"Surekill"

"It's time to be your own man Randall, it's time to think for yourself."
Originally Aired 1/7/01

My first X-Files episode was "The Host" in my senior year high school English class. It was odd because that sums up my entire experience of high school English right there- we watched tv shows and movies more than we actually read important works of fiction like most kids do. One time a teacher even read to us, a chapter from Of Mice and Men, followed by watching the movie. So forgive me if my knowledge of Of Mice and Men mostly comes from Looney Tunes, and the big lug who asked, "which way did he go, George?"

I mention Of Mice and Men because that's what this episode reminded me of, with it's triangle of characters formed between two men and a woman. One man is the brains, while the other is larger, stronger, and acts like more of a lackey. The woman comes between them and ruins their plans, schemes, dreams, whichever you should call it. However, this episode seems to flip that scenario slightly. It appears that this episode "Surekill" wants the female to be the one with the plan of running away to a better life and standing in her way are the brothers. Although this episode is a bit muddled and I'm not sure who is actually the sympathetic character here- the female, Tammy, who is stealing money which was originally stolen from drug dealers; or the brother, Randall, who's manipulated by by his brother Dwight into doing his dirty work. It;s hard to tell because I don't think the writer knew either. The female, Tammy, who works for Dwight and Randall, and is embezzling money, might almost be like a Jackie Brown-type character, in that she's justified in taking it since it was blood money from drugs. Maybe I'm just reading too much into the Jackie Brown reference since Dwight is played Michael Bowen, who was an FBI Agent in that movie as well.

The aspect of this episode that I do like is the X-Files element, which has one brother with seemingly x-ray vision that allows him to see through walls. That heightened ability meant that his twin brother's sight was negatively effected, rendering him "legally blind." Shooting through walls is pretty cool, and led to a few neat set pieces where a man's head splatters blood all over the inside of a jail cell, and another where a wall looked like swiss cheese from several bullet holes. Yet the other brother's disability seems to come and go. If he needs to use a lighter to see Tammy's eyes, then how could he see the answering machine blinking from across the room? Oh well. The X-Files never lets logic get in the way of a good visual.

While Season 8 has been a return to form and a focus more on the supernatural and horror movie-styled plots of the early seasons, I'm at a point now where I want some humor. Those early episodes had dark subject matter while the mood was somewhat lightened by a few choice one-liners from Agent Mulder. I do appreciate the growing team-work between Doggett and Scully but some humor would be welcome. I feel like that humor creeps back into the series eventually with the return of David Duchovny. For now, the team of Doggett and Scully is coming along nicely and their scene together when Scully suggests x-ray vision is another step on Doggett's path- he doesn't deny her theory and shoot it down as rudely as he did in their initial case. A good scene or two can't save this episode though and I doubt I'd revisit it until the next time I'm running through the series in order.

"Via Negativa"

"Everything seemed real...but then it was a dream. A dream that ended in their deaths."
Originally Aired 12/17/00

Earlier this season was an "evil" religious episode in which an isolated town worshiped a slug-like creature. Here we have another such episode, except this time those worshipers were already found slaughtered in the opening of "Via Negativa". I guess they should have chosen to worship Jesus instead, since he offers things like wine and holy water, not wounds to the forehead! This cult's leader was Anthony Tipet, who founded the cult after he served time for the "bludgeoning" death of his wife, and coincidentally many of the deaths in this episode are similar fates. Tipet and his cult were trying to find God through a higher plane, but it seems they found something much worse, as "Via Negativa" is explained by Skinner to be a plane of darkness.

If the evil cult already sounded familiar to you, well there are even more similarities to other episodes found in this episode. Season 4's "The Field Where I Died" featured a doomsday cult, a pack of rodents were used in Season 3's "Teso Dos Bichos", and death by dreams was even used back in Season 2's "Sleepless." Despite the similarities to previous episodes, I still felt "Via Negativa" had plenty to offer on it's own. Writer Frank Spotnitz has mostly contributed to mythology episodes with Chris Carter, and also teamed with John Shiban and Vince Gilligan, but this is his first solo script since Season 5's "Detour". I didn't even know I wanted another Frank episode until after I watched this, and now all I want is more Frank. For as good as this episode is at creating a creepy atmosphere and all of it's horror movie imagery, it's also a great way to throw Doggett into the deep end of X-Files territory. It's sink or swim, and there's no turning back for this guy now.

In fact, Doggett is on a clear descent into darkness throughout this episode, and it feels a lot like a few of the late 90's Hellraiser movie sequels. Two in particular feature a character who has come into contact with the deadly cube, the Lemarchand's box, and nothing is as it seems. Doggett meets a similar fate when he comes into contact with Tipet towards the end of this episode. Robert Patrick plays this paranoia to perfection, and it's his best performance yet in his short tenure as a lead on The X-Files. Mitch Pileggi gets more to do here as Walter Skinner fills the void left when Scully is off to have a doctor visit and he easily slides into the "believer" role. David Duchovny departing the series should have thrown the series out of whack without its believer-skeptic dynamic and all of the humor that it provided, yet it actually feels like a breath of fresh air without Davey. Robert has great scenes with Mitch Pileggi, James Pickens' Director Kersh character, and now the Lone Gunmen are thrown into the mix. I like how they just happen to be hanging out in the basement office when those conspiracy theorists should have a hard time making it through a security check-point; although they somehow had access to the FBI offices in last season's finale, "Requiem."

Along with Frank Spotnitz turning in a rare solo script, this episode also features first-time series director Tony Wharmby. Tony, along with the special effects artists and lighting staff, created such an eerie atmosphere that I think this might even crack my top ten episodes once again. I say "once again" because I had a few I would call favorites before I began to watch the series in order in 2008, but I scrapped that list and decided to start over. Most of my previous favorites remained firmly in the top ten, like "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" and "The Host", while a few new ones were made like "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man." I expected to not like "Via Negativa" as much when I finally made my way around to it, yet there was much to re-discover. The only sequence I could recall was the ending where Doggett is standing over Scully with an axe while there's a scary, purple, strobe effect. I only now realized after watching it for the 6th time in 3 days that Doggett is actually about to turn the axe on himself. What an ending!

"Redrum"

"If you don't remember, how can you be certain that you didn't?"
Originally Aired 12/10/00

This is an episode that I loved upon my first viewing of Season 8 years ago. I was drawn to this show because it felt like each story was much like The Twilight Zone, with a different creature or freaky happening every week, it's just that The X-Files had two people investigating those instances. The Twilight Zone's favorite scenario was to take everyday men and place them into extraordinary situations, like when Burgess Meredith portrayed a nerdy vacuum salesman who was suddenly given great strength by aliens. Another scenario was famously spoofed on Seinfeld:

Jerry: "You know, this is like that Twilight Zone where the guy wakes up and he's the same and everyone else is different."

Kramer: "Which one?"
Jerry: "They were all like that."

The X-Files would have many that ventured into Twilight Zone territory, especially in Season 6 where Mulder swapped bodies with a Man In Black from Area 51, and later when Mulder and Scully were stuck in a fatal time loop. "Redum" is much like that doomed fatal time loop episode, however it flipped the scenario. This time it's centered around a man who has been charged for the death of his wife, yet he's living the week in reverse, with Scully and Doggett acting as background characters. That man is guest actor Joe Morton, famous for his role in Terminator 2, which also starred The X-Files' Robert Patrick. Morton plays his role of "Martin Wells" convincingly as he lives each day of the week in reverse, leading up to the moment when his wife is murdered. The mystery isn't the why and how he's in the time loop, but instead, "Can he prevent his wife from being murdered?" In fact, it almost feels closer to being a freaky episode of Law & Order. The X-Files even had John Munch from Homicide: Life On The Street (and later Law & Order SVU) as a guest start in Season 5, so it might have been cool to see one of the many Law & Order judges presiding over the hearing to further the connection between these tv shows.

One of the best scenes occurs roughly half-way through when Martin explains to Scully and Doggett what is actually happening, and that he doesn't remember his wife being murdered because to him, it hasn't happened yet. Doggett refuses to believe and walks away, while Scully asks him why he thinks it's happening. I really like Scully a lot in these brief moments in this season, as she is walking the line between science and supernatural. The 7 years she's spent on X-Files cases has given her this sage-like knowledge. Martin is left wondering why this is happening, when Scully tells him maybe the answer is already inside of him. Young grasshopper Martin Wells isn't quite ready to snatch the pebble from Master Scully's hand just yet. When he does snatch the pebble, he realizes that he's responsible for his own situation and accepts the consequences of his actions, for better or worse.

Aside from Joe Morton guest-starring as Martin Wells, there's also another famous face present that I actually forgot about. Danny Trejo guest stars as the villain, who is probably the king of these types of villainous roles over the last 20 years, with appearances in Con-Air, Predators, Spy Kids, From Dusk Til Dawn, and even the starring role in Machete.

A minor notable moment worth mentioning about "Redrum" is that we see that Doggett is actually a homeowner. Mulder had an apartment, where we typically saw him sleeping on his couch or taping an "X" to his window. Scully has her own apartment, or maybe even a condo, I can't be sure. This could actually have been done to distance Doggett from Mulder and Scully since he was married before and had more of a stable life, such as owning a home, while Scully and especially Mulder have become too engrossed into their work to have any kind of life resembling normal. Or this could be just a fan "over-thinking" a minor detail like a house.

While some fans may be upset over the supporting appearances of Scully and Doggett, with "Redrum" centering the story around a guest character, I think "Redrum" is much like the great episodes of Seasons 5 and 6, which stretched the series beyond it's formula. This installment in Season 8 puts a darker spin on it, unlike those lighter episodes of previous seasons.

"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.

"Roadrunners"

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"Patience"

"The only thing I know about the paranormal is that men are from Mars, women are from Venus."
Originally Aired 11/19/00

By no means is this a great episode of The X-Files but it does get the job done as the first standalone without Mulder; welcome to the era of John Doggett. Doggett has been established as having a background in law enforcement and that's what he brings to his partnership with Agent Scully. I liked the fact that there was an actual investigation in this episode, with it's back-to-basics style, even down to the agents encountering local law enforcement just like the old days. The projector slide show even makes an appearance, too. So many times over the last season or two, Mulder would know exactly what the case is right away leaving no mystery, but with Doggett's approach of applying street smarts, his prediction is it's a one-legged man. Ha! Scully is also doing her best to think like Mulder while also trying to balance it with her scientific background. Neither are on the same page at all, although this is their first time together and she's still thinking of Doggett as an enemy more than ally. It's just too bad the actual case of a "man-bat" isn't all that interesting.

While the case isn't up to the usual level, I do like Doggett and Scully's interactions. Doggett is trying his best to solve the case using knowledge of crimes and homicides, yet he's clearly a "fish out of water." It's a new wrinkle to his character that he tells Scully he was down in the office all night going through their old X-Files case files. It's too bad the episode didn't start that way, though, with her walking in and seeing his "interest" in the cases. Instead he walks down to the office with a few of his agent buddies and it irks his new partner. While he has friends now, maybe they could slowly show Doggett being shunned for associating with the X-Files. My assumption I made in "Within" was that Doggett was a real dick and that appears to be slowly fading by this third episode of the season. Although there is one moment where he talks about Scully with his back to her, and I felt just as uncomfortable as she did. While Doggett may have had good intentions in standing up for his new partner, that bit of writing by series creator Chris Carter isn't doing any favors for his new character.

With this being Scully's first investigation without Mulder, she appears a little in over her head too. The local sheriff guy she has to deal with isn't helping either, since he's clearly a bigot or just very stubborn. We've seen episodes where the locals didn't want the FBI around but I can't recall any that have flat-out insulted the agents. That guy was the real dick, not Doggett, so I'm glad he encountered the monster he didn't believe in and came out on the losing end. While this case is far from classic X-Files, since these monsters who attack every full moon or every turn of the century are a played-out gimmick, the great visuals are still present which is all the more interesting since Chris Carter turns in a rare directing performance. There's a neat scene of the man bat hanging upside down inside of a barn, also a fun gag with Doggett asking if Scully ever carries a flashlight. Doggett even encountered a guy wearing a coat and hat with his face bandaged, which I took as a clever reference to The Invisible Man film.

"Without"

"This reads like a piece of pot-boiled science fiction."
Originally Aired 11/12/00

Before this episode resumed the cliffhanger from last week which was literally on top of a cliff, we're treated to another Chris Carter-penned narration with fancy prose like "flights of fancy." At least this one was quick. We then resume the stand-off between Agent Dick Doggett and what appeared to be Mulder, who took Gibson Praise with him. Mulder released Gibson and then toppled over the edge of the cliff, recreating the scene from the recently re-edited X-Files opening credits.

After watching "Within" a second time, I realized the integral moment of this episode is a scene involving a phone call between Kersh and Doggett. Kersh phoned Doggett for a progress report, which Skinner overheard and told Doggett he's just being used as Kersh's pawn. That's basically what I assumed last week, that Doggett was being used and it would be Carter's way of building sympathy for the character. I really liked Doggett's dialog in this scene too, with lines like, "Alright, you've painted me the picture, now put it in a frame." This is what separates Agent Doggett from Agent Spender back when he first arrived on the scene. Doggett is not a believer but he's determined enough to get answers, while Spender's disbelief led him to just blindly dismiss everything. In fact, this conversation with Doggett and Skinner is actually a complete reversal on Scully's hallway scene with Skinner in last week's episode. That time it was Scully telling Skinner that the truth could ruin his career, and now Doggett realizes it's his career which is really in jeopardy.

While last week's episode was mostly exposition to reintroduce Kersh and bring Robert Partrick's Agent Doggett into the fold, "Without" is a little more action packed. The real purpose, however, is to reposition the characters of Doggett and Skinner. Doggett is being moved onto the X-Files division, whether he likes it or not, and Skinner is finally becoming a believer. Although he became a conspiracy victim in Season 6's "S.R. 819" and played the role of the Cancer Man's stooge in "Zero Sum" further back in Season 4, now he finally comes face to face with an alien- the Alien Bounty Hunter. In the past Skinner always walked the line, he was Mulder's boss but would occasionally step out from behind the desk. Now he's all the way out in the desert, tracking down Mulder and assisting Scully as a full-fledged member of "Team Mulder." I guess that's why Kersh was brought back since Skinner is no longer a neutral character. Doggett slides into the role previously filled by Scully in the previous seven years of The X-Files. Rather than using science to find answers, Doggett will use his police academy intuition, one can assume.

That leaves Gibson Praise to be used as another MacGuffin. He's really a non-factor in this episode and was mostly an excuse to get everyone out in the desert and chase shapeshifters. In fact, even his superhuman mind-reading skills were wasted, since you'd think he could have read the Bounty Hunter's mind and warned them, "hey you guys! This ain't Mulder!" That's alright though, because it wasn't the first time this show wasted Gibson and it won't be the last either. The most notable moment in the episode might be that this is the first time the Bounty Hunter has been killed. We know the weapon to dispose of them is the ice pick to the neck, yet Scully must be a crack shot since a single bullet must've hit that sweet spot on the Bounty Hunter's neck. Last season Cancer Man used his neck to smoke a cigarette, and now the Bounty Hunter's neck hole is oozing green goo. Man, I love these creepy visuals on The X-Files.

While this whole season is no longer offering new episodes for me to discover, I'm able to see them all in a new light and I'm still enjoying it. I guess that's what counts.

"Within"

"They can hang me with a lie, too. I'm not going to sell Mulder out."
Originally Aired 11/5/00

The X-Files is back, as it not only returns for new episodes in January 2016, but I'm also beginning the 8th season in my yearly season viewing pattern. This is actually the season where my fandom blossomed back in 2007 and I've anticipated finally getting the chance to rewatch it again within the context of the series, although I'm starting to feel like perhaps this season won't be as great as I remembered. Watching "Within" didn't help in alleviating those fears.

Scully and Skinner do make an interesting team though, as this episode appears to pick up immediately following Season 7's "Requiem"; in fact Scully even says that episode took place the night before. That's a pretty quick turn-around for the FBI to already have a manhunt in place, along with a new Deputy Director, and even a Special Agent in charge of the manhunt. You'd almost think Alex Krycek would be the puppet master getting rid of the evidence and possibly framing Mulder, except he's nowhere to be found. Instead the newly appointed Director is a familiar thorn in the side of Scully, her one-time supervisor in Season Six Kersh, who really seems to relish the moments when he can mock the paranormal. It makes me wish they were building to scene where Kersh comes face to face with an alien, almost like when Venkman meets Slimer in Ghostbusters and screamed. Or that moment when the trio of Ghostbusters run away from that lady ghost in the library. He needs his comeuppance for being such a dick to Mulder and Scully.

That brings us to Kersh's appointed stooge for finding the missing Mulder, Agent John Doggett. Robert Patrick makes his debut in the role that many fans said was just a replacement for David Duchovny, but in fact this episode presents him as a clear opposite of Fox Mulder. He's a former Marine and NYPD officer, but seems to be just as much of a dick as Kersh, so maybe that's why he's the man for the job. I think I'll call him "Dick Doggett", which is funny considering how much of a fan of Doggett I am. Just after Doggett is introduced, the series has probably the most unintentionally funny moment I've ever seen as Scully pulls up Doggett's FBI profile, and then immediately throws up, echoing just how every fan girl felt when they learned David Duchovny was leaving the series. Poor Doggett, he makes women vomit just from the mere thought of him.

Aside from that humorous moment, it felt like Chris Carter went out of his way to put Doggett in such a negative light. Not only does he trick Scully in their first encounter, but Dick Doggett also wonders if she ever really knew her partner the way she thought she did. Where did Chris Carter get that notion? However during a conversation between Doggett and Kersh, I get the impression that even though Kersh is sharing old army anecdotes with Doggett, he's only setting him up to the take the fall for eventually failing to bring Mulder back to the FBI. Carter must be trying to slowly build some sympathy for Dick Doggett when he's thrown under the bus, but he's also making him really hard to like.

Another irritating development within this episode is a new backstory for Mulder that seemed to be pulled from thin air. It stems from the previous season's opening story arc where Mulder suffered a mysterious brain impairment which left him speechless. At first I thought this was just some wacky storyline dreamt up to create drama for drama's sake, but then I realized there never was a definitive solution at the end of "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati." Instead Mulder just woke up with a goofy looking band-aid on his head, mystery solved, and then he seemed to pass on whatever ailed him to the Cancer Man, making him literally a Cancer Man. That's another thing Chris Carter is notorious for doing, which is presenting a story in one episode and then not touching it until a year later. So I'll overlook this weird Mulder brain cancer wrinkle in the mythology.

As much as the first half hour of this episode annoyed me, the closing minutes were actually pretty interesting and seemed to set up the next episode, Without", quite well. Scully and Skinner are racing to the desert to track down the "missing link" in Gibson Praise, while Dick Doggett is hot on their heels. I remember quite a bit more from that episode than I actually did from "Within." Those X-Files visuals the series is known for were present here, and possibly the best part of the episode, with the dream-like nature of Mulder's alien torture. Is Scully dreaming this or is Mulder actually being tortured much like they did to Duane Barry back in Season 2?