"Chimera"

"You put the service back in the 'protect and serve'."
Originally Aired 4/2/00

This is like 'X-Files meets Desperate Housewives', if only this series was around just a couple seasons longer; maybe then it might have worked as a creepy parody of that ABC drama. Instead I'm trying to view it without my knowledge of "Chimera" being written as an excuse to leave Scully out of the main investigation because Gillian Anderson was tied up behind the scenes with her own episode. Mulder leaving Scully behind on a stake-out leads to a humorous moment or two when they're speaking over the phone, much like "Chinga" was before it, though the reason for even having the stake-out is a little flimsy.

Mulder off on his own to investigate a disappearance in another idyllic town also seems like going to the well again since he was thrust into that life in "Dreamland" and then posed as a married couple in "Arcadia", but "Chimera" adds a different and darker twist. Mulder is actually rooming with a sheriff and his wife as he investigates a murder but finds himself in the midst of a love triangle. It also goes back to the old formula from past seasons when Mulder was working with local law enforcement, twisting it so that now that officer becomes a possible suspect. The domestic life that isn't what it seems, combined with the disappearance of a wife, also reminded me a little of last year's movie Gone Girl. "Chimera" doesn't have the same twists and turns as that story but I got the same vibe. Maybe that's what the movie was lacking- a good supernatural monster.

It seems to me like whenever the X-Files team had a script that didn't quite "click", they didn't try a new idea, they just kept hammering away on the first idea til they got something that might work. That strategy isn't always sound and I think this episode suffered a little. I liked the murder mystery and the revelation of "whodunit?" but I don't get a sense that any of the characters really clicked. Maybe they weren't supposed to due to all of the affairs or I'm missing a cut scene or two, possibly. For what it's worth, in a season of "back to basics" X-Files tales, this is one that is truly back to the good old days and isn't the worst that I've seen this season (or will see.) Although, "it's not the worst" isn't much praise..