The X Files-3X04:Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose

Written by Darin Morgan

Directed by David Nutter

Rewatching this episode lately brought a battle to the forefront of my mind that has raged for centuries. Well...a decade anyway. Just what is the best episode of The X Files that Darin Morgan wrote? You see, I've often thought Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space', let's face it, it's extremely clever and funny and could be cited as prime example of just how wonderfully brilliant The X Files is. I often adored War of the Coprophages, but I always thought of it as Morgan's least complex episode, the one that he simply wanted to have fun with. There was always Humbug too, it managed to mix great laughs with some freaky scares to successful effect. Yet, Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose has something to it that I've just realised his other episodes might lack. A beating heart. 

It's an interesting thing to realise because if anything, this is the most depressing installment that Morgan wrote. It was aimed at being depressing all the way through, or so Morgan claimed, but Morgan being Morgan, it ended up having some brilliant humour laced all the way through it, yet for all the humour and surprisingly horrifying violence in it (a trait it shares with Humbug), Clyde Bruckman is a surprisingly profound, deep and very emotional hour of television. Whilst Jose Chung may get the plaudits and critical acclaim, it's telling that this one managed to bag Emmy's for writing and guest performance. It really is that good.

It's an interesting and curious breed. We've got a serial killer tale, which deals with psychic ability, poses deep, philosophical questions about the notion of fate and destiny as well as death. There's a very delicate balancing act going on here. On the one hand it could become depressing as hell, it could become pretentious or it could go the other way and become extremely silly, the fact that Morgan gets away with ponderous and very intelligent questions on the nature of life whilst giving us the blast of silliness that is The Stupendous Yappi is a mark of the man's talent.

In the middle of it all, we've got Peter Boyle's guest performance. A very talented actor, especially to anyone familiar with Everybody Loves Raymond or his team up with Michael Keaton and Christopher Lloyd in The Dream Team, he turns in a performance of such humour, sadness and beauty that it's a joy to say that this late, great actor bagged the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Performance in a Television Drama. Every scene he steals, the moments he shares with David and Gillian are beautiful and he brings a wealth of sympathy to a man who is sick of living because he is literally living with death every second of his life, which is brought about because of his love of The Big Bopper (only in a Darin Morgan episode). It could have been easy for the character to become unlikeable or just unbearably depressing, but he is kept on the right track by Boyle, who wasn't the original choice for the role, but for which we should all be thankful was the one who ended up playing it.

That this wonderful litte slice of dark comedy builds to an unbearably sad and poignant conclusion marks this one as Morgan's most engaging episode. The moment when Bruckman's prophecy comes true, that Scully is in bed with him, holding his hand, hers and our realisation that she has misread his statement about 'their' end can't help but leave a lump in the throat. This is my thing with this episode. Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space' is tremendously hillarious and original, but there's nothing in it to match the devastation of this episode's emotional charge. The same goes for War of the Coprophages and whilst Humbug doesn't either, it can get away with it more because that one is essentially a tabernacle of terror. 

Look, I'm fickle though, my opinion may change yet again when it comes to reviewing Morgan's final writing assignment for the show,  but for now, I think I have to say, this is without doubt, Darin Morgan's masterpiece.

The X Files-3X03:DPO

Written by Howard Gordon

Directed by Kim Manners

There was a lot of negativity surrounding DPO when it first aired, that after spending the last three episodes indulging in some seriously great storytelling with regards to its own mythology that The X Files could very quickly put those toys away again to concentrate on a stand alone that features a teenager who can control lightning.  It may have been a hindrance at the time (and it wasn't the first time either folks, it happened in season two also), but in these post-season nine years, when the series is no longer on the air and the mythology has become more of a frustration for people with greater acclaim given to the self contained stories, an episode like DPO I think can be better appreciated and I suppose it helps when the episode itself was clever enough to cast two actors who would go on to even bigger things, in this case Giovanni Ribisi and a certain Jack Black. Truthfully though, I adored this one right from its first broadcast on the BBC back in 1996. Right from the opening blast of Ring the Bells by James (an alternative version no less, not the one you can get on any of their own albums as far as I know), I knew I would enjoy it.

It goes without saying to any regular readers of "I Made This" that I have a real soft spot for Howard Gordon's work on the show, although not as prone to experimentation in the way that Chris Carter was, or the subversive, witty humour of Darin Morgan or even the constant brilliance of Vince Gilligan, I've often his enjoyed his understated work, his penchant for good storytelling and his good use of "meat and potatoes" narratives. DPO, like a lot of his work probably will not enter many top tens, but I can guarantee you that it is well written and well produced as always. He always had knack for good guest characters and here he gives us one of his best creations. 

The thing with Gordon's work is they usually had a way with writing outsiders, be it Max Fenig in Fallen Angel, Darlene Morris in Conduit or Augustus Cole in Sleepless. These characters were outsiders due to their believes in the other worldly or ostracised from society in some form, with Darren Peter Oswald, there's the added elements of being a teenager and of a low intelligence. The series has dealt with teen horror before, and it would do again, but with DPO there's a charm to it, if you want to call it that, that I can't help but adore the soundtrack to Ribisi's wonderfully dishevelled performance, to the way that the character abuses his power for his own gain, creating public destruction on a mass scale by playing with the traffic lights, to trying to kill his boss, whose wife, Darren's teacher, is somebody he has a crush on to finally, in an unredeemable act, killing his best friend Zero.

Usually in this show, the teenagers at the heart of the paranormal phenomena on display are frequently sympathetic and are usually victims of the phenomena, thus they must be saved by Mulder and Scully, this plot was used in Die Hand Die Verletztz and would be again in season five's Schizogeny, but here, Darren Oswald is the villain, the monster of the week, so to speak, the one who must be defeated by Mulder and Scully and it plays really well.  Best of all, there might have been the chance to make him sympathetic in the conception of the episode, but instead Gordon has given us a curiously hateful character, someone who doesn't use his powers to better his life, but simply to make mischief and cause trouble, his actions resulting in several deaths. If there is somebody you don't want to have superpowers, Darren Peter Oswald is it. Right from the off we're told this is not a character to root for. Whilst he is the victim of bullying in the opening scene, it really doesn't justify killing the bully in question which is a surprisingly brutal moment, despite the absence of blood, whilst Mulder and Scully's investigation subsequently pushes his paranoia to a degree that he feels the need to kill Zero, before going and kidnapping his teacher, Mrs Kiveat. 

It says a lot about Ribisi's performance that he actually comes across as an engaging presence on screen here. You don't root for him, but his actions make the episode extremely compulsive viewing. Of course, like Black, Ribisi's has went on to have a very decent career. A recurring role in Friends was up next as Phoebe's brother Frank and subsequent movie roles in The Gift and Boiler Room before landing a key role in Avatar, the most successful movie release of all time no less. You can see the seeds of a future talent here. As for Black...well...he's Jack Black, as always.

As a kick start for the first run of stand alones of season three, this is a great way to begin, as always Kim Manners directs with great style, there's some great framing and editing too. The shot of Oswald from below as the lighting bolt strikes above his head in the 'barbecue' scene is very effective whilst I love the jump cutting to Oswald on top of the arcade after he kills Zero. Add to that a great soundtrack, and wonderful use of the "Executive Producer Chris Carter" within the episode, DPO is a bit of a highlight. 

The X Files-3X02:Paper Clip

Written by Chris Carter

Directed by Rob Bowman

Very exciting stuff this, featuring as it does, characters pulling guns on each other, Skinner getting beaten up (keep a count folks, it's going to happen quite a bit in the third season), Krycek going renegade, the CSM being put in his place and the death of a semi-regular character, not to mention lots of running around and gun fire, as well as some shocking developments in the mythology where things we've been led to believe are put into new perspective and given whole new meanings.

I would say this is a better episode than The Blessing Way, but only in so much as Paper Clip actually manages to run with the elements that one would expect it to. We still get a sample of Native American beliefs and mysticism running throughout, but they're not as dominant as before, and that's good. The Blessing Way, as I detailed before, worked so well when it was dealing with the show's own mythology, but floundered a little when dealing with the mystical stuff, that it's a relief just to get the show back on to what it really ought to be concentrating on, and Paper Clip is spectacular at it.

Season three is going to deliver some truly tremendous mythology episodes, we're still at that point where the series can get away without delivering anything concrete in terms of answers, but can still hit hard emotionally with its characters. Many of the strands and storylines that kick started with Anasazi are going to be playing all season; the digital tape, the American government's part in what is essentially a modern day holocaust, the alien-human hybrid experiments, the emergence of the Syndicate as well as the more emotional driven aspects of the story such as Scully's abduction, her victimisation at the hands of the government, the shooting of her sister, Krycek's murder of Mulder's father and the beginning of Skinner's role as Mulder and Scully's ally, on the whole these three episodes have kick started a series of events that will escalate throughout the season and eventually to even bigger revelations and story arcs, but whilst the lack of answers would prove frustrating for some viewers in those later years, here it feels of fresh and invigorating and wonderfully polarising, that we're trying to play along and put the pieces together like the characters, and yet Paper Clip does deliver some choice revelations at this point in the series, and put a new perspective on things we'd already known.

The episode itself moves like a rocket, held together by a superb set piece in the Strughold Mining Company which features not only superb special effects but a thundering action set piece involving CIA agents with guns, black SUV's and some of the loudest gun fire you're ever likely to hear coming from a television series. You can tell this was directed by Rob Bowman, the pacing, the camera angles, the cinematic styling going on, his finger prints are all over this one. 

Plus Mulder and Scully are reunited for the first time this season. It's strange thinking that we had to wait until the second episode of the season to see the two of them back together again, but Paper Clip doesn't waste anytime in getting these two together again on screen. As usual the chemistry is wonderful and Chris Carter's writing is exemplary here giving David and Gillian some tremendous work, for the big shoot out in the middle of the episode and the wonderful close encounter Mulder has, it's the moments involving these two making the decision of how far they should go to find the truth and how much they should personally sacrifice that forms the beating heart of the episode. The disagreement between them in the coffee shop, Mulder having  to convince her to keep going with him even when she knows her sister is in hospital right through to the final scene where they make their pact to keep going even in the face of all the losses they have over the last three episodes, it's the most perfect combination of writing and performances.

The episode as a whole is full of crowd pleasing moments and it's hard to hate it. Has there ever been a more brilliant moment than Skinner finally standing up to the CSM and telling him to kiss his ass, or Krycek declaring that he'll make the CSM a very famous man if her ever feels his presence. It ends on a sad note, but one of cautious optimism and with the feeling that in the end we're still only standing on the tip of the iceberg.

The X Files-3X01:The Blessing Way

Written by Chris Carter

Directed by R.W Goodwin

After a season finale that involved just about everything being thrown at it, season three of The X Files literally picks up where it left off, but doesn't go where you'd necessarily think it would. I wouldn't say it's a low key opener in the manner that Little Green Men was, but it's not the hugely epic opener that one would have expected, in fact, it slows things down a bit, takes its time and features a lengthy sub plot involving Native American beliefs and rituals culminating in a spiritual journey for Mulder and the return of two previously dead characters. 

It's a bit of surprise really considering how unrelentless Anasazi was, but I've got to give Chris Carter credit for doing something that little bit different and besides, there'll be a return to that unrelentlessness in Paper Clip complete with UFO's, little grey men, CIA hitmen, black SUV's and lots of running around. In fact, I think this three parter as a whole would have been a little less if it had have been a two parter instead, I think it gives the characters some room to breathe and allow a little character driven drama as well for a change.

I'm not sure if it's entirely successful though. Mulder and Scully are separated for the entire episode, in fact this is the first time both David and Gillian are in the show yet never share any screen time together. Whilst Scully is dismissed from the FBI and makes a shocking discovery in the base of her neck, Mulder goes to mystical land complete with purple prose delivered from Deep Throat and Bill Mulder no less. One of these is wonderfully done. The other not so much, but can still be given an A for effort. 

Scully's adventures involves discovering the chip in her neck (remember it folks, it's gonna play a big part in future episodes), being given threatening advice from the Well Manicured Man (a big hello to John Neville and The Syndicate, I'll get to them in a moment), thinking Skinner is going to kill her and undergoing a hypnosis session  in order to learn more of her abduction. This is all rather wonderful stuff and gives Gillian a real chance to shine. The emotional and physical repercussions of this episode will play out for several years now and I love how one little incident with a metal detector is going to drastically change her life. The scenes involving both herself and John Neville as well as Mitch Pillegi are all brilliant, brimming with suspense and a pervading threatening atmosphere that just builds and builds throughout the episode. The writing is wonderful, R.W Goodwin directs with a sure hand and it all builds to a blinding cliffhanger.

The story stand involving Mulder is less successful. As a fellow X Files blogger pointed out to me (I'd like to say a big hello to Salome), it seems to be part of that whole Hollywood thing when the movie and television industry became obsessed with Native Americans, possibly kick started by Kevin Costner and Dances with Wolves and it is strange to see all this spirituality running around in what is essentially a three part conspiracy thriller. Conceptually it sounds brilliant, the idea of Mulder finding his way back to the land of the living through those he has lost, but the writing is a little pretentious and I don't know if it works entirely well, but the atmosphere is fine and Mark Snow scores it to perfection, it's just given that we had to wait several months waiting to see how Mulder managed to escape that boxcar, I just wish the resolution to that cliffhanger was a little more spectacular. 

It's the weakest part of the episode, but the rest of it fires on all cylinders. The thriller aspects work a treat, Gillian is fantastic, the "is Skinner bad or good" stuff is wonderfully great fun and the whole strand involving the attempt on Scully's life is thrillingly suspenseful, throwing in all manners of possibilities into who her potential assassin could be. Best of all, the mythology genuinely moves up a gear with the introduction of the puppet masters behind the whole thing. Ladies and gentleman, say hello to The Syndicate, the gentleman conspiring to hide "the project" from us. Of course this gives the series a chance to subvert our expectations yet again. They're not some slick government organisation, they're a secret society of mature men in suits and they're not even headed up by the CSM, for all the power he seems to have over the FBI and Skinner, he's just a lap dog, sent out to clean up their mess, he's not the all powerful villain we thought he was, which at this stage of the show begs the question of how powerful the men he works for are.

So, season three has begun and for the most part it's a good opener, a little misjudged maybe in places, but it gets an A for trying something a little different, but truthfully it succeeds best when it plays with the toys it knows how to work with, and by the end another shift has taken place. Melissa Scully has been gunned down by Krycek no less, Mulder is armed with new knowledge of who his father worked for and Scully and Skinner have guns drawn at each other. 

To be continued...

The X Files-2X25:Anasazi

Story by David Duchovny and Chris Carter

Teleplay by Chris Carter

Directed by R.W Goodwin

Anasazi, let me count the ways that I love you. Seriously, what can I say that hasn't already been said. As Darin Morgan allegedly told Chris Carter, this is a kitchen sink episode and literally there is a kitchen sink in it, we see Mulder filling a glass of water at the start of the episode so, there you  have it, a kitchen sink in a kitchen sink episode. Where to begin when reviewing this because it throws so much into it that it's almost exhausting just to think about it, let alone watch it. Mulder drugged out of his mind, his paranoia pushed to the limits, resulting in him attacking Skinner and being verbally abusive to Scully, then there's the revelation that the CSM is friends with Bill Mulder, who subsequently has him gunned down by Krycek, who then gets into a physical altercation with Mulder which results in Scully having to shoot Mulder to stop himself from being implicated in his father's shooting before moving the action to New Mexico where Mulder makes a sickening discovery in a box car before being bombed to oblivion by the CSM. 


Have you got all that, because once Anasazi begins it never lets up for a minute, this is The X Files pushing itself to the limits once again. The series is still having fun with all these toys it's discovered over the course of season two and now it's going one step further. We get brilliant appearances from Skinner, the CSM and Krycek, not to mention the conspiracy at the heart of the series looking more and more epic than it ever did before, with the revelation that this is not just an American conspiracy, but one that involves the Spanish, the Japanese and the Germans too, whilst the Mulder/Scully dynamic is taken to new extremes. If you're a fan of the Mulder and Scully relationship then this is a real treat, for all the superb twists and turns added to the mythology, it's in the Mulder/Scully relationship that this fires on all cylinders. 

The best thing about the mythology episodes of The X Files is how they put the relationship and the personal lives of the characters under the microscope, they're not just presenting two investigators, they're presenting two characters who feel genuinely real and after an entire season that has seen them pushed to limits that would have been thought of as unreachable last year, Anasazi goes one step further, drugging Mulder out of his mind and presenting someone who is in no way charming, quirky or romantic as he is usually portrayed. We have seen paranoid Mulder a couple of times this year, but this is a whole different ball game. This is in some ways the pay off to F Emasculata and Soft Light's build up of an increasingly bitter Mulder and the way he's being used by his enemies. David Duchovny has been sensational all season without a doubt, it's actually hard to pick a great moment from him because there's been that many but this episode goes beyond where they've taken him even previously, the tired looks, the weariness, the increasingly violent nature, it's breathtakingly well done. Just when you think Mulder can't sink any lower, he does. He attacks Skinner (I love this scene I really do), he loses his temper when he sees the DAT cassette is encrypted, he falls apart at his father's murder, he can't help but fall into Scully's arms and then subsequently loses his temper with her again when he learns she's taken his gun for analysis. It's this last scene I adore. It's a scene of sheer emotional violence from him in a way that we'd never see again, and thankfully not because as well acted and brilliantly executed as it is, it's difficult to watch, just look at the venom coming out of Mulder when he shouts "taking your little notes" and the hurt look on Scully's face, the desperation in her voice and face as she tries to calm him down and the look of defeat on her face when he hangs up on her.


It never lets up for a second throughout its forty five minute running time, it's pace increasing as it goes on, the script never letting up (once again it's David contributing to the series and once again the show is on fire), Goodwin's direction is taut and and feature film-esque,  Mark Snow bringing in a harmonica lined score which is wonderful and then there's the glee at which the episode piles on the revelations and layers to the mythology, linking the Mulder family to the CSM and the conspiracy as a whole, bringing back Krycek, killing off Bill Mulder and the scary revelation concerning the 'occupants' of the boxcar that we get before the blistering cliffhanger that ends the season literally with a bang, a bang that leaves Mulder in dire straits.

This is the icing on what has been a brilliant cake. Season two of The X Files has been extraordinary. I love season one, don't get me wrong, but season two has been an entirely different beast, the television equivalent of The Godfather Part II or The Empire Strikes Back; darker, more emotionally and thematically complex than its predecessor, there is an almost charming simplicity to the first season when compared to season two which has darkened and deepened the waters of the series considerably, much like the two best movie sequels did as well. We're not just dealing with a quirky, little genre crime show anymore, episodes like Anasazi have taken The X Files into the realm of epic, with a larger cast of characters, heightened stakes and grand story telling. 


For what has been an emotionally exhausting run of episodes, Anasazi is a very suitable finish to the season, once again the bar has been raised very highly for whatever the series will throw next, ending season two on a flourish, David and Gillian have truly nailed their characters, the show has got its tone down to a tee and is open to wonderful bursts of experimentation and the cast has grown wonderfully, it really says a lot when revelations like the CSM's link to Bill Mulder and the return of Krycek are just as breathtaking as the Mulder/Scully scenes and you can't help but gasp with shock when Mulder punches Skinner. The whole episode is a masterpiece, an emotional and thrilling concoction of fantastic writing, direction and acting and once again the series has thrown a cliffhanger that will have you counting down the time until The Blessing Way rolls around.

The X Files-2X24:Our Town

Written by Frank Spotnitz

Directed by Rob Bowman

So, the past two episodes of The X Files we've been building towards a sense of bitterness in Mulder. He has had his ideals rubbed in his nose by the CSM in F Emasculata and subsequently had his most trusted source, X, use him to capture a man that the government were looking for in Soft Light, with this in mind the next step you'd think would be the finale, it is after all the twenty fourth episode of the season, so it really ought to be the home stretch of the season, except season two lasts for twenty five episodes and I can't help but think that Chris Carter and the team seem to have forgotten this when it came round to it and so have had to find something to fill a gap before we get to the episode that the last two episodes seem to have been building up to.


Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to give Our Town a bad review or anything, in fact I rather enjoyed it, it's good fun, and pretty dark with some effective twists and scares, but I can't help but shake the feeling that I should be reviewing Anasazi right now, but we've got to get through this one before we get to the brilliance that is the season two finale. So let's sit back and enjoy a Bad Day at Black Rock type of story involving cannibalism, chickens (more chickens, didn't I go chicken mad during The Calusari review) and Kentucky Fried Chicken...sorry, Chaco Chicken, run by The Colonel...sorry, I meant Walter Chaco, who has grey hair, a little beard and whose logo looks like the world's most famous Colonel.

Despite my issues with how this one seems to have put a slight delay on the show's emotional and character build up to the finale (strangely enough it's Scully who seems more bitter at the government  than Mulder in his one, surely it should be the other way around) Our Town is great fun, so much so that I actually enjoyed rewatching it a lot more than I thought I would. Interestingly this one was broadcast in Britain at around the time that the Mad Cow Disease/CJD crisis was hitting, so a tale involving contaminated meat was quite pertinent, and interesting that it's the second episode in the season to involve this theme after Red Museum (you may have forgotten about that since Red Museum had about a hundred million things going on in it, but trust me, it's there). 


On its own merits, forgetting about any issues regarding its placement in the season and other such concerns, Our Town is an extremely enjoyable tale, the script is very witty around the edges, there's some wonderful dialogue, and maybe given how increasingly bitter Mulder has become over the last two episodes (which will lead to the mother of all character explosions in the next one, trust me) then maybe it's not a bad thing to have a good old fashioned, fun stand alone involving a mad man in an axe and a pretty horrific community secret. The idea that Chaco and the entire town are a community of cannibals who have not only prolonged their lives through their practices, but also contracted a rare disease through their consumption of the flesh, is clever and well told.

It does rely on some hokey horror cliches admittedly, we get the obligatory mad man with an axe, grisly hallucinations, a bunch of decapitated heads in a cupboard and Scully getting kidnapped. Again. What is that, the fourth time this season? Aliens, a necrophiliac, an Alien Bounty Hunter and now The Colonel? This last point does annoy me a little because it does try to create some faux suspense when it can't really deliver, an old man who runs a chicken factory can't really compete with the other season long threat, but it doesn't stop this one from being good fun anyway.


So, it's almost over, twenty four down and one to go. Hold on to your hats folks and make sure your seat belt is securely fastened, because things are about to get epic.

The X Files-2X23:Soft Light

Written by Vince Gilligan

Directed by James Contner

So, a couple of reviews ago we said hello to Darin Morgan, a writer whose work would become hugely popular and enthusiastic with critics and fan of the series. With Soft Light, we're about to say hello to another, so put your hands together and give Vince Gilligan a warm welcome to The X Files. You're going to be hearing a lot of good things about him from me anytime I review something with the words "written by Vince Gilligan".

His first episode is an interesting breed, it's his debut and I get the impression that there might have been some rewriting going on from Chris Carter maybe because there's a mythology element to it that we'd rarely see Gilligan dabble with. The guest character is an almost atypical Gilligan creation, a somewhat plausible, flawed human being with a supernatural element that defines who he is even if he wants it to or not (Pusher and Tithonus present us with tonal opposite characters, one who enjoys his ability, one that doesn't). Soft Light gives us Doctor Chester Ray Banton, played by Monk himself no less, the great Tony Shalhoub, a scientist whose experimentation with dark matter results in his shadow becoming a deadly killer that leaves anyone who stands on it a pile of ash.

Okay, it's preposterous and ridiculous on paper, yet the execution is surprisingly well done, for half the episode we're presented with a brilliant little mystery, a great guest cast, some wonderful Mulder/Scully scenes (including a rather priceless Tooms reference) which shows that Gilligan really has a grasp of these characters that hints at some wonderful writing to come over the following seven seasons and best of all, the episode pulls a little bit of wool over our eyes and subsequently becomes a bit of a mythology episode in the second half with the involvement of X that once again takes the character away from merely being a Deep Throat replacement. If One Breath showed the character to be a more brutal variation on the father figure that season one gave us then this gives us an informant who may  have reasons for helping Mulder but who also may be willing to use their arrangement for his own ends. 

The first half is greatly enjoyable as I've said but it's the second half that lingers long in the memory as it gets that little bit darker and emotionally nastier. The police detective who has called Scully and Mulder in,  Detective Ryan, a former student of Scully's at the academy, has basically been using Mulder and Scully to do most of the groundwork on the case and subsequently take the credit for the case herself, her determination and professional desperation ending up costing her life at the end. Also, Banton finds out his friend and colleague  Dr Davey is in cahoots with the government and helping them to get their hands on Banton, plus as I've said X is actually manipulating Mulder in order to get Banton anyway. Wow, a lot of characters manipulating other characters in this one come to think of it. 

Then there's the final scene, a horribly downbeat and desperately sad end to the tale, an image that you will not forget. At first we're supposed to take X's declaration that he hasn't killed Chester as something cautiously optimistic but truthfully the man would have been better of dead. The look that Shalhoub uses, the tear going down the cheek and that strobe light makes for a heartbreaking moment as we realise that Chester's fears about the 'brain suck' were entirely justified.

Special mention must be made with regards to Shalhoub and Steven Williams. Up to this point this is X's best episode in the series and the show has had real fun with the character, having him pointing guns at Mulder, fighting Skinner, inadvertently revealing himself to Scully and now putting a bit of a wedge between himself and Mulder. This is truly a different relationship to Mulder/Deep Throat which was almost parental, Mulder/X is starting to become slightly antagonistic and dangerous, although it'll be Wetwired and Talitha Cumi at the end of next season before it has a real chance to explode.

As for Shalhoub, well I gotta tell you, I love Monk, I adored his character in Men in Black and he doesn't disappoint here. This is a real exhausting and emotional portrayal of paranoia and fear, it's a classic Gilligan character and as always the show gets lucky with their choice of guest star. It's a trait that would be repeated in Pusher, Unruhe, Paper Hearts, Small Potatoes and...well...just about anything Gilligan has done.  The exhausted look, the same clothes in every scene, the bags under the eyes, it has Emmy written all over it but as far I know I don't think he was nominated, which is a shame.

Best of all we get Mulder being used as a pawn by the government, worst of all, by someone he, and we, thought we could trust. Oh, it's getting terribly exciting how.

The X Files-2X22:F.Emasculata

Written by Chris Carter and Howard Gordon

Directed by Rob Bowman

The X Files does Outbreak. Only Spike the Monkey from the Ace Ventura movies does not make a guest appearance unfortunately. Nope instead we've got escaped prisoners, a dastardly pharmaceutical company, the Cigarette Smoking Man and probably one of the most disgusting special effects to ever appear on the show, but also one of the best, the pulsing boils that indicate the virus in question a wonderful conceit that leads to one of the most stomach churning, suspenseful moments on the show. 

It goes without saying that something like this is tailored made for the directorial hands of Rob Bowman who really made a fantastic job of the cinematic thriller type episodes of the show. Kim Manners was great at the horror stuff (blood, guts, bugs) but if there was a car chase, or an explosion or some such involved, it always seemed to go to Bowman who made a great stab at these types of episodes and marked him as a great hand for the mythology episodes too. This is no exception. It's a chase episode, it's a dark medical horror tale, it's got police cars, guys in SWAT gear, Federal Marshalls, helicopters, you name it and it is great fun, this is seriously entertaining stuff, in fact it's so fast paced and gripping at times that it almost makes  you overlook minor plot and character issues.

First of all, Scully is an MD and yet looks at dead bodies during a contagion without proper quarantine gear thus exposing the virus to one character and nearly exposing herself to it too. Of course the episode adds a bit of drama by playing the card that she may be infected, but it's faux suspense because we know they can't kill her, but still, it's a small issue I've always had with it. 

Okay, that's the big issue out of the way, for the rest of it, F. Emasculata plays nearly every card right, it's essentially The X Files in action movie mode and given that both this and Fight the Future were both directed by Bowman I'm not surprised to find several visual similarities running through both. Look at the scene were the quarantine doctors grab the gas station attendant (a big hello to Angelo Vacco, the first of four appearances in the show, each time as a different character), there's a shot when we see them walking past Mulder with the attendant that recalls a similar shot involving Jeffrey DeMunn in the movie, complete with helicopter too, plus it's got a virus, and the CSM shows up. The pacing, editing, the lighting, once again the series is firing on all cylinders as it has done all year, I know I keep beating this drum, but how can you not like a show that has been as consistently well written, well made and prone to experimentation as this had. I mean last week it was The Omen and The Exorcist the series was tipping its hat too, this week it's The Andromeda Strain and Outbreak.

The episode is essentially a mini mythology tale and this was a sub genre the series would return to year after year, when it would take a stand alone story, but dress it up with mythology elements. This is a virus on the loose, yet the CSM's paws are all over it and he gets an extremely stylish cameo to explain the cover up (special mention to John Bartley here, the lighting is superb), and the following seasons we'd see things like Wetwired, Demons and En Ami where they'd take the established patterns of the mythology and do a one-take story with them. They were always very welcome and good fun and this is no exception. As I've said it's entertaining, it's enjoyably disgusting (I always jump during the teaser when that boil explodes, I mean seriously I have watched this episode about thirty times and it still has the same effect on me), it separates Mulder and Scully for the majority of the episode and whilst it has many big themes and ideas running through it about the unethical inner workings of the pharmaceutical industry and cover ups, essentially though F Emasculata works because it's a thriller. Yes, the big themes are quite meaty and serious, but I think it's at its most effective and fun when it's dealing with the escaped prisoners, the manhunt and the really suspenseful climax.

Best of all, this is the beginning of the show setting up the season finale, Anasazi. Most series would call attention to any story arcs or serialisation going on, but The X Files is being more subtle than that. There's a lovely irony in this one when Mulder and Scully realise that they've effectively been used into helping the government and the pharmaceutical company's cover up of the incident. This kick starts a sense of bitterness in Mulder being used as pawn by the government he is fighting and it's not going away. It'll happen again next week, this time the manipulation coming from a trusted source. Skinner tells Mulder "that's it's only the beginning" and like "trust no one" at the end of last season, it feels like a warning bell of what's to come. 

The X Files-2X21:The Calusari

Written by Sara Charno

Directed by Mike Vejar

Well, after all the comedy and fun scares of Humbug it's time for...well...dead children, freaky accidents, implied child abuse and a woman losing nearly her entire family in one fell swoop. I love how this series can go from one type of episode and story to something totally different the following week and still feel like the same series, any other show it would come across as some sort tonal and genre schizophrenia, but with The X Files it's a representation of its genius and brilliance, it's a hallmark of the show and it pulls it off. Humbug was scary, but funny, The Calusari is scary and grim. Deadly grim.

I suppose it's a hallmark of any television series that dabbles in the horror genre, but I suppose that you've got to do The Exorcist, a possessed child tale complete with a bedroom set piece involving a literal physical battle to save a child's soul. Except The Calusari is The Omen for two thirds of the way before deciding that being The Omen isn't enough so it's got to pay tribute to that other disturbed child shocker of the 70's. We get the set piece deaths of The Omen, one of them very elaborate (the garage hanging, not to mention one of the very few occasions where you'll see death by chicken) before building up to a scene of absolute physical and emotional terror, complete with creaking head/neck effects, whilst intercut with a ghost child about to kill Scully with a knife. So really what we've got is a possession tale (The Exorcist), elaborate death scenes because of a child (The Omen) and a ghost child too.

I never realised it but there's a lot going on here and most of it is deeply, deeply disturbing. Right from the off you know this is not going to be the easiest of viewing.  Anything that opens with a child being killed on a train track is going somewhere tough, and whilst the episode is to an extent hokum, it's very dark hokum. I have to say I was very disturbed by the opening scene, The X Files does throw dark horror at the screen every season, but this is emotionally violent horror in a way the series rarely did before, and would rarely do after. From the balloon creeping out the window to the image of a lonely child making his way to the track and the failure of the train to stop, complete with the reaction of the parents, this feels real and disturbing in a way that I'm glad the series rarely, if ever, attempted again.

It could be easy to get disappointed that the episode that follows is to all extent and purposes as old school horror as it is complete with scenes of old men chanting, psychotic children (who favour chickens as murder weapons), the "still born" child twist and Exorcist-style conclusion, but this is wonderfully harrowing fare. Its pacey, it's well directed, it's got a bit of style to it, and the final ten minutes is wonderful stuff as the episode cuts back from the exorcism scene to the Holvey's house were Maggie and Scully are confronted with the ghost of Michael. In fact, for all the old school horror going on, the most genuinely scary and chilling scene is when Michael taunts his mother by asking her to go to to the park and ride the train, the scene of the devastation that kick starts the episode's events. It's bone chilling, creepy and deeply disturbing.

Yes, that is the same kid from Conduit, Joel Palmer, this time with dark hair, and once again playing a slightly disturbed child and he's tremendous, playing both Michael and Charlie with wonderful sympathy one moment and dark intensity the next. This is backed up by an equally great guest turn from Helene Clarkson as Maggie, a character who has no choice but to watch her family implode. If there's any issue with the script for this one it's that whilst it greatly enjoys playing with the horror cliches, it never really takes time to go anywhere psychologically, seeing how these events truly impact on Maggie. She seems to deal with them pretty well and just when it seems the episode is going to go somewhere with a visit from Scully's counsellor friend from the FBI,  we get another set piece (with chickens no less).

This aside, The Calusari, which would mark the last X Files script from Sara Charno, is an enjoyable slice of horror hokum, as I've said, all the cliches are present, correct, and used extremely well, it's topped off with a great Mark Snow score, using that mournful cello that he would later use for devastating effect in Millennium and an extremely creepy last line of dialogue that will chill the skin of your bones.

The X Files-2X20:Humbug

Written by Darin Morgan

Directed by Kim Manners

Let's just take a moment and savour it, shall we, enjoy the time when you know you are in the presence of greatness. After a story by credit for Blood, what we have here is the first script from Darin Morgan. Bow our heads in respect folks, we are in the presence of a master.

What can I say about Darin Morgan that other X Philes don't know? Nothing because the guy is a true genius, a writer of masterpieces who delivered four episodes on the show and not a bad one among them, but it's strange to believe, in this day and age when those four episodes are as highly regarded as they are, that Humbug was initially greeted with a little reluctance. Sure when we watched the episode we all loved it, but when it was announced that the series would be attempting a more comedic episode, many were unsure, it was thought of as a risk, a possible disaster in the making, a possible jump the shark moment. How the hell could anyone think like this? The X Files always had a streak of humour running through it, sometimes a little black, had a way with one liners and witty banter between its two leads, and given its predilection for experimenting with story and genre, why not comedy, everything else was working on the show and low and behold, Humbug was and is a masterpiece.

The best thing about it is that Darin Morgan has crafted a comedic tale that actually fits in extremely well into the second season. For all the laughs and humour and quirkiness, there is an underlying sense of terror running through it, a nasty case of body horror and some truly effective scares. Of course, Morgan subverts some of these superbly well. The monster 'stalking' two children at the start is revealed to be their father, who is then subsequently killed by the actual monster of the episode. It's a great opener and instantly lets you know what you're in for. This is followed up by possibly the funniest funeral in history, the most scene stealing bald man to appear in something since Blofeld in a Bond movie and of course Twin Peaks very own Michael Anderson who gets to trade wonderful barbs with Mulder in some of the episode's funniest moments, but for all these laughs there is real joy to be hand with the set pieces including the stunning climax involving the fun house (or tabernacle of terror).

Subsequent episodes from Morgan would move from the poignant and philosophical, to the downright fun, to a well intentioned satire of the series itself,  and these three tales would be the undoubted highlights of season three, but Humbug is where the Darin Morgan phenomenon started and there is always something special about the first one and this is no exception. It has everything you would associate with his episodes, such as the clever humour, deep themes, great guest performances and wonderful Mulder and Scully banter and whilst the episode does seem to get forgotten about compared to Jose Chung's "From Outer Space", Humbug has a slight edge over it for me because it feels like an X File that just happens to have comedy in it. Jose Chung is a satire, one that pokes the series with a sharp stick and has a good, albeit well intentioned laugh at the show's expense, but deep down Humbug is just a pure X File, for all the witty dialogue going on and comedic intentions, you still come away from this one frightened, what with its miniature serial killer, bloody violence and thundering set piece climax.

In the long run Humbug would become one of the most influential episodes in the nine year run of the show, nearly every writer would tackle a comedic X File with varying degrees of success, with Vince Gilligan becoming the comedy king of the series after Morgan's departure, whilst Chris Carter would have some success writing comedy on the show (The Post Modern Prometheus) and some times not so successful (er...Fight Club anybody) and establish a genre and style of episode that would lend itself to a high degree of fan favourites. Clever, scary and funny, Humbug is another definite season two highlight that will once again make you want to shout to the heavens or anyone that's listening that this is the best series to appear on television.

The X Files-2X19:Dod Kalm

Story by Howard Gordon

Teleplay by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa

Directed by Rob Bowman

Grim, depressing, dark, oppressive but utterly, utterly brilliant, Dod Kalm is something of a miner masterpiece. it might be understandable that many may not like this one (did I mention it's grim and depressing and all that) but there is so much good work put into it that I can't help but really adore it. Any regular visitors to this blog will know that I am a big fan of Howard Gordon, his understated work usually puts good storytelling and great characters above anything else and with Dod Kalm he mixes his (and returning for this one his season one collaborator Alex Gansa) usual style with something resembling a high concept.

It's a strange concept and it loans itself so well to the dark nature of the episode. Mulder and Scully find themselves on an abandoned navy ship stranded in the middle of the sea in Norway where the crew members have apparently aged. Getting stranded there alongside their guide, Trondheim (guest star John Savage who you might remember from harrowing Vietnam war movie The Deer Hunter or as the arch villain of James Cameron created television series Dark Angel) the three find themselves aging, a depressing notion set inside a dank, dark ship that's rusting away.

I've heard many claim that they think this is one of the worst episode's of the show but I can't think that at all. Most of these criticisms stem from the make up effects which aren't great, but this episode scores in other areas other than slightly below par special effects. Its set up a very effective mystery, as we're not sure if we're going to find ourselves in an episode that is going to play as sci-fi (there is a reference to the Philadelphia Experiments) or horror (the aging process). It plays more as sci-fi with a hint of body horror, but it's in the characters that this really scores.

For the shippers out there, there is much joy to be had. It's not overtly romantic or anything, but Dod Kalm really shows how much the central relationship of the show has changed over the course of these two seasons, from Scully's abduction at the start of the year through to this, the characters open up to each other in a way that is unbearably touching. As Mulder nearly dies due to what is befalling himself and Scully he declares that they have more work to do and that it isn't their time, it's a typical "it's not fair I'm dying" moment from a person on death's door, but it's so well written and Duchovny's delivery of it so perfect that it can't help but nearly bring a tear to my eye, but it's followed by a beautiful counterbalance from Scully who, talking about her experiences in One Breath tells Mulder that there is nothing to fear once life is over. It's so deeply sweet and tender, yet it almost seems impossible the series could have pulled this off a season previously, that the baggage that the story arc has brought to the series this year coupled with how heavily invested the series is in the characters now that it can really do something as brilliant as this. It even offers the scenario that Mulder and Scully don't get out of it through ingenuity but are simply rescued in the nick of the time.

It's a sweet moment on a great cake, albeit it a dark and depressing cake that you would rarely serve up, but I think the series would be a little lesser without it. Rob Bowman directs superbly, despite being set in the one location for the majority of the running time it feels very cinematic as always, Mark Snow's music is as haunting as ever, John Bartley once again does wonders with the lighting and whilst the make up isn't convincing, the other aspects of the production more than make up for it.

I adore this one I really do, I'm not saying that I would rush to watch it when I'm looking for an X File fix, but it always seems like a joy to watch it when going through a re-watch, it's a little gem, beautifully written and performed to perfection. Ironically for an an episode that offers one of the most depressing X Files ever, coming up we've got one of the funniest and lightest. Oh, the wonders of this show.

The X Files-2X18:Fearful Symmetry

Written by Steve De Jarnatt

Directed by James Whitmore Jr

Where to begin with Fearful Symmetry? Well, first thing's first, the teaser is brilliant. Although the episode is credited to James Whitmore Jr, the teaser is actually the work of an uncredited Rob Bowman and you can tell because it genuinely feels tension packed and cinematic, unlike the rest of the episode which is sadly a bit run of the mill and perfunctory. It pains me to say that about this one for a couple of reasons. On paper, this sounds like a great X File, one with a great story which comes across as being very well told and at its heart is dealing with an issue that I understand and can appreciate being an animal lover myself, anything that takes issue with cruelty to animals is something that I feel is worth listening to. If anything the episode, with its story involving a gorilla named Sophie who has learned sign language and her dedicated owner, Willa, played by 24 actress Jayne Atkinson, has many similarities to the tremendous Michael Apted film Gorillas in the Mist, with Atkinson's performance and character even reminiscent of Sigourney Weaver's turn as Diana Fossey. Gorillas in the Mist was a great movie, deeply moving, passionate with a deep controlled anger at its heart. Fearful Symmetry would love nothing more but to be an X Filesian equivalent of that movie, in the manner that Ice was to John Carpenter's The Thing and the upcoming F Emasculata was to Outbreak, and whereas those episodes can be successfully compared to those movies and walk away with their heads held high, I regret to say Fearful Symmetry cannot.

Shame, because there's some really good stuff here.

Let's start with the good. As I've said at the start, the teaser is brilliant, there's a good building of mystery here, we have an invisible elephant go on the rampage and die as a result. How has the elephant turned invisible, what type of X File are we gonna get here? Is this going to be a sci-fi tale or a horror tale? It comes as a neat surprise that what we're getting deals with alien abduction. The episode wears its heart on its sleeve, it's aiming for something emotional, it's got a bit of passion and anger on its dealings on the mistreatment of animals in captivity, yet paints the characters against this sort of treatment in a shadier light as well so there's a sense of balance going on too. Plus, the revelation of what is going on at the heart of the episode, that the animals are being abducted by aliens and their subsequent invisibility happens upon their return is a neat and somewhat original idea.

Here comes the 'but' though, you know the 'but' I've been building to here. It's just not terribly...great. I'm not going to say it isn't good, because truthfully it's far from terrible, but it never becomes as wonderful as it really ought to be. It labours its points home not with subtlety but with a sledgehammer, becoming almost preachy, whilst turning the storyline involving Willa and Kyle, the animal rights activist, into a bit of a soap opera when its revealed that they were romantically linked years previously and Willa ends up inadvertently killing him towards the end of the episode. For a tale that is aiming for a point about animal rights and the conceptual cruelty of zoos to have a bit of a soap opera-ish twist like this feels somewhat strange and misjudged actually.

Really this is one that is aiming high for gravitas but it never quite reaches those heights and nowhere is this better illustrated than at the end of the episode when Sophie the gorilla is abducted by aliens in front of Mulder but before doing so leaves a message through her sign language that translates as "man save man". Following this Sophie is discovered dead, Willa is sent to jail and Mulder's voice over summing up the case and events of the episode aims for some sort of philosophical overview of what has transpired, but really it comes across as confused and strange, but deeply noble too and I guess this is the best way to sum up this one. It's definitely the second season's weakest episode, and yet doesn't come anywhere near being as terrible as Space or season three's Teso Dos Bichos, so it's not all bad, it's just a muddle of an episode, good in theory but nowhere near as good as it should be in its execution. Given how great some of the material here is and how good it could have been, Fearful Symmetry isn't awful, it's just disappointing.

The X Files-2X17:Endgame

Written by Frank Spotnitz

Directed by Rob Bowman

Oh my God, it's getting terribly exciting isn't it? I mean, look at this, Scully is kidnapped by the Alien Bounty Hunter, not mention given a beating by him for her efforts, Mulder is forced into making a trade, Scully for his sister, we get a tense hostage trade on the bridge, Mulder losing Samantha again, discovering a load of Samantha clones, dumping Scully to run of the Arctic, X unwillingly revealing himself to Scully, then getting into a fight with Skinner, the EPIC (apologies for putting capitals into the middle of a sentence, but I can't help it, I'm so excited and I just can't hide it) confrontation between Mulder and the Bounty Hunter in a submarine that has just happened to have busted out of the ice and Scully desperately trying to save Mulder from dying in the climax. Pause for breaths folks, because if I keep going like this I think I'll collapse.

Two parters are tricky, make no mistake about it, in fact there are instances in The X Files itself of two parters that have had trouble with keeping up the momentum going into their second parts, Endgame is not one of them. This works beautifully for the most part, it's exciting, it's gloriously emotional in places and once again it takes the show of into an EPIC stratosphere (once again, apologies for the random capitals in a sentence). If Colony laid out the ground works for how epic a story this is and how grand the show as a whole could be, Endgame explodes it even more and proves that not only does this whole thing sound grand and epic in scale on paper, but that it has the same level of grandness in terms of how the series is made. You know all that talk of how cinematic The X Files could be, well Endgame is a signifier on how true that is.

Plotting, character, production values, everything about this two parter as a whole has been sumptuous, I can't say that enough. Marking the debut on the show of the legend that is Frank Spotnitz, Endgame doesn't drop the ball and keeps running with what was started by Carter and Duchovny in the previous episode. The brilliant cliffhanger is dealt with superbly and allows the show to have a little bit of sadistic fun in having 'Mulder' beat up Scully. Coming after the teaser which features a submarine under the Arctic ice discovering the Bounty Hunter's ship, the adrenalin is never allowed to dip as the episode drops brilliant moment after brilliant moment, allowing everyone to have their moment to shine, the script to run with the story telling opportunities and ensuring Rob Bowman the job of directing The X Files on the big screen.

The X Files has truly changed a lot over the course of it's first two seasons. Season one was content with being spine tingling and primarily an anthology show with the same two leads every week, it was great, it was well made and was showing signs of becoming the future classic that it is now. Season two has upped the ante in every way. The stand alones have become darker, the cast has grown, the stories are operating at a different level and now we have an ongoing story arc that is sweeping and emotional in a way that was almost unimaginable during the first season. Endgame, like a lot of the myth arc episodes of the second season, work so well not just because of how gripping and thrilling they are but because we truly care for these characters. Mulder and Scully are not just two leads who are detectives in a mystery show, now they are flesh and blood characters whose concerns are not just borne out of the mystery of the week, but by how much they care for each other. I'm not going to get all 'shipper' here or anything, but if Colony worked because of Mulder and his search for his sister, then Endgame works because of Mulder and Scully as an emotional equation. All the stuff about alien invaders, bounty hunters and submarines bursting out of the ice would not work if we didn't have the emotional burden to experience of Mulder abandoning Scully to have his icy confrontation, or Scully desperately trying to find him, or Skinner and X beating the holy crap out of each other over the entire situation (and let me just join the chorus of fans in saying it's one of the best X Files moments ever). The submarine confrontation would be enough to build up to in any show, but Endgame doesn't end there, it ends where it began, with Mulder at death's door and Scully, the doctor, his doctor, fighting to save him.

Endgame ends with a note of cautious optimism, a small scene of Mulder in a hospital bed, Scully beside him, his faith to keep looking rewarded. In the end, it's great that the final scene is so small because by the time we get to the end you realise just how exhausting these two hours have been. Cinematic, bold, gorgeously executed, brilliantly written by Carter, Spotnitz and Duchovny, what's not to love here.