"The Field Where I Died"

Aired 11/3/1996

This was a "new to me" episode, one of the many this season, yet I was a little hesitant to watch it. While I love Morgan & Wong episodes, several places online made this out to be among the worst of the series. The topic of past lives does indeed seem a little "out there", even for this series, but once I watched it I felt it worked. The motto of this series is "I Want to Believe" and that applies equally to both Mulder and Scully. Mulder believes in the paranormal, aliens, that there's a government conspiracy in which his family is involved, and other things that go bump in the night. Scully is a Catholic but also believes in rational explanations through science, which when you think about it actually makes her a lot like Mulder. She has faith in God, yet her scientific background contradicts that. Her faith in religion is just like Mulder's belief in aliens.

This won't become a religious debate, but if Scully believes in Christianity, then it makes sense that we would see other religions in this series. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, so rather than past lives being too out there for The X-Files, I think it actually has added more depth to the series. The episode doesn't really dive into whether the past lives are related to a religion but Morgan & Wong did create a very thought-provoking and personal episode. It's a nice change of pace from monsters, especially in contrast with their last episode, "Home." Their episode from Season 2 called "One Breath" has slowly become my favorite, which was a multi-layered episode that was more than just there to further the conspiracy. Did Scully have a guardian angel? I think "The Field Where I Died" is an extension of that. Is there something cosmic that's out there besides aliens?

The only complaint I would have with this episode is minor. It never really went into why Mulder, Scully, and even Skinner were included in this investigation. A cult with weapons seems like it could have been handled by a different division of the FBI, so they only make a quick mention that the cult leader is claimed to be an astral projector. If they did get into more of that, it could have cluttered up the episode and taken the focus away from investigating Melissa's past lives. I did like the small moments of comedy too, like when Scully said she wouldn't redo anything, except for the Fluke Man.

Morgan & Wong continue their trend of great episodes in the series so it will be sad to see them go after "Musings of the Cigarette-Smoking Man." I already watched "Never Again" a few years back but it will be diferent to see it in the context of the series, rather than my old method of 'cherry picking' episodes. I'm giving this episode 4 stars. Next week will continue the long stretch of "new" episodes with "Sanguinarium."