Memento Mori (The X-Files)

"Memento Mori"
The X-Files episode
Fox Mulder and Dana Scully at the hospital
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 14
Directed by	Rob Bowman
Written by	Chris Carter Vince Gilligan John Shiban Frank Spotnitz
Production code	4X15
Original air date	February 9, 1997
Guest stars
Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner William B. Davis as Cigarette Smoking Man Sheila Larken as Margaret Scully David Lovgren as Kurt Crawford Tom Braidwood as Melvin Frohike Dean Haglund as Richard Langly Bruce Harwood as John Fitzgerald Byers Morris Panych as Gray-Haired Man Julie Bond as Real Estate Woman Sean Allen as Dr. Kevin Scanlon Gillian Barber as Penny Northern
Episode chronology
← Previous "Never Again" Next → "Kaddish"
List of season 4 episodes List of The X-Files episodes

"Memento Mori" is the fourteenth episode of the fourth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on February 9, 1997. It was directed by Rob Bowman, and written by series creator Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz. "Memento Mori" featured guest appearances by Sheila Larken, David Lovgren and Morris Panych. The episode helped to explore the overarching mythology, or fictional history of The X-Files. "Memento Mori" earned a Nielsen household rating of 15.5, being watched by 19.1 million people in its initial broadcast.

When FBI special agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is diagnosed with a brain tumor, her partner Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) attempts to discover what happened to her during her abduction experience, believing the two events to be related.

"Memento Mori" was written when previous series writer Darin Morgan did not contribute a script for the season. Discussion between the writing staff led to the "obligatory" decision to have Scully diagnosed with cancer, although the decision was not unanimous. Guest actor Lovgren portrayed multiple clones of his character using post-production techniques to merge several shots together; while actor Pat Skipper had a scene cut from the final episode for time restraints, later appearing in the season finale.

Plot

FBI special agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) finds out that she has a tumor between her sinus and cerebrum. She tells only her partner Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and her boss, Assistant Director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), of the news, and is determined to continue to work. Mulder and Scully head to Allentown, Pennsylvania to see Betsy Hagopian, who was discovered to be suffering from similar symptoms in the episode "Nisei". When they arrive they are told that Betsy has died, yet they find someone using her phone line. Tracing it, they track down Kurt Crawford, a fellow member of the MUFON network that Betsy belonged to. Crawford tells them that of the women Scully met a year earlier, all have died from cancer except for Penny Northern, who is in the hospital fighting the disease as they speak. Scully is skeptical of Mulder and Crawford's claims that a government conspiracy and her abduction are behind her illness.

Scully goes to see Penny Northern at the hospital, who tells her of treatment she is receiving from a Dr. Scanlon. Mulder discovers that all the abductees were childless but had been treated at a nearby fertility clinic. When Mulder is called away by Scully, an assassin, the Gray-Haired Man (Morris Panych) arrives and kills Crawford with a stiletto, revealing him to be an alien-human hybrid. After meeting Dr. Scanlon, Scully elects to begin treatment, which involves chemotherapy and heavy doses of radiation. During this time she starts keeping a diary of her thoughts. Mulder sneaks into the fertility clinic and finds another Kurt Crawford there. The two are able to hack into the clinic's computer database and find notes claiming Scully had been treated by the clinic. Mulder goes to see Skinner, wanting to deal with The Smoking Man to save Scully, but Skinner convinces him not to do so.

Mulder recruits The Lone Gunmen to help him break into the Lombard Research facility where he thinks he may be able to find more information on how to save Scully. Meanwhile Skinner tries to deal directly with The Smoking Man for Scully's life, who tells him he will get back to him. Mulder and Byers head into the Lombard Facility; when Mulder discovers that Dr. Scanlon works there he sends Byers away to warn Scully. Mulder continues through the facility, discovering several clones of Kurt Crawford working on clones of a young boy (previously seen in "Herrenvolk"). The clones show Mulder ova harvested from Scully during her abduction and tell him they are trying to save the abducted women's lives since they acted as their birth mothers. Mulder takes Scully's ova and leaves, being pursued by the Gray-Haired Man as he escapes. Mulder returns to the hospital to see Scully, who tells him that Penny has died. Meanwhile, Skinner and the Cigarette Smoking Man come to terms on their deal.

Production

Writers Spotnitz (left) and Carter (right) had debated whether or not the character of Scully should be diagnosed with cancer, ultimately calling it "obligatory".

The show's producers decided to give Gillian Anderson's character Dana Scully cancer early in the fourth season. Chris Carter initially discussed giving Scully's mother cancer but decided to have Scully suffer from it instead. Carter felt it gave the show an interesting platform on which to discuss things such as faith, science, health care and a certain element of the paranormal. Some of the writing staff felt that the decision was a poor one to make, citing it as "a cheap TV thing". However, Frank Spotnitz felt that, given the appearances of cancer-stricken abductees in previous episodes, it was an "obligatory" move to have Scully follow suit.

In regards to the episode's origin, Frank Spotnitz noted that "Darin Morgan had left the show but was going to contribute an episode. And we realized at the eleventh hour that it wasn't going to happen, and we were stuck with nothing. John, Vince and I broke that story in maybe two days. We split up the acts, wrote it in probably another two days, and gave the crew something to prep before Christmas break. That was the worst ever." Carter ended up rewriting the script over the holiday. The initial cut ended up being too long, resulting in a scene introducing Scully's older brother Bill Scully, played by Pat Skipper, being removed. The character, still played by Skipper, would eventually make his first appearance in the fourth season finale "Gethsemane". The scene which would have established the character was intended to echo a similar scene in the second season episode "One Breath", which featured Don S. Davis as Scully's father. Both scenes featured the actors standing over a supine Scully, wearing white United States Navy dress uniforms. Also deleted from the episode was a kiss between Mulder and Scully, which would have been the first in the series' run. This was an ad-lib on Anderson and Duchovny's part, and was removed from the episode as it was something Chris Carter felt he wanted to make use of in the series' film adaptation. Such a kiss was eventually deferred to season six's "Triangle".

The episode's opening scene, featuring a camera moving slowly towards Scully in a harsh white light, was achieved by constructing a long narrow set covered in aluminium foil, which amplified the light being used and downplayed any colors. This shot was drained of colour entirely, and was combined with a series of blurring and framing effects in post-production to further enhance the intended image—to create the impression of waking from a dream.

A scene featuring multiple clones of the character Kurt Crawford was achieved with motion control photography, allowing actor David Lovgren to portray all of the clones—multiple takes were recorded with the actor in different positions within the scene, and by using a camera controlled by a computer to follow the exact same motions for each take, these could be seamlessly composited together. Producer Paul Rabwin has noted that achieving these shots was difficult due to the mixture of green and blue light sources in the scene.

Broadcast and reception

"Memento Mori" premiered on the Fox network on February 9, 1997, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on December 10, 1997. The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 11.5 with a 17 share, meaning that roughly 11.5 percent of all television-equipped households, and 17 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. A total of 19.10 million viewers watched this episode during its original airing.

Writing for The A.V. Club, Todd VanDerWerff rated the episode an A, calling it "an occasionally beautiful, occasionally haunting, often overwritten story". He felt that the episode took the uncommon route of tying together several previously-mentioned aspects of the series' mythology, making it "easy to believe the pieces might come together at this point". However, VanDerWerff also noted that the episode's two main plot threads—Scully's cancer and Mulder's investigation—seemed "clumsily grafted" together, and did not explore the theme of living with the fear of death as well as the previous episode, "Never Again", had done. Frank Spotnitz praised the episode, saying, "I think that was the best mythology episode we ever did. It's my favorite one". Chris Carter has stated that he feels "Memento Mori" ranks "among the best mythology episodes of all nine seasons".

This episode was submitted to the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to represent The X-Files in that year's Primetime Emmy Awards. Episode writers Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz were nominated for an Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series. Art directors Graeme Murray and Gary Allen and set decorator Shirley Inget won the Creative Emmy Award for Best Art Direction in a Series, while actress Gillian Anderson also won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her work in this episode and the fourth season as a whole.

Footnotes

References

• Hurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1933784806. 
• Meisler, Andy (1998). I Want to Believe: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 3. Harper Prism. ISBN 0061053864. 

External links

• "Memento Mori" on The X-Files Wiki, an external wiki
• "Memento Mori" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Memento Mori" at TV.com