Spoilers

“Providence”

This is the second part of the previous episode that focused on the mysterious group who was after Scully’s son, William.

The whole William storyline is the same type of weirdness that the X-Files has done over the years. I am not sure exactly what is accurate and what is just a red herring. It reminds me very much like the mystery behind Mulder’s sister, Samantha. You were never quite sure what was the truth and what was misdirection.

We do learn that Toothpick Man is a super soldier and his inner influence within the FBI makes him the new Cigarette Smoking Man. Again, I think of old CSM every time Toothpick Man shows up.

Agent Doggett is like a cat. He has to be on his sixth or seventh life by now. He just keeps coming back after near death time and again. Monica is by his side, but I still just could not care less about her at all.

Of course, Mulder is much like that too. He was dead, and now he is believed to be not dead. Cult leader Josepho told Scully that he would let her see William again when she confirmed Mulder’s death. He asked for her to bring him the head of Fox Mulder. How’d that turn out for ya, buddy? His threats felt fairly empty, especially after he and all the cult members wound up burned to death by the ship as it took off. William survived though, speaking even more to the destiny of this boy.

Spoilers

“Provenance”

The X-Files was back with the first part of a two-part episode that focused on Scully’s son William and the people trying to kill him.

It also brought back the spaceship from season seven. The ship that was found off the coast of Africa and that had words on it from the Bible, the Koran and other religious text.

The idea of a conspiracy continued with the FBI looking as if they are involved in a cover up, specifically of the spaceship. However, it appeared that they were trying to cover up the possibility that Mulder was dead.

This came from another FBI agent who had infiltrated a UFO cult and he reportedly discovered that Mulder was dead. Of course, I never once believed that. I’m sure I did not believe it back when this originally aired and I, of course, know that was not the case. Mulder’s deaths have been many over the years, and none of them seemed to stick.

Doggett is injured once again, this time hit by a car. He has been hurt more than anyone else in this series in just the short time that he has been on the show.

Monica was her normal, worthless self. I shouldn’t say that. She can take care of that baby. It seems as if the series had her around to be the babysitter.

The next episode is the second part of this story.

Spoilers

“Hellbound”

I do not like Monica Reyes.

I have seen this character now for several episodes and I just have not been able to connect with her. And now, with Hellbound, it feels as if the writing stuck her into a situation that not only does not make much sense, but feels very lazy.

This whole thing seemed to come out of nowhere and I disliked the manner in which Monica went about this case. I’m to believe that she is some kind of reincarnated being who has been involved in the same basic murder cases for decades, and all of this just started happening in this episode? I really thought the plot of this was bad.

Part of it may be that I have just never cared for Monica Reyes at this point. She has never had much of a character and this felt like a way to try and give her one, but I just did not buy it.

The effects and the make up involved in the creation of the skinned bodies was well done, though. It was some of the best effects that the show had done, especially the one where the skinned man was still alive. There were some excellent suspense built with some of the moments of the episode, but I just did not like the manner in which this was resolved, nor was I fond of the way they inserted Monica into the story.

I have not enjoyed season nine much so far as we have eleven more episodes remaining.

Spoilers

“John Doe”

John Doggett is in Mexico and can not remember anything from his past. He is the John Doe of the situation.

Robert Patrick’s performance in this episode was exceptional and I was fully engaged with him as he struggled to try and survive, from the moment someone was trying to steal his shoe until some of the local criminals who were trying to kill him.

While I thought this was really a solid episode, I do think that the villain, Caballero, a “memory vampire,” was not developed well and seemed to just show up. His first appearance in the episode made me think he was the Cigarette Smoking Man. I think that was intentional.

Thankfully, Doggett gets saved by Skinner. There was not much of Gillian Anderson in this episode, but this was one of the few times where I did not feel the absence of the former X-Files stars.

This was probably the best episode of season nine so far. It was emotional and powerful, with the one flash of memory Doggett would get was of his son.

Spoilers

“Trust No 1”

Hey, it’s John Locke!

I do not think I will ever be able to see Terry O’Quinn in a project without connecting him to LOST. So when he appeared in The X-Files as the Shadow Man, it hit me differently than it was intended.

The whole story was about Mulder with Shadow Man trying to convince Scully to bring Mulder back. He claimed that he would give Mulder, and only Mulder, the names of the super soldiers, but, of course, that was never going to happen. The episode title is Trust No 1. That was not just Mulder’s email.

Doggett and Monica were pushed to the side for this episode as Scully came to the forefront of the show. I did find her emails with Mulder to be strange considering we have not had much language such as this between them.

I do think that there were some interesting ideas here, specifically how Shadow Man knows everything that he does. The concept of electronic surveillance should have been the basis behind this.

We do learn about something that can destroy the super soldiers cause poor Locke gets got here sort of randomly.

The episode felt like it was strange, but it is always great to have Gillian Anderson to the head of the show.

Spoilers

“Lord of the Flies”

Okay, I saw the cast list for this episode which included Jane Lynch, Aaron Paul, and Erick Avari and I was hopeful. Then I started to see the episode and I knew this wasn’t going to be one for me.

It started off with a YouTube show called “Dumb Ass” which was clearly a parody of Jackass. I have never liked jackass so I was not into this opening either. Stupid people doing stupid things are not funny. One of the main Dumb Asses wound up shockingly dead.

It turned out that the loner kid hanging out in the bunch named Dylan, who can control bugs. He has some kind of bug boy with bug pheromones. There was a girl he was in “love” with which felt like too many other X-Files episodes that we much better.

Jane Lynch was Dylan’s mother and, I think, principal at the school. She can web people up with webs from her mouth.

There was some dumb doctor specialist involved that had some attraction to Scully, and that was just did not fit into this story.

I found this to be a very disappointing episode. This episode was meant to echo early series episodes of the X-Files, but it just does not work well. The show is lacking the Mulder-Scully dynamic and it can not be duplicated with these characters. They need to play to the strengths of these new characters and not trying to reclaim the old tones.

This was an episode that I just did not like.

Spoilers

“4-D”

The multiverse comes to the X-Files.

This was an interesting and confusing episode as it started off with Monica Reyes having her throat cut, and Doggett getting shot, but returned from commercial with Monica at home and Doggett there with her.

Skinner called her and told her that Doggett had been shot.

How many times does Doggett die in this series? This is at least the second time.

Monica Reyes came up with the theory from out of nowhere. It was the kind of theory that Fox Mulder would have pulled out.

This was an interesting idea but the overall execution was at best okay.

Spoilers

“Dæmonicus”

The first monster-of-the-week episode with the new regime of the X-Files is “Dæmonicus”. I have never been a huge fan of X-Files episodes that were religious background. This was a demon possession tale of sorts.

Plus, there was a gigantic puke scene, which are never good for me.

I found this episode to be dull and uninteresting. John just denied everything. In an obnoxious way. Monica moved around the episode with a weird look upon her face. Scully was there, now teaching a class.

None of this worked for me.

Spoilers

“Nothing Important Happened Today”

This two-part episode kicked off season nine of the X-Files, a show that had gone through a creative overhaul to focus on the character that had been heavily introduced in season eight, such as Agent Doggett and Agent Reyes.

Cary Elwes joined the cast of X-Files as FBI Assistant Director Brad Follmer, a former lover to Monica Reyes. These first two episodes played him as kind of creepy jerk, but there may be more than what it seems.

Lucy Lawless appeared here too, but her character, Shannon McMahon, would not become a recurring character because of Lucy Lawless’s difficult pregnancy.

These episodes centered around a new conspiracy, the US Government involved in an attempt to manipulate ova to create super soldiers, one of which may or may not be baby William, Scully’s recently born son.

These episodes had their moments, but the specter of Mulder still hung over the show. In his absence, it is difficult to really get behind the new characters, and the seemingly switch of Kersh into an… ally(?) of Doggett and Scully felt weird.

Spoilers

“Empedocles”

This episode featured Monica Reyes, investigating a case that she believed had some connection to John Doggett’s son’s death. She brought Mulder into the fray, causing more tension in the relationship of Doggett and Mulder.

I am not looking forward to season nine because of the increased use of Reyes. After just a couple of appearances, she does not appeal to me too much.

A big reason that Reyes bothers me, I think, is that she’s not Scully. There are a couple of scenes between Mulder and Scully in this episode and they are so charming and fun that it really hurts the remainder of the episode when they are not together. Scully spends the episode in the hospital from pregnancy issues. Their banter over the “Pizza Guy” was excellent.

Robert Patrick does a great job with Doggett and his anger and grief. You can feel his conflict within the skepticism he holds about the supernatural aspects.

I did like the advancement between Mulder and Doggett.

Season 8 has just four more episodes left.

Spoilers

“Three Words”

Mulder is back.

However, not on the X-Files. Deputy Director Kersh continued his crusade against Mulder by not reinstating him to the X-Files, leaving Agent Doggett assigned to the section.

Mulder does not trust Doggett. He has no reason to. This episode tried to give Mulder a reason to.

Doggett showed his strength as an agent and his level headedness even in spite of Mulder’s paranoid response to him. He just wants to do what is right. He clearly respects Scully and wants to protect her and the unborn baby. He wants the truth, but he is more skeptical than Scully ever was.

It was nice seeing Mulder reunited with the Lone Gunmen. It was a sweet scene that was very funny… highlighted by the hug between Mulder and Frohike.

This was a good return for Mulder and an interesting set up. I understand Mulder’s doubt of Doggett. I mean, Mulder was never one to trust easily. Outside of Scully and Skinner, Mulder did not trust anyone in the FBI and few others outside of it.

This definitely leads to Mulder being ousted from the FBI which would lead to the end of the original series.

Spoilers

“This is Not Happening”

“Deadalive”

These two episodes played as a two-parter that would lead to the return of Fox Mulder to the land of the living, literally.

Mulder was abducted by aliens at the end of the seventh season. David Duchovny had decided that he wanted to move on from The X-Files and a contract dispute with FOX resulted in Mulder being written out of the show.

However, everything was settled and Duchovny agreed to be in 11 episodes of season 8. These two episodes were the way they brought the character back from the abduction.

It was a rush of emotions as Mulder was missing, discovered dead, buried for three months before being exhumed and placed on life support. Eventually, the removal of life support is what brought Mulder back fully.

Does any of this make any sense? Not really. The story was all over the place, including the rebirth (?) of former X-Files character Billy Miles, who was abducted at the same time as Mulder was. How did Mulder survive being buried alive for three months? Or was he buried dead? No autopsy? No embalming? If you examine this plot too closely, there are a lot of nagging issues.

Having Duchovny back makes you happily ignore those problems. The final scene with Mulder and Scully was exceptional and worth the wait. Mulder joking about not knowing Scully was awesome and right in Mulder’s character.

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.