Monday, December 14, 2015

The X-Files - S8:E8 "Surekill"

[ S8:E7 "Via Negativa" <<< Season 8 >>> S8:E9 "Salvage" ]

The opener of Surekill recalls in a way that other episode with "kill" in the title - Kill Switch - although here the killer has a corporeal body. It's a great setup. A man is killed in traditional manner - a bullet to the head - but, like Squeeze, what makes the case weird is how the killer was able to do it, with the target in a locked cell, without being detected. It turns out the killer - a hitman daylighting as an exterminator - is able to shoot through walls with precision accuracy, using (spoiler) x-ray vision (/spoiler). Although, for someone with that ability, it's too bad he's dimwitted. However, what is a promising premise - the idea of a deadly assassin who always gets his mark, even more Terminator-like than the Alien Bounty Hunter - is disposed of in favor of a more drama-based tale of two brothers and their downtrodden secretary working at cross-purposes to better themselves by stealing money from drug dealers (although the moral ambiguity of their Robin Hood-like approach is largely glossed over). As such, it fails to reach the level of a great episode. But it's not bad, either, so it avoids breaking season 8's streak in reviving the darker tone of the series, even more consistently than season 7 did in its first half. Though, the longer it goes on, the more one wonders how long it will be able to last.


Memorable quotes:

Doggett: So which kinda shooting was this? Lucky, coincidental, or some third alternative?
Scully: Well, it's precision marksmanship, that's for sure.

Dwight: You know, eyes are the windows of the soul. They tell you everything you need to know about a person.

Doggett: I hate twins. Twins never rat each other out.

Doggett: Someone's after you, you don't pack - you leave with what you're wearing.

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