"Empedocles"

"I saw Elvis in a potato chip once."
Originally Aired 4/22/01

There is a lot going on in this hour of The X-Files, much more character development than your average case-of-the-week episode, especially with "Empedocles" featuring four FBI agents. Technically Mulder is no longer allowed to investigate X-Files cases, so I'm not sure how he still has access to the basement office, let alone free to roam the hallways of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. Maybe he had a spare key made for such occasions, though I really wonder about the security at the FBI. Krycek always seems to have access, too.

Scully has a lighter load as she appears to be on maternity leave, though her role in this episode was not any less essential. Throughout this season she has offered advice to Doggett on their cases together, since she was once in his shoes as the "skeptic." This time Doggett actually comes to her, as the episode's case could have a link back to the mystery surrounding his son's abduction. Their brief moment together is the highlight of this episode as Doggett shows some cracks in his crusty exterior, asking Scully how she became a believer. It segues into a beautifully eerie scene with Doggett appearing in a field, as everyone else around him is in slow motion, which appears throughout the episode and finally reveals the moment when he discovered his son. Doggett later explains to Monica Reyes that he tried to do everything he could to find his son, and if a paranormal link is actually true, that means he didn't explore every possibility in his search. Some fans have said Doggett was merely a replacement character, either replacing Mulder as the person with a mysterious abduction that still haunts him or as a replacement for Scully's skeptic character. This episode strongly disproves either critique of the John Doggett character, as he is neither. While he is strongly skeptical of the paranormal, he approaches it from a different angle than our other characters; he's more like the previous non-believer, Agent Jeffrey Spender.

So with Scully on leave, and Mulder's position at the FBI in limbo, that leaves only two agents- Doggett and Reyes, who brings a case she is consulting on to Mulder's attention. I really like this dynamic with Mulder assuming the role of "mentor", almost sliding into Deep Throat's shoes. Mulder is still able to throw in his classic wisecracks and the tension between Doggett and Mulder is carried over from the previous episode. I feel like they should have done everything within their power to keep Duchovny from leaving the series so the Mulder-Doggett dynamic could continue as regular partners. It's kind of like a tv drama version of the old WWF wrinkle of "tag team partners who hate each other". Monica Reyes still does nothing for me as a character on this series. She feels like a really awkward version of Mulder, maybe even like Phoebe Buffay from Friends. The opening scene where she is asked if a case has a Satanic link because of Marilyn Manson CDs is awkward dialogue and doesn't do the character any favors either.

While I actually like the mysterious X-File case this week, which appears to be a thread of evil that is passed on from person to person at their most vulnerable moments, it seems a little under-developed. Maybe that's because I can't take "Bug" from Uncle Buck seriously as a "villain." I keep picturing him as the guy who's afraid of John Candy's character in that movie. Although the X-Files crew did excellent make-up effects when "Bug" tears skin from his face and reveals lava underneath; pretty creepy. It doesn't matter if that part of the plot isn't given enough time though, because it was mainly there to get Doggett to question his disbelief in the paranormal. This is exactly what the writers should have been doing sooner in the season, because now we only have 4 episodes remaining but there is so much more that could have been done with Doggett-Mulder. I recall this being one of the stronger episodes from Season 8 from when I first watched it, and after viewing it again, it is among the strongest of the entire run of episodes filmed in California. Not only is Doggett's background explored, but they also remembered Mulder's background as a criminal profiler. Bravo to writer Greg Walker!

Actually, excuse me, the best part of this episode was actually a few recurring moments with a sassy black nurse at the hospital. She tells Mulder and Doggett that it's "immediate family only", then later she scolds Doggett while he's visiting Scully. She appears a third time even, telling the agents again that it's family only. Such sass! Give that lady a raise.