The X-Files - Fire

Pretty much I like Fire for some reasons specified below in a former X-Files IMDb review from old account, January of 2016. I think it further explores Mulder, such as his photographic memory, former love for a college flame in Oxford it took a while to get over (Mulder tells Scully, ten years), and his crippling fire phobia (since childhood when he had to watch guard of the rubble of a house, having nightmares of being in a burning building), and gives us some good sexual tension between him and Pays’ Phoebe Green. Scully’s aggravation is so evident, and I like how Anderson does it subtly. Like you can see she wants to just shrug it off but has a hard time doing so. I think her whole reason for adopting a drive to investigate “Cecil Lively” and his psychotic profile is because she can tell Mulder was preoccupied with Phoebe, clearly trying (and failing) to avoid the obvious desire he once again feels. I still kind of get a bit irked at the inclusion of Phoebe being caught by Mulder, rushing in to the rescue, kissing Malcolm Marsden. It seems included just so once again Phoebe would break Mulder’s heart. I get it, though. Phoebe hasn’t turned some corner, and the idea she’d become the proper love interest for Mulder needed to be discounted. Because she would be returning to England, Mulder would continue searching for the truth with (and often without) Scully, so Phoebe needed to be “outed” as insincere as a faithful love interest. It was good for Scully, too, in that her interest in Mulder is clearly not just of a friendly and professional nature. She is developing feelings for him. And, yes, she does realize that Phoebe will no doubt toy with her friend’s emotions (her near repulsion and anxiety when Mulder and Phoebe dance and kiss is the specific indicator of her gnawing confliction) and perhaps hurt him. The psycho with “maladjustment/social issues”, hang-ups that render him psychotic because he can’t seem to function in the public or co-exist with women in general (desiring those women he can’t have), “acting out” through violence, summoning fire like a twisted, British form of Drew Barrymore; Sheppard is an ideal antagonist.

 -------------

Mark Sheppard's memorable pyrokinetic psychopath makes "Fire" quite a chilling experience, while an old flame from Fox Mulder's (David Duchovny) college years at Oxford (Great Britain) shows up asking for his help in regards to investigating a series of mysterious "arson murders". Protecting an important British family visiting Boston, the lovely Amanda Pays (in the 80s and early 90s, she was an English beauty that I always found foxy in a classy sort of way) is Phoebe Green, Mulder's college girlfriend (who broke his heart). So Mulder (and Scully helping him although she wasn't exactly encouraged to do so) joins forces with Phoebe to find and stop the arson killer. Scully, though, is the real reason Sheppard's Cecil (a name taken from another person whose identity he stole) will be identified. We learn that Mulder is definitely afraid of fire, which does cause him problems (he must face his fear and rescue two kids, unable to do so during a motel fire, but later does overcome it inside the guest house in Boston). The whole subplot with Mulder and Phoebe seems especially included to show Scully getting a bit jealous. Mulder does seem to be a bit unfocused while Scully does research into Cecil's background and does an excellent evaluation on the young man's psychosis, his reasons for behaving as he does, and possible motive for who he targets. The revelation that Phoebe is having an affair with the father she is protecting (Mulder catching them after a kiss, close and tight) kind of feels tacked on. It is as if the subplot is included not only to show how flustered Fox might be over a former gal (and how Scully has developed feelings for him she hasn't quite dealt with), but that once he gives in during a momentary embrace with Phoebe, she will always let him down. This show is always about the ups and downs between the two leads and their evolving relationship (its complexities, difficulties, and differences in philosophies and beliefs), and Phoebe's introduction sort of puts an emphasis on where they are as a team. Still, in the end, Phoebe is gone again (she leaves a cassette tape Mulder doesn't listen to), but Mulder and Scully remain a team.

Highlights include the way fire moves thanks to Sheppard's handiwork, the discovery of the limo driver's fried corpse in his guest bathroom, and the fire specialist who lovingly waxes poetic about how the flames function. Also Fox mentions that he has a photographic memory (so the hurt caused by Phoebe remains so vivid and painful even if ten years had passed).