"Ah, what a warning for a thoughtless man, Could field or grove, could any spot of earth, Show to his eye an image of the pangs Which it hath witnessed,--render back an echo Of the sad steps by which it hath been trod!" -- William Wordsworth, "Preface to the Excursion"
"Mind's Eye," Tim Minear's first solo writing effort for The X-Files, shows me that he must have been responsible for that dreadful plot device in "Kitsunegari" -- that Linda Bowman was Modell's fraternal twin. For in "Mind's Eye," we get a very similar plot contrivance: Marty is seeing things through the eyes of a murderer, who happens to be her father. I'm wondering if Minear has some personal family issues to resolve. "Mind's Eye" seemed to be more like the unneeded sequel to 1978's "The Eyes of Laura Mars." The plot was almost identical, except that Mulder wasn't the killer.
Minear paints a picture of a hardened, blind-since-birth young woman and thrusts her into the most unlikely of scenarios. He also leaves a lot of unanswered questions that detract from the episode. What, for example, was Marty trying to accomplish by cleaning up the first murder scene? What was the significance of the stab wounds being in the shape of a "C?" And what happened to that which attracted me to the series in the first place: the partnership between Mulder and Scully, which has been missing in action for most of this season?
Guest star Lili Taylor made the most of a very meaty role. She displayed a variety of emotions throughout the episode that brought a depth to the character of Marty Glenn. Marty was a sarcastic blind woman who displayed a tough exterior and unyielding self-reliance. Her flippant jokes about her physical challenge ("Putting mints on the pillows," "An eyewitness," "My seeing eye dog ate it" [the murder weapon]) belay her true suffering. For, as Wordsworth's words imply, seeing through the eyes of another can be a form of prison in its own right. Marty had already served 28 years of prison, along with her father, because that was all she had ever "seen." Small wonder, then, that for her, actually being in prison was preferable to visualizing the murderous acts of her father.
David Duchovny played Mulder in what can only be described as an overdue return to form. Mulder was sensitive to Marty's independent streak to the point of empathizing with her plight and understanding her life motivation. He knew that Marty was going to do things her way, without any help from anyone, including ending the horrific visions of her father's acts. This is the Mulder who has been so sorely missed for most of Season 5, and it was great to have him back.
If only the same could be true for Gillian Anderson. While almost totally absent from the screen for the entire episode, the Scully character was reduced to a walk-on role in "Mind's Eye." She babbled a few things here and there about actual blindness, did her perfunctory eyebrow raise, and then scooted off to Washington to re-shoot some scenes for the movie. I mean . . . to head up the meager scientific scraps there were to investigate.
Blu Mankuma, the ill-fated "Security Guard" from "Ghost in the Machine," was wasted playing a cardboard cutout of a Wilmington, Delaware (or substitute the city of your choice), detective. With the sole exception of his "bat vision" theory, he, uh, blindly set about to fit the evidence to his suspect as opposed to fitting the suspect to the evidence. This is straight out of every cop show you've ever seen where the cop in charge isn't the central character of the series. There was no essence to the character of detective Pennock other than that of a civil servant who can't or won't buy a decent cologne.
Director Kim Manners used a couple of "from the ground up" shots that worked well, especially the one of Marty being led to the transfer van. Her helplessness was captured very effectively as the camera panned upward from her shackled legs to her manacled wrists. Taylor gave one of her more convincing portrayals of terror as she recoiled while being led forward by the police officers while "seeing" Gotts watching her being transferred. The other similar shot, in the bus station, depicted the omnipresence of drugs and drug dealers amid the everyday hustle and bustle of people going about their business, completely oblivious to the extent of the permeation of drugs in today's society. Manners kept the story moving forward at a leisurely pace, which was what was called for in this slowly unfolding narrative.
Editor Casey O'Rohrs did yeoman-like work in "Mind's Eye." There weren't any intricate scene changes to splice together, nor were there any exceptional shots that required a deft hand in the cutting room. Mark Snow's music, on the other hand, was reminiscent of the old Mark Snow. His compositions were new and melodic, with a sweet blend of piccolo, harp and strings during Mulder's interview with Marty after her confession, contrasted with the heavy percussion of the murder scenes. Best of all, Snow's music didn't trample the dialogue at any time during the episode. It was a part of the background, subtly changing in step with the mood of the episode.
So, why did a technically sound and visually appealing X-File leave me flat? Quite simply, the story was derivative and contrived. There wasn't anything that resembled a partnership of Mulder and Scully. There were a lot of unanswered questions or just plain ludicrous background, like how Marty is out on the streets after having been convicted of Aggravated Assault, but her father spends 28 years in jail for the same offense. These flaws more than offset the fine performances of Duchovny and Taylor. Minear's solo effort fares no better than his collaboration with Vince Gilligan for "Kitsunegari."
My Score: 3 out of 10