"Sein und Zeit"
Airdate: February 6,2000
A father, torn apart with grief over the kidnapping and likely death of his daughter, is questioned by a group of investigators. They ask what appears to be a reasonable question -- what was he doing at the time of the incident? The mother of the child, sitting next to him, wipes away tears from her eyes.
"I was watching TV," he says. A typical, reasonable response.
The officer's answer, however, is rather extraordinary, given the circumstances. He pauses, then eagerly asks of the man who has less than 24 hours before lost his only child, "What were you watching?"
The victim is seemingly unaware of the irrelevance of this query in a criminal investigation. His eyes light up, and he responds enthusiastically, "I've never heard of it before. It was good!" The disappearance and probable demise of his daughter has been forgotten -- after all, who could possibly make time to grive over one's own child when the tragedy of Harsh Realm's cancelation is so much more poignant?
Anyone who wanted to know how low Chris Carter will sink found their answer in "Sein und Zeit", another morbid, insensitive and idiotic offering from the man who manages to work in plugs for his own reduced-to-FX series in a plotline involving that of a slaughtered child. It is not the presence of Harsh Realm in the opening scenes of this episode that bothers me. It is not even the fact that Carter forces this in-joke with the subtlety of a sledgehammer. It is that he has the audacity to force his own egotistical ramblings into storyline that lifts generously from a very real tragedy, the murder of six-year-old Jon-Benet Ramsey. There is a level of blind ignorance and insensitivity in "Sein und Zeit" that is astounding, even for a Carter/Spotnitz-penned episode.
"Sein und Zeit" is ostensibly the story of Amber-Lynn LaPierre, a small child who disappears mysteriously, leaving her parents as the main suspects. In case we don't get the Jon-Benet Ramsey connection, Carter makes sure to spotlight it by showing the dead child's face on the TV next to LaPierre's, and having Scully gravely intone, "Is it the media or just the morbid fascination with the murder of an innocent?" Gee Scully, you left out the opportunity for product placement! Or the shameless use of a real-life tragedy for one's own profit, visible clearly through that pathetic veil of self-righteousness. This is one of many dead child episodes that Carter has written -- a pattern, really, which can't help but make one wonder -- but it is the first to blatantly steal from a actual crime.
And I know that he's not the only one -- I realize there is a Jon-Benet TV movie coming up, and I know all too well the public's fascination with that little girl's death. But that doesn't change the fact that a six-year-old child was brutally murdered. This is not a subplot of a storyline -- it would be bad enough for the series to so blatantly try to retell the story, but to put her actual picture in? -- and this is certainly not an excuse for hawking one's own merchandise. Yet in the prurient, parasitic world of The X-Files, there seems to be no difference between reality and product. Real-life tragedies are nothing but an excuse for a sweet sweeps storyarc.
That said, there really are no redeeming qualities to "Sein und Zeit", which takes the already convoluted mytharc and manages to bash it to a completely unrecognizable pulp. The big news here is that Mulder's mom is dead (not that anyone really remembered she was alive, being that this storyline was forgotten a few years ago) and Mulder is seeking -- say it with me now -- The Truth. Yes, again. And where does he look for this truth? Why, in his trusty folders of the X-Files, which burned down two seasons ago! Funny how those things magically regenerate.
Mulder and Scully -- who appears about fifteen minute into the episode and says about five lines of dialogue throughout the entire show -- find a connection between the murder of LaPierre, the abduction of Samantha, and the death of Mulder's mother. This connection, of course, negates every other Samantha storyline of the last six years and makes no sense whatsoever, but it's an excuse for Carter to showcase such images as the mass graves of children near a Santa Claus playland (oooh... it's so dark and ironic), so there it is there nevertheless. Earlier in the season, "Amor Fati" led me to believe the series' mytharc just might be back on track, what with the sudden appearance of logic, continuity and characterization. How very silly of me to get my hopes up for this walking corpse of a show.
Of course, then there is the dialogue. "Sein und Zeit" had some truly terrible moments, even by Carter/Spotnitz standards. Among the highlights: Scully telling Mulder that "Skinner is royally pissed" (yeah, like, totally!) and Mulder uttering the classic: "74? You mean the number 74?" No, Mulder, she means the letter. But these are just vagaries compared to the new and New Age mytharc, which speaks no more of aliens but of creatures "in the starlight", at least according to Mulder's new accomplice, another kidnapping victim who resembles a cross between Winona Ryder and a goblin.
Putrid, putrid stuff. It is the rare occasion when one can watch The X-Files, see an ad for Fox's new special Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire, and subsequently wish the airing program had so much class.
-- Sarah Kendzior
The X-Files airs at 9pm EST, Sundays on FOX.
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