"Fight Club"

"I guess that's why they put the 'I' in the F.B.I."
Originally Aired 5/7/00

And finally, after seven long years, it's come to this. Yet, finally reaching the end of the line shouldn't feel this anti-climactic. I've long known that "Fight Club" would be my final "new" episode and I've wished there was a better episode to go out on than this one. I knew that Kathy Griffin would be in this and instantly wanted to hate this episode since I find her to be just utterly irritating. I always try to find something positive with each episode, but knew this episode would really put that sentiment to the test since nearly everything I've read about this episode on the internet is that it's nothing short of a mess. In this case, the internet was right; no hyperbole.

It actually got off to an interesting start though with wonderful choreography of bicycle riders in unison. The directing work on the entire teaser is fantastic, which ended with a knock down-drag out brawl between the bicycle riders. Another brawl occured after the opening credits between two FBI agent dopple-gangers that appear to resemble Mulder and Scully and even sound like them, when in actuality they're played by David and Gillian's stand-ins. The highlight of all of the brawling, and possibly even the entire episode, was when the female agent gets in her car to drive off and the male agent grabs onto the side of her car and punches her as she drove off. I must've missed that the first time around and it made me giggle when I finally noticed it during my second time through.

Following the brawing, Mulder and Scully have a great scene between the two of them in the office that furthers their relationship beyond just a partnership, again showing how far their relationship has progressed over these 20-some episodes this year. Mulder and Scully theorize on possible reasons behind this week's investigation, even mentioning that their two look-alikes were also veteran FBI agents of a seven year partnership... *wink wink*, but Scully mentioning a "corporeal likeness that appears unbidden from the spirit world that the sight of which presages one's own death" sounds a lot like Season 4's "Elegy."  She only needed to go back a little to the previous year because this episode feels an awful lot like Season 3's "Syzygy." That's one I didn't appreciate the first time through either but liked it more with each rewatch, although I doubt this will be the case with "Fight Club."

As for that actual X-Files investigation, it just seems stupid to me and makes Mulder and Scully seem stupid as well. There's a red-headed lady named Betty and another named Lulu that appear to be identical twins and keep following each other from town to town, each working odds jobs like wild animal handler and Mongolian grill chef. Now the brawling between the bicyclists occurred outside of Lulu's house, and this FBI brawl happened outside of Betty's, yet Mulder and Scully only track down Betty until mid-way through the episode. Why not look into why the first brawl happened at Lulu's? Then when they finally do find Lulu and their father, the boyfriend the two are "sharing" winds up having a twin of his own. I guess there's probably a reason for all of this- TV shows always make wild leaps of coincidence for dramatic effect and The X-Files uses that to the fullest week after week, but I still just couldn't bring myself to care about the investigation. Especially after Mulder was sucked into a manhole that was clearing blowing out steam. At least the "father" of Lulu and Betty was hilarious...

The most interesting factor about this whole episode is that while I thought I was finally coming to the end of the road with new episodes this year, FOX announced that they're filming 6 new episodes for a mini-series to air in 2016. That's a pretty interesting twist of fate that couldn't have worked out better if I had planned it.

Mulder's got a grill like Lil Wayne.