X-Files--"Surekill"

“Surekill” is a typical example of what is wrong with the final two seasons of The X-Files. It has an interesting premise which holds a lot of possibilities. But the story to go along with it is terribly anemic, not to mention run of the mill were it to be featured on any generic police procedural. The X-Files has had that problem before. Such episodes have not always been saved by banter between Mulder and Scully, but it helps. Alas, we do not have Mulder and Scully. We have Doggett as the sidekick here. Scully does not appear any more thrilled about this fact than we are.

As I said above, the premise is cool. A blue collar, legally blind loser named Dwight has a developmentally challenged brother named Randall whose eyes have a different organic structure which allows him x-ray vision. Normally, he uses his ability to be a peeping tom, partically watching Dwight secretary, tammy, frolic naked. But Dwight has bigger ambitions. He manipulates his brother into using his ability as a sniper making impossible to trace kill shots on drug dealers in order to steal their loot.

Randall apparently goes AWOl one night and murders a real estate agent who is being held in a jail cell for safekeeping. Doggett and scully are brought in because there is no conceivable way a sniper could have pulled the shot off from the roof.

Two things occur as the story progresses. One, Scully channels mulder in jumping to the x-ray eyes conclusion. To her credit, she bounces back to her old skeptical self when Doggett does not buy it. It is not until she witnesses randall’s ability that she finally accepts it as real. She is still subdued and brooding, but at least there are hints there of the old Scully. Two, Tammy has been cheating Dwight and Randall out of their drug money take. She has been teasing Randall with her naked frolicking. Once she has him on the hook, she had him kill the real estate agent, who was her partner in crime, then she planned to haul off with the money. When Dwight convinces his brother tammy was just using him, Randall thinks about killing her like Dwight wants him to, but winds up shooting his brother instead. He genuinely loves Tammy, even if she thinks he is only a developmentally challenged simpleton.

I give ’Surekill’ an “A” for effort on both of the above counts. Scully is written as being more of the way she used to be. As a dedicated member of team Scully, I approve. But there is just no chemistry between her and Doggett no matter how she comes across. There is no witty banter between them. No warmth, either. At one point, Doggett calls her “Agent.” not Agent Scully, or even scully. Agent. It is a strange complaint, I suppose, but I cannot help but compare Dogget/Scully with mulder/Scully and find it sadly lacking. As for the unrequited love of the manipulated cripple, its heart is in the right place, but I am just not feeling it. Even in the end when Scully expresses sorrow for Randall for murdering his brother out of love for a wman he cannot have, nor should really want, it feels forced and cold. Not like old times.

“Surekill” does not belong in the cellar, but it is definitely a below average episode. Doggett and Scully are not clicking as partners. If that basic foundation is not working, then even a fascinating premise with a tug at the heartstrings twist cannot save the episode. I can see what the powers that be were trying to do, but they did not have the juice to pull it off. If that were not depressing enough, the actress who played Tammy, Kellie Waymire, died two years after this episode aired of an undiagnosed heart condition. She was only 36 .

Rating: ** (out of 5)

X-Files--"Surekill"

“Surekill” is a typical example of what is wrong with the final two seasons of The X-Files. It has an interesting premise which holds a lot of possibilities. But the story to go along with it is terribly anemic, not to mention run of the mill were it to be featured on any generic police procedural. The X-Files has had that problem before. Such episodes have not always been saved by banter between Mulder and Scully, but it helps. Alas, we do not have Mulder and Scully. We have Doggett as the sidekick here. Scully does not appear any more thrilled about this fact than we are.

As I said above, the premise is cool. A blue collar, legally blind loser named Dwight has a developmentally challenged brother named Randall whose eyes have a different organic structure which allows him x-ray vision. Normally, he uses his ability to be a peeping tom, partically watching Dwight secretary, tammy, frolic naked. But Dwight has bigger ambitions. He manipulates his brother into using his ability as a sniper making impossible to trace kill shots on drug dealers in order to steal their loot.

Randall apparently goes AWOl one night and murders a real estate agent who is being held in a jail cell for safekeeping. Doggett and scully are brought in because there is no conceivable way a sniper could have pulled the shot off from the roof.

Two things occur as the story progresses. One, Scully channels mulder in jumping to the x-ray eyes conclusion. To her credit, she bounces back to her old skeptical self when Doggett does not buy it. It is not until she witnesses randall’s ability that she finally accepts it as real. She is still subdued and brooding, but at least there are hints there of the old Scully. Two, Tammy has been cheating Dwight and Randall out of their drug money take. She has been teasing Randall with her naked frolicking. Once she has him on the hook, she had him kill the real estate agent, who was her partner in crime, then she planned to haul off with the money. When Dwight convinces his brother tammy was just using him, Randall thinks about killing her like Dwight wants him to, but winds up shooting his brother instead. He genuinely loves Tammy, even if she thinks he is only a developmentally challenged simpleton.

I give ’Surekill’ an “A” for effort on both of the above counts. Scully is written as being more of the way she used to be. As a dedicated member of team Scully, I approve. But there is just no chemistry between her and Doggett no matter how she comes across. There is no witty banter between them. No warmth, either. At one point, Doggett calls her “Agent.” not Agent Scully, or even scully. Agent. It is a strange complaint, I suppose, but I cannot help but compare Dogget/Scully with mulder/Scully and find it sadly lacking. As for the unrequited love of the manipulated cripple, its heart is in the right place, but I am just not feeling it. Even in the end when Scully expresses sorrow for Randall for murdering his brother out of love for a wman he cannot have, nor should really want, it feels forced and cold. Not like old times.

“Surekill” does not belong in the cellar, but it is definitely a below average episode. Doggett and Scully are not clicking as partners. If that basic foundation is not working, then even a fascinating premise with a tug at the heartstrings twist cannot save the episode. I can see what the powers that be were trying to do, but they did not have the juice to pull it off. If that were not depressing enough, the actress who played Tammy, Kellie Waymire, died two years after this episode aired of an undiagnosed heart condition. She was only 36 .

Rating: ** (out of 5)

X-Files--"Rush"

“Rush” is Mulder and Scully meets the Flash. Alas, even as an old school comic book nut, I never could get into the Flash for many of the same reasons I cannot get into “Rush,” The main problem is the science is bad. The story compensates by adding a lot of teenage angst, but I am getting way too old to care about such things. Ironically, one of the kids makes the same sort of statement to Mulder when the agent attempts to relate to his typical teenage problems. The kid must have been onto something.

Tony, a high school sophomore, is accused of killing a deputy by bludgeoning him with superhuman strength. The oddness of the case attracts Mulder’s attention. Tony and his two friends, Max and Chastity, have discovered a cave in which they can bath in some sort of strange light which enables them to move faster than the eye can see. Max is the one who killed the deputy because he was getting too close to the cave.

Chastity and Tony worry about Max, as he is growing more psychotic. After he kills his science teacher by pushing a table into him and crushing his skull with a chair, Tony decides to bathe in the light again and fight Max super hero style. He keeps max from killing his father, Max opts to kill Tony in revenge. Chastity saves him by shooting max. your guess is as good as mine where she got the gun. Moving at super speed, she jumps in front of the bullet after it passes through max, so it kills her, too.

I noted the science was bad. I do not fret too much at the lack of explanation as to what the light was or how it worked. But I do dislike the inconsistency in the physics of the kids using their speed powers. If one is moving too fast to be seen, then any object one is carrying at that speed should also be invisible. When the story called for carried objects to be invisible--the flashlight bludgeoning, for instance--it was. But if it would be visually exciting--the table and chair flying across the room towards the science teacher--the objects were visible. I understand the latter case was done for the sake of drama, but the contradiction and incorrect science bug me. As does the reality that you should hear doors slamming even if someone is opening and closing them at 1/30 of a second.

Mulder and Scully were awfully incidental to the story. They popped in and out of the kids’ drama, and played no part in the resolution whatsoever. This is the second monster of the week episode of the seventh season in which that has been the case. I had a tough time caring much about the trials and tribulations of the teenagers, but I recognize it was done in earnest, so I will be lenient in grading. Aside from the above inconsistencies with how the super speed causes and effects were done, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with ’Rush.” It is just not that engaging for an old fogey like me.

Rating: *** (out of 5)

X-Files--"Millennium"

For those few of you who requested I review Millennium, this episode review is as close as you are likely to get. The episode wraps uo the series major story arc after it had been cancelled in the previous year. One figures the resolution does not gel with whatever was originally planned for the series--assuming in those re-Lost days there was one--but at least it‘s closure..

I am not certain I count myself among Millennium fans. The series had a great start--for a time there, its pilot was the highest rated first episode premiere in history, believe it or not--but went steadily downhill from their until it was unceremoniously cancelled a year before the fateful turning of the year 2000. Nevertheless, the show had its moments, and I am glad it got a sense of closure.

Millennium was about retired FBI profiler Frank Black. Black, who has some often ambiguous mental abilities to get inside the heads of the criminals he profiled, is recruited by the Millennium Group, a cadre of retired FBI agents who consulted with law enforcement. Secretly, they were a cult who feared the turn of the millennium would bring about the apocalypse. As the series went on, the group split into factions with agendas of their own. Truth be told, I had lost most interest by that point and know very little of what happened passed the middle of the second season. I suspect no one reading really cares, either. Terry O’Quinn played a very John Locke-esque true believer with a gray moral code, so there is that.

“Millennium” skips a bunch of that. Only Black and his daughter Jordan appear. The plot of a necromancer reviving four members of the Millennium Group upon their suicides as representative of the Four Horsemen is most certainly a story arc resolution created exclusively for this episode without any bearing on how Millennium might have ended had the show not been cancelled. Frankly, it comes across as rather subdued considering the build up the series gave thew turn of the millennium.

(Yes, I know the millennium did not actyallu start until 2001. Scully remarks that, too. I am just going with the show’s mythos. No ’gotchas” in the comments, please.)

“Millennium’ features Mulder and scully investigating what appears to be the grave robbery of the fourth former FBI agent to commit suicide. Scully believes the act was an old enemy taking revenge. Mulder immediately suspects necromancy, or a raising from the dead. His suspicions are confirmed when skinner takes them aside to inform them of the existence of the Millennium Group and that all four of the former FBI agents were members.

The agents go to a sanitarium in Maryland in which black has checked himself into. He has had his daughter taken away from him due to his obsession with stopping the Millennium Group from bringing about the apocalypse. He wants to put all that behind him and get his daughter back, but he does offer the agents some clues about who the four for agents were, how they planned to bring about the End Times, and profiles of the necromancer.

The remainder of the episode is your standard zombie movie. Both mulder and scully are attacked in separate locations. Mulder winds up trapped in the necromancer’s basement with the now Four Horsemen. The whole scenario is resolved by headshots to all four. Because that is the only way to stop a zombie. It seems like an anti-climactic way to prevent the apocalypse, but I guess something in life have to come easy every now and then.

Black is reunited with Jordan after leaving the loony bin for good, which is kind of puzzling since he left in order to kill four zombies in order to save the world. Usually going on a quest like that lands you in a padded room, not lets you out of one. After they leave, Mulder and scully watch the ball drop, finally locking for the first official time in real continuity. Here you go, shippers:The world did not end.

“Millennium” is a decent episode, but it does feel small in comparison to the suspenseful build up that Millennium gave us. It really is your standard zombie flick with a bad guy the Millennium Group just sort of contracted out their major purpose to do with about ten minutes of screen time for lance Henrikson as Black. I think if I was more of a Millennium fan, I would feel gypped.

As a fan of The X-Files, I feel gypped that Scully is shown a photo of the Millennium Group’s symbol--a snake eating itself called an ouroboros--but does not appear to recognize it in "Never Again:. An ouroboros is the symbol she once had tattooed on the small of her back. You would think she would recall it. Regardless, decent episode, but nothing to write home about--unless you are a shipper. Then there is the kiss.

Rating: *** (out of 5)

X-Files--"Millennium"

For those few of you who requested I review Millennium, this episode review is as close as you are likely to get. The episode wraps uo the series major story arc after it had been cancelled in the previous year. One figures the resolution does not gel with whatever was originally planned for the series--assuming in those re-Lost days there was one--but at least it‘s closure..

I am not certain I count myself among Millennium fans. The series had a great start--for a time there, its pilot was the highest rated first episode premiere in history, believe it or not--but went steadily downhill from their until it was unceremoniously cancelled a year before the fateful turning of the year 2000. Nevertheless, the show had its moments, and I am glad it got a sense of closure.

Millennium was about retired FBI profiler Frank Black. Black, who has some often ambiguous mental abilities to get inside the heads of the criminals he profiled, is recruited by the Millennium Group, a cadre of retired FBI agents who consulted with law enforcement. Secretly, they were a cult who feared the turn of the millennium would bring about the apocalypse. As the series went on, the group split into factions with agendas of their own. Truth be told, I had lost most interest by that point and know very little of what happened passed the middle of the second season. I suspect no one reading really cares, either. Terry O’Quinn played a very John Locke-esque true believer with a gray moral code, so there is that.

“Millennium” skips a bunch of that. Only Black and his daughter Jordan appear. The plot of a necromancer reviving four members of the Millennium Group upon their suicides as representative of the Four Horsemen is most certainly a story arc resolution created exclusively for this episode without any bearing on how Millennium might have ended had the show not been cancelled. Frankly, it comes across as rather subdued considering the build up the series gave thew turn of the millennium.

(Yes, I know the millennium did not actyallu start until 2001. Scully remarks that, too. I am just going with the show’s mythos. No ’gotchas” in the comments, please.)

“Millennium’ features Mulder and scully investigating what appears to be the grave robbery of the fourth former FBI agent to commit suicide. Scully believes the act was an old enemy taking revenge. Mulder immediately suspects necromancy, or a raising from the dead. His suspicions are confirmed when skinner takes them aside to inform them of the existence of the Millennium Group and that all four of the former FBI agents were members.

The agents go to a sanitarium in Maryland in which black has checked himself into. He has had his daughter taken away from him due to his obsession with stopping the Millennium Group from bringing about the apocalypse. He wants to put all that behind him and get his daughter back, but he does offer the agents some clues about who the four for agents were, how they planned to bring about the End Times, and profiles of the necromancer.

The remainder of the episode is your standard zombie movie. Both mulder and scully are attacked in separate locations. Mulder winds up trapped in the necromancer’s basement with the now Four Horsemen. The whole scenario is resolved by headshots to all four. Because that is the only way to stop a zombie. It seems like an anti-climactic way to prevent the apocalypse, but I guess something in life have to come easy every now and then.

Black is reunited with Jordan after leaving the loony bin for good, which is kind of puzzling since he left in order to kill four zombies in order to save the world. Usually going on a quest like that lands you in a padded room, not lets you out of one. After they leave, Mulder and scully watch the ball drop, finally locking for the first official time in real continuity. Here you go, shippers:The world did not end.

“Millennium” is a decent episode, but it does feel small in comparison to the suspenseful build up that Millennium gave us. It really is your standard zombie flick with a bad guy the Millennium Group just sort of contracted out their major purpose to do with about ten minutes of screen time for lance Henrikson as Black. I think if I was more of a Millennium fan, I would feel gypped.

As a fan of The X-Files, I feel gypped that Scully is shown a photo of the Millennium Group’s symbol--a snake eating itself called an ouroboros--but does not appear to recognize it in "Never Again:. An ouroboros is the symbol she once had tattooed on the small of her back. You would think she would recall it. Regardless, decent episode, but nothing to write home about--unless you are a shipper. Then there is the kiss.

Rating: *** (out of 5)

X-Files--"Hungry"

Remember a couple days ago when I said much of the seventh season is phoned in? “Hungry” is a sad example. It is a character study which focuses on the struggle of a guest character with Mulder and Scully playing minimal roles. The powers that be are attempting to make sympathetic monster who suffers from self-loathing because of what he is. Try as I might, I just cannot bring myself to sympathize with him like I am supposed to do.

Rob is a young fast food employee who is hiding the fact he is a genetic mutant with a taste for brains. For most of his life, he felt only a compulsion to eat brains, but in the last month, he has given in. Mulder and Scully are brought in--inexplicably why this is a federal matter--to investigate a corpse found brainless, but with a token from the fast food restaurant where Rob works.

Most of the episode focuses on Rob. Mulder pops in and out of his life with hints we suspects rob’s true nature, but otherwise we see rob struggling to control his compulsion through diet pills, therapy, and group counseling. He keeps giving in anyway. He kills an ex-con co-worker, a private detective spying on a cheating wife in his apartment building, and his neighbor. He is caught by the agents as he is about to kill his therapist, but rushes them in order to be shot and killed. The guilt of what he has to do in order to survive is too much for him to live with.

In spite of the best efforts to present him as a good guy, I really do not sympathize with Rob, so the emotional impact is lost on me. He is a loser in a dead end job who gives in to a compulsion for cannibalism which is overtly compared to overeating on comfort foods. I think that is selling the horrific nature of what Rob does short. It is one thing to eat a carton of ice cream when you are depressed, yet seek help for the urge to do so. It is quite another to want to eat brains, and indulge under the rationale you cannot fight biology.

It probably would have been better to have rob as a vicious, uncaring monster from the beginning so ’hungry” could have been straight forward horror instead of a character piece. As it is, the episode does neither well. Rob is not an interesting character, nor is their any suspense in what he does. We know from the first act what he really is and what he does.

I get the sense “Hungry” is the victim of multiple rewrites. Scully is inexplicably absent for two acts. Mulder gives no hint as to why he suspects Rob right off the bat, but he obviously does. It is odder still because Scully has the ex-con employee as her prime suspect, yet he is never a true red herring. Rob states he is leaving town at the end because he no longer has a job. Did he quit or was he fired? I do not know. It feels like these little tidbits which could have illuminated the story never made it out of previous drafts.

Perhaps other fans can get more emotionally attached to Rob. If so, they probably like the episode better. I think he is a bad guy right from the start, and have no sympathy for him when he is killed t the end. The agents have run into all sorts of vampires, fat sucking freaks, and cannibals before. No hint has ever been given we should sympathize with any of those monsters. Why are we supposed to do it now with Rob? Because he is a highly functioning psychopath? Sorry, but that does not cut it. I will give ‘Hungry” an added star for the cool make up job done on Rob’s true form, but getting a good glimpse at him is not worth sitting through “Hungry.”

Rating: ** (out of 5)

X-Files--"Hungry"

Remember a couple days ago when I said much of the seventh season is phoned in? “Hungry” is a sad example. It is a character study which focuses on the struggle of a guest character with Mulder and Scully playing minimal roles. The powers that be are attempting to make sympathetic monster who suffers from self-loathing because of what he is. Try as I might, I just cannot bring myself to sympathize with him like I am supposed to do.

Rob is a young fast food employee who is hiding the fact he is a genetic mutant with a taste for brains. For most of his life, he felt only a compulsion to eat brains, but in the last month, he has given in. Mulder and Scully are brought in--inexplicably why this is a federal matter--to investigate a corpse found brainless, but with a token from the fast food restaurant where Rob works.

Most of the episode focuses on Rob. Mulder pops in and out of his life with hints we suspects rob’s true nature, but otherwise we see rob struggling to control his compulsion through diet pills, therapy, and group counseling. He keeps giving in anyway. He kills an ex-con co-worker, a private detective spying on a cheating wife in his apartment building, and his neighbor. He is caught by the agents as he is about to kill his therapist, but rushes them in order to be shot and killed. The guilt of what he has to do in order to survive is too much for him to live with.

In spite of the best efforts to present him as a good guy, I really do not sympathize with Rob, so the emotional impact is lost on me. He is a loser in a dead end job who gives in to a compulsion for cannibalism which is overtly compared to overeating on comfort foods. I think that is selling the horrific nature of what Rob does short. It is one thing to eat a carton of ice cream when you are depressed, yet seek help for the urge to do so. It is quite another to want to eat brains, and indulge under the rationale you cannot fight biology.

It probably would have been better to have rob as a vicious, uncaring monster from the beginning so ’hungry” could have been straight forward horror instead of a character piece. As it is, the episode does neither well. Rob is not an interesting character, nor is their any suspense in what he does. We know from the first act what he really is and what he does.

I get the sense “Hungry” is the victim of multiple rewrites. Scully is inexplicably absent for two acts. Mulder gives no hint as to why he suspects Rob right off the bat, but he obviously does. It is odder still because Scully has the ex-con employee as her prime suspect, yet he is never a true red herring. Rob states he is leaving town at the end because he no longer has a job. Did he quit or was he fired? I do not know. It feels like these little tidbits which could have illuminated the story never made it out of previous drafts.

Perhaps other fans can get more emotionally attached to Rob. If so, they probably like the episode better. I think he is a bad guy right from the start, and have no sympathy for him when he is killed t the end. The agents have run into all sorts of vampires, fat sucking freaks, and cannibals before. No hint has ever been given we should sympathize with any of those monsters. Why are we supposed to do it now with Rob? Because he is a highly functioning psychopath? Sorry, but that does not cut it. I will give ‘Hungry” an added star for the cool make up job done on Rob’s true form, but getting a good glimpse at him is not worth sitting through “Hungry.”

Rating: ** (out of 5)

X-Files--"The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati"

I like my episodes of The X-Files weird, and they do not come much weirder than ‘The Sixth Extinction Ii: Amor Fati.” Unfortunately, they also do not come off asa bigger case of plagiarism than this, either. I will get to that in a moment, but I have to note a cast and crew as lawsuit happy as The X-Files bunch was ought to have thought twice before pulling off pretty much everything after the first act.

There is a lot going on here. Mulder’s mother visits him in the hospital. She runs into the Cigarette Smoking man. He apparently promises he can save Mulder, because she agrees to sign him out of the hospital against medical advice. Much of this is told from Mulder’s perspective. He dreams the Cigarette smoking Man heals his illness, then leads him to an undisclosed location where gets to live an idyllic life into old age after dropping his involvement with the X-Files.

He gets a nice house in the suburbs, Diana Fowley for a wife (no accounting for taste.), kids, his sister, and Deep Throat still alive. I never grasped how much guilt he felt over Deep Throat’s murder. He feels odd he would dream about his revival to alleviate his guilt, but nothing about all the suffering scully has gone through because of him; abduction, her sister’s murder, her cancer, Emily’s death, and her inability to have children all spring to mind immediately. Mulder is either an odd duck or the most emotionally selfish man alive. Maybe both.

As he is dreaming all this, the Cigarette Smoking Man and a group of surgeons are operating on his brain. He is now an alien/human hybrid himself. They want his genetic material because--take a deep breath--he may be the one who fulfills a prophecy of preventing the alien invasion. There is plenty of Mulder as Jesus symbolism, not the least of which is his strapped down to the operating table in a cross formation and a metal halo holding his head in place which looks much like a crown of thorns.

Scully spends the episode searching for Mulder aimlessly until she is helped by an astral projection of Albert Housteen and secretly by Fowley, who is feeling guilty over her part in Mulder’s fate.. She is murder off screen for aiding Scully. Thank the Lord we do not have to deal with her any longer.

Here is the big problem--the episode is nearly blow by blow the last thirty minutes of Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. In the film, , we see Christ saved from the cross at the last minute and allowed to have a normal life. He gets married, has kids, and leads a long, normal life. As Jesus is dying of old age, he is visited by his supposedly-dead best friend Judas, who calls Jesus a traitor and shows him that Jerusalem is burning because Jesus did not die for our sins. Jesus then snaps back to reality where he is indeed dying on the cross. the episode is nearly identical, with Mulder 'saved' by the Cancerman, allowed to have a normal life where he marries and has children, when he is about to die of old age, he is visited by his supposedly-dead best friend Scully who calls him a traitor and shows him that the world is being destroyed by aliens because he did not complete his quest, and he snaps back to reality where he wakes on an X-shaped table.

I do not know if the above description describes for you how blatant the "homage" is. The Mulder as Jesus bits are sometimes so forced, they are laugh out loud funny. it is all from really ought of no where, too. Mulder has been much more of a knight on a quest--the term has been used many times--than a savior of humanity.

The episode ends with a lot of lovey dovey dialogue between mulder and Scully on how they are each other’s anchor to reality. Neither has anyone to trust except the other. They share a smooch, but it is one of deep friendship in the middle of a highly emotional moment. Still, I think the shippers generally get excited over it. If so, enjoy, boys and girls.

Compared to the other two parts of the story, “Amor Fati” is the strongest. But that is not saying much. The story was drawn out at least one episode too long. The whole aliens seeded human life story never goes anywhere from here, either. But the heart of this episode is personal. It is about fate and accepting the things you are given. Amor Fati is a latin term meaning “Love of Fate.’ it is a religious concept that says we should lobe our lives no matter what we get because it has been ordained by God. Another bit of Calvinism in The X-Files, folks. I like “Amor Fati” all right, but I expect something bigger out of the conclusion to what was assumed to be the final season premiere storyline.

Rating: *** (out of 5)

X-Files--"The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati"

I like my episodes of The X-Files weird, and they do not come much weirder than ‘The Sixth Extinction Ii: Amor Fati.” Unfortunately, they also do not come off asa bigger case of plagiarism than this, either. I will get to that in a moment, but I have to note a cast and crew as lawsuit happy as The X-Files bunch was ought to have thought twice before pulling off pretty much everything after the first act.

There is a lot going on here. Mulder’s mother visits him in the hospital. She runs into the Cigarette Smoking man. He apparently promises he can save Mulder, because she agrees to sign him out of the hospital against medical advice. Much of this is told from Mulder’s perspective. He dreams the Cigarette smoking Man heals his illness, then leads him to an undisclosed location where gets to live an idyllic life into old age after dropping his involvement with the X-Files.

He gets a nice house in the suburbs, Diana Fowley for a wife (no accounting for taste.), kids, his sister, and Deep Throat still alive. I never grasped how much guilt he felt over Deep Throat’s murder. He feels odd he would dream about his revival to alleviate his guilt, but nothing about all the suffering scully has gone through because of him; abduction, her sister’s murder, her cancer, Emily’s death, and her inability to have children all spring to mind immediately. Mulder is either an odd duck or the most emotionally selfish man alive. Maybe both.

As he is dreaming all this, the Cigarette Smoking Man and a group of surgeons are operating on his brain. He is now an alien/human hybrid himself. They want his genetic material because--take a deep breath--he may be the one who fulfills a prophecy of preventing the alien invasion. There is plenty of Mulder as Jesus symbolism, not the least of which is his strapped down to the operating table in a cross formation and a metal halo holding his head in place which looks much like a crown of thorns.

Scully spends the episode searching for Mulder aimlessly until she is helped by an astral projection of Albert Housteen and secretly by Fowley, who is feeling guilty over her part in Mulder’s fate.. She is murder off screen for aiding Scully. Thank the Lord we do not have to deal with her any longer.

Here is the big problem--the episode is nearly blow by blow the last thirty minutes of Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. In the film, , we see Christ saved from the cross at the last minute and allowed to have a normal life. He gets married, has kids, and leads a long, normal life. As Jesus is dying of old age, he is visited by his supposedly-dead best friend Judas, who calls Jesus a traitor and shows him that Jerusalem is burning because Jesus did not die for our sins. Jesus then snaps back to reality where he is indeed dying on the cross. the episode is nearly identical, with Mulder 'saved' by the Cancerman, allowed to have a normal life where he marries and has children, when he is about to die of old age, he is visited by his supposedly-dead best friend Scully who calls him a traitor and shows him that the world is being destroyed by aliens because he did not complete his quest, and he snaps back to reality where he wakes on an X-shaped table.

I do not know if the above description describes for you how blatant the "homage" is. The Mulder as Jesus bits are sometimes so forced, they are laugh out loud funny. it is all from really ought of no where, too. Mulder has been much more of a knight on a quest--the term has been used many times--than a savior of humanity.

The episode ends with a lot of lovey dovey dialogue between mulder and Scully on how they are each other’s anchor to reality. Neither has anyone to trust except the other. They share a smooch, but it is one of deep friendship in the middle of a highly emotional moment. Still, I think the shippers generally get excited over it. If so, enjoy, boys and girls.

Compared to the other two parts of the story, “Amor Fati” is the strongest. But that is not saying much. The story was drawn out at least one episode too long. The whole aliens seeded human life story never goes anywhere from here, either. But the heart of this episode is personal. It is about fate and accepting the things you are given. Amor Fati is a latin term meaning “Love of Fate.’ it is a religious concept that says we should lobe our lives no matter what we get because it has been ordained by God. Another bit of Calvinism in The X-Files, folks. I like “Amor Fati” all right, but I expect something bigger out of the conclusion to what was assumed to be the final season premiere storyline.

Rating: *** (out of 5)

X-Files--"The Sixth Extinction"

“The Sixth Extinction“ marks the beginning of the seventh season. This is the final season in which it is just Mulder and Scully investigating the paranormal. There is a palpable sense the show is sputtering to and end even though it will earn and additional two seasons. At the time, however, it was generally assumed seven was going to be it. There is a lot of phoning it in going on. A few old stories are wrapped up from the darker days of the show, but there is by and large a lighter, often slapstick tone to the episodes. There are some high points, but they are few and far between.

The big indication things were falling apart behind the scenes was a l$25 million lawsuit filed by Duchovny over the summer hiatus between the sixth and seventh seasons. Duchovny claimed he had been cheated out of profit sharing for the series--the show had earned FOX $1.4 billion by that point in first run, syndication, merchandizing, and movie gross--by selling rights to subsidiary companies at a cheaper price. His complaint further alleged show runner Chris Carter had conspired with FOX in exchange for a guaranteed pilot to series pick up. (Said pilot turned out to be the flop Harsh Realm, so that was a bad deal for carter and FOX.) Suing the powers that be does not exactly create a healthy, happy work environment.

In Duchovny;s defense, Carter also filed a lawsuit against FOX seven years later for breach of contract. His suit made similar claims to Duchovny’s. FOX has a history of being sued over alleged profit-sharing shenanigans, including Alan Alda suing over MASH profits. So while I do think Duchovny is a bit of a jackass, he may have had a point here. But I digress. I miss legal ranglings.

A significant point of note is several episode were written by series stars David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, and William B. Davis. All but davis directed their episode, too. Like with Duchovny‘s “The Unnatural”, the episodes fit awkwardly into the theme of the series, but are generally entertaining. We will get to each one eventually, but as a concept, they feel like wish fullfiliment to keep the stars on the reservation while filling out a 22 episode order.

To everyone’s surprise, the series was renewed twice over, with a limited role for Duchovny. But we will get to that towards the end of the month. For now…

“The Sixth Extinction” refers to the concept there have been five mass extinctions of species in the history of Earth. The sixth refers to man destroying himself through war, disease, pollution, fatty foods, repeated reruns of Jersey Shore--whatever you think is most likely to be the twilight of the human race. The concept is hinted at as Scully remains in West Africa to translate the markings on the spacecraft. They turn out to be a combination of human gene sequence and doomsday passages from the world’s religious and pagan texts. For goos measure, Scully experiences a plague of locusts and the local water turning to blood to show the apocalyptic religious texts hold more meaning.

Meanwhile, Skinner is attempting to help Mulder communicate as he sleeps further into madness. He recruits Michael Kritsgau, the Department of Defense employee who blew the whistle on the (highly implausible) government creation of the UFO myth to distract Americans from the Cold War, to use a CIA drugging methos to slow down Mulder’s increasingly kinetic brain activity. It works long enough to demonstrate mulder’s newfound psychic abilities. The two are discovered and banned from seeing him again. Fowley visit’s the comatose agent to hint she has plans for him .

The whole sequence with mulder feels added in for the purpose of splitting up scully’s story at dramatic points, but for little other reason. Not that her story is all that compelling, either. She does not translate enough of the writings to be useful before Dr. Barnes, apparently guided there by Alex Krycek, shows up to hold her prisoner for a while. She escapes to head back to the united States where she hangs all her hopes on Mulder recovering enough to guide her with his now enhanced mental abilities.

Scully’s story is narrated by her in either a journal entry or letter to Mulder in which she describes how desperate she is to cure him. Would he please hold on for her? The narration is full of all sorts of lovey dovey overtones which do not generate then emotional impact it was obviously intended to do. She ends by begging him to hold on while standing by his hospital bed. Strangely, the episode does not end on that high emotional point, but on Barnes being murdered back in West Africa. Why/ From a dramtic standpoint, we care about Mulder and Scully. Having a to be continued after Scully begs him not to die makes far more sense than ending on the death of an incidental character, particularly when we have not been let in on why we should care. This is the guy who was holding scully prisoner for two acts, after all. He is the bad guy. We want to see him get his. Why is his death so foreboding we need to back back next week for the explanation?

Why come back next week indeed? “The Sixth Extinction” is a slow paced embrace of pantheistic doomsday junk interrupted vy a drugged out mulder doing card tricks. To prove his psychic abilities have not made him a total loon. I cannot say it helps much, but one wonders if his constantly being strepped to a hospital bed appearing on the verge of drooling all over himself was not a jab at the lawsuit I mentioned above. I almost felt sorry for the undignified way he was presented. Almost. Even for the middle of a three part story, this episode was terribly anemic.

The saving grace? Look at the photo above. A sweat drenched scully in a white tank top menacingly brandishing a machete? That is pretty much the bulk of the episode. One cannot complain much about that. Maybe Carter put her like that on purpose because he knew how weak the rest of the syory arc was. It only grants the episode one additional star to raise “The Sixth Extinction” above clunker.

Rating: ** (out of 5)

X-Files--"The Sixth Extinction"

“The Sixth Extinction“ marks the beginning of the seventh season. This is the final season in which it is just Mulder and Scully investigating the paranormal. There is a palpable sense the show is sputtering to and end even though it will earn and additional two seasons. At the time, however, it was generally assumed seven was going to be it. There is a lot of phoning it in going on. A few old stories are wrapped up from the darker days of the show, but there is by and large a lighter, often slapstick tone to the episodes. There are some high points, but they are few and far between.

The big indication things were falling apart behind the scenes was a l$25 million lawsuit filed by Duchovny over the summer hiatus between the sixth and seventh seasons. Duchovny claimed he had been cheated out of profit sharing for the series--the show had earned FOX $1.4 billion by that point in first run, syndication, merchandizing, and movie gross--by selling rights to subsidiary companies at a cheaper price. His complaint further alleged show runner Chris Carter had conspired with FOX in exchange for a guaranteed pilot to series pick up. (Said pilot turned out to be the flop Harsh Realm, so that was a bad deal for carter and FOX.) Suing the powers that be does not exactly create a healthy, happy work environment.

In Duchovny;s defense, Carter also filed a lawsuit against FOX seven years later for breach of contract. His suit made similar claims to Duchovny’s. FOX has a history of being sued over alleged profit-sharing shenanigans, including Alan Alda suing over MASH profits. So while I do think Duchovny is a bit of a jackass, he may have had a point here. But I digress. I miss legal ranglings.

A significant point of note is several episode were written by series stars David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, and William B. Davis. All but davis directed their episode, too. Like with Duchovny‘s “The Unnatural”, the episodes fit awkwardly into the theme of the series, but are generally entertaining. We will get to each one eventually, but as a concept, they feel like wish fullfiliment to keep the stars on the reservation while filling out a 22 episode order.

To everyone’s surprise, the series was renewed twice over, with a limited role for Duchovny. But we will get to that towards the end of the month. For now…

“The Sixth Extinction” refers to the concept there have been five mass extinctions of species in the history of Earth. The sixth refers to man destroying himself through war, disease, pollution, fatty foods, repeated reruns of Jersey Shore--whatever you think is most likely to be the twilight of the human race. The concept is hinted at as Scully remains in West Africa to translate the markings on the spacecraft. They turn out to be a combination of human gene sequence and doomsday passages from the world’s religious and pagan texts. For goos measure, Scully experiences a plague of locusts and the local water turning to blood to show the apocalyptic religious texts hold more meaning.

Meanwhile, Skinner is attempting to help Mulder communicate as he sleeps further into madness. He recruits Michael Kritsgau, the Department of Defense employee who blew the whistle on the (highly implausible) government creation of the UFO myth to distract Americans from the Cold War, to use a CIA drugging methos to slow down Mulder’s increasingly kinetic brain activity. It works long enough to demonstrate mulder’s newfound psychic abilities. The two are discovered and banned from seeing him again. Fowley visit’s the comatose agent to hint she has plans for him .

The whole sequence with mulder feels added in for the purpose of splitting up scully’s story at dramatic points, but for little other reason. Not that her story is all that compelling, either. She does not translate enough of the writings to be useful before Dr. Barnes, apparently guided there by Alex Krycek, shows up to hold her prisoner for a while. She escapes to head back to the united States where she hangs all her hopes on Mulder recovering enough to guide her with his now enhanced mental abilities.

Scully’s story is narrated by her in either a journal entry or letter to Mulder in which she describes how desperate she is to cure him. Would he please hold on for her? The narration is full of all sorts of lovey dovey overtones which do not generate then emotional impact it was obviously intended to do. She ends by begging him to hold on while standing by his hospital bed. Strangely, the episode does not end on that high emotional point, but on Barnes being murdered back in West Africa. Why/ From a dramtic standpoint, we care about Mulder and Scully. Having a to be continued after Scully begs him not to die makes far more sense than ending on the death of an incidental character, particularly when we have not been let in on why we should care. This is the guy who was holding scully prisoner for two acts, after all. He is the bad guy. We want to see him get his. Why is his death so foreboding we need to back back next week for the explanation?

Why come back next week indeed? “The Sixth Extinction” is a slow paced embrace of pantheistic doomsday junk interrupted vy a drugged out mulder doing card tricks. To prove his psychic abilities have not made him a total loon. I cannot say it helps much, but one wonders if his constantly being strepped to a hospital bed appearing on the verge of drooling all over himself was not a jab at the lawsuit I mentioned above. I almost felt sorry for the undignified way he was presented. Almost. Even for the middle of a three part story, this episode was terribly anemic.

The saving grace? Look at the photo above. A sweat drenched scully in a white tank top menacingly brandishing a machete? That is pretty much the bulk of the episode. One cannot complain much about that. Maybe Carter put her like that on purpose because he knew how weak the rest of the syory arc was. It only grants the episode one additional star to raise “The Sixth Extinction” above clunker.

Rating: ** (out of 5)

X-Files--"Biogenesis"

“Biogenesis,” which is the sixth season finale, introduces the second mythology after the whole Syndicate/alien conspiracy of creating hybrids for colonization ran its course. Some say ran its course. Other fans say overstayed its welcome. I am of the former mindset. As far as the second mythology, I recall being fairly under whelmed. The gist of it all is that life on earth was established by aliens. The theory plays out more like Chariots of the Gods than the quasi-mormon theology of Battlestar Galactica with a dash of the mapping of the human genome project thrown in for good measure.

The story begins when a biologist in West Africa discovers ancient artifacts with strange writings on them that appear to have a mind of their own. He takes the artifacts to American University in Washington, DC, in order to have them read by a Dr. Sandoz. The African is killed, Sandoz disappears, and the artifacts along with him. Mulder and Scully are assigned to the murder case, but Mulder is far more interested in finding the artifacts than discovering whether Sandoz is the murderer. He still thinks there is alien life out there who know about his sister’s fate.

Mulder begins hearing voices every time the artifact is mentioned around him in any serious manner. His suffering becomes more debilitating as the episode progresses to the point when the agents discover not only is the writing on the artifact Navajo, but Sandoz is an associate of their old ally, Albert Housteen, the former Windtalker, Scully travels to New Mexico to find Housteen without him.

The surviving members of the Syndicate--the Cigarette Smoking Man, Alex Krycek, and Diana Fowley--are doing their best to stymie her investigation behind the scenes. Krycek is using the nanotech in order to blackmail Skinner into helping. Thus begins another of those long stretches in which a usually strong character is degraded badly.

Scully discovers housteen dying of cancer in new Mexico, and intercepts sandoz. He tells her some of the Navajo writing is from the book of Genesis. Others appear to be a sequence of letters he cannot make sense of. With Housteen dying, he is at a loss as to what to do next. Because even though he is surrounded by Navajo, none of them can read Navajo. Or maybe he is too bashful to ask. Whichever answer you think is more plausible.

Scully gets a call from skinner that mulder has been hospitalized due to his worsening condition. When she gets back to Washington, she discovers he is actually locked in a psychiatric ward. The only thing that should surprise you about his predicament is how long it took him to be committed in the first place. Fowley was with him the whole time--at one point rocking his world to find out all he knows about the artifact. If I may be tasteless for a moment, Mimi Rogers has seen her better days. In nude scenes for 1995’s Full Body Massage, her boobs were sagging nearly to her knees. Mulder is obviously not a picky man. Anyway, her presence and skinner’s odd behavior make her suspicious of both.

Fortunately, she gets a call from Sandoz. It suddenly dawned on him, brilliant PhD in biology that he is, the sequence of letters he could not identify before are the human genetic code. So the guy thinks there is only one Navajo in all of new Mexico who can read Navajo writing and does not recognize gene sequences that would jump out at a freshman biology major. I was pretty happy when Krycek killed this guy. He was a real waste of space. Scully travels to West Africa on her own . She finds the area where the artifact was originally discovered. It is part of a large spacecraft half buried in the surf. Too be continued…

“Biogenesis” is awfully weak for a season finale. It would have been better suited as the first part of a two part story in the middle of a season. It is not terrible as an episode--save for Sandoz’s timely ignorance and revaltions just when the story called for it--but it is very verbose and high concept. The cliffhanger ends on the revelation aliens may have seeded life on Earth, but that was well established throughout the episode in general. Why would the discovery of a spacecraft be enough of a surprise to keep the audience on edge from may Mntil November?

There is a sign of the time here, too Mulder is in very little of the episode. His role will continue to diminish until he becomes a recurring character for the final two seasons. Get used to Scully-centric episodes. Fortunately, many of them are better than “Biogenesis.” On the bright side, we have reached the end of a very uneven season. Too bad the next will be even more topsy turvy.

Rating: *** (out of 5)

X-Files--"Biogenesis"

“Biogenesis,” which is the sixth season finale, introduces the second mythology after the whole Syndicate/alien conspiracy of creating hybrids for colonization ran its course. Some say ran its course. Other fans say overstayed its welcome. I am of the former mindset. As far as the second mythology, I recall being fairly under whelmed. The gist of it all is that life on earth was established by aliens. The theory plays out more like Chariots of the Gods than the quasi-mormon theology of Battlestar Galactica with a dash of the mapping of the human genome project thrown in for good measure.

The story begins when a biologist in West Africa discovers ancient artifacts with strange writings on them that appear to have a mind of their own. He takes the artifacts to American University in Washington, DC, in order to have them read by a Dr. Sandoz. The African is killed, Sandoz disappears, and the artifacts along with him. Mulder and Scully are assigned to the murder case, but Mulder is far more interested in finding the artifacts than discovering whether Sandoz is the murderer. He still thinks there is alien life out there who know about his sister’s fate.

Mulder begins hearing voices every time the artifact is mentioned around him in any serious manner. His suffering becomes more debilitating as the episode progresses to the point when the agents discover not only is the writing on the artifact Navajo, but Sandoz is an associate of their old ally, Albert Housteen, the former Windtalker, Scully travels to New Mexico to find Housteen without him.

The surviving members of the Syndicate--the Cigarette Smoking Man, Alex Krycek, and Diana Fowley--are doing their best to stymie her investigation behind the scenes. Krycek is using the nanotech in order to blackmail Skinner into helping. Thus begins another of those long stretches in which a usually strong character is degraded badly.

Scully discovers housteen dying of cancer in new Mexico, and intercepts sandoz. He tells her some of the Navajo writing is from the book of Genesis. Others appear to be a sequence of letters he cannot make sense of. With Housteen dying, he is at a loss as to what to do next. Because even though he is surrounded by Navajo, none of them can read Navajo. Or maybe he is too bashful to ask. Whichever answer you think is more plausible.

Scully gets a call from skinner that mulder has been hospitalized due to his worsening condition. When she gets back to Washington, she discovers he is actually locked in a psychiatric ward. The only thing that should surprise you about his predicament is how long it took him to be committed in the first place. Fowley was with him the whole time--at one point rocking his world to find out all he knows about the artifact. If I may be tasteless for a moment, Mimi Rogers has seen her better days. In nude scenes for 1995’s Full Body Massage, her boobs were sagging nearly to her knees. Mulder is obviously not a picky man. Anyway, her presence and skinner’s odd behavior make her suspicious of both.

Fortunately, she gets a call from Sandoz. It suddenly dawned on him, brilliant PhD in biology that he is, the sequence of letters he could not identify before are the human genetic code. So the guy thinks there is only one Navajo in all of new Mexico who can read Navajo writing and does not recognize gene sequences that would jump out at a freshman biology major. I was pretty happy when Krycek killed this guy. He was a real waste of space. Scully travels to West Africa on her own . She finds the area where the artifact was originally discovered. It is part of a large spacecraft half buried in the surf. Too be continued…

“Biogenesis” is awfully weak for a season finale. It would have been better suited as the first part of a two part story in the middle of a season. It is not terrible as an episode--save for Sandoz’s timely ignorance and revaltions just when the story called for it--but it is very verbose and high concept. The cliffhanger ends on the revelation aliens may have seeded life on Earth, but that was well established throughout the episode in general. Why would the discovery of a spacecraft be enough of a surprise to keep the audience on edge from may Mntil November?

There is a sign of the time here, too Mulder is in very little of the episode. His role will continue to diminish until he becomes a recurring character for the final two seasons. Get used to Scully-centric episodes. Fortunately, many of them are better than “Biogenesis.” On the bright side, we have reached the end of a very uneven season. Too bad the next will be even more topsy turvy.

Rating: *** (out of 5)

X-Files--"Field Trip"

Remember, kids, when checking on your partner’s wellbeing, it is always boobs first. It is imperative to determine whether those puppies are okay before anything else.

I like The X-Files best when it is dark and weird. “Field Trip” fits the bill on both counts. How can you not love an episode in which mulder and scully are sharing an hallucination underground brought on by a giant mushroom that is slowly devouring them? Yes, mushrooms can apparently cause hallucinations by eating you instead of the other way around. Someone should have told Aaron Sorkin about this. Maybe he could have stuck around for the final two seasons of The West Wing if he had known an hallucinogenic mushroom eating him could induce the same effect as the reverse.

The agents head to Brown Mountain, North Carolina, to investigate the mysterious deaths of two hitchhikers. They were found as skeletons six months after they went missing. Scully suspects ritualistic murder by boiling or acid. Mulder suspects alien involvement because of local legend. Battle lines are quickly drawn.

Speaking of lines being drawn, When Mulder is describing Brown Mountain, North Carolina, the map beside him is actually South Carolina. The map has a line pointing specifically to Newberry, South Carolina. The area is home to Newberry college and the Newberry Opera House, but is otherwise flat as a pancake and devoid of any alien legends. The rest of the episode makes it clear the agents are in North Carolina, so the powers that be really should have gotten the right map.

The agents split up, with Scully giving the skeletons the once over and mulder hiking out to the site where they were discovered. Scully identifies plant digestive enzymes on the skeletons and begins fretting for Mulder’s safety. She and the coroner go looking for him. It is not entirely clear what happens when, or when mulder is hallucinating or they bother are, but at some point, they are both trapped underground hallucinating while being noshed by a mushroom. The best I can tell is the split features Mulder’s fantasy scenario, then scully’s nightmare.

Mulder finds the hitchhikers alive. They tell him everything he wants to hear about their abduction by aliens, down to the skeletons being placed as decoys. He takes them back to his apartment. When Scully shows up, he happily shows her the two and another surprise--a grey alien. You can be reasonably sure with everyone chilling at the Mulder bachelor pad, we have all gone to Oz.To further prove this is Mulder’s fantasy, Scully lays it on thick that he has been right all along about absolutely everything. So Mulder’s secret wish is to hear Scully admit she was wrong. Why he does not want her to do this in a string bikini makes one question his lack of imagination.

This sequence fades away back to Scully and the coroner searching for Mulder on the hiking trail. They eventually find his skeleton in the same condition as the hitchhikers’, sans digestive fluids. Everyone from the coroner to Skinner to the Lobe Gunmen decide he was murdered in a ritualistic killing. Only scully suspects differently, and is frustrated no one else cares.Faux Mulder

Yeah, I know. that was a bad joke.

What I find interesting about these two scenarios is that it is established towards the end the mushroom is fulfilling fantasies to keep the agents calm and still. They are only able to escape when they realize the trauma of what is really happening to them. Their stirring then attracts the attention of the search parties who rescue them. Mullder’s makes sense. He gets to hear everything he wants about the existence of aliens and Scully admitting she was wrong. But scully imagines Mulder dying horribly, but no one caring how or why. What an emotionally damaged person she must be if her biggest fantasy is to torture herself in such a manner.

‘Field Trip” has a definite modern Star Trek reset button feel to it. It does not take long for you to realize we are not dealing with reality, so something is going to have to snap things back to reality. The journey is pretty cool, however. The ending does not feel like a cop out as many trek variations of the reset button do. Maybe because it is because of the trippy idea of a mushroom eating an hallucinating human that raises the episode up a notch or two. Whatever the case, “Field Trip’ is a weirdly amusing, but often dark, look inside the agents’ minds. They are two strange, strange souls.

Rating; *** (out of 5)

X-Files--"Field Trip"

Remember, kids, when checking on your partner’s wellbeing, it is always boobs first. It is imperative to determine whether those puppies are okay before anything else.

I like The X-Files best when it is dark and weird. “Field Trip” fits the bill on both counts. How can you not love an episode in which mulder and scully are sharing an hallucination underground brought on by a giant mushroom that is slowly devouring them? Yes, mushrooms can apparently cause hallucinations by eating you instead of the other way around. Someone should have told Aaron Sorkin about this. Maybe he could have stuck around for the final two seasons of The West Wing if he had known an hallucinogenic mushroom eating him could induce the same effect as the reverse.

The agents head to Brown Mountain, North Carolina, to investigate the mysterious deaths of two hitchhikers. They were found as skeletons six months after they went missing. Scully suspects ritualistic murder by boiling or acid. Mulder suspects alien involvement because of local legend. Battle lines are quickly drawn.

Speaking of lines being drawn, When Mulder is describing Brown Mountain, North Carolina, the map beside him is actually South Carolina. The map has a line pointing specifically to Newberry, South Carolina. The area is home to Newberry college and the Newberry Opera House, but is otherwise flat as a pancake and devoid of any alien legends. The rest of the episode makes it clear the agents are in North Carolina, so the powers that be really should have gotten the right map.

The agents split up, with Scully giving the skeletons the once over and mulder hiking out to the site where they were discovered. Scully identifies plant digestive enzymes on the skeletons and begins fretting for Mulder’s safety. She and the coroner go looking for him. It is not entirely clear what happens when, or when mulder is hallucinating or they bother are, but at some point, they are both trapped underground hallucinating while being noshed by a mushroom. The best I can tell is the split features Mulder’s fantasy scenario, then scully’s nightmare.

Mulder finds the hitchhikers alive. They tell him everything he wants to hear about their abduction by aliens, down to the skeletons being placed as decoys. He takes them back to his apartment. When Scully shows up, he happily shows her the two and another surprise--a grey alien. You can be reasonably sure with everyone chilling at the Mulder bachelor pad, we have all gone to Oz.To further prove this is Mulder’s fantasy, Scully lays it on thick that he has been right all along about absolutely everything. So Mulder’s secret wish is to hear Scully admit she was wrong. Why he does not want her to do this in a string bikini makes one question his lack of imagination.

This sequence fades away back to Scully and the coroner searching for Mulder on the hiking trail. They eventually find his skeleton in the same condition as the hitchhikers’, sans digestive fluids. Everyone from the coroner to Skinner to the Lobe Gunmen decide he was murdered in a ritualistic killing. Only scully suspects differently, and is frustrated no one else cares.Faux Mulder

Yeah, I know. that was a bad joke.

What I find interesting about these two scenarios is that it is established towards the end the mushroom is fulfilling fantasies to keep the agents calm and still. They are only able to escape when they realize the trauma of what is really happening to them. Their stirring then attracts the attention of the search parties who rescue them. Mullder’s makes sense. He gets to hear everything he wants about the existence of aliens and Scully admitting she was wrong. But scully imagines Mulder dying horribly, but no one caring how or why. What an emotionally damaged person she must be if her biggest fantasy is to torture herself in such a manner.

‘Field Trip” has a definite modern Star Trek reset button feel to it. It does not take long for you to realize we are not dealing with reality, so something is going to have to snap things back to reality. The journey is pretty cool, however. The ending does not feel like a cop out as many trek variations of the reset button do. Maybe because it is because of the trippy idea of a mushroom eating an hallucinating human that raises the episode up a notch or two. Whatever the case, “Field Trip’ is a weirdly amusing, but often dark, look inside the agents’ minds. They are two strange, strange souls.

Rating; *** (out of 5)

X-Files--"Three of a Kind"

“Three of a Kind” is a direct sequel to the fifth season’s “The Unusual Suspects.” both episodes center on the Lone Gunmen and were also filmed for much the same reason. The former focused on the Lone Gunmen because David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were still filming X-Files: Fight the Future in Los Angeles. Duchovny only took a brief turn as Mulder in the episode. It is Gillian Anderson’s turn with the Lone Gunmen in “Three of a Kind” to allow Duchovny time to complete work on his writing and directorial debut with “The Unnatural”. Scully makes a brief an appearance as Mulder in “The Unusual Suspects,” but it is far more memorable.

I have mixed emotions about the Lone Gunmen. At best, hey are often featured as convenient plot devices to guide Mulder and Scully in the right direction with information that is implausible for them to have versus what the agents could get through the resources of the FBI. At worst, they show up with convenient information at a time when the episode writer is at a loss as to how to get from point A to point B. However, in rare times, they are out in the field. They make for good, entertaining characters, even if it is difficult to take them seriously. I think that was a large part of why their series bombed. True, The X-Files franchise had peaked in popularity by then, but the slapstick pratfalls of The Lone Gunmen did not help matters.

Byers is still lovesick for Suzanne Modeski, the woman he met back in ’The Unusual Suspects.” She was kidnapped by black ops government agents in the final scene, but Byers has been dragging his cohorts to these defense contractor conventions hoping to run into her again. He hit’s the jackpot in 1999 when he spots her with a men in black operative while investigating new assassination technology.

Byers tricks Scully into coming out to the convention by simulating a phone call from Mulder with his laptop--it is the only trace of Mulder in the episode--because he believes she has been brainwashed. She was, after all, warning them about government mind control a decade prior. There is a CIA mind control project going on which involves injecting a drug into people’s necks. A CIA operative does this to a Lone Gunmen associate and orders him to commit suicide. Scully is also injected to cover up her autopsy findings.

Her drugging leads to the only significant part Scully plays in the episode--a flirtatious bimbo. It is funny to see her drunk and cut loose. She is also rather…seductive with the act. A nifty aspect is that when she asks for a light of her cigarette while surrounded by defense officials and intelligence operatives, it is Morris Fletcher’s she chooses. Neither of them remembers the other, but it was a neat homage to earlier in the season for him to return. It will not be for the last time. Scully’s role in the ensuing caper is quite limited beyond the comic relief.

Suzanne reveals to Byers that she has been working to curtail the mind control drug that their friend and Scully were given. Conveniently, she has an antidote which also comes in handy when Langly is also given the drug with orders to kill her. The Lone Gunmen fake her death and have the drugged CIA operatives behind the whole plot confess to the murder of their friend. Suzanne, now officially dead, professes love for byers and asks him to come escape with her. He refuses, saying she will be safer without him. *sniff*

‘Three of a Kind” is frivolous filler. It is odd to have two episodes in a row featuring brand new or supporting characters, too. But frivolous does not mean worthless. It is a fun little caper with a surprisingly good supporting cast which includes the smarmy Charles rocket and John Billingsley as well as Michael McKean reprising his role as Fletcher. Most fans remember only vamp Scully. I cannot blame them for that. It is worth watching just for the antics of the “scrumptious” Agent Scully.

Rating; *** (out of 5)

X-Files--"Three of a Kind"

“Three of a Kind” is a direct sequel to the fifth season’s “The Unusual Suspects.” both episodes center on the Lone Gunmen and were also filmed for much the same reason. The former focused on the Lone Gunmen because David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were still filming X-Files: Fight the Future in Los Angeles. Duchovny only took a brief turn as Mulder in the episode. It is Gillian Anderson’s turn with the Lone Gunmen in “Three of a Kind” to allow Duchovny time to complete work on his writing and directorial debut with “The Unnatural”. Scully makes a brief an appearance as Mulder in “The Unusual Suspects,” but it is far more memorable.

I have mixed emotions about the Lone Gunmen. At best, hey are often featured as convenient plot devices to guide Mulder and Scully in the right direction with information that is implausible for them to have versus what the agents could get through the resources of the FBI. At worst, they show up with convenient information at a time when the episode writer is at a loss as to how to get from point A to point B. However, in rare times, they are out in the field. They make for good, entertaining characters, even if it is difficult to take them seriously. I think that was a large part of why their series bombed. True, The X-Files franchise had peaked in popularity by then, but the slapstick pratfalls of The Lone Gunmen did not help matters.

Byers is still lovesick for Suzanne Modeski, the woman he met back in ’The Unusual Suspects.” She was kidnapped by black ops government agents in the final scene, but Byers has been dragging his cohorts to these defense contractor conventions hoping to run into her again. He hit’s the jackpot in 1999 when he spots her with a men in black operative while investigating new assassination technology.

Byers tricks Scully into coming out to the convention by simulating a phone call from Mulder with his laptop--it is the only trace of Mulder in the episode--because he believes she has been brainwashed. She was, after all, warning them about government mind control a decade prior. There is a CIA mind control project going on which involves injecting a drug into people’s necks. A CIA operative does this to a Lone Gunmen associate and orders him to commit suicide. Scully is also injected to cover up her autopsy findings.

Her drugging leads to the only significant part Scully plays in the episode--a flirtatious bimbo. It is funny to see her drunk and cut loose. She is also rather…seductive with the act. A nifty aspect is that when she asks for a light of her cigarette while surrounded by defense officials and intelligence operatives, it is Morris Fletcher’s she chooses. Neither of them remembers the other, but it was a neat homage to earlier in the season for him to return. It will not be for the last time. Scully’s role in the ensuing caper is quite limited beyond the comic relief.

Suzanne reveals to Byers that she has been working to curtail the mind control drug that their friend and Scully were given. Conveniently, she has an antidote which also comes in handy when Langly is also given the drug with orders to kill her. The Lone Gunmen fake her death and have the drugged CIA operatives behind the whole plot confess to the murder of their friend. Suzanne, now officially dead, professes love for byers and asks him to come escape with her. He refuses, saying she will be safer without him. *sniff*

‘Three of a Kind” is frivolous filler. It is odd to have two episodes in a row featuring brand new or supporting characters, too. But frivolous does not mean worthless. It is a fun little caper with a surprisingly good supporting cast which includes the smarmy Charles rocket and John Billingsley as well as Michael McKean reprising his role as Fletcher. Most fans remember only vamp Scully. I cannot blame them for that. It is worth watching just for the antics of the “scrumptious” Agent Scully.

Rating; *** (out of 5)

X-Files--"The Unnatural"

It is an incredibly fortunate circumstance for ‘The Unnatural” to come up on Opening Day. I am a baseball fanatic, and therefore very much in tune with the mysticism attached to the game. Win or lose, there is something magical about the game. In his rookie outing as a television writer and director, David Duchovny masterfully captures the lore of baseball with some tough social themes, all while tying it all into The X-Files mythology. That is not easy to do in 44 minutes of screen time.

On a random Saturday in his office, Mulder discovers an old photo of the alien bounty Hunter alongside Authur Dales in 1948 New Mexico. Mulder visit’s the man who turns out to be the brother of the dales we know--Darren McGavin was ill and could not reprise his role--and learns the story of how he, as a cop in Roswell, New Mexico, was assigned to protect a Negro League player named Josh Exley.

Exley is secretly one of the gray aliens from the Roswell crash of 1947. At some point after the crash, he watched a baseball game and fell in love with it. He assumed the form of a black man in order to play, believing the color of his skin would keep him out of the big leagues. He was such a success, he attracted the attention of the KKK. (In New Mexico? Eh, maybe.) dales was assigned to be his body guard. The two form a fast friendship in spite of the color barrier and eventually, when Dales discovers what Exley truly is, the planetary barrier, as well.

All the while, the Alien Bounty Hunter hunted for Exley out of fear he might expose the colonization project. He nearly does when he bleeds acid after being beaned by a pitch. The Alien Bounty Hunter discovers Exley. He demands exley change into his true form, but Exley refuses, choosing to die as a man.

I remember back in the day being fearful over how this episode would turn out. Allowing Duchovny to write and direct an episode was a concession to his ever louder grumbling about being stuck on the series. One feared, with his well known overblown ego, this could turn out embarrassingly self-indulgent. Imagine my surprise to find out how well done “The Unnatural” turned out to be.

The script carries the central theme of racism without being preachy. You will have to excuse my shock a white liberal from Hollywood can manage to do a story in which an alien is hated by his own people for abandoning them for a game decides to take on the form of a black man whites hate for his potential to be the next Jackie Robinson all while not getting bogged down in a new writer’s compulsion to Say Something Really Important. The script never gets preachy, nor does the fate of Exley suffer from maudlin overtones. Duchovny decides to contrast the scene of Exley’s death with the famous baseball lesson he gives Scully. Yes, shippers. This is the episode.

Speaking of Scully, “The Unnatural” features the best interpretation of her we have seen in years. She is fun and funny. Confident with being witchy. A very appealing person after many episodes of her either aggressively contrary, or pitifully lonely and ready to fall for the attentions of even the most unappealing men. I am including Mulder in that, as he is often a royal jer--though not here. I once read Ken Levine, a writer for MASH and Cheers, once say it was impossible to writer or direct actors after the fifth season of a series because they swear they know their characters better than anyone. “The Unnatural” confirms theory. Duchovny certainly has a grasp on how to make Mulder and Scully fun, likable characters after a string of some tough episodes.

But what makes ’The Unnatural” great is not all Duchovny. He surrounded himself with a great cast. M. Emmet Walsh plays his usual grumpy old man routine which believably dissolves when recalling the death of his friend Exley. Jesse L. Martin plays the humble Exley, an alien/man rejected by all parties, but thrives through his love of the game. Daniel Duchovny, David’s brother, stars as an opposing team player. Mark Snow turns in a wonderfully low key score full of acoustic guitars to compliment the lazt feel of a minor league baseball game and some soulful gospel twinged numbers. Good stuff.

I like ’The Unnatural” for far more reasons that fondness for baseball. I am not certain the concept fits in well with what we know of the series mythology, but even nitpicky me does not care. “The Unnatural‘ is a wonderful story done fantastically well for a first time writer/director.

Shippers would be upset if I did not include mulder teaching Scully to hit a baseball, so here you go, folks:.Rating: **** (out of 5)

X-Files--"The Unnatural"

It is an incredibly fortunate circumstance for ‘The Unnatural” to come up on Opening Day. I am a baseball fanatic, and therefore very much in tune with the mysticism attached to the game. Win or lose, there is something magical about the game. In his rookie outing as a television writer and director, David Duchovny masterfully captures the lore of baseball with some tough social themes, all while tying it all into The X-Files mythology. That is not easy to do in 44 minutes of screen time.

On a random Saturday in his office, Mulder discovers an old photo of the alien bounty Hunter alongside Authur Dales in 1948 New Mexico. Mulder visit’s the man who turns out to be the brother of the dales we know--Darren McGavin was ill and could not reprise his role--and learns the story of how he, as a cop in Roswell, New Mexico, was assigned to protect a Negro League player named Josh Exley.

Exley is secretly one of the gray aliens from the Roswell crash of 1947. At some point after the crash, he watched a baseball game and fell in love with it. He assumed the form of a black man in order to play, believing the color of his skin would keep him out of the big leagues. He was such a success, he attracted the attention of the KKK. (In New Mexico? Eh, maybe.) dales was assigned to be his body guard. The two form a fast friendship in spite of the color barrier and eventually, when Dales discovers what Exley truly is, the planetary barrier, as well.

All the while, the Alien Bounty Hunter hunted for Exley out of fear he might expose the colonization project. He nearly does when he bleeds acid after being beaned by a pitch. The Alien Bounty Hunter discovers Exley. He demands exley change into his true form, but Exley refuses, choosing to die as a man.

I remember back in the day being fearful over how this episode would turn out. Allowing Duchovny to write and direct an episode was a concession to his ever louder grumbling about being stuck on the series. One feared, with his well known overblown ego, this could turn out embarrassingly self-indulgent. Imagine my surprise to find out how well done “The Unnatural” turned out to be.

The script carries the central theme of racism without being preachy. You will have to excuse my shock a white liberal from Hollywood can manage to do a story in which an alien is hated by his own people for abandoning them for a game decides to take on the form of a black man whites hate for his potential to be the next Jackie Robinson all while not getting bogged down in a new writer’s compulsion to Say Something Really Important. The script never gets preachy, nor does the fate of Exley suffer from maudlin overtones. Duchovny decides to contrast the scene of Exley’s death with the famous baseball lesson he gives Scully. Yes, shippers. This is the episode.

Speaking of Scully, “The Unnatural” features the best interpretation of her we have seen in years. She is fun and funny. Confident with being witchy. A very appealing person after many episodes of her either aggressively contrary, or pitifully lonely and ready to fall for the attentions of even the most unappealing men. I am including Mulder in that, as he is often a royal jer--though not here. I once read Ken Levine, a writer for MASH and Cheers, once say it was impossible to writer or direct actors after the fifth season of a series because they swear they know their characters better than anyone. “The Unnatural” confirms theory. Duchovny certainly has a grasp on how to make Mulder and Scully fun, likable characters after a string of some tough episodes.

But what makes ’The Unnatural” great is not all Duchovny. He surrounded himself with a great cast. M. Emmet Walsh plays his usual grumpy old man routine which believably dissolves when recalling the death of his friend Exley. Jesse L. Martin plays the humble Exley, an alien/man rejected by all parties, but thrives through his love of the game. Daniel Duchovny, David’s brother, stars as an opposing team player. Mark Snow turns in a wonderfully low key score full of acoustic guitars to compliment the lazt feel of a minor league baseball game and some soulful gospel twinged numbers. Good stuff.

I like ’The Unnatural” for far more reasons that fondness for baseball. I am not certain the concept fits in well with what we know of the series mythology, but even nitpicky me does not care. “The Unnatural‘ is a wonderful story done fantastically well for a first time writer/director.

Shippers would be upset if I did not include mulder teaching Scully to hit a baseball, so here you go, folks:.Rating: **** (out of 5)

X-Files--"Milagro"

When asked to list one’s favorite episodes of The X-Files, “Milagro” 9Spanish for “miracle’) is inevitably near the top of the list. It is, by the way, the only sixth season on episode to be so honored. We are on the slow decline towards the end of the series already, folks, with only a few truly bright spots left. The cynic in me believes “Milageo” is highly regarded because it “reveals” for the first time scully is in love with Mulder. It is also one of the few episodes to sex her up. But I would like to think there is a better reason.

“Milagro” is a novel--pardon the pun-- piece of television. We just do not get much in the medium quite so creative and existential. A writer who moves next door to Mulder is working on a murder mystery novel in which a killer removes his victims hearts with his bare hand. Somehow, the writer has managed to resurrect a Brazilian psychic surgeon--the kind who allegedly removed illness from people, but is actually removing bloody chicken entrails or some such.--who is committing for real the murders he is writing about.

The writer is on the periphery of the murder investigation when he meets Scully in the apartment building’s elevator. He immediately becomes enamored with her. She seems strangely drawn to him as well because he has such a skill at sizing her up. As with Eddie van Blundt as Faux Nulder, scully’s profound loneliness draws her to anyone who seeks to understand her. She is added to the novel as a character, which puts her on a collision course with the killer.

She is saved from death at the last minute by the writer destroying his manuscript before the surgeon can rip her heart out. Or does he do all the right things, but she survives because clyde bruckman once told her she would never die? It is not made clear, but it is also irrelevant. The issue is lost in the tearful embrace she and Mulder share when he discovers her alive, and the suicide of the writer near the building’s incinerator by the removal of his own heart.

The above summary does not do the episode justice. It is a story within a story, where the writer’s imagination tragically comes to life with the resurrection of the Brazilian psychic surgeon, but still demonstrates the often fat separation between life as we dream it--he is in love with Scully--and how we are forced to live it--she is in love with someone else. Sometimes even our fantasies betray us, so as when the psychic surgeon goes after Scully. The writers destroys his work and then himself to prevent her murder.

It is easy to get a Fight Club vibe from “Milagro,‘ sans any of the film’s whiny theme that modern men cannot all be rock stars, so they must destroy society in revenge. “Milagro” takes the best elements--the existential bits about creating a person to allow one’s id to ru unrestrained--and plays it out in a fascinating manner.

I rate ‘Milagro’ highly because of its uniqueness. One suspects a television executive would scratch his head if such an existential concept were pitched today as a regular episode of a television series. Further proof television is rapidly going downhill. There is very little this daring on the idiot box these days.

Rating: **** (out of 5)