Spoilers

“Vienen”

“Alone”

“Essence”

With just a handful of episodes remaining in season 8 of The X-Files, I wanted to get them churned out. I have been doing this re-watch of the X-Files since September of 2023 and I am down to one more episode for this season, leaving just season 9, 10, & 11.

My memory of season 8 during its original run was that I did not like it much, but I have to say that this season was better than I had remembered. I have made this speculation before, but it seems obvious that my original thought on this season was the lack of Mulder and what seemed like a replacement in John Doggett. John Doggett has won me over during this re-watch as I was not angry at Mulder not being there.

Of these three episodes, they all had that old X-Files feel to them. With “Vienen” featuring the final appearance of the Black Oil and the ultimate firing of Mulder by Deputy Director Kersh, the whole alien conspiracy felt like it was back, even though it was different and no longer being directed by CSM.

“Alone” was a pretty decent monster-of-the-week tale that had Mulder truly put his trust in Doggett, in a life and death moment. It was a stress-inducing episode where I was reminded of Dr. Curt Connors, aka The Lizard, from Amazing Spider-Man. Oh, those pesky scientists.

“Essence” is a part one of the season finale where we focus in on those people trying to get to Scully’s baby. It reclaimed the old days of the conspiracy as we learn about a baby/alien cloning program and how Billy Miles is like the unstoppable Terminator (ironic since Robert Patrick is on the other end of that). This one was pulling in the old guard too as, of all people, Alex Krychek showed up to help out the good guys team. I still would have loved to see someone put a bullet in Krychek’s head, but I guess he did help things out.

I hope to finish off season 8 either tomorrow or some time early next week. Season 9 has 20 episodes. Season 10 has six episodes and season 11 has 10 episodes, meaning that I am down to 37 episodes remaining in this re-watch of the X-Files. As I said, it has been going since September 2023 so we will be done with this under two years.