When a young girl is taken from her home in unusual circumstances, Mulder asks to be on the investigation, because it reminds him of his sister's abduction. As the situation starts to more closely parallel his experience, Mulder starts to think his memories have been tricking him.
This episode seems to be founded on one large principle: that neither Mulder nor the audience knows what's happened to Samantha. Now, although not in the actual movie, there's a scene in the book of the X-Files film and in the special edition in which Well-Manicured Man tells Mulder what happened to his sister. Now, either he was lying or Mulder simply didn't believe him on principle, because with this story we seem to be back on the sister track.
Although the conspiracy episodes have now become more personal to Mulder rather than featuring far-reaching global plots, this seems like a redundant avenue. Then there are the other problems with it. It's mainly by luck that Scully hits on the place where the children were being held, and we're told nothing about the ghosts, how the children were spirited away without it being noticed and why they don't seem to care that they've been taken from their parents.
And then there's Mulder's mum who has suddenly acquired some kind of debilitating illness that leads her to take her own life. Of course, in typical Chris Carter fashion Mulder ignores her request beforehand to call him and she leaves a suitably cryptic message behind. Quite why these people can't just write down what they want to say or wait a little while before their suicide etc etc is unclear. I mean, if you wanted to tell someone something important you would surely impart what you needed to before dying. So anyway; that makes the tally Mulders 3, Scullys 2, as far as family deaths are concerned. 12 to go...
**
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