Although The X-Files is fond of
saying, “the truth is out there,” every now and then they give a
wink and a nod to the truth being “in here” (or there, depending
on one's point of view.) If The X-Files purest quest is
about finding the truth, then they can stop production permanently
because they have given us the truth, sugar-coating it in tongue in
cheek references to help the medicine go down.
Mulder and Scully Meet the
Were-Monster has touched off a debate between viewers who felt
the episode “too campy” and those who remind them that the show
always had its share of comic episodes. What both sides seem to be
overlooking is that beneath the Easter Eggs and Mulder's mid-life
crisis was a story of an entity thrust into an overwhelming world he
didn't even want to try to understand. (And most certainly didn't
want to exist in.) There are some who have commented that this
episode was not scary enough. I found this episode to be the most
frightening episode; ever.
Has any episode ever confronted the
banality of the human condition with such on the mark, center of the
dart board precision?
Some examples:
Mulder: You lose someone recently?
Guy: Yeah, myself.
This is an illuminating exchange
because it brings up the struggle so many people go through when they
lose touch with the core of their being. We know it's there, but
it's been buried or hidden from us or through circumstances beyond
our control we can't connect with it anymore. It's disconcerting,
and it's something that every person must deal with as it is more of
a rite of passage than any man-made rite such as graduation or
marriage. This loss of identity can send people on a lifelong
journey to find themselves. Some people give up. Some deaden
themselves. Some shove the question away, not wanting to face it.
Others jump from fad to fad trying to find the answer, looking for an
external answer; but the answer can only be found within.
The rest of the quotes are all from
Guy, with my commentary in parentheses.
“...too overcome with human fear to
quit.” (Isn't this the way most people live their lives? Cowed
by expectations and societal norms, too afraid to live the truth
that's in their hearts?)
“...'cause life's hopeless, a few
fleeting moments of happiness surrounded by crushing loss and grief.”
(That's it, right there, the truth that most people try keep at bay
by soothing themselves with busy-ness so that don't have to confront
this basic fact of life. I know I have a depressive personality, and
I do my best to fight it, but I have been sitting here for ten
minutes trying to come up with any times in the past five years that
have been fun, and have come up with very little. Worse, it
occurred to me that this Monday, February 8 would have been my
brother's 50th birthday; had he not been killed by a drunk
driver when he was 19. There is a solace from my father's death in
that I no longer have to be sad for his sadness on my brother's birth
and death days. I know some people use the mantra, “feel the fear,
do it anyway.” I amend it to, “feel the depression, do it
anyway.” It does help.)
“I have to get out of bed and deal
with being a human.” (It's an unfortunate after-effect of waking
up.)
“There isn't an external logic to any
of it.” (Another truth.)
“...because if there's nothing more
to life than we already know then there's nothing but worries,
self-doubt, regret and loneliness.” (This actually illuminates
how much Guy has missed in his sojourn into the human condition. I
have to find something positive, if only for my own sanity. For
there is of course so much more to life than that list of negative
experiences. There's play, and music, and creativity, and laughter,
and champagne, and chocolate, and sometimes champagne and chocolate
combined.)
It's Saturday now and the reaction to
this episode continues as it started. I have started to wonder if
perhaps I am reading too much into the episode. The phrase
“ignorance is bliss” keeps running through my head, but am I the
ignorant one for seeing something not there? Or are the other
commentators blissful in their non-awareness? Is there some sort of
immunity to the horror of being locked in this body that I don't
have? And if so, is there a way to get immunity? I envy the bliss
of the people who found this episode “too comic.”
Having been spoiled on a plot point for
this Monday's episode all I can say it, “be careful what you wish
for.” Last week's episode too funny for you? I'm sure this one
will remedy that.
I hope Monday's episode does not dip
into the “tragedy brings people together” cliché. This is
nothing but false comfort, trying to put a positive spin on horrific
circumstances. People do come together and pitch in in a crisis, of
this there is no doubt. But long lasting positive change is rare,
and at its heart, based on melancholy circumstance. Another deeply
hated cliché is, “we cannot know joy without having known
sadness.” What utter rubbish, designed to cover up the scars.
We are born joyful and learn the rest through the experience of the
human condition.
It's sad, for what is the human
condition other than that to which we are conditioned? By other
humans, no less, who have no idea what they are talking about because
of the way they have been conditioned. Most people don't know they
have been conditioned at all. To them it's just life. The human
condition; that's just the way it is.
That's not for me; and it doesn't have
to be for the rest of humanity either. We could be so much more
than we are.
