The X-Files - S10:E1 "My Struggle"

[ I Want To Believe <<< Season 10 >>> S10:E2 "Founder's Mutation" ]

To cut straight to the point of this review, I'll say from the outset that my overall impression of the first episode of this new miniseries is...lukewarm. Maybe I got my hopes up a little too high expecting it to be insta-classic X-Files, just add water. But it's only the first episode, and there's still time to improve. Besides, a lot of this episode seems to be setting up, getting us back into the groove. Perhaps we'll have Mulder and Scully shouting each other's names and waving their flashlights around more in the monster-of-the-week episodes. Regardless, I'm eagerly anticipating the episodes by Darin Morgan, Glen Morgan, and James Wong.

Spoiler Warning: The rest of this review is going to contain spoilers, both for this episode, and for much of the mythology of the series, to which this episode begins a new chapter.

So, my first impression as the episode began was that it didn't look or feel like classic X-Files. It's all very modern (and not just because of the hashtag in the corner of the screen). I see heavy usage of digital effects, and I'm not sure how comfortable I am about that. One advantage it may provide (although I've never been prejudiced against men in rubber suits), is that perhaps this series will actually have some aliens in it for the first time in like forever. Despite what I said during my marathon back around the time I reviewed the first movie, the series never really switched over to alien-alien characters. Right up to the end we were still dealing with alien replicants and Super Soldiers that looked, to the viewer's eye, entirely human.

And now we have an alien pilot crawling from the wreckage of a crashed UFO (Roswell, 1947, if I'm not mistaken). But it doesn't look like the crashed UFOs we've seen before. It's less esoteric - less glowing lights and men in hazmat suits, and more a broken saucer sticking out of the ground. In the first of many throwbacks to the series' earlier mythology, we see a presumed government agent executing the alien pilot, in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1013 (as alluded to by Deep Throat in E.B.E., and then addressed more explicitly in Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man).

I think the thing I like best that this episode has done, conceptually speaking, is restructure the entire conspiracy around which the show hinges. Even if that requires considerable retconning (one of the more eye-rolling examples of which is changing the date of the alleged alien apocalypse, as discovered in The Truth, to the date of the start of a countdown). The episode hearkens back to the fifth season's mythology quite a bit, even insofar as ostensibly placing Mulder in a position of doubt (initially). But while there has been alien contact, it is not the aliens that are the threat, but the government alone. Acting in a The Day The Earth Stood Still sort of capacity, the aliens have been drawn by mankind's achievement of nuclear warfare, and ever since 1947, the government has been stealing alien technology and hiding it from the public (creating ARVs - Alien Replica Vehicles, like the UFOs we saw in the episode Deep Throat), in a long-term plan to take over the world.

At least, that's what conservative talk show host Tad O'Malley (Joel McHale) is convinced of. And in true X-Files fashion, it's not altogether clear who one should trust. But Tad wants Mulder and Scully on the case, for obvious reasons, what with their background in fighting the conspiracy. It's not an easy sell, although, much like in I Want To Believe, Mulder seems more readily drawn to the action than Scully, who is again seen working as a doctor at Our Lady of Sorrows. Tad has been in contact with an abductee by the name of Sveta (a radiant Annet Mahendru), who appears to be exhibiting mind-reading abilities similar to those that Gibson Praise has demonstrated. Scully determines that she does indeed possess alien DNA, but then, as an abductee herself, she does, too.

Another thing that I think I like about this episode (in spite of myself) is how convincingly it seems to depict Mulder's obsession in an unhealthy way. I've always defended Mulder, and he'll probably turn out to be right yet again, but it really does start feeling like he's gone off the deep end. It doesn't help that he's getting older, and going gray, yet rambles (frequently only just barely coherently) more and more with the passing years. Tad - young and coiffed though he is - doesn't seem to be helping things, with his ultra-paranoid mentality (almost reaching levels witnessed in the episode Trust No 1; I daresay even The Lone Gunmen would call him crazy - and that's saying something).

No, don't kick it, Mulder!

As the episode opened, it was immediately clear that this series is sticking to its UFO-centered subject matter. But it really hammers on the paranoid conspiracy talk. A lot of it coming out of these characters' mouths sounds as obsessively paranoid as it would coming out of anyone's mouth. Similar to the fact that the best argument against conspiracies is that people are messy and prone to error, the fact that technology exists for perfect surveillance doesn't mean that we have the human resources (or inclination, necessarily) to use it that way. Just as the possibility of being seen when you pass a window doesn't mean that somebody will necessarily be looking at the instant you pass, the fact that there's a security camera on the street corner doesn't necessarily mean that you are or ever will be witnessed walking past by any human eyes. Similarly, Google may save all your emails, but somebody's still got to sit there and read through them all, and who has that kind of time?

Obviously, this isn't an argument against standing up for our privacy, because even if it's not ubiquitous, if the capability exists, there will be cases of people taking (selective) advantage of it. Power corrupts, and all that. Plus, if you throw into the mix the knowledge that computers are getting smarter, there may conceivably come a time when a machine could be up to the task of spending the necessary man hours (which would be considerably fewer computer hours), as well as an AI sophisticated enough to parse meaningful information. I guess, then, the important thing is a proactive defense of our privacy, laying the framework now, before it's too late (and the machines - or those that control them - take over)!

Which, I guess, is what's at the heart of the mythology in this episode. (And if it can engender this much discussion, maybe the themes are more on point than I realized). Questions still remain - as is ever the case when Chris Carter puts pen to paper. Who is in charge of this conspiracy? Besides the Cigarette Smoking Man, I mean - although his appearance raises even more questions. Like, how did he survive being incinerated to his very skeleton? He looks better now than he's looked since his surgery in Amor Fati, although he's never been as cool since he's had to smoke his cigarettes through a stoma. But if everything we thought we knew about the conspiracy - the Syndicate's plans, the aliens' agenda - is wrong, then there are a lot of contradictions that are going to need to be ironed out, unless we're being asked to ignore an awful lot of what this series has already laid out. Which I wouldn't be unwilling to do, but it would be helpful to know whether or not that's the case here. (And a brief reference to William would indicate that we're not completely jettisoning canon yet).

Anyway, I think the success of this episode will depend largely on how the rest of the miniseries plays out. And there's really not any other way that could be. The episode ends with the X-Files being re-opened (Skinner appears in a minor role that as yet may not do justice to the main credit he's nonetheless rightfully earned - otherwise, the opening credits sequence has been returned to the classic one, much to my relief), but in spite of the long passage of years, it doesn't feel as exciting (or as natural) as it did when it happened in Ascension, or at the end of Fight The Future. Anyway, it was a foregone conclusion, regardless, and as I mentioned above, I'm looking forward to seeing how this new series handles the monster-of-the-week episodes. (Me, looking forward to a Darin Morgan episode more than a mythology episode? My, how times have changed!).

Memorable quotes:

Mulder: We must ask ourselves: are they really a hoax? Are we truly alone, or are we being lied to?

(Great setup for the alien business, even if it doesn't feel as convincing as it did in the '90s - I'm not sure if it was the times, or just my youthful naiveté. Either way, the rest of this episode unfortunately undermines the pull of this opener by suggesting that the threat hanging over us is not in fact alien, but entirely human).

O'Malley: Do you miss it at all - the X-Files?
Scully: As a scientist, it was probably some of the most intense and challenging work I've ever done. I've never felt so alive.

Sveta: Who can I trust? They would call me a liar when they're the liars!

Mulder: Scully, listen to me. I've been misled - we've been misled. What if everything we've been led to believe in is a lie? What if there is no alien conspiracy?

(So, The X-Files was its own biggest conspiracy all along? I'd be more impressed if this ground hadn't already been tread in Gethsemane).

Mulder: You owe me some answers.
Skinner: Will you just...calm the hell down, Mulder - before we both get pissed off?

(Like old times).

Skinner: Since 9/11, this country's taken a big turn in a very strange direction.
Mulder: They police us, and spy on us, tell us that makes us safer. We've never been in more danger.

Informant: You weren't even close. Warring aliens lighting each other on fire, and other such nonsense.
Mulder: I was being cleverly manipulated.

(We were all being manipulated. Apparently. By Chris Carter).

Informant: Tell me something new.
Mulder: Alien technology being used against us. Not by aliens, not with aliens, but by a venal conspiracy of men against humanity.

Informant: The lies are so great, Mr. Mulder, the truth must be unassailable.

Informant: Roswell - that was a smokescreen.
Mulder: So I've been told.

(Between this and his reluctance to exterminate an alien pilot, I'd swear this guy is Deep Throat all over again. But without the magnetic presence of Jerry Hardin.)

Scully: I have seen this before. You're on fire, believing that you're on to some truth, that you can save the world.
Mulder: This will finally be their undoing.
Scully: It'll be your undoing, Mulder.

(If this wasn't The X-Files... Scully makes perhaps the most convincing argument yet, that Mulder's quest for truth is really just a symptom of madness. Tilting at windmills. As badly as we viewers want to believe in Mulder, all these years have passed and there is still no hard evidence. Even now, everything we thought we were sure of is evaporating into thin air. I'm almost convinced that the best true finale to this series would have Mulder realizing - or not, but the rest of us would - that there are no aliens, or conspiracies. That he's just insane. I know fans probably wouldn't like that, but I've always been fond of mindfuck endings).

Sveta: Why do such a thing and lie about it? Our own government?
Mulder: Your own government lies as a matter of course, as a matter of policy.

Scully: You can't say these things.
O'Malley: I'm gonna say them tomorrow.
Scully: It's fear-mongering, claptrap, isolationist, techno-paranoia so bogus, and dangerous, and stupid, that it borders on treason. Saying these things would be incredibly irresponsible.
Mulder: It's irresponsible not to say it.
Sveta: Especially if it's the truth.

(I'm not a fan of fear-mongering, but I'm a hard-line free-speecher, so my perspective is, crazy conspiracies like this should live or die by the evidence that supports them - or lack thereof. If Scully really wanted to dissuade them - even if she thought they were just paranoid delusions - she should have emphasized the danger over the "irresponsibility").

Mulder: Scully, are you ready for this?
Scully: I don't know there's a choice.

The X-Files - S9:E19/20 "The Truth"

[ S9:E18 "Sunshine Days" <<< Season 9 >>> I Want To Believe ]

Spoiler-free introduction: This is it - the series finale! The show has done its fair of share of two- (and even several three-) parters, but this is the first time it's aired a double episode all at once. It's billed as both episodes 19 and 20 of the season - which is consistent with counting episodes as 45 minute blocks of TV, but is responsible for some considerable confusion over whether the complete series contains 201 or 202 episodes. It really just depends on whether you consider the series finale to be one episode or two. It's like a double-stuffed Oreo - it's worth twice as much as one Oreo, but it's not actually two Oreos.

Anyway, to spare you the suspense, I'll tell you right now that I enjoyed the finale. It's got a few flaws, and as a two-part mythology episode, it's not as good as this series' best, but it has more of a classic feeling than anything in these last two (or three or four) seasons, and I think it works really well as a series finale, wrapping much of the show up, while still leaving room for further stories to be told, as in the planned movie franchise that never really got off the ground.

I'm a little bit surprised that this show basically copied Seinfeld's approach in putting the main characters on trial, in order to (sort of) do a clips show (especially given the lackluster response that Seinfeld's series finale received), but I actually think it works really well with this show (beyond the hokiness of the idea of putting "the truth" on trial) - and is a good framing device for tying together nine years of convoluted mythology about as well as any X-Phile could realistically hope for from Chris Carter.

Spoiler Warning: With that reader-friendly intro out of the way, the rest of this review will, as I'm sure you can imagine, contain massive spoilers. Proceed with caution.

The episode opens with a helicopter flying over some woods, and it instantaneously feels almost like a classic X-Files mythology episode (demonstrating what a different show this has become with Doggett and Reyes). No preface, just Mulder (and it's only been a year, but my, he looks like he aged a lot while on the run) in the midst of infiltrating a government facility, wherein he discovers this illustrious "date" for the alien takeover, that so much has been made of. And, believe it or not, it's the date of the Mayan Apocalypse!

Now, as kooky as the whole idea of the Mayan Apocalypse is (even more so now that it's behind us), I like the idea that the Mayans predicted the apocalypse not because they were prophets or whatever, but because they somehow figured out the aliens' plans (who have been around for a while, given that they were the original inhabitants of this planet) - a planned, deliberate apocalypse by an intelligent race. (Although it still begs the question of why they waited so long, and why they chose this particular date, not to mention all that talk about the progress of the Syndicate's experiments determining when colonization would begin. But we'll forget that).

Anyhow, Mulder is accosted by a Super Soldier we've seen before - Knowle Rohrer - and barely manages to shake him off, but is ultimately captured, and thrown into military prison. Being accused of murdering Knowle (despite that being impossible, what with him being indestructible), the military agrees to put Mulder on trial - albeit a military trial - with cooperation by the FBI. Allegedly, instead of just eliminating Mulder, they want to stamp out his crusade as well, by returning a guilty verdict. Knowing that the trial will be rigged, Mulder appoints Skinner - the only man he can trust - as his representative. Scully appeals to Kersh for help, but his hands are tied (by the Super Soldiers' involvement at the FBI), and so he once again has to play the part of the bad guy (I don't think I've warmed up to him really being a good guy yet).

Mulder sees this as a chance to finally prove what he's been investigating all these years, though it doesn't help that he still doesn't have any proof. He won't even reveal the secret he recently discovered, which would supposedly blow the case wide open (although I don't know how). Scully doesn't want Mulder to sacrifice his life for the truth, but he's already made up his mind, and you know how stubborn he can be. He's also seeing visions of dead people, apparently - making for the shocking appearance of Krycek. The Lone Gunmen also turn up, as does X. It's nice to see X again, after all these years, even if he only shows up to repeat his most disappointing legacy - leading Mulder to the useless Marita Covarrubias. I'm glad we get to see her again, though, if only to know what she's been up to. I was beginning to worry that they would just drop her character, and not even give her the honor of being killed off.

Even Gibson Praise shows up for a cameo appearance. Apparently, Mulder's been in New Mexico all (or most) of this time, protecting the mind-reading wunderkind. I could take or leave the character of Gibson Praise, but he's always been at his best reading the minds of this show's bureaucratic villains, and pointing out their hypocrisies. (Although, post-trial, if they're still trying to protect him, is it really smart bringing him into the FBI headquarters, when they know there's a replicant working on the inside?). Even Doggett and Reyes get their turn on the stand, and to my surprise, it's Reyes who gets the best moment of the whole trial. None if it is enough to exonerate Mulder, however, especially given that the verdict was a by-gone conclusion. But, though the X-Files division is shut down (for the third time) as collateral damage from Mulder's insubordination, his friends have a surprise in store for him - a daring prison breakout!

Mulder and Scully go on the run (together this time!), and, excitingly, Mulder's still got a trick up his sleeve. It's the Smoking Man - still alive! He's been hiding out in the old, Anasazi pueblos, and he's got a secret of his own to reveal. Something the Anasazi figured out years before - the aliens' kryptonite, which occurs naturally in the surrounding geological formations (it brought down the UFO in Roswell!). I can't tell you how relieved and excited I was to see the Smoking Man alive again at the end of the episode. It was perfect. Although, to be honest, his "earth-shattering" revelation fell a little flat. He doesn't survive the literally explosive climax, however - the episode makes a point of showing us his fiery skeleton so that we know for an absolute certainty that he really is truly dead this time. (Until the revival, that is).

All of this is just fantastic, but I'm kinda lukewarm about the episode's closing moments. It's the closest thing this episode has to that mushy "closure" I've been getting sick of (although, to its credit, it's only a small portion of the whole double-length episode). But the series ends with Mulder and Scully curled up in bed together, a clear demonstration of how much Chris Carter's original ideals have eroded over the years (for better or worse, depending on who you ask - I'm leaning toward worse). And their little discussion makes explicit what I've read was Chris Carter's interpretation of the central theme of the show about how the desire to believe in the paranormal is really just a variation on mankind's search for God. I think I would have preferred if that had remained no more than subtext, because I like Mulder better as an atheist.

And that's that! It should be very interesting to watch I Want To Believe again now, having watched the series through to the end for the first time. Stay tuned for a review of that coming next week!

Memorable quotes:

Military Guard: You're a guilty man. You entered a government facility illegally in search of nonexistent information. You failed in every respect!

General Suveg: This man Mulder has made a lot of enemies. He's a crusader, and a lot of people do not like the crusade.

Mulder: What's really on trial here is the truth.

Kersh: Is this all...leading anywhere?
Mulder: Yeah - the destruction of mankind.

Mulder: This is greater than you or me. This is about everything we've worked for for nine years, the truth that we both sacrificed so much to uncover and to expose.

Doggett: What's left for us on the X-Files?
Reyes: We came to this job to give it our best. It's the way we're gonna leave.
Mulder: It's not about how good you are. They control the game. They own it.
Doggett: Then let's shove it up their ass!

Reyes: What is the point of all of this? To destroy a man who seeks the truth, or to destroy the truth so no man can seek it? Either way, you lose.

(Surprisingly, it's Reyes who gets the standout moment of confrontation during the trial. And I love the look of admiration Mulder gives her after witnessing her little bout of righteous insubordination).

Mulder: A bullet between the eyes would have been preferable to this charade.

(Come on, Mulder, it wasn't that bad).

Mulder: The devil is just one man with a plan, but evil - true evil - is a collaboration of men.

Mulder: You may believe yourselves rid of your headache now. Maybe you are. But you've only done it by cutting off your own heads.

(There's a real tragedy in seeing mankind's best defender against the alien apocalypse defeated not by aliens, but by men).

Smoking Man: You damn me for my secrets, but you're afraid to speak the truth.

Scully: Mulder, you say that you've failed, but you only fail if you give up. And I know you - you can't give up.

The X-Files - S9:E16 "William"

[ S9:E15 "Jump The Shark" <<< Season 9 >>> S9:E17 "Release" ]

Spoiler Warning: This episode pretty much wraps up the remaining mythology threads from the last two seasons, in anticipation of the coming series finale, so expect major spoilers. Also, the best thing about this episode is the mystery of a certain character's identity, which will be spoiled herein.

Ever since Robert Patrick came on and breathed new life into this show, in the wake of David Duchovny's absence at the start of the eighth season, The X-Files has been rebuilding its mythology (to questionable results - these Super Soldiers, and the convoluted mystery surrounding Scully's baby). Now, with the show scheduled to finally go off the air once and for all, this episode is (presumably) tasked with killing off the new mythology, so as to wipe the slate clean for the series finale (which makes me wonder what they have planned for that). As happy as I am to see William finally go bye-bye, this is an at times ridiculous and frustrating episode, with a perhaps too clean resolution. It opens with a family considering their decision to adopt a child, with the twist that the child is baby William (cue nervous laughter). The rest of the episode explains how Scully comes to the decision to give her baby away.

A stranger attacks Doggett and attempts to steal some X-Files from the basement office, only to be caught in the act. He is badly burned over his entire body, and claims to have been sent by Mulder (still AWOL) to get back at the conspiracy that burned him in an early attempt to turn him into a Super Soldier (which he says the aliens - who have infiltrated the government, as we've already seen - are going to eventually do to the rest of the population, as part of their invasion (what a shame - I was looking forward to a fiery war zone like we saw in Amor Fati)). He gives the agents a false identity, but Doggett thinks that it might be Mulder himself. It's a patently ridiculous statement, but the episode devotes much of its emphasis to it - almost to the point of making you think it might be true. Not that this stranger acts anything like Mulder, or even looks like Mulder (even considering the burn scars) - but at this point in the series, I wouldn't put it past Chris Carter et al. to pull a stunt like that. It reeks of the shadowy doubles we've seen this season, and the half-assed flashbacks and Alien Bounty Hunters posing as Mulder in the last season.

But the weird thing is, David Duchovny was actually brought in to direct this episode. So he's actually there. At least, behind the camera. You'd think if it really was Mulder, they'd at least trot him out in a scene for the grand reveal. But, well, it's not Mulder. And the biggest giveaway is the fact that, in spite of the really good makeup job, it's not enough to conceal the identity of Chris Owens, who has played a certain character of some significance on this show before. That it's Jeffrey Spender pulling this ruse also leads to a DNA test that verifies, once and for all, that the Smoking Man (Spender's father) was indeed also Mulder's true father. Just like that. (You know, in spite of all the vain hinting going at least as far back as season 3's Talitha Cumi, I was pretty sure that wasn't going to turn out to be the case, in the end).

But that's not all. The whole alien invasion thing wraps up just as conveniently. Whether sent by Mulder or not, Spender maneuvers himself into Scully's home. There are some stupidly convenient writing decisions - like making the stranger get some sleep before talking, and having three agents in a house with a stranger leave the baby unsupervised (and I don't care if they think it is Mulder, he's still a stranger). Ultimately, Spender injects the baby with magnetite (presumably the same "kryptonite" we saw in action in the episode Trust No 1), which apparently removes the baby's special powers and makes him a completely normal baby - no messiah, no ability to be used by the alien invaders as some kind of leader or savior. Of course, the baby is still in danger, because of who he is (and who he was), so Scully chooses to give the baby away (I wonder how Mulder is going to feel about that, although I suppose he's voting with his absence), so that he can have a normal life (similar to a plot point that occurred in Angel, I recall).

And that's that. A lot of fans seem justly frustrated with this conclusion to the William arc, and I believe it's a symptom of the crappy mythology in this season. Personally, I'm not that invested in it to begin with, so the fact that the writers copped out to get rid of an inconvenient burden to a potential future film series (that never really materialized) - and the collateral damage done to Scully (and Mulder)'s character as a result - doesn't bother me on a visceral level. It's not a great episode, but then there haven't been very many of those this season. I don't know about you, but I'm ready for the series to end already. It's been in a coma for so long that I doubt I'll even be sad when it finally ends. I shed my tears (of frustration) back when Mulder "found" Samantha in season 7's Closure...

Um, who's watching the baby?

Memorable quotes:

Scully: That's ridiculous! It's absurd.
Doggett: Is it?

(Yes, Doggett, it is. It is).

The Breather: The conspiracy about the truth to keep aliens from the American public - all but destroyed a few years ago - has given rise to a new conspiracy in the government now, by men who are alien themselves.

Dr. Edwards: Your son is completely normal.
Reyes: That doesn't make sense.
Scully: No, I think it does. It makes perfect sense now.

(But feel free to elaborate).

Scully: I've seen my share of the hideous - of the disgusting, and the repellent - but you, sir, are the most perfect expression I will ever see...of all that is vile and hateful in life.
The Breather: That may well be, but for a moment, you believed it - that I was him.
Scully: I never believed it.
The Breather: You wanted to believe.

The X-Files - S9:E15 "Jump The Shark"

[ S9:E14 "Scary Monsters" <<< Season 9 >>> S9:E16 "William" ]

I must confess that I've never seen The Lone Gunmen spinoff series, which ran for 13 episodes between seasons 8 and 9 of The X-Files. I'd be willing to give it a watch, if I could find it somewhere, but I'm not exactly motivated to go too far out of my way. The brainchild of John Shiban, Vince Gilligan, and Frank Spotnitz (the trio that brought you the wacky Dreamland two-parter in the sixth season, from which the character of Morris Fletcher originated, who appears again in this episode), I imagine it epitomizes the "X-Files Lite" approach that I'm not especially fond of. And like the season 7 episode Millennium was a coda to that series, this episode is the coda - and a closing - to The Lone Gunmen's story. I would have liked to have seen the series before viewing this episode, but time marches on toward that deadline.

At any rate, the opener consists of a voiceover montage that briefly describes The Lone Gunmen's genesis on The X-Files (going back to Morgan & Wong's season 1 episode E.B.E.), and their hijinks on their own series, but - unlike Millennium - I don't know that it really works as a standalone. Even without having seen the series, it feels to me more like an episode of The Lone Gunmen than The X-Files, and - the Super Soldiers connection aside, which seems tacked on anyway - Doggett and Reyes (especially the chronically straight-faced Doggett) feel very much out of place. My opinion of the episode may improve if/when I ever get the chance to watch the spinoff series, but as of right now, there's little in this episode to make it worth viewing. (I think the lasting impression I'm going to take away from it is that Yves Adele Harlow - or rather, the actress Zuleikha Robinson - is very cute). I still maintain that Unusual Suspects is the best example of a Lone Gunmen-centric episode.

And I can understand the creators wanting to give the characters a final send off (especially knowing, as they probably did at this late date, that The X-Files itself was going off the air), but the conclusion is unsatisfyingly morbid. It's almost as if the episode is begging the viewer not to take it as canon. Besides, it's a little late for the series to be jumping the shark - I'd say it did that back in the seventh season, around the time of First Person Shooter, if not earlier. There's a wacky plot about some convoluted weapon involving shark cartilage, but - given that this episode is the coda to a whole series - there's a lot of baggage behind it, and, not having seen it, I have a hard time getting invested. It's sad, but when Morris Fletcher dangles the "truth" about 50 years' worth of conspiracy in front of Doggett and Reyes' faces (and the funniest joke in the whole episode is that they couldn't care less that he worked at Area 51, because that means nothing to them), it doesn't even get me excited, because this show has already laid its mythology out, poured gasoline over it, and lit it up back in the sixth and seventh seasons. "Don't cry for me, I'm already dead."

Memorable quotes:

Morris Fletcher: I was a man in black! The men in black. What, you've never heard of us?
Doggett: I saw the movie.

(This represents everything that was wrong with that whole Dreamland arc. Too much pop culture, not enough gritty conspiracy).

Morris Fletcher: Look, if we have to work together, let's work together.
Frohike: We don't have to work together.

Frohike: You gotta admit, Byers, it hasn't exactly been our year. And to top it all off, we screwed the pooch pretty good today. Maybe we should pack it in.
Byers: And do what instead? We never gave up. We never will. In the end, if that's the best they can say about us, it'll do.

(A moment this solemn doesn't really work in an otherwise wacky episode. It could just be the finality in this episode, but I wonder if this tone schizophrenia was part of what led to The Lone Gunmen spinoff series' early demise).

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...

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).

The X-Files - S9:E2 "Nothing Important Happened Today II"

[ S9:E1 "Nothing Important Happened Today" <<< Season 9 >>> S9:E3 "Daemonicus" ]

Nothing important happened again today - including thinking of a unique title to use for the second half of this two-parter. Although we do finally learn the significance of said title - it's a neat story (unless it didn't really happen), but at this point, it's too little, too late (and a bit pretentious to boot). As far as I'm concerned, the quality of this episode is on par with the last one - it just continues on in the same vein, without getting better, and without introducing any new plot points that are actually exciting, or resolving in any kind of a satisfactory manner. As an opener to the ninth season, I honestly can't say that I'm very enthused about continuing forward (although I do maintain a thin hope that the freak-of-the-week episodes may be better by not being bogged down by the utterly uninteresting mythology).

Spoiler Warning: There, that's all you really need to know. But if you want to read a long list of gripes I have with this and the preceding episode - gripes that contain spoilers for the show's mythology - then read on.

Now, about that mythology. Apparently, the aliens are investigating new delivery mechanisms for their colonizing virus, and the idea they come upon in this two-parter is to poison the water supply. Which isn't very original (compared to the devilishly brilliant - who cares if it's convoluted? - bee system). I can't help thinking that the aliens are reaching for ideas here, and that they should be better than this. The slow burn, behind the scenes stuff ("a silent weapon for a quiet war") worked when the aliens had a deal with the Syndicate, but with them gone, I don't see why they don't just go all Independence Day already. At the very least, they could use some kind of advanced technology, instead of resorting to lame plans any half-assed criminal mastermind could come up with, and that can be foiled easily enough by two upstart agents at the FBI.

Also, the fact that instead of these alien-human hybrids - or just outright aliens - they're trying to turn the population into more of these Super Soldiers (albeit organic versions, I guess)...I don't know. The X-Files always felt different from other sci-fi shows. But lately it's been feeling more and more like a run-of-the-mill tech geek genre show. I guess maybe that's a symptom of losing much of what made The X-Files what it was - dropping Mulder, and turning Scully into a house mother - and bringing on an actor with a lot of baggage from a competing sci-fi/horror pop culture phenomenon (The Terminator). Regardless, it's lost a lot of its steam. Like, take all this talk of the FBI being involved in a conspiracy, and compare it to the web that Section Chief Blevins weaved in Gethsemane/Redux/Redux II. It was captivating (and believable) then. Now it just feels like unlikely actors playing out parts on a stage.

To be fair, I gotta say I like Cary Elwes. He was one of the great fairy tale heroes of my childhood. But - and not to type-cast him - he really doesn't seem right for a hard-headed Assistant Director at the FBI. That pretty face of his belongs on magazine covers, not sitting behind a desk trying to bury government conspiracies. And this episode has the nerve to try and make Kersh out to be a good guy? For that matter, when was the last time we saw Skinner sitting behind a desk? It's good that he's got more to do on the show now, but his character has changed, and he's lost a lot of what made him who he was. It all contributes to the feeling that this is not the same X-Files we used to watch. We were invested in Mulder and Scully's search for the truth. It meant something to put them in danger. Although I'd hate to see the X-Files project closed, it's hardly the same without Mulder or Scully working on it. And in spite of Robert Patrick's best efforts to endear himself to fans throughout the last season, we're just not invested in Doggett or especially Reyes enough to care whether they get fired or killed, or continue working cases for weeks to come.

Honestly, it's come to a point where I wouldn't feel much of a loss if the series was cancelled once and for all. I mean, even the mythology has lost steam. I'm completely uninterested in Scully's baby. I don't even see what the big deal about it being telekinetic is. We've seen tons of freaks on this show with incredible abilities, and not one of them was the messiah, or an indestructible alien drone, or whatever else we're supposed to be afraid that this baby might be. And while Mulder's abduction meant something last season, his re-disappearance here leaves me feeling apathetic at best, and annoyed at worst. I suppose he's gone into hiding(?), but it just reeks of the tail chasing the dog - dropping Mulder off the show and worrying about explaining it away later, leaving the audience frustrated with non-explanations in the meantime. There's a palpable feeling of the show's writers fumbling about trying to make sense out of David Duchovny's abandonment. And with all the key figures in the conspiracy gone (the Syndicate, Samantha, the Smoking Man, the Alien Bounty Hunter, the Black Oil, Krycek - I wonder if we'll ever see Marita Covarrubias again, not that she alone would be enough to regurgitate my interest), I just don't care anymore.

Memorable quotes:

Reyes: Can we cut the crap, Brad?
A.D. Brad (because calling him A.D. Brad instead of A.D. Follmer or A.D. Brad Follmer appropriately highlights the ridiculousness of his character): I don't know, can we? There's a lot of crap to cut through.

(Thank you. I didn't want to say it myself).

The X-Files - S9:E1 "Nothing Important Happened Today"

[ S8:E21 "Existence" <<< Season 9 >>> S9:E2 "Nothing Important Happened Today II" ]

Spoiler Warning: Watching this episode might spoil your fond memories of The X-Files. As it is a mythology episode, this review will also contain mythology-related spoilers.

I've read a lot of reports on the poor quality of season 9, but I never imagined it'd drop so far so fast. Even after the surprisingly good eighth season, I'm having trouble mustering the enthusiasm to plow forward. I guess in the back of my mind I was hoping that the status quo of the latter half of season eight would continue, with Mulder and Scully simply taking on increasingly smaller supporting roles, as advisors (while juggling their new home life) to their replacements on the X-Files, and new leads, Doggett and Reyes. I can't say that would have been a successful show - certainly not as successful as the original X-Files - but it couldn't have been any worse than it actually was.

So...the main technical problem for the show is David Duchovny's absence. I think they handled it well in the eighth season, writing in a mytharc about Mulder's abduction. But it's almost as if Chris Carter loved this idea of Mulder being an "absent center" for the show so much that, even after bringing Mulder back, and resolving that story arc, come the ninth season premiere, he figured, well, let's just make Mulder disappear again. Except, this time, there's just no good reason for it. I mean, maybe he's going into hiding or whatever, but it just feels so conspicuously like the creators' juggling to write around David Duchovny's absence, that it's not the least bit satisfying.

To start with, the episode's title doesn't inspire much confidence in the viewer that he's going to sit down to a quality hour of television. In an earlier era, it could have been a reference to a funny self-parody, like the Darin Morgan episode War of the Coprophages, humorously detailing in part the agents' off-duty lives. But at this late stage of the game, with all the significant structural changes being made to the show, it skirts dangerously close to being an on-the-nose reference to how bad this show might be becoming. I mean, like - nothing important happened today? Then why am I watching? This isn't Seinfeld.

The episode opens on a bar scene (making me realize how idiotic the "bar scene" is - who would ever go to be picked up by some drunkard at a bar? - and hoping that modern social media, not to mention "speed dating", is playing its part in making this antiquated social custom obsolete). A handsome yet creepy man prone to conspiracy theories (not unlike Mulder) flirts with a woman who gives me the immediate physical impression of a much younger, much sexier (not that that's saying much) Diana Fowley. And I'm thinking...Gender Bender! Although what really happens is the woman (who I guess will turn out to be some kind of Super Soldier?) has an apparent death wish (if not for her indestructibility), and forces the man to kill himself by driving off a bridge.

Then we come to the opening credits - a brand new opening credits sequence, which just drives home the point that this is a new show. Even worse than the Frankenstein credits sequence of last season - which balanced half new stuff with half old stuff - this one is all new. A lot of it imitates what was in the old sequence, but it has an awkward, then-modern look to it that's just not very appealing. There was a time during the classic years of the show when I could have lived with a new opening sequence, but at this stage, it's been a rock, a pivot around which the show revolves. To change it now just adds insult to injury. Mitch Pileggi finally makes it into the main credits, but while he deserves the spot, Annabeth Gish (Agent Monica Reyes), whose name precedes his, has yet to demonstrate that she deserves to be a lead player on this show, which Robert Patrick spent the last season proving.

And it just goes further down hill from there. From Scully's home life (featuring an obnoxious, crying baby that you just want to punch, and a non-cameo of Mulder in the shower - but obscured by the shower door, so that they could just use a body double and not have to bill David Duchovny for the episode), to a guest star roster that includes the unlikely names of Lucy Lawless (the aforementioned bar hopper/Super Soldier) and Cary Elwes (who makes a lot more sense as Agent Reyes' old flame than as another Assistant Director at the FBI). Gillian Anderson may be "starring" in this episode (though not to a capacity that deserves top billing, in spite of her celebrity status and tenure on the show), but this house mother is not the Dana Scully we've known for the past eight years.

Far from gaining a new lease on life after killing the man with the controls to the deadly nanobots in his body, Skinner is seen here bending over backward to plead with Doggett to drop his internal investigation of Kersh - for no good reason (like a lot of things in this episode) other than his fear for the wellbeing of Mulder and Scully and their baby. Doggett has become an unlikely audience surrogate, confused and frustrated, but asking all of the right questions, only to be rebuffed by Skinner and Scully, who are no doubt parroting writers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz' response: just let it alone. Do they not realize that they're sabotaging their own show?

And then Scully changes her mind about helping out because - what, William has powers of telekinesis? What does that even mean for his significance and the apparent danger that he's in? The aliens already came and went, leaving him alone. And this happens just in time for Scully to show up and perform an autopsy. The writing here is blatantly transparent! I'd swear the Lone Gunmen's appearance is a dig at Fox for yet another of Chris Carter's alternate series' being cancelled while The X-Files continues to chug along, except that I've never watched that show. The episode ends on a (lukewarm) cliffhanger, so I'll have to at least wait to form a conclusion about how this two-parter sets up the new season. But taken on its own, while this episode is not bad like Fight Club, for an episode of The X-Files - a season premiering mythology episode, no less - it just feels off in so many ways. Like it's missed its mark. Not even a "nude" Lucy Lawless can save it, and that's pretty sad.

To be continued...

I've watched better porn than this episode.

Memorable quotes:

(Uh... Yeah).

The X-Files - S8:E21 "Existence"

[ S8:E20 "Essence" <<< Season 8 >>> S9:E1 "Nothing Important Happened Today" ]

Spoiler Warning: This is a season-ending mythology episode. Expect huge spoilers.

With Agent Reyes shipping Scully off to some remote village where Doggett was born to have her baby, Billy Miles rolls into the morgue in a box, adequately described by the autopsy specialist as "hamburger". Well, all except for a neat-looking metallic vertebra, which subsequently begins to regenerate. I guess "indestructible" wasn't an understatement. To be honest, I still think these Super Soldiers (which are finally described as such in this episode) are pretty cool, but it's definitely more akin to something out of a Terminator movie, than The X-Files. Apparently, Robert Patrick's appearance on the show had a subconscious (or maybe just conscious) effect on the writers.

Knowle is the one to provide further explanation in this episode - although, knowing that he's one of them, you can take what he says with a grain of salt. He pushes the military projects angle (which is a good idea if he wants to get Doggett the skeptic to believe him), saying that the chip the government put in Scully's neck triggered her pregnancy, with what he claims is the first organic version of the Super Soldier prototype. When Doggett lets Mulder know about Knowle, he's appropriately distrustful (surely remembering how Deep Throat used to jerk him around), but I don't know why he's so convinced that what Knowle says is a lie. I mean, Scully was taken by the government in a staged abduction, right? Even with the alien explanation, the government was still involved. Unless they're retconning that now, too...

Meanwhile, Reyes humorously imitates whale song, while Scully makes the obvious comparison between this character and her sister, Melissa. Again, Krycek has a few scenes where he demonstrates the real malice of his character, but that are once again marred by questionable plot developments. First, he's working with the Super Soldiers. Okay. But why does he suddenly want to kill Mulder now, after all that's happened? Mulder's known about a conspiracy infiltrating the FBI for years. That's not new. I just can't get Krycek's motivations. He claims to have wanted to see Mulder stop the alien invasion, but then why is he working with them? And if he's working with them, why does he want to kill the baby? The scene ends with Skinner shooting Krycek pretty definitively in the forehead, and though it's entirely warranted, given Krycek's stunt with the nanobots (you signed your own death warrant there, Krycek), I'm really sad to see him go.

But that's not even the thing that bugs me the most about this episode. For what it's worth, the conclusion is very exciting, and the scene where Scully finally delivers her baby in front of a crowd of emotionless human drones is terrifically creepy. And you gotta love Doggett telling Kersh off after discovering that he's working with the Super Soldiers, even if it does mean assigning Reyes to work with him on the X-Files (completing the ousting and replacement of Mulder and Scully). But when Mulder explained that he found Scully by following a light in the sky (even if it really was an alien beacon), I swear I vomited in my mouth just a little bit. Like, are they going to start singing Away In A Manger now? They didn't have to put that in - Mulder could have gotten the location from Skinner and Doggett - they clearly went out of the way to include it. So I guess they really are pushing the "second coming" angle.

Except the aliens didn't take the baby, after all. I thought they were afraid of it, but this episode positions it as another one of their experiments. Except maybe it's not. So, is it special, or not? And if so, how? Dammit, Chris Carter, I'm sick of being jerked around! And is it really Mulder's baby? Because that's what it looks like. In a season, we've gone from Mulder being abducted and Scully learning that she's pregnant, to Mulder and Scully kissing at home, while cradling their newborn son. It's definitely a warmer place to leave off a season (let alone the series). But, on the other hand, it's less the vibe I would expect from The X-Files. This was a surprisingly good season - considering the circumstances - but can they really stretch it out for another year?

Hold that door!

Memorable quotes:

Doggett: It can't be. It's impossible.
Mulder: Yeah, it can't be, but it is.

Knowle: Six years ago, Agent Scully was taken in a military operation staged as an abduction. They put a chip in the back of her neck to monitor her. It was also used to make her pregnant, with the first organic version of that same Super Soldier.

Game Warden: I've heard every excuse in the book, but this one's far too original.

Doggett: You ever stop to ask yourself? All the sacrifice, the blood spilled. You've given nearly a decade of your life. Where the hell is it all gonna end?
Mulder: I don't know. Maybe it doesn't.

(I feel like this is another one of those lines that expresses Chris Carter and David Duchovny's feelings).

Krycek: It's gonna take more bullets than you can ever fire to win this game. One bullet, and I can give you a thousand lives.

(Yeah, I don't know what this means. I'm having flashbacks to Mulder's "if those are my last words, I can do better").

Game Warden: This baby will be born.

Kersh: You investigate what I tell you.
Doggett: And you put me on the X-Files. That's what I'm investigatin'.

Mulder: What are you gonna call him?
Scully: William. After your father.
Mulder: Well, I don't know, he's got your coloring and your eyes, but he looks suspiciously like Assistant Director Skinner.

The X-Files - S8:E16 "Three Words"

[ S8:E15 "Deadalive" <<< Season 8 >>> S8:E17 "Empedocles" ]

Spoiler Warning: The string of mythology episodes continues! Beware of spoilers.

This episode continues from the last one like as if it had ended with a "to be continued" (and I'm pretty sure it didn't). When, honestly, I think this episode is more connected with the last one than the last one was to the one before it (which did have a "to be continued"). I guess you can just chalk it up to the increasingly serial nature of the story in this season (at least the second half). The A.V. Club has written in their reviews that this season feels the most modern, in the sense of being more serial and less episodic than it had always been, and I can definitely see that. I just wonder to what extent that is a result of the contract disputes with David Duchovny - only getting him for so many episodes, and kinda having to push the mythology to the back end of the season, so that they can make those stories count, instead of spreading the mythology out more like they used to.

In any case, this episode opens with a census worker jumping the White House fence and dying in the process of trying to warn the president about an alien invasion already in progress. I guess that's what this whole body snatchers pod thing is about. It's a nice opportunity for this show to resurrect its themes of government conspiracy, even in the absence of the Syndicate. The surprise star of this episode is the "informant", Knowle, that Doggett consulted in Per Manum (and who probably set him up then, too). He's obviously not to be trusted, and by the end of the episode it's clear that he's one of these alien things (it's funny, the man who plays the character - Adam Baldwin - even looks kinda like Brian Thompson, who played the Alien Bounty Hunter). But up to that point, you definitely get a bit of an 'X' feeling from him - that he relies on Doggett knowing he's being set up in order to make the most of the information given without compromising his position. Even if he doesn't strictly turn out to play the role of an informant, he's still got more of that intrigue that Marita Covarrubias always lacked as X's "replacement".

On the other front, Mulder is still recovering - having flashbacks to his torture at the hands of the aliens (yet they seem to lack the intensity of Duane Barry's). But he's otherwise in perfect health; apparently the disease that was plaguing him from before is gone, making you wonder if there was ever a point to that retconned plotline after all? His reaction to Scully's pregnancy is understated, although when Langly suggests the possibility of his involvement, he seems legitimately surprised. It's another one of those things that could be nothing, but could also hint at alternative explanations (alien baby!). Regardless, Mulder wastes very little time getting back to his usual manner of following hunches and breaking the rules. It reminds you how much has changed since he left the show, and it's legitimately nostalgic. You can't help thinking how many adventures we would have missed out on using Doggett's by-the-books approach. And that, only Mulder's almost gleefully anti-authoritarian stance holds any chance of fighting back against a true government conspiracy.

On that note, Kersh lays down another whammy - citing improved success rates since Doggett joined the X-Files - in order to deny Mulder reinstatement on the project (talk about kicking a man while he's down), threatening to close the X-Files altogether if Doggett refuses to usurp Mulder's position, now that he's back. This inevitably creates some friction between the two agents, manifesting as some light antagonism, leading up to a direct confrontation, and something of an ultimate reconciliation by the end of the episode. It's a testament to how far we've come in just fifteen episodes. When Scully threw the water in Doggett's face in Within, it felt right - even if Doggett didn't really deserve it. But now, Mulder's got him in a similar position, and all I can think is that he's being unreasonable. I've come to like Doggett - not as a replacement for Mulder, but as his own character - and I want Mulder to like him, too. I actually want to see them getting along!

Absalom turns up again in this episode, too. He manages to escape prison using a board with a nail in it (lol), but only gets himself killed for his efforts. For what it's worth, Mulder takes up his mantle, infiltrating the census bureau (old-school style with the Lone Gunmen, like in Memento Mori) in the hope of getting proof of the alien invasion - although ultimately to no avail. This is partly due to Doggett being set up by his alien contact. One wonders to what extent the aliens have infiltrated the government - this could be a different kind of conspiracy, altogether, where the conspirators are not sympathizers, but aliens themselves! All of this would seem to suggest - thinking ahead to the new episodes coming in January - that this show can be successful playing with its original themes and concepts even if some of the old characters (though preferably not Mulder or Scully) are replaced by newer stand-ins. Which is promising.

Memorable quotes:

Scully: Mulder, are you okay?
Mulder: Yeah. For a guy who was in a coffin not too long ago, I think I'm doing pretty damn good.

Kersh: You never see 'em coming. People are so rarely what they seem.

Doggett: You sent me to find Mulder. I found him. Don't charge me with drivin' a stake through his heart.

Absalom: Doubting Thomas is going to spread the word.
Doggett: What word?
Absalom: The invasion has begun.

Scully: Mulder, you make it sound like this was a conspiracy.
Mulder: Ooh. There's that word again.

Skinner: You know, I'm startin' to wonder about you too, John. Just whose side you are working on here.
Doggett: I'm startin' to wonder about that myself.

The X-Files - S8:E13 "Per Manum"

[ S8:E12 "Medusa" <<< Season 8 >>> S8:E14 "This is Not Happening" ]

Spoiler Warning: Mythology episode. Expect spoilers.

I may have a few qualms about this episode, but unlike the half-assed The Gift, this is how you do a post-Mulder mythology episode. It deals with the advancement of Scully's pregnancy, and her fears that she might be carrying an alien baby! (Surely, we've all been thinking that). And thanks to the complications involved with an eerily similar case that falls across their desk, Doggett ultimately (and finally) finds out her secret. The case involves a woman - a multiple abductee - who recently gave birth (allegedly) to an alien baby (despite having been barren), and then was killed as part of a coverup. There's a nice overarching conspiracy plotline in this episode (culminating in a scene where Scully is tossed from the frying pan into the fire, effectively underlining the fact that we don't know who to trust), by which we find out at the end that the whole case was a setup just to get at another alien baby. But the question remains, is the baby Scully carrying an alien too?

The fact that she survived the ordeal with the baby intact would suggest that the answer is no, although it's still a possibility. There is also the parallel plotline told in flashback that gives another possible source for her pregnancy. Unfortunately, however, the episode opts to blur the line completely between flashback and reality. It's easy enough to distinguish the two in hindsight, which leaves you wondering what the purpose for this technique was, if not just to trick the audience into thinking Mulder is back, without realizing right away that they're watching a flashback. Which is kind of cheap, and makes me angry. Stop stringing us along! Regardless, in these flashbacks, Mulder finally drops the bomb about stealing Scully's ova back from the government (in Memento Mori), and then she basically asks Mulder to be her baby-daddy.

I have to be honest, stories about immaculate conception just leave me dry. They smack of an ultra-prudish mindset, not a little bit inspired by that super-popular religion that labels sex a sin and attributes sexlessness to divinity. You get all the hassle of pregnancy, child birth, and then child-rearing, without even the fun of having sex. Sounds pretty lame, to me. If Chris Carter's plan to (allegedly) never have Mulder and Scully get together really meant a romantic relationship and even a child together, but no sex, then that's just beyond the pale. Besides, this whole in vitro thing is just another retcon - more stuff that happened before Mulder's disappearance, but written into the chronology after his disappearance. Instead of plowing ahead, or even treading water, as it has in the past, the mythology is backpedaling now.

And what's more, eight seasons in, and Chris Carter is still stringin' us along! Watch how he does it. He hints at the obvious possibility of Scully having an alien baby. Then he provides an alternative (and arguably more dramatically satisfying) explanation - in vitro fertilization with Mulder's "donor tissue" - only to reveal it to have been a failure in the end. But having provided that explanation, it's not completely off the table that it could work on another try. Yet we just don't know, and that alien baby is still a possibility. So it's left up in the air, and we just can't be sure. There are advantages to this kind of storytelling - certainly, open endings let viewers fill in the spaces with their imagination - but after so long, you just start feeling like you want some straight answers for once. Haven't we earned it yet?

Memorable quotes:

Scully: So you're saying that it was the doctors that killed your wife?
Mr. Haskell: And stole the alien baby!

(Well, we gotta get our paranoid fix somehow, now that Mulder is gone).

Doggett: I thought you'd find it interesting, actually.
Scully: Interesting? As in preposterous, and outrageous?

Doggett: I'm just tryin' to do my job. Only it gets hard to do if the person you're workin' with is keepin' secrets and tellin' lies.

The X-Files - S7:E22 "Requiem"

[ S7:E21 "Je Souhaite" <<< Season 7 >>> S8:E1 "Within" ]

Spoiler Warning: Season finale. Mythology episode. Spoilers ahead.

I have to admit, I was expecting more of a self-contained conclusion to the series with this episode - while still leaving room for further stories to be told, like in the series finale to Angel. Instead, despite not ending the episode with "to be continued", what we get is a pretty smooth setup for what's to come in the next season. As such, I don't think it actually fares very well as a makeshift conclusion to the series. And when I described Ascension (interestingly, the episode in which Scully is abducted) as a game-changing episode back in season 2, I was excited, because there were all sorts of good things in store. This is no less a game-changing episode, but it doesn't necessarily change the game for the better, and so I feel trepidation at continuing forward from here on out. The writing is on the wall.

The episode returns to Oregon to revisit the events of the pilot episode. It's a welcome bit of nostalgia - it's nice seeing some of the same actors seven years later, although while the location is suitably woodsy, it's a lot sunnier than I remember it. But this time, the show has a mature mythology to work with. A UFO crash brings the Alien Bounty Hunter back into play, with his toxic, green blood. This is classic ABH - I love how ruthlessly he's willing to use his shape-shifting ability to take advantage of people's feelings in order to accomplish his objective. The UFO has a cloaking device, not unlike the alien pilot's device in season 1's Fallen Angel. It also affects people similarly to the anomaly in the cave in this season's Rush (minus the lingering side effects), which makes you wonder whether that was supposed to be the same phenomenon, or if this is just a case of the crew recycling a neat special effect.

Before getting involved in the case, Mulder and Scully are in the midst of an audit back at the bureau, as a result of their extravagant travel expenses, and questionable results (many of their cases being unsolved as they are). This isn't the first time the pair have been subjected to bureaucratic pressure (not by a long shot), but here in the seventh season finale - the would-be series finale - it carries considerable dramatic weight. Once they do get to Oregon (against better professional judgment - why should they change now?), there's a cheesy family moment where Mulder watches as Scully handles a baby. Later, Scully comes to Mulder's cabin, not feeling well, in a shameless bid to replay the scene from the pilot. It's a bit too much of a coincidence - I was hoping Scully was being coy, planning something of an "anniversary" moment, but no such luck. On the other hand, it demonstrates just how far we've come in this series; the pair crawl into bed to cuddle, while Mulder urges Scully to leave him and his quest behind, and move on with her life.

Meanwhile, Marita Covarrubias is back in fine form, having apparently made a full recovery from her bout with the Black Oil in Patient X/The Red and The Black, and then her further testing in Two Fathers/One Son. She's been sent by the Smoking Man (who is still dying from complications of his surgery in Amor Fati, making you wonder what all the commotion in En Ami about the ultimate panacea was for) to release Krycek from a Tunisian prison (how exactly did he wind up there?), in order to recover the UFO in Oregon, so he can rebuild "the project". One wonders why he would spend what is presumably his last days starting back up - from scratch! - a project that took decades to realize, and then ultimately failed. Maybe he's going senile. On the other hand - and I wouldn't put this past him - maybe he's lying, and has an ulterior motive, anticipating Krycek's betrayal, and knowing what Mulder's investigation of the UFO will lead to. The sneaky bastard.

To his credit, Krycek's not playing ball - he and Marita both confront Mulder in his office in the most exciting scene of the episode, where it seems as though my dream team of Krycek allying with Mulder to screw over the Smoking Man may actually be realized! Krycek ceremoniously dumps the Smoking Man down a flight of stairs (I still don't imagine this is the last we'll see of him, though), and Mulder returns to Oregon yet again to find the UFO. He's afraid that Scully is vulnerable, given the ABH's agenda in tracking down abductees, but it's interesting to note how the show has managed to flip the focus of the group abductions from the fifth season from Scully on to Mulder (thanks, presumably, to the tenuous plot thread woven by Mulder's exposure to the alien fragments in Biogenesis), so as to give David Duchovny the freedom to leave the show as a regular player.

My heart sank instantly when Mulder stepped into the light, and I realized that this was it - Mulder was going to be taken. Off the show. And then Scully reveals at the end that she's pregnant, which might normally have been a bittersweet moment representing the culmination of their relationship just as Mulder goes missing, except that Scully is supposed to be barren as a result of alien (or human - it's still up in the air) experimentation, so you know there's some kind of weird alien shit going on. And so it begins. Skinner, meanwhile, finally gets his close encounter with a UFO, turning him (presumably) from a sympathetic supporter of Mulder's quest into a dedicated believer. There are some exciting scenes in this episode (Krycek in Mulder's office!), and a touching coda to the events that set us all on this journey seven years ago, but the mythology just isn't as thrilling as it used to be. One thing is clear: the show has passed its prime.

At least the spaceship fx are getting better.

Memorable quotes:

Auditor: Gas, expenses, the motel rooms alone - by FBI standards, these numbers are out of control.
Mulder: We could start sharing rooms.

(As much as this is a painful reminder of the change in Mulder and Scully's relationship over the course of the series, it's pretty clever).

Auditor: In this case report here, it is concluded your sister is dead, as well as the men who took her. This is your handwriting here on the report, Agent Mulder?
Mulder: Yeah...
Auditor: So, what exactly is left to investigate?

(A good question. But though the men may have been taken to task, the aliens are still out there...)

Scully: We open doors with the X-Files, which lead to other doors.
Auditor: Doors leading to...a conspiracy of men who cooperated with alien beings to create human-alien hybrids, so we could all become slaves of an alien invasion.

(See, that's just the thing. It still hasn't been explained what role the hybrids serve in this invasion. Is the 'spontaneous repopulation' plot from the movie supposed to be ignored? But then there was still the bee infection system in play for the Black Oil. Why do the aliens need hybrids at all? And why was the ABH in Colony sent to destroy them? Answer these questions, Chris Carter! Inquiring minds want to know!)

Auditor: But you don't believe in aliens?
Scully: I've seen things...that I cannot deny.

(Finally owning up to it, Scully?)

Mulder: Déjà vu all over again.

Smoking Man: There's no God, Marita. What we call God is only alien. An intelligence much greater than us.

(But not necessarily benevolent. I like this plot point, but here it seems a little forced, just to connect with the discoveries in Biogenesis/The Sixth Extinction/Amor Fati. Since when does Marita care that much about God? Maybe I'm biased by a post-theistic mindset, where I don't think God deserves to be the ultimate question on everybody's mind anymore).

Mulder: Stick to a budget and they say you're makin' a contribution, but push the limits of your profession and they say you're outta control.

Mulder: I'm not gonna risk...losing you.
Scully: I won't let you go alone.

(That's sweet, except she does, and then she's the one that ends up losing Mulder...)