Christmas Carol

Theatre of the Mind ~ Christmas Carol

1. Looks like a good old-fashioned Scully Family Christmas. Can tragedy be far behind?
2. (You too will be that huge one day, Dana. It'll just take you 12 - 15 months.)
3. If Mom's in her old room, and Dana is in Dana and Melissa's old room, does that mean that Bill and Tara's bedroom is Bill and Charlie's old room? Ewww.
4. *I* know who's on the phone, and she's not even my sister.
5. It's nice to know you can still "reach out and touch someone," even from beyond the grave.
6. What happened to all those JTT-type badge numbers?
7. TWC1: Now, Mulder, don't get jealous, but as soon as he said, "No offense, Scully, FBI . . .", I fell in love with Detective Kresge.
8. That suicide scene was a little too Red Shoe Diaries for me. (But reminded me of Mulder!)
9. 1-800-The Great Beyond. ROTFLMAO. Did I say I liked Det. Kresge?
10. Scully, after all you've seen, how can you say it's not possible?
11. The Sim family is named for Alistair Sim, who played Scrooge in the 1951 version of "A Christmas Carol."
12. TWC2: Holy Flaming Cow! Any day I get to hear Mulder say "hullo" not once but three times is a GREAT day!!
13. MSRM: Even though she can't go through with it, who does she want to call? Mulder, of course. He's the only one who might believe her. But she doesn't want to believe it herself.
14. Poor Mulder. All alone at Christmas again.
15. Wonder why he never wears that strange hat when Scully is around? (OT: Word has it that the new Mrs. Duchovny knitted that hat for her man, so I guess it's not so strange after all.)
16. As we know, most of the dramatic turn-of-events on The X-Files are necessitated by real life, and this one was no different. They needed a Mulder-less episode because DD was going to be away promoting his movie, "Playing God." It was decided to do a Christmas episode, and Dana Scully's life should get the Ebenezer Scrooge treatment. Like Scrooge, she would be reexamining and reevaluating her life choices by receiving a visit from a spirit (Melissa) and by encountering different versions of her family and herself at various times in her life.
17. The man is in the episode for two seconds and I get six items out of it. No wonder these things are so dang long!!
18. I like Tara. How she ended up with Bill, I'll never know. She's the reason I put up with him.
19. You can't fool Ma Scully, Dana. Spill it!
20. "I just never realized how much I wanted it until I couldn't have it." Somehow, when I heard Scully say that for the first time, I thought that someday we would have a Scully pregnancy. I just knew.
21. It's nice to know that Bill has been a jerk his whole life, not just in adulthood.
22. TWC3: Little Dana is so cute, isn't she? Love those socks!
23. Ewww. Everyone knows you should keep your rabbit in a Bugs Bunny lunchbox. Not Lassie.
24. Oh, oh. Psychic!Scully is having those cognitive dreams again!
25. Scully loves those silk pj's, doesn't she? But it's pretty cruel and unusual punishment making Scully sleep in the nursery.
26. How did Melissa get Scully's cell phone number? I guess 411-The Great Beyond! (Love ya, Kresge.)
27. I don't know why Mr. Sim is so hostile. She's only ringing his doorbell at 2:54 A.M.!!
28. Well, of course that's why he's hostile. He's in the MIDDLE OF A MEETING! (Hello. It's 2:54 a.m.)
29. Hope Billy Boy didn't report his Jeep stolen. (Serve him right for that rabbit incident, though!)
30. Sorry, but Emily just looks downright creepy. I'm not sure why.
31. TWC4: There's that "Scully, FBI," again. Now don't get upset, and don't throw stuff. But if they had cast Det. Kresge as Scully's new partner this season? Well, I wouldn't be responsible for my actions. Doggett should sit up and takes notes: Kresge and Scully have chemistry.
32. Hmm, I'd like to see everything Kresge has too. Me? In a non-Mulder gutter? Who woulda thunk it?
33. He's loosening his tie; looks like he's getting ready to roll up those shirt sleeves. That cute sense of humor. I think I just figured out why I like Det. Kresge so much.
34. Sure glad Bill had those family albums handy. Or maybe Mrs. Scully brought them with her so everyone could reminisce during the holidays.
35. TWC5: The return of Scully!Glasses!
36. Should I be concerned at all that Scully is on a first-name-basis with Danny?
37. Psychic!Scully hard at work again. How typically Scully that the little girl who was so afraid of death would grow up to choose forensic pathology as a career. Take your fear and meet it head on!
38. I'm sure Lariat has an office in San Diego.
39. "Agent Scully. It's been . . . what? Four hours? I was getting worried." ROTFLMAO. Watch out, Mulder. I like this guy. (Mulder, I'm just kidding. You'll always be my favorite.)
40. Forget the psychic phone calls. Scully uses science and deduction to get Kresge to do her bidding.
41. Autopsy!Scully! Thanks for sharing that big old bowl of stomach contents.
42. I think Dana missed lunch. How about an early breakfast?
43. "Your sister did not have a baby. She would have told me." You'd think a girl would share that kind of info with her mom, wouldn't you?
44. "We're still connected to them, Dana. Even after they're gone." Scully sure is. She sees (and hears) dead people a lot, a lot, a lot.
45. I'm glad Scully has some nice memories of Christmases past, cause the more recent ones haven't been anything to write home about. First, losing her father and now this whole thing with Emily. No wonder she doesn't decorate like she did in Season 1 anymore.
46. That's GA's little sister Zoe playing the teenage Dana, BTW.
47. I know this looks like a continuity error, but I think Dana got a *new* cross for her 15th birthday. One with a shorter chain. (Okay, it was probably a continuity error. For shame.)
48. Psychic!Scully probably knew that Detective Kresge would come calling early in the morning, and that's why she wore her makeup to bed.
49. See, even Mrs. Scully likes Kresge. She's treating him just like Fox.
50. Psychic!Polly would rather concentrate on who's gonna kick Dr. Calderon's ass in "Emily."
51. After Mr. Sim's arrest, Scully gives Emily a zipper. (Okay, I couldn't resist.)
52. Maybe Emily is Melissa and *Mulder's* natural child. She's sure got that Mulder pout down pat.
53. Scully's having a swell time at this par-tay. Why don't you call Mulder and wish him a Merry Christmas?
54. "Sounds like something that partner of yours would say." He says that like it's a bad thing.
55. LOL - Love how big bully Bill gets the disapproving "Scully look" from mom.
56. Poor Kresge, working on Christmas Eve. Guess he has no life either. The Mulder similarities just keep on comin'!
57. I think Mr. Sim got "hung up" at this "meeting."
58. Bill was off to the neighbors with a roaring fire and all those candles left burning? He needs a fire safety course.
59. Melissa preserved in a lovely ETAP moment (Of course, ETAP is prop-master Jim Pate's name spelled backwards-and a common XF in-joke.)
60. In vitro fertilization . . . now there's an idea worth pursuing.
61. How did Scully get upstairs so fast while Bill was answering the door?
62. Scully's never had a long-term relationship? Well, perhaps not in the widely understood definition of that term, but . . .
63. "Ever since I was a child, I've never allowed myself to get too close to people. I've avoided emotional attachments. Perhaps I've been so afraid of death and dying that any connection just seemed like a bad thing . . . something that wouldn't last." Well, that explains a lot, a lot, a lot.
64. "But I don't feel that anymore." That explains a lot, a lot, a lot too.
65. The old Scully always wiped the tears away because she didn't want anyone to think she was emotional or weak. I liked that in the recent episodes, she has let her emotions show, sought comfort (from Skinner) and didn't mind Doggett and others seeing her tears. I hope it's not just hormones.
66. "I don't believe in fate. I think we have to choose our own path." For a deeper discussion on this subject, see "all things."
67. Melissa knows what's important: the people you meet along the way. "You don't know how your life is going to change or how you're going to change the life of others." That's an understatement.
68. I'm glad to know that even though Charles doesn't attend the family gatherings, he still sends gifts.
69. A delivery on Christmas Day? That's gonna cost ya.
70. I'm glad good old John Gilnitz noticed that striking similarity in the DNA.
71. "According to this, *I* am Emily's mother." Say what? I guess we should have known when we saw all those harvested ova that *someone* was gonna be pumping out the little uber-Scully's. We just don't know who. Or why.
72. To be continued . . .

Watching an episode like "Christmas Carol" certainly gives us a lot of perspective into Seasons 7 and 8. Learning why Scully tends to keep people at arm's length because she's afraid they will be taken from her, how much she really does want a child, the whole "medical rape" issue that might rear its ugly head again, and the issue of choosing your own path vs. fate. All these have been revisited again during this season and last. And it is precisely because of the events in "Christmas Carol" (and "Emily") that I have no fear that if Scully doubted even in the slightest where this baby came from, she would be moving heaven and earth to find out. I could say that I still firmly believe that everything is gonna turn out okay in Season 8. That Scully (and Mulder) will finally be given a chance for the happiness that has eluded her/them for so long. That CC will find a way to bring the story of these two people to a fitting and respectful conclusion and that most of us are going to be happy with that conclusion. I *could* say all those things, but I know what *you'd* say.

"God, you sound like a greeting card!"

I'd like to apologize, but I'm still so happy from "Three Words" that I don't feel like apologizing for anything!

Polly