Spoilers

“All Souls”

I wanted to break up the run of shows starting with B with a big old X. X-Files season five episode 17 kicks off another Scully/religious story.

One of the most fascinating things about the series is how much the skeptic Scully believes in the religious symbols and iconography while Mulder, he whose mantra is ‘I want to Believe,’ completely dismisses anything connected to potential supernatural occurrences connected to religion. Any time Mulder is involved in these religious based cases, he takes on a bit of an obnoxious tone because his disbelief really sears through his objectivity. I mean, you would think that if there was anyone who might believe than a seraph came to earth to burn out the eyes of four young girls, it would be Mulder. It is really a wild dichotomy of these two characters.

Gillian Anderson continued to show what a wonderful actor she is, with her scenes in the confessional being highly emotional and she portrayed the confusion and grief of Scully perfectly. Her side as a scientist would poke through at times, even when it was in conflict with her faith. Plus, it is always nice when the show remembers that things happened to Scully and the loss of her daughter is a traumatic moment in her life and that it can come back as a hook for a case.

I am curious how Scully explained the results of the finale of the episode to Mulder and the other cops. It feels like ‘I let the girl go to be killed by an angel so her soul would go to Heaven because a vision of my daughter told me to do it’ doesn’t sound great for an official report.

Always love to see Scully featured front and center, and Gillian Anderson is always exceptional.