"Requiem"

"I want to damn the soul of that cigarette-smoking son of a bitch."
Originally Aired 5/21/00

For anyone who thought The X-Files' Seventh Season was getting staler than a day-old donut, "Requiem" breathed new life into a series not seen since mid-Fifth Season when we first met the Spender Family and the Faceless Rebels. All of the usual suspects are back, well whatever is left of them as per usual for these season finales, including several who were only featured in the Pilot episode which adds to the excitement. I had watched this years ago not knowing the in's and out's of the series, and while I enjoyed it back then, I had no idea just what I was in store for me once I sat down and pushed play.

The teaser for "Requiem" felt just like a First Season episode, and while much of this Seventh Season has been an attempt to return to the simpler "monster of the week" storytelling of those early years, this is the first time it actually appeared authentic. From a scene lifted straight out of "E.B.E." with a fiery crash in a wooded area, to someone "losing time", it was actually the moment I spotted the puddle of green blood that I knew this episode was going to be something special. While we've seen all of this before, it still felt fresh and exciting. I believe this is my first time viewing the teaser too, which is excellently staged by veteran series director Kim Manners. I could only recall the events of the episode from the time a pair of teenagers are caught in the woods til the ending, so I must've joined it in-progress during the wee hours of the morning on TNT.

Among the familiar faces returning is one who hasn't been seen since the middle of Season 6, which I actually didn't mind her absence since she's mostly useless, the shadowy Marita Covarrubias. This is without a doubt her best appearance on the series since she's lacking both her annoying wispy manner of speaking and her awful helmet hair. Why couldn't Laurie Holden have acted this way from the start? I wonder how she was actually cured of the effects of the black oil, but the bigger question is why is Krycek locked away in a penal colony. One small line of dialogue explains that away, with the Smoking Man stating he had Krycek locked up for selling his secrets, which is typical Chris Carter fashion. While more scenes with Krycek may not be essential to the episode's plot, it would be nice to see more of the rogue agent at work, but all is forgiven this time since Krycek is finally given a chance to get the upperhand. *That* was a long time coming.

With the NCAA Championship music playing in my head, Krycek's "One Shining Moment" is a "passing of the torch" moment as it appears the Cigarette Smoking Man is done in by the man he originally hired to sabotage Mulder's quest for the truth. It's ironic that I don't ever recall hearing the Cigarette Smoking Man referred to as "Cancer Man", though I've read that nickname for years around the internet, and now it's clear the man actually does have cancer. He's vastly deteriorated compared to his earlier appearance in "En Ami" and now he's forced to smoke his cigarettes through a clamp on his throat, which is a great visual among many on The X-Files that I'll never forget. It's interesting to note that the Smoking Man seemed to accept his fate and the loss of his life's work during earlier appearances this season, almost acting eerily remorseful. Now he's suddenly back to his evil ways in a last gasp to resurrect his "project", but his greed got the better of him because he shouldn't have expected Krycek to roll over and be his lap dog again.

Those familiar faces from the Pilot would be Detective Miles, his son Billy who's now an officer too, and Theresa Hoese. It's also a fun way to return to the earlier seasons' trend of having Mulder and Scully work with local law enforcement, and this time it's Billy who's assisting rather than actually being the "X-File" like before. Billy tells Mulder and Scully that a Navy Pilot crashed with an unidentified object, which always seems to be the case with these events. Seems to me that none of these UFO's ever have a smooth landing, so you'd think the aliens would eventually learn to land after all of these years. Aside from that, the excellent visuals of the series continue with teens in the woods that encounter a strange, radioactive force field, which causes one to thrash around in a wild blurred effect, while the other ran away after his flashlight heated up. Mulder and Scully even return to the exact scene of their previous alien encounter when Mulder painted an "X" on the highway. And speaking of alien encounters, Skinner even has one himself when he witness the alien craft taking off, which might be the most important moment he's had on the series; it's at least a close race with him telling off the Smoking Man in "Paper Clip."

Lastly but not leastly, are Mulder and Scully who investigate their last case together, which begins with them as the focus of an investigation. The two are being audited over their outrageous expenses, which is a moment that should have happened years ago! Many of my reviews have always pointed out Mulder's globe-trotting, and even the times where the two of them will criss-cross the United States multiple times in a single episode. "Requiem" is no different as Mulder travels with Scully to Oregon, only to return later along with his boss Walter Skinner. The audit is not exactly essential to the plot of "Requiem" but it's more of a way to reflect back on how Scully's views have shifted over the years. When asked whether she believes in aliens, she simply states, "I've seen things that I cannot deny." The disappointing part is that much of this scene ended up on the cutting floor. If anything, I'd rather have lost the second scene with Mulder and the auditor and kept Scully's entire scene intact. I feel that's more essential to the overall storyline of Scully continuing on without Mulder in the next season. It also seems like no episode is safe from unintentional comedy because I laughed when Mulder ordered the kid to fetch Scully some water; where's he supposed to get that in the middle of the forest? Oh, Chris.

With all of the returning faces, I felt like the Smoking Man resembled the Emperor from Star Wars though in the past many have referred to him as the "Darth Vader of the series." Here he seems more like the Emperor trying to pull the strings and failing before Vader tossed him down the air shaft, much like Krycek dumped him down a flight of stairs. In "Requiem" every character was used effectively, unlike last year's finale where a few of the familiar faces only appeared briefly. I'd almost say it's a home run episode if it weren't for the final two words. But that said, bring on Season Eight anyways! This fan's energy is renewed.

As usual, I'll conclude with my Top 5 episodes from Season 7, and oddly enough I feel like this is the first season where the mythology episodes were stronger as a whole than the standalones.

My Top Five Of Season 7
1. "En Ami"
2. "Je Souhaite"
3. "Closure"
4. "Requiem"
5.  "Orison"

Honorable Mention: "The Sixth Extinction Part II"

"Je Souhaite"

"Your wish is breath-taking in its originality."
Originally Aired 5/14/00

There are two distinct episodes I can pinpoint as being watershed moments in my fandom of The X-Files. The first was in 2002 during Senior year of high school when my English class watched "The Host" and it set me on a course to become a fan, though it was a very slow progression. The second moment was when I watched this episode one morning on TNT in May of 2007. I had seen a handful of episodes over the previous five years, it just wasn't until I saw this episode that I was finally "hooked" enough to watch the following episode, which spilled over into Season 8, followed by another batch of episodes on TNT. I needed more.

At the time I knew nothing of Vince Gilligan,  nor the significance of this point in the series, I only knew that the 44 minutes of "Je Souhaite" that I had watched were supremely entertaining. The investigation surrounding a genie seemed really hokey since several other tv series have relied on the "wishes gone bad" gimmick before but none that I've watched have pulled it off as effectively as The X-Files. That remains true today as well. Given what I know now about Vince Gilligan, it's not necessarily about The X-Files doing a "genie" story, instead it's just a creative way to twist their "reluctant villain" storytelling device. The genie isn't bad, it's just that the people that are awarded their three wishes are too careless or not specific enough. Vince Gilligan wasn't the first to feature that type of villain, though he loved finding new ways to keep it fresh and interesting, from a man that consumes cancer to another character that had an appetite for brain matter.

This episode's guest stars are a hoot, with Will Sasso and Kevin Weisman co-starring as dim-witted brothers. Vince also seems to have a knack for telling stories about lower class yokels, like Eddie Van Blundht in "Small Potatoes" and Patrick Crump in "Drive." The pop culture references are also great, with naturally the theme of I Dream Of Genie being referenced, but also Mulder and Scully peering around a corner like The Three Stooges, and a sly reference to Looney Tunes, when Anson attempts to kill himself by setting a fire with a match and gas from the oven. At least that's what it reminded me of, when Bugs Bunny was trying to hide gangsters from the police in an oven. Not only does Vince turn in a great comedic script, he also stepped behind the camera for the first time, and proceeded to blow something up. He really made a "bang" with his first directing assignment.

The significance of "Je Souhaite" that I wasn't aware of during my first viewing in 2007 is that this episode marked the end of an era- the last "standalone" episode for Mulder and Scully. I feel like that's why Vince made this decidedly sweeter and more whimsical than his recent entries and allowed not only Mulder and Scully, but David and Gillian, to have more fun than usual. Although Mulder's overhead projector is absent, he does present the case to Scully in their office, and the episode even ends with a rare "intimate" moment in Mulder's apartment as they share a beer and watch a movie; how cute. Walter Skinner gets a quick appearance too, with all of this proving that Vince Gilligan is as much of a fan of The X-Files as we are. When I watched this years ago it had ranked in my top ten among the episodes that I had seen, but I reset that list when I decided to watch this series in order from the beginning. While it's just shy of my "new" Top Ten, its hands-down the best standalone episode of Season 7 and my favorite standalone episode since last year's "Dreamland II." Thank you Vince.

"Fight Club"

"I guess that's why they put the 'I' in the F.B.I."
Originally Aired 5/7/00

And finally, after seven long years, it's come to this. Yet, finally reaching the end of the line shouldn't feel this anti-climactic. I've long known that "Fight Club" would be my final "new" episode and I've wished there was a better episode to go out on than this one. I knew that Kathy Griffin would be in this and instantly wanted to hate this episode since I find her to be just utterly irritating. I always try to find something positive with each episode, but knew this episode would really put that sentiment to the test since nearly everything I've read about this episode on the internet is that it's nothing short of a mess. In this case, the internet was right; no hyperbole.

It actually got off to an interesting start though with wonderful choreography of bicycle riders in unison. The directing work on the entire teaser is fantastic, which ended with a knock down-drag out brawl between the bicycle riders. Another brawl occured after the opening credits between two FBI agent dopple-gangers that appear to resemble Mulder and Scully and even sound like them, when in actuality they're played by David and Gillian's stand-ins. The highlight of all of the brawling, and possibly even the entire episode, was when the female agent gets in her car to drive off and the male agent grabs onto the side of her car and punches her as she drove off. I must've missed that the first time around and it made me giggle when I finally noticed it during my second time through.

Following the brawing, Mulder and Scully have a great scene between the two of them in the office that furthers their relationship beyond just a partnership, again showing how far their relationship has progressed over these 20-some episodes this year. Mulder and Scully theorize on possible reasons behind this week's investigation, even mentioning that their two look-alikes were also veteran FBI agents of a seven year partnership... *wink wink*, but Scully mentioning a "corporeal likeness that appears unbidden from the spirit world that the sight of which presages one's own death" sounds a lot like Season 4's "Elegy."  She only needed to go back a little to the previous year because this episode feels an awful lot like Season 3's "Syzygy." That's one I didn't appreciate the first time through either but liked it more with each rewatch, although I doubt this will be the case with "Fight Club."

As for that actual X-Files investigation, it just seems stupid to me and makes Mulder and Scully seem stupid as well. There's a red-headed lady named Betty and another named Lulu that appear to be identical twins and keep following each other from town to town, each working odds jobs like wild animal handler and Mongolian grill chef. Now the brawling between the bicyclists occurred outside of Lulu's house, and this FBI brawl happened outside of Betty's, yet Mulder and Scully only track down Betty until mid-way through the episode. Why not look into why the first brawl happened at Lulu's? Then when they finally do find Lulu and their father, the boyfriend the two are "sharing" winds up having a twin of his own. I guess there's probably a reason for all of this- TV shows always make wild leaps of coincidence for dramatic effect and The X-Files uses that to the fullest week after week, but I still just couldn't bring myself to care about the investigation. Especially after Mulder was sucked into a manhole that was clearing blowing out steam. At least the "father" of Lulu and Betty was hilarious...

The most interesting factor about this whole episode is that while I thought I was finally coming to the end of the road with new episodes this year, FOX announced that they're filming 6 new episodes for a mini-series to air in 2016. That's a pretty interesting twist of fate that couldn't have worked out better if I had planned it.

Mulder's got a grill like Lil Wayne.

"Hollywood A.D."

"You see? It's just not true that you can't get good science at Catholic school. It's a lie."
Originally Aired 4/30/00

After 7 long years it finally happened... I watched an episode early! I'd done so good with sticking to air dates but I accidentally jumped the gun with "Hollywood A.D." and watched it a week early. I've been really off for much of this season as it is, since I put it on hold in February to watch "X-Cops" with my grandma, causing me to fall behind by two or three episodes. I did it again with "First Person Shooter" so I could watch that action-packed episode with a friend of mine. So I assumed I was back on track, only to realize after I watched it that my beloved X-Files actually took a week off. But hey, I lasted this long without a slip up, I think that says a lot to my dedication. I only goofed while I was house-sitting for my aunt, so I might even ignore that little mistake since I took on extra tasks like feeding her dog that distracted me.

Now that I'm allowed to watch it for real, I've watched "Hollywood A.D" several times this week in an attempt to fully form my thoughts on it but I still feel it's a mixed bag. While I enjoy the witty dialogue from Mulder, Scully, and their "hologram" sidekick Wayne Federman, I'm still not sold on the actual X-File. There's a religious artifact that can raise the dead, yet I'm lost with what happened between a cardinal of the church and some guy who had forged religious documents. I suppose all of that is meaningless anyway because this episode is really just an excuse to laugh and poke fun at the series, which it does with flying colors. I loved the back and forth one liners, which the series has been lacking since the days of Darin Morgan's episodes. Sure, I've laughed at many episodes since then, but nothing has felt as fresh and as witty as "Hollywood A.D."

During a meeting with A.D. Skinner, Mulder and Scully are informed they're going to be shadowed on their latest investigation by a movie producer, and friend of his named Wayne Federman, which provided the most laughs for me. I loved his description of Mulder: "Jehovah's Witness meets Harrison Ford's Witness". There are other funny quips throughout his scenes like, "St. Peter's bathrobe", "God's Refrigerator", and the episode also references a fan nickname for Walter Skinner which is the "Skin Man." David Duchovny showed his ability to craft another original story for his second episode this season (he shared a co-writer credit with Chris Carter on "The Sixth Extinction II"), which is also quite different from his Season 6 installment, "The Unnatural." While these 3 are completely different stories, I did notice that while his earlier Season 7 entry used religious allegory, this episode pokes fun at religion.

"Hollywood A.D." also pokes fun at the series itself by featuring a movie about The X-Files, well, an amalgamation loosely based on The X-Files, starring Tea Leoni as Scully and Garry Shandling as Mulder. Much of this is actually based on real life events, as Duchovny's wife is Tea Leoni and David Duchovny made guest appearances on Shandling's cable series, The Larry Sanders Show. During David's appearance on that series his amalgamation loosely based on himself had a crush on Larry Sanders, so now that's reversed when Scully jokes that Shandling has a crush on Mulder. While many viewers might not be aware of that in-joke, the movie-within-a-tv series sequences still offer plenty of laughs, like the Cigarette Smoking Pontiff and eccentric actors that only eat "tofurkey."

The real highlights of this hour are actually the one-on-one moments between Mulder and Scully when they discuss their own lives and religion, showing that while David was growing disillusioned with continuing to play a TV character, he still had a grasp on who the character is and what makes him tick; I assume even more than the man who created Mulder. While Carter did create Mulder, it's Duchovny who has brought him to life for over 150 episodes, so I think he should know the man better. David even added a reference to Mulder's porn collection, which I think was nearly forgotten by this point in the series' run. While David may have provided the funniest script of the year, I believe my favorite of these episodes written by cast members remains William B. Davis' contribution, "En Ami." Although nothing against "Hollywood A.D." since I haven't laughed like this all season long. As this season winds down, I only have one new episode left to go, which is next week's "Fight Club."

"Brand X"

"That sounds like a Darryl Weaver problem to me."
Originally Aired 4/16/00

While Season 7 might be the most "uneven" season in several years, the writers did manage to create several interesting villains, with more of a focus on monsters. Those monsters would actually be "human" monsters like Rob Roberts in "Hungry", Orell Peattie in "Theef", and now Tobin Bell as Darryl Weaver in this episode, "Brand X." That particular brand is a brand of cigarette, created by the Morley Tobacco Company, but without an actual appearance by the Cigarette Smoking Man; maybe his choice in brand is why he has developed cancer. This deadly cigarette as a "monster of the week" villain seems timely because if I recall correctly, the early 2000's was full of those 'Truth' PSA's about the dangers of smoking. I even remember one with a board room of executives that were brain-storming ideas, which reminds me of the scene where Mulder and Skinner confront the Morley company.

Speaking of A.D. Skinner, he also plays a larger role in this week's episode, continuing the trend of removing Skinner from behind his desk. In Season 3 he was the "X-File", in Season 4 he was being black-mailed by the Cigarette Smoking Man, and then again in Season 6 he was being manipulated through a device by Krycek. Rather than being a puppet for the Syndicate, this episode puts Skinner in the thick of an investigation for once. Mulder and Scully are mostly sidelined as Mulder comes down with a bad "bug" and Scully gets another interesting autopsy scene. I think Skinner was given much of the spotlight as David and Gillian were tied up with their own directing assignments, with Gillian's airing the week before and David's following "Brand X." I think using Skinner was a much more effective way to work around the lack of their stars than what happened with "Chimera" and "all things." When you have one without the other it seems to create an imbalance, but leaving both out seems to usually produce better results for whatever reason- like the times when the Gunmen had their own episodes and also the Cigarette Smoking Man's episode, too.

The episode was about deadly cigarettes and they took it literally and created many smoke-filled scenes. "Brand X" opened on smoke billowing out of a chimney, it's villain emerged from a fog and served as an awesome visual introduction for the character, and then there's the deadly smoke from the villain himself, Darryl Weaver. The special effects of the beetles and the make-up used for the victims of Darryl's smoke were great visual effects too. I think that while "Theef" earned the show an Emmy for special make-up effects, it should've went to "Brand X."

This bring us to the villain of "Brand X", "Mr. E. Pluribus", Darryl Weaver. He could almost be the true son of the Smoking Man as he sits alone at night in his apartment watching old war movies, he smokes like a chimney while delivering awesome one-liners ("I got all the coffin nails I can suck down"), and both seem to be delusional with the belief that they're a "hero." The Smoking Man felt the weight of the world was on his shoulders because he protected the secrets of an alien conspiracy, while Darryl Weaver seems to think he'll play a pivotal role in science since he's the cure for cancer. While the Smoking Man was in charge of experiments, Darryl actually is the victim of experimenting.

I really enjoyed Tobin Bell as Darryl Weaver as the villain of the week, Skinner had more screen time in an episode than usual, and a thrilling investigation make "Brand X" one of the better episodes of the Seventh Season. That's all the more surprising because it was the creation of a pair of a newbie X-Files writers, Steven Maeda and Greg Walker. Both will also stick around for a few interesting episodes in the Eighth Season which I'm excited to rewatch and see if they can hold up to my original feelings from eight years ago.

Toodles.