Tag Archives: the-x-files

The X-Files S7 E1, E2

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“The Sixth Extinction”

“The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati”

It has been awhile since I ended season six of The X-Files, which was a first part of a three part story that would help to reboot the mythology of the series.

Honestly, the X-Files does such a great job of creating villains. Many times, villains are created to be cool, and people love them, despite of the terrible things they may have done. However, I hate these villains on the X-Files. I want Smoking Man dead. So badly. Same goes for Krychek or Diana Fowley. Of course, this episode saw the end of one of them… off camera. Diana Fowley dies at the end after the show tried to redeem her in the eyes of the viewers. It did not do that for me. The whole ‘she helped out Scully, find Mulder’ did not do it for me. In my book, she was never with Mulder in any way but the selfish way.

The show’s mythology took a turn here and set up the final push for the series. This became more of a sci-fi series than it ever had before. The whole old man Mulder arc was a bit much too, which again tried to show Smoking Man in a more positive light. I just want that smug bastard dead. Great performance from William B. Davis, as always.

The minute Albert Holsteen showed up in Mulder’s apartment, I knew what the show was going for. It was clearly a spirit coming to help Scully and that whole bit was quite a cliche.

The end where Mulder and Scully claim to be each other’s ‘touchstone’ was well acted, but I have never felt any sort of romantic relationship between Mulder and Scully. I could see them being something deeper than romantic and I choose to see this scene in that light.

This trilogy ended season 6 and kicked off season 7 well, and helped keep the show on track moving forward.

The X-Files S6 E21, E22

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“Field Trip”

“Biogenesis”

The sixth season of The X-Files, one that had some absolute highs and absolute lows, wraps up with these final two episodes.

One of them was a really bad trip (though a wild and bizarre episode).

‘Shrooms cause trouble for the agents in “Filed Trip” which found both Mulder and Scully trapped underground being devoured by a plant as they hallucinated different ‘realities’ about what was happening.

The episode felt like one of those Russian dolls. When you thought we had come to a crossroads, there was another story inside.

It was fun seeing the different hallucinations that Mulder and Scully had and how their POVs played into each of them.

The season finale for season six was “Biogenesis” and it led to Mulder being in a mental institution and Scully in Africa chasing after an artifact that could prove that aliens put the human race on earth at the beginning of the planet.

It feels as if the X-Files reignited its mythology with a slightly different focus, though we have appearances by Smoking Man, Krychek, Diana Fowley, and Albert Hosteen, characters all involved in previous X-Files stories. Skinner also took a step back with his involvement in the conspiracy/mythology of the show.

As all season finales of the X-Files seem to go, the show will be a to be continued until the beginning of the following season. Season 7 is one where the show goes through significant upheaval with new characters and exits by major figures. I’m not sure where things will go as I was not a fan of what happened during this time frame so I guess we’ll see how I react to it now.

The X-Files S6 E10

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“Tithonus”

I enjoyed this episode of the X-Files for all the ways it turned the typical formula on its head.

First, Scully was out in the field, assigned to a case with a different partner, and she would call back to FBI headquarters to talk to Mulder and he would do the background stuff. Lots of time, this was flipped, with Scully doing info searches or autopsies. Poor Mulder was like a sad puppy the whole time too.

This also felt like an opposite of “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” as we had an older man who could see death. This episode, the man himself could not die and he was determined to take a picture of death with the hope of being able to do what everybody else would do. This episode was played much more serious than “Clyde” was, which had some of the funnier moments in the early days of the X-Files.

The old man, Alfred Fellig, was played by character actor Geoffrey Lewis and he does a great job playing against Gillian Anderson.

At the very end of the episode, after Fellig had taken Scully’s place and had died from the gunshot wound, Scully was in the hospital from the same gunshot wound. Scully said “You know Mulder I don’t even know why I entertained the thought. People don’t live forever.” I think that was a reference, in Scully’s mind, back to Bruckman who had told her that she would never die. This brush with nearly dying herself from the gunshot wound made her question her own mortality in a very different way. At least, that is how I took it.

The X-Files S6 E9

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“S.R. 819”

After a couple of lesser episodes, “S.R. 819” regained the feel of classic episodes of The X-Files, featuring a conspiracy level event.

The show begins with the apparent death of Walter Skinner, setting up the stakes for the episode.

Flashing back to before the ‘death’, we see the events leading up to the current situation and we learn that someone had poisoned Skinner, injecting him with nanobot tech.

Mulder and Scully raced against time to try and save the life of Skinner.

Of course, Mulder and Scully did not solve anything. They circled the truth, but the events were out of their hands. The final shot, of a now compromised Skinner with Krychek of all people was a kick. Especially after Skinner’s ‘deathbed’ confession to Scully that he regretted not being more of an ally to them.

This was a tough episode, but very enjoyable. It had that early X-Files feel to it and advanced the mythology along nicely.

The X-Files S6 E6

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“How the Ghosts Stole Christmas”

A little spooky Christmas cheer with the X-Files in July.

This episode mashed-up a Christmas trope with a haunted house trope giving us something original between the two styles.

The show contained only four actors, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, of course, as well as Edward Asner and Lilly Tomlin, as the ghosts in the house.

Asner and Tomlin, two all-timers in the world of TV, brought a wonderfully different feel t the episode and their interactions with Mulder and Scully was the strength of the show.

There were plenty of fun ‘tricks’ played on out FBI agents by the two ghosts including showing Mulder and Scully their own dead corpses buried beneath the floorboard, and trying to manipulate them into offing each other. There was also a moving brick wall blocking the exit of several rooms in the haunted house.

The ghosts used this opportunity to share some dime store psychological tidbits on Mulder and Scully which hit pretty close to home. While it was intended to drive them mad, there was enough truth sprinkled in the dialogue to give the audience more insight into Mulder and Scully.

It was a fun, stand-alone episode of the X-Files which seems to be the overall theme of season six so far.

The X-Files S6 E4, E5

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“Dreamland, Part 1 and Part 2”

I recently spoke about the X-Files having episodes that are taking premises from movies such as “The Thing,” or “Speed” to fit them into the X-Files. This two-part episode takes the “Freaky Friday” premise and made it into the X-Files world.

Body swap films and shows were big at the time and it is understandable that the X-Files would go ahead and put their own stamp on it.

I love Michael McKeon. I have loved him as far back as Lenny from Laverne and Shirley, and then as David St. Hubbins from This is Spinal Tap. Seeing him as Man in Black, Morris Fletcher, was great and McKeon was awesome through the whole two episodes playing the new version of Mulder.

Seeing both Morris and Mulder in situations they were unfamiliar with brought some really good comedic moments. I enjoyed the Duck Soup-type mirror bit with Mulder and his reflection of Morris.

I saw some negative responses to these episodes and I did not agree with it. I found this to be a fun look at the idea of body swap and a new way to look at the Men in Black. Seeing how Morris responded to being Mulder was interesting, and Scully’s confusion was fun. I can understand that some may have wanted the main overall aliens story to continue instead of another funny episode. I love the funny episodes of the X-Files, as many of them are my absolutely favorite ones from the show.

I do think this could have probably been one episode instead of two as part of the second episode did feel stretched out. And some of the resolution of the story felt off. Even if the end of the episode with Mulder opening his apartment door to see of it was because of the furniture that Morris had bought. I guess this did not snap back in time as other things seemed to. That end plot hole was a little messy.

Otherwise, I enjoyed Dreamland.

The X-Files S6 E3

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“Triangle”

This was an absolutely wonderful episode of the X-Files. It was the combination of an old Twilight Zone episode and the Wizard of Oz, creating a exceptional tale of time warps and World War II escapades all inside the Bermuda Triangle.

Mulder finds himself in the Bermuda Triangle because a satellite found the Queen Anne, a British passenger ship that was rumored to have been sunk by Nazis in the war. On the ship, Mulder is in 1939 and confused about what was going on. Recognizable faces from Mulder’s life started showing up in the 1939 timeline, including Scully, Skinner, Smoking Man, and Spender, in differing roles than what Mulder was used to.

There was a scene in this episode that, in my humble opinion, may be the greatest scene ever shot for the X-Files. It is designed to look like a “Oner” a continuous shot that follows the characters as they move through the story in real time. It is something that a lot of movies and programs try to use these days, but such a shot was not used as much during the time of The X-Files.

It was not a single shot as I could find several “hidden” cuts as you would say, but it really worked well. The scene I am referring to as the greatest ever is the scene where the Lone Gunmen come to see Scully at FBI Headquarters and Scully sets off to try and find information about where in the Bermuda Triangle Mulder was. Following Scully around FBI HQ, going to Skinner, Kirsch, Spender etc. was brilliantly conceived. Scully running into Smoking Man was ominous and her interaction with Spender was hilarious. The scene ending with Scully jumping in the Lone Gunmen’s van and speeding away was utterly perfect.

There was another amazing moment in this episode that has to be considered groundbreaking. With a split screen, Mulder and 1939 Scully were coming down one of the aisles of the Queen Anne while regular day Scully was moving down another one. The two Scullys crossed paths and paused for a moment as if they could feel them passing by each other. This was such a clever use of the format that it stood out among a really exceptionally filmed episode.

The episode was clearly an homage to The Wizard of Oz. There are several Oz allusions though the episode and it ended with Mulder in a bed, much like Dorothy is at the end of the Wizard of Oz.

It is epic when a long running series takes a risk in the manner in which it is presented. Triangle was a massive hit for the show and I loved it more this time than my memory of it from before. This was exceptional TV.

The X-Files S6 E2

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“Drive”

Some of the best and most under-the-radar episodes of The X-Files are the ones that seem to take a premise or theme of a well known movie and adapt it into the world of the X-Files. There was an early season episode called “Ice” that was similar to The Thing. “Post Modern Promethean” was in the style of the Universal Monsters movies, particularly Frankenstein. This one “Drive” takes the premise of the movie Speed and plays with it so it fits with the X-Files concept. In fact, Mulder even makes a joke about seeing this movie.

Bryan Cranston was an unexpected face to see in the car with Agent Mulder. He was about a couple of years before being Hal in Malcom in the Middle and a decade away from becoming Walter White in Breaking Bad, but Cranston remained an amazing actor at any point of his career, playing antisemite Patrick Crump in this X-Files episode and forcing Mulder to drive him fast and to the west. Cranston was able to instill in “Mr.” Crump a humanity that took this character which could be considered the villain of this story and made him someone the audience was rooting for, despite his antagonistic approach to Mulder near the beginning of the episode.

The dialogue between Cranston and Duchovny was expertly written and helped take this premise to another level. It was much more than just an homage to Speed. It fit right into the world of The X-Files.

The episode kicked off with a fantastic hook, having Crump in a high speed chase with police, filmed from the above helicopter. The start of the episode set a tone that insured that this was going to be fire.

I really enjoyed this episode and thought the inclusion of Bryan Cranston made this episode a standout.

The X-Files S6 E1

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“The Beginning”

The opening “previously on The X-Files” showed that this season six takes place directly after the movie, The X-Files: Fight the Future, the feature length film that had been released in theaters, and the story told in that movie is included in this season premiere.

However, it is only part of the story as the episode also included details that were introduced in the fifth season finale, “The End.” Specifically, the use of the little boy who could read minds, Gibson, as well as agents Jeffrey Spender and Diana Fowley. These two agents were assigned to take over the work of Mulder and Scully, who were reassigned within the FBI with explicit instructions to not work on the X-Files again.

Fowley is one of my least favorite X-Files characters because she is such a sell out and feels as if she exists only to put a stress on the connection of Mulder and Scully. You can see that stress in this episode and Scully argued with Mulder and at one point asks him to trust her. I seem to remember a time when Mulder said that Scully was “the only one he trusts.” That seems to have been chipped away as the new Mulder only wants to hear from Scully if she agrees with him.

Diana Fowley becomes a major character over the next few seasons and it is part of the slipping of The X-Files.

The horrors that the show has put the character of Gibson through is shocking and terrifying, and not in a good way. The treatment of this kid has been very distasteful by everyone and I do like how he just calls the adults out because he knows what they were thinking.

Spender, of course, is a horrendous person too, because he is taking direction from Smoking Man, who continues to be the one character that has to have a bullet in his head. I am consistently stating how much I hate this character, which should go to show what an amazing job William B. Davis had done with this role.

However, the opening scene of the episode featuring a carpool, had some of the worst dialogue that I ever remember in an X-Files episode. It was shockingly bad and did not start the episode off well. Thankfully, an alien ripped out of someone’s chest and made things a lot better.

My memory is that The X-Files becomes difficult to watch over the next few seasons, so we will see how this rewatch progresses.

The X-Files S5 E19, E20

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“Folie à Deux”

“The End”

The were the final to episodes of season five of The X-Files. The first one was a monster-of-the-week story and the second one returned to the mythology episode seeing the comeback of Cigarette-Smoking Man, who does not seem to have missed a beat with his manipulations and evilness.

Starting with Folie à Deux, this was a very solid episode with a scary bug antagonist. It sounded as if they were unhappy with the look of the costume they were using and had visual effects make the monster harder to see. It is a logical step that a monster that is hidden is scarier than one you can see fully.

The introduction of Diana Fowley did not work well for me. She felt as just a conflict tossed into the relationship of Mulder and Scully. This triangle that was introduced just fell flat for me. I did not mind another agent accepting Mulder’s theories, but the romantic aspect just lacked any substance.

The introduction of mind reading child Gibson was much better though and gave me some of the flavor of “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” but with a little boy instead of an old man. I found there to be less comedy in this episode than in Clyde too.

Smoking Man is back and I want him dead yet! Honestly, this villain is just so effective that I want the character to pay for all of his crimes. He told Agent Spengler that he was his father, and he continued to manipulate the entire situation, as Spengler is being set up as an antagonist for Mulder.

The image of Mulder standing before the charred remains of the X-Files was shocking and powerful. Damn that Smoking Man.

Season six is next to come.

The X-Files S5 E17

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“All Souls”

I wanted to break up the run of shows starting with B with a big old X. X-Files season five episode 17 kicks off another Scully/religious story.

One of the most fascinating things about the series is how much the skeptic Scully believes in the religious symbols and iconography while Mulder, he whose mantra is ‘I want to Believe,’ completely dismisses anything connected to potential supernatural occurrences connected to religion. Any time Mulder is involved in these religious based cases, he takes on a bit of an obnoxious tone because his disbelief really sears through his objectivity. I mean, you would think that if there was anyone who might believe than a seraph came to earth to burn out the eyes of four young girls, it would be Mulder. It is really a wild dichotomy of these two characters.

Gillian Anderson continued to show what a wonderful actor she is, with her scenes in the confessional being highly emotional and she portrayed the confusion and grief of Scully perfectly. Her side as a scientist would poke through at times, even when it was in conflict with her faith. Plus, it is always nice when the show remembers that things happened to Scully and the loss of her daughter is a traumatic moment in her life and that it can come back as a hook for a case.

I am curious how Scully explained the results of the finale of the episode to Mulder and the other cops. It feels like ‘I let the girl go to be killed by an angel so her soul would go to Heaven because a vision of my daughter told me to do it’ doesn’t sound great for an official report.

Always love to see Scully featured front and center, and Gillian Anderson is always exceptional.

The X-Files S5 E16

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“Mind’s Eye”

Season five X-Files episode number sixteen is next up for the X-Files rewatch and it was titled “Mind’s Eye.”

Lili Taylor appeared as blind woman Marty Glenn who seemed to be the main suspect of a murder of a drug dealer. She had blood on her, but that did not convince Mulder that she was guilty.

Mulder and Scully are called in to help out on the case. Despite the evidence that seemed to be loading up against Marty, Mulder believed that there was more going on than what we could see.

Marty Glenn was one of the most sarcastic and snarky characters we have had on the X-Files in quite a long time. I’m not sure why Mulder liked her. He does say that he admired her, overcoming her disability, having trained the remainder of her senses to be able to be anything but a hinderness.

It was a decent episode. Nothing special, but enjoyable.

The X-Files S5 E15

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“Travelers”

This was an interesting episode that was fairly odd.

It was all a flashback. Not only the main part of the story, but also the framing device including Fox Mulder. When we saw Mulder in this episode, this predated his arrival at the X-Files. Truthfully, this introduced Mulder to the concept of the X-Files.

I am not sure the purpose for this episode, outside of highlighting the time of American history when people from our government targeted certain individuals as Communists for political reasons. It was also nice to see Mulder’s father, Bill, involved in the story. Bill Mulder was the hook that brought Fox Mulder into the narrative in the first place.

I liked the aesthetic of the episode, with the throwback look of the show. The fifties feel was very retro and it was a cool break from the typical design of the X-Files. Connecting this to Nazi scientists who had come to America to continue experiments was a solid tie-in and worked for this episode. The do not go too deep into anything from here though.

This was a fun episode, but it was a total filler episode. I do not know i f any of this would mean anything moving forward. I think it was just meant to be a show placed just after Mulder reclaimed his belief system, to give us a way to easy back into the status quo of the series.

Of course, it also meant that we did not get anything with Gillian Anderson and that is always an unwelcomed thing.

The X-Files S5 E14

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“The Red and the Black”

I found the second part of this two part X-Files Mythology episode to be considerably stronger than the first part. Perhaps because it started to lead toward returning Mulder to the status quo, being the person who believes in extraterrestrial life.

Of course, it also saw the return of Cigarette Smoking Man, and I continue to wish he would just be dead.

Gillian Anderson was exceptional with her performance, especially during the hypnosis scenes. Those scenes were remarkably uncomfortable and you could see how they were affecting Mulder, even if he was not yet ready to accept once again his philosophy of “I Want to Believe.”

Agent Spender is a new recurring character from this two-parter that adds him to the list of other characters that I really dislike. It sure looked as if he were the son of CSM, which is just one more reason to find this guy unlikable.

We got even more of the Syndicate, and a lot of talk about an alien invasion/alien war, but that is not necessarily anything that would happen during the series.

This episode does help me feel better about the previous one, “Patient X.” Non-believer Mulder was just not a character that I want to spend a lot of time with. He seemed so spiteful that it took a lot of the charm of Fox Mulder away. I am glad this helped reignite Mulder’s belief moving forward.

The X-Files S5 E13

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“Patient X”

Boy, Agent Mulder as a non-believer is a bit of a jerk.

I’m not sure if this is intended to flip the roles of sceptic and believer between Mulder and Scully, but that sure seems to be what is going down in this first part of a continued story.

Alex Krycek is back once again. He is well overdue for a final resting place. The X-Files is a different type of TV show. A lot of the times, I enjoy the antagonists on shows. I used to love Ben Linus on LOST. The bad guys on Twin Peaks were always entertaining as could be. But I was really wanting Cigarette Smoking Man to die and I feel much the same way about Krycek. I am not sure what the difference are between these characters and other similar characters. Maybe because the X-Files never really come to conclusions and just keeps pushing their answers off. I do like some of the X-Files monster-of-the-week, but the antagonists in the mythology episodes need to go.

This episode just feels wrong. I know the Mulder is a non-believer arc includes the movie they were filming and releasing, but it just feels too much of a shift in character. Especially since the episode before, Mulder was a believer in the vampires and such. It just feels like this was dropped in the season and now Mulder no longer wants to believe.

Perhaps the second part of the episode will help me make this more engaging, but I did not love this one.