Spoilers

“Tempus Fugit”

It had been awhile since the mythology episodes of The X-Files has been great. They have ranged from okay to repetitive. The first part of this two-parter “Tempus Fugit” was a pretty solid installment with a bit of a different take on the government conspiracy that we have become used to over the last few seasons.

I’m not sure how I feel about the cliffhanger at the end of the episode. The overall idea of the episode seemed to be working fairly well, but this felt very unsubtle and out of place for the rest of the episode.

It was a solid episode up until that reveal at the end. There were some good guest stars and some good work between Mulder and Scully. Still no reference to Scully’s cancer, although the episode kicking off with Mulder celebrating Scully’s birthday could have been seen as him overcompensating for a failure of celebrating her birthdays before.

The imagery of the plane crash site was very brutal for television. It was tough at times to watch as they found bodies that had died horrific deaths. The realism of this scene was special for the X-Files.

I’ll be interested in seeing where this episode goes next as it did not stand out in my memory as a show I had seen before. I am sure I did see it, but it was not one that I recalled.

Spoilers

“Never Again”

Talking tattoos?

Not sure I liked that part of this episode. It was a strange thing.

However, everything that happened made perfect sense considering what happened last episode, in Leonard betts.

Scully was told by Betts that she had what he needed, which was cancer. Everything that she did in this episode, several things that did not seem like something Scully would do, probably came from that realization.

I did wish that Mulder would have been more empathic in the situation. Shouldn’t he be able to tell something was bothering his long time partner? Shouldn’t he understand that the minor things like a desk are not setting Scully off? Mulder was not written very well in this episode.

He did get to go on a pilgrimage to Graceland, though.

Jodie Foster voiced the evil tattoo. That was still too silly of a thing for me. I did like seeing the problems faced by Scully, and having her show some flaws.

Spoilers

“Leonard Betts”

This was one of my favorite X-Files episode. It was originally shown after Super Bowl XXXI and it brought the weird. A cancer-ridden mutant who needs cancer to feed on. A mutant named Leonard Betts who was decapitated in the beginning of the show, but who was able to regrow limbs, including his head.

Not only that, but Leonard was able to diagnose someone who has cancer. It is because it is what he needs. This kicks off the Scully cancer arc that was difficult to watch when it aired. I did not know what was going to happen to Scully and this was an excellent twist.

Mulder also pulled out some exceptional lines this episode that made me laugh out loud. When Scully asked him why they were investigating Leonard Betts body’s disappearance from the morgue, Mulder responded with “Did I mention Mr. Betts had no head.” That line stuck out in my memory because I loved it so much.

Leonard Betts was a fantastic villain, played by Paul McClane. He did an excellent job in this role. I have seen him in several other episodes of TV, including The Practice, and he is always outstanding.

This was so creepy of a show, with a scene where we see Leonard shed his skin and create what seemed like another Leonard and one of them wound up dead in a fiery car explosion.

I did love how Betts came after Scully and she was able to fight him off inside an ambulance. Scully looked great in this fight and she used her surroundings well. I loved how she did not need anyone to rescue her, even after the reveal that Betts was after her because of her cancer.

Excellent episode and a shocking reveal.

Spoilers

“Tunguska”

The X-Files is back to using the black oil in some horrifying manner. The mysteries of what the black oil is and what the government knows about it is the driving force behind this story.

Alex Krycek returned to cause trouble for Mulder and Scully. Mulder winds up in a Russian gulag and Scully winds up before Congress, being threatened with contempt of Congress if she does not reveal Mulder’s whereabouts.

Mulder and Scully get their hands on a rock that contains the black oil, to the chagrin of Cigarette Smoking Man.

There were some fun scenes in this episode including a handcuffed Krycek dumping a thug from Skinner’s apartment balcony. The thug, a courier for CSM, fell to his death. This show provided some real strength to the character of Krycek as he really outmaneuvered Mulder.

That final scene with the black oil dropping onto a confined Mulder, creeping beneath his face to cover his eyes in blackness was devastating.

This was a part one, and it was a tough one to stop on, but I did not have time to continue the part two before Smackdown.

Spoilers

“Unruhe”

This X-Files episode featured a really creepy villain, a cool paranormal effect that we have not seen before and another solid performance from our leads.

Unfortunately, as it seems to be the wont, Scully was put in jeopardy again.

The main villain, Gerry, as played by Taylor Vince, was great as the antagonist of the episode. His backstory really informed his psychosis and the fact that the paranormal aspect really did not have much to do with himself is a neat change for the X-Files.

But I am going back to the fact that Scully got taken again and had to be saved by Mulder. I understand that that could happen, but it sure feels as if that trope happens on too regular of a basis for this show. We need Scully to rescue Mulder more often, as she did in the previous episode, “Teliko.”

The whole concept of psychic photography was different and provided a cool effect for the show to play off. It was odd though considering that Gerry was not making it happen intentionally. That it was the side effect of the “howlers” in Gerry’s head (or at least that is the implication that I took from it).

This was a good episode featuring the monster-of-the-week story.

Spoilers

“Wetwired”

“Talitha Cumi”

After a series of excellent monster-of-the-week episodes, The X-Files came back to the governmental conspiracy mythology with a vengeance with the final two episodes of season three. While “Wetwired” was not as directly involved as it seemed, it did turn out to be a connected show where as “Talitha Cumi” expanded the mythos dramatically.

“Wetwired” dealt with the use of subliminal signals over the television to lead to a form of mind control. The best part of the episode was seeing how the signals affected Scully, turning her paranoid and angry at Mulder, whom she believed was betraying her.

When Mulder tracked Scully down at her mother’s house, Scully confronted Mulder at gunpoint about how he did not trust her, and he delivered one of my favorite lines of the series when he said, “You’re the only one I trust.” Gillian Anderson gave a great performance as the unhinged Scully.

We also learned (at least, I do not recall it coming up before) that Mulder is red-green color blind, which kept the signals from turning him into a crazed killer.

In Talitha Cumi, we meet Jeremiah Smith, played by Roy Thinnes, who has apparent healing powers and an ability to shapeshift. We discover that the alien bounty hunter from earlier in the series was out to kill all the different version of Jeremiah Smith that were out there.

This is the dramatic end to the show, leaving a cliffhanger over the summer until the beginning of season four.

Mulder’s mother had a stroke just after a confrontation she had with the Cigarette Smoking Man. We learned that she had a connection to him in the past, and that one of the weapons capable of killing the alien bounty hunters was hidden in a summer home of the Mulders.

I swear, every time Mulder has CSM pushed against the wall with a gun to his head, I want him to finish the creep off. How would everything have been different if he had taken care of the bastard?

The show still referred to him as Cancer Man a couple of times, and I believe the episode with the actual guy who could see cancer comes in season 4. That is my guess as to why they removed that tag from CSM.

Two very good episodes that concluded an excellent season of TV from the X-Files. Season three is definitely the best season of the show so far, and is arguably the best season of the series.

Spoilers

“Quagmire”

This was a great episode of the X-Files. A monster-of-the-week episode that sees Mulder and Scully in search of Big Blue, a supposed lake monster that is killing humans.

It turned out to be a killer alligator, which, by the way, is one of my biggest fears. We lose Scully’s dog Queequeg to the alligator.

The best part of this episode was when Mulder and Scully wound up stuck on a rock after their boat sinks in the pitch black and they have an amazingly meaningful conversation. Scully compares Mulder to Captain Ahab from Moby Dick. The truth=the white whale.

This scene just makes this episode special. The 10 pages of dialogue for that scene was one of the best Mulder/Scully interactions of the series up to this point.

There was a lot of tension, not only when they were trapped on that rock, but also when the alligator was rushing at Mulder and he unloaded his weapon at the beast. I remember that tension from the first time I watched it.

There was some good humor in this too, as Darin Morgan, who was the writer of all of the classic humor episodes this season, did some touch up here and you can tell.

A slight story, but really enjoyable.

Spoilers

“Syzygy”

“Grotesque”

Two great episodes in a row. One where we see Mulder and Scully being affected by the planets, amplifying some of their deeper seeded character traits and another where it sure seems as if Mulder has lost his mind and has become a copy cat killer.

In that second episode, “Grotesque,” we actually find out Special Agent Bill Patterson, someone Mulder knew when he was at the Investigative Support Unit at Quantico, was working the case. Performed by Kurtwood Smith, it turned out that Patterson, who had been chasing the killer for three years of his live, diving into the darkness of the killer’s mind, had become the copycat himself and he had requested Mulder be assigned this case as a way to stop him.

Kurtwood Smith was also the surprise killer, Cupid on Picket Fences, making it a specialty of Smith being a hidden murderer. Honestly though, this episode takes a look at mental illness and the darkness that these FBI profilers envelope themselves with in order to ‘get into the head’ of the serial killers.

Smith and Duchovny both gave excellent performances in this episode.

Meanwhile, the first of these episodes included the planets causing Scully and Mulder to be at each other’s throats the whole episode. At first it was pretty subtle, but as they continued to act unlike themselves, it became more obvious what was happening without them ever coming out and saying … hey, why are we acting like jerks?

This episode was meant to lean toward the humor that the show has been including every once in awhile, but most of this humor, with the exception of the bit about why Mulder always drives the car, was not the best of the series.

Spoilers

“Revelations”

A young boy appears to be a stigmata, attracting a man who is killing fake stigmatics. Mulder and Scully are on the case to try and protect the boy from the evil force. However, in this episode, because of the religious implications of the case, Scully was the believer, the one with faith, and Mulder was the skeptic, the naysayer. It felt weird.

The little boy was from the Air Bud movies, actor Kevin Zegers. He is effective in the episode opposite Gillian Anderson, who does some excellent work. David Duchovny though just did not feel right. Mulder believes in everything, but having him so anti-religion felt against the character. Not that he had to believe in God, but how he was so dismissive to everything was so unlike Mulder that it was jarring.

And when Scully came up with the answer where Kevin had been taken, Mulder did not go with her. I found that to be hypocritical of him, since she has followed him through how many potentially hairbrained ideas before. I wanted him to go with her, even if he did not believe she was right. That would have shown that he believed in her. 

I did like how Mulder’s refusal to believe in the religious moments of the episode led to Scully having a crisis of faith and ending up in a confessional. 

Our evil killer was played by the excellent Kenneth Walsh, who was Windham Earle from season two of Twin Peaks. He was Simon Gates in this episode and he was creepy and eerie with his religious zealot persona. 

Some of the events that happened in the episode were shaky. Some coincidental things that could have been tightened up more, but overall, I enjoyed the episode and I liked the focus on Scully’s personal beliefs.

Spoilers

“Død Kalm” 

“Humbug”

Season two of The X-Files moves along with one of my favorite episodes and one that was decent. 

First up, Mulder and Scully age rapidly upon a ghost ship. They investigated the ship when crew members were found from the ship, ageing well past their times.

Mulder and Scully are at their best in isolation, places where the outside world is kept at bay. Here, it allowed Mulder and Scully to have some interactions that they might not have had in other instances. 

Problem with the episode was that the old age makeup did not look great. Mulder, in particular, did not look like an old man, more like a guy with a lot of latex on his face.

“Død Kalm” was okay, and the strength of the episode was definitely the relationship between our ever favorite FBI agents.

The next episode was “Humbug” which was one of my favs from the series. It was the time Mulder and Scully investigated murders at the freak show.

This was a great episode that really, for the first time, took a more humorous tone with the case. The writing of the dialogue was spot on in this episode. Mulder was as funny here as he has been yet, and shows what the show could be. Apparently, according to Wikipedia, the episode was written by Darin Morgan, who had helped his brother Glen on other scripts for the show and earned himself a full time job. He wrote some classic X-Files episodes including “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” and “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” both of which I love and can’t wait to get to during this rewatch.

The thing is that the show does not sacrifice the tension and horror with the comedy. It shows that The X-Files is capable of blending the tones together into something very satisfying and extremely clever.

It was fun to see Michael J. Anderson (who played The Man from Another Place on Twin Peaks) guest starring as Mr. Nutt. Another guest star was Vincent Schiavelli, who was once married to Miss DePesto herself, Allyce Beasley, and they appeared together on an episode of Moonlighting.

These kind of comedic episodes are some of my favorites of the entire series because they are done so well and yet does not rob the show of its signature style.