Spoilers

“Folie à Deux”

“The End”

The were the final to episodes of season five of The X-Files. The first one was a monster-of-the-week story and the second one returned to the mythology episode seeing the comeback of Cigarette-Smoking Man, who does not seem to have missed a beat with his manipulations and evilness.

Starting with Folie à Deux, this was a very solid episode with a scary bug antagonist. It sounded as if they were unhappy with the look of the costume they were using and had visual effects make the monster harder to see. It is a logical step that a monster that is hidden is scarier than one you can see fully.

The introduction of Diana Fowley did not work well for me. She felt as just a conflict tossed into the relationship of Mulder and Scully. This triangle that was introduced just fell flat for me. I did not mind another agent accepting Mulder’s theories, but the romantic aspect just lacked any substance.

The introduction of mind reading child Gibson was much better though and gave me some of the flavor of “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” but with a little boy instead of an old man. I found there to be less comedy in this episode than in Clyde too.

Smoking Man is back and I want him dead yet! Honestly, this villain is just so effective that I want the character to pay for all of his crimes. He told Agent Spengler that he was his father, and he continued to manipulate the entire situation, as Spengler is being set up as an antagonist for Mulder.

The image of Mulder standing before the charred remains of the X-Files was shocking and powerful. Damn that Smoking Man.

Season six is next to come.