CTP Episode of the Day - 10.03.06 - Audrey Pauley
Today's Cherished Episode: Audrey Pauley (9x13)
Original Air Date: March 17, 2002
Written By: Steve Maeda
Directed By: Kim Manners
Doggett and Scully look for answers that will save Reyes' life after she is injured in a horrible car accident. Yet Reyes is also fighting to stay alive in the netherworld between life and death.
(Thanks to chrisnu for today's pics.)
Doggett: "No, they're both dead now. Monica's the only one left. And inside an hour the hospital plans to cut off her life support. Now, I'm not going to let that happen -- no matter what it takes. But I'm losing here. Nobody else believes she's alive. Nobody -- just you and me." Audrey Pauley: "I can't do anything. I only deliver the flowers is all I do. I can't help."
Some "Audrey Pauley" Tidbits & Musings:
-- This was the final episode written by Executive Story Editor Steve Maeda (he also wrote "Brand X," "Redrum," "Vienen," and "4-D"). After The X-Files ended, Maeda went to work on CSI: Miami and is now a writer and supervising producer on Lost.
-- "Audrey Pauley" was the 50th time that Kim Manners stepped behind the camera to direct an X-Files episode, making him without a doubt the longest serving director on the show. The first episode he directed was Season 2's "Die Hand Die Verletzt."
-- As is Standard Operating Procedure on The X-Files, the events of the Big Mythology Episodes "Providence/Provenance" are immediately forgotten. In spite of the medical issues involved in this episode, having Scully spend so much time away from home [i.e., her son] right after William's kidnapping, not to mention learning there are people who want her son dead, is just one more bullet in the assassination of Scully's character in Season 9.
-- Oopsie! In the teaser, Reyes drove up to Doggett's house, stopped the car to drop him off, and then started to fasten her seat belt, quickly trying to cover and make it appear that she was unfastening it. She finally did fasten it when Doggett was stepping back from the SUV.
-- The "washed out" appearance of Monica and the others in the hospital "netherworld" was a nice effect.
-- Though the effects for the "abyss" outside the netherworld hospital looked like they were lifted straight out of Beetlejuice. I was waiting for one of those "sand monsters" to pop up and give Monica a ride.
-- We learned in "John Doe" that Monica was raised in Mexico; and in this episode, we were told that her parents were "coming in from Mexico City."
-- There was a cute scene from "Audrey Pauley" in the Season 9 gag reel; just after Scully delivered the line that Monica had no electrical activity in her brain and was indeed brain dead, Annabeth Gish had a coughing fit and Gillian Anderson and Robert Patrick erupted into laughter.
-- Too bad Monica and Mulder never had a chance to compare notes: "So what did it feel like when you were dead?"
-- Though the writers and producers tried to sell us on the idea that Doggett had "feelings" for Scully, with "Audrey Pauley" they seem to have finally realized that wasn't such a hot idea. It was previously implied that Monica had "feelings" for John, but in this episode it appeared Doggett might actually want to reciprocate. Of course, even when he had a second chance to act on his feelings, after Monica's recovery, he didn't do it. At least the "No Se-X Files" tradition continues!
-- Stan Shaw (Stephen Murdoch) has been an actor since the mid-1970s. Early in his career he appeared in the films The Bingo Long Traveling All Stars & Motor Kings, Rocky, and The Great Santini (which also starred two other XF alumni, Lisa Jane Persky ("Terms of Endearment") and Blythe Danner ("Fight the Future"). He played Will Palmer in the TV miniseries Roots: The Next Generation and Big George in the 1991 film Fried Green Tomatoes.
-- Vernee Watson-Johnson (Nurse Whitney) has also been acting since the 1970s, with a memorable recurring role as Vernajean Williams on the sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter. She also had a recurring role on Will Smith's sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Watson-Johnson has already made two high-profile guest appearances in the very young 2006 TV season. She was Zelda in the pilot episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and she played the ER Doctor who explained Bree's "illness" to her on the season premiere of Desperate Housewives.
-- Jack Blessing, who played Dr. Jack Preijers, was a regular on the series Moonlighting in its final season, playing MacGilicuddy. He also played Mr. Donner on Tea Leoni's comedy series Naked Truth. Since appearing on the X-Files, he had a recurring role on The George Lopez Show and he appeared in this summer's Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. He's also providing voices in the just released animated film Open Season.
Once & Future Retreads: Tracey Ellis, who played the title character of Audrey Pauley, played another sympathetic yet doomed character, Lucy Householder, in Season 3's "Oubliette."
-- From the "Surely This Is An X-File" File: I lay out the Episode of the Day Schedule in advance three or four weeks at a time, so "Audrey Pauley" was selected as today's CTP EotD weeks ago. What are the odds that "Audrey Pauley" would run not only on the Sci-Fi Channel on Monday, but also on TNT's late-night line-up on Tuesday a.m. (twice within 12 hours). Coincidence? If coincidences are just coincidences ... yada, yada, yada. (Coincidentally ... < g > "Audrey Pauley" is also the next episode to be completed for the "Theatre of the Mind" ... if I ever get it done!)
Please share your first impressions, favorite (or cringe-worthy) moments, classic lines, favorite fanfic, nagging questions, repeated viewing observations, etc., as today we celebrate "Audrey Pauley"!
Polly