User Reviews

Christmas Carol takes us back to the storyline of Scully's cancer, but takes it a step more personal. Scully carries the episode as Mulder barely makes a cameo. So gone is Mulder's wry humor, but it is replaced by some excellent dramatic acting by Gillian Anderson. When Scully receives the first mysterious phone call, she immediately dials a number that connects her to the San Diego FBI field office. I am impressed that Scully has their phone number memorized. Although this episode takes place around Christmas time, it is still odd to hear Christmas music in the soundtrack, being the x-files. I like the contrast it makes between a dark murder investigation and light holiday music. Even though Scully knows that her ova were taken, it's interesting that during the episode she only suspects Melissa of being Emily's mother and not herself. I really liked the dream sequences in this episode, especially how the shots transitioned to the dream from reality. They added a depth to the episode. I also like the guest character of Detective Kresge. He did a credible job. Christmas Carol is a good mystery that Gillian Anderson pulls off well without David Duchovny. Her pain at being barren feels so real, you'll be sympathizing with Scully.

This is a very interesting little two-parter. I always seem to forget about it after I watch and I think its because rarely is Scully's pseudo-daughter Emily ever mentioned again. Christmas Carol starts off with a very eerie phone call for Scully right as she arrives at her brother's house for Christmas. A woman's voice simply says, "She needs your help!" or something like that. Scully traces the call and begins to follow a trail of clues that lead us to believing first the this little girl is Melissa Scully's daughter and then later to find out that the little girl is special and has been receiving very top secret treatment at a clinic. I think the suspense and mystery in this episode is top of the line for X-Files and the cliff-hanger where we find out that Emily is actually Scully's daughter is great. One of the most memorable cliff-hangers in my opinion. Everything leads up to a point where it is looking like Scully is suddenly going to have a child to look after. Great episode to an exciting two parter. I give the episode a 9 out of 10.

I've always maintained, that Sculder and Mully are the most unfortunate individuals on the face of this and many other Alternate Earths.

Which is why Skully cannot even go on a harmless Christmas Vacation with her family without some major dilemma occurring. How do Mulder and Skully survive this constant barrage of Future Shock? Enough Future Shock to kill a thousand Alvin Tofflers, if I were allowed to quote Larry Niven from his book "A World Out of Time." These episodes "A Christmas Carol" and "Emily" comprised two of the Season Five Mythology episodes of The X Files (As opposed to the Monster of the Week Eps which were represented by the greatest MOTW of them all, "The Postmodern Prometheus" which was earlier in the season).

This episode poses questions regarding Skully's sister Melissa - Questions which regard not Melissa, but rather Skully herself. And so Skully has to bring up this difficult subject to her mother and brother once more.

Skully is now fully captured by Mulder in this season, fated forever to be part of his story, giving up her chances of ever having a normal career or family. Mulder IS Skully's family, as much as her mother and brother. This episode painfully teaches Skully this lesson, in the most personal way possible for a woman, a sister, a doctor and an FBI Agent.

Which makes this Mythos episode an important mid-series story, as it is not just about Mulder chasing answers about his sister Samantha, or his mother and the Cigarette Smoking Man: These two episode bring Skully directly into Mulder's story - And as much as she wants to stand independently from Mulder, from this point on in the series she is undeniably and inextricably bound to Mulder for the rest of her life.

Skully visits her Brother and his wife, who is expecting very soon - For Christmas. Within hours of getting to San Diego, she gets a phone call from a dead woman. A Dead woman who leaves behind a Legacy, which is actually Skully's legacy. This is either incredible fortune, or the X-Files Shadow Government in action.

This story answers questions that were posed in Season two regarding Skully's abduction. Not all of the answers but enough to propel the Mythos another 4 years.

Season Five was the heart of The X Files, it was still being filmed in Vancouver, but was now being presented in wide-screen format. Some of the best Location work was done in this season, and some of the best Special Effects - Always building from the earlier seasons. And these two Episodes are right in the middle of the heart of The X Files, as they are a very personal story for not just Skully but Mulder as well.

Look for Gerard Plunkett and John Pyper-Fergusen, who also played important characters in "Fringe."

Take almost any other ongoing TV series and the idea presented here would be almost patently ridiculous. At the conclusion of this episode, it's revealed that Scully is the mother of a three year old girl, with no knowledge that the child was ever born. Although to be fair, I did know a husky woman once who didn't know she was pregnant until the day she wound up in the hospital complaining of stomach pains, and refused to believe she was having a baby - that very day! I guess those kinds of things happen, making the truth often stranger than fiction.

This story starts out with Scully receiving a mysterious phone call that sounds like it might have been from her sister who had been murdered in a prior season. In that respect, the writers here borrow an idea utilized by Rod Serling in a couple of his 'Twilight Zone' stories dealing with phone calls from the beyond. One occurred in the second season of that series titled 'Long Distance Call' and the other one was from the fifth and final season, 'Night Call'. Both were creepy in their own way, with twists that could only occur in the Twilight Zone.

The connection between three year old Emily Sim (Lauren Diewold) and Scully's sister Melissa is established via an old family photo and the recurring phone calls. What looks like a husband/wife murder case is abruptly turned on it's head when it's revealed that a pair of unidentified agents are involved in plotting to do away with Emily's parents, all in service to a government sponsored genetic experiment. That brings the story into the myth/arc conspiracy tableau, which receives further exposition in the second part of this story.

There is some poignancy to the episode as Scully reflects on her own inability to ever have children, made even more heart rending with her sister-in-law's pregnancy and the family oriented Christmas season looming. In an effort to bridge the family connection between her sister and Emily, Scully places her religious cross around the neck of the young girl. A flashback scene between Scully and Melisa reveals just how sensitive and wise Melissa Scully (Melind McGraw) was in attempting to console her younger sibling on the choice of a career - "There is no right or wrong. Life is just a path." For Scully, this would turn out to be the most stressful path of her life.