality of my favorite show. Howard Gordon is inconsistent; Morgan and Wong are wasting their talents on Space: Above and Beyond and the other staff writers have yet to show me that they can write two solid episodes in a row. This does not bode well for The X-Files. It will retain a certain core audience because of their fans' love of the work of DD, GA and Mitch Pileggi. Other viewers (and reviewers) can gush all they want over this intricate development in the Mulder character or that interesting insight into Scully's psyche, but the bottom line for me is STORY. If the stories aren't interesting, if they don't make me scratch my head and wonder, if they don't suck me into their world for an hour and make me feel like I'm actually a part of something special, then my ardor for this show will die a slow, painful death, much as it did for Picket Fences.
"Avatar" was, at best, an average cop show. When a series in its third year has to spend an hour trying to reveal insights into one of the supposedly central characters, then there are creative problems that must be addressed quickly. This wasn't a bad episode, but it wasn't a good one, either. When she was alive, I used to visit my little Italian grandmother often and ask her how she was. She'd reply,"Mens a mens," which translated literally means "half and half" or so-so. Avatar was mens a mens.
My Score: 5 out of 10