Tag Archives: david-duchovny

The X-Files S2 E8

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“One Breath”

Scully is back!

She shows up in a Washington hospital and no one is sure how she got there. However, she is in a coma and looks to be slipping away.

Her mother and her sister are there, and Mulder knew that she had a living will, stating that she did not want to be kept alive through extreme measures. 

Mulder is desperate, revealing what lengths he would go to in order to find out the truth about who did this to Scully.

Mulder actually had a gun pointed at the head of “Cancer Man.” They started referring to him as Cancer Man, but shifted to Cigarette Smoking Man after awhile. I believe that is because of the guy who, later this season, could give people cancer. CSM is a better name for him anyway.

I wanted Mulder to pull that trigger so badly. I remember seeing it the first time back when it aired and I was so rooting for him to plug him in the head. 

David Duchovny was outstanding in this episode, his desperation and panic was palpable. He knew what he was doing did not seem to be successful at all and his depression was obvious.

We also started working towards Skinner as an ally as we head a story from him about his past in Vietnam and saw him refuse to accept Mulder’s resignation. 

We get more of a glimpse at X too who brutally murdered a man that Mulder had been chasing. A man who had stolen a blood sample of Scully. In true X-Files fashion, we never learn anything about this guy.

It is great that Mulder and Scully are able to reunite on the show after Gillian Anderson’s pregnancy.

The X-Files S2 E7

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“3”

Scully is still missing, as Mulder places her file squarely in the X-Files, now reopened. Solo Mulder heads to LA to investigate a murder that had connections to a series of cases in the X-Files. Cases that have a connection to vampirism.

I did not like this episode very much. The biggest problem with it for me was the relationship that was forced for Mulder and the woman Kristen. I did not buy that for a second and it felt so out of character for Mulder, especially with Scully missing.

David Duchovny was solid but the absence of Gillian Anderson was absolutely felt. Bringing in vampires for this episode was not a good choice. Unlike later in the series where we had a more comedic episode with vampires, this one just never seemed to really work. It played with some of the vampire tropes, but was more of a mess than anything else.

Scully’s absence needed to be played up more than it was. Thankfully, I believe she returns very soon.

The X-Files S2 E5

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“Duane Barry”

Ooh, a really great episode of The X-Files. 

Series creator Chris Carter was the first time director for this episode and he did a fantastic job. It was tense, suspenseful and simple in the construction.

Duane Barry was a former FBI agent who claimed to have been abducted by aliens and had taken hostages. Because of the alien abduction claim, Mulder was summoned to help with the negotiations. The steps of the negotiations did not feel right to Mulder.

Mulder winds up going into the situation when one of the hostages gets shot, and Mulder begins to connect with Barry. 

The imagery of Duane Barry’s abduction from out of his memory were truly frightening. Of course, as in all things X-Files, you are never sure if this is true or just inside the mind of a mentally disabled psychopath.

Barry talked about the implants in his cheek, sinuses and abdomen. This would be important later as they eventually remove the one in the gut and Scully tries to identify it.

After being shot, Barry goes to the hospital. He is in critical condition, but wakes up and escapes. This was the weakest part of the episode because I had a hard time thinking that he would not have been secured better than he was and his escape seemed too simple.

He winds up grabbing Scully at the end of the episode before it flashes the “To Be Continued.”

There were great performances across the board.

The cliffhanger was scary with Scully begging for help from Mulder over the phone.

When I saw the episode, I did not remember much about it, but I knew this was the one where Scully would be kidnapped. I do not think I saw this before, but I did see the conclusion of it. This is a sensational episode and I am excited to see the next chapter.

The X-Files S2 E3 & E4

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“Blood”

“Sleepless”

Two good episodes of The X-Files followed one of the best one.

Both were dealing with victims who were seeing things, whether it was because of a pesticide being secretly sprayed on a small town or because of a secret sleep experiment to create soldiers who never slept.

We meet a couple of important characters to the X-Files mythology. First, there was a meeting between Mulder and his new ‘friend’ inside the FBI, X. We get to see what X looks like, though we know very little about him. And as we saw at the end of the second episode, Cigarette Smoking Man does not know who X is at this point either.

The second character is FBI Agent Alex Krycek. He is introduced as another agent who partnered up with Mulder and said that he wanted to believe. He is shown as a potential new ally, but we learn that he is one of CSM’s flunkies.

The Lone Gunmen make their return in Blood, to spew some of their paranoid ideas. They are in a short moment but they were memorable.

The X-Files S2 E2

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“The Host”

This is one of the top X-Files episodes of all time, one that I generally refer to as Flukeman. When I saw the whitish arm reach out of the water, I immediately said, “Oh, this is the Flukeman” episode.

Flukeman was one of the creepiest, monsters-of-the-week creatures that the series has ever had. It was also one of the most straightforward resolutions the show had. gotten. That fell into the storyline as a “friend” inside the FBI contacted Mulder and indicated that success of the case was important. Mainly because it needed to show that the X-Files was necessary. This new character would become known as “X” and turned into a sort of replacement for Deep Throat, whose time on the series came to an end at the end of season one.

We get the first, however minor, moment of Skinner seeming to be not the face of corruption at the FBI. When he said to Mulder that everyone has a boss to answer to, we get a glimpse into the fact that Skinner might be more than what he seemed. In hindsight, we know that Skinner is never truly trusted fully, but he does make his way into the ally category eventually.

This was one of the best episodes so far and I even have a Flukeman action figure.

The X-Files S2 E1

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“Little Green Men”

The second season of The X-Files started with a solid episode involving the mythology of the series. The X-Files has been shut down at the FBI and Mulder and Scully have been reassigned. Mulder is doing brain-numbing stake-out, listening to tapes.

Mulder is starting to doubt what he had seen. Mulder losing his faith is a theme that has happened a couple of times over the series’ run.

Mulder gets pointed to a outpost where contact has been made from space. There is a frightened Puerto Rican man, Jorge. Jorge runs out during a storm and is killed.

Scully has to try and find where Mulder is, while avoiding the people watching his apartment.

There is a tense scene where we get a glimpse at the first extraterrestrial on the series.

Mulder showed off some awesome combat driving too as he and Scully tried escaping from a military outfit arriving to get rid of the evidence at the site.

It was a cool episode but I want the X-Files at the FBI back.