At the risk of redundancy, “Closure” offers much closure to the seven year story arc of Samantha Mulder’s fate. It is a beautiful story, quite existential, and extremely sad in parts. The best way to look at it is too ignore virtually every instance in which a version of Samantha has appeared in the series and think of “Closure” as the only episode to deal with her story. In doing so, it becomes one of the best in the series.
The FBI clears out the mass graves at the Santa Clause Ranch. The owner confesses to 24 child murders dating back to the ’60’s. He once played santa Clause for a school where he worked as a janitor. He liked the reaction of the children, and the rest is tragic history. The man takes no responsibility for Amber-Lynn’s death, but her fate quickly falls behind the realization Mulder is disappointed by not discovering his sister among the dead.
He subsequently falls under the influence of Harold Piller, an alleged psychic who has helped discover the fate of missing children after natural disasters and major accidents. He says he wants to help find Amber-Lynn, but he turns his attention to Mulder and his hunt for Samantha. Scully is not only skeptical of Piller, but fears he will prey on Mulder’s wounded emotional state. She goes through a more legitimate route to uncover Samantha’s fate to give her partner true closure, not a psychic fraud’s reassurances.
Piller is not exactly a fraud, but he does have little control over what he “sees.” His credibility is further damaged by the accusation he may have murdered his missing son. He was institutionalized for mental illness shortly after his son’s disappearance. He theorizes benevolent spirits take suffering children to a better place. He believes this is what happened to Samantha.
Scully encounters the Cigarette Smoking Man and learns he called off the original search for Samantha because he believed she was dead. He is lying, however, as both Mulder and Scully learn when their investigations converge. The CSM had Samantha on a military base for years. She was living with him and Jeffrey Spender. She was experimented on for years. Finally, having enough of the torturous experience, escaped to a hospital in 1979. She was taken by those benevolent spirits right before the CSM could take her back to the base.
In the end, Mulder is lead to a playground where ghostly children are happily playing. His sister is among them. When they embrace, he realizes she is in a better place now. It offers him peace of mind. It is difficult to not get misty eyed at the scene.
The concept is based on a ghost story originating from the Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville, Alabama. There is a park adjacent to the cemetery with a playground. Allegedly at night, swings move by themselves, and the sound of children’s laughter can be heard as they play. Legends have been built around the alleged sounds. Some say a group of children were murdered while their parents were attending a funeral. Others say there was a rash of child abductions in which the bodies were never found. The sounds coming from the playground at night are supposedly the spirits of the children playing.
As I said above, it is best to forget any other episodes which deal with Samantha when appreciating “Closure.” all the clones and alleged real adult versions and fantasy dreams cheapen her true fate, which is quite poignant. It is also best to ignore Jeffrey Spender growing up alongside Samantha. It is next to impossible to reconcile that with what we knew of his history. Did the powers that be really expect we would forget all about his story just two seasons ago? Not with the way X-Philes nitpick.
But forget most of the past, and “Closure” is one of the best episodes of the series. It is moody and disturbing, yet offers a hope in the end that is rare for this series. In addition to caring about the characters by this point in the series, the feel is accentuated by the most moving piece of music not composed by Mark Snow to be used in the series. It is “My Weakness” by Moby. The song is used twice, once when the children’s graves are being excavated at the beginning, and again when mulder meets his sister’s ghost.. Touchingly ethereal:You will not fined many episodes left as good as this one.
At the risk of redundancy, “Closure” offers much closure to the seven year story arc of Samantha Mulder’s fate. It is a beautiful story, quite existential, and extremely sad in parts. The best way to look at it is too ignore virtually every instance in which a version of Samantha has appeared in the series and think of “Closure” as the only episode to deal with her story. In doing so, it becomes one of the best in the series.
