[ S9:E10 "Providence" <<< Season 9 >>> S9:E12 "Underneath" ]
If 4-D - also written by Steven Maeda (imagine that) - is anything to go by, the "domesticated" scene between Doggett and Reyes that opens this episode (warning: UST) is a sign that something tragic is about to befall. And, sure enough, Reyes gets into a car accident and subsequently has an extended near-death experience. This is one of my favorite subjects for supernatural drama, and while it was touched on (in a mythology capacity) earlier on this show in both One Breath and The Blessing Way, it seems well suited to the wishy-washy belief system of Reyes' character. Like in the little-known movie Sublime, she wakes up in an empty hospital (with some unsettling touches, like the doctors' charts all typed up in gibberish), but she's not alone.
This would have been a great opportunity to do a Reyes-only episode (obviously the creators weren't willing to take that risk, although at this point I don't think they had anything to lose), but it actually works really well with Scully and Doggett on the other side of the supernatural divide. Trusting her medical instincts, Scully is convinced that Reyes - brain-dead in a coma - is a goner, but Doggett (like Mulder before him) won't accept that diagnosis. As a result, he undergoes a meaningful character evolution, considering the explanation for his skepticism given in last season's Empedocles, as he must put his faith in the paranormal in order to believe in the possibility of saving Reyes' life. And he's got to rush against a rather macabre deadline, as well - for the doctor on call is suspiciously eager to divvy up her organs and dish them out to the hungry vultures waiting on the donor lists.
This is a great little episode - surely one of the highlights of the season. The floating hospital effects are a little hokey, but that's not a serious complaint. I liked the mousey, titular character, although given her chronic lack of self-confidence (albeit sadly not entirely unfounded), I would have liked to have seen her be the one to stand up to the villain in the end, realizing that she had the power to do good all along. But, then, this is The X-Files, and happy endings (at least for the guest stars) are rare.
Memorable quotes:
Mr. Barriero: Have you ever been dead? So how do you know you're not?
Stephen: I didn't say this was heaven. For all I know it's...it's hell.
Reyes: You can't die if you're already dead.
Scully: They're coming to say goodbye.
Doggett: Well, they can say hello instead.
Friday, January 8, 2016
Thursday, January 7, 2016
The X-Files - S9:E10 "Providence"
[ S9:E9 "Provenance" <<< Season 9 >>> S9:E11 "Audrey Pauley" ]
Spoiler Warning: This mythology episode picks up from last week's cliffhanger. Beware of spoilers.
The first three words spoken in this episode are "the Bible says" - so that kinda gives you an idea of what you're in for. I'm not super comfortable with all the religious symbolism, but to this episode's credit, it mostly plays toward the "aliens are God" angle that was characteristic of The Sixth Extinction mytharc. And that comes largely in the form of the UFO cult at the center of these two episodes. Now they've affixed a prophecy to William's existence, which states that he'll follow in his father's footsteps by stopping the alien invasion, unless his father is killed. Which is why the cult wants Mulder dead (so now Mulder is officially the father?), but suddenly isn't so sure he's already dead anymore (imagine that). In which case, this child is some miracle savior who will lead the alien race to victory (hang on - why, and since when do the aliens need a human messiah to lead them?). It's worth remembering that anything this cult says they believe in ought to be taken with a grain of salt. (Although, how many times has Chris Carter given us real answers in the form of dubious proclamations)?
So the cult actually wants the child alive - and, as I suspected, the man who tried to kill William in the last episode (the FBI agent who went undercover to infiltrate the cult) wanted to kill the baby to foil the cult's plans. Because, according to prophecy, letting the child live is equivalent to dooming the human race, provided Mulder is dead (is this all convoluted enough for you yet?) - not that Reyes will permit Scully to buy that party line. But even if they want the baby alive, that obviously doesn't mean Scully's just gonna let them take him. We learn a little bit more about the cult leader in this episode, in an opening sequence with some nice desert landscapes. He was a soldier in Iraq who had a vision of "angels from Heaven" (who were, of course, Super Soldiers) - "the true sons of God". This inspired him to start a cult so as to "deliver the message of the God who came before all other Gods". In other words, he's an alien sympathizer.
The episode begins with Doggett in a coma, following his accident in the last episode's cliffhanger, and A.D. Brad Follmer leading the investigation into the kidnapping of William. Scully doesn't trust him - justifiably - believing that there is a conspiracy within the FBI to wipe out everyone involved with the X-Files. There is a point at which it's hinted that Scully may be going too far in withholding evidence from the FBI because she's so invested in finding her baby, and doesn't trust anyone. But ultimately, her fears are well-founded (of course - this is The X-Files after all), although she may have some of the particulars wrong. For one thing, Skinner is inexplicably siding with the FBI this time, as if he spontaneously decided, "I've had enough of filling in Mulder's shoes, I want to be the guy with ambiguous loyalties again". On that note, A.D. Brad is shaping up to be an actual good guy, while Kersh is leaning toward the dark side once again (this is getting real hard to keep track of). The key note to take away is that there is a new threat of clear distinction - a Super Soldier within the FBI.
The whole God angle actually starts to get kinda interesting when Scully uses the artifact (before promptly losing it to her enemies) to cure the undercover FBI agent (who almost killed her son), and he reveals that the UFO cult leader was led to the discovery of the buried spacecraft (like the one in Biogenesis) by the voice of "God" (i.e., aliens), and that he believes the ship is a temple that houses the physical manifestation of God. Yeah, that sounds pretty cool to me. It takes William's proximity to get the spacecraft to activate, though, and when it goes flying up in the air, no one is left alive on the ground. Except William, that is. Which is disappointing, because I was really hoping that he'd be taken away on the ship so we wouldn't have to see him anymore.
Can you imagine if The X-Files had continued on for years after the ninth season, instead of being cancelled? They could have stretched out the back-and-forth possibilities of William's significance for years into the future! It would have been terrible. I wish the coming revival would just ignore the fact that the William thing ever happened, and rewind back to the pre-movie Mulder & Scully days. Alas... To wrap things up, Doggett magically wakes from his coma (after Reyes prays at an altar, and Scully cries over his bedside, with zero of the audience investment this show used to have when main characters spent whole episodes in hospital beds - sigh), claiming that he's hearing voices from God now, too. Fantastic. And he's the skeptic! I'll still say this is the best set of mythology episodes this season, but that's still not saying very much. And lord, am I getting exhausted, but this 200-day nonstop marathon is almost over. The end is in sight.
Memorable quotes:
Scully: You see a task force in there? I see a whitewash.
Langly: Access denied? Yeah, we'll see about that.
A.D. Brad: I've known you a long time, but this just seems, uh...a little traditional for you.
Reyes: Maybe when you're lost, you knock at the door with the porch light on.
(And that's a trick the church uses to lure vulnerable people in).
Cult Leader: If you wanna see the boy, you'll bring me the head of Fox Mulder.
(Wow, talk about an ultimatum).
Spoiler Warning: This mythology episode picks up from last week's cliffhanger. Beware of spoilers.
The first three words spoken in this episode are "the Bible says" - so that kinda gives you an idea of what you're in for. I'm not super comfortable with all the religious symbolism, but to this episode's credit, it mostly plays toward the "aliens are God" angle that was characteristic of The Sixth Extinction mytharc. And that comes largely in the form of the UFO cult at the center of these two episodes. Now they've affixed a prophecy to William's existence, which states that he'll follow in his father's footsteps by stopping the alien invasion, unless his father is killed. Which is why the cult wants Mulder dead (so now Mulder is officially the father?), but suddenly isn't so sure he's already dead anymore (imagine that). In which case, this child is some miracle savior who will lead the alien race to victory (hang on - why, and since when do the aliens need a human messiah to lead them?). It's worth remembering that anything this cult says they believe in ought to be taken with a grain of salt. (Although, how many times has Chris Carter given us real answers in the form of dubious proclamations)?
So the cult actually wants the child alive - and, as I suspected, the man who tried to kill William in the last episode (the FBI agent who went undercover to infiltrate the cult) wanted to kill the baby to foil the cult's plans. Because, according to prophecy, letting the child live is equivalent to dooming the human race, provided Mulder is dead (is this all convoluted enough for you yet?) - not that Reyes will permit Scully to buy that party line. But even if they want the baby alive, that obviously doesn't mean Scully's just gonna let them take him. We learn a little bit more about the cult leader in this episode, in an opening sequence with some nice desert landscapes. He was a soldier in Iraq who had a vision of "angels from Heaven" (who were, of course, Super Soldiers) - "the true sons of God". This inspired him to start a cult so as to "deliver the message of the God who came before all other Gods". In other words, he's an alien sympathizer.
The episode begins with Doggett in a coma, following his accident in the last episode's cliffhanger, and A.D. Brad Follmer leading the investigation into the kidnapping of William. Scully doesn't trust him - justifiably - believing that there is a conspiracy within the FBI to wipe out everyone involved with the X-Files. There is a point at which it's hinted that Scully may be going too far in withholding evidence from the FBI because she's so invested in finding her baby, and doesn't trust anyone. But ultimately, her fears are well-founded (of course - this is The X-Files after all), although she may have some of the particulars wrong. For one thing, Skinner is inexplicably siding with the FBI this time, as if he spontaneously decided, "I've had enough of filling in Mulder's shoes, I want to be the guy with ambiguous loyalties again". On that note, A.D. Brad is shaping up to be an actual good guy, while Kersh is leaning toward the dark side once again (this is getting real hard to keep track of). The key note to take away is that there is a new threat of clear distinction - a Super Soldier within the FBI.
The whole God angle actually starts to get kinda interesting when Scully uses the artifact (before promptly losing it to her enemies) to cure the undercover FBI agent (who almost killed her son), and he reveals that the UFO cult leader was led to the discovery of the buried spacecraft (like the one in Biogenesis) by the voice of "God" (i.e., aliens), and that he believes the ship is a temple that houses the physical manifestation of God. Yeah, that sounds pretty cool to me. It takes William's proximity to get the spacecraft to activate, though, and when it goes flying up in the air, no one is left alive on the ground. Except William, that is. Which is disappointing, because I was really hoping that he'd be taken away on the ship so we wouldn't have to see him anymore.
Can you imagine if The X-Files had continued on for years after the ninth season, instead of being cancelled? They could have stretched out the back-and-forth possibilities of William's significance for years into the future! It would have been terrible. I wish the coming revival would just ignore the fact that the William thing ever happened, and rewind back to the pre-movie Mulder & Scully days. Alas... To wrap things up, Doggett magically wakes from his coma (after Reyes prays at an altar, and Scully cries over his bedside, with zero of the audience investment this show used to have when main characters spent whole episodes in hospital beds - sigh), claiming that he's hearing voices from God now, too. Fantastic. And he's the skeptic! I'll still say this is the best set of mythology episodes this season, but that's still not saying very much. And lord, am I getting exhausted, but this 200-day nonstop marathon is almost over. The end is in sight.
Memorable quotes:
Scully: You see a task force in there? I see a whitewash.
Langly: Access denied? Yeah, we'll see about that.
A.D. Brad: I've known you a long time, but this just seems, uh...a little traditional for you.
Reyes: Maybe when you're lost, you knock at the door with the porch light on.
(And that's a trick the church uses to lure vulnerable people in).
Cult Leader: If you wanna see the boy, you'll bring me the head of Fox Mulder.
(Wow, talk about an ultimatum).
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
The X-Files - S9:E9 "Provenance"
[ S9:E8 "Hellbound" <<< Season 9 >>> S9:E10 "Providence" ]
Spoiler Warning: Start of a myth two-parter (the last one!). Expect spoilers.
So, this episode ties in to the events of The Sixth Extinction from the beginning of the seventh season, and I'm starting to feel like this stupid William story line is trying to stick its fingers in everyone's pie, spoiling them all. It also makes it harder to cherry pick episodes to watch, which kind of annoys me, because the William story line is not good enough to warrant sitting through the whole thing. And yet it's the core of the show's last two seasons of mythology, so you can't avoid it without cutting the mythology out completely - which would be perfectly okay, except that you'd miss some critical character sendoffs. And this is the highest point the mythology has reached all season (not that that's saying much), undoubtedly raised by the inclusion of plot points from the Sixth Extinction arc, instead of relying so heavily on this Super Soldier rigmarole. Except that one wonders how any of this stuff is relevant, since in Essence/Existence, the miracle baby plot detoured into "the aliens are afraid of God" territory, which is incompatible with "the aliens are God". This show's mythology has always been inscrutable, but never has it been so damnably inconsistent.
On the plus side, putting William in clear and present danger has a positive effect on Scully's character for once, since instead of just being weepy, she goes into total badass mode, like some of her best moments from the past. Pity it doesn't last too long, though. The baby is apparently now the target of a Canadian UFO cult (who, in a shameless bid to weasel him into the plot somehow, claims that Mulder is already dead - puh-leeze), who have uncovered another spacecraft like the one Scully found in Biogenesis. (Lookit, everything's going to hell now that the government isn't around to cover these things up anymore - the Smoking Man must be rolling in his grave). Reyes, meanwhile, struggles to come to terms with the conclusion Scully grappled with previously - that all of mankind's religions come from aliens. They get a hold of another of those fragments and - lo and behold - it responds to William in a profound way. Scully thinks she might find answers to William's nature in those runes.
But in the meantime, the baby's life is in danger, so Scully hands him off to The Lone Gunmen (there's an idea for a spinoff - just kidding), and I'm kind of relieved, thinking that maybe William will go AWOL like Mulder for a while. Except that in the cliffhanger, a pursuer gets to them before they can disappear into the woodwork. (But not before hitting Doggett with a car). Honestly, it's very reminiscent of the chase in Existence, except that now William has been born. But if they want him so bad, why didn't they take him before? Or is it even the same people? There's no solid evidence that these pursuers are Super Soldiers, so one wonders what their game is. Guess I'll have to wait until next week to find out (or not, depending on Chris Carter's whim). I'll say that the mythology has definitely improved a bit with this episode, but I'm still struggling to feel very invested in how it's all going to turn out. Except that I hope William goes bye-bye by the end of it.
To be continued...
Memorable quotes:
A.D. Brad: You once worked on the X-Files.
Scully: Well, if this is an X-File, then why don't you ask somebody who's working on the X-Files?
A.D. Brad: 'Cause we're asking you.
Doggett: We're talkin' about...pieces of paper with marks on it.
Scully: They're not just marks, Agent Doggett. It's writing. Words.
(Noticing a pattern here? Like, inane dialogue? Yeah, me too).
Doggett: Dead man up and disappearing - happens every day, right? At least it does on the X-Files.
(I think this episode may have the record for most times the phrase "The X-Files" is uttered).
Mrs. Scully: Dana, God has given you a miracle. A child that wasn't supposed to be. Maybe it's not to question - just to be taken as a matter of faith.
Scully: Mom, I can't take this on faith. I need to know. I need to know if it's really God I have to thank.
(I'm with you on this one, Scully. Glad to see you're still a skeptic at heart).
Scully: I'll kill you! I'll kill you if you touch my baby!
(And don't you doubt it for a second).
Doggett: This man have any kind of a weapon?
Scully: A pillow...
Spoiler Warning: Start of a myth two-parter (the last one!). Expect spoilers.
So, this episode ties in to the events of The Sixth Extinction from the beginning of the seventh season, and I'm starting to feel like this stupid William story line is trying to stick its fingers in everyone's pie, spoiling them all. It also makes it harder to cherry pick episodes to watch, which kind of annoys me, because the William story line is not good enough to warrant sitting through the whole thing. And yet it's the core of the show's last two seasons of mythology, so you can't avoid it without cutting the mythology out completely - which would be perfectly okay, except that you'd miss some critical character sendoffs. And this is the highest point the mythology has reached all season (not that that's saying much), undoubtedly raised by the inclusion of plot points from the Sixth Extinction arc, instead of relying so heavily on this Super Soldier rigmarole. Except that one wonders how any of this stuff is relevant, since in Essence/Existence, the miracle baby plot detoured into "the aliens are afraid of God" territory, which is incompatible with "the aliens are God". This show's mythology has always been inscrutable, but never has it been so damnably inconsistent.
On the plus side, putting William in clear and present danger has a positive effect on Scully's character for once, since instead of just being weepy, she goes into total badass mode, like some of her best moments from the past. Pity it doesn't last too long, though. The baby is apparently now the target of a Canadian UFO cult (who, in a shameless bid to weasel him into the plot somehow, claims that Mulder is already dead - puh-leeze), who have uncovered another spacecraft like the one Scully found in Biogenesis. (Lookit, everything's going to hell now that the government isn't around to cover these things up anymore - the Smoking Man must be rolling in his grave). Reyes, meanwhile, struggles to come to terms with the conclusion Scully grappled with previously - that all of mankind's religions come from aliens. They get a hold of another of those fragments and - lo and behold - it responds to William in a profound way. Scully thinks she might find answers to William's nature in those runes.
But in the meantime, the baby's life is in danger, so Scully hands him off to The Lone Gunmen (there's an idea for a spinoff - just kidding), and I'm kind of relieved, thinking that maybe William will go AWOL like Mulder for a while. Except that in the cliffhanger, a pursuer gets to them before they can disappear into the woodwork. (But not before hitting Doggett with a car). Honestly, it's very reminiscent of the chase in Existence, except that now William has been born. But if they want him so bad, why didn't they take him before? Or is it even the same people? There's no solid evidence that these pursuers are Super Soldiers, so one wonders what their game is. Guess I'll have to wait until next week to find out (or not, depending on Chris Carter's whim). I'll say that the mythology has definitely improved a bit with this episode, but I'm still struggling to feel very invested in how it's all going to turn out. Except that I hope William goes bye-bye by the end of it.
To be continued...
Memorable quotes:
A.D. Brad: You once worked on the X-Files.
Scully: Well, if this is an X-File, then why don't you ask somebody who's working on the X-Files?
A.D. Brad: 'Cause we're asking you.
Doggett: We're talkin' about...pieces of paper with marks on it.
Scully: They're not just marks, Agent Doggett. It's writing. Words.
(Noticing a pattern here? Like, inane dialogue? Yeah, me too).
Doggett: Dead man up and disappearing - happens every day, right? At least it does on the X-Files.
(I think this episode may have the record for most times the phrase "The X-Files" is uttered).
Mrs. Scully: Dana, God has given you a miracle. A child that wasn't supposed to be. Maybe it's not to question - just to be taken as a matter of faith.
Scully: Mom, I can't take this on faith. I need to know. I need to know if it's really God I have to thank.
(I'm with you on this one, Scully. Glad to see you're still a skeptic at heart).
Scully: I'll kill you! I'll kill you if you touch my baby!
(And don't you doubt it for a second).
Doggett: This man have any kind of a weapon?
Scully: A pillow...
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
The X-Files - S9:E8 "Hellbound"
[ S9:E7 "John Doe" <<< Season 9 >>> S9:E9 "Provenance" ]
Drawing another comparison to the seventh season is the fact that the episodes this season are so inconsistent - with perfectly solid episodes rubbing up against utterly forgettable episodes. It's to this season's credit, however, that there are any decent episodes at all. This is one of the decent ones, only barely failing to reach greatness. Its title is not the only thing that recalls Hellraiser, as the freak-of-the-week could just as soon be a renegade Cenobite, who goes around skinning people alive. In fact, the episode would have reached greatness if that had been the case, but the real explanation is less fantastic (in both senses of the term), involving reincarnation and karmic sin. It's a much better approach to past lives than we got in The Field Where I Died, but I'm still pretty iffy about the concept in general.
Reyes drives the case in this episode, which centers around an anger management group for ex-cons haunted by dreams of a fate they can't escape. It's unclear at first how this case is an X-File (sadly, skinning people alive is something humans are perfectly capable of under natural circumstances), but Reyes just has a feeling. I guess I can appreciate that she's not just a Mulder clone (then again, would that have been so bad? It's not like we can avoid comparing her to Mulder anyway), but Mulder's confident, evidence-based hunches were a lot more compelling than Reyes' "I don't know what I'm doing, but I have a feeling so I'm just going to go with it" sort of approach. It can be a bit frustrating, and moves the story along a little too conveniently at times.
The fact that many of the victims are ex-cons, however, and that most people don't care how they died, demonstrates the extent of Reyes' compassion (well, if not for her past life connection, I guess). Because, you know, ex-cons aren't human, or whatever - right? Yeah, right. I don't even care if he was a scumbag that deserved to suffer like he did - it'd still be worthwhile to investigate the details of his murder, and it doesn't justify the actions of whoever did that to him. Thinking that way is dangerous - because who can say that your innocent family won't be next? Some cool locations included in this episode are a creepy meat packing plant (we haven't had one of those since...what, Red Museum? They're always good for atmosphere), and the lair of a regular Ed Gein (although, the "shocking" reveal of the killer's identity - not a Cenobite - falls kinda flat).
Memorable quotes:
Pruit: I always say there's three kinds of people in the world: them who make things happen, them who watch things happen, and them who wonder what happened.
Ed: Our kinda lives go one way. You can't change any more than you can undo the crimes you've done.
Agent Trainee: Here you go, Dr. Scully. Everything you ever wanted to know about skinning people, but were afraid to ask.
Reyes: I know what you're thinking - that I must be the good cop.
Ed: No such thing.
Reyes: Their souls are murdered over and over again from one lifetime to the next.
(On the surface, this sounds pretty ridiculous, but when I think about it, it's kinda spooky - some supernatural force haunting a person not just through a life, but through a soul's multiple iteration of lives. That's pretty dark. Until you find out the real explanation is much more convoluted and mundane).
Drawing another comparison to the seventh season is the fact that the episodes this season are so inconsistent - with perfectly solid episodes rubbing up against utterly forgettable episodes. It's to this season's credit, however, that there are any decent episodes at all. This is one of the decent ones, only barely failing to reach greatness. Its title is not the only thing that recalls Hellraiser, as the freak-of-the-week could just as soon be a renegade Cenobite, who goes around skinning people alive. In fact, the episode would have reached greatness if that had been the case, but the real explanation is less fantastic (in both senses of the term), involving reincarnation and karmic sin. It's a much better approach to past lives than we got in The Field Where I Died, but I'm still pretty iffy about the concept in general.
Reyes drives the case in this episode, which centers around an anger management group for ex-cons haunted by dreams of a fate they can't escape. It's unclear at first how this case is an X-File (sadly, skinning people alive is something humans are perfectly capable of under natural circumstances), but Reyes just has a feeling. I guess I can appreciate that she's not just a Mulder clone (then again, would that have been so bad? It's not like we can avoid comparing her to Mulder anyway), but Mulder's confident, evidence-based hunches were a lot more compelling than Reyes' "I don't know what I'm doing, but I have a feeling so I'm just going to go with it" sort of approach. It can be a bit frustrating, and moves the story along a little too conveniently at times.
The fact that many of the victims are ex-cons, however, and that most people don't care how they died, demonstrates the extent of Reyes' compassion (well, if not for her past life connection, I guess). Because, you know, ex-cons aren't human, or whatever - right? Yeah, right. I don't even care if he was a scumbag that deserved to suffer like he did - it'd still be worthwhile to investigate the details of his murder, and it doesn't justify the actions of whoever did that to him. Thinking that way is dangerous - because who can say that your innocent family won't be next? Some cool locations included in this episode are a creepy meat packing plant (we haven't had one of those since...what, Red Museum? They're always good for atmosphere), and the lair of a regular Ed Gein (although, the "shocking" reveal of the killer's identity - not a Cenobite - falls kinda flat).
Memorable quotes:
Pruit: I always say there's three kinds of people in the world: them who make things happen, them who watch things happen, and them who wonder what happened.
Ed: Our kinda lives go one way. You can't change any more than you can undo the crimes you've done.
Agent Trainee: Here you go, Dr. Scully. Everything you ever wanted to know about skinning people, but were afraid to ask.
Reyes: I know what you're thinking - that I must be the good cop.
Ed: No such thing.
Reyes: Their souls are murdered over and over again from one lifetime to the next.
(On the surface, this sounds pretty ridiculous, but when I think about it, it's kinda spooky - some supernatural force haunting a person not just through a life, but through a soul's multiple iteration of lives. That's pretty dark. Until you find out the real explanation is much more convoluted and mundane).
Monday, January 4, 2016
The X-Files - S9:E7 "John Doe"
[ S9:E6 "Trust No 1" <<< Season 9 >>> S9:E8 "Hellbound" ]
I never thought I'd say this, but...thank god it's another freak-of-the-week episode! Granted, the last one (Lord of the Flies) wasn't much to inspire confidence - proving that the problems in this season are not purely limited to the mythology. But, thankfully, this episode is more in line with the quality of 4-D. After a season-long hiatus (presumably to work on the short-lived Lone Gunmen spin-off), Vince Gilligan returns with his first episode since Roadrunners (which was another good one). It's funny to think about the different sorts of episodes Vince Gilligan has written for this series. You've got the serious ones - like Pusher, and Paper Hearts - and then you've got the funny ones - like Small Potatoes, and Bad Blood - not to mention the silly ones he's worked on with John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz (including the aforementioned Lone Gunmen spin-off). Of them all - even more so than Drive, which starred Bryan Cranston - this one feels the most consistent coming from the mind of the man who created Breaking Bad (at least judging from its reputation, as I have yet to watch the show). It's pretty gritty; even the picture has a stark and grainy quality to it, like as if the celluloid is crackling and popping under the heat and pressure.
In a setup that vaguely resembles something from Midnight Express, Doggett ends up on the wrong side of a drug cartel and wakes up in a bright, Mexican slum where people go to disappear (incidentally, this might be the series' most successful execution of an "ethnic" episode). He has no ID, and can't remember so much as his own name - recalling another good episode, Demons, in which it was Mulder who found himself in a sticky situation that he couldn't remember getting himself into, and had to put the pieces together in order to save himself (with a little help from his partner, of course). There's a brief appearance by Kersh, who now seems to be settling in to the role of the strict bureaucrat with ambiguous loyalties that Skinner served in earlier seasons, before being (promoted? demoted?) to standby agent in Mulder's absence. His hands are tied by politics, leaving Skinner, Scully, and Reyes to rescue Doggett on their own initiative. Lucky for Doggett, Reyes was born and raised in Mexico. The paranormal element in this episode is minuscule - you don't see hide nor hair of it until 34 minutes in, and even then, it's barely significant - but rest assured, that doesn't detract from the quality of this episode.
Memorable quotes:
Doggett: "People like me"? You don't know me.
Domingo: Hey, you don't know you.
Reyes: "Pillar of the community"? Does anyone actually use that phrase except mob lawyers?
Skull Guy: Why would you want to remember? You can't tell me you're happier now, because you recall your life. I saw it all. So much pain. Why would you wanna struggle so long and hard to get that pain back?
Doggett: Because it's mine.
Doggett: I'll take the bad, long as I can remember the good.
I never thought I'd say this, but...thank god it's another freak-of-the-week episode! Granted, the last one (Lord of the Flies) wasn't much to inspire confidence - proving that the problems in this season are not purely limited to the mythology. But, thankfully, this episode is more in line with the quality of 4-D. After a season-long hiatus (presumably to work on the short-lived Lone Gunmen spin-off), Vince Gilligan returns with his first episode since Roadrunners (which was another good one). It's funny to think about the different sorts of episodes Vince Gilligan has written for this series. You've got the serious ones - like Pusher, and Paper Hearts - and then you've got the funny ones - like Small Potatoes, and Bad Blood - not to mention the silly ones he's worked on with John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz (including the aforementioned Lone Gunmen spin-off). Of them all - even more so than Drive, which starred Bryan Cranston - this one feels the most consistent coming from the mind of the man who created Breaking Bad (at least judging from its reputation, as I have yet to watch the show). It's pretty gritty; even the picture has a stark and grainy quality to it, like as if the celluloid is crackling and popping under the heat and pressure.
In a setup that vaguely resembles something from Midnight Express, Doggett ends up on the wrong side of a drug cartel and wakes up in a bright, Mexican slum where people go to disappear (incidentally, this might be the series' most successful execution of an "ethnic" episode). He has no ID, and can't remember so much as his own name - recalling another good episode, Demons, in which it was Mulder who found himself in a sticky situation that he couldn't remember getting himself into, and had to put the pieces together in order to save himself (with a little help from his partner, of course). There's a brief appearance by Kersh, who now seems to be settling in to the role of the strict bureaucrat with ambiguous loyalties that Skinner served in earlier seasons, before being (promoted? demoted?) to standby agent in Mulder's absence. His hands are tied by politics, leaving Skinner, Scully, and Reyes to rescue Doggett on their own initiative. Lucky for Doggett, Reyes was born and raised in Mexico. The paranormal element in this episode is minuscule - you don't see hide nor hair of it until 34 minutes in, and even then, it's barely significant - but rest assured, that doesn't detract from the quality of this episode.
Memorable quotes:
Doggett: "People like me"? You don't know me.
Domingo: Hey, you don't know you.
Reyes: "Pillar of the community"? Does anyone actually use that phrase except mob lawyers?
Skull Guy: Why would you want to remember? You can't tell me you're happier now, because you recall your life. I saw it all. So much pain. Why would you wanna struggle so long and hard to get that pain back?
Doggett: Because it's mine.
Doggett: I'll take the bad, long as I can remember the good.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
The X-Files - S9:E6 "Trust No 1"
[ S9:E5 "Lord of the Flies" <<< Season 9 >>> S9:E7 "John Doe" ]
Spoiler Warning: Mythology episode. Expect spoilers. Although rather than spoiling the experience, you might consider reading this review as saving you from having to sit through the episode.
This episode proves that Nothing Important Happened Today wasn't just a fluke, and that there is a serious problem with this season's mythology. It begins with a lame opener that approaches a level of pretentious mushiness we haven't seen since The Field Where I Died, in which Scully - back in baby mode, later seen pushing around a stroller, and befriending another single mother in a coffee shop (I thought this was a sci-fi series, not a romantic dram-com) - is pining for her baby daddy, while Mulder is sending love letters by email to his "dearest Dana". What, after eight years of professional respect, now all of a sudden they're behaving like adolescent lovebirds? Don't be fooled, though - Mulder doesn't appear in this episode. There's a shadowy figure in the distance in one scene that may or may not be Mulder, but like the obscured shower silhouette in Nothing Important Happened Today, it's a nameless, faceless double filling in for what's surely another lame excuse to keep the idea of Mulder on the periphery of the show (and everyone's minds).
Doggett explicitly states in this episode that it's the Super Soldiers forcing Mulder into hiding (though how would he even know? He was left out of the loop). But it still hasn't been explained why they're after Mulder in particular. I mean, aren't they after everybody? And you don't see Doggett and Reyes, or especially Scully and William going into hiding. I mean, I know they have to dance around the issue of not having David Duchovny on the show, but at this point I wish they'd just cut him loose already. I'd be less annoyed if he'd just been abducted again - because at least it'd make more sense than this crap.
Other complaints and frustrations I have with this episode include more hints that the entire universe revolves around William (yawn) - but no explanation as to why - and characters acting frustratingly inconsistent. For example, Doggett tries to convince Scully to let some shadowy informant contact Mulder, and she refuses. But then she agrees, and the next thing you know, Doggett is telling her it's a bad idea. But I think the worst thing of all is that Scully is willing to put Mulder's life in jeopardy, because she's lovesick and really wants to see him. Ugh.
If there's anything positive I can say about this episode, it's that it goes balls to the wall in trying to validate the paranoia of a post-9/11 surveillance state. Although one could argue that it goes a little too far, and it doesn't always make sense (e.g., if this NSA agent Terry O'Quinn plays is practically omniscient thanks to his surveillance equipment, to the point that he can even read Mulder's email to Scully back to her, then why can't he find Mulder himself?). I have to say, though, that even if it's in the thematic purview of this series, it doesn't really feel like the same kind of conspiracy action we got before on The X-Files. (Which doesn't bode well for the coming revival, which will be even further removed from the UFO scare of the '90s).
And then the episode concludes with a rather convenient Deus Ex Machina in the form of an iron compound found in the rock quarry that the Super Soldier-of-the-week ends up getting chased into. On the plus side, now the agents know what the Super Soldiers' kryptonite is. But on the minus side, this is all pretty lame. Scully assumes that Mulder knew about this kryptonite already, which is a sound conclusion, but how? You know what, forget it. I'm beyond caring at this point. Let's just keep moving forward, the sooner to put it all behind us.
Memorable quotes:
Scully: You ever heard of the Constitution?
Shadow Man: Yes. It's what allows foreign terrorists to live here and enjoy the American dream, until the time comes to destroy it.
(A little on the nose, Mr. Post-9/11 NSA agent).
Scully: We're in the middle of nowhere.
Shadow Man: There is no middle of nowhere anymore, Agent Scully.
(Touché).
Spoiler Warning: Mythology episode. Expect spoilers. Although rather than spoiling the experience, you might consider reading this review as saving you from having to sit through the episode.
This episode proves that Nothing Important Happened Today wasn't just a fluke, and that there is a serious problem with this season's mythology. It begins with a lame opener that approaches a level of pretentious mushiness we haven't seen since The Field Where I Died, in which Scully - back in baby mode, later seen pushing around a stroller, and befriending another single mother in a coffee shop (I thought this was a sci-fi series, not a romantic dram-com) - is pining for her baby daddy, while Mulder is sending love letters by email to his "dearest Dana". What, after eight years of professional respect, now all of a sudden they're behaving like adolescent lovebirds? Don't be fooled, though - Mulder doesn't appear in this episode. There's a shadowy figure in the distance in one scene that may or may not be Mulder, but like the obscured shower silhouette in Nothing Important Happened Today, it's a nameless, faceless double filling in for what's surely another lame excuse to keep the idea of Mulder on the periphery of the show (and everyone's minds).
Doggett explicitly states in this episode that it's the Super Soldiers forcing Mulder into hiding (though how would he even know? He was left out of the loop). But it still hasn't been explained why they're after Mulder in particular. I mean, aren't they after everybody? And you don't see Doggett and Reyes, or especially Scully and William going into hiding. I mean, I know they have to dance around the issue of not having David Duchovny on the show, but at this point I wish they'd just cut him loose already. I'd be less annoyed if he'd just been abducted again - because at least it'd make more sense than this crap.
Other complaints and frustrations I have with this episode include more hints that the entire universe revolves around William (yawn) - but no explanation as to why - and characters acting frustratingly inconsistent. For example, Doggett tries to convince Scully to let some shadowy informant contact Mulder, and she refuses. But then she agrees, and the next thing you know, Doggett is telling her it's a bad idea. But I think the worst thing of all is that Scully is willing to put Mulder's life in jeopardy, because she's lovesick and really wants to see him. Ugh.
If there's anything positive I can say about this episode, it's that it goes balls to the wall in trying to validate the paranoia of a post-9/11 surveillance state. Although one could argue that it goes a little too far, and it doesn't always make sense (e.g., if this NSA agent Terry O'Quinn plays is practically omniscient thanks to his surveillance equipment, to the point that he can even read Mulder's email to Scully back to her, then why can't he find Mulder himself?). I have to say, though, that even if it's in the thematic purview of this series, it doesn't really feel like the same kind of conspiracy action we got before on The X-Files. (Which doesn't bode well for the coming revival, which will be even further removed from the UFO scare of the '90s).
And then the episode concludes with a rather convenient Deus Ex Machina in the form of an iron compound found in the rock quarry that the Super Soldier-of-the-week ends up getting chased into. On the plus side, now the agents know what the Super Soldiers' kryptonite is. But on the minus side, this is all pretty lame. Scully assumes that Mulder knew about this kryptonite already, which is a sound conclusion, but how? You know what, forget it. I'm beyond caring at this point. Let's just keep moving forward, the sooner to put it all behind us.
Memorable quotes:
Scully: You ever heard of the Constitution?
Shadow Man: Yes. It's what allows foreign terrorists to live here and enjoy the American dream, until the time comes to destroy it.
(A little on the nose, Mr. Post-9/11 NSA agent).
Scully: We're in the middle of nowhere.
Shadow Man: There is no middle of nowhere anymore, Agent Scully.
(Touché).
Saturday, January 2, 2016
The X-Files - S9:E5 "Lord of the Flies"
[ S9:E4 "4-D" <<< Season 9 >>> S9:E6 "Trust No 1" ]
It's remarkable (and not a little bit sad) that, just within the space of a single season, I've gone from comparing this show to the first season, when it was dark and fresh and just spreading its wings, to (now) the seventh season, when it was tired and silly and had jumped the shark. I guess we've moved beyond the era when it was the outside writers who could most competently capture the classic atmosphere of the show - now that the old guard has gone back to writing serious episodes, it seems that the freelance writers are only now catching up to the wacky mood of the fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons. As such, this "high school drama" episode about a teenage outcast with strange powers borrows more from the ridiculousness of Syzygy, than the more serious approach of episodes like D.P.O., or Rush (or even Schizogeny, which I seem to have liked better than the average viewer).
It starts in the worst possible way, with an opener that plays like a demo tape for a reality show called Dumbass, which is clearly a knockoff of Jackass. For the first, but not the last time, I ask...why? The reality approach and the crossover feeling can't help reminding one of X-COPS (although that was a better episode). That the main dumbass (but not the show's idiot host, who insists on being called "Sky Commander Winky" - again...why?) ends up dead by the time the opening credits roll is to be expected, but the mildly strange way in which his head gets smashed in really doesn't go far enough in justifying why this is an X-File. As it starts in earnest, I'm left wondering, is this episode going to be even worse than Fight Club? I wouldn't go that far, but it is pretty bad. I struggled to maintain enough interest to sit it out all the way through to the end.
The paranormal aspect turns out to have nothing whatsoever to do with the Dumbass reel - other than establishing a base for the teenage antics around which the episode's drama revolves - leaving me once again to ask...why? It's about a "bug whisperer" (like Aburame Shino from Naruto), which is a cool enough premise, but the episode is bogged down with too many tired cliches. Over-bearing mother? Check. Puberty metaphor? Check. (Though, while we're on the subject of metaphors, this is a perfect example of why it's a bad idea to wait until it's too late to give your kid the sex talk). High school students in their twenties? Check. An unlikely love story between an awkward freak and a relatively hot girl? Check.
And then there's this absurdly narcissistic doctor (we're talking Gilderoy Lockhart levels, here), who spends the whole episode creeping on Scully. (To be fair, that "electro-antenna-gram" is pretty clever, but all this talk of pheromones makes me wish this episode had been more along the lines of Piers Anthony's Firefly). For that matter, Scully looks even more made up than usual - like she's an actress instead of an FBI agent or a doctor (let alone a new mother), which brings attention to the fact that I'm watching a TV show. I'm sorry, but not even making copious references to Syd Barrett (including samples of his music!) is enough to salvage this episode - and that's saying a lot, coming from someone whose favorite band in high school was Pink Floyd. I'd rather watch Badlaa again, as tasteless as that episode was.
Memorable quotes:
Scully: Judging from the amount of insect feces in the ear and nasal cavities, it appears that they fed at such a furious rate that it caused the boy's skull to collapse from the inside.
(Oh my god, this is so ridiculous. It speaks for itself).
Doggett: I think I just solved this case. This kid had crap for brains; the flies couldn't resist.
Doggett: This isn't just stupid, this is glorification of stupid.
Doggett: I've said it before and I'll say it again: the whole reason this case is attracting flies is because somebody's full of crap.
(Thank you, Doggett, for talking sense in an otherwise ridiculous episode).
It's remarkable (and not a little bit sad) that, just within the space of a single season, I've gone from comparing this show to the first season, when it was dark and fresh and just spreading its wings, to (now) the seventh season, when it was tired and silly and had jumped the shark. I guess we've moved beyond the era when it was the outside writers who could most competently capture the classic atmosphere of the show - now that the old guard has gone back to writing serious episodes, it seems that the freelance writers are only now catching up to the wacky mood of the fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons. As such, this "high school drama" episode about a teenage outcast with strange powers borrows more from the ridiculousness of Syzygy, than the more serious approach of episodes like D.P.O., or Rush (or even Schizogeny, which I seem to have liked better than the average viewer).
It starts in the worst possible way, with an opener that plays like a demo tape for a reality show called Dumbass, which is clearly a knockoff of Jackass. For the first, but not the last time, I ask...why? The reality approach and the crossover feeling can't help reminding one of X-COPS (although that was a better episode). That the main dumbass (but not the show's idiot host, who insists on being called "Sky Commander Winky" - again...why?) ends up dead by the time the opening credits roll is to be expected, but the mildly strange way in which his head gets smashed in really doesn't go far enough in justifying why this is an X-File. As it starts in earnest, I'm left wondering, is this episode going to be even worse than Fight Club? I wouldn't go that far, but it is pretty bad. I struggled to maintain enough interest to sit it out all the way through to the end.
The paranormal aspect turns out to have nothing whatsoever to do with the Dumbass reel - other than establishing a base for the teenage antics around which the episode's drama revolves - leaving me once again to ask...why? It's about a "bug whisperer" (like Aburame Shino from Naruto), which is a cool enough premise, but the episode is bogged down with too many tired cliches. Over-bearing mother? Check. Puberty metaphor? Check. (Though, while we're on the subject of metaphors, this is a perfect example of why it's a bad idea to wait until it's too late to give your kid the sex talk). High school students in their twenties? Check. An unlikely love story between an awkward freak and a relatively hot girl? Check.
And then there's this absurdly narcissistic doctor (we're talking Gilderoy Lockhart levels, here), who spends the whole episode creeping on Scully. (To be fair, that "electro-antenna-gram" is pretty clever, but all this talk of pheromones makes me wish this episode had been more along the lines of Piers Anthony's Firefly). For that matter, Scully looks even more made up than usual - like she's an actress instead of an FBI agent or a doctor (let alone a new mother), which brings attention to the fact that I'm watching a TV show. I'm sorry, but not even making copious references to Syd Barrett (including samples of his music!) is enough to salvage this episode - and that's saying a lot, coming from someone whose favorite band in high school was Pink Floyd. I'd rather watch Badlaa again, as tasteless as that episode was.
Why?
Memorable quotes:
Scully: Judging from the amount of insect feces in the ear and nasal cavities, it appears that they fed at such a furious rate that it caused the boy's skull to collapse from the inside.
(Oh my god, this is so ridiculous. It speaks for itself).
Doggett: I think I just solved this case. This kid had crap for brains; the flies couldn't resist.
Doggett: This isn't just stupid, this is glorification of stupid.
Doggett: I've said it before and I'll say it again: the whole reason this case is attracting flies is because somebody's full of crap.
(Thank you, Doggett, for talking sense in an otherwise ridiculous episode).
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