Spoilers

“Chinga”

Stephen King co-wrote this episode of The X-Files along with series creator Chris Carter, who would help get the voices of Mulder and Scully correct. King was a fan of the show and approached David Duchovny with the hope of writing an episode.

The episode he helped to pen featured an evil doll, much like Annabelle or Chucky, that was able to force people into violent behavior.

Scully was on vacation, actively trying to avoid the phone calls from an obviously bored Mulder, but she came across this terrible scene at a supermarket and she wound up getting roped in to helping the local sheriff.

As the episode was basically a Scully solo episode, with a few phone calls coming from Mulder to provide some comedic relief, it was a fun time. I enjoy Scully being able to show that she is a capable FBI agent and not just depend on Mulder. She did seem to slide into Mulder’s way of thinking perhaps a bit too fast, considering scientist Scully would have a difficult time accepting the possibility of a talking, killer doll. Still, it mostly made sense and there is little that was funnier than Scully taking this doll and putting it in the microwave.

Clearly the doll, Chinga, was not at the level of Chucky or Annabelle because there is no way nuking them in a microwave would take care of them.

There were some creepy moments of the show too, including the “Hokey Pokey.”

Spoilers

“Detour”

The X-Files starts a strong run of episodes with “Detour” which finds Mulder and Scully in the woods in Florida in an attempt to avoid a FBI “team-building” conference with two inane agents.

That might not be fair, but Mulder and Scully were sharing a car with another pair of agents and it was quite apparent that they could not stand the discussions going on. So when their car was stopped because of a police barricade, Mulder took the opportunity to ‘stretch his legs’ and get away from the other agents.

Coincidentally, Mulder found himself engaged with the investigation of several missing people, attacks that did not seem to be human or animal.

The episode was written by Frank Spotnitz who said he was inspired to write it after watching Deliverance. I have to say that there are several scenes that felt more like Predator than Deliverance.

The strength of the episode was the interplay between Mulder and Scully. It was reminiscent of the episode “Quagmire” where Mulder and Scully are stranded on a rock in the middle of a lake with a supposed monster at large. However, the scene where Scully sings “Joy to the World” to an injured Mulder is excellent and gives an insight to the complex relationship between Mulder and Scully.

There was also a really funny moment when Scully had fallen into a hole in the woods and Mulder tossed down his gun to her because the creature was int he hole with her. Moments later, Mulder saw movement int he woods, and he dropped himself into the hole too. The comic timing on that was beautiful.

However, I did not like the explanation of the creatures from Mulder. It felt like the whole Conquistador/Fountain of Youth explanation was thrown on in an attempt to make the story make some semblance of sense in the X-Files world. As Agent Kinsley had said, it is just a way for Mulder to write off his motel room as a business expense.

Overall, this was a fun monster-of-the-week episode that is made better because of the dialogue between Mulder and Scully.

Spoilers

“Small Potatoes”

Some of my favorite X-Files episodes are the ones that lean toward the comedic. Jose Chung’s From Outer Space, Humbug, Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, and War of Coprophages are so awesome to watch and David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson work extremely well within them.

So Small Potatoes goes on that list of great episodes.

Shape shifting Eddie Van Blundht is our villain of the episode as he fathered five children with tails with five different women. Thing was, the women did not know they were have sex with anyone except their husbands. One of the women thought she had sex with Luke Skywalker.

One of the best parts of this is that Mulder does not have a theory for a good chunk of the episode. Usually he comes up with his idea of what was going on immediately, sometimes even before the case started. They are quite a bit into the story and Mulder even admits that he does not have a theory of what was happening.

The show did seem to go out of the way to make Eddie a relatable character despite the fact that he is basically a rapist. Eddie was played by Darin Morgan, the former X-Files writer who penned Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose and Jose Chung’s from Outer Space. In fact, Vince Gilligan, who wrote this episode, said they wrote the character of Eddie specifically for Morgan.

One of the best scenes of the episode was at the end when Eddie had taken Mulder’s place and him going through Mulder’s office and trying to seduce Scully. This entire stretch of time when we see Mulder’s life and career through Eddie’s eyes deconstructed the Mulder character and provided a different aspect of it. It was just fantastic writing and showed our favorite conspiracy theorist in an entirely new light.

Spoilers

“Memento Mori”

I think I have said this before, but there has never been a villain/antagonist that I wanted to see get a bullet in the head more than the Cigarette Smoking Man.

That is intended as a huge compliment for actor William B. Davis, who plays CSM with such a smug, arrogant demeanor, manipulating the characters of The X-Files into the exact place that he wanted them. He maximized every second of screen time creating such a hateable character that called upon the worst possible instincts. His performance has always been exceptional, but his inclusion in this Scully cancer story makes him even more contestable.

Gillian Anderson won an Emmy for her work as Dana Scully for season four, and this was the main episode submitted to the panel. I can understand why because there was so much here for the actor to sink her teeth into, tearing down the character of Dana Scully before coming out the other side with the strength needed to move forward. The emotional scene between Scully and Mulder after Penny died was powerful and totally compelling.

The wild drama with the discovery of Scully harvested ova was exciting, keeping a balance between the emotional cancer story and the mythological X-Files aspect. The use of the Lone Gunmen in this episode was great, bringing the boys out of their usual locale and into the field.

This was another example of Skinner “taking the bullet” for Mulder and Scully, as he approached CSM for answers about Scully’s cancer, instead of allowing Mulder to do the same. Skinner truly was Mulder’s patron, as CSM referred to him during the episode.

This made Mulder’s reactions last episode standout all the more, as this feels like the relationship that has been built after nearly four seasons and last episode’s was an exception.