"Trevor"

"Dear Diary, today my heart leapt when Agent Scully suggested 'spontaneous human combustion.'"
Originally Aired 4/11/99

I believe that critics at the time this aired, along with the rest of The X-Files fan community, aren't too fond of this episode. "Trevor" isn't an episode that breaks new ground like several previous episodes we've seen this season but it is a success at being a true "monster of the week" investigation. The writers raised the bar in the first half of this season, then they seemed to have attempted to return to their previous level of storytelling, though the transition may not have been as smooth as they had intended. "Agua Mala" and "Alpha" were a 'run of the mill' return to the "monster of the week" format. I can't even recall any good one-liners from Mulder in those episodes, which is occasionally a good measuring stick for the quality of an episode. With "Trevor", the interaction between the agents is a step up, it's villain is interesting and leaves unique victims in his wake, and the plot itself was compelling.

Previously in Season Five The X-Files had poked fun at programs like Jerry Springer, with werewolf babies and even mutated children like the Great Mutato in the "Post Modern Prometheus." This episode actually lifts a bit of the paternity battles that occur on those programs, which were popular at the time, with the series' own spin on it. That's the best I can come up with for a description: The X-Files Meets "Who's Your Daddy?" It's honestly a better episode than that. When the episode begins, a tornado is bearing down on a ram-shackled prison, so the prisoners are doing what they can to board up windows and brace for impact. One prisoner, "Pinker" Rawls, is ordered to ride out the storm in "the box", though through some scientific wackiness that only Agent Scully can explain, he gains the super-power to pass through matter. He uses the most of his newfound ability to escape from prison and search for a child that was conceived before he was incarcerated. It's a somewhat touching story, though he did go to prison for a reason, so there are a few gruesome bodies that he leaves behind. The special effects team for the series did a great job of making these bodies look as gruesome as possible- the prison warden is completely severed in half, while an old buddy of Pinker is missing his entire face.

While "Trevor" isn't a new episode for me, I feel like my goal of watching the series in order has another benefit, which is that I was able to successfully guess that this episode was directed by Rob Bowman. His use of close-ups and camera angles is what tipped me off; though I also liked the lighting and music used within the episode too. Even David Duchovny seemed more enthusiastic about this episode than the previous batch of episodes. Mulder's jokey nature balances out the serious tone of the story and I'm glad he's having fun as Mulder. That also leads me to the early scene where Mulder and Scully are exchanging theories on the cause of death of the warden. Mulder is actually stumped this time, while Scully tosses out a theory: spontaneous human combustion. It's that line from Mulder, "Dear Diary, today my heart leapt when Agent Scully suggested 'spontaneous human combustion'" that pops in my head at moments when I find out a female is interested in me. Maybe that plays a small part in why I give this episode more credit than most.

"Alpha"

"Animals that aren't supposed to exist, like Sasquatch, the Ogopogo, and the Abominable Snowman-"
"Don't mind him. He'll go on forever."
Originally Aired 3/28/99

Sixteen episodes into the season and we finally have a back-to-basics, "monster of the week" investigation. Yet, it just feels so plain and ordinary, at a time when revisiting the "monster" format should feel refreshing. Mulder and Scully are tracking a wild animal on a killing spree, which turns out to be a shape-shifter, so it really is back to the old format since that type of story was done before in Season One's "Shapes." While that episode focused on Native America lore, "Alpha" focuses on an extinct form of a dog called a Wanshang Dhole. I almost wrote that as "D'hole"; guess I was thinking about Homer Simpson's exclamation of "D'oh." "D'oh, it's time to watch 'Alpha!"

The basic story of the evil dog isn't where the episode fails, that lies with it's use of guest stars. Andrew Robinson, famous for being the killer in Dirty Harry and as Garak on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, is Dr. Detweiler who had actually captured this dog once before. Melinda Culea is Karin Berquist, an animal expert whom Mulder had met on the internet. The episode tries to go in a direction where there could be a flirtation between Mulder and Karen, yet I'm just not buying it at all. The lady doesn't just love dogs, she worships them and even writes books about how they're better than humans. Maybe that was an attempt to make her just as "quirky" as Mulder, yet we have seen entertaining quirky characters that are easily relatable to Mulder; the Lone Gunmen, Max Fenig, even Eddie Van Blundht. Berquist, however, is just far off in another plateau of weirdness and the only thing she shares with Mulder is an old, familiar poster. Scully appears to pick up on the wedged-in "romance", though I'd rather believe she is suspicious of Mulder and Berquist meeting on the internet because she remembers a previous case too well. That would be Season 3's "2Shy", in which a man used a dating service to seduce his victims. Otherwise Scully has no reason to infer anything between Mulder and this creepy lady because Mulder has even found X-Files cases through grocery tabloids and old VHS tapes; using the internet is just updating the series to follow the current trends.

What the episodes lacks in the script, it makes up for with the series' trademark visuals. I really liked the scenes with the killer dog appearing in foggy alleys and the camera angles used throughout the episode. The make-up crew added to the visuals with gruesome wounds inflicted by the dog, making this feel they were straight out of a horror movie. So while this episode was filmed in California following the move between Seasons 5 and 6, I wouldn't have guessed it judging by it's use of camerawork. In fact, the only episodes where the California location is obvious would be "Arcadia" and "Monday." So it's a credit to the series' crew that they were successfully masking the California setting by keeping things in the shadows. There is another positive aspect of "Alpha", that is the return of Mulder's "I Want To Believe" poster, which puts the final touches on his return to The X-Files.