Spoilers

“Syzygy”

“Grotesque”

Two great episodes in a row. One where we see Mulder and Scully being affected by the planets, amplifying some of their deeper seeded character traits and another where it sure seems as if Mulder has lost his mind and has become a copy cat killer.

In that second episode, “Grotesque,” we actually find out Special Agent Bill Patterson, someone Mulder knew when he was at the Investigative Support Unit at Quantico, was working the case. Performed by Kurtwood Smith, it turned out that Patterson, who had been chasing the killer for three years of his live, diving into the darkness of the killer’s mind, had become the copycat himself and he had requested Mulder be assigned this case as a way to stop him.

Kurtwood Smith was also the surprise killer, Cupid on Picket Fences, making it a specialty of Smith being a hidden murderer. Honestly though, this episode takes a look at mental illness and the darkness that these FBI profilers envelope themselves with in order to ‘get into the head’ of the serial killers.

Smith and Duchovny both gave excellent performances in this episode.

Meanwhile, the first of these episodes included the planets causing Scully and Mulder to be at each other’s throats the whole episode. At first it was pretty subtle, but as they continued to act unlike themselves, it became more obvious what was happening without them ever coming out and saying … hey, why are we acting like jerks?

This episode was meant to lean toward the humor that the show has been including every once in awhile, but most of this humor, with the exception of the bit about why Mulder always drives the car, was not the best of the series.