“She was trying to tell me something.”
-Mulder, Sein und Zeit“The walk-ins”
My first thought was about a beauty salon. You know, the sign on most salons that says: “Walk-ins welcome.” But, that couldn’t be it. It didn’t fit the context of Mrs. Tinkate’s explanation to Mulder: “walk-ins” - you can’t see them because they “hide in the starlight.”
Checking a few web sites (see Extra Credit Research below) shed some light on the subject.
According to The Ra Material (or at least my meager understanding of it), walk-ins are people who are called to a higher life; they have reached their spiritual potential. But, they cannot end their own lives. Another being, often an extra-terrestrial, enters the human, typically in sleep, to fulfill a mission on Earth. Interestingly, all the web sites stated that walk-ins enter adults, thereby bypassing childhood. So.... why would these walk-ins call and/or inhabit children? **I’m still not getting it, but I’m trying.**
Wanderers are another possibility. Wanderers are aliens who have come to live in human form to be of service to humans. Or, perhaps “starseeds” or “star people” better explain it: humans who are, in part, extra-terrrestrial. It seems that Gibson Praise would fit that category.
Sein Und Zeit (Being and Time), the title of this episode, gets its name from an unfinished work by Martin Heidegger.
From what I culled in researching online, Heidegger proposes that we become confused when we try to understand abstracts. We can only understand things within the realm of our experiences. We have trouble grasping future time. Therefore, we have to place it within the context of time which we’ve already experienced.
This seems to be what Mulder does in Sein und Zeit as well as in past episodes such as Paper Hearts and Conduit. Samantha’s disappearance is such an enigma that he tries to comprehend it within the context of similar cases. It’s what Scully called “personalizing” the case. But, is he really doing that this time? Or did Samantha suffer the same fate as Amber Lynn LaPierre?“The representational character of 'truth' is only a primitive and derived formulation”*
To paraphrase: truth is ancient (or uncivilized, depending on which definition you prefer) and borrowed or recycled. But, isn’t everything? I mean, all the good tales have already been told. You just have to find a new spin on an old tale. And this episode (and the entire series) certainly does!“Everyday Being-in-the-world is a fleeing in the face of Death”*
“The feeling of dread (Angst) brings the individual to a confrontation with death and the ultimate meaninglessness of life, but only in this confrontation can an authentic sense of Being and of freedom be attained”*
That is what Mulder and Scully do in (almost) every episode: flee death. It is amazing they have escaped death up to this point; they’ve been so close so many times. But, according to Heidegger, they have then achieved Being–in-the-world. Mulder has outlived the rest of his family. He continues to be-in-the-world, eluding death.Angst. That’s something we have “in spades” on The X-Files. We have MulderAngst, ScullyAngst, and the Angst-Meter.
Mulder has faced death, but now, he’s facing the insignificance of everything. That is why he’s withdrawing from work. Previously, he always fled TO work to avoid dealing with pain and problems. Now, he’s retreating from it because he’s lost. But, this will, if we are to believe Heidegger, allow him to find his own sense of Being and be free of past pain and problems. Oh, if only! This seems to lend itself very well to part two next week: Closure.
An interesting tie-in to Sixth Extinction: Amor Fati: Heidegger was a student of Nietzsche, who put forth the philosophy of amor fati- love of fate.
so many times
i've reached for youand you've been thereso many times
to take my hand
i've been fallingand you've been thereso many times
to pick me up
i've been drowningand you've been therebut not this time
to pull me to the surface
this time my heart's beenshattered into so many piecesback together
that no one can put menot even you
- not this time by susan frankovich
(Mulders p.o.v., Sein und Zeit)i can put my
arms around you
and hold you
while you cryi can whisperi can stay here
words of comfort
to you while
you grieve
and help you
get through
the nightbut i can'tanswers
give you the
one thing you
really need-answers by susan frankovich
(Scully's p.o.v., Sein und Zeit)
images from Temple of X
Extra Credit Research:
Commentary on Heidegger's Being and Time
Cosmic Baseball Association: Alphatown Ionians
-this site is just a little whimsy (but has some good links)Learning to Listen(poem inspired by Heidegger)
c 2000 Spookyteacher's Classroom X
