Date Posted:14:40:44 12/30/00 Sat Author: detoured Subject: Re: Memento Mori I think that does make a difference... In reply to:
Scully'sMyHero
's message, "Good List!" on 07:04:00 12/30/00 Sat
I first started watching near the beginning of season 4 and I had a whole season without being on the internet. So I watched every ep fresh with no hype or preconceived ideas. In a way now being online has been detrimental. I won't say the show isn't as enjoyable because it's certainly great to have people to talk about it at length but I miss being in the dark. I know some people just love the spoilers but I can almost guarantee that everyone would get something very different out of their XF experience if we had no spoilers.
Memento Mori was special because I had just seen Leonard Betts with Scully learning about her cancer. Then we get Never Again with no mention of it. Argh! And then the previews at the end showed that she was going to tell Mulder. That was THE longest week waiting for that and finding out what was going to happen! So it was like an emotional rollercoaster up through the first airing of MM. I wouldn't call the ep sad but it was very intense and emotional and I thought it just fit together so well.
I loved DD's approach to his performance. He seems to me that he decided that as soon as Mulder hears the news he is almost constantly in motion, desparate to figure out how to help. Even if it's just moving his eyes around, he doesn't stop moving, pacing, fidgeting. I think it's his best work ever and he doesn't get enough notice for it.
The whole show was great for me because at this point I was now interested in the characters and they weren't just average disposable TV characters who I could watch and then forget about the rest of the week because I didn't have any real concern for their lives. Mulder and Scully became human beings I cared about as much as you can care about them since they're fictional! And here they throw this big wrench into things that I wasn't expecting!
Now with the internet it's really hard to watch the show that way anymore.
So this episode will always be my favorite, in part, because it was the first that really grabbed me on a gut level and refused to let go.
