By episode ten of season six, it is made clear to Scully that she has the chance to prove herself within the FBI and that Mulder is not being afforded the same opportunity. A.D. Kersh pairs her with a young Agent Ritter to work on a case that Mulder believes looks like an X-file and that Kersh is obviously splitting them up.
The suspect on this new case, a crime photographer by the name of Alfred Fellig, who hasn’t aged a day since the 1960s. Fellig watches someone get killed for their sneakers and when he begins photographing the victim as they die, the murderer returns and stabs Fellig in the back. Fellig removes the knife and leaves it at the crime scene before leaving. When Scully and Ritter discover his prints are on the knife, they believe him to be the murderer and demand to know how he always seems to be around when people die. It is Scully who notices that he was wounded in the attack and sends him to the hospital. Ritter isn’t happy and chastises her for letting the man go instead of arresting him.
Later when Scully is staking out Fellig’s home, she notices him photographing her through his window and demands entry into his home. Fellig, though, takes her on a ride so that he can show her what he is really doing when he photographs people dying. He points out a prostitute who appears grey to him and says she will die soon. A pimp approaches the prostitute, and Scully intervenes only for the prostitute to flee and is hit by a truck. This episode leans hard into the whole death-is-inevitable trope, that is for sure.
Fellig believes that when he photographs a dying person, the dark shadow around them that his camera picks up is death. Since he ages so slowly, it is his way of chasing death so he can look it in the face and finally die himself. He talks about having yellow fever and refusing to look death in the face so death took a nurse instead. The worst known yellow fever epidemics took place in 19th century New York City. Whether this was the 1793 or 1798 outbreak isn’t made clear, but the epidemics were linked to immigrants bringing disease into the city. Fatality rates were as high as 50% during the worst of it. For Fellig to say that he survived this by not looking death in the face is a bit out there especially when he says he is 149 years old. This episode aired in 1999 so even his age can’t be accurate. No yellow fever outbreaks were reported in NYC after the 1850s which is when he would have been born and the last outbreak in the U.S. was in 1903 in New Orleans. Perhaps I shouldn’t have Googled it. It ruined my suspension of disbelief.
Anyhoo, during their discussion during which Fellig claims he is unable to end his own life, he notices that Scully is grey in his eyes, and he tells her ominously to count her blessings. It’s then that Ritter bursts into the room and shoots Fellig just as he attempts to take a photo of Scully. The bullet passes through the camera and Fellig into Scully. Scully survives and Fellig dies. The doctors called her recovery spectacular whilst Fellig was dying. Mulder also threatens Ritter for accidentally shooting Scully by saying he was a lucky man because she survives.
Now that I know the history of yellow fever outbreaks in New York City, I would have loved for Fellig to be another sixty years older. It would have made his story more believable especially since he claims to have seen and done everything and just wants to die. I always wonder when I watch vampire movies and the vampires have lived for hundreds of years – why aren’t they sick of living? Famine. War. Pandemics. Death. The world constantly being on fire. Maybe that’s morbid, but I find Fellig’s way of thinking to be more honest. The burnout he must have felt watching epidemics, world wars, the market crash, the dust bowl, and everything that transpired after would have been exhausting. The immortality he experienced was probably what he feared most. Death was something he welcomed. An interesting take since this isn’t the first time the show has used a camera in some kind of prophetic or supernatural manner.
It is also interesting that the title for this episode, Tithonus, is named after a Greek myth about a man of the same name. Tithonus fell in love with Eos, Goddess of Dawn. She aksed Zeus to make Tithonus immortal but forgot to ask for eternal youth along with that immortality so Tithonus would indeed live forever but would age and degenerate in something disgusting. Fellig remarks in this episode that love does not last forever and that is part of why he would want death to finally take him. Imagine he fear in knowing that if he doesn’t die but continues to age even if slowly that eventually he would be closer to a walking corpse. Greek myths are known for their be careful-what-you-wish-for lessons so using one as an inspiration for an X-file is one of the main reasons I enjoy this episode.
The Blake Lively drama Age of Adaline deals with similar themes. Her main character wakes after a car crash and soon realizes that she cannot age. In modern society where photo identification is a reality, it requires creative living on her part but it does not keep her from coming across a man she once loved decades previously. He has aged and she has not, as she flees the complicated situation she finds herself in – she fell in love with the man’s son – she finds herself again waking from a car crash. This time, though, she starts aging again and she can happily live out the rest of her mortal life like everyone else. This was yet another tale of the struggles of immortality, one I happen to love.
I’ll leave you with one question. What would you do with immortality? Travel, maybe, if you have the financial resources. Eat whatever you wanted knowing it couldn’t kill you, perhaps. Give up your loved ones as they all died while you continued to live. Daredevil your way into proving death couldn’t catch up with you by jumping from planes and driving race cars. Would you do it all and risk wrecking your body along the way? Or would you take care of yourself so your body lasts forever? Okay, that’s more than one question but these are the things I think of when I watch this episode.
Until next week, the truth is out there.
Discover more from Becky Tyler Art and Photography
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Becky Tyler Art and Photography 
By episode ten of season six, it is made clear to Scully that she has the chance to prove herself within the FBI and that Mulder is not being afforded the same opportunity. A.D. Kersh pairs her with a young Agent Ritter to work on a case that Mulder believes looks like an X-file and that Kersh is obviously splitting them up.
The suspect on this new case, a crime photographer by the name of Alfred Fellig, who hasn’t aged a day since the 1960s. Fellig watches someone get killed for their sneakers and when he begins photographing the victim as they die, the murderer returns and stabs Fellig in the back. Fellig removes the knife and leaves it at the crime scene before leaving. When Scully and Ritter discover his prints are on the knife, they believe him to be the murderer and demand to know how he always seems to be around when people die. It is Scully who notices that he was wounded in the attack and sends him to the hospital. Ritter isn’t happy and chastises her for letting the man go instead of arresting him.
Later when Scully is staking out Fellig’s home, she notices him photographing her through his window and demands entry into his home. Fellig, though, takes her on a ride so that he can show her what he is really doing when he photographs people dying. He points out a prostitute who appears grey to him and says she will die soon. A pimp approaches the prostitute, and Scully intervenes only for the prostitute to flee and is hit by a truck. This episode leans hard into the whole death-is-inevitable trope, that is for sure.
Fellig believes that when he photographs a dying person, the dark shadow around them that his camera picks up is death. Since he ages so slowly, it is his way of chasing death so he can look it in the face and finally die himself. He talks about having yellow fever and refusing to look death in the face so death took a nurse instead. The worst known yellow fever epidemics took place in 19th century New York City. Whether this was the 1793 or 1798 outbreak isn’t made clear, but the epidemics were linked to immigrants bringing disease into the city. Fatality rates were as high as 50% during the worst of it. For Fellig to say that he survived this by not looking death in the face is a bit out there especially when he says he is 149 years old. This episode aired in 1999 so even his age can’t be accurate. No yellow fever outbreaks were reported in NYC after the 1850s which is when he would have been born and the last outbreak in the U.S. was in 1903 in New Orleans. Perhaps I shouldn’t have Googled it. It ruined my suspension of disbelief.
Anyhoo, during their discussion during which Fellig claims he is unable to end his own life, he notices that Scully is grey in his eyes, and he tells her ominously to count her blessings. It’s then that Ritter bursts into the room and shoots Fellig just as he attempts to take a photo of Scully. The bullet passes through the camera and Fellig into Scully. Scully survives and Fellig dies. The doctors called her recovery spectacular whilst Fellig was dying. Mulder also threatens Ritter for accidentally shooting Scully by saying he was a lucky man because she survives.
Now that I know the history of yellow fever outbreaks in New York City, I would have loved for Fellig to be another sixty years older. It would have made his story more believable especially since he claims to have seen and done everything and just wants to die. I always wonder when I watch vampire movies and the vampires have lived for hundreds of years – why aren’t they sick of living? Famine. War. Pandemics. Death. The world constantly being on fire. Maybe that’s morbid, but I find Fellig’s way of thinking to be more honest. The burnout he must have felt watching epidemics, world wars, the market crash, the dust bowl, and everything that transpired after would have been exhausting. The immortality he experienced was probably what he feared most. Death was something he welcomed. An interesting take since this isn’t the first time the show has used a camera in some kind of prophetic or supernatural manner.
It is also interesting that the title for this episode, Tithonus, is named after a Greek myth about a man of the same name. Tithonus fell in love with Eos, Goddess of Dawn. She aksed Zeus to make Tithonus immortal but forgot to ask for eternal youth along with that immortality so Tithonus would indeed live forever but would age and degenerate in something disgusting. Fellig remarks in this episode that love does not last forever and that is part of why he would want death to finally take him. Imagine he fear in knowing that if he doesn’t die but continues to age even if slowly that eventually he would be closer to a walking corpse. Greek myths are known for their be careful-what-you-wish-for lessons so using one as an inspiration for an X-file is one of the main reasons I enjoy this episode.
The Blake Lively drama Age of Adaline deals with similar themes. Her main character wakes after a car crash and soon realizes that she cannot age. In modern society where photo identification is a reality, it requires creative living on her part but it does not keep her from coming across a man she once loved decades previously. He has aged and she has not, as she flees the complicated situation she finds herself in – she fell in love with the man’s son – she finds herself again waking from a car crash. This time, though, she starts aging again and she can happily live out the rest of her mortal life like everyone else. This was yet another tale of the struggles of immortality, one I happen to love.
I’ll leave you with one question. What would you do with immortality? Travel, maybe, if you have the financial resources. Eat whatever you wanted knowing it couldn’t kill you, perhaps. Give up your loved ones as they all died while you continued to live. Daredevil your way into proving death couldn’t catch up with you by jumping from planes and driving race cars. Would you do it all and risk wrecking your body along the way? Or would you take care of yourself so your body lasts forever? Okay, that’s more than one question but these are the things I think of when I watch this episode.
Until next week, the truth is out there.
Discover more from Becky Tyler Art and Photography
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
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