Well, obviously he didn't finish the series this time around, although I do think he had intended to do so. It is perplexing to see how much the plan had changed.
Frankly, I found this story a tough one to get my head around this time through. I'm having a hard time keeping the timeline straight, I don't even remember why they're suspended.
I still like the scenes with Thomas and Katja. I believe they're meant to remind us (and Mulder and Scully?) of the dream scenes of domestic life from "Home from the War" and WIEAYB. There is one false note. The awkward scene in the kitchen, where Scully is talking with Katja and finds out she's from Bosnia. Katja calls herself Thomas's "refugee camp Cinderella," and Scully never asks how they met. It seems like such an obvious question for one woman to ask another.
I don't know what to say about Skinner in this story. He bangs a Maxim Cover model who's snorting coke, and looks the other way because he'd "gotten the idea that laws ranging from possession of narcotics to gravity were different here, and he didn't really have jurisdiction. He'd waved off the Colombian and sipped at his whiskey again." He's put in for a transfer to Tactical Support (!?) He's working with the CSM. They're practically best buddies! Talk about a midlife crisis. The description of their trip to pick up the "immigrants" was creepy and heartrending.
I liked this bit of analysis:
"Yeah, I used to get out now and then." Skinner hadn't needed to ask. The two dead men in Marjorie's back yard had been soldiers, he could tell, probably Army from their youth and lousy shooting. He remembered a counterintelligence briefing from fifteen years ago, something about the Soviets. Iron triangle, they called it. That was how the system worked in a totalitarian state. Party, armed forces, KGB, the system remaining in equilibrium by the three sides jockeying for advantage against one another. The KGB were always the baddest bad guys. You never heard about the 'moderate' wing of the KGB. "Bass, though, not water like this. Imagine this is probably a good night for it," he said, nodding generally at the steady rain.
"That's generally the rule. Why did you stop?"
"Long drive to any good fishing from DC." He'd met the Party. Senator Matheson, and the others who sat at the front of the House committee rooms. Army was fairly self-explanatory. That only left one side of the triangle for the smoking man.
The Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, Camelot, Morning in America-- these didn't figure into the equation at all. Survival, then power. Always about power.
This story gives us a lot of information about who the players left on the field are. But it's now up to us to figure out where this was all leading.
That was then, this is now
Frankly, I found this story a tough one to get my head around this time through. I'm having a hard time keeping the timeline straight, I don't even remember why they're suspended.
I still like the scenes with Thomas and Katja. I believe they're meant to remind us (and Mulder and Scully?) of the dream scenes of domestic life from "Home from the War" and WIEAYB. There is one false note. The awkward scene in the kitchen, where Scully is talking with Katja and finds out she's from Bosnia. Katja calls herself Thomas's "refugee camp Cinderella," and Scully never asks how they met. It seems like such an obvious question for one woman to ask another.
I don't know what to say about Skinner in this story. He bangs a Maxim Cover model who's snorting coke, and looks the other way because he'd "gotten the idea that laws ranging from possession of narcotics to gravity were different here, and he didn't really have jurisdiction. He'd waved off the Colombian and sipped at his whiskey again." He's put in for a transfer to Tactical Support (!?) He's working with the CSM. They're practically best buddies! Talk about a midlife crisis. The description of their trip to pick up the "immigrants" was creepy and heartrending.
I liked this bit of analysis:
"Yeah, I used to get out now and then." Skinner hadn't needed to
ask. The two dead men in Marjorie's back yard had been soldiers, he
could tell, probably Army from their youth and lousy shooting. He
remembered a counterintelligence briefing from fifteen years ago,
something about the Soviets. Iron triangle, they called it. That was
how the system worked in a totalitarian state. Party, armed forces,
KGB, the system remaining in equilibrium by the three sides
jockeying for advantage against one another. The KGB were always the
baddest bad guys. You never heard about the 'moderate' wing of the
KGB. "Bass, though, not water like this. Imagine this is probably a
good night for it," he said, nodding generally at the steady rain.
"That's generally the rule. Why did you stop?"
"Long drive to any good fishing from DC." He'd met the Party.
Senator Matheson, and the others who sat at the front of the House
committee rooms. Army was fairly self-explanatory. That only left
one side of the triangle for the smoking man.
The Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, Camelot, Morning in
America-- these didn't figure into the equation at all. Survival,
then power. Always about power.
This story gives us a lot of information about who the players left on the field are. But it's now up to us to figure out where this was all leading.