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Seven And One - Why So Many Mistakes?

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Guest A Stranger

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Another case of Evil taking on a different form to confuse the mind.  As an everyday person, Emma would naturally believe her eyes, as I think most of us would, and would go to investigate the source of her confusion.

Indeed, I think that was part of the point, for Frank to find her and thus be driven a little closer to insanity.  Also, as others have pointed out, to make him look guilty.

Terrible signal in a shallow grave.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Zeus...these were presented in a more humerous manner, especially the cell phone issue. Glad to see others have a sense of humor as well..
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  • 5 months later...
Guest MrCox

"Seven And One" is a puzzling episode, there is no doubt about it, although much of this discussion here solved the biggest mysteries.

In German there is a saying "der Teufel steckt im Detail", which could be translated literally "the devil can be found in the details". This saying always comes to my mind when watching this episode. For example:

Did anyone notice that the psychiatrist's house is the same one that Frank lived in during season 2?

Did anyone notice that the polaroid man's photo of Catherine and Jordan in front of the Seattle cab is ot the same than in the pilot?

The different video from Frank's psychiatry session presented in "The Innocents" was already mentioned. (Where is the "I'm not here to educate you" line that was on the video before?)

I really love this episode, but all these puzzling details just can't be simple mistakes. I see this episode as some kind of combination: It presents an attack by Legion AND Frank's nervous breakdown which results in the polaroids he is sent in the teaser sequence. (The teaser is fantastic by the way; Frank sees visions of evil, the clock stops, the doorbell rings! Evil is here! :rofl: )

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  • 3 years later...
Guest Kitsunegari

I'm so glad that so many people struggle to understand this episode! These posts are pretty old, anyone had any ideas about the purpose of the second Emma yet and the significance of the suicide? I'm confused by some simpler matters too like who sent the polaroids in the first place? Boxer? And if Boxer killed the psychiatrist was he ever caught? Or was it Legion appearing as Boxer? Ahhh confusion!!

Sorry if these things were resolved in the episode, I'm easily distracted and might have missed things :blink:

Kit xXx

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Steve Taylor

From Borrowed Time onwards I think Season 3 has a terrific run and is unfairly maligned IMO, however this episode just doesn't work for me I'm afraid. Apart from the continuity mistakes already discussed, it seems to have been created in complete isolation from the rest of the season and other than linking Mabius with Legion (a gimmick that could easily have been included in the previous episode) serves no real purpose whatsoever - that VO from Frank at the end is completely meaningless really and always makes me feel like I've wasted 45 mins. Carter's horror-movie-in-miniature episodes (whilst not being the most thought provoking) were generally very entertaining and although not realistic usually had their own internal sense of logic, however this just feels like a series of random events strung together because he and Spotnitz thought they were "neat ideas".

Edited by Steve Taylor
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  • 8 months later...

This episode is one of my favorites for the spiritual and supernatural forces it puts against Frank.

I have wrestled with some of the "inconsistancies" presented as well.

Since this episode is another that asks as many questions as it answers...

Would it not be possible that there are other events in this episode, other than the ending, did not occur in the physical realm?

I sometimes loosly use this line of reasoning to justify Frank being back in the FBI, investigating with Emma in the next episode.

I hate to go in an "alternate reality" route, or "It was just a dream" route, but I think aspects of this episode point in that direction.

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Guest RodimusBen
Would it not be possible that there are other events in this episode, other than the ending, did not occur in the physical realm?

Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but isn't the only person who says that Frank is leaving the FBI the guy who turns out to be Mabius? To me the simplest explanation is that he was lying to Emma.

I hate to go in an "alternate reality" route, or "It was just a dream" route, but I think aspects of this episode point in that direction.

It's hard to dodge in this episode, given the whole bathroom sequence and Emma clone at the end.

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Precisely and you can see evidence of that fairly frequently at BigLight when fans write in to Frank Spotnitz seeking clarification with regards to some of the more ambiguous aspects of Millennium or the X-Files and he often states that those moments were intended to be exactly that - ambiguous - they didn't always have a fixed concept of what certain scenes or lines dialogues were intended to convey, often they wanted to suggest something but allow the viewer the define what the scene actually represents for themselves and I think the shows are the richer for it.

I know when RTD left Doctor Who he had the Doctor give this huge speech with referenced all sorts of intriguing concepts and events that had never been seen on screen. He didn't know what these concepts were beyond liking the sounds of the words but he wanted to give something to the fans, to the fan-fiction writers, forum members and so on as a form of food for thought and I'm firmly of the opinion that the Emma-suicide is a similar device by the Ten Thirteen folk. It looks good, it's intriguing, it's still being debated over ten years later. Job done.

Eth

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  • 2 years later...

Great thread on a terrific episode! i was reading this yesterday after having watched the episode a third time, and felt i wanted to register myself and join the discussion..

"Seven and One" is definitely a very strange episode, and although there are some stuff that's hard to understand, i think it's a really gripping one that have you hanging on your seat for the entire hour. i agree that this almost feel like it could've been the season finale, with Frank's speech at the end and the realizations he has here and in "Bardo Thodol".

the thing with Emma's double at the end still has me scratching my head though.. that's just extremely weird haha. it obviously has something to do with her biggest fear, but that suicide would be her biggest fear sounds unlikely. could it be that the double of Emma is a representation of her sister, Melissa, that was murdered when they were young? maybe her worst nightmare was that Melissa would return only to be snatched away in a violent death before her eyes.. AGAIN!! this explanation has come to my mind every time i've seen it, bc i think it makes some sense.. however, they could've used another actor and have Emma say "Melissa" when she saw her and it would've been clear as day.

another thing i thought about when watching this yesterday; the topic that evil can only take root in those with fear in their hearts, and they prey on Frank's fears and almost gets him. however, Frank finds his inner strength and breaks free of the grip of evil, only to come out stronger.. but Emma, as I take it, does not. she says "i need to know, because someone's been IN MY HEAD too" and then meets her biggest fear (the double) when she arrives at Frank's house.

but the only way she snaps out of that scenario is because Frank comes down and "wakes her" up from it. it seems that her heart would still be open to evil through her fear then, and maybe this is something that points towards her joining the MillenniuM group at the end of the season as she could not resist anymore.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Ghostmojo
... I hate to go in an "alternate reality" route, or "It was just a dream" route, but I think aspects of this episode point in that direction.

So do I.

The bathroom sequence is such obvious nonsense. No bathroom is that watertight that it would fill up like that. Doors have gaps underneath - there were windows to break etc. Ditto the EH double section. If it wasn't a dream - or a sharing of a dream or hallucination - then it was some kind of temporal shift of reality; before ending up back where we started. The XF did this on occasion too. Take the episode Je Souhaite with Mulder having the planet to himself for a few hours! Ultimately it is just somebody (Legion/Mabius) playing mindgames with our two lead protagonists.

Emma Hollis moving towards the MG, and PW & co even wanting her rather baffles me. She starts out in Season 3 as a somewhat diffident and stumbling character, and yet is elevated to a figure of such importance and potential that the MG must have her? I don't think so. Most candidates are older and far more experienced. EH is far too young and limited in personal growth and feel to have any use to the MG. She seems to lack the innate inner self that FB and Lara Means have - or the methodical cold calculating assessment capabilities of a PW. It just strikes me as the scriptwriters racing ahead of themselves in terms of character development - knowing perhaps that S3 is going to be the last - so let's leave loads of loopholes and puzzling developments...

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