The apparent kidnapping of young Amber Lynn LaPierre evokes disturbing parallels to earlier disappearances, including that of Mulder's long-lost sister.
(Originally aired February 6, 2000)
| Quotable Moments |
| Tena Mulder: There are so many emotions in me, I wouldn't know where to start. So much I've left unsaid for reasons I hope one day you'll understand. |
Ransom note: No one shoots at Santa Claus. |
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Written by Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Michael Watkins
GUEST STARS
Rebecca Toolan - Teena Mulder
WHAT HAPPENED
A suburban house. A little girl, Amber Lynn, prays at bedside ("…I pray the Lord my soul to keep") while her parents watch contentedly. She goes to bed, and her father goes to watch TV in the living room. The mother, Billie, goes to the parents' bedroom and suddenly has a very serious look on her face. She takes a red marker and begins writing on a sheet of dry cleaning tissue paper.
She is writing a ransom note for her own daughter. "Tell a stray dog and you will never see her alive again," it reads in part. "No one shoots at Santa Claus."
The father, after murmuring that the TV show is "good," goes to check on Amber Lynn. She appears dead, her face purple. He has a moment of panic but then looks again and sees his daughter is fine. Enormously relieved, he leaves the room…
…only to have the door slam shut hard behind him. He tries to open it but can’t -- and blood is spilling out below, into the hallway. He forces the door open. The bed is empty. Amber Lynn is gone. (more
spoilers)
ANALYSIS
"Sein Und Zeit" marks the X-Files' long-awaited return to its "
mythology arc" of aliens, abductions, and conspiracies. Although lacking direct evidence of aliens, the episode raises the possibility that whatever happened to Mulder's sister Samantha has happened again, this time to young Amber Lynn LaPierre.
While the series' reversion to its central theme is much appreciated, this episode unfolds with an unfortunate slowness that does little to satisfy the
seven-year itch many X-Files viewers have come to feel in response to monster-of-the-week episodes and phony-baloney mythology cliffhangers.
Still, even with its "to-be-continued" ending, "Sein Und Zeit" offers enough substance to intrigue. Amber Lynn and another vanished child reappear to their respective mothers as spectral, translucent figures. Are these ghosts? Are they holograms? Where exactly is the line between extraterrestrial and supernatural?
Similarly, the female prisoner says she has seen "the walk-ins, old souls looking for new homes," who "live in the starlight." Might this be a reference to alien viruses? Might the extraterrestrials be cleverly playing upon the credulity and wishful thinking of distraught human beings who've lost their children?
Or perhaps the aliens themselves incompletely grasp the magnitude of the forces previously unleashed upon the Earth, a planet which, as faithful viewers know, already bears the imprint of the
cloven hoof.
WHAT WE LEARN
Mulder's mom hasn't been completely honest with him.
Automatic writing by a victim's mother has occurred during at least two reported abductions.
DANGLING PLOT THREADS
What is to become of (a) the LaPierres, (b) the female prisoner, (c) the missing kids, and (d) humanity?
Why is the episode called "Sein Und Zeit" (Being and Time), the name of a book by Heidegger?
REALITY CHECK
The Surrealists regarded automatic writing as a promising literary technique.
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK ...
Dare we hope to get some answers? Is the truth still out there? Find out, in "Closure".
What do you think? Send comments to the
author or editor.
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