"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?