“Terms of Endearment” is another episode I have mixed emotions about. Let us go ahead and get it out of the way that I still possess a certain bob Jones university fundamentalist echo in me that feels uncomfortable with demonic references even when said demon is presented in full, evil glory. That goes without saying. As for the rest of the episode, I am divided between the surprising pro-life theme versus how wasted guest star Bruce Campbell is as a demon bigamist and hopeful daddy.
Spender, reminding us of what a complete jerk he is, completely dismisses a potential X-File regarding a Virginia woman who claims a demon stole her unborn child after a sonogram revealed some abnormalities. Mulder picks up the file to pursue it, leaving Scully to do boring background check work. He suspects the woman’s dream in which she saw a demon take her baby is real. Her husband is the demon in question.
He is right. Bruce Campbell plays a demon named Wayne who wants a normal life with a normal child. He keeps marrying human women to get them pregnant, then aborts the children when he discovers they are demons. (those abnormalities on the sonograms are nascent horns and wings.) Scully finally joins mulder once the first wife inexplicably falls into a coma, but she does not buy the demon seed story.
Mulder is curious to find the guy’s other wife before she gives birth. There is a twist--she is a demon, too, but unbeknownst to all parties. She wanted a full demon child. By the end of the episode, Wayne is dead after having given up his life spirit to pull his human wife out of her coma and his second wife is living a happy life with her demon child.
As I said above, I appreciated the pro-life undertones, although I suspect they were not intended to be a political statement on the abortion issue in general. Nevertheless, it was strongly considered evil for Wayne to abort his children when they seemed to possess, as far as the doctors were concerned, non-fatal, non-regressive defects. I have a suspicion the pro-choice crowd would think such defects are still grounds for abortion. Or is that just now? I doubt 1999 was a time when abortion was less acceptable in all its rationales, but maybe I am being cynical in my recollection. Have we fallen that much further in twelve years?
In spite of my kudos for the pro-life message, I was disappointed by Bruce Campbell. I like Campbell, do not get me wrong. He was Brisco County, jr. and is now Sam Ax on Burn Notice. both are characters I really like. He has a skill for dark comedy that was not present in ’Terms of Endearment.” I have to wonder why. The premise is wayne is a demon posing as a sports car driving insurance salesman who wants a normal human baby, but winds up conned by a female demon instead. The set up ought to be comedy gold, but we get nothing other than mulder’s usual sardonic wit. Campbell was wasted here on a bad script.
The episode could have been a darkly funny classic, but it is instead a run of the mill monster of the week installment. It does have some extremely gruesome scenes, such as wayne as the demon pulling his child out of the womb and burning it in a furnace. Police dig up five infant corpses in the span of the story, to boot. Some famous Campbell comedy would have helped relieve the tension. Basically, it is gratuitous on the gore, but stingy on Campbell doing his thing. But subdued Campbell is better than no Campbell, so the episode is still not one to skip.
Rating: *** (out of 5)
The episode features “Only Happy When it Rains” by Garbage on two occasions. It is a cool song. Shirley Manson is also hot in the video:
“Terms of Endearment” is another episode I have mixed emotions about. Let us go ahead and get it out of the way that I still possess a certain bob Jones university fundamentalist echo in me that feels uncomfortable with demonic references even when said demon is presented in full, evil glory. That goes without saying. As for the rest of the episode, I am divided between the surprising pro-life theme versus how wasted guest star Bruce Campbell is as a demon bigamist and hopeful daddy.
