The Post-Modern Prometheus - Themes

Themes

"The Post-Modern Prometheus" is the most obvious reference to Frankenstein made by the series, although traces of the story are seen elsewhere, in the first season episode "Young at Heart", the sixth season episode "The Beginning". In addition, the series' overreaching mythology revolves around shadowy Syndicate leaders who salvage alien spacecraft for their own technological use and create human-alien hybrids. The episode contains themes relating to motherhood and sexuality. According to film studies writer Linda Badley, this episode, and season four's "Home", foreshadow Scully's impending motherhood and her realization, in following episodes "Christmas Carol" and "Emily", that she has been used to create a human-alien hybrid, Emily. Diane Negra, in her book Off-White Hollywood: American Culture and Ethnic Female Stardom, points out that while The Great Mutato impregnates both Shaineh Berkowitz and Elizabeth Pollidori without their consent or knowledge, it is "an oversimplification" to label the monster as a rapist, because both Berkowitz and Pollidori "desire for children through unconventional means". Thus, Mutato's acts allow for the two women to get what they desperately desire in a moment of "magical resolution".

Eric Bumpus and Tim Moranville, in their book Cease Fire, the War Is Over!, propose that the episode—and by extension, the series as a whole—is a rejection of "modernity's naturalism" and an acceptance of "post-modernity's mystic supernaturalism". The two argue that, while in stereotypical "great science fiction", the monster created usually goes amuck, in "The Post-Modern Prometheus", the creature is "a lovable success". Furthermore, the Indiana townspeople represent "the religious nuts in the end ... turn out to be right". Bumpus and Moranville consider them the "secondary heroes" of the episode, right after The Great Mutato himself.

Despite her physical absence from the entry, Cher's presence can be felt throughout the narrative. Negra argues that Cher's "flamboyant and self-authored body" is used as a metaphor for "the possibility of self-transformation". In addition, her voice, heard via songs like "Walking in Memphis", is associated with the idea of "circumvent patriarchy." Negra notes that Cher's music is used in scenes during The Great Mutato's sexual encounters with woman. Negra asserts that "this juxtaposition of sound and image cues our perception that we have entered the realm of carnival where the normal order of things is inverted." Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club reasons that the ending was not the actual conclusion of the episode, but rather the fanciful and elaborate happy ending that was concocted by Izzy Berkowitz, the writer of the comic book, after talking to Mulder. In this manner, VanDerWeff notes, "the episode abandons logic and reality and, for lack of a better word, transcends." Meghan Deans from Tor.com postulates that the entire episode never happened "rom a canonical perspective" due to the entry's comic book setting, the various meta-references and the "happy ending".