Сценарий: Крис Картер и Говард Гордон
Режиссер: Майкл Лэндж
Первый показ в США: 23 февраля 1997
Some "Unrequited" Tidbits & Musings:
-- The episode title "Unrequited" means "not reciprocated" or "not avenged."
-- For more than a quarter century or so, a sizable ice floe of suspicion -- based on the belief that U.S. servicemen remain imprisoned in Vietnam -- has floated along the surface of the American psyche. In 1996, CBS's 60 Minutes aired a segment reporting that in the 1960s and 1970s, the Central Intelligence Agency had cruelly abandoned and declared dead hundreds of South Vietnamese secret agents it knew to have been captured by the North Vietnamese. This so intrigued and inspired executive producer Howard Gordon that even though he wasn't scheduled to write his next episode until 4x19 ("Synchrony"), he ended up writing "Unrequited" during the show's Christmas break.
-- "There was a bit of a mix-up, a last-minute scramble," said Gordon. "So the day before Chris's vacation, Frank and Chris and I sat down and beat out the story. Then I wrote a draft of the script and I felt it was just not right. So I went back to Chris and I was honest with him. I said, 'I need your help, and I think it's right that I share the credit with you.' And that's why his name is on the script as well as mine. It was a difficult birth, as usual, but I think it came out fine."
-- Gordon explained that his theme of a human being behind invisible -- politically and metaphorically -- had been kicking around for some time. "The problem was," he said, "how can a human being become physically invisible? I was talking to my brother (a practicing ophthalmologist) about this, and he told me that we all have blind spots -- nonworking portions of our retinas and optic nerves that normally don't affect us because of our brains' compensatory apparatus."
-- "As far as creating a 'disgruntled vet' was concerned," added Gordon, "as writers, we're always looking for disenfranchised people, characters on the fringe of society that we can sink our teeth into. Then, too, I felt that this was the last Vietnam vet story I'd ever be able to write, because they're beginning to age as a population and, just like the Holocaust survivors in 'Kaddish,' die off."
-- Gordon also explained that he was always happy to write a substantial part for Mitch Pileggi; it was easy to do in this case because Walter Skinner had been established as a Vietnam veteran in "One Breath." (Though surprisingly Vietnam Vet and former Marine Skinner really isn't all that involved in this episode.)
-- This was Michael Lange's first directing assignment since 1994; he also directed "Young at Heart," "Miracle Man," and "Ascension." "Unrequited" was also the last X-File episode he directed.
-- It seems pretty obvious that the only reason to show the same scene twice in this episode, once at the beginning and once at the end, was because in the final edit, it was extremely short. (The seemingly endless shots of flags and of the parade were another clue.) I would almost bet that first scene of the first act, where General MacDougal was shot in his limousine, was originally the teaser.
-- A legend at the beginning of the second scene after the teaser gave the date as November 12 which means this episode took place pre-"Memento Mori" and thus no mention of Scully's cancer.
-- Although the November 12 date seems a bit off, since November 11 is Veterans Day and it would seem that whatever they were doing at the Vietnam Memorial should have been done on November 11.
-- For those looking for the little hints of MSR, in the scene where Mulder and Scully get the warrant to go visit Denny Markham, as they leave the room, Mulder puts his hand on the small of Scully's back to guide her out of the room.
Вообще один из моих самых менее любимых эпизодов 4 сезона. Единственный интересный момент - это когда МиС улепётывают от собак. Ну а там сразу блупер вспоминается, как один из пёсиков их догнал и за решётку с ними забежал