| Episode complete credited cast: | |||
| David Duchovny | ... | ||
| Gillian Anderson | ... | ||
| Mitch Pileggi | ... | ||
| Kristen Cloke | ... |
Melissa Rydell Ephesian
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| Michael Massee | ... | ||
| Anthony Harrison | ... |
FBI Agent Riggins
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Doug Abrahams | ... |
Harbaugh
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Donna White | ... |
Therapist
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| Michael Dobson | ... |
BATF Agent
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When authorities receive a telephone tip from someone named Sydney, the FBI and ATF stage a raid at Temple of the Seven Stars, a religious cult the anonymous caller says is abusing children and has a cache of firearms. Mulder feels that he's been there before and has a powerful sense of deja vu. They arrest the cult leader Vernon Ephesian and several of his followers including one of his wives, Melissa Rydell Ephesian. They don't find the arms cache however and Assistant Director Skinner thinks they have less than a day to get some hard evidence or they will all be released. Melissa seems to be suffering from multiple personality disorder and has a personality known as Sydney, the person who made the call. In fact she has several personalities including a Southern belle who tells Mulder they were there for a Civil War battle. Mulder thinks she's recounting a past life. Written by garykmcd
Oh, where do I start with The Field Where I Died. I'll start with the beginning; always a good place to start. The teaser is the lamest teaser I've ever seen. It doesn't peak your interest at all, just Mulder standing in a field with a voice-over. Boring. That also describes the whole episode. The concept of reincarnation, and Mulder somehow being involved in it, is completely ridiculous. It has no place as an x-file. Maybe this story done on a different television show with different characters would've had a chance. The agents are involved in this case because of a contrived reason. Skinner says it's because of Ephesian's paranormal abilities. However, Mulder and Scully quickly discount that he has any such abilities. So, why are they still involved? And why is Melissa even being cooperative? Multiple wives in cults are very loyal to their husband. She wouldn't be submitting so easily to their requests. Every single aspect of Mulder in this episode is completely out of character. From him jumping full force into the whole reincarnation idea to calling Scully "Dana" has you not believing a word of his dialogue. And then when he goes into hypnosis and describes himself as a Jewish woman in World War II Poland. Samantha is his son, Scully his father, and CSM is the Gestapo(how original). Oh brother! I think I missed half the episode from rolling my eyes so much. And then to top it all off, Mulder raises his hands and starts walking across the field toward the barn where they were firing from moments before, doing his best "Dances With Wolves" impression. Lucky for him, they had already stopped firing and had drunken the poison. Because they sure as heck would have shot Mulder without the slightest hesitation. The one decent line in this episode is spoken by Scully when she talks about that she "could've done without the Flukeman thing". That still isn't enough to give this poor excuse for an episode a full point, but IMDb doesn't allow a rating lower than a one. There are plenty of funny things I could say that I would rather do than sit through this mind-numbing episode again, but I'll leave that to your own imagination. One last question to the writers of this episode, Glen Morgan & James Wong: What were you smoking when you wrote this episode and why didn't you share?