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.