49: The blessing way
Writer: Chris Carter
Director:
R.W. Goodwin
Mulder (
rescued and nursed back to health by Navajo
healers ) has his near - death
encounter with dad, who urges him to return
the living and complete his search for the
truth. Back in D.C., Scully - convinced
Mulder is alive - suspended for helping
conceal the MJ files and discovers a
computer implant in the base of her
neck.
Historic moments: We meet the Well -
Manicured Man ( John Neville ) - part of the
mysterious New York consortium that seems to
be pulling all the strings. And Mulder
discovers an old photolinking his father with
Cancer Man and Deep Throat, among
others.
Critique: The corny dream sequence and
high - flown cosmic hooey in this script keep
it from earning an A. However, Skinner rocks
big time and provides a knockout
finale.
|
50: Paperclip
Writer: Chris Carter
Director:
Rob Bowman
The title of
the final third of this triptych refers to
Operation Paper Clip, a postwar alliance
formed in the wake of the Roswell discovery
and seemingly bent on creating huaman - alien
hybrids. Mulder and Scully are reunited and
meet former Nazi scientist ( and OPC member )
Victor Clemper, who directs them to an
abandoned coal mine containing the medical
records and tissue samples of virtually
everyone borrn after 1954. And Skinner, now
holding the MJ tape, takes on Cancer Man in
the hopes of reinstatating Mulder and
Scully.
Historic moments: Scully´s sister is
killed by Krycek; Scully seeks to incover the
meaning of the implant; Mulder learns why his
sister was taken instead of him.
Critique: Outstanding episode, but it
exacerbates a maddening trend:
Scully has
litterly "made contact" but will
not or cannot open her mouth about it.
|
51: D.P.O.
Writer: Howard Gordon
Director:
Kim Manners
A videogame
geek - Darin Peter Oswald - turns out to be a
lightning conduit. He uses his power to
destroy his enemies, barbeque the occasional
cow, and impress his schoolteacher
crush.
Creative casting: My Two Dad´s
Giovannni Ribisi as the sardonic Oswald,
everyones suburban teen nightmare.
Critique: Not much in the way of action,
but this episode´s excellent photography and
truly hilarious sociopathic high jinks keep
you glued.
|
52: Clyde Bruckman´s
final repose
Writer: Darin Morgan
Director:
David Nutter
A serial
killer is preying on the fortune - tellers,
of St. Paul, Minn. When one of the bodies is
discovered by insurance salesman Clyde
Bruckman, Mulder and Scully introduced to a
true, if reluctant, prognosticator who tells
them more then they want to know.
Creative casting: Peter Boyle, as the
beleaguered Bruckman, delivers the series´
most hilarous performance.
Critique: Boyle gets lots of help from
another sperrlative, laugh - a - minute ( for
wich Morgan won an Emmy ). Nicely captures
one of the veraching themes of the show: fate
and man´s isolation.
|
53: The list
Writer: Chris Carter
Director:
Chris Carter
An executed
murderer makes an electric - chair vow of
reincarnation and revenge, promising five
deats as payment for his. When a guard is
found murdered. Mulder and Scully must
determine wheter it´s penal politics or
transmigration of the soul.
Creative casting: Ever - evil J.T. Walsh
( Dark Skies ) as the warden; Ken ( Dawn of
the dead ) Foree as a guard.
Critique: Standard but well executed, if
you will, and one of the shows few insolved
mysteries, as it were.
|
54: 2shy
Writer: Jeffrey Vlamming
Director: David Nutter
Translator of
Renaissance Italin poetry Virgil Incanto is a
chatroom chubby chaser whose genetic mutation
requires him to litteraly suck the fat out of
his victims. If that´s not scary enough,
this plot is set in Cleveland .
Critique: Incanto ( Timothy Carhart ) is
yet another fine example of an unassuming
villain ( à la Tooms ) with strange
physiological predilections Lot´s of
yacks.
|
55: The Walk
Writer: John Shiban
Director:
Rob Bowman
Through astral
projection, Leonard Trimble, a bitter,
quadruple amputee Gulf War vet, is making
life hell for his former superiors. After
killing all thier loved ones, he forces the
officers to live alone with their presumed
guilt.
Critique: If you´re going to repeat mind
- over - matter murder again, at least
come up with a couple of transcendent
characters.
|
56: Oubliette
Writer: Charles Grant
Director:
Kim Manners
Kidnap
survivor Lucy Householder simultanesously
manifests the experinces of her abductor´s
latest victim. Mulder uses he cindition as a
roadmap to solving the crime and in the
process is once again reminded of his
sister´s disappearance.
Critique: Scully´s in an agressive I´m
- not - buying - it mode, and what should be
a roller coaster of terror isn´t, but worth
it for Lucy´s channeling sequences.
|
57: Nisei
Writers: Chris Carter / Howard
Gordon / Frank Spotnitz
Director:
David Nutter
A suspiciously
realistic alien autopsy tape puts Mulder on
the trail of a salvaged alien craft, a
clandestine group of Japanese doctors who
appear to be experimenting on alien
lifeforms, and a secret railroad on which
these postmortems are taking place. X advises
Scully to dissuade Mulder from pursuing the
train. But does he listen?
Historic moments: Lots of excitement for
Scully. She´s "recognized" by a
kaffeklatsch of abduction survivors; she finally
seeks the meaning of her extracted implant -
cum - computer chip, with help from Agent
Pendrell ( Brendan Beiser ), a semi regular
Scullu luster, and she identifies one of the
doctors on Mulkders tape in a flashback of
her abduction, opening up the possibility
that it wasn´t aliens who took her.
Critique: Mulder and Scully on separate
but equally gripping ground.
|
58: 731
Writer: Frank Spotnitz
Director:
Rob Bowman
Continueing
were "Nisei" left off, Mulder
discovers that a secret railway car contains
not an extraterrestrial, but an alien - human
hybrid. Moreover, the car has been rigged
with a bomb, and he´s trapped with an
assasin sent to kill the cargo. Meanwhile,
Scully has stumbled upon a modern - day
Holocaust at a West Virginia research
facility, where massive graves are filled
with what appear to be the sae kind of hybrid
Mulder has discovered.
Critique: Strangely tension - free, and
another one of those episodes where Scully´s
bullheaded allegiance to provable fact makes
you want to slap her.
|
59: Revelations
Writer: Kim Newton
Director:
David Nutter
Scully plays
guardian angel - and scrutinizes her lapsed
Catholicism - while protecting a boy,
"chosen by god", who is being
pursued by a serial killer of supposed
stigmatics.
Historic moment: Despite her ever -
present cross, Scully has never adressed her
faith until now. Presents a nice paradox for
her science - driven character.
Creative casting: The usually monstrous
Michael Barryman ( The Hills Have Eyes ) as
Owen Jarvis, the boys saintly and
"incorruptly" protector.
Critique: Strangely, this script´s
inventiveness derives from it´s choice of
the most mainstream paranormality of all -
Christianity. Bonus points for the always
welcome Scully / Mulder role reversal.
|
60: War of the
Corpohages
Writer: Darn Morgan
Director:
Kim Manners
Roaches appear
to be overrunning a Massachusetts town in
this homage to ´50s horror classics like "The
Blob", replete with cheesily ominous
soundtrack and a crazed local populace.
Creative casting: Bobbie Phillips (
Murder One ) as Bambi Berenbaum, the
bodacious entomologist who elicits moon eyes
from Mulder and eye rolling from Scully. (
Personal aside: Phillips has since gotten
booed at anX-Files convention for
coming between Mulder and Scully. )
Critique: Irrevent camp that´s infested
with laughs, but throws credibility out the
window.
|
61: Syzygy
Writer: Chris Carter
Director:
Rob Bowman
Heathers
has got nothing on teen hell - raisers Margi
and Terri, who gleefully eliminate their high
school foes one by one. Then again, the
entire town of Comity seems to be exhibiting
bizarre behavior - including a Vodka swilling
Mulder and a butt smoking Scully. The cause?
A extremly rare planetary alignment resulting
in a grand square, a geological vortex, a
"cosmic G - spot" Fine!
Whatever!
Creative casting: Wendy Benson and Lisa
Robin Kelly as the not - so - clueless teens
with "hate him, hate him wouldn´t want
to date him" mantra.
Critique: Another uproarious send - up,
this time of teen venom, B - Movie paranoia,
and our agent´s painfully restrained
rapport. Also includes one of Mulder´s and
Scully´s funniest exchanges.
- Scully:
"Why do you always have to drive?
Because you´re the guy? Because you´re the
big macho guy?
- Mulder:
"No I was just never sure your little
feet could reach the pedals.
|
62: Grotesque
Writer: Howard Gordon
Director:
Kim
Manners
FBI legend and
longtime Mulder foe Bill Patterson
inexplicably enlists Mulder´s help in
catching a murderous gargoyle prone to
mutilating it´s victims´ faces.
Critique: Ponderous, oblique, and
featuring one of Mulder´s always annoying,
easy - way - out soliloquy summations. Will
turn you to stone.
|
63: Piper Maru
Writers: Frank Spotnitz / Chris
Carter
Director:
Rob Bowman
A French
salvage ship arrives in San Diego with its
crew dying of radiation burns, which tips
Mulder off to possible alien contact. Indeed,
this introduces us to a whole new extra -
terrestial life force - one that enters and
leaves humans as an oily film. ulder travels
to Hong Kong in search of - what else? - the
truth and encounters the now renegade Krycek,
still in possesion of MJ - File.
Historic moment: Skinner gets shot for
his persistent invetigation of Scully´s
sister´s death.
Critique: A tough and sentimental
Scully and action - packed detective work by
Mulder enchance an already crackling
scenario.
|
64: Apocrypha
Writers: Frank Spotnitz / Chris
Carter
Director:
Kim Manners
In this
conclusion to "Piper Maru", we
learn the twisted history and subsequent
cover - up of the oily alien and its downed
craft. Mulder escorts Krycek back to the U.S.
to retrieve the MJ - File - only Krycek
isn´t exactly himself.
Historic moment: In a flashback to 1953,
we see a yong Cancer Man and Mulder Sr.,
already knee - deep in "plausible
deniability"; Mulder comes face to face
with the Well - Manicured Man; the Lone
Gunmen on ice ( as in skates ).
Critique: Some interresting progressions
in the grand theme, though worth it just for
the awesome missile site finale.
|
65: Pusher
Writer: Vince Gilligan
Director:
Rob Bowman
Pusher, a self
- styled American ninja, has the ability to
cloud the minds of his victims and wreak
psychokinetic mayhem.
Historic moment: Pusher to Skinner:
"Take a walk, Mel Cooley". This
just before the assistant director is beaten
up - by a girl!
Critique: Much inscrutable warmth between
Mulder and Scully paralels some inscrutable
detective work. But the climactic mental tug
- of - war between Mulder and Pusher makes up
for any lapses in logic.
|
66: Teso dos bichos
Writers: Jeffrey Vlamming
Director:
Tucker Gates
Archaeologists
in the Ecuadorean highlands ( of Vancouver! )
unearth the remains of an Amaru - a feale
shaman - thus unleashing its vengeful spirit.
When the Amaru´s urn is moved to a Boston
museum, the deadly cat is out of the
bag.
Critique: No es bueno!
|
67: Hell money
Writer: Darin Morgan
Director:
Rob Bowan
Aclandestine
Chinese racket is preying upon recent
immigrants through a grotesque raffle, which
in turn is a vehicle to supply with huan body
parts. Bingo was never like this.
Creative casting: B.D. Wong ( M.
Butterfly ) as a chinatown cop whose
loyalties are questioned by Mulder and
Scully
Critique: Gorgeously shot - particular
the lush, soky gaming sequences. Ironically,
the twisted grotesquery of this story makes
you think it must be based on true story. Not
so, says Carter.
|
68: José Chung´s
from outer space
Writer: Darn Morgan
Director:
Rob Bowman
Told in
flashback via an interview with Scully by
"nonfiction science - fiction"
novelist Jose Chung, this is a character - by
- character recounting of an alien
visitation.
Creative casting: The adorably flaky
Charles Nelson Reilly as Chung; if that
werent enough, pro wrestling Jesse "The
Body" Ventura and Jeopardy´s
Alex Trebek appear as two men in black.
Critique: A serries so bleepin´ ripe for
parody brilliantly turns the tables on
itself.
|
69: Avatar
Writer: Howard Gordon
Story:
David Duchovny / Howard Gordon
Director:
Jaes Charleston
From the
ridiculous to, well, the ridiculous. Cancer
Man and Co. seek to discredit Assistant
Director Skinner and frame him for murder by
exploiting a nightmare that has haunted him
since Vietnam - the vision of a haglike
murderous succubus.
Critique: Did somebody say suck? The
clenchtoothed Skinner deserves more air time,
but not this USA Network reject.
|
70: Quagmire
Writer: Kim Newton
Director:
Kim Manners
"Scully,
do you think you could ever cannibalize
someone?" This is Mulder´s idea of
smalltalk when stranded with his partner on a
rock while in search of a legendary
prehistoric lake monster - that´s Mulder´s
theory on what´s killing local citizens,
anyway. Scully, well you know...
Creative
casting: The stoner kid of "War of
the coprohages" turns up again with a
whole new way to get high.
Critique: Notable only for Mulder and
Scully´s Moby Dick digression. But
hey, they kinda had to tackle Loch
Ness
|
71: Wetwired
Writer: Mat Beck
Director:
Rob Bowman
A tweaked
cable - signal is turrning people´s
anxietes into psychosis, and Scully discovers
the true dangers of couch potatodom.
Historic moment: X and Cancer Man make
their relationship known. Or do they?
Critique: Been there, done that ( see
"Blood" ), but Anderson gives good
unhinged.
|
72: Talitha cumi
Writer: Chris Carter
Story:
Chris Carter / David Duchovny
Director:
R.W. Goodwin
The Project.
The Process. Colonization. These are the
cryptic terms thrown around in this third
season - ender. What do we really
learn? Thats there´s a renegade alien clone,
Jeremiah Smith, who is challenging "the
greater purpose" represented by Cancer
Man, and that Smith is being stalked by the
Bounty Hunter, last seen in Episode 40. Plus,
a visit from Cancer Man to Mulder´s Mother
reveals an unexplained relationship between
them.
Creative casting: Roy Thinnes ( of
1995´s sci - fi miniseries The Invaders
) as the messianic Smith.
Critique: Another frustratingly
provocative cliff - hanger, and a tour de
force Cancer Man - Jeremiah Smith
Confrotation. "That is really a
summation of my feelings about science",
says Carter. "That it has definitely
usurped religion and can explain everything
now.
|
| |
