Surekill: When a woman’s future depends on a man’s present
If ever anyone deserved to get away with ripping off a hundred thousand dollars from her employer it’s Tammi in ‘Surekill’. That she achieves this feat through equal parts intelligence and cold-blooded ‘womanly-wiles’, just makes it all the sweeter. All too often, women are the helpless victims of the monster-of-the-week. It’s nice to see a woman finally take on the monster on his own terms and come out considerably richer.
As is par for the course, Randall, at the behest of his brother, Dwight, uses his special skills for nefarious ends. While it is drug dealers they are shaking down, we the audience are not overly concerned with their methods. Unlawful they may be, but no one has a tear to spare for their victims. They are the exterminators of vermin – both rodent and human varieties.
If we are not overly put out by Dwight and Randall’s extracurricular activities, nor are we unduly concerned to learn that Tammi is ripping off the brothers in turn. One could almost appreciate the irony – if it wasn’t so obvious.
One would like to think that a power shift is taking place. After all these years, with women being but playthings in the hands of powerful and monstrous men, the time is ripe for a sea change. While I have claimed often that the X Files was prescient, here, I must admit, they were only nearly so. Yes, Tammi gets away with her hundred thousand and the wonderful Lucy Lawless gets to play a super-soldier. The X Files themselves are dominated by women, with Monica Reyes coming aboard. And Scully, of course, gets to be the lead, the expert in the paranormal that Doggett and Reyes always turn to for advice and guidance.
But, ‘The Truth’ is that this show is, and always was, about Mulder. Scully never really gets to be an independent lead, as Mulder had been, for she spends all the time of his absence positing ideas rather than making leaps of intuition, while falling prey, on occasion, to moments of longing for Mulder’s return.
In a way perfectly understandable, Tammi has to put her body on the line in order to earn the pay day she has coming. It is a shame, if inevitable, that she must prostitute herself in order to get one over on her male bosses.
Kellie Waymire does a fantastic job of convincing us that she is just a typical, almost clichéd, female victim of the male hegemony. When Dwight summons her into his office for what he feels he is entitled to take from her, she shows just the right amount of hesitancy and reluctance to let us know that she hates what she must do, while remaining steadfast in achieving her goals. I cannot even begin to imagine what a woman must feel in such moments, when her future depends entirely upon the man’s present, but Waymire gives us a momentary glimpse that speaks volumes.
What, though, should we make of her turning brother against brother?
Love is a fleeting thing. It is Shakespeare’s genius that he set his great romantic tragedy, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, over a mere three days. Love that strong isn’t going to last forever.
That Randall is ‘educationally challenged’ is a nice touch, for only a truly stupid man would kill for the love of a woman.
This is not to say that a woman is not to be trusted - no more nor less than a man. That Tammi isn’t to be trusted is no indictment against her. She is, after all, being stalked by Randall, who uses his unusual gift of sight to spy upon her in her more private moments.
It is not woman or man who is not to be trusted, but love itself. It is why all Romantic Comedies, for instance, end at the moment the relationship is established. Love is something to be chased, not found.
Randall loves Tammi exactly to the extent that he knows he can never have her. As lacking in intelligence that he is, he surely knows that when she tells him she’ll be back, she won’t! Yet he kills his brother to save her!
Such is the extent of man’s stupidity! Not that he trusted the wrong woman, but that he acted on emotions he never fully understands, while knowing enough to know that doing what he does won’t get him what he thinks he wants.
As is par for the course, Randall, at the behest of his brother, Dwight, uses his special skills for nefarious ends. While it is drug dealers they are shaking down, we the audience are not overly concerned with their methods. Unlawful they may be, but no one has a tear to spare for their victims. They are the exterminators of vermin – both rodent and human varieties.
If we are not overly put out by Dwight and Randall’s extracurricular activities, nor are we unduly concerned to learn that Tammi is ripping off the brothers in turn. One could almost appreciate the irony – if it wasn’t so obvious.
One would like to think that a power shift is taking place. After all these years, with women being but playthings in the hands of powerful and monstrous men, the time is ripe for a sea change. While I have claimed often that the X Files was prescient, here, I must admit, they were only nearly so. Yes, Tammi gets away with her hundred thousand and the wonderful Lucy Lawless gets to play a super-soldier. The X Files themselves are dominated by women, with Monica Reyes coming aboard. And Scully, of course, gets to be the lead, the expert in the paranormal that Doggett and Reyes always turn to for advice and guidance.
But, ‘The Truth’ is that this show is, and always was, about Mulder. Scully never really gets to be an independent lead, as Mulder had been, for she spends all the time of his absence positing ideas rather than making leaps of intuition, while falling prey, on occasion, to moments of longing for Mulder’s return.
In a way perfectly understandable, Tammi has to put her body on the line in order to earn the pay day she has coming. It is a shame, if inevitable, that she must prostitute herself in order to get one over on her male bosses.
Kellie Waymire does a fantastic job of convincing us that she is just a typical, almost clichéd, female victim of the male hegemony. When Dwight summons her into his office for what he feels he is entitled to take from her, she shows just the right amount of hesitancy and reluctance to let us know that she hates what she must do, while remaining steadfast in achieving her goals. I cannot even begin to imagine what a woman must feel in such moments, when her future depends entirely upon the man’s present, but Waymire gives us a momentary glimpse that speaks volumes.
What, though, should we make of her turning brother against brother?
Love is a fleeting thing. It is Shakespeare’s genius that he set his great romantic tragedy, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, over a mere three days. Love that strong isn’t going to last forever.
That Randall is ‘educationally challenged’ is a nice touch, for only a truly stupid man would kill for the love of a woman.
This is not to say that a woman is not to be trusted - no more nor less than a man. That Tammi isn’t to be trusted is no indictment against her. She is, after all, being stalked by Randall, who uses his unusual gift of sight to spy upon her in her more private moments.
It is not woman or man who is not to be trusted, but love itself. It is why all Romantic Comedies, for instance, end at the moment the relationship is established. Love is something to be chased, not found.
Randall loves Tammi exactly to the extent that he knows he can never have her. As lacking in intelligence that he is, he surely knows that when she tells him she’ll be back, she won’t! Yet he kills his brother to save her!
Such is the extent of man’s stupidity! Not that he trusted the wrong woman, but that he acted on emotions he never fully understands, while knowing enough to know that doing what he does won’t get him what he thinks he wants.
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