X-Files Rerun "The Jersey Devil"

Aired 10/8/93

When I'm watching this episode, I feel the same way too, buddy.

I have been reviewing Season One episodes because I want to have everything archived over here and also because I feel my early reviews are very poorly written. However there still isn't much to say about this episode that I didn't say three years ago, so I'm just going to copy and paste my original review from Live Journal.

Just the same as last week, this episode seems to be more about the agents themselves than the actual case file. When they're prevented from investigating what Mulder thinks is the Jersey Devil, he decides to stick around town and investigate on his own. Scully goes back to D.C. for her god son's birthday party and meets some dude. It contrasts between the two, showing Mulder's life is the X-Files and how obsessive he is, while to Scully it is just a job. Scully goes on a date but Mulder ends up spending a night in the pokey. Her date Ralph even says to her, "having kids changes everything", but he forgot to mention that includes your tv show too. I think it was good character development here showing the differences between Mulder and Scully, yet at the same time I think this episode spawned the shippers. At the end Scully decides that for now she'd rather stick with Mulder and the X-Files, giving up having a social life.

This is only the third or fourth time I've watched this episode and I never noticed it before, but when Mulder is in the casino making a phone call, he's actually standing in front of a green screen. Another notable thing is that Mulder gave his hotel key to a bum. I think that could be why he was audited in "Requiem"; the dude must've racked up a huge room service bill that went unpaid for the next 7 years.

Okay, so there is something new I noticed! I called her date Ralph but his name is Rod. As if Scully would date a "Ralph" anyways, she deserves more credit than that.

X-Files Rerun "Conduit"

Aired 10/1/93

Four episodes in and three of them are alien-related, however this one takes a different approach. Rather than government cover-ups, this is a more personal story that Mulder becomes attached to because it relates to his sister's disappearance when they were kids. It brings out a side of Mulder that they barely scratched the surface of back in "Deep Throat."

To me the case feels a lot like something you'd see on Unsolved Mysteries. A woman had a close encounter with a UFO as a girl scout and now nearly 30 years later her daughter is thought to be abducted by aliens, with her son having some type of link to the occurrence. I was never a fan of this episode until recently, mostly because of some unintentional humor. The way the mother cries out for her daughter at the start of the episode, "Ruuuuuuu-BAY", makes me laugh as well as any mention of Lake Okobogee.

The episode does feel severely dated as being purely 90's "based on true story" events, yet I can't dismiss it as being a weak episode. The emotional side of the episode I mentioned before which strikes a raw nerve with Mulder is what makes it worth watching again. The case nearly pushes him over the deep end and shows us just how his sister's disappearance has altered his whole life. The partnership with Scully continues to strengthen because she tries to snap him out of it. She was supposed to talk him out of taking the case, but now he's pissing off the government again, so maybe she feels a bit responsible for that.

I'm not sure if it was intentional but when I re-watched "Conduit" this time, the episode reminded me a lot of Twin Peaks. The subplot with Ruby's boyfriend who was cheating on her and got the girl pregnant, the setting with the lake surrounded by woods, weird bikers, and just the general "feel" of the episode felt inspired by Twin Peaks. That's not a bad thing, though.

X-Files Rerun "Squeeze"

Originally Aired 9/24/93
Originally Reviewed 9/25/08

Here it is, the first standalone thriller of the series, and my all-time favorite from that category of episodes. Its just as good as it was the first time, or even the fifth time. I believe while it was hinted in the pilot that Mulder has a reputation in the FBI, this episode is the first time he's actually given the "Spooky" Mulder nickname. It should come as no surprise since he's just as offbeat as in the Pilot. After being asked if he thinks its the work of little green men, Mulder quickly corrects them by saying they're grey. Here's his full line, "Grey. You said green men. A Reticulan's skin tone is actually grey. They're notorious for their extraction of terrestrial human livers. Due to iron depletion in the Reticulan galaxy."

Not only is this the first standalone episode, its also the first from my favorite X-Files writers, Glen Morgan & James Wong. I enjoy their work on the series the most because not only did they have creative cases for Mulder & Scully, but they added a new layer to the characters while supplying a healthy dose of humor to the series. Although I said they did have creative scripts, this one actually started a trend where they borrowed from other works. The villain in this episode, Eugene Tooms, hibernates for 30 years after consuming human livers. It felt very similar to the second Kolchak tv movie where that villain also hibernates after committing murders; yet I like how the X-Files team made it their own. One instance is what I call Toom's liver vision. As he's stalking his prey, they are in full color while the rest of the scene is greyed out. His eyes turn a creepy shade of yellow too.

This episode starts another trend for Season One, too. We get to know Mulder and/or Scully better through the use of a person from their past. This time Scully is introduced to the case because a colleague of her's is stumped by the lack of evidence, so he brings Scully onto the case, but its Mulder who cracks it in an unusual way. After he finds a fingerprint on an air vent, they match it with prints from previous murders and visit the detective from that case. It creates a chilling scene where the retired, old detective describes the murder scenes and it almost gives me goosebumps.

After two alien-related episodes, The X-Files proved they could tackle more than just flying saucers. They hit a home run with "Squeeze" and that's why its been my "go-to" episode for introducing the series to new people.

X-Files Rerun "Deep Throat"

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X-Files Rerun "Pilot"

Originally Aired 9/10/93
Original Review Posted on Livejournal 9/7/08

With Season 4 being on holiday break as well as myself having a break between semesters, I've decided to rewatch and review episodes from Season One. I originally posted most of my reviews on Livejournal but they are very rough and barely resemble something you would call a review. I also noticed when I started this in 2008, I watched them on Sundays the week each episode aired. Not only has my writing changed, I became more focused to following along with when each episode aired. Anyways....on with the show.

I cannot believe how well everyone involved perfectly executed their roles in The X-Files "Pilot" episode. Carter has Mulder being a little goofy yet he's as sharp as a tack, while Scully is more closed-minded than her partner and needs actual proof. However there is a moment where she gets caught up in the excitement after they discover Billy Miles' feet are dirty (ugh! how did that nurse not even know?!) but Mulder is quick to remind her what her role is in the investigation.

What deserves to be pointed out is Mulder's goofiness when he first meets Scully. "Do you believe in the existence of extra-terrestrials?" "Spooky" Mulder really is the FBI's Most Unwanted and I'm sure he's just trying to rattle Scully a little to see if she's up to the challenge of investigating strange phenomenon with him. If you can handle his sense of humor, well, you can handle anything.

The actual look of The X-Files is excellent too. It does indeed feel more like a movie rather than just a television series. I can't say whether FOX gave them a healthy budget from the start but to me it appears they did with the wide range of sets on display here- they're shooting in a forest, on location in a cemetery, there's a scene on a plane, we see Mulder's office for the first time, not only that they're in a hospital and even set a hotel on fire. The special effects with the leaves, while done on a computer, look realistic to me.

Not only were Mulder and Scully well developed from the start, we also get a lot of seeds that are being planted. We learn about Mulder's sister who was abducted as a child, which he says he went through hypnosis to learn details. Later Billy Miles is in a therapy session with that same doctor. The Smoking Man is there and will later take on a much greater role, as well as Chief Blevins, who would return. Scully was assigned by them to "debunk" Mulder's work and file reports on him, and while I still wish they had kept her more at odds with Mulder for a little longer, I think it worked out much better that she quickly became his ally. Especially after noticing that scene where she finds the same sand sample on Billy's feet.

I'm not just saying this as a diehard X-Files fan, but also as a fan of great television, that this is the best pilot episode I have ever watched. Carter, Duchovny, Anderson, and the rest of the production crew got everything right from day one. The X-Files really was a magical "perfect storm" of television that I feel will never be duplicated.

One final question though, do all rental cars come with cans of spray paint in the trunk?

"Paper Hearts"

Aired December 15, 1996

Hey, the nose kinda looks like a heart, too!

Ever since I bought the complete series box set back in 2007, I've seen that image on the cover of Season 4 and always wondered which episode it was taken from. Its eerily similar to a scene from Season 3 of Millennium. This was my first time watching "Paper Hearts" and my thoughts on it are mixed.

It feels a lot like the recent "Tunguska/Terma" two-parter in that I need to sit back and relax to fully enjoy the episode. Its not that the story itself is bad, I felt its one of the best ideas for an episode, just the way in which it unfolds took me right of the story. Mulder's behavior would get him fired from the FBI but instead its probably okay in the end since he saved the day. His saving grace is that this is not a crime procedure series, so they don't get into details like that; we're here for the monsters and aliens, not people pressing charges! There are some other contrived moments, like when Mulder realizes where the bad guy is hiding, and that he just happens to be sitting there waiting for Mulder to find him.

However when a series is as great as The X-Files is, these details are easy to overlook. Mulder and Scully are excellent and well-developed characters, so when you get an episode that's personal to them, it becomes something special. Also the villain, John Lee Roche, played by Tom Noonan, has been one of the best so far this season. I knew he was playing a game with Mulder the whole time, as Mulder always wants to believe, yet it was presented in such a believable way. In past episodes we've learned Mulder had to be under hypnosis to remember details of his sister's abduction, so maybe this was something he forgot or blocked out. Like Scully deduced, its easy to assume Roche used the internet to discover details about Mulder, yet how did Roche know the vacuum would be that same model?

I think of this episode as being Mulder's version of "Beyond the Sea." Instead of a song and Scully seeing her father, we get Mulder's dreams. The filming of the dream sequences were excellent and showed how the series was on top of its game; this season seems to have the definitive look of Mulder and Scully, while Rob Bowman always has the best directed episodes. Its no wonder The X-Files was one of the most popular shows ever and coming up they'd receive the post-Super Bowl timeslot by FOX. So despite my mixed thoughts while watching this for the first time, "Paper Hearts" is one of the best (and the most tragic!) of the entire series. As if Season 4 wasn't already a bleak year...

"Terma"

Aired 12/1/96 (Part 2)

"You had WHAT in your nose?"

Like most second halves of these X-Files mythology events, we start with a scene that seems unrelated. An old lady is having an assisted suicide performed when the black cancer wiggles out of her nose. Also like every mythology episode, we have people zipping off to faraway places with such speed that would make Guinness Record holders blush. I always watch episodes I haven't seen before once through, then again while I'm writing my review. This gives me more time to really absorb everything. However I actually kept up with this the first time through, despite some silly nit-picking.

I think "Tunguska/Terma" feels like a leaner, and meaner, installment of the conspiracy. All of the players of the conspiracy are present (Mulder, Scully, Skinner, Well-Manicured Man, Smokey, and the returning Krycek), it adds new elements, beefs up the action, but still has a lot of the usual runaround. Is this a bad thing? No. I liked the increased paced and action. "Talitha Cumi/Herrenvolk" was a bit too heavy and left me feeling empty. I felt like this one did a much better job at answering the new questions that were presented. This time Chris Carter brings back the oil, which at first seemed just like a body-jumping version of E.T. The oozing thing just wanted to phone home. Awwwwww, how sweet. Here we got a new version of the oil (I'll say its the decaffeinated version), but also the purpose is explained. The Syndicate and Russians are racing to find a vaccine for it and I like how they keep tying this stuff to real-life events. The scientists in Operation Paper Clip and 731 are factual, as are "foo fighters", code talkers in "Anasazi", now we have the Cold War and the Gulf War being referenced.

Now I said I was able to keep up with the pace and followed along well enough, yet that doesn't mean parts didn't feel "funky." So Russians that were used as black oil test subjects were cutting their arms off as a way to prevent the spread of it, yet Mulder just had that stuff dumped into his mouth. It can still find a way into your body...or way out. I'll chalk it up to being typical X-Files style- cool visuals, like Krycek's arm being amputated. Chris Carter, you're forgiven.

Speaking of Krycek, he was played before in the past- almost blowed up in a car, then left for dead in a silo in Season 3. Now its his turn to have the upper-hand. He played Mulder so he could intercept a package for him. Krycek has a bull's eye on his back from both sides, so he had to earn Mulder's trust in order to use him to intercept that package. Then his back-up plan was using that retired Russian spy who could slip in undetected. Its still a bit fishy how he escaped the silo, but I can forgive that too since it was damn compelling television. I almost questioned how he could set up this whole game, then I remembered what he was doing in "Piper Maru." He was selling off Syndicate secrets to the French, so it appears he sold stuff to the Russians too.

One more thought- if all those guys at the gulag took off on horseback after Mulder, then who's left to guard the prisoners? JAIL BREAK!

And what about those damn bees??

"Tunguska"

Aired: November 24, 1996 (Part 1)

Krycek Lives!

This is an instance where I need to turn off my brain and just hang on for an amazing ride. With my brain on I kept asking, "is this alien rock the same as the oil from last season?" When my brain is off, I can enjoy it for being the most action-packed and fast-paced hour since Season Three's "731."

Krycek is back, having been released by a terrorist group, and he then tips off Mulder about their activities. Now that they've teamed up, he leads Mulder to a rock from outer space, that just happened to be left behind at an airport. But then my brain came back on and asked why that guy was so stupid to leave behind something so valuable. Darn it, brain! If I just relax, I can enjoy the excellent and intense sequences too. The scientist cutting into the rock and splattering it onto his suit, Krycek being handcuffed to a balcony railing, and Krycek and Mulder being chased through the woods are just a few of the excellent scenes. It proves how good their budget was and also how amazing the production crew was when you watch Krycek dangling from Skinner's balcony, then pulling someone over with him. I even started to feel sorry for him after all the abuse he took from Mulder and Skinner.

The episode ended in Russia, which made my brain come back on again. Mulder flies off to New York to get information from his new source with Krycek, only to take him along with him to fly to Russia. How does he get the kind of money to travel so much! No matter how he made it to Russia, it did end my sympathy for Krycek. He gave Mulder to these Russian scientists, who wrapped him up in chicken wire and exposed him to the black oil. The X-Files certainly knows how to deliver creepy visuals, which made for an excellent cliffhanger.

Meanwhile Scully and Skinner are being questioned by a Senate Committee. No doubt this is the work of the Syndicate to use them as scapegoats to cover up the fact that they misplaced the alien rock. I did like the quick scene between CSM and the Well-Manicured Man (R.I.P.), where Old Smokey is told this will take more than having good aim to cover up. Now whether or not you believe CSM is a Presidential assassin, I took this as a reference to last week's episode; though he could have also meant the executions of Bill Mulder and Melissa Scully. Either way you take it, I loved "Tunguska." It doesn't answer anything, in fact it adds the oil to a conspiracy involving bees, clones, and hybrids. Next week's episode is too far away!

"Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man"

I'm imaging he's listening to "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy

I cannot say this enough: I love Morgan & Wong. These two are on a roll this season and it appears that they came back with a game plan. While they are not a part of the "Mythology", it seems they have decided to make character-centered standalones that are focusing on each of the central characters. This time its the Cigarette-Smoking Man, though it turns out he didn't even like to smoke! We still don't know his name, we actually learned so much more...or did we?

In addition to a great story, James Wong's direction of this episode has taken this series to a new level. They say that each X-Files episode is like a mini movie and I think this episode is the best example of that. I loved the many close-ups, the use of black and white, and most of all the sequences where CSM fires and it cuts to a bottle of root beer as well as Deep Throat executing the alien. Mark Snow's music is also top notch.

There are even touches of humor throughout. I liked the reveal at the end that Frohike read this in a magazine, leading you to wonder if the CSM was writing his life story. The publisher told him it was too ridiculous to be true, and really, who would believe that one man was responsible for all of these historical moments. However Morgan and Wong did link it to previous events in the series. Deep Throat executing an alien is the same event he told Mulder about in "E.B.E." CSM was there from the beginning, monitoring Mulder, and also revealing that he was the one who assigned Scully to The X-Files. This proves my theory that CSM is the head of Syndicate security.

Whether these events in CSM's life are true or not, does it really matter?

"Sanguinarium"

I felt like I should start out this episode review with that image because its about the only redeeming part of this hour of The X-Files. If I didn't already know in advance, I think it would be easy to tell that this episode was not written by a regular writer. I have no clue who Valerie Mayhew & Vivian Mayhew are, though I am glad this is their first and only X-Files episode.

I know this is a fantasy/science fiction series that just had an episode dealing with the possibilities of soul mates and/or reincarnation, but I just thought they made Mulder go a little overboard here. Some lady pukes up needles that couldn't have been swallowed and he rattles off his usual facts about how there are known cases of this happening. It felt really far-fetched to me and Mulder came off a lot dorkier than usual.

A friend of mine linked me to an article online that talked about scrapped plots for episodes from Star Trek's many tv series. Deep Space Nine was absent from the list and he questioned whether or not the DS9 staff just filmed every script that they had, good or not. I am wondering if this was the case with The X-Files; did they just film every script that was submitted to the producers? Perhaps they just added a few Mulder one-liners into the script before shipping it to the crew up in Vancouver. Certainly seems likely since they're back to their "good episode, bad episode, good episode, bad episode" rotation from Season Two. I was already considering if I should stop assigning a score to each episode and after watching this, it was easy to make up my mind. "Sanguinarium" was less than average; it was cookie-cutter X-Files at it's finest. Not even upping the level of "gore" could save it.

"The Field Where I Died"

Aired 11/3/1996

This was a "new to me" episode, one of the many this season, yet I was a little hesitant to watch it. While I love Morgan & Wong episodes, several places online made this out to be among the worst of the series. The topic of past lives does indeed seem a little "out there", even for this series, but once I watched it I felt it worked. The motto of this series is "I Want to Believe" and that applies equally to both Mulder and Scully. Mulder believes in the paranormal, aliens, that there's a government conspiracy in which his family is involved, and other things that go bump in the night. Scully is a Catholic but also believes in rational explanations through science, which when you think about it actually makes her a lot like Mulder. She has faith in God, yet her scientific background contradicts that. Her faith in religion is just like Mulder's belief in aliens.

This won't become a religious debate, but if Scully believes in Christianity, then it makes sense that we would see other religions in this series. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, so rather than past lives being too out there for The X-Files, I think it actually has added more depth to the series. The episode doesn't really dive into whether the past lives are related to a religion but Morgan & Wong did create a very thought-provoking and personal episode. It's a nice change of pace from monsters, especially in contrast with their last episode, "Home." Their episode from Season 2 called "One Breath" has slowly become my favorite, which was a multi-layered episode that was more than just there to further the conspiracy. Did Scully have a guardian angel? I think "The Field Where I Died" is an extension of that. Is there something cosmic that's out there besides aliens?

The only complaint I would have with this episode is minor. It never really went into why Mulder, Scully, and even Skinner were included in this investigation. A cult with weapons seems like it could have been handled by a different division of the FBI, so they only make a quick mention that the cult leader is claimed to be an astral projector. If they did get into more of that, it could have cluttered up the episode and taken the focus away from investigating Melissa's past lives. I did like the small moments of comedy too, like when Scully said she wouldn't redo anything, except for the Fluke Man.

Morgan & Wong continue their trend of great episodes in the series so it will be sad to see them go after "Musings of the Cigarette-Smoking Man." I already watched "Never Again" a few years back but it will be diferent to see it in the context of the series, rather than my old method of 'cherry picking' episodes. I'm giving this episode 4 stars. Next week will continue the long stretch of "new" episodes with "Sanguinarium."

"Unruhe"

October 27, 1996 was the night The X-Files moved to Sunday, where it would stay for the next 5 and a half years, and the move was a slam-dunk. I originally watched The X-Files for its neat standalone plots and this episode reminded me why I was hooked years ago. "Unruhe" had one of the most creative plots I've seen out of these early seasons since I started this season-by-season routine.

I've seen plenty of tv shows that use the gimmick of a camera that predicts the future. It was done "humorously" on The Twilight Zone with burglars that stole a camera and then each photograph revealed that the criminals would kill each other one at a time. There was also an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? in which kids discovered a camera with similar unhappy endings. "Unruhe" takes that in a different direction, where its not the device itself but the photographs that are being psychically manipulated. I dug that "twist."

There's more to the episode than just creepy Polaroids. Mulder and Scully are tracking down a serial killer and this is the only evidence they have to go on, well, other than boyfriends with their ears pierced in a deadly fashion. I wonder if they came up with the photographs idea first, then decided to use that as a link to a serial killer. Or did they decide on the killer, then came up with the photographs as a creative way to lead them to him? Either way, it turned into one of the more interesting chases for Mulder and Scully.

Another notable part of the episode was that the killer said Scully had "howlers" in her head. I suppose we should assume he's mentally disturbed but I already thought that the images in the photographs looked like ghosts, so now this makes more sense to me. Mulder had the FBI digitize the photos and it revealed the killer's face but I would rather believe the shapes in the background were those "howlers." Whether that's what Vince Gilligan was going for or not, this was still a great episode and I'm giving it a 4.5.

This sure looks like a "howler" to me, especially the red eyes.

"Teliko"

I'm sorry Howard Gordon but this was nothing more than a typical hour of The X-Files. These episodes are always the hardest to write about too. It had the typical Mulder humor, Scully's science, cool visuals, and then a cover-up of the crimes. At times it even reminded me a bit of "Squeeze" because of the way the guy could fit into tiny spaces like air ducts. I felt the episode was saved by its ending sequence where Scully crawled into his nest and found his stash of bodies. The villain's red eyes were neat effect and looked creepy when he was peeking out from drawers or through cracks in doors. Although the guy pulling his little pipe or stick out of his throat was kind of weird.

Another thing to note is that this is the final Friday night episode of The X-Files. It moved to Sunday nights, starting with "Unruhe", so I'll also move when I watch each episode to Thursday. For its Friday farewell, "Teliko" scores a 2.5, which is probably the lowest score I've given since Season Two. It wasn't bad, just like I said before, it has a "been there, done that" feel to it.

Home Sweet "Home"

Originally Aired 10/11/96

 

Nothing about this home is sweet. It may appear to be a nice, peaceful all-American town but it has an old farm house on the edge of town where three brothers have a secret hidden under their bed. Morgan & Wong returned to The X-Files with a bang after a season-long absence. This is a really dark episode about evil, inbred hillbillies but it also has touches of humor and heart, as Mulder and Scully discuss motherhood. I don't think its supposed to be presented as "funny" but what I picked up on this time while watching the episode is that Mulder repeats dialogue from the nature show he was watching the night before while witnessing the Peacocks killing the deputy. But my favorite moment of the episode is this:

You know whats actually a scary thought? This family was caught because they buried that deformed baby where kids play baseball, which brought Mulder and Scully to town. My guess is that they've tried making deformed babies before, they were just more successful at hiding them. That whole field could actually be full of dead Peacock childen. YIKES!

The only fault I can find is that Mulder and Scully should've called for back-up in their raid of the Peacock residence, especially after Scully witnessed the deputy being killed by a booby trap. She was even the one who asked if bullet-proof vests were necessary! I guess Scully doesn't have a good short-term memory. Although if they had called for back up and taken the house by force, it would've deprived us of the suspenseful revealing of the mother on her wheelie cart and then the open-ending where they get away with her in the trunk. You don't just lock-up mutated people and call it a day, that's not The X-Files' way!

While Herrenvolk didn't feel up to par, Home more than makes up for it. I have a lot of brand new episodes this season to look forward to and I'm glad Morgan & Wong have a few more left. I'll give their first effort of Season 4 a score of a 4.5

"Herrenvolk"

Herrenvolk

Season 4 Premiere (10/4/96)

I'm starting to feel like the fantastical elements of The X-Files are becoming nonsensical. I know this is a sci fi tv series but where it has really excelled are those moments between characters, such as in this episode when Scully arranges a meeting with X. He warns her to not open doors she's not prepared for. Once again I enjoyed the secondary plot with Scully doing research and discovering the small pox database, while Mulder's alien encounters seemed a bit far out.

That's not to say I don't enjoy the Bounty Hunter. He's an unstoppable force of destruction, yet they give him one weakness and immediately ignore it. If they're going for excellent visuals and giving a backseat to the story, then they succeeded here. I love how seems down and defeated only to come out of nowhere, like The Terminator. At least he serves his purpose unlike the new character introduced within the story. We still don't learn more about Jeremiah Smith and then he adds even more variables to this unsolvable equation. By the end, he disappears, then its the Bounty Hunter who ends up being the healer. It felt like there was supposed to be a pay-off with Smith that never came. Don't get me wrong though, I loved the scene where the Bounty Hunter and The Smoking Man share a moment together. Its just like the earlier scene with X and Scully; I enjoy the intense, foreboding dialogue.

CIGARETTE-SMOKING MAN: You see... the fiercest enemy is the man who has nothing left to lose. And we both know how valuable Agent Mulder is to the equation.

Another moment worth mentioning involves Mr. X. Though one of my favorite characters has been eliminated from the series, he did get an excellent ending. I liked how Scully was telling Mulder that their "friend" would give them a place to start, while showing X leaving a final message to Mulder. I suppose just like "Talitha Cumi", it has its share of strong and weak moments, so it earns the same score. 3.5/5.

Talitha Cumi (Season 3 Finale)

Aired 5/17/96

Five months later and my feelings about this finale are still mixed. I didn't want to review it back in May for several reasons, with the first being that it felt I had absorbed too much plot and needed to see the second half of the story. With these mythology episodes I've learned to just enjoy the ride and ask questions later, yet this one just threw in too many questions. Also, I felt let down by the cliffhanger ending. It didn't feel like a "To Be Continued Next Fall" ending but rather "To Be Continued Next Friday." Maybe I expected too much or its because its the other two parters set the bar far too high with Mexican standoffs, jumping onto speeding trains, and Krycek with his swirly, oil-filled eyes. The other reason is because I wanted to make this image:

I felt like it did start off interesting with the mysterious healer in the diner, then Mulder's mother suffers a stroke, so he wants to bring that man to heal his mother. In the meantime, The Smoking Man has him (revealed to be Jeremiah Smith) captured and interrogated. Meanwhile, it appears that X (sent by The Smoking Man) urges Mulder to look for the object that kills aliens so he can give it to his superior. Still happening is the Bounty Hunter returning to also kill Smith after he impersonates him, most likely to get the heat off Smith after he fled a crime scene. OK! So I kept up with all of that yet things are still complicated. How did the Bounty Hunter know where to go? Does he watch CNN? And why was Jeremiah Smith no longer being held prisoner? Further throwing a wrench into the episode is Scully discovering multiple Jeremiah Smiths. I was actually hoping this episode would be something simple: the guy who tried shooting up the restaurant was tied to the conspiracy and suffered a nervous breakdown. I'm foolish to think that; nothing is ever simple in The X-Files Mythology!

Now to the good stuff. What did interest me in this episode was the dialogue between The Smoking Man and Jeremiah Smith. It was almost like hearing a debate between politicians where they say so much about public policies, yet never really say much at all. Yet it kept my eyes and ears glued to the television because there's so much tension in their words. Then you get the morphing sequences where he transforms into Deep Throat and Bill Mulder and I liked seeing the Smoking Man get a little dose of his own medicine.

The brawl between X and Mulder was also an intense moment. You can tell we're nearing the end of the line for X, so I'm glad he's going out with a bang rather than a whimper. They're implying that he needs that weapon from Mulder to save his own ass and he could take it easily, yet he doesn't. I thought Mulder was just "his tool"? Anyways, despite a few weird moments that made me scratch my head, it was a fast-paced hour of The X-Files that didn't have any dead spots. I'll give it a 3.5/5 to wrap up Season 3.

X-Files Rerun "Fire"

I couldn't locate the review for "Fire", so I wonder if it was lost during my original move from livejournal to Facebook notes. As part of my marathon leading up to "Herrenvolk", I have decided to re-review it. 

"Fire"
Aired 12/17/93

This episode started off really "hot" with a favorite Mulder line of mine which he tells Scully, "That's one of the luxuries to hunting down aliens and genetic mutants. You rarely get to press charges." After discovering a cassette tape in their car that informs them of a recent car-bombing, we meet an old "flame" of Mulder's named Phoebe Green. From this point on, the episode can die in a fire.

Ok, its not that bad, but Phoebe Green does ruin an otherwise decent episode. Throughout the first season we got to know the agents better through people in their past, with episodes like "Squeeze" and "Lazarus", yet Phoebe has zero chemistry with Mulder. I cringed almost as much as Agent Scully did every time she attempted to flirt with Mulder. The less said about her the better. Mulder's fear of fire is a little too convenient, as its a way to attempt extra drama within the episode but its forced. I expected something like this out of a hired writer who was just paid for one script, not out of the creator Chris Carter who gets the writing credit. The fear of fire is fortunately never referenced again.

I will talk about the positives though, since there are a few, mostly thanks to the episode's villain. I did like the imagery with the fire effects, like Cecil L'Ively setting his finger, and finally his entire arm on fire while seated at a bar. Another is the transition in scenes when Scully sees the fax of the police sketch and discovers the identity of the killer, which then flips to a close-up shot of Cecil smoking a cigarette. The final scene is also a bit chilling, as we discover Cecil actually survived and is in custody in a type of iron lung-looking container. He's burnt to a crisp, just the way I like my marshmallows that are roasted over a fire.

"Fire" is my definition of an average X-Files episode. It isn't totally unwatchable because its saved by the great production crew, but its just not something I care to revisit. This episode gets a 2.5/5.

Season 3 Recap

Here's my first official X-Files blog post after trying out livejournal and Facebook Notes. I did watch "Talitha Cumi" this past spring, though I didn't review it at the time. I'm planning to rewatch that along with "Herrenvolk" so I can get the full effect of the story. In the meantime, here's what I thought of the amazing Third Season, but first!

With grading episodes, I've tried out giving them a letter grade as if I was making a report card for the season, then switched to a number score out of 10. I think I'm going back to a 5 star/letter grading scale similar to movies that way I can stay consistent. It seems like everything stays in the 7 to 9 range with few episodes falling below that. For now I'll post the original score, then the new 5 star grade in parenthesis.

"The Blessing Way"- 7 (3.5)
"Paper Clip"-9 (4.5)
"D.P.O."- 7 (3.5)
"Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose"- 10 (5)
"The List"- 7 (3.5)
"2Shy"- 7 (3.5)
"The Walk"- 7 (3.5)
"Oubliette"- 7 (3.5)
"Nisei"- 7 (3.5)
"731"- 8 (4)
"Revelations"- 7 (3.5)
"War of the Coprophages"- 9 (4.5)
"Syzygy"- 8 (4)
"Grotesque"- 9 (4.5)
"Piper Maru"- 8 (4)
"Apocrypha"- 8 (4)
"Pusher"- 9 (4.5)
"Teso Dos Bichos"- 6 (3)
"Hell Money"- 6 (3)
"Jose Chung's From Outer Space"- 10 (5)
"Avatar"- 7 (3.5)
"Quagmire"- 7 (3.5)
"Wetwired"- 9 (4.5)

Wow! Looking at all of those rankings at once, this really was an amazing season of The X-Files. Everything finally came together behind the scenes to create a great balance of mythology episodes and standalones. Season Two is, well maybe was my favorite, since its hard to really compare the two. Season Two's peaks are higher but Three is much more consistent, which makes it a close call. Now I know the general opinion is the "Hell Money" and "Teso Dos Bischos" are two that stick out like a sore thumb and hurt the season but I don't think they do. "Teso" might have a poor straight to video horror movie plot but the special effect work and creepy visuals (like the rattling toliets) elevated it. The same goes for "Hell Money", which was saved by the Chinese version of The Smoking Man.

My favorites for this year were "Jose Chung's From Outer Space", "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", I was really suprised by "Wetwired" (which unfortunately might be the last of this kind of episode), "War of the Coprohages", and "Paper Clip." Though it is difficult to pick "Paper Clip" as this season's best myth episode since all of 3 of the conclusions were loaded with moments like Scully confronting Luis Cardinal, Mulder's train ride with X coming to the rescue, and Krycek being locked away in the missile silo.

I can't wait for Season 4, which I begin tomorrow with "Herrenvolk." There are so many episodes I haven't seen from this season like "Memento Mori", Krycek & Mulder in that Russian two-parter, "Paper Hearts", and "Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man." STAY TUNED!