"Unrequited"

Originally Aired 2/13/97

I was ready to give this episode a good thrashing because it seemed like "Unrequited" could be the worst of Season 4. Some complaints were that it follows the revelation of Scully's cancer but fails to follow up, its mostly an attempt to turn an episode into an action movie, also that its the shortest of the season so it repeats the closing moments as its opening teaser. After watching it for the first time, I can see where these complaints are coming from, yet I don't agree. I liked "Unrequited", although its not an episode that breaks any new ground.

"Unrequited" feels like a hybrid of Season Two's "Sleepless" and "Tunguska" from earlier in this season. It takes the story of a soldier from the Vietnam War and inserts him into a faster paced hour (without the myth elements), which has that book-end style, much like the Russian two-parter. I can see why they chose to start the episode that way as the story itself lacks the typical "punch" at the beginning like most of these episodes have. They could have easily put the death of the General inside of his limo as the opening, yet if they did, they'd have to "pad" the episode to fill the rest of the hour. That would slow down the pace, which seems to be a no-no on this series; any time you slow things down, you give viewers like me a chance to ask questions.

I compared this episode to "Sleepless" because it has a similar villain, yet their abilities are far from similar. I actually wish they had spent more time on the blind spot explanation and more of the bleeding eyes, but that's a small knock on the episode. What I did like was the calling card left by the villain. Its certainly not going to win any honors for favorite episode but it never has a dull moment. They can't all have the emotional weight of a "Paper Hearts" or a "Memento Mori" nor a creative plot like "Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man", but that's the point. It succeeds at what it's supposed to, and feels a lot like a first season episode, so "Unrequited" is one I will watch again soon.