"Invocation"

"Agent Scully, don't ask me to believe that this is some justice from beyond the grave."
Originally Aired 12/3/2000

This episode takes me back to May 2007, well over a year before I began this season-by-season journey through the series. Prior to that special month May, I had watched several on the Sci Fi Channel (not Syfy as it is now), and several more standalones on DVDs of Seasons 1 and 2. I had been watching the tail end of 7 and the beginning of 8 in the wee hours of the morning on TNT when I made my way to this episode, "Invocation." I fell asleep moments before the climax and I just had to know what happened! Luckily, my girlfriend at the time owned the Season 8 box, so I borrowed it from her so I could finish the episode. What happened after that was fate, maybe destiny, possibly nerdy, or something else entirely. I was so entertained by "Invocation", that I went back an episode to "Roadrunners" which I had missed on TV, and from that point I finished the rest of the season in a single weekend. I believe I watched another two episodes after that on Friday night, followed by another four on Saturday, then my Sunday was spent entirely in bed as I watched 9 straight episodes. What felt like an intense marathon for me back then is likely nothing compared to people's binge-watching habits on Netflix.

As for the episode itself, it doesn't seem to hold up nearly as well to my memory. In fact, it feels much more like an episode of Millennium. The opening sequence, it's eerie lullaby score and use of slow motion, is much more like The X-Files' sister series than it's own. While this season of The X-Files was filmed in sunny California, there is a definite lack of that sunshine, and the episode appears to be heavy on greys and cloudy skies much like the first season. The wooded scenes remind me of Millennium, even down to a scene where a skull is unearthed.

The-Files, "Invocation"

Millennium, "Skull and Bones"

Doggett is very much the focus of the episode, with Scully almost a background character. Most of her lines appear to be a variation of the same thing, telling Doggett that a child who was missing for 10 years has been returned at the same age he was when was abducted, an "anomaly." Doggett appears more like Mulder in this hour of television, pushing the child to speak and also pushing for the suspect to confess. Doggett is acting a bit of a character than what we've previously seen of him this season because he's "personalizing" the case, much like Mulder would do when faced with a case about young girls, like Season 3's "Oubliette." With Doggett, its the case of a missing boy because his own son went missing. There have been many complaints of retreading the same storylines since Mulder was faced with similar situations because of his sister, with now Doggett having struggles because over his son. I'm okay with that, as Doggett needs an arc of his own to be a fully developed character on this show, otherwise he'd just remain a side character floating aimlessly like Krycek. Spender was even given an arc of his own as he eventually had to confront his own beliefs in "Two Fathers" and "One Son", so this could lead to Doggett overcoming his as well. The ending scene with Scully is the episode's highlight, as these last several episodes have been very good with character moments between Doggett and Scully. It's as if she's holding his hand and guiding him on this quest for Agent Doggett to open his eyes and believe, much like Mulder did with Scully at the end of "Beyond the Sea." In fact, this episode could very well be Doggett's "Beyond the Sea".

A TV and movie trope that has been done to death is the "creepy child." The X-Files has went to that well already, this episode is even treading in similar waters of "Born Again" from Season 1; that's an episode I always forget about and even had to look up it's title to make sure I was right. Billy, the child who was abducted and now returned, delivers on that creep factor. It's the brother Josh, however, that is actually the irritating one as he just makes weird faces the entire episode. While "Invocation" might be a mixed bag of previous episodes, it still has enough of a creepy factor to make it watchable, and I'll always look back fondly as it was another stepping stone on my road to X-Files fandom.