Premise: A serial killer who takes trophies from his victims
How good is this episode?
In principle, this is an important episode. In practice… it has some issues. Yes, Donnie Pfaster was originally intended as a Jeffrey Dahmer-type, and if you go into this episode with Dahmer in your mind, then Scully’s horrified reaction to his crimes makes sense. However, it is disconcerting to see Scully, who maintained her clinical detachment through Ray Soames’s exhumation and numerous other autopsies, freak out over one dead girl with her hair and fingernails cut. Her visions of Pfaster as a literal demon and as various other serial killers feel especially unnecessary. And Donnie himself treads a fine line between being menacing and hokey.
That said, “Irresistible” also has some real strengths, especially in its second half. The scene between Scully and the counsellor is great – maybe one of Gillian Anderson’s best. Mulder is a bit slow to register Scully’s discomfort, but, once he does, he’s all sensitivity and concern – without being patronising or over-protective. Scully gets to prove herself a badass once again as she fights Donnie off. And, of course, the ending is… well, we’ll get to that.
How ace is this episode?
Donnie’s fascination with and hatred of women have strong sexual undertones, which become especially obvious in light of the Dahmer parallels. However, there’s no explicit sexuality in his crimes, and Mulder actually says that sex is not his motivation. He even hires a prostitute with something very different from sex in mind.
Great moments in queerplatonic bonding
“Irresistible” plays a similar role in the series to “One Breath”. The earlier episode was about Mulder connecting with his feelings; this one is about Scully owning up to hers. Her reluctance is understandable. She’s a woman in a male-dominated profession, which means she has to be twice as good as everyone around her. She also wants to be strong for Mulder, so she can continue to be his supportive partner. But, as we saw in “One Breath”, Mulder and Scully’s relationship isn’t just professional; it’s also personal. Scully tells the counsellor that she trusts Mulder with her life, but their friendship requires more from her. She also has to trust him with her weakness, allow herself to be vulnerable with him, and let him see her cry. It’s great that Scully can be strong, but she shouldn’t have to be strong all the time. When she needs to, she should also be able to ask her partner for a hug.
Speaking of which, here it finally is: Muder&Scully’s first true hug. It took them a surprisingly long time to get here, but there’s no turning back now. From now on, they’re officially in a hugging relationship.
Favourite moment: “Is your hair normal or dry?”
Random musings
- I understand that on network T.V. in the ’90s they couldn’t actually have Donnie be a necrophiliac. But I still think there are ways his crimes and Scully’s reaction could have been better presented. They could have hinted at the dismemberment and cannibalism from the beginning. Even better, they could have had Scully’s unease creep up on her slowly over the course of the episode. How much better would it have been if Scully had started out her usual unflappable self, only to see her composure gradually chipped away with each new horrifying discovery?!
- This would not have occurred to me on my own, but, as the person I watched this episode with pointed out, Mulder buying football tickets for himself and Scully looks a lot like him asking her out on a date. Not that I consider it a date (or, at least, not a date date), but it does show us a few things about their relationship. On the one hand, it’s an example of Mulder and Scully incorporating “romantic” behaviour into their platonic relationship. On the other, it also suggests that Mulder views Scully the same way he would a same-sex friend: as a buddy he can go to sporting events with. And, finally, it’s evidence of Mulder and Scully spending time together outside of work hours. Remember in my review of “The Host” where I asked why they don’t just hang out? Well, here we have evidence of them hanging out (or, at least, evidence that Mulder wants to).
- It always amuses me that, because of the height difference between them, Mulder and Scully’s hugs inevitably end up being a little awkward. In this episode, we get hug variety #1, in which Scully wraps her arms around Mulder’s waist and presses her face to his chest while he holds her around her shoulders.
- Even though I remembered the important moments, I’d forgotten how sweet Mulder&Scully are with each other throughout this episode. In particular, the scene on the phone where Mulder again offers Scully an out, and Scully bravely refuses to take it, and then Scully tries to lighten the mood by saying that Mulder could use her help, and Mulder says, with absolute conviction:
“Always.”
*Squee!* If I wasn’t sure before, I am now: he LOVES her.
C
The Realm of Asexual Possibility 
A helpful note to avoid the trap you seem to be falling into:
Rape is not a depiction of sex. Sexual assault is not a depiction of sexuality. It’s a depiction of misogyny, domination, power, oppression, etc. Hatred of women manifests as attacks on bodies because those bodies are devalued and made vulnerable under patriarchy. It has nothing to do with depictions of sexuality. Period.
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I think there’s something simplistic and even dangerous in the line you seem to be drawing between rape as a tool of domination and consensual sex as an expression of sexuality. One thing that’s increasingly being recognised is that rape doesn’t just happen when one person wants to dominate another. It may also happen when one person wants to have sex and doesn’t recognise or respect their partners’ “no”. These encounters aren’t somehow not rape because the goal was sexual gratification rather than domination.
Your comment also seems to reflect a pattern I’ve seen elsewhere of trying to “save” sex (i.e. affirm its inherent “goodness”) by separating all sexual encounters into “sex” – which is always good, desired, and consensual – and “rape” – which isn’t. What this ignores are the many people – particularly asexual people – for whom even consensual sex may be experienced as unwanted and unpleasant. It is possible for one partner to do everything “right” from a consent perspective and for another to still feel violated by the experience. It’s not as simple as saying, “Either one person committed rape, which is awful, or they didn’t, which makes everything totally okay!”
Still, I do see your point that we can’t draw a straight line from “depiction of rape” to “depiction of sexuality”. I kind of ran into this problem with my ranking of Alan Rickman characters (https://acefilmreviews.wordpress.com/2018/01/14/the-alan-rickman-masterpost/). Is it really fair to say that Judge Turpin comes off as more sexual than Col. Brandon just because the Judge makes plans to forcibly marry and rape Johanna while the Colonel respectfully courts Marianne? Probably not. And I certainly don’t want to imply that sexual desire is to blame for turning people into rapists.
I’m not really sure how to resolve this issue, though. On the one hand, I don’t want to equate a high sex drive with an increased propensity to rape. On the other hand, I don’t want to fall into the opposite trap of trying to deny any association between sexuality and violence. Thoughts?
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