Excelsis Dei

Season 2, Episode 11, Aired
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Episode Summary

Mulder and Scully investigate when the rape and battery of a nurse takes place in a Massachusetts convalescent home. The nurse claims that she was attacked by one of the residents but also claims they were invisible. Mulder and Scully soon discover that it may not be one of the residents after all...moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (11)

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  • Perfunctory

    5.2
    "Mediocre"
    By RJNeb2, May 29, 2011 Report Abuse
    There's a lot going on in "Excelsius Dei", and it's with great relief to see that it's a much better organised episode than its predecessor, "Red Museum". It's a typically interesting X File fusion of other projects, in this case, a mixture of "Cocoon" and "Awakenings", and just as typically, it has a fascinating underlying theme. This is expounded by the Chinese orderly Gung, who does what he does in reaction to what he sees as being the disrespectful treatment of the elderly in our society. And one trip to the Excelsius Dei nursing home would certainly make you agree with him.

    This is got to be one of the darkest, dingiest nursing homes in existence, a grim depressing place with lots of long dark corridors down which our agents frequently run. (Clearly Gillian Anderson is still breastfeeding at this point in her new role as mother.) But it's a good atmospheric backdrop, beautifully lit, and yet another affirmation of the sheer quality of this show. Interesting to see that Scully is the crusader in this episode. You'd have thought that Mulder would be chomping at the bit to crack a case involving entity rape, but he seems instantly dismissive of it. Instead his partner is the more determined of the two, and she is actually right. She suspects that some kind of fungal contaminant is at work at the nursing home. It's not only until much later in the proceedings that Mulder makes one of his much-vaunted leaps and suspects that Gung is responsible for the weird goings-on. And so he goes off looking for some mushrooms. The vengeful spirit aspect here ultimately sits quite uneasily with the regenerating old folk. Is that what's really at work here? Or is it Stan Philips astrally projecting his anger at his mistreatment? It would appear to be the latter for when he is saved from suffocation, Mulder and the redoubtable nurse are both freed from their watery prison. And there's a tantalising moment when Scully stands in a corridor surrounded by ghosts. The expression on her face would almost seem to imply that she's dimly aware of their presence there's a theme running through the entire X Files universe that Scully has some kind of precognitive ability but this is not explored. Other than that, this episode treads its ground in a fairly perfunctory way. There are a couple of nice touches one of the residents of the nursing home becomes one of the first in X Files history to automatically assume that Mulder and Scully are an item and there's a great spectacular water effect at the end.

    Yet for some reason this is not an episode that ranks that highly. Perhaps it just seems a little ordinary in comparison with some of its fellows. At any rate, it's rather ironic that a solidly put together story like this, addressing the problems of Alzheimer's, should in itself turn out to be so forgettable. 5/10moreless

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  • Mulder and Scully investigate "entity rape," as the two are wont to say

    7.3
    "Good"
    By JaCkKbAuEr2424, Nov 03, 2010 Report Abuse
    It's no surprise to look through the episode ratings on the website and find the episodes focused on extra-terresterials and the over-arching mythology plots as the higher rated episodes. Sure, the random episodes that focus on random X-File cases are fun, but they're not nearly as intriguing and captivating as when Mulder and Scully are looking at conspiracies and trying to figure things about the government out. Just look at the arc with Duane Berry and Scully's disappearance. Incredible television right there, but when you jump back to normal episodes, it's a jolt.

    This episode wasn't bad though. It was much better than some of the previous episodes this season too. Mulder and Scully investigate the possibility that spirits are sexually assaulting people. It takes place in a nursing home, where an orderly claims she was raped by an invisible man. Nobody believes her of course, and surprisingly, Mulder is doubtful. It's interesting to see Scully sort of coming into her own and questioning whether or not there's a possibility of supernatural stuff happening.

    That being said, it felt like an average episode all around.. nothing all that exciting. The reasons for why these things happen remain a little murky, as a lot of the episodes throughout the show tend to do, but at least the episode remained tense all the way throughout.

    Overall, not a bad episode.moreless

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  • Better when watched a second time.

    8.0
    "Great"
    By OnePerCentClub, Jan 04, 2009 Report Abuse
    I wasn't a fan of this episode the first time I watched it, but the second time wasn't that bad. I can only imagine the disappointment for the doctor and the patients' relatives when they found out that the treatment wasn't actually curing their diseases.
    I was surprised to hear Mulder believe that the nurse might have been lying. Scully was now believing her based obviously on evidence and her theories weren't that far-fetched.
    The acting was good. And this episode addresses a topic that is real and gives us something to worry about. The old people are sometimes mistreated, not only in resident homes, but in their own homes as well and sometimes we don't respect the because we think they don't feel, they don't listen, they're not worth it. Not true. It's amazing how much you can learn for someone older than you.moreless

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  • Scully believes and Mulder is skeptical when a nurse claims to have been raped by an invisible entity.

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By ilovemulder, Dec 28, 2007 Report Abuse
    This is a really underrated episode. I think it's one of the most fascinating thematically. It deals with two marginalized groups: women and the elderly; and it projects their struggle into the X-files space of possibility. Consideration of the rights of marginalized groups requires the same kind of ability to grasp the possible as consideration of the paranormal does. Both are feats of faith, placing plausibility in marginalized spaces that had formerly been discounted. It fits with the post-modernism of the show, for Scully to put faith in this victim of rape, to trust that her claims are true, though there is such evidence that they are false (and if Scully is going to ever lead the charge, this is an appropriate place for her to do it, as she is a woman). And Mulder, usually so quick to believe, takes some convincing here. Of course, it's a credit to his character that he doesn't take all that much. It is also fascinating that the elderly people in the home, in their staged struggle for a voice, are portrayed as literally projecting their anger at their marginalization into violent spirits. This episode is exactly what the X-files is about: allowing the myth(?) of the paranormal to act as a staging ground for the extreme political possibilities of our society. And it does it in character and with suspense and intensity.moreless

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  • A rape by an invisible man brings Mulder and Scully to an old folks home.

    8.0
    "Great"
    By IcWHATuDIDthere, Mar 05, 2007 Report Abuse
    I liked this episode but found it a little slow at times. The old folks in it really stole the show though. I think that they should have wrapped up the angle on why the spirits decided to leave all of a sudden better, because thats one point that I didn't get. We do learn that the shrooms were both helpful and poisonous at the same time. One thing that I found that aggravated me was the way that the old people were treated in this episode, so i guess that goes towards the fine acting done by the orderlies.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

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    • In the scene where Charters is attacked, the pillow on the bed changes sides. Edit
    • Gung refers to his "prefecture", which is the name for a district in China, but is eventually repatriated to Malaysia where there are no prefectures. Edit

  • Notes

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    • In the original script it was implied that the nurse who was attacked, Michelle, was a lesbian. Edit
    • 'Excelsis Dei' is Latin for "Glory of God". Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • Mulder: Whatever tape you found in the VCR isn't mine. Scully: Good, because I put it back in the drawer with all of the other tapes that aren't yours. Edit
    • Mr. Arden: (to Scully) If I told you you were a very pretty woman and I would like to show you some affection, would you be offended? Huh? (turns to Mulder) Oh, I didn't mean to step on your toes there. Edit
    • Mulder: I think you're right, Scully. Scully: About? Mulder: What's been happening is the result of the medication, but not the medication the Doctor's been giving them. Scully: Mulder, mushrooms aren't medication. They taste good on hamburgers, but they don't raise the dead. Mulder: Shamans have used them for centuries to gain entrance to the spirit world. Scully: I think you've been reading too much Carlos Castaneda. Mulder: Ask any anthropologist then. Scully: I know --- a shaman gets intoxicated, he has dreams or hallucinations, and he interprets them. I don't think it's any more magical than that. Mulder: I don't know how else to explain what's happening here. Scully: Well, I think, if anything, these mushrooms are a poison to the system and I think that's what killed Hal Arden. Mulder: And raped Michelle Charters and killed those two orderlies? Something's been unleashed here, Scully. I don't know how to explain it, but it has something to do with those pills. Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • Scully: I think you've been reading too much Carlos Castenada. Carlos Castenada was the author of a controversial series of books that described his training in Native American Shamanism. Edit

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