Spoilers

“Invocation”

This was my least favorite episode of the eighth season so far, but it was not bad, and was almost saved by the ending.

Seven year old boy Billy Underwood was snatched from a park and was missing for ten years. Strangely enough, Billy returned but had seemingly not aged one day.

The craziness of the case involved Scully and Doggett, but it felt as if Doggett had taken a step back into the asshole that he had been shown as in the early episodes of this season after apparently taking steps forward in the last couple.

The returned boy would not speak and was creeping out his father and brother. His mother was not bothered at all. The first half of the episode did not feel as if it matched up with the conclusion, but I did like the conclusion.

The kidnappers from ten years ago were discovered and arrested but Doggett discovered a grave with the skeletal remains of Billy Underwood from the time when he originally disappeared.

I don’t know if this was supposed to be a spirit of some kind returned to help his brother, who wound up kidnapped by the same men, or what. There was a scene of a knife being stabbed in Billy’s brother’s bed that does not make sense in the eventual narrative. It sure seemed as if the show was setting up the returned Billy as some sort of malevolent force.

I read on Wikipedia that this also set up an arc for John, who apparently had lost a son to a murder as well, which makes sense why he was so obsessed with this case. However, I missed it during the episode. A psychic had mentioned something about someone in the room having gone through this, but I did not think it was Doggett and I do not remember it ever being touched on the rest of the episode.

I found this uneven and shaky as an episode, but not one that I hated. It is a definite “mid” episode, though if the upcoming Doggett arc takes off, maybe this would require some readjusted thought.