Sorry, folks, I could have sworn I tagged the "Add Message" thing last night, but I guess I missed it. Post to your heart's content.

So when the writer was explaining to Scully the long chain of suppositions that told him she was coming to the church to see the painting, was anyone else waiting for her to come back with: "You amaze me, Holmes!"

Remind me not to move into Mulder's apartment building. Having vents direct from one unit to another's got to be a violation of some code or other, not to mention a loss of privacy. . . .

Somehow I don't think a heart would continue to beat after it's been removed from the chest.

I think the writer of this episode had the same trouble as Patchett - not knowing how to end. The ending was unbearably obtuse. A better ending, I think, would be for it turn out that this entire episode is just Patchett's own fantasy about Scully.

It's odd that, for all the discussion of the novel, it's never given so much as a name.

Okay, ladies, show of hands. Does anyone actually think this guy is appealing? Go for the intense, humourless stalker type?

Why would the phone company send a billing statement to this week's bad guy when he made no calls?

Hans, I think though there are no calls placed, there is the monthly fee which one needs to pay. Thus, the phone bill. What I don't understand is how Padgett figured that the envelop sticking out of Mulder's paper was his. I mean, Mulder could have the same phone carrier as he does. Oh yeah, what he thinks is what is. ;-)

Did anyone notice how the camera that Mulder uses to spy on Padgett was mounted? I'm not sure but I thought it was on the wall below the vent. Did Mulder drill a hole through the wall?

Just wondering, does anyone think that Mulder's neighbor, Phil Paggent, was a reference to the Chief. Same first name, both are writers who write about Scully, and can rattle off trivial details about Scully's life. (I'm suprised Mr. Paggent didn't mention Scully's shoes.) Also, this is the first time in a long time Scully has fired 2 or mor shots, I believe it was 3 shots.

How do you nitpick this? It's impossible to tell which parts were fantasy and which parts were "reality" (if any). The entire show could have been in Padgett's mind.

I don't know if this was intentional, but I noticed a few real writer's names in the story. Padgett's last name was part of a pen name (Lewis Padgett) used by science fiction writers Henry Kuttner and Leigh Brackett. One of the tombstones had the name Sallinger; JD Sallinger wrote "The Catcher in the Rye" (which was the book that stalker Mark David Chapman read after he shot John Lennon). Did anyone catch any others?

Based upon the previews pertaining to this particular episode that were exhibited the previous week, they apparently have Special Agent Dana Scully consentaneously lying on Mr. Padgett's bed with her arm elevated above her head. However, I never caught this scene during the premiere of the episode. Then again, I had not turned on my television and flicked the channels to FOX until about halfway through and, in all likelihood, missed a disillusional scenario conceived by Mr. Padgett. Furthermore, how come they have had Special Agent Dana Scully behaving meretriciously by having her sit on an individual's bed? They had her do so in "Dreamland" as well. I have always perceived her as being an intelligent, professional woman with her head on straight. These incidents ruin my perception.

To get us started with the whole Padgett/Scully stalking thing, we have Scully come over to Mulder's apartment to show him autopsy photos. Isn't there somewhere more appropriate where they could do this stuff? Like, oh, say, the *office*?

Considering all the shadowy conspiracies swirling around these two, and all the people who would love to see them "off the case", I'm surprised at how casually Scully opens the envelope slipped under the office door.

Perhaps I'm being grungy and insensitive, but I wouldn't call standing next to someone in a church "cornering", as Scully described it. (Especially considering that Padgett put himself on Scully's far side, so she had a clear path to the door.)

How do you nitpick this episode, Mike? Well, you start by mentioning that after six seasons it's STILL MULDER'S OFFICE! So, where does Scully keep her things? Is this why she has a guest bedroom?

At the end, Padgett narrates his own death. Is this manuscript lurking around somewhere? And if it is, does that mean he is compelled to follow his own script just as much as his characters? I'd be keeping away from the typewriter, let met tell ya'.

I'm surprised that Mulder, at least, didn't mention suing Padgett's behind off for libel. You really can't write fiction about real people without getting in enormous trouble.

Minor note: all this time spent around people like Cancerman has gotten Scully into the habit of speaking in the passive tense ("An envelope has been slipped under your door."). By what mysterious person, you may ask? The mail person! Run for your lives!

Sorry. The whole scene was written to imply much more mystery than it really had.

Obviously, this one was for the boys. Lots of slow motion views of Ms. Anderson's features. I wonder if Carter is planning something similar to show off Duchovny to the women in the audience?

Of course, Padgett was manipulating reality at that point, but I am still surprised that Scully didn't roll the desk chair into the bedroom to sit on.

Query to the Great Nitpicking Crowd: is that Catholic "burning heart" story of Padgett's real or made up? It sure seemed to fit conveniently into the story's theme.

I can see why Padgett's previously books failed. After all, the over-detailed florid expository prose we heard was pretty dense...

In response to "Somehow I don't think a heart would continue to beat after it's been removed from the body." Actually, it can. The heart does not need any neural connections what-so-ever to maintain its automaticity (hence the term automaticity). In a normal functioning heart, a "pacemaker" region called the SA node demonstrates spontaneous electrical activity, causing the spread of a depolarizing impulse throughout the heart; resulting in contractions. Thus, until the heart muscles die, the heart can continue beating of its own accord.

I was wondering if someone could clear something up for me? I didn't quite understand if the events that occurred in this episode was, as Mulder would put it, determined a priori by Padgett, or if Scully's interest in him was genuine. It would appear that the latter was true given how Padgett belatedly realizes that Scully is already in love with Mulder. However, just because he mis-read Scully's true feelings doesn't necessarily mean that Padgett couldn't dictate her actions, particularily given the fact that he didn't even understand his true motivations for creating "The Stranger" until the very end, but was obviously controlling the murders. Now how's that for an overly dense question....?

If this guy was such a bad writer how did he pay the rent?

OK, on with the fun stuff. I have to admit, my absolute favorite line came from Mulder. "It basically ends up with you [Scully] doing the naked pretzel..."

Also, did anyone else think that by the whole lightbulb scene, this episode was turning into "Never Again...Again!"?

=/\= Aaron =/\=

Mark--true, Mulder could have sued Padgett for libel, but he would have to prove that Padgett was intending to defame his character. Just using Mulder's name is not itself inherently libelous. As Padgett said, "I imagined it."

The deaths in this episode remind me of the lines from the Rolling Stones "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll":

If I could stick my pen in my heart
And spill it out over the stage
Would it satisfy ya? Would it slide on by ya?
Would you think the boy is strange? Ain't it strange?

I got this from www.catholic.org. As you see it differs somewhat from that Padgett said. You can get the full story at the Sacred Hearts Vocation Page.

Following the Protestant Reformation and the Council of Trent, Saint John Eudes in France became the great apostle of the love of the Sacred Heart. And in the late seventeenth century French village of Paray-le-Monial, Jesus opened His Heart anew to a contemplative Nun, Margaret Mary Alacoque.

Many people of the time felt God to be far away from their concerns, but Jesus showed Margaret Mary how much He desired to be with her; there was great indifference to the Mass and the Sacraments, but Jesus encouraged her to draw near to His Blessed Sacrament in Mass and Adoration. In time, Saint Margaret Mary's revelations and writings caused others to be devoted to the Heart of Jesus.

Her description of Jesus with His heart aflame with love for all gave rise to statues and other artworks as common fixtures of Catholic devotion. And certain of her writings, collected as the "Promises of the Sacred Heart" enabled many to live a fervent and loving Christian life.

I loved the prose in this episode. One of the things the Chief frequently pointed out in the Guide is the use of prose to set the mood. Amazingly (or not so amazingly) Padgett's prose sounds a lot like Mulder's and Scully's.

This is definitely a PAL considering the "tumble in the sheets" was all imagined and never happens. And seriously folks, Scully curious, yes; Scully intrigued? Eeeeeeoooooo! This guy was downright creepy!

One-Bullet-Barney shooting at spectres at the end was surprising, but I question her FBI skills if she's been "stalked" by this guy for months and she's never noticed! But then isn't she the cool cucumber when in this guy's apartment she's not just a little jumpy being around the guy. There was one point when he brushed by her in the doorway of the bedroom. In actuality I would think she would back up just a tad if she saw him coming her way.

Okay, we are lead to believe that the character in Padgett's novel comes to life and is the one responsible for the murders. This doesn't explain the opening scene and the closing scene when Padgett himself is the one performing the removable heart trick. More poetry?

And the spectre sure takes his time removing Scully's heart. Every other time we see him attack it's pretty swift. Mulder & Scully's embrace at the end was very moving, though. You could really see the love in their faces.

Cecil B. DeMille once commented that whenever you want a really good story, you could always rely on the Bible. It is interesting to note that several times Chris Carter has given us a story or a viewpoint that is based deep within Christian belief. Faith is basically belief without proof. Carter has established long ago that Scully is Catholic and that at some point her faith had been shaken, and yet she continues to want to believe in her Faith even though SHE is the one who doesn't believe without proof. Mulder on the otherhand is quite comfortable in his "faith." He'll believe just about anything without proof, and the more farfetched it seems the more he believes it. His search for proof is only fueled by his desire to say, "See! I knew I was right!" I guess my point is that Carter is asking us to challenge our faith in the things that we were taught to believe only because somebody told us to believe them, that sometimes there is more mystery in our own beliefs than we are willing to admit.

Oops, I made a mistake in my earlier post. Henry Kuttner's wife/co-writer's name was C[atherine]. L. Moore. Leigh Brackett was married to a different science fiction writer, Edmond Hamilton.

This ep gives us a little more info about Mulder's apartment.

1) The number is, in fact, 42.
2) It is at the end of the hall on the left.

-12-

I, too, loved the poetic prose in this episode. I totally loved the combination of stream of consciousness wording and slow, lingering images of Dana Scully.
I had no trouble believing that she had enough interest in Mr. Padgett to allow herself to end up doing the naked pretzel with him, because I seem to remember another episode in which she was similarly drawn to a very disturbed man with an evil girly tattoo.
...Scully definitely has a secret self, one that
can't resist wacked-out men that have a way with words.
and I found Mr. Padgett attractive, perhaps because there has been that dimension in my psyche, as well, or maybe I just don't find the Brad Pitts of the world even remotely cute.
;)

I think Scully's less-than-fully-clad scenes were just the boys getting their fair share... after all, we girls had several minutes of Mulder dancing in boxer shorts during his visit to "Dreamland." I also think that Scully might have been attracted to Padgett in retaliation for Mulder's attraction to the shy, dog expert woman in "Alpha." She's not getting attention from Mulder, so she enjoyed the attention from Padgett, psychotic as he may be.

re _Mulder's_ office: M&S have been working together for what? seven years now? And Scully still refers to their underground lair as "[Mulder's] office"?! During her phone conversation with Mulder, she said something to the extent of, "He slipped the envelope under your door." *Your* door. She'll never get her own name plaque with an attidude like that.

One other literary reference--Mulder's (and Padgett's) apartment building is on Hegel Street. Georg W.F. Hegel was a 19th century German philosopher. His works dealt with our perception of reality and how it is determined by rational thought (hmmm....).

In fact, a few minutes after we see the address of the building, Padgett's narration refers to Scully's dilemma as "Hegelian."

Finally got to watch to my tape of this one last night, and...

I loved it.

Wonderful to get into Scully's head. Can take Padgett's comments as being true? Because if we can, it adds a 3rd dimension to Scully's character that if always felt it lacked.

Personally, I enjoy a Scully skin show, sorry ScullyMustBeClothed people.

Once again I really liked this one.

Expect the ending, I didn't much care for it.

ANP

My "nit-picks" are as numerically proceeds:
1) Did anyone else notice the character of Mr. Padgett being portrayed by the same actor who appeared in an episode of The Naked Truth television series with Tea Leoni, David Duchovny's wife? Watch out, Dave, for he is now after your wife.

Mr Padgett was also the guy selling star maps in Hollywood in the fairly recent Double Chan/Rock yukfest, "Rush Hour". Watch out, Chris Rock, for he is now after your corvette. (and who could blame him?)

You mean Chris Tucker, not Chris Rock. You're not the first person to mix them up.

Alright, since we're speaking of Chinese martial artists, anybody notice that the actor that played Padgett also played a drug lord's lawyer in an older episode of "Martial Law"? I love that show.

Maybe it's just me, but did the entire episode feel like a slam on all the fanfic writers? Exactly how many of us spend our days trying to get inside Scully's head long enough to try and come up with an accurate characterization?

And secondly, despite Scully's objectivism (anyone who hasn't read "Whose Truth is Out There" in the X-files Guide really should. The point is exceptionally well-taken), it's absolutely unbelievable (pardon the expression) that she won't agree with Mulder on what happens to her in his appartment. The guy reached inside her and tried to pull out her heart, for Pete's sake. How does Carter expect her to deny that? The nice thing about the earlier seasons was that there was always room for a more conventional explaination, even if it was stretching things a bit.

[[Mulder & Scully's embrace at the end was very moving, though.]]

Yes, it was a nice moment, but I was surprised that Mulder didn't check to see how badly she was injured before tenderly embracing her. (Well, maybe he figured if she was strong enough to clutch him...)How embarassing if she'd bled to death meanwhile.

Just saw this episoed re-run on FX. I have only one nit to pick...

Since when is Mulder a phychologist? (See Terms of Enderment Season Six)

Mulder was established as a psychologist back in the pilot episode. It's the intervening episodes that forget that fact which have the nit.