This episode will sort of sneak up on you. On its surface, it's just another stand-alone with nary a Morley cigarette in sight. But beneath its soft exterior, the script is an autopsy of the New Testament, carving it open, re-enacting and re-animating the Good Book. The plot is a mirror: we start in a church where faith in life eternal has become just an empty show, and end on the other side of America, on a Hollywood set where, in the closing scene, the dead really are resurrected. Duchovny's sure-handed balancing act as writer and director is impressive. The bubble bath scene, with Skinner, Mulder and Scully, (Father, Son and Holy Spirit?)each soaking in a cloud of bubbles and talking to each other on telephones, is just plain brilliant, and the ghosts arising to dance and (presumably) make love on a Hollywood set after the cameras are gone and the lights are out, just gave me chills. God I wish I could write like that! (I wish I had a bigger flashlight, too!)
Review of Hollywood A.D.
