"Roadrunners"

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"Patience"

"The only thing I know about the paranormal is that men are from Mars, women are from Venus."
Originally Aired 11/19/00

By no means is this a great episode of The X-Files but it does get the job done as the first standalone without Mulder; welcome to the era of John Doggett. Doggett has been established as having a background in law enforcement and that's what he brings to his partnership with Agent Scully. I liked the fact that there was an actual investigation in this episode, with it's back-to-basics style, even down to the agents encountering local law enforcement just like the old days. The projector slide show even makes an appearance, too. So many times over the last season or two, Mulder would know exactly what the case is right away leaving no mystery, but with Doggett's approach of applying street smarts, his prediction is it's a one-legged man. Ha! Scully is also doing her best to think like Mulder while also trying to balance it with her scientific background. Neither are on the same page at all, although this is their first time together and she's still thinking of Doggett as an enemy more than ally. It's just too bad the actual case of a "man-bat" isn't all that interesting.

While the case isn't up to the usual level, I do like Doggett and Scully's interactions. Doggett is trying his best to solve the case using knowledge of crimes and homicides, yet he's clearly a "fish out of water." It's a new wrinkle to his character that he tells Scully he was down in the office all night going through their old X-Files case files. It's too bad the episode didn't start that way, though, with her walking in and seeing his "interest" in the cases. Instead he walks down to the office with a few of his agent buddies and it irks his new partner. While he has friends now, maybe they could slowly show Doggett being shunned for associating with the X-Files. My assumption I made in "Within" was that Doggett was a real dick and that appears to be slowly fading by this third episode of the season. Although there is one moment where he talks about Scully with his back to her, and I felt just as uncomfortable as she did. While Doggett may have had good intentions in standing up for his new partner, that bit of writing by series creator Chris Carter isn't doing any favors for his new character.

With this being Scully's first investigation without Mulder, she appears a little in over her head too. The local sheriff guy she has to deal with isn't helping either, since he's clearly a bigot or just very stubborn. We've seen episodes where the locals didn't want the FBI around but I can't recall any that have flat-out insulted the agents. That guy was the real dick, not Doggett, so I'm glad he encountered the monster he didn't believe in and came out on the losing end. While this case is far from classic X-Files, since these monsters who attack every full moon or every turn of the century are a played-out gimmick, the great visuals are still present which is all the more interesting since Chris Carter turns in a rare directing performance. There's a neat scene of the man bat hanging upside down inside of a barn, also a fun gag with Doggett asking if Scully ever carries a flashlight. Doggett even encountered a guy wearing a coat and hat with his face bandaged, which I took as a clever reference to The Invisible Man film.

"Without"

"This reads like a piece of pot-boiled science fiction."
Originally Aired 11/12/00

Before this episode resumed the cliffhanger from last week which was literally on top of a cliff, we're treated to another Chris Carter-penned narration with fancy prose like "flights of fancy." At least this one was quick. We then resume the stand-off between Agent Dick Doggett and what appeared to be Mulder, who took Gibson Praise with him. Mulder released Gibson and then toppled over the edge of the cliff, recreating the scene from the recently re-edited X-Files opening credits.

After watching "Within" a second time, I realized the integral moment of this episode is a scene involving a phone call between Kersh and Doggett. Kersh phoned Doggett for a progress report, which Skinner overheard and told Doggett he's just being used as Kersh's pawn. That's basically what I assumed last week, that Doggett was being used and it would be Carter's way of building sympathy for the character. I really liked Doggett's dialog in this scene too, with lines like, "Alright, you've painted me the picture, now put it in a frame." This is what separates Agent Doggett from Agent Spender back when he first arrived on the scene. Doggett is not a believer but he's determined enough to get answers, while Spender's disbelief led him to just blindly dismiss everything. In fact, this conversation with Doggett and Skinner is actually a complete reversal on Scully's hallway scene with Skinner in last week's episode. That time it was Scully telling Skinner that the truth could ruin his career, and now Doggett realizes it's his career which is really in jeopardy.

While last week's episode was mostly exposition to reintroduce Kersh and bring Robert Partrick's Agent Doggett into the fold, "Without" is a little more action packed. The real purpose, however, is to reposition the characters of Doggett and Skinner. Doggett is being moved onto the X-Files division, whether he likes it or not, and Skinner is finally becoming a believer. Although he became a conspiracy victim in Season 6's "S.R. 819" and played the role of the Cancer Man's stooge in "Zero Sum" further back in Season 4, now he finally comes face to face with an alien- the Alien Bounty Hunter. In the past Skinner always walked the line, he was Mulder's boss but would occasionally step out from behind the desk. Now he's all the way out in the desert, tracking down Mulder and assisting Scully as a full-fledged member of "Team Mulder." I guess that's why Kersh was brought back since Skinner is no longer a neutral character. Doggett slides into the role previously filled by Scully in the previous seven years of The X-Files. Rather than using science to find answers, Doggett will use his police academy intuition, one can assume.

That leaves Gibson Praise to be used as another MacGuffin. He's really a non-factor in this episode and was mostly an excuse to get everyone out in the desert and chase shapeshifters. In fact, even his superhuman mind-reading skills were wasted, since you'd think he could have read the Bounty Hunter's mind and warned them, "hey you guys! This ain't Mulder!" That's alright though, because it wasn't the first time this show wasted Gibson and it won't be the last either. The most notable moment in the episode might be that this is the first time the Bounty Hunter has been killed. We know the weapon to dispose of them is the ice pick to the neck, yet Scully must be a crack shot since a single bullet must've hit that sweet spot on the Bounty Hunter's neck. Last season Cancer Man used his neck to smoke a cigarette, and now the Bounty Hunter's neck hole is oozing green goo. Man, I love these creepy visuals on The X-Files.

While this whole season is no longer offering new episodes for me to discover, I'm able to see them all in a new light and I'm still enjoying it. I guess that's what counts.

"Within"

"They can hang me with a lie, too. I'm not going to sell Mulder out."
Originally Aired 11/5/00

The X-Files is back, as it not only returns for new episodes in January 2016, but I'm also beginning the 8th season in my yearly season viewing pattern. This is actually the season where my fandom blossomed back in 2007 and I've anticipated finally getting the chance to rewatch it again within the context of the series, although I'm starting to feel like perhaps this season won't be as great as I remembered. Watching "Within" didn't help in alleviating those fears.

Scully and Skinner do make an interesting team though, as this episode appears to pick up immediately following Season 7's "Requiem"; in fact Scully even says that episode took place the night before. That's a pretty quick turn-around for the FBI to already have a manhunt in place, along with a new Deputy Director, and even a Special Agent in charge of the manhunt. You'd almost think Alex Krycek would be the puppet master getting rid of the evidence and possibly framing Mulder, except he's nowhere to be found. Instead the newly appointed Director is a familiar thorn in the side of Scully, her one-time supervisor in Season Six Kersh, who really seems to relish the moments when he can mock the paranormal. It makes me wish they were building to scene where Kersh comes face to face with an alien, almost like when Venkman meets Slimer in Ghostbusters and screamed. Or that moment when the trio of Ghostbusters run away from that lady ghost in the library. He needs his comeuppance for being such a dick to Mulder and Scully.

That brings us to Kersh's appointed stooge for finding the missing Mulder, Agent John Doggett. Robert Patrick makes his debut in the role that many fans said was just a replacement for David Duchovny, but in fact this episode presents him as a clear opposite of Fox Mulder. He's a former Marine and NYPD officer, but seems to be just as much of a dick as Kersh, so maybe that's why he's the man for the job. I think I'll call him "Dick Doggett", which is funny considering how much of a fan of Doggett I am. Just after Doggett is introduced, the series has probably the most unintentionally funny moment I've ever seen as Scully pulls up Doggett's FBI profile, and then immediately throws up, echoing just how every fan girl felt when they learned David Duchovny was leaving the series. Poor Doggett, he makes women vomit just from the mere thought of him.

Aside from that humorous moment, it felt like Chris Carter went out of his way to put Doggett in such a negative light. Not only does he trick Scully in their first encounter, but Dick Doggett also wonders if she ever really knew her partner the way she thought she did. Where did Chris Carter get that notion? However during a conversation between Doggett and Kersh, I get the impression that even though Kersh is sharing old army anecdotes with Doggett, he's only setting him up to the take the fall for eventually failing to bring Mulder back to the FBI. Carter must be trying to slowly build some sympathy for Dick Doggett when he's thrown under the bus, but he's also making him really hard to like.

Another irritating development within this episode is a new backstory for Mulder that seemed to be pulled from thin air. It stems from the previous season's opening story arc where Mulder suffered a mysterious brain impairment which left him speechless. At first I thought this was just some wacky storyline dreamt up to create drama for drama's sake, but then I realized there never was a definitive solution at the end of "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati." Instead Mulder just woke up with a goofy looking band-aid on his head, mystery solved, and then he seemed to pass on whatever ailed him to the Cancer Man, making him literally a Cancer Man. That's another thing Chris Carter is notorious for doing, which is presenting a story in one episode and then not touching it until a year later. So I'll overlook this weird Mulder brain cancer wrinkle in the mythology.

As much as the first half hour of this episode annoyed me, the closing minutes were actually pretty interesting and seemed to set up the next episode, Without", quite well. Scully and Skinner are racing to the desert to track down the "missing link" in Gibson Praise, while Dick Doggett is hot on their heels. I remember quite a bit more from that episode than I actually did from "Within." Those X-Files visuals the series is known for were present here, and possibly the best part of the episode, with the dream-like nature of Mulder's alien torture. Is Scully dreaming this or is Mulder actually being tortured much like they did to Duane Barry back in Season 2?