Episode Reviews

(by original air date)

Season Five

Redux:    No, Mulder didn't kill himself, so breathe a sigh of relief. Having learned what he has, though, and still debating with himself as to whether he should believe it, he realizes that he's under surveillence. He gets the drop on the man upstairs who's watching him, shoots him before the man can swing his shotgun around, and drags the body to his apartment. He and Scully then come up with the plan - she'll testify before the review board that he's dead while he uses the dead man's identification to try and find out what he can within the Department of Defense. They know the ruse won't last long, but hopefully it will hold up long enough that they can use it to some advantage in gathering information. It does in fact pay a huge dividend - while all eyes are on Scully's testimony, Mulder waltzes into the Department of Defense, finds his way to a restricted area, and finds rooms filled with both what look like the same type of alien corpse as he'd seen earlier and unconscious humans being subjected to some kind of tests. Weighing what evidence he's seen, it appears he's decided to believe what he was told earlier: that a group in the shadows is perpetuating the myth of extraterrestrials to cover the more sinister work and manipulations they're performing on people without their own knowledge. On his way out of the building, he's spotted by CSM, who orders that he be let go without incident. Why? He was seen earlier in Mulder's apartment, seeming almost sad at what he thought had happened there until he figured out what had really transpired. When he did, nobody else was told, leading me to believe that he's the one rather than the Syndicate as a whole who has future plans for Mulder. Back at the FBI, Scully has figured out that the man who was spying on Mulder was reporting to someone at the Bureau. My only complaint here is her seemingly automatic assumption that it's Skinner. Can't she realize by now that he's on their side rather than jumping to this drastic conclusion without investigating other possibilities (after all, she lives by deductive logic)? Before she can denounce him to the board, she collapses, her tumor having reached its most critical stage yet.

Redux II:    Mulder finds Scully in the hospital, and she tries to convince him to go ahead and give Skinner's name to the review board. Mulder, true to form, refuses, having faith that it couldn't be Skinner of all people. Oddly enough, Section Chief Blevins tries to get him to do the same thing in a private meeting, coming right out and saying that in exchange his behavior during and after the incident at his apartment will be reconsidered in a much more favorable light. CSM gets him to come to a meeting at a diner, but instead of CSM, Mulder meets with a woman who claims to be (and is, in my opinion) his sister. She has vague memories of the night she was taken, but she's convinced that CSM is her father. He's raised her as such, and given past events, I'm inclined to agree that he is. CSM later catches up to Mulder on the street, makes a few comments about what Mulder believes he might or might not have seen, and goes so far as to offer Mulder a job. Is this why Mulder has been so important to the equation all this time? He's been in the process of unknowingly being groomed for a position in the very organization he's been struggling to bring to justice for so long? Apparently not, because during this meeting on the street, a Syndicate flunky known only as "Quiet Willie" has had a scoped rifle trained on both Mulder and CSM. Is it possible that CSM isn't really a member of the Syndicate at all - he's just been some kind of specialized consultant who might be secretly working on a bid for a hostile takeover in the near future? I might be wrong, but that's my guess. I'm also guessing that this is why CSM is finally shot in his apartment by Quiet Willie. Back at the review board, Mulder has a denoucement ready, but rather than Skinner, it's Blevins himself that Mulder names. This final twist also makes me wonder how far ahead this plot was thought out. If it was decided that Blevins would end up being the villian, I wish he'd been on hand earlier than just the beginning of this story arc. Back at the hospital, Scully has taken the leap of faith by deciding to use the object Mulder brought back from the DoD, and her cancer has gone into spontaneous remission as a result. Skinner tells Mulder that CSM is dead - although no body was found, there was too much blood for him to have survived. Finally, when Skinner enters Scully's hospital room, her facial expression is the best I've ever seen Anderson give in the role - she's happy to see him, sorry and embarassed because of what she'd thought about him, and afraid of what he might think of her now, all in a single expression.

Unusual Suspects:    The story of how Mulder and the Lone Gunmen all first got together is an instant classic. The Gunmen act similarly to how I'd have thought - Byers instantly lovesick over an anonymous woman, Frohike wondering what she might want to do with him in a dark alley, and Langley off somewhere else playing Dungeons and Dragons (for monetary gain, it turns out). It's also interesting to see a pre-X-files Mulder, believing he's off looking for an industrial spy and having yet to discover the wonderful world of alien paranoia. Byers' dream woman actually provides the center for the story, and her plight makes for several memorable scenes. None is better in conveying her sense of hopelessness than when she realizes that her dentist was in on it, and to prove it she yanks out a tooth to reveal the electronics embedded within it. Furthermore, given these techie nerds, if she didn't have their attention before, she certainly had it after pulling such sophisticated equipment out of her mouth. It's my guess that even the few women who didn't feel protective of Byers before certainly do now, having seen him lose his true love before he even got to know her.

Detour:    This is the best monster-of-the-week episode in quite some time, with "Mothmen" that have camouflaged bodies and red eyes terrorizing people who live and work in a forest and Mulder and Scully coincidentally finding themselves involved in the case. They're on their way to a teamwork workshop, and they're both pleasantly surprised to have a reason to cancel their own appearance there (although Mulder is more visibly pleased than Scully).. Although there's no honest explanation of why these beings have suddenly started attacking people, that's not the point. Rather, it's more interested in creating a mood of creepiness in which Mulder and Scully can further develop their working and personal relationship. Mulder is attacked and wounded, and I found myself wincing at the more shippy moments as Scully took care of him throughout the night, although it's still fun to watch and listen to how it almost seems like their conversation by the fire is partly spoken and partly unspoken, the latter because each one knows what the other is thinking. I'm no music critic as well as being a pretty bad singer myself, so I also won't say a thing about Scully's tribute to Three Dog Night.

Post-Modern Prometheus:    While it has good intentions and moments of promise, this would-be satire of southern culture and the old Universal horror movies falls flat on its face and can never find its way back up from the outset. A mad scientist in a small town created a human-like creature with (almost) two faces years ago and wanted to get rid of it, but it (okay, he) is still wandering around town, and now he's known as "The Great Mutato". On occasion he will cover a house with a circus tent, drug the lone woman there, and impregnate her. Thanks to Cher's role in Mask, her songs are everpresent, reflecting Mutato's infatuation with her. Justice is served at the end, and the whole town takes a road trip to see Cher herself in concert, during which Mutato is motioned up on stage while Mulder and Scully jump up and dance with each other. There's too much winking at the audience to be anything but distracting, and even a cameo by Jerry Springer feels like nothing so much as saying, "Hey, look - we even got Jerry Springer to do a cameo!"

Christmas Carol:    On the heels of Scully's recovery from her cancer scare, we see yet another ramification of her abduction three years earlier. She gets a call warning her that a women needs help, but the caller sounds suspiciously like her dead sister. The woman in question is dead, and later her husband is said to have killed himself in his jail cell, but by this time we're starting to get the idea. Their daughter Emily is a ringer for Melissa (Scully's sister) at that age. Mounting evidence from DNA tests lead Scully to believe it's possible that Melissa had a daughter and put her up for adoption not long before she was killed. Imagine our surprise when the final tests come back and it turns out that Dana Scully herself is the actual mother. Although this might be a questionable direction in which to take us, it pays off in that we finally get to see Scully's maternal instincts directed toward someone other than Mulder.

Emily:    Unfortunately, Emily is suffering from complications as her disease worsens. A growth has developed on the back of her neck, and the doctor tries to take a sample before it occurs to Mulder to stop it. Meanwhile, Scully is still fighting for custody of Emily, although there's not much hope between the unbelievable story Mulder uses to explain from where she came and the morphing clones who are now going all out to get Emily back, or at least keep her from Scully. She finally falls into a coma and dies, but at her funeral there's nothing in her coffin but sand. While it's interesting to see how Scully handles being run through such an emotional wringer, Mulder's added intensity in this particular investigative work and his not-quite-controlled anger during these confrontations convey the feeling that he almost thinks of Emily as his own daughter.

Kitsunegari:    Sequels rarely improve upon the original, and this episode is no exception to such a degree that you wonder why they bothered. Did they go through a list of past episodes, looking for a bad guy who wasn't quite dead, having already decided they were going to give someone a return engagement regardless of what they could do with it? If so, they chose Robert Modell from Pusher, who recovers from his coma and uses his power to take vengeance on more of those he feels wronged him... or does he? As usual, Mulder has a theory which is dismissed by everyone but turns out to be on the money. When will they learn, indeed. His theory? Modell has a sister who has the same "pushing" ability as did Modell. Although there's a decent confrontation scene at the end, there's really nothing else here to recommend it.

Schizogeny:    Here's another episode in the tradition of Space and Hell Money - i.e., among the worst ever. A child therapist is using some kind of radical role-playing therapy to help teenagers deal with abusive parents, but it actually comes from her own experiences with her own father. So far, so good. Well, she secretly dug up her father years ago and now spends time talking to his corpse, and the corpse talks back. Okay... well, there might be some kind of homage to Psycho going on here... but what's the deal with the mud and trees that come to life and kill people? The therapist's father apparently had something to do with this orchard, so is it possessed by him? If so, why is it defending abused kids? Is it somehow controlled by the therapist herself? Honestly, the episode is so bad, none of the questions are worth answering.

Chinga:    In this Stephen King scripted episode, Scully goes on vacation to Maine and comes across some kind of mass hysteria that causes groups of people to try to claw out their own eyes. Furthermore, it appears to be a doll working through a little girl who is causing it. There are a couple of good scenes here, such as the opening mentioned above and one in which an off-balance woman unwillingly kills herself to the tune of "The Hokey Pokey", but there could have been a hell of a lot more to it. It seems that the episode is trying to be a counterpoint to War of the Coprophages, this time with Scully working on her own, but while the cockroach angle was used to make that episode a lot of fun, not much appears to have been done with the killer doll idea other than what one might expect from a mindless B-movie.

Kill Switch:    On the heels of Stephen King's episode, this one provides the thought and fun we didn't get from Chinga. Rather than waste any time coming up with jabs at the show's fans on the internet, this story plunges headfirst into a world of computers and virtual reality. Ester Narn makes a memorable guest villian who turns out to be just someone looking for something better. The scene between her and the Gunmen is classic, and her confession reveals her to be not the cruel, heartless computer geek we thought but rather someone hopeless and dissatisfied with her life who's had what she believes to be something much better within her grasp and keeps loosing it. Mulder's adventure in virtual reality is also a lot of fun, even though in the process he starts loosing limbs. The nurses he sees during this time seem transplanted directly from one of the countless porno movies he's watched in the past, and although it's not Scully who shows up during this experience, the Bruce Lee moves she throws on those nurses is still enough to make the viewer jump up and shout, "Oh, yeah!"

Bad Blood:   This humorous departure puts a different twist on the Rashomon gimmick used in Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'. This time, it's Mulder and Scully themselves who have two entirely different versions of the investigation they've just completed. They're looking into what appears to be a vampire-like murder, and when Mulder ends up putting a stake through the heart of the boy he believes is a vampire, Scully pulls the fake fangs out of his mouth. Plenty of mileage is gotten out of Mulder's and Scully's different perceptions of their own actions as well as the other's, and the attack on Mulder in the motel room successfully keeps the viewer laughing rather than groaning. A lot is also done with how each of them perceive the local sheriff and what appears to be Scully's attraction to him.

Patient X:    Now we're back to the mythology with this two-parter, and a lot is about to happen. A group of alien abductees in Kazahkstan is burned to death by... something. There's a single survivor, but Krycek appears and takes him prisoner before Marita, who's there with a group of UN soldiers, can take him back to the U.S. Mulder appears on a panel discussion about alien abductions, and he's still in his post-Redux belief that the idea of aliens is a manufactured myth to cover something else. Scully begins to get close to Cassandra, one of the alleged repeat abductees, and it turns out that her son, Jeffrey Spender, is another FBI agent, and he doesn't appreciate the attention his mother's vocal beliefs bring to him. Another gathering is roasted, this time in the U.S., and Spender makes more petulant demands that our agents leave his mother alone. Krycek infects Dimitri (his prisoner) with the black oil, then sews up his eyes and mouth so he can get Dimitri to the U.S. without allowing the black oil to escape. He arrives and meets with Marita, and after they get all kissy-faced (revealing a standing relationship that we're only now learning about, and so it must have been Krycek who was standing out of focus behind Marita at the end of Zero Sum), Krycek finds that Dimitri is gone and that he's now being held at gunpoint by Well-Manicured Man. Meanwhile, Marita is taking Dimitri not to the Syndicate but rather to Mulder, showing where her allegiances really lie. Unfortunately, the black oil leaves Dimitri and attacks Marita. While Mulder tries to find out what happened to her, Scully feels the call to join another of these abductee gatherings, which she joins, finding Cassandra there when she arrives. An unknown craft appears above them, but rather than taking them away as many of these people surely believe will happen, two Alien Bounty Hunter-like beings with their facial openings sealed appear and begin torching everybody. End of part one.

The Red and the Black:    Part two begins with someone typing a letter referring to an ancient myth about twin gods in conflict, or something like that. Whoever it is occupies a snowbound shack in Canada, although by this time we already know his identity without having to be told anything else. Back at this bridge on which the events of the previous night occurred, burned bodies are being recovered, but Scully is found along with several other survivors hiding in the woods. Under hypnosis, she describes these events - the two ABH types appeared and started burning the gathered people, but some other force attacked them, burning them before they could finish the job. Another of these ABH variants crash lands outside a military base and is taken prisoner. While trying out their weak vaccine against the black oil on an infected Marita, the Syndicate puts these events together and concludes that the colonists with whom they've been working are involved in some kind of war of their own - a rebellion by one of their own factions which believes that colonization here would cause an eventual watering down of their own species. They receive an ultimatum to turn over the crash-landed pilot (one of the rebels), and they decide it's in their best interests to go ahead and turn him over rather than trying to hold onto him a little longer in order to try and get more information about what's really going on. Back in that little snowbound shack, the letter sent to Jeffery Spender is returned unread, and is handed back to its author, who is, of course, CSM. So, what's really going on here? Just when I was starting to get a handle on the situation with the colonists, the Syndicate, and the black oil, I get this curve ball with a rebellion among the colonists thrown in to complicate matters even further. Regardless, I like the way this new element is introduced and the possibilities it presents. I also wonder about Krycek - having seen what's really going on and what might soon be happening to the world, has he had some kind of epiphany which might push him toward a more altruistic outlook? Is that why he doesn't kill Mulder when he has the chance, or is he under strict orders from WMM not to kill him? Once again we have the hints that Mulder is important to the Syndicate's objectives, although in what way we're still left to guess.

Travelers:    Here is another flashback episode, this time to the 1950's and told through the memories of a retired FBI agent played by Darren McGavin. Yes, somehow McCarthyism is involved, although the big secret has something to do with a few men carrying spider-like beings inside their bodies that need to feed on other people periodically. Try as I might, though, I can't reconcile what goes on here with what currently seems to be going on with the black oil and the ABH types. Maybe the actual phenomenon isn't the issue as much as the fact that Mulder's father was deeply involved in keeping and exploring these McCarthy-era secrets. Like father, like son? I hope it's not that simple.

Mind's Eye:    Indie movie favorite Lili Taylor plays a blind woman who can see through the eyes of a killer. Somehow she's able to know the phone number of a tavern at which he's harassing a female customer, and she calls him up to demand that he leave her alone. She's able to see everything he does at any given time, not just at the time of a murder, although her knowledge of crime scenes and her own inability to do anything about it evokes memories of the far superior Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose. What should have been a spinetingling scene when she sees through the killer's eyes that he can see her is not nearly as memorable as it should have been, although I really liked the scenes between her and Mulder. He admires her spirit and independence, and although he knows it's not right for her to be locked up, they both know it's for the best.

All Souls:    Scully gets another chance to get religion, and visions of Emily keep following her around. Physically deformed girls are being killed, one by one, and witnesses claim that whatever's responsible is in the form of a dark shape that produces a blinding light, and the dead girls end up having their eyes burned out. There's some kind of obscure religious symbolism involved in the plot, and the force killing the girls is apparently there to take them away before the devil (or something like that) can get hold of them. The souls of the girls are said to actually be angels, and they have to be taken back to where they belong. However, great pains are taken to tell us what message Scully is supposed to take from this entire case - to finally let go of Emily. However, I don't recall any mention of Emily from the time of her funeral to the beginning of this episode, so I was under the impression that Scully had let go already.

The Pine Bluff Variant:    Mulder is working undercover with a would-be militia terrorist group without the knowledge of his partner. If he was doing this completely on his own, I could maybe see it, but it seems that everybody knows about it but Scully. I can't think of any reason for this other than to manufacture the very conflict that occurs early on between Mulder and Scully because of the videotape. Also, if we're going to be presented with a group that means to use this terrible new type of chemical warfare (or whatever it is) on untold numbers of innocent civilians, I'd think the most important part of what we learn is what motivates anyone to want to do something like this. Unfortunately, all we get is a threat to Mulder's life at the end that turns into a double cross coming out of the blue.

Folie a Deux:    I have a deep dislike for what telemarketers do (and it's my guess that I'm not alone). I'm sure there are plenty of them who are otherwise nice people, and they're just trying to make a living like anyone else, but... some people just can't take "no" for an answer. I suppose this is the main reason I like this episode a lot more than I should. Employees at a telemarketing firm are being called into the boss' office one at a time, and one employee in particular somehow has the insight to see what they look like when they return to their desks - walking corpses with no will of their own. I can only assume that this surreal social satire was intended, because it works very well on its own merit strictly on this basis.

The End:    Season Five ends with the assassination of a Russian chess champion, although Mulder correctly determines that his 12-year-old opponent was the real target. Why him, and who gave the order? I'm still not sure. Apparently it wasn't the Syndicate, although if it was then they've had a change of heart because they seem to be very interested in grabbing him and his psychic abilities for their own uses. Therefore, Krycek is sent to Canada to bring CSM back since he's their apparent implementer of whatever dirty work needs to be done. We're introduced to Diana Fowley, an FBI agent and yet another woman from Mulder's past, and Scully begins to feel... could it be jealousy? God forbid. Mulder comes across Spender in a parking garage talking to CSM (although it's unclear whether Mulder can see who it is, he knows anyway), bringing what might have been undeveloped suspicions concerning Spender to the surface. Mulder wants to get the assassin immunity in exchange for his testimony, but for political reasons that would take an act by the Attorney General herself. Mulder's wish backfires when it results in a probable shutdown of the X-Files yet to come. The assassin, however, goes ahead and tells Mulder about how it's believed that the boy represents some kind of missing connection between human and alien biologies. Fowley is shot and seriously wounded while guarding the boy, who is then turned over by CSM to WMM. CSM takes Samantha's file from Mulder's office, starts a fire, and leaves, but runs into Spender in the hallway. Spender asks him who he is, and CSM tells him that he's Spender's father. Ask a stupid question... Finally, Mulder and Scully survey the damage to their basement office. Everything is burnt to a crisp, seemingly sealing the fate of the X-Files. Season finales often go to great lengths to emphasize epic scale, and the thousands of extras in the teaser as well as the sight of parachutists dropping into the snow in their attempt to recover CSM work to that end. After turning the boy over to WMM, CSM turns his back and walks away. Krycek offers to shoot him on the spot, but WMM reminds him that CSM still has his uses. Could it be that whatever differences they have are secondary to an opinion they share concerning how Syndicate business should procede, and does that business include the continuation Mulder's work? Hopefully, we shall see.

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