X-Files help

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

I think It's a brilliant episode. They did somethine a little special to commemorate the 100th episode, and it was one of those things that could have worked brilliantly, or gone horribly wrong. thankfully it worked well! I love its quirkiness, and it is a refreshing break, seen as season 5 is very angsty in parts.

I think it's also quite special that Chris Owens (who plays Jeffery Spender) was actually the actor underneath all that makeup.

Very interesting, I never knew that about Chris Owens. I agree, great quirkyness.

[Guest SouthernCelt]

I think it's also quite special that Chris Owens (who plays Jeffery Spender) was actually the actor underneath all that makeup.

I sure never realized that! Guess I didn't notice who played the part in the credits. I guess 1013 maximized use of actors they had around for continuing roles.

[Guest Laurent.]

I don't think it was about maximizing the use of any actor... it was more about Chris Owens' talent! Great actor; too bad I never saw him in anything beside XF and MM.

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

I don't think it was about maximizing the use of any actor... it was more about Chris Owens' talent! Great actor; too bad I never saw him in anything beside XF and MM.

Yes, me neither. He has a pretty extensive filmography, but has somehow eluded any of the movies or TV shows I have watched. I forgot until just now that he was in "Monster" on Millennium.

[4th Horseman]

Yes, me neither. He has a pretty extensive filmography, but has somehow eluded any of the movies or TV shows I have watched. I forgot until just now that he was in "Monster" on Millennium.

Hey MIB...sorry for not getting back to your questions...as for where i am now, i just started S6....i have been watching anywhere from 3-5 episodes a day...i am planning on going back and re-watching from the beginning because i think i am missing quite a bit...especially with "The Post Modern Prometheus"

Anyway, as for S5....All Souls, Folie a Deux, Chinga (an obvious nod to the Twilight Zone episode starring Telly Savalas), Detour, Post Modern Prometheus. I really enjoyed All Souls...any comments?

4th Horseman...

p.s. - Laran...i did like TPMP, but i guess i am still a bit slow, because i dont get the Jerry Springer, Cher connection....ZF, feel free to fill me in..

[HighPlainsDrifter]

I had a feeling you might like "All Souls", 4th.

It is one of my favs. I love the scene when Scully drops her keys and looks up to see the Angel with three different heads. I know each head represents something, do you know?

[4th Horseman]

I had a feeling you might like "All Souls", 4th.

It is one of my favs. I love the scene when Scully drops her keys and looks up to see the Angel with three different heads. I know each head represents something, do you know?

Hey Joe...yes i do...the four animals are associated with either the 4 evangalistic apostles

Matthew (winged man)

Mark (Lion)

Luke (Bull)

John (Eagle)

or the four faces could represent the four children (Nephilim) that the Seraphim fathered after descending to earth

I am not quite sure just what the writers intent was in this episode....

however:

Many works of Christian art use these animals to symbolize the 4 saints..

4th Horseman..

[Guest ZeusFaber]

[i guess i am still a bit slow, because i dont get the Jerry Springer, Cher connection....ZF, feel free to fill me in..

On one level, Jerry Springer represents the tabloid culture of the simpleton town folk who just want to be on TV, which Scully describes in a little speech to Mulder in a scathing indictment of modern media culture. On the same sort of level, Cher represents the "monster"'s longing for the love of a mother in spite of his deformities, just like Cher's character in the movie Mask which he watches in the episode.

On a deeper level, both also represent and question the levels of fiction, reality and simulation in the world, and the lines where all three blur together. If you read up on postmodern discourse, you'll see reference to this idea that mass media has rendered the world and our perceptions of it into a giant simulation (so the title is more than just a pun on Mary Shelley's alternate title for Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheues, but also a pun on postmodernism as a school of thought). Usually, we accept an illusion that the events in any given episode of The X-Files are meant to be real, and we suspend our disbelief of our knowledge that it's only TV in order to enjoy the story. But in "The Post-Modern Prometheus", the fictional nature of the show is deliberately highlighted. It's not real. It's a fiction. Just like the Great Mutato is not real, but a work of fiction. Or is it real? Is the idea behind it based on what Izzy really saw, or did he only see it because of the comic book? Same goes for the inclusion of Jerry Springer and Cher. The crazy stuff that gets put on the Jerry Springer show -- how much of it is real and how much of it is pretend? To what extent does that matter? Can it ever be real to any of us so long as it is just people on a TV screen talking about their messed up lives? And Cher -- the characters she plays in the movies certainly aren't real. Her persona created through the music industry -- how much of that is real? Then there is the whole real of plastic surgery and the fact that the appearance at the end is a Cher impersonator, not Cher herself.

As you can see, there are many wheels within wheels that explore these questions of fiction and unreality, cemented by the final image of Mulder and Scully literally transforming into graphically rendered icons -- that's what they've become as The X-Files reaches its fifth season with such mass popularity, part of the cultural zeitgeist. These are the deeper levels which the episode explores. As I said, there are so many layers on which it can be enjoyed, so much to delve into, which is why it is such a fantastic episode IMO.

[Guest ZeusFaber]

]or the four faces could represent the four children (Nephilim) that the Seraphim fathered after descending to earth

I am not quite sure just what the writers intent was in this episode....

The creature in this episode is meant to be a Seraph, which is a type of angel. Seraphim is actually the plural form of Seraph. This angel is said to have four faces, a man, a lion, an eagle and a bull. That's what it's meant to be in "All Souls", a Seraph who sent the souls of the Nephilim back to heaven.

[Guest Laurent.]

Really well explained Dr. Zeus! Just to fuel the discussions surrounding 4thHorseman X-Files experience: what are your thoughts about Folie a Deux? It's an episode that I really enjoyed, one of my favorites of the season, and I'll come back later to explain why (running out of free time right now)!