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Requiem (The X-Files)

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"Requiem (The X-Files)"

"Requiem" is the twenty-second episode and the seventh season finale of the science fiction television series The X-Files, and the show's episode overall. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States on May 21, 2000. The episode was written by Chris Carter, and directed by Kim Manners. The episode helped to explore the series' overarching mythology. "Requiem" earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.9, being watched by 15.26 million viewers in its initial broadcast. The episode received mostly positive reviews from television critics.

The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully has been assigned to debunk his work. In this episode, Mulder and Scully return to the site of their first investigation together when a series of abductions take place. However, Scully's failing health, and Mulder's concern that she is in danger, cause him to take her off the case. Meanwhile, the Cigarette-Smoking Man (William B. Davis)—on his deathbed—reunites with Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden) and Alex Krycek in an attempt to revive the project.

"Requiem" was a story milestone for the series, featuring the alien abduction of Mulder. Mulder would appear sporadically in the next few seasons, only returning for about half of the episodes in season eight and only two lone episodes in season nine. Prior to being picked up for another season, however, many believed that the episode would serve as the series finale. As such, many elements from the show's pilot episode were brought in to bring the show closure and help it segue into a movie franchise.

Plot

In Bellefleur, Oregon, Detective Miles drives to the scene of a reported air crash in the forest. As Miles arrives, his car's electricity cuts out, causing it to crash. After exiting the vehicle, an injured Miles finds his deputy sheriff, Ray Hoese, unconscious in his police cruiser. Miles is suddenly confronted by a man identical to Hoese who is bleeding green fluid, indicating he is an Alien Bounty Hunter.

Later, in Tunisia, Marita Covarrubias arranges for the release of Alex Krycek from a penal colony. Upon returning to the United States, the two meet with the wheelchair-bound Smoking Man, who tells them that an alien craft has crashed in Oregon. The Smoking Man sees the crash as a chance to rebuild the Project, but claims that finding it will be complicated. Meanwhile, in Washington, Fox Mulder receives a call from Billy Miles, an abductee from Bellefleur whom the agents investigated seven years prior. Miles tells him about Hoese's disappearance, and his concern that the abductions have begun again.

The following morning, Mulder and Dana Scully arrive in Bellefleur, where they investigate the road where the incidents took place. Upon meeting Billy, they find he has become a local police officer. The agents also meet "Detective Miles", unaware that he is a disguised Bounty Hunter who has killed Billy's father. At the scene of Hoese's disappearance, Scully finds three bullet casings, indicating that the deputy fired his weapon before vanishing. The agents later speak with Hoese's wife and are surprised when she is revealed to be Theresa Nemman, one of the other 1993 abductees. Later, while going through case files, Scully becomes ill.

That night, Theresa is awakened by someone at her door and is abducted in the night. Mulder and Scully arrive at Theresa's house to find it investigated by police, with Billy informing them that she was taken in the night and that nobody knows what happened. Scully suddenly feels nauseous, much to Billy's concern, but she quickly shakes it off. At the Miles family home, Billy – now highly suspicious – enters and pulls his gun on the man who appears to be his father. After the confrontation, Billy relinquishes his gun, at which point the other man physically morphs and reveals himself to be the Alien Bounty Hunter.

When the agents return to Washington, Walter Skinner approaches Mulder in his office, where they are joined by Marita and Krycek. Marita reveals that the Smoking Man is dying and that he wants to find the UFO in Oregon to restart the Project. The group, along with Scully and the Lone Gunmen, find evidence pinpointing the UFO's location. Returning to Oregon, Mulder and Skinner travel to the woods, equipped with lasers for finding the UFO's cloaking field. Noticing a spot where the lasers cease in mid-air, Mulder walks through the force field. He finds and joins a group of abductees, including Billy, standing below a pillar of light from a UFO; they are soon accosted by the Bounty Hunter. Mulder is abducted with the group while a stunned Skinner witnesses the UFO's departure.

At the Watergate, Krycek and Marita come to visit the Smoking Man, who is already aware of his plan's failure but is resigned to his fate. With Marita holding back his assistant, Krycek wheels the Smoking Man out of the room and throws him down a flight of stairs, presumably killing him. After being hospitalized, Scully tells Skinner that, although she cannot understand it — and that it is important that he keep it secret — she is pregnant.[1]

Production

Writing and filming

The episode was written by series creator Chris Carter (right).

"Requiem" was written by series creator Chris Carter and directed by Kim Manners.[2] While filming was underway for the seventh season, many members of the crew felt that the show had entered into its final season. Executive producer Frank Spotnitz later explained, "There was a pretty strong sentiment inside and outside the show that it was time to call it a day."[3] As the season progressed, however, the idea of producing another season emerged. Paul Rabwin explained that, "we found ourselves starting to get energized again. [...] As we got toward the end of the season, everyone was kind of hopeful."[4] During the writing of the final script, there were several ideas discussed on how to deal with the series. The first idea was that "Requiem" could end the series."[5] The episode could also function as either cliffhanger for an eighth season or an X-Files movie. During the drafting of the script, there were talks of doing a two-hour episode, but these ideas were quickly discarded.[5]

The episode attempted to bring closure to several aspects of the series. In one sequence, Alex Krycek throws The Smoking Man down a flight of stairs, presumably to his death. Nicholas Lea, the actor who portrayed Krycek, noted: "That's one of the character's great moments, when I get to push Bill Davis down a set of stairs. In a sense, he has nothing to lose because his life's burned out. So death doesn't have the same terror that it would to a young happy chap."[3] The episode also featured several tender moments between Mulder and Scully, which many fans found "nearly pornographic in the context of their long, chaste courtship", according to Matt Hurwitz and Chris Knowles in their book The Complete X-Files.[3] Gillian Anderson, however, defended the moments, arguing that there was ample amount of romance between Mulder and Scully prior to "Requiem": "Someone had sent me some of those YouTube clips that people put together of all the intimate moments between Mulder and Scully. And a few thing hit me; one was just the amount of tenderness there was between them. The looks of understanding into each others' eyes and the clarity that we were there for each other; and then there was the number of times we actually did touch hands, or kiss on the check or forehead or even on the lips at times. There was a lot of that."[3]

The ending for the episode was written the day before it was filmed. Carter held it back because he didn't want "the cat to get out of the bag."[6] This decision was made to prevent leaks and spoilers on the internet.[6] Manners originally thought that Chris Carter would have wanted to direct the episode, in case the episode would have been the show's last. Originally, Carter planned on it, but eventually relented and asked Manners to direct the episode. Manners later noted that he felt "very honored" by this gesture.[6]

Filming and effects

Principal shooting for the episode began on April 20, 2000 on Soundstage 5 at the Twentieth Century Fox lot.[5] Filming at the studio ended on Day 4, and subsequently, the cast and crew relocated to the mountains resort Big Bear, located near Big Bear Lake, California. The forests around the area provided an "ideal backdrop" for the bulk of the episode, which was supposed to take place in Oregon; the setting for both "Requiem" and the series pilot were supposed to take place in the same fictional city, Bellefleur.[7] However, in the pilot, the outdoor scenes had originally been shot on location in Lynn Valley in North Vancouver, British Columbia, in the Lower Seymour Conservation Reserve—formerly known as the Seymour Demonstration Forest.[8] Since production had moved from Vancouver to Los Angeles after the conclusion of the fifth season, a local California location was needed to stand in for Oregon.[7]

The episode featured several elaborate effects, created through both digital and physical means. The scene wherein Scully encounters the alien forcefield was created by means of using a harness that hoisted Anderson into the air. Special effects producer Bill Millar created many of the special effects for the episode—including shots of the alien craft as well as its interaction with people—in a building in Big Bear.[7] The episode contains a shot of Detective Miles morphing into the alien bounty. In order to create the scene, various shots of Leon Russom and Brian Thompson were spliced together via blue screen technology. Producer Paul Rabwin called the shot "one of the best morphs we've ever done."[9]

Casting

Because there was still a chance that the seventh season may have been the show's last, the character of Billy Miles, played by Zachary Ansley and who originally appeared in the pilot episode, was brought back in and featured in "Requiem" to bring the series full-circle.[3][10] After the conclusion of the episode, David Duchovny expressed his desire to leave the series. He explained, "I was kind of a free agent after season seven, and to me, there was not much else to do in terms of the character. So it was really about me wanting to purse other parts of my career as a writer, director, and actor."[3] Rumors began spreading—and were eventually confirmed—that, since Duchovny had not expressed an interest to appear as a main character in the eighth season, that another character would take Mulder's place. Many fans on the internet believed that Mitch Pileggi, who portrayed Walter Skinner, would take the role; Pileggi later called this guess "ridiculous."[5]

Themes

The scene in Skinner's office is a reference to The Last Supper, a painting by Leonardo Da Vinci

"Requiem" explores Mulder's desire to leave his pursuit of the truth behind him. Michelle Bush, in her book Myth-X notes that the episode's theme is his "realization that maybe it's time to get out of the car".[11] The irony of the episode, however, is that as soon as Mulder's discovery of absolute proof of alien life appears, his is subsequently abducted and taken away.[11]

While in Skinner's office, the camera angles and position of the characters reveals that the scene is intended to be a recreation of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous painting The Last Supper. Skinner is standing in Saint Peter's spot, and Scully is standing in Judas Iscariot's place. Bush argues that, in this manner, the show is suggesting that Scully, like Judas, directly affects the fate of the savior, in this case Mulder. She notes that Scully's actions result in a fate that "could not be realized without her participation".[12] This is not the first time Scully has been compared to Judas in the show; in the previous seventh season episode "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati"—which is heavily based on Nikos Kazantzakis's novel The Last Temptation of Christ—features Scully in a role with direct literary parallels to Judas.[13]

Broadcast and reception

"Requiem" first aired on Fox in the United States on May 21, 2000.[2] This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 8.9, with a 14 share, meaning that roughly 8.9 percent of all television-equipped households, and 14 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode.[14] It was viewed by 15.26 million viewers.[14] "Requiem" marked a 3.8 percent decrease in viewers from the sixth season finale, "Biogenesis"[nb 1] and a 14.4 percent decrease from the seventh season premiere, "The Sixth Extinction."[nb 2] The episode aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sky1 on August 13, 2000 and received 1.00 million viewers, making it the most watched episode that week.[16] Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "Is this the end for Mulder?"[17] The episode was later included on The X-Files Mythology, Volume 3 – Colonization, a DVD collection that contains episodes involved with the alien Colonist's plans to take over the earth.[18]

The episode received mostly positive reviews from critics. Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, gave the episode a largely positive review. Despite lamenting the loss of Fox Mulder, he noted that "the truth is The X-Files has been a show like no other and 'Requiem' proved once again there truly is a place for magic and beauty and love on the small screen and I am delighted to have witnessed it for seven seasons now."[19] Kessenich later named the episode one of the "Top 25 Episode of All Time" of The X-Files, ranking it at number 20.[20] Kenneth Silber from Space.com called the episode "intriguing" and wrote that, "The X-Files foundered for much of its seventh season, drifting through often inane "stand-alone" episodes while largely neglecting the series' alien-oriented 'mythology arc.' The season finale 'Requiem' marks a much-needed return to that mythology, and sets the stage for what might be an interesting eighth season."[21] Rich Rosell from DigitallyObsessed.com awarded the episode 4.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "A lot of characters out of the woodwork come back for the season-ending cliffhanger [...] But that's all window-dressing for a trio of big surprises that wrap up Season 7, in what many consider the show's death knell, or perhaps just a proper ending."[22] Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode four stars out of five.[23] The two noted that, despite the "lacklustre [sic]" season, the episode still managed to provided a good enough cliffhanger to hold fans until the premiere of the eighth season. Shearman and Pearson further noted that "Against the odds, after all the disappointments of the year, 'Requiem' is strong enough to leave its audience wanting more."[23] Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a more mixed review and awarded it two stars out of four.[24] Despite noting that the episode was "the best mytharc episode and season finale in years", she called the episode's finale "one of the most egregious missteps yet in The X-Files mythology".[24]

Notes

  1. ^ "Biogenesis" was viewed by 15.86,[14] whereas "Requiem" was viewed by 15.26 million viewers.[14] Subtracting the two figures and then dividing them by 15.86 million, which represents the largest possible audience, yields a percent decrease of 3.8 percent.
  2. ^ "The Sixth Extinction" was viewed by 17.82 whereas,[15] "Requiem" was viewed by 15.26 million viewers.[14] Subtracting the two figures and then dividing them by 17.82 million, which represents the largest possible audience, yields a percent decrease of 14.4 percent.

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Shapiro, pp. 266–277
  2. ^ a b The X-Files: The Complete Seventh Season (Media notes). Fox. {{cite AV media notes}}: |format= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |director= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |titlelink= ignored (|title-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |titleyear= ignored (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e f Hurwitz and Knowles, p. 180
  4. ^ Shapiro, p. 277
  5. ^ a b c d Shapiro, p. 278
  6. ^ a b c Carter, Chris et al. (2000). The Truth Behind Season 7 (DVD). The X-Files: The Complete Seventh Season: Fox Home Entertainment. {{cite AV media}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |authors= (help)CS1 maint: location (link)
  7. ^ a b c Shapiro, 270
  8. ^ Gradnitzer and Pittson, pp. 26–27
  9. ^ Paul Rabwin (2000). Bounty Hunter Morph (DVD). The X-Files: The Complete Seventh Season: Fox Home Entertainment.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  10. ^ Frank Spotnitz (Writer) (6 June 2006). DeadAlive: Episode Commentary (DVD). The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.{{cite AV media}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  11. ^ a b Bush, p. 144
  12. ^ Bush, p. 145
  13. ^ Donaldson, p. 19
  14. ^ a b c d e Shapiro, p. 281
  15. ^ Meisler, p. 294
  16. ^ "BARB's multichannel top 10 programmes". barb.co.uk. Retrieved 4 January 2011. Note: Information is in the section titled "w/e August 6–13, 20000", listed under Sky 1
  17. ^ Requeim (Promotional Flyer). Los Angeles, California: Fox Broadcasting Company. 2000.
  18. ^ Kim Manners et al. The X-Files Mythology, Volume 3 – Colonization (DVD). FOX. {{cite AV media}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |authors= (help)
  19. ^ Kessenich, p. 141
  20. ^ Kessenich, p. 217
  21. ^ Silber, Kenneth (27 October 2000). "'Requiem' Resurrects X-Files Mythology". Space.com. TechMediaNetwork. Retrieved 5 January 2012. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  22. ^ Rosell, Rich (27 July 2003). "The X-Files: The Complete Seventh Season". DigitallyObsessed. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  23. ^ a b Shearman and Pearson, p. 227
  24. ^ a b Vitaris, Paula (October 2000). "The X-Files Season Seven Episode Guide". Cinefantastique. 32 (3): 18–37. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)

Bibliography

  • Bush, Michelle (2008). Myth-X. Lulu. ISBN 1435746880.
  • Donaldson, Amy (2007). "The Last Temptation of Mulder". In Yang, Sharon (ed.). The X-Files and Literature: Unweaving the Story, Unraveling the Lie to Find the Truth. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781847182395.
  • Gradnitzer, Louisa; Pittson, Todd (1999). X Marks the Spot: On Location with The X-Files. Arsenal Pulp Press. ISBN 1-55152-066-4.
  • Hurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1-933784-80-6.
  • Kessenich, Tom (2002). Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 1-55369-812-6.
  • Meisler, Andy (2000). The End and the Beginning: The Official Guide to the X-Files Season 6. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-107595-7.
  • Shapiro, Marc (2000). All Things: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 6. Harper Prism. ISBN 0-06-107611-2.
  • Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 0-9759446-9-X.
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