"How The Ghosts Stole Christmas"

"What's waiting for us? More loneliness! And then 365 more shopping days till even more loneliness!"
Originally Aired 12/13/98

Don't give this man a gun or he'll make googly eyes.

With so many high concept episodes in a row, there had to be one that was a miss, and unfortunately it's "How The Ghosts Stole Christmas." However I don't think it's a waste of an hour of The X-Files. Other than the season premiere, this season has been about stretching outside of the series' formula, so I appreciate the effort. "How The Ghosts Stole Christmas" has several concepts- first, its a "bottle" episode, which is an episode that utilizes minimal sets. In this case, Mulder convinces Scully to investigate a haunted house with him. Other than the opening and closing of the episode, it's mostly set in the house's large library. That brings us to concept number two, which is a Christmas episode, and also the second season in a row to feature this holiday.

Besides the minimal sets, there are also a minimal amount of actors; only David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, and it's two guest stars, Lily Tomlin and Ed Asner. In order for the episode to work, it actually depended on the casting, and Tomlin and Asner make for a great pair of spooks. Instead of the typical ghostly activities like rattling chains, walking through walls, and levitating objects, these two ghosts actually try to get under the skin of Mulder and Scully by using psychology. It's another way for the writers to examine the relationship of Mulder and Scully, as the ghosts separate the two so they can turn the agents against each other. That's where the episode fails; well, partly fails. The dialogue from Chris Carter seems overly wordy and long-winded, but maybe that's the point, since the ghosts bicker over their methods of haunting their guests. I felt the best part is not Mulder and Scully being tormented by ghosts, rather it's an unseen participant in this episode, the music of Mark Snow. This is by far his best work, which reminds me of classic horror movies that would feature the Wolf-Man or the Invisible Man, while also being as light as the comedy within the episode.

The ghosts accusing Mulder of being lonely actually shows continuity between this season's standalone episodes. Last week, when Mulder was inside the body of Morris Fletcher and separated from Scully, he wasn't just fighting to get back to his body, but also Agent Scully. We already know his whole life is investigating X-Files cases which has now been taken away from him from the FBI, so all he has is convincing her to join him on stake outs and wild trips to Area 51. Scully isn't going anywhere though, since shes had numerous opportunities to leave yet remains by his side, so Mulder has nothing to fear. How many people would show up at their co-worker's door after midnight on a holiday?

"Dreamland II"

"Hey, Grandma Top Gun, will you please shut the hell up!"
Originally Aired 12/6/98

If last week's episode was "Small Potatoes" turned up to 11, this episode plays like a combination of "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" and "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" yet feels like an original creation on its own. I felt like "Dreamland II" is a showcase for the comedic talents of Michael McKean as it pokes fun at his character of Morris Fletcher, a "Man in Black" stationed at Area 51, or even many of the Men in Black featured throughout the years on this series. Its even more obvious when you consider his line to Scully after his failed seduction, "You think being a 'Man in Black' is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork." Not only does Morris Fletcher fail at seducing Scully, he also has a hilarious encounter with the Lone Gunmen, and he seems intent to stay in his new "life" as Fox Mulder. The scene with Morris insulting the Gunmen by telling them their publication just prints phony conspiracies that he came up with while on the toliet is hilarious, especially his revelation that Saddam Hussein is just an actor hired by our government. Its just like a twist seen in the recent Iron Man sequel.

Meanwhile, David Duchovny as Mulder, still in the body of Morris Fletcher, plays the role of straight man for most of this episode as he tries to undo the damage he's done to Morris' life and get back to his own. As Morris' portion of the episode pokes fun at the Men in Black, Mulder finally meets his mysterious informant and that revelation appeared to spoof all of the alien encounters we've seen on the series, even the scene in "Redux" when Kritschgau spills the beans of the military-industrial complex to Agent Mulder. Mulder's source just oversees test flights at Area 51, which is just a cover story for aliens, and he doesn't even know if they really exist. All of the pilots and military personnel we've seen over the years, dating back to "Deep Throat", probably are just like the General in this episode; they only know the role they're supposed to play and are nothing more than a cog in the giant, government wheel. So everyone is just a puppet of The Syndicate? Spooky.

With all of this going on over the course of "Dreamland I and II", it appears Scully could be left out of the fun but she isn't. Scully sees through Morris' seduction and has a wonderful scene later with Mulder where she tells him she'd kiss him if he wasn't so damn ugly. The highlight of the episode comes mid-way through, where we see Mulder and Joanne (Morris' wife) sharing a drink at a bar in the desert. The scene pans across the bar where the General is meeting with Mulder at a booth, who he doesn't realize is actually Morris Fletcher. Further complicating matters is that Scully is outside and Morris' coworker Jeff arrives as well, and this whole sequence plays out like scene straight out of a sitcom, or even a movie. It reminded me of some of the wacky contrivances on Frasier or Seinfeld in which the main characters are trying to sneak out of a tricky situation and go unnoticed, only for it to backfire on them. It's a brilliant scene by the writers at the peak of their powers, showcasing Gillian, David, and their amazing guest star Michael McKean. Bravo guys, and gals, "Dreamland II" is another excellent installment that truly shattered the"monster of the week" mold.

"Dreamland"

“Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Johnny Cash.”
Originally Aired 11/29/98

For as long as I have been a fan of The X-Files I have been very skeptical of the Sixth Season. This was the first year the series was filmed in sunny California, after the previous seasons were located in lush Vancouver. The change in location seemed to usher in a lighter tone for the series, with more of a focus on comedic episodes. On the heels of an intense Fifth Season and the feature film, this seemed like a bad move that could’ve cut short the mainstream success of the series. Last week’s “Triangle” was a fantasy episode taking inspiration from The Wizard of Oz, while “Dreamland” borrowed from Freaky Friday, and even earlier was the Speed-like episode titled “Drive.” All of these are not your typical hour of The X-Files.

Though “Dreamland” was amusing, as the episode moved along, I wondered why Mulder would so easily accept that he’s suddenly body-jumped into a Man in Black from Area 51. He doesn’t put up a fight or even call Scully until well after he’s inside of the Area 51 compound. I suppose this is no different than many conspiracy thrillers, which were much more enjoyable once you stop thinking and enjoy the ride. The point of this episode smacked me across the face when I remembered Scully’s conversation with Mulder from the beginning of the episode: “Don’t you ever just want to stop? Get out of the damn car? Settle down and live something approaching a normal life?” This is Mulder in that normal, suburban life, yet hilarity ensues when it clashes with his typical bachelor life of crashing on the sofa in front of adult movies. It’s like “Small Potatoes” turned up to 11, which coincidentally this episode co-stars Michael McKean of Spinal Tap fame. That’s actually a brilliant move on the part of the writers, which sees Vince Gilligan return to that concept from his earlier episode, and now includes the assistance of Frank Spotnitz and John Shiban. “Small Potatoes” featured David Duchovny portraying someone else in the guise of Fox Mulder, and this episode expands upon that concept with Michael McKean and Duchovny playing each other’s character.

The body swapping isn’t just limited to an FBI Agent and a Man in Black, but there’s also a man morphed with the floor of a gas station and a pilot who’s swapped with an elderly Native American woman. The best morphing is his co-pilot, who has become one with a large boulder. Despite all of these odd morphings, what I found funnier was that Morris Fletcher’s fellow Area 51 co-worker looked like a doppleganger of Agent Spender, who seemed to have an ulterior motive (guess I’ll find out for sure in Part 2.)

Hey! That's Mulder's reflection in the mirror, not Morris!

I can admit when I’m wrong about tv shows and movies, and boy, I was wrong about Season Six. This lighter turn for The X-Files is more than just about comedic episodes, it’s possibly the ballsiest move that I’ve witnessed from any television series! If Season Five was supposed to be the writers stretching the show’s format, they were still playing within the confines of the “case each week” mold. However Season Six has completely thrown that format out the window! Though “Drive” had Mulder discover the “X-File” via channel-surfing, these last two episodes haven’t had a case at all, or at the very least the thinnest hint of an investigation. An anonymous informant within Area 51 is just a MacGuffin in order for the body-swapping hijinx to begin; after that it’s purely a showcase for the comedic talents of David Duchovny and Michael McKean. I bet they didn’t even include anything in the script for the scene where McKean is playing Mulder’s reflection in the mirror, they just let those two actors loose to improvise their own routine. While “Dreamland” may not have made me laugh as much as previous episodes, this was certainly David Duchovny’s funniest performance and “Annoyed Scully” is always welcome.

"Triangle"

“I want you to do me a favor. It is not negotiable. Either you do it or I kill you. You understand?”
Originally Aired 11/22/98

I recently watched an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 which featured a movie about a caveman in a modern day world; no, it wasn’t Encino Man. A line used in that episode, which poked fun at a movie called Eegah, could easily sum up the events of “Triangle”; “we’re on a collision course with wackiness.” Much like Darin Morgan and Vince Gilligan have done before, this is Chris Carter playing with his characters in a humorous way with the use of time travel, as it takes place in both 1998 and 1939.

Season Four’s episode “Small Potatoes” had a sequence where David Duchovny was able to play someone else playing the character of Fox Mulder. “Triangle” is actually a reversal on that because David Duchovny is the only actor whose character is the same throughout, while his co-stars have counterparts in both 1998 and 1939. Even a man who evesdrops on Scully at the present day FBI building has a counterpart back in 1939, who actually outs her character to a band of German soldiers. I didn’t see versions of the Lone Gunmen back in 1939, which would have been funny, but a lack of Gunmen doesn’t mean it’s short on humor.

The highlight of “Triangle” is an entire 10 minute segment of the episode dedicated to Scully running around the offices at the FBI in search of information on Mulder’s whereabouts. She’s tipped off by the Lone Gunmen about the missing Mulder, then is denied help by Assistant Skinner, which meant she had to do the unthinkable and ask the uptight Agent Spender for help; well, she doesn’t exactly ask politely. Agent Scully is my favorite character on the series, in fact she’s among my top characters in all of television, and if I didn’t have a moment that I could pinpoint why I’ve chosen her, I do now. If this episode has any weakness, it’s that seeing the 1939 Scully running around isn’t nearly as engrossing as when she did it in 1998. In fact, several of the scenes on the ship are almost too darkened to tell what’s going on in them. That’s a minor complaint and doesn’t keep the episode from being a supremely entertaining hour. Maybe another minor nitpick is why Scully didn’t call her brother for help, though that could be answered by her phone’s poor reception. Even in 2013 our cell phone reception hasn’t changed!

While this is one of the few remaining episodes I haven’t seen prior to writing a review, I feel that’s actually for the best that this is my first time. Watching reruns of the standalone episodes was a good way to sample the series since many aren’t linked to the series-long conspiracy, so I was able to see self-contained stories with Mulder and Scully investigating monsters and maniacs. “Triangle” is one of the few that features Mulder and Scully at a different level of their partnership, so you’d need a knowledge of several seasons’ worth of episodes to truly appreciate all that this episode has to offer. I’m glad I’ve waited this long to see “Triangle” because I was grinning from ear to ear the entire length of it, even long after the episode had ended.

"Drive"

“Well, on behalf of the International Jewish Conspiracy, I just need to inform you that we’re... almost out of gas.”
Originally Aired 11/15/98

“The slower you go, the faster you die.” I really love that tag line for this episode since it perfectly sums up this fast-paced, forty-five minute thriller. Initially I thought it was a Speed knock-off since Mulder is forced to drive at a high-speed; in fact Mulder even makes reference that he “saw that movie.” Instead it focuses on Mulder and the man holding him hostage, Patrick Crump (played excellently by Bryan Cranston), who’s much like other villains on The X-Files. Its a trait of the episode’s writer, Vince Gilligan, to put his villains in situations where they’re only acting that way through some force they can’t control; Leonard Betts devoured cancer to survive, now Crump has to travel at a high speed to dull the painful noise in his head so it won’t explode. See, that even sounds strange on paper, but it’s the focus on the character of Crump that makes this story work.

I love the imagination involved in the creation of many X-Files cases because the staff of writers took ordinary objects and twisted them into scary situations. Morgan and Wong wondered what would happen if someone crawled out of an office air vent, which gave birth to Eugene Tooms in Season One’s “Squeeze.” Vince Gilligan’s inspiration behind “Drive” was actually someone spinning on a carnival ride that was taken hostage. He even based it on actual military projects, Project HAARP and Project ELF.

It seems this episode has aged incredibly well, or perhaps its been given much more attention in hindsight because of its connection to Breaking Bad. I’ve actually waited longer than the entire time Breaking Bad was on the air to watch this again, now that I have a new found respect for Cranston’s range of acting. Prior to watching this episode and Breaking Bad, I was only familiar with Cranston in comedic roles on Malcolm in the Middle and Seinfeld. Crump’s moments in the car with Mulder are what set this episode apart from other government experiments gone wrong, such as “F. Emasculata.” We weren’t able to feel sorry for those victims of a conspiracy on the same level that we do with Crump.

Gillian Anderson also gets to have fun in this episode as the giant flash lights from past seasons make their return. She’s even in the field searching for the source of Crump’s predicament in a haz-suit while another head explodes; I’m betting that scene was the inspiration for JJ Abrams’ Fringe. Scully’s scenes echo past seasons that were spent in darkened labs and exploring by flashlight, while Mulder’s car ride with Crump across the Western states showed off the new L.A. setting for the series. Besides the location change, another development for Season 6 was the removal of Mulder and Scully from the X-Files. It happened once before but Mulder seemed to end up investigating X-Files cases anyway, so I like how this time it wasn’t a case that was brought to him, instead they stumbled on it by watching television at exactly the right time. Another change this season was a new supervisor for Mulder and Scully, Assistant Director Kersh, and from the start he’s not putting up with any of Mulder’s antics. “Drive” is The X-Files at it’s peak, continuing the brillance from Season 5, and it’s not showing any signs of slowing.

"The Beginning"

"You can kill a man, but you can't kill what he stands for. Not unless you first break his spirit."
Originally Aired 11/8/98

Over five seasons the X-Files has introduced several characters for Mulder and Scully to interact with, whether they were friends, foes, or family. I’ve realized that while Mulder and Scully are the main characters, there are few secondary characters, and the majority fall into a third catergory; they’re nothing more than a gimmick to advance the plot. Its similar to Alfred Hitchcock’s gimmick, the MacGuffin.

A loose definition that I found online for this term, the MacGuffin, is “nothing.” Hitchcock described it as a plot device on which to hang the tension in a film, the key element of a suspense story. “Because Hitchcock lured the audience to such a high degree of sympathy for the characters through cinematic means, the reason behind their plight became irrelevant for the viewer. Something bad is happening to them and it doesn’t matter what.” In this two-part story, actually three-part when you include the feature film, Gibson Praise becomes the MacGuffin of this tale. I wracked my brain over the summer trying to explain what purpose Gibson served to the mythology and ultimately, it really is that he’s just another “X-File” in a long list of them. Each episode needed to have one of those cases for which Mulder and Scully to investigate, whether it was a standalone or mythology episode. For example, “Nisei” began with Mulder investigating a video of an alien autopsy, then by the next episode he was on a speeding train that was armed with a bomb. We ceased to wonder what led him there, only if he'd make it out alive. Later in that same season, they investigated a man who had the power to heal, but he turned out to be another MacGuffin just so we could learn about bees and a history between Mulder’s mother and the Cigarette-Smoking Man. Those people like Jeremiah Smith aren’t really supposed to be fleshed out characters with a backstory, unlike the recent introduction of Agent Jeffrey Spender, who actually is one of the few in that elite category of the “secondary character.” This time in “The End” and “The Beginning”, its Gibson that acts as the MacGuffin so that Mulder and Scully will be separated from The X-Files and the Cigarette-Smoking Man can further his shadowy agenda.

That agenda of the Cigarette-Smoking Man seems less shadowy now that he's returned, rather it appears to be a dense fog. In past episodes his monologues and clandestine conversations were menacing and he was a man to be feared, however now he just sounds like an old man who likes to hear himself speak. Perhaps he isn’t as threatening in “The Beginning” because the episode moved too briskly to be suspenseful. It seems to bite off more than it can chew, with so many events to tie together from the end of the last season and the end of the movie- there’s no mention of the Well-Manicured Man and Krycek; Jeffrey Spender is barely given much time other than to show he’s now an X-Files agent along with Diana Fowley; Gibson Praise is featured slightly more, with all of his lines only serving to act as a summary of the episode; while the last thirty seconds of the episode erase the frightening movie aliens and show that they’re nothing more than the terrible two-year old version of the famous grey aliens we know and love.

"Of Monsters & Meth"

In my 6 years of consuming X-Files episodes like Leonard Betts eats cancer, I never imagined I would be able to see a new movie on the big screen, purchase brand new comics based on the series, nor witness one of its best writers become a household name. The X-Files' cast and crew have had varying degrees of success since the show ended in 2002 but none have struck gold quite like Vince Gilligan. Gilligan's Breaking Bad quietly debuted on AMC on January 20, 2008, though it built up steam and eventually captured an Emmy for Bryan Cranston's portrayal of Walter White, while also earning nominations in several other categories. The praise for Vince Gilligan came as no surprise to me because I've always enjoyed his darkly comedic style.

Though he never crafted his own episode of The X-Files' series mythology, which included government agents, aliens, and clones, he made his mark with standalone cases of the week that rank among the best of the entire series. In fact, he was cranking out more than any writer over a three-year period between the start of 1997 and the end of 1999. Despite never being called upon for one of the mythology episodes, he always found ways to work in references to those episodes and even past one-off monsters such as the Flukeman.

Luke Wilson in "Bad Blood"

One of his fan favorites is a tale about vampires called "Bad Blood" that featured guest starring appearances from Luke Wilson and the "Great Hambino" of The Sandlot, Patrick Renna. What made this episode special was not due to its guest stars nor because it featured vampires, its because of the way Vince holds up a microscope to Mulder and Scully. The episode is told in a series of flashbacks, with one being from Mulder's perspective and the other from Scully's. As viewers, we always watched the series from a third-person perspective outside of the characters, and rarely did the series use narrations from its two lead characters. The multiple perspectives in "Bad Blood" allowed us to see how Mulder views Scully and also how she views her partner.

X-Files villain John Lee Roche in "Paper Hearts"

Not only was Vince skilled at comedic episodes, he also wrote thrilling episodes like "Pusher" and "Paper Hearts." "Pusher" centered around the chase for a man who pushed his will onto his victims just by saying simple phrases to them. One of the long-running mysteries of the series was about Fox Mulder's sister Samantha, who was abducted as a child, and he believed aliens were responsible. "Paper Hearts" was the closest Vince came to The X-Files mythology and it offered another possible explanation, that she was abducted by a child killer. When you look closer at Vince's episodes, a recurring theme appears to be human monsters; either those who are misunderstood and only villains out of necessity or humans that obtain pleasure from their villainous acts. 

Bryan Cranston in "Drive"

 A strong villain is always entertaining, and many writers and performers will tell you that the best villains are those who believe what they are doing is right. For example the main villain of The X-Files, the Cigarette Smoking Man, saw himself as a hero because he believed he was doing the right thing by protecting the government conspiracy. This should come as no surprise why Walter White is such an excellent character. He is very much a family man and only turned to his life of crime as a way to support them after he was diagnosed with cancer. His evil acts have been out of that necessity to protect his secret life and continue building a nest egg for his family. What makes this unique is Bryan Cranston was also a guest star in one of Gilligan's X-Files episodes called "Drive", playing an unlikely villain character named Patrick Crump. Crump was another unconventional villain, who only acted this way because low frequency waves could cause his head to explode if he didn't drive his car fast enough. It sounds a bit ridiculous on paper, but trust me, it's a great episode. A quote from Vince Gilligan on the casting of Cranston for The X-Files also mirrors why he selected Cranston for the role of Walter White: "We had this villain, and we needed the audience to feel bad for him when he died. Bryan alone was the only actor who could do that, who could pull off that trick. And it is a trick. I have no idea how he does it."

However, over the course of five seasons on Breaking Bad, Walter has transformed into Vince Gilligan's other archetype: the villain with a perverse pleasure for his villainy. At first Walter used his "Heisenberg" alias just for his dealings in the drug world, but he fully became Heisenberg once he was able to get the power he never had in his mundane life as a high school chemistry teacher. I guess the cost was that the further he got into the criminal underworld, the further away he was from being the “family man” that he believed he was. Once he realized that, it was too late; his family was gone.

 

Bryan Cranston as Walter White

It’s a risky premise for a television series, to take their main character and actually make him such an unlikeable character. However that’s what makes Vince Gilligan’s writing so special, whether it’s for Breaking Bad, The X-Files, or its own spin-off, The Lone Gunmen. He takes tv conventions and flips them on their head. And Vince, I love you for it. From babies with tails to a man in a wheelchair with a bell as his only means of communication, I love it all.

X-Files Rerun "One Breath"

"You got him killed! You got her killed. That's not going to happen to me. You're my tool, you understand? I come to you when I need you. Right now you're heading in a direction that can lead them right here."
Originally Aired 11/11/94

With this episode The X-Files completes its first, and possibly the best, story arc of the series. "One Breath" is considered the end of a trilogy of episodes involving the abduction of Agent Scully but its roots can be traced all the way back to the first season's finale, "The Erlenmeyer Flask." That episode ended with The X-Files unit being shut down as a means to separate Scully and Mulder, however when that still didn't work, forces within the FBI (or even higher in the government) set in motion a plot to abduct Scully.

"One Breath" begins with Scully's mysterious appearance in a hospital on life support and Mulder seeks to find out who took her, why, and if she can survive. David Duchovny is asked yet again to carry an episode of the series, but this time there are plenty of outstanding performances from a number of supporting players. I knew I was going to like this episode from the moment I pressed "play" on my DVD remote back in 2009, yet it wasn't until a year ago when it finally sunk in and surpassed all others to become my favorite of the series. One of the reasons it became my favorite is because it features nearly all of the supporting players that we have seen until this point in the series and each of them is given time to shine. Frohike from the Lone Gunmen is dressed in a suit and tie when he delivers flowers to Scully's bedside, showing a softer side to his character; Skinner gets a moment where he bonds on a near father-son level with Mulder; the mysterious informant X appears to aid Mulder yet warns him that he will not let Mulder cost him his life; and the poor Cigarette Man lives alone and watches old war movies. Definitely not what I was expecting out of a high-ranking member in a government conspiracy.

An odd bit of trivia that I discovered is not only was a main character on The X-Files in a coma during the second week of November in 1994, but the same thing was happening on another FOX series. The 5th Season episode of Beverly Hills 90210, "The Dreams of Dylan McKay", featured Dylan in a coma after a car wreck and he also had visions of his father. Pretty strange how two FOX shows used the same plot device within a day of each other.

At this point in the series, Mulder and Scully are not in love, yet there is a friendship which goes beyond their respectful working relationship; even Mrs. Scully points out his level of respect for her daughter. That's why its not surprising why Mulder decides to stay at Scully's side rather than face the men who are responsible for taking her. If this was any other scenario with a mutated worm or a downed U.F.O., he would have risked his career and even his life for answers, but that's not the case when it comes to Scully. As I have become much more of a fan in the past 5 years I've realized the series was never about aliens, its about that connection between Mulder and Scully. I feel this episode sums up everything The X-Files ever was, or hoped to be, within its 45 minutes, making it the best of the entire series. That theme wasn't only featured in "One Breath", Mulder makes this choice at other pivotal moments in the series, too.

I feel like I have come such a long way since I purchased my first season of The X-Files in 2007. I was only interested in creepy moments, such as the Flukeman and the Peacock family, but now here I am in 2013 writing about how much I enjoy the relationship between Mulder and Scully.

X-Files Rerun "3"

"Don't you want to live forever?"
"Not if drawstring pants come back into style."
Originally Aired 11/4/94

The X-Files Pilot premiered on the FOX Network on September 10, 1993. In a week will be the twentieth anniversary of that date, so this seemed like a good time as any to get back into the groove of writing. However my excitement quickly deflated once I realized where I had left off; "3." I honestly did not even watch this episode completely four years ago; each time I tried I would always fall asleep, so I wrote a quick review and moved on. Today, in honor of the 20th anniversary, I have finally bitten the bullet.

Many movies have a unique quality due to their director, the editor, and the cinematographer having a vision for what will be seen on screen. However television shows typically look the same throughout the course of the series due to a formula, despite having a different director each week. The X-Files quickly found its formula because of its setting in Canada and also a preference for darkness. "3" occurs just when the series was finding its groove, so its sticks out as a sore thumb to me; some could look at it as being unique. Instead I think it looks and even feels more like an episode from a syndicated series like Forever Knight or Silk Stalkings. Perhaps its just lacking the Mulder-Scully dynamic; its off balance without her. Yet Scully was the main focus of "Never Again" (it had just a few scenes with Mulder) and two flashback episodes in Season 5 lacked her completely, and none of those episodes felt like they didn't belong. Perhaps they took the opportunity to try something new since they knew Gillian Anderson would be absent for an entire episode. Mulder being alone on an "X File" does make me wonder what it was like for him investigating cases before he had a partner. Was he always getting beaten up for peeking into windows at night?

There is one part that I do enjoy about this episode though. Vampire mythology seems to change with each new tale, as some leave parts out or add new wrinkles to the legend. Mulder is questioning one of the suspects whom he believes to be a vampire and the scene is completely flooded with red light because the suspect is sensitive to light. Later, when he is thrown into a jail cell, the sunlight moves closer towards him and he screams for the guards to close the windows. Nobody listens and he is soon burnt to a crisp. It looked as painful as it sounded! At least they got one thing right about vampires and he didn't sparkle in that jail cell. And now that I have finally survived all of "3", I'm never going back again. SCULLY!!!

The X-Files: Fight The Future

"A plague to end all plagues, Agent Mulder."
Premiered 6/19/98

It turns out by coincidence that I watched this on the same date it premiered in theaters, which was June 19th, so I still followed along with my viewing schedule. I had a few things planned to do during the week and I asked a friend if he wanted to hang out, grab something to eat, and watch this movie on my only free night, and we didn't even notice the dates were the same until we watched the trailer.

It's hard to review this as a movie and as an X-Files fan, which is because I seem to have two different writing styles. When I watch an episode of the X-Files, I'll usually watch it a few times to pick it apart, then I post my thoughts as more of a stream of conscious rant on what I watched. With my movie reviews, I started that as something for my job and I would post them to the radio station's website, so I tried to write as little about the plot as possible. I focused on the actors, the special effects (if any), and just enough of the plot without spoiling anything. Writing about this movie as just as movie is hard for me, possibly my hardest movie review, since I am invested in seeing these characters more than any others that appear in films. Being as invested as I am in the characters, it's interesting to see a new side of Mulder in a bar. It serves two purposes- its not just a funny scene, but its a way to sum up the entire series in under 30 seconds.

As a fan of the series, it seems very obvious to me that this was written a year earlier in the break between the fourth and fifth seasons. This could in fact have worked better as the fourth season premiere and opener for the fifth season since it features the bees and the oil that played more of a role during that year of the series. However part of it does fit in line with the fifth year, which featured the use of a vaccine to the black oil. Chris Carter stripped away much of the mythology, which is actually for the best, since it would have bogged down the movie with far too much plot. Some fans may have felt cheated since they didn't see Krycek or other events from the series, but I realize why those cuts were necessary.

What actually bothers me as a fan is that they knew they were writing the Well-Manicured Man out of the series by the end of Season 5, so they should have got much more mileage out of the character before his death. He did appear three times in during that season (Patient X, The Red and The Black, and The End), but it seems like much more could have been done with his role. They did imply his role as good guy, but killed him off just as it was revealed, which is much the same way that X met his end in the beginning of Season 4.

The use of the black oil bugs me too, though I think it is most effective in this movie. It acts as a vessel for creating new aliens, much like the face hugger in Aliens, so humans or any other species act as nothing more than a cocoon. It fit this grander scale for a movie yet it just complicates what we've previously seen on the series. The first use was a vessel as well as it body jumped into people in it's quest to find it's space ship and go home. Cool; its a liquid E.T. that wanted to phone home. Then came another pair of episodes where it was less fluid, but still made its victims into mindless zombies. Chris Carter always expects fans to read between the lines and understand his thought process, so my only guess is that this version of the black oil is an original version that came to Earth first and was never seen before because it was trapped in a cave; what has been seen before is the decaffeinated version.

I do like the revelation by the Well-Manicured Man, before he becomes the Well Done Man in a car bomb, which is that he tells Mulder about Samantha's disappearance. She was given up by his father so that she could become part of their experiments into clones and hybrids and now it finally makes sense to me why there are so many varieties of clones. Eves, the blond boys in Season 4 that were seen with the Samantha clones, the adult clones of Samantha, even those doctors. I think that could have even been explored much more within the series, but I am going to "read between the lines" again and assume that the blond boys were the son of another Syndicate member.

F.E.M.A. being mentioned as the government within a government sounds very much like what the Syndicate could be and that seems like an interesting new wrinkle to the series. Cigarette Smoking Man as the head of F.E.M.A. could have worked as well to finally explain just what his job is, except we've already seen him within the F.B.I. as a man who ranks above A.D. Walter Skinner. I guess its back to my original theory, that CSM works at the F.B.I. but his role within the Syndicate is that he's their head of security so he oversees moles within other branches of the government. I still like knowing that F.E.M.A. will take over if the government should fall. It's so eerie that it just has to be true.

While this movie complicates some plot threads and adds interesting new wrinkles to the series, I think its strongest point is between its two central characters, Mulder and Scully. The moments they have together are the best moments of the movie and it ties back into the ending of Season 5 as well. The possibility that Scully would leave the F.B.I. may be more believable as a part of a season ending cliffhanger, but they did pull it off wonderfully through their dialogue. Mulder shows more feelings towards Scully than ever as he says she owes nothing and he owes her everything, which ties it all back to the "Redux" arc where he blamed himself for Scully's cancer. She also shows more feelings than ever towards Mulder as it looks like she is about to spit out the words "I love you" before being stung by that stowaway bee. The characters of Mulder and Scully are at their strongest at the movie's conclusion, despite not being X-Files agents, and it acts a great way to lead into the new direction for Season 6.

"The End"

"I was sent to bring you back."
Originally Aired 5/17/98

After I watched this episode yesterday for the first time, I sent a text to a friend that said, "In The End...'Gibson Praise reads minds, Smoking Man returns to f*ck sh*t up.' Not really as cool as it sounds." Perhaps that summary was a bit hasty since I always seem to come around after the third watch. There are some very neat sequences and a new direction that is teased for the next season.

This is the most bittersweet episode I have ever watched of The X-Files. As I have stated before, I am watching the series from start to finish over nine years as way to stretch out episodes I haven't seen before and "savor the flavor." I am nearly at the point where what's been new to me and things I have discovered for these past five years, even things I have grown to love, have met what I previously knew about the alien conspiracy. Before watching this episode in full for the first time, I did have the accidental experience of witnessing the closing moments on the SciFi Channel when I remembered reruns were on in the afternoon; sometimes I remembered, sometimes I forgot. The rest was all new to me so I have counted this among the "unseen episodes"; a number that is fastly dwindling. 26 left to be exact.

The best sequences of this episode, no doubt, are the moments when the Cigarette Smoking Man is onscreen. In an earlier episode it was shown that the Smoking Man is nursing his wounds in a cabin and I want to believe he is passing the time by writing his third Jack Colquit story. However, he doesn't get to finish it when two men parachute down outside of his cabin, in a sequence that resembles an opening to a James Bond movie. The Smoking Man is retrieved by Alex Krycek, and when he reunites with the Syndicate, its like a triumphant hero returning. He's loving every minute of the fact that he's in demand, while the Well-Manicured Man is no doubt pissed about that fact. I really wish more had come of the splintering of the Syndicate, but I guess that's just implied with Smoking Man manipulating his son now. That's also a great scene when father meets son, and it reminded me a lot of the early years with Mulder meeting X in dark parking garages.

The Smoking Man isn't the only character in this episode, though. Mulder and Scully meet a chess prodigy who is more than meets the eye, while Agent Spender returns, and another new character is introduced. I liked Agent Spender a lot in the previous arc and he's just as good here as a foil for Mulder. I have no idea what Smoking Man's endgame is for bringing his son into the fold, and though it likely won't be realized, it is a cunning move on his part. Another principal character who's introduced is Diana Fowley, a former flame of Mulder who is instantly more convincing (and less annoying) than Season One's Phoebe Green. I mentioned before that this episode teased a new direction and it's through the use of Diana Fowley. I read for years that this was a wrong move on Chris Carter's part to bring in a female who could be a possible love interest for Mulder, however I didn't get that impression at all. It seems to me like she is just a plot device to bring Mulder and Scully together in a way that the series hasn't done yet. Previously Mulder and Scully have been close because they both have grieved over loss of family and Mulder blamed himself for eveything that happened to Scully, but none of it was ever in a romantic way. Now it seems like both, or at least Scully, are actually reflecting on those feelings for one another; in fact Gibson Praise just seems like a means to that end, too.

While Agent Spender, Gibson Praise, and Diana Fowley are new characters that are positives to this episode, it appears that longtime guest player Alex Krycek is getting lost in the shuffle. He's always been fun to watch but its more apparent than ever that there is no meat to the character, no motivation for anything. At least Spender was clearly defined as dismissing anything alien because of his mother, yet Krycek changes sides each season as he went from Syndicate henchman, to rogue operative, and finally a chauffeur for the Well-Manicured Man.

I would also kick myself later if I didn't mention Martin Ferrero as the assassin. He's likely more famous as "the blood-sucking lawyer" from Jurassic Park and I will always remember laughing hysterically the first time I watched him get chomped off the toliet by the T-Rex. Martin Ferrero is less famous to some as Izzy Moreno on Miami Vice; man, I need to get back to that show in my downtime before I start the sixth season of The X-Files. I digress. The FOX cartoon clips throughout this episode are a fun time capsule, especially since I didn't even know a Silver Surfer cartoon existed.

The bitter part of all of this is that I have finally reached the end of the Vancouver era and out of four seasons remaining, I have only the amount of a full season left of new episodes to go. This is even the last season finale that I haven't seen before, since I've seen 6, 7, and 8, and caught parts of the series finale during reruns (and dvd menu screen spoilers.) Yet, I enjoyed "The End" more than the past two season finales. The sweet part is that when I was becoming a fan back in 2007, I only wanted monsters and creeps and dismissed the sixth season as light, corny, and The X-Files gone soft. Six years later, I'm actually ready to embrace a lighter X-Files. Bring on Season Six! But not too soon, since I'm not ready for this ride to end.

With another season wrapped up, here are my "Fave Five" of the year.

1. The Post-Modern Prometheus
2. The Pine Bluff Variant
3. Patient X/The Red and The Black
4. Folie A Deux
5. Bad Blood

Honorable Mention: Unusual Suspects

"Folie A Deux"

"Dial and smile, Gary."
Originally Aired 5/10/98

Always a sign of a quality episode, despite Mulder making a face like he passed gas.

Before starting my "9 Seasons in 9 Years" journey, this fifth season episode was in my top ten episodes; now, I don't know. I think it lost a bit of it's luster after seeing several amazing episodes like "Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man", "One Breath", "Wetwired","The Post-Modern Prometheus", and even last week's episode, "The Pine Bluff Variant." That doesn't mean it's not an enjoyable hour of the series, it just means that this current season has been balls to the walls.

I do like how there's continuity with Mulder's finger that was broken in "The Pine Bluff Variant", yet Mulder's attitude towards the case would have been better if this episode was placed before "Patient X." In the first portion of the season Mulder treats the X-Files like its just a job rather than his passion because his distrust of the government has reached its threshold. "Folie A Deux" also makes use of that doubting Mulder since he groans at being sent on another monster hunt, but I like how this turns out to be more than just a typical hunt. Vince Gilligan turned the typical monster hunt on it's head by shifting gears mid-way through and turning it into a character piece on Mulder.

Another aspect that I do like about this episode is the setting of a telemarketing office. Most people I know think those call centers are evil since they disrupt you at all hours of the day, but its funny that Vince Gilligan took it a step further and turned them into zombies. Even the gigantic, creepy bug that zips around all blurry is pretty unique, too. The work place horror stories that make people go insane (like "Blood") are wickedly relatable and effective thrillers. Yet, in a way, these hostage situations are a bit odd to watch since there have been too many recent incidents like that.

Mulder's madness in the second half of the episode, as he keeps digging into the case despite the hostage situation ending, is where "Folie A Deux" excels. Past episodes have shown Mulder's determination getting him into hot water, but never has it actually put him into a hospital. I recall reading that Morgan & Wong wanted to write a story arc into Season 4 where Scully has Mulder committed but that was rejected, yet it doesn't seem too far off from what happened in this episode. In fact, I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. It's fun watching all of the ranges of David Duchovny, as Mulder goes from apathy to a hostage and then full-on freak-out while strapped to a bed. His "freak out" was a lot more convincing than when he had his arms amputated earlier in the season in "Kill Switch." While this may have been bumped from my top ten, it is on the short list of contenders.

"The Pine Bluff Variant"

"Is this the Pepsi Challenge?"
Originally Aired 5/3/98

I've read, and now have seen for myself how cinematic the series was through its film-making techniques, like tight close-ups and camera angles, and the talent of its actors. Watching this with my mom on my family's widescreen tv enhanced this even more, likely the true way they envisioned the series. Even though this episode was filmed after The X-Files movie, it serves as a teaser for the movie, because it plays out like a spy movie with its twist and turns. I could even tell it was filmed by the movie's director before his name appeared in the opening credits. It's a great episode that oozes coolness and is full of tension, which might even be the coolest episode I've seen from the series.

In this episode Mulder gets involved with a terrorist group that has a powerful chemical weapon that dissolves human flesh, but that isn't even the highlight of the episode. That would actually be the appearance of it's two guest stars who may be familiar to fans of the small screen. Sam Anderson was known for being the principal on Growing Pains, yet he's likely better known now as Bernard on Lost. The other man is Daniel Von Bargen, whom I instantly recognized as George's boss from Seinfeld and the eye-patch wearing drill sergeant from Malcolm in the Middle. Neither of these men would receive an Emmy Award nomination for their performance, unlike Lili Taylor in "Mind's Eye", but I certainly enjoyed seeing them. I have no idea if its a coincidence or intentional, but many actors from FOX sitcoms appeared on this show either before or during the run of their own series- Kurtwood Smith from That 70's Show, David Faustino from Married With Children, and Daniel Von Bargen and Bryan Cranston from Malcolm in the Middle.

Each season of the X-Files typically has an episode that is what I call a "runaround" episode, where they run around chasing something yet end up with nothing at the episode's end. "The Pine Bluff Variant" is the fifth season's version of that episode yet I like how they seem to find creative ways to mask this style of episode. Season Two used an explosive sore that appeared on people who were exposed to bacteria in "F. Emasculata", this time was a deadly flesh-eating chemical. To explain the twists and turns would be futile; I know this because my mom missed the last 5 minutes and seemed confused when I explained it. Yet if you watch it you know just how good this episode is. My only complaint would be Mulder hesitating to shoot a bank teller during the heist. We know Mulder would never shoot anyone but at least shoot the floor next to the guy to make it look like you're a bad guy; the endless stalling seemed odd to me. Despite that, I'm surprised this episode actually came from the mind of John Shiban because he isn't the strongest of the core writers for the series. Bravo, John.

"All Souls"

"Well, then maybe she flew here, Scully."
Originally Aired 4/26/98

It must be 1998 since the cellphones are smaller.

Another week behind and another difficult review to write. This week's episode feels closer to a plot from The X-Files' sister series Millennium than it does one of it's own. It's about girls who are mysteriously dying by the hand of either a demon or an angel in disguise, which is what feels like Millennium, but the moments I enjoyed involved Scully. She tells this episode in a flashback which is done with her in a confessional booth and I thought that was a creative way to tell this episode's story. I seem to be one of the few who enjoyed the two-part "Christmas Carol"/"Emily" story, so I guess that's why I liked that part of "All Souls." If this was just a typical X-Files case and not attached to that story, I think it would seem rather dull and "soulless", actually. Tying it in with that previous story gives Gillian Anderson a reason to flex her acting muscles (wings?) and I am even more of the belief that Seasons 4 and 5 are *her* story and not Mulder's.

Last week we had an episode with Mulder forming an attachment to a victim, just like he has in the past, so it was nice that Scully was given an episode where she was forming an attachment. However her's was more about letting go of her lost child. Now you would think as much as I enjoyed Scully's scenes, I'm not sure how much I enjoyed it overall. It didn't seem to develop it's villain very much, though I did like the make-up effects used on the body of a pastor that he appeared to have set on fire from the inside of his body. My other complaint is more of a nit-pick; I think Father McCue is a terrible pastor. During a scene where Scully is trying to explain that she saw a heavenly figure, he explains the entire plot of this episode, only to dismiss it as a bogus story. If he had actually believed in that story, he could have prevented all of these girls from dying! He says its just a story and it isn't even recognized by the "Church." Which church is that, just his own? Because it seems like that is religion in a nutshell. That's why we have Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Catholics, and Baptists; they're all basically Christians, its just they decided to leave out certain things. So which is really right and which is just a story?

The X-Files motto was "I Want To Believe" and it took on multiple meanings throughout the course of the series. I like that it wasn't just a belief in aliens; it could have been in human nature, the paranormal, and in religion. However it seems that when The X-Files actually had a plot that used religion, it was hit or miss; mostly miss.

"Mind's Eye"

"We found her at the scene doing a Formula 409."
Originally Aired 4/19/98

This is a very great episode, so why was it so hard to review? I was even pretty good this season at keeping myself from falling behind until "Mind's Eye." In a season full of experimenting and episodes that played with the show's formula, this one is also different from the normal formula. It feels so much like an episode of Law & Order because its set at a police station for a majority of the scenes, and it also deals more with murders than ghouls. Yet in typical X-Files style, its done as a character-driven story, and its guest is very good! Lili Taylor as a blind woman, who's also the suspect, was so good she was even nominated for a "Guest Star Emmy Award."

Lili Taylor's character, Marty Glenn, is why this episode works so well. This episode is very "talky" and full of dialogue, so to make it work it needed a great guest who will get you engaged into what's being said. To compare it to another X-Files episode, I think this actually is what Glenn Morgan was attempting to do with "The Field Where I Died", but it didn't quite translate from page to screen. Mulder becomes attached and is determined to clear Marty's name, much like he connected with Melissa in that episode. A better comparison outside of the series would be to Millennium's first season episode, "Covenant", in which Frank Black fights to clear the name of an innocent man whom everyone thinks is guilty. To connect it back to The X-Files, that episode's guest star, John Finn, also played Michael Kritschgau in this season. Only difference is this episode ends tragically, making it one of the most heart-wrenching standalones in the run of the series. In fact, I struggled to find a humorous line that would work as my intro quote; "Mind's Eye" is too much of a downer.

This one was a real treat out of my remaining "unseen" episodes. I wasn't really sure what to expect before I was able to finally see it. Four episodes remain of Season Five, with only one of them being an episode that I have seen before ("Folie A Deux".) With just four left, it doesn't feel like the end of the season already. Even though there were fewer episodes than normal, they seemed to spread them out more with at least 3 breaks that lasted three weeks each; guess it doesn't help that I fell an extra two weeks behind.

Scully: the Original Duckface

"Travelers"

"No, its a case that has been designated 'unsolved.'"
Originally Aired 3/29/98

This gets my vote for "Most Polarizing Episode" of the series. I can guess many fans would hate this, first off because it lacks Scully, and Mulder only serves to bookend the episode with scenes in the present day (of 1990.) Secondly, I am sure it gets some hatred because it follows a huge chapter of the mythology and instead of following up, it goes back to the past, much like "Unusual Suspects" from earlier in the season. However, I don't agree with hating it just because it lacks the main characters since the series rarely explored it's roots; I think its a welcome change.

"Travelers" focuses on an investigation of possible communists through the eyes of an FBI Agent named Arthur Dales. In the present he is played by Darren McGavin, who also narrates, while the bulk of Dales' scenes are acted by Fredric Lane. I really like how they recreate the 1940's, since it looks and feels like an entirely different series. People hating the lack of Mulder and Scully will no doubt hate the different atmosphere too, but I like how this has its own identity. The X-Files' sister series Millennium did the same thing with a younger FBI Agent; and that episode also featured the same guest actor playing the FBI's Director. Most of this episode actually feels a bit like an episode of Kolchak the Night Stalker, which was an inspiration for The X-Files. In those episodes, Kolchak (played by McGavin) would narrate portions of each episode and he also stumbles on a monster on a rampage while investigating a different story, much like Dales does in "Travelers." For what this episode is trying to do, I think it excels at creating another world within that of The X-Files. I wish they had revisited the past more, and I'd even like to know exactly what Bill Mulder's role was and how it's linked to the overall conspiracy. After his appearance here and in "Apocrypha", it seems like he would be involved with preserving national security.

Now I can agree with those disliking it because of it's placement within Season Five. The previous episodes, "Patient X" and "The Red and The Black", advanced the mythology and built up a lot of momentum by linking several threads like Scully's abduction and the Russian experiments. It almost feels like that momentum was stalled by going back to the past instead of forward. I understand the use of flashbacks and new characters to make up for a lack of Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, but rather than "Travelers", why not follow up on new characters they just created last week? It would be nice to actually let Chris Owens (as Agent Spender) carry an episode since he already proved he could do it in Season 4. Since Scully was recently hospitalized in "The Red and The Black", I would have used that to leave her on the sidelines so that Mulder has to investigate an X-File with Spender, who is assigned as his temporary partner.

Another fun part of this episode I haven't mentioned yet is it seemed like David Duchovny was trolling the internet before trolling was a common practice. It would have been fun to see an entire internet fan community explode like that guy's head in Scanners once they saw Mulder with a wedding ring. As for the actual story of "Travelers", I enjoyed it. The conspiracy in this episode doesn't feel forced, unlike when they revisited random abductions in "Max"; this captures the naivety of Season One. The series writers and producers put their faith in a crew of guest stars to carry an hour of the series and it paid off. Looking back, that was a super bold move on the part of both X-Files and FOX to do this so close to the release of The X-Files feature film.