A Review of "Ascension" by Justene M. Adamec
(C) 1995 Justene M. Adamec
"Ascension" is the most somber of the Skinner episodes. Gone is the explosiveness of the confrontation with Mr. X in "Endgame" or the measured disclosure of the Vietnam speech in "One Breath". Instead, we are left with a character who is facing his limits. Scully disappears, Mulder may have killed a suspect, and Skinner is left with the inadequacies of FBI bureaucracy to deal with the matter.
After the initial action scenes setting up the story, the episode begins with Skinner leading a meeting around a conference table. In presence are Mulder, Krycek, and two unnamed members of the FBI hierarchy. Cancer Man lurks in the background. As usual, we initially see Skinner's assertion of control and seniority. He sends Mulder home instead of allowing Mulder to search for his lost partner. By the commercial break, however, Skinner's control of the investigation is lost as Mulder bolts without permission and Krycek, whom we also expect to inform Skinner of their travels, begins working in earnest with Cancer Man to bring about the destruction of Mulder.
When we see Skinner again, arriving at Skyline Mountain Summit after Duane Barry's capture point, he is furious but his emotions, at least, are carefully under control. He enters front and center with an entourage, trying once again to reclaim the situation, which unfortunately, is too big to be reclaimed. "You disobeyed my direct order" is all he says to Mulder and it is enough.
At the second conference room meeting, this one called to discuss Barry's death and Mulder's role in it, we know that Skinner, despite all the evidence to the contrary, is willing to believe Mulder. His recap of the evidence is cold and clinical but never accusatory of his subordinate. When Mulder tells the room that he has trouble trusting anyone, Skinner first looks wounded and then casts the accusatory gaze where it belongs, at Cancer Man. Though he may not have the facts, Skinner knows in which direction he can find the truth.
The final scene in Skinner's office is a prime example of what has now become the classic Skinner inner struggle. "I can't protect you, Mulder," he confesses. Yet, like the audience, he wants to know what Mulder believes. He also wants to believe. So, knowing that he may be opening Pandora's box, he calls Krycek in to confront him about Mulder's theory, a theory based on little more than a cigarette in an ashtray.
Mitch Pileggi brings to Skinner the feel of a strong, stable character caught in a dilemma. Even the smallest of television screens could pick up the tension in his shoulders and jaws. In the initial scene around the conference room table, he questions Mulder gently, like an errant child, while still keeping the tone of authority in his voice. Sending Mulder home, Pileggi's voice softens just a little when he promises to use him if he can. That softness reappears again for a brief moment when Skinner asks Mulder "Do you think Agent Scully is dead?"
Watching Pileggi, the audience knows the moment when our heroes have been defeated. Skinner's eyes drop away just before he announces Krycek's unexplained disappearance to Mulder. He knows the truth and he knows, as we do, that there's nothing he can do about it. The bad guys have won this battle.
Yet Pileggi always brings his character back to the attitude that serves him best, the man in charge. When Mulder, with desperate eyes, asks "what can you do about it?", Skinner searches for the answer, while we wait, confident that he will find something. He reopens the X-files. He stands and tells Mulder "that's what they really fear." This is not the first or the last time Skinner has or will take that extra step and given Mulder and Scully what they need to continue their quest. We can see in the narrowing of the eyes and the set of the jaw that Skinner is determined to fight in the most effective manner possible.
Visually, this is a powerful episode. Skinner's dark suit at the conference table scenes and his dark trenchcoat on Skyline Mountain remind us of the funereal atmosphere surrounding the loss of Scully and the death of Barry. The two shot of Skinner and Mulder when Barry is pronounced dead is chilling. We see the horror on Mulder's face and the stonefaced gaze of his superior, who has to wonder if his star agent may have finally crossed the line.
Skinner is becoming the voice of the audience in this series. At first, Scully was the disbeliever, asking Mulder those questions which each viewer thought. As Scully has come to believe and accept even more, it is increasingly Skinner who plays the role of rational observer and cautious outsider. It is Skinner who keeps Mulder from straying too far into uncharted waters before Mulder and we, the audience, are ready to navigate them.
Yet, despite his role as the skeptic, our hope remains with Skinner. We know now that despite his present inability to bring the evildoers down, he will not let Mulder take the blame. In "Ascension", we see him taking the step we have hoped for all season, reopening the X-files. We know that he believes and that he will protect the truth, giving Mulder, and eventually Scully, the opportunity to prove it. As viewers, that's all we ask for.
Justene in La Canada, CA