Spoilers

“Per Manum”

The episode focused in on Scully’s pregnancy and a potential conspiracy surrounding the deaths of other pregnant women. The episode was quite tense and does a really great job of keeping the storyline uncertain. The X-Files is exceptional at keeping the story hazy, where you are never quite sure what has happened. The truth continues to be an elusive thing.

Scully has kept her pregnancy a secret from everyone except for Skinner, which I guess I did not realize. I felt for John Doggett, being kept in the dark even though he has been nothing but honorable during his time with the X-Files. I guess you could say that Scully’s distrust goes deep, and understandably so.

We got a series of flashbacks too to scenes between Scully and Mulder, when he let her know that he had discovered Scully’s ova, but doctors had told him they were not viable. A second opinion gave Scully hope and she asked Mulder to be the father. These flashbacks were new scenes film with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson and were strong scenes showing how connected these characters were.

The episode featured the debut of recurring character Knowle Rohrer, played by Adam Baldwin. Rohrer is an agent that Doggett knew, but who has potential ties to the CIA. His motivations were certainly up for question and his physical appearance felt close to Krychek, which was slightly disturbing for me.

This did have an old school feel to it and brought that classic X-Files episode.