David Duchovny |
Special Agent Fox Mulder |
Gillian Anderson |
Special Agent Dana Scully |
Lily Tomlin |
Lida |
Guest Star |
Edward Asner |
Maurice |
Guest Star |
Mulder maintains that during Christmas, 1917 "American soldiers were dying at an ungodly rate in a war-torn Europe." This is historically inaccurate as the United States declared war in April 1917 but the country's military was so unprepared that the first US troops did not arrive in France until May 1918, and did not see action until June.
Mulder: (To Scully) Look, I know we promised not to exchange gifts, but I got you something. (He hands her a gift box)
Scully: Well... I may have gotten you a little something too. (She shows him a gift box, they hurry over to the couch and unwrap their gifts.)
Maurice: You've probably convinced yourself you've seen aliens. You know why you think you see the things you do?
Mulder: Because I have seen them?
Maurice: 'Cause you're a lonely man. A lonely man chasing paramasturbatory illusions that you believe will give your life meaning and significance and which your pathetic social maladjustment makes impossible for you to find elsewhere. You probably consider yourself passionate, serious, misunderstood. Am I right?
Mulder: Paramasturbatory?
Maurice: I locked it. For your protection.
Scully: Stay away from me. Look, I want you to get me out of here. I am quite capable of pulling this trigger.
Maurice: I'm glad to hear it. You may well have to defend yourself against that crazy partner of yours.
Maurice: Hey!
Mulder: Who are you?
Maurice: That's a question I should be asking being this is my house you're standing in. This isn't one of those home invasions, is it?
Mulder: No.
Maurice: Good. Would you like me to show you the door?
Mulder: That's very funny.
Maurice: I wasn't making a joke.
Mulder: Have you looked at the door?
Maurice: Uh-huh, I'm looking at it now.
Mulder: Tell me what you see.
Maurice: I see a door with the lock shot off it. You going to pay for that?
Mulder: That's a door with a brick wall behind it.
Maurice: Okay, sure.
Mulder: I almost gave up on you.
Scully: Sorry. Checkout lines were worse than rush hour on the 95. If I heard "Silent Night" one more time I was going to start taking hostages. What are we doing here?
Mulder: Stakeout.
Scully: On Christmas Eve?
Mulder: It's an important date.
Scully: No kidding.
(Mulder and Scully have just found corpses)
Scully: You know what's weird?
Mulder: What?
Scully: Mulder, she's wearing my outfit.
Mulder: How embarrassing.
Lida: I don't show my hole to just anyone.
Mulder: Then why are you showing it to me?
Scully: Well, why else would you want me out there with you?
Mulder: You didn't want to be there? Well, that's self-righteous and narcissistic of me to say, isn't it?
Scully: No, I mean... maybe I did want to be out there with you.
Scully: Not that my only joy in life is proving you wrong.
Mulder: When have you proved me wrong?
Scully: Mulder...
Mulder: Shh! What was that?
Scully: These are tricks that the mind plays. They are ingrained clichés from a thousand different horror films. When we hear a sound, we get a chill. We-we see a shadow and we allow ourselves to imagine something that an otherwise rational person would discount out of hand. The whole... Mulder...? (follows him up to the second floor) The whole idea of a benevolent entity fits perfectly with what I'm saying. That a spirit would materialize or return for no other purpose than to show itself is silly and ridiculous. I mean, what it really shows is how silly and ridiculous we have become in believing such things. I mean, that... That we can ignore all natural laws about the corporeal body that-that we witness these spirits clad in-in their own shabby outfits with the same old haircuts and hairstyles never aging, never... Never in search of more comfortable surroundings-- it actually ends up saying more about the living than it does about the dead. I mean, Mulder, it doesn't take an advanced degree in psychology to understand the... the unconscious yearnings that these imaginings satisfy. You know, the-the longing for immortality the hope that there is something beyond this mortal coil- that-that we might never be long without our loved ones. I mean, these are powerful, powerful desires. I mean, they're the very essence of what make us human. The very essence of Christmas, actually.
(They both turn as a door creaks as it opens slightly by itself)
Mulder: Tell me you're not afraid.
Scully: All right. I'm afraid... but it's an irrational fear.
Scully: I see. The dark, gothic manor the, uh, omnipresent low fog hugging the thicket of overgrowth. Wait... is that a hound I hear baying out on the moors?
Mulder: No. Actually that was a left cheek sneak.
Mulder: (mysteriously) Christmas, 1917. It was a time of dark, dark despair. American soldiers were dying at an ungodly rate in a war-torn Europe while at home, a deadly strain of the flu virus attacked young and old alike. Tragedy was a visitor on every doorstep while a creeping hopelessness set in with every man, woman and child. It was a time of dark, dark despair.
Scully: You said that.
Mulder: But here at 1501 Larkspur Lane for a pair of star-crossed lovers tragedy came not from war or pestilence, not by the boot heel or the bombardier, but by their own innocent hand.
Scully: Go on.
Mulder: His name was Maurice. He was a, a brooding but heroic young man beloved of Lida, a sublime beauty with a light that seemed to follow her wherever she went. They were likened to two angels descended from heaven whom the gods could not protect from the horrors being visited upon this cold, grey earth.
Scully: And what happened to them?
Mulder: Driven by a tragic fear of separation they forged a lovers' pact so that they might spend eternity together and not spend one precious Christmas apart.
Scully: They killed themselves?
Mulder: And their ghosts haunt this house every Christmas Eve. (Scully laughs.)
Mulder: I just gave myself chills.
In this episode, aside from Mulder and Scully, only two other characters appear, thus making this the episode with the shortest cast in the whole series.
The role of Maurice was originally written for Bob Newhart but he turned down the role.
The haunted house's address, 1501 Larkspur Lane, may be a reference to a Nancy Drew mystery story, "Password to Larkspur Lane".
Heartbeat under the floor-boards, this is a visual scene of the tale by Edgar Allen Poe called The Tell-Tale Heart.
Scully: Do you hear any hound barking in the swamp?
This is an allusion to "The Hound of the Baskervilles", the story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes.
|
Friday
No results found.
Saturday
No results found.
Sunday
No results found.
|
S 9 : Ep 19
Aired 5/19/02 (1:27:00)
S 9 : Ep 18
Aired 5/12/02 (45:00)
S 9 : Ep 17
Aired 5/5/02 (45:00)
S 9 : Ep 16
Aired 4/28/02 (45:00)
User Score: 501
User Score: 2170
User Score: 1925
User Score: 1641
User Score: 491
User Score: 340
User Score: 260
User Score: 243
User Score: 200
User Score: 190