THE X FILES SEASON 8

MULDER: It doesn't make any difference at all. Unless you want to protect Scully and that baby.

DOGGETT: And then what? How long can you keep this up? How long until the next Billy Miles rears his head? The next threat? The next phantom? You ever stop to ask yourself?

(MULDER listens and is uncomfortable.)

DOGGETT: All the sacrifice, the blood spilled-- you've given nearly a decade of your life. Where the hell is it all going to end?

(MULDER thinks for a moment.)

MULDER: (softly) I don't know. Maybe it doesn't.

1 "Within"‡ Kim Manners Chris Carter November 5, 2000 8ABX01 15.87[25]

An FBI taskforce is organized to hunt for Fox Mulder but Dana Scully suspects the taskforce leader, Special Agent John Doggett, and instead chooses to search for her lost partner with Walter Skinner.

X FILES has always been visually stunning but since moving to California, it’s been doubly so and yet…may too well lit? In any case, this is visually stunning and almost panoramic, as will the second part WITHOUT. It’s also a conspiracy episode and an arc episode so it takes its time. It’s not terrible and not boring and brings John Doggett in well, making us like him and get irritated by him, too. Love Scully throwing water in his face. Yet he’s likable and not one of these X FILES guys who can’t be trusted. Can’t say the same for new Director---Kersch but who knows?

Like almost all conspiracy episodes, this one plays out leisurely and almost too leisurely. Having been raised on faster paced 1960s and even the 70s shows (Irwin Allen, Star Trek, Gerry Anderson, the Bionic Shows, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman), this is almost too slow and too badly paced. And yet, there’s something nice and confident about a show that takes its time.

We also get the first of many Mulder appears brief moments. Mulder seems to be, horribly, on a table, being examined and prodded and cut open by something, some machine. Aliens?

This first episode is watchable but it’s slow and it is almost humorless.

163 2 "Without"‡ Kim Manners Chris Carter November 12, 2000 8ABX02 15.15[26]

At a remote school in the Arizona desert, Doggett, Scully, Gibson and Skinner – as well as a host of students and agents – do not know whom to trust as the bounty hunter works among them; and – in a spaceship close by – Mulder is experimented on.

This episode is even more movie quality-like as Skinner and Scully, with Doggett separate from them, all converging on Gibson Praise…and an alien that looks like Mulder and yes, it IS David.

It’s a bit shocking in that regard but the X FILES, here, while not parody, as some other episodes have been, is almost…well, not laughable but almost too in your face.

When Scully starts spouting things that Mulder used to, openly declaring shape changing aliens are around and that aliens have Mulder, Doggett has nothing else to say but that she’s starting to sound like Mulder. AND she is. And it’s VERY funny.

Played straight but funny.

And slow. And beautiful to look at.

I have nothing against the actor playing Gibson but he is charmless and maybe if someone else played him…? But maybe that is the point of the characters. I worry about children in this show: they often seem to be targets of death and evil (it is hard to get the image of a boy saving a little girl from bees, only to get stung and killed by them while another dies later or maybe that was him). What will happen? The episode, like the one before it, plays out slowly, even with chases, and searches and Doggett pointing a gun at Mulder who then, as an alien, jumps off a cliff, later straightens out his arm and …well, it’s all a bit silly now and a bit in your face, something the X FILES wasn’t in the build ups of the past.

It is designed to keep you watching though and for that, it does the job.

Okay by the middle of this second part, things are starting to get annoying. The old double in the room is the alien bounty hunter, who is it routine has been played out. And I’m already sick of seeing Mulder shirtless (this is ME we’re talking about!) being examined and/or tortured by unseen beings. And the dialog becomes Chris Carter bat shit crazy. “Scully, this has gone too far.” “That’s the trouble, it hasn’t gone far enough.” And “Mulder wouldn’t allow it.” Far from enjoying this, just moments ago when I was, this is an unbalanced season already, only the second episode in.

And it sort of reeks.

And Gibson Praise goes from saying that Mulder is just “That guy you work with” to Scully to having dreams about him and calling out his name, “MULDER!” as if he’s close to him. He’s neither. And the whole Praise thing just does NOT work.

And with an FBI member AND Gibson’s mute female friend both seemingly alien bounty hunters, this is in danger of becoming and staying THE INVADERS, a show that has merit but which I’m not really very fond of or a huge fan of.

As if it couldn’t get any worse, the dialog between Doggett and Scully as he lands his copter in the desert to find her is god awful, some of the worst dialog the show has ever had, calling what Mulder believes crap from both John and Scully mocking John. It’s really bad. “Mulder’s got you believing in this crap now.” “You’ve seen this crap for yourself.”

Wow.

And boy, I’m already sick of the “search for Mulder” and the Mulder sightings and the talk about what Mulder would do. It rings phony and poor, even from Anderson. And it goes on forever.

164 3 "Patience" Chris Carter Chris Carter November 19, 2000 8ABX04 13.34[27]

Having been assigned to the X-Files, John Doggett joins Scully to investigate a series of gruesome killings that appear to be the work of a bat-like creature. This being their first case together, Scully and Doggett find that their investigative techniques are less than similar.

I love Bat Men monster stories and this one has its moments and some good scenes of the flying attacks. That written…this could have and should have been so much better. I’m not sure what was going on but maybe I was just bored? Maybe it was watching it at the gym on the elliptical? Either way, there is a basic X FILES monster story here but I’m not sure what they were trying to say here and maybe it is not my fault? Was the man’s brother the monster? Was the girl just a victim or was she a monster too?

The monster is pretty good but it needed a stronger story or this one needed another draft.

Doggett and Scully save each other, too but they feel ineffective in a way that Mulder and Scully sometimes did too: letting monsters escape or go to kill another day. Robert Patrick brings it in every scene. He’s good and he’s believable and calling attention via the lines that he is NOT Mulder. Scully might be trying to be but she’s not either.

Not sure that’s a smart thing to call attention to or a wise thing or both.

Mulder being absent is almost a thing every episode and I hurts.

165 4 "Roadrunners" Rod Hardy Vince Gilligan November 26, 2000 8ABX05 13.60[28]

Working alone, Scully pursues a cult that worship a slug-like organism; but in her efforts to save an injured stranger, she discovers she's in over her head.

Gross and…wtf? Open wounds? Parasite monster that people think is Jesus? Wrapped around spine? And wouldn’t the man and Scully later, have been in a lot of pain? A vomitous episode but…I’m sorry to say sometimes that’s a large part of the X FILES. Gross, gross and gross.

That Scully still does not include Doggett is bull by now. He’s saved her life and already proven himself. And he does it again in this. Not sure why the religious nut cases just give up? Was the thing holding them in some kind of power?

Seeing Scully pregnant and cursing, “I’ll get all you bastards!” is very disturbing as is the large hole in her back and the thing heading for her brain. Parasites are, for better or worse, a part of the X FILES. This episode isn’t bad but it isn’t good either. It has some memorable imagery and darkness but it feels rushed. And again, like last week, feeling like there is NO explanation. Both this and last episode LOOK great but thematically, the show feels tired, even with a new male lead.

Some fans feel the monster part works better than the lack of bonding between Doggett and Scully but I find the lack of bonding even when working together, refreshing, even when they’re saving each others’ lives. It works. What doesn’t work is the generic and gross parasite garbage. It’s disturbing and even scary and a functional plot (certainly nowhere as bad as Doctor Who had become in 2023 to 2025). But there’s something about it that just doesn’t sit well but maybe that’s the whole episode’s point. Nothing really sits well here and it is disturbing. And it sure isn’t as silly as what season ten and some of eleven would offer, so there’s that.

166 5 "Invocation" Richard Compton David Amann December 3, 2000 8ABX06 13.89[29]

Having been kidnapped for ten years, a little boy mysteriously reappears but has not aged one bit. While the case stirs up painful memories for Doggett, suspicion stirs that the boy is not all he seems.

We start out by this being seemingly an evil demon like thing posing as a little boy or maybe it is an alien episode with the boy being an abductee who is now up to no good via aliens. We are put on unstable grounding as in so many X Files but here it is sort of blatant. Could innocent looking Rodney Eastman’s character, even dirtied up, have done the things to the boy ten years ago…a boy who has no aged? Of course, this could have ended when Doggett turns to see the boy and he’s gone and/or Doggett finds his skull.

BUT it’s nice to have some interplay about it between Scully and Doggett. She HAS been where he has. This is a win but by who? Why, Billy, of course. The child actor plays it just right, neither malevolent or benevolent. Justice beyond the grave? I don’t think there’s such a thing, though there is law of attraction. I don’t think those hurt in this life, be they human or animal, hurt by others, have any need or desire for retribution. They’ve moved on and left behind the need for that.

A good episode, it feels a bit made on the cheap and also feels almost run of the mill, even with the surprises and it does surprise but…somehow it feels like a sort of standard Twilight Zone “murder victim gets revenge by having killer captured” romp. Doggett has a personal stake and Robert Patrick is excellent. His wide eyed, clear minded Doggett and performance makes this episode worthwhile.

The problem I see now with the X FILES is that: this was a dead kid. That everyone saw. That had blood drawn from him and interacted with over a dozen people, almost all of them credible. There’s no ambiguity. This was a ghost. There are no secret cases now and everyone has to believe in ghosts! Also: why didn’t the killer see him?

167 6 "Redrum" Peter Markle Story by : Steven Maeda & Daniel Arkin

Teleplay by : Steven Maeda December 10, 2000 8ABX03 13.21[30]

After his wife is murdered, a lawyer friend of Doggett's tries to clear his name of the crime but the days regress backwards.

Excellent episode depicting a difficult premise: living your life back in time to everyone else who is moving forward and being arrested for a murder or crime that to you hasn’t happened yet. Oddly, the DOCTOR WHO comic did this way back in the very beginnings in the early 1960s and SLIDERS did it in the later 1990s, both handling it well. THIS is superb however and well done and yes some writers criticize this because Scully and Doggett really take a back seat to the man, the lawyer but it works as a story and works as an interesting premise done very, very well. Good acting, casting, and direction.

168 7 "Via Negativa" Tony Wharmby Frank Spotnitz December 17, 2000 8ABX07 12.37[31]

Doggett and Skinner work to avert the murderous spree of a religious cult leader, while Scully takes time off to deal with the early stages of her pregnancy.

For one bit with the rats (I thought I saw some baby rats in there and they are cute!), I took notice of the music, in the lab. In any case, some gross out ideas (saw to head, cutting your third eye out, rats eating faces) but this IS the X FILES and another typical X FILES gives us another great episode mostly because Doggett is new to this and seeing it through his eyes---as Scully is having complications with her pregnancy (kudos to the show for making this not easy as other shows have), he’s the one front and center and…

…surprisingly Patrick is more than up to it. His interactions with the Lone Gunmen AND Skinner work on every level, despite what some reviewers say about Skinner feeling like he’s losing his bite….he’s not either. Rather than play aggravated with the Gunmen, Patrick plays on Doggett’s trust in them and Mulder and Scully in them, too. It works unlike we expect it to. And makes us respect the character more. If they had tried what other shows try and tried (we’re looking at 1980s and Moffat and RTD DOCTOR WHO fake fighting and insults) and made him irritated by the older characters, we’d have not taken to him.

Doggett’s a fully fleshed out character, almost as soon as this season started, but Patrick makes him doubly so and in addition, THE X FILES feels almost like a new show and at times, fresher and even better. I do miss Mulder but not as much as I thought I would.

And this is GOOD and this is still THE X FILES. I’d even watch a series with just him in it.

As in last episode, there’s a “I’m not sure I’m awake” or “living in my correct time and space” feel. BUT that’s all the good parts of THE TWILIGHT ZONE which sometimes did this kind of thing 10/10 and here, with continuing characters, it’s only enhanced. Still, that means we’ve seen a lot of this before. Then we get the ending, which is muddled and brings it down a bit but…and like it or not, that’s the X FILES.

169 8 "Surekill" Terrence O'Hara Greg Walker January 7, 2001 8ABX09 13.33[32]

The fatal shooting of a realtor while alone in a cinderblock jail cell has Doggett hoping motive will yield more than method, but they soon learn that there is more to this case than meets the eye.

Wait, what just happened? Not a bad episode but…boring. If this were a first season story, it might be more interesting but this episode and the next are mundane X FILES, humor less and with a human being with extra powers, they feel as if they are almost the same story with the same SUPERMAN villain. And this is NO BURNING BRIGHT, which is a great premise and lively, even for a horror movie. This has a loser who loves a woman and he and maybe his brother both have X Ray vision. They steal. They get revenge. They don’t get the audience. It’s flat, it’s boring and it makes me wish the X FILES ended last year. Again, not a bad episode and it does have a clever climax but a clever climax does not make an enjoyable episode or a bad one either, this is leaning towards bad but it’s not.

It's not much of anything. It looks, like all X FILES, good. And it sounds good, too.

170 9 "Salvage" Rod Hardy Jeffrey Bell January 14, 2001 8ABX10 11.69[33]

Doggett and Scully encounter a dead man who is still living – only somewhat changed. What they discover is a man made of metal, enacting vengeance on those he believes created him.

This episode and the one before it are…similar and remind me, imagery wise of the Bruce Willis/M Night movies in the UNBREAKABLE franchise. This one has a hooded super villain who is like metal and invulnerable, pretty much, though the ambiguous ending might make him seem to be crushing himself in a car crusher.

This has a small bit of humor (not much) when Doggett, whose actor Robert Patrick, played the great metal liquid villain in TERMINATOR 2, tells Scully something like, “There are no metal men, that just happens in movies.” “Does it, Agent Doggett?”

Again, a fair climax and a fair story, it’s about yet another loser who has mutant like or super hero/villain powers who uses it for revenge. Yawn. Boring. And it is. There’s also a partner like in last episode or something. And men who need protection. Here, the loser kills a nice lady, a co worker who really cared about him. Which makes him completely unlikable. Though there is a reason to believe he didn’t kill the last man because a small boy was calling for his dad.

Nearly humorous, nearly the same as last episode, and again, not a bad episode but not an interesting one, either, this feels as if the series is long over and dead.

171 10 "Badlaa" Tony Wharmby John Shiban January 21, 2001 8ABX12 11.87[34]

When a mystic smuggles himself out of India, Scully and Doggett give chase as his murderous spree starts terrorizing two families in suburban Washington, D.C. But Scully soon comes upon a crisis of faith when she realizes how dissimilar her techniques are from Mulder, even as she tries to be the believer.

So far, lots of humor, horror, and a good balance. Scully and Doggett’s rapport hypes up with good lines, good writing and one of the most bizarre and heinous grossest villains and monsters ever, played by Deep Roy, a genre favorite actor from The Depp Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Doctor Who’s THE TALONS OF WENG CHIANG, BLAKE’S SEVEN, THE NEW AVENGERS and some STAR TREK movie. He’s got a great look and he’s a great actor and villain.

Lots of great lines here. “You get the weirdest things in your in box, Agent Scully,” is just one of them. The banter between Doggett and Scully that might have livened up the last two mundane episodes is here, great and lively, supported by one of the strangest X FILES ever.

172 11 "The Gift"‡ Kim Manners Frank Spotnitz February 4, 2001 8ABX11 14.58[35]

Doggett comes upon an old case about a professed 'soul-eater' that Mulder kept secret from Scully, which he hopes will ultimately prove the truth behind Mulder's abduction.

Okay, a solid episode with an interesting premise and a monster that heals people. Though I should have understood where it was going but didn’t is kudos to it. That the man had to die to save Doggett was sad but this is rather a timely issue with local law enforcement killing a federal agent! A bit slow but a good episode and Doggett is a bit…of a lone dog hero taking on all those men and getting himself killed.

173 12 "Medusa" Richard Compton Frank Spotnitz February 11, 2001 8ABX13 13.75[36]

A string of bizarre deaths in the tunnels of the Boston subway system sees Doggett join a team of professionals underground to investigate. Meanwhile, Scully has to defy the train authorities above land, who are determined to get the trains up and running within hours.

Feels movie like but also kind of cheap at the same time. Everyone is antagonistic. Maybe I’m just bored with the X FILES after eight and a half seasons and not paying attention but what happened to the female agent? I guess she left with the man infected. Yes, she did.

The man seemed to get infected fast. Are we to believe it took Doggett a lot less time to get infected and start having the disgusting flesh eating organism disgustingly eat away at his flesh---it never really does. Thank God.

And that he didn’t sweat when doing that amazing stunt by getting in front of a train to stop it? Or that the other guy who “did his job” as Scully stupidly says would endanger all those people that could possibly carry a disease or organisms on them (did the moron even wait to find out what it was they were finding out?)? Or that he would just vanish? Who was he? Where did he go? Why did he just leave? I feel this was just bad writing.

And we’re to believe Scully wouldn’t go down there?

Or that a kid –when he sweats---wouldn’t attract the organism because he’s too young, hormonally speaking? WTF? He doesn’t have well developed sweat glands? He still sweats.

Does any of that make sense? Or that the organism would be washed away?

Why was this called Medusa?

The authority figures here are a mess: one vanishes after endangering people, the other wants to run out on Doggett and does and gets infected but he and the other infected man are to work with plastic surgeons to get better? What? Maybe I’m just picking on it for no reason. It was tense and gross and does underline the relationship between Scully and Doggett but in the end it just routine and while wide eye opening exciting, in the end, it just feels contrived.

174 13 "Per Manum"‡ Kim Manners Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz February 18, 2001 8ABX08 16.10[37]

Scully becomes personally involved when she encounters several women who had no way of naturally conceiving but who claim to have been abducted and impregnated with alien babies.

A bit slow but still interesting to watch. I’m loving Doggett to be honest. He’s so straight from the hip and real world. This and the next two episodes feel like MILLENNIUM to be honest. And they all sort of run together in my mind. Mulder seems to return.

175 14 "This Is Not Happening"‡ Kim Manners Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz February 25, 2001 8ABX14 16.87[38]

Doggett calls on another agent, Monica Reyes, to assist in the Mulder case, but Scully's fears about finding him come to a head with the sudden recovery of abductees seized at the same time. He has the best lines lately. Mostly about how he’s confused about being on the X Files. Reyes is another beast altogether. At the time, I kept an open mind and liked her ….that is until season 10 or 11 where she’s shown to be working for the Cigarette Smoking Man and tries to work against Scully, Mulder and Skinner?!! WTF? Here, she’s…okay. To be honest this episode and the next feel a lot like MILLENNIUM and I believe the word Millennium is spoken about.

And while Frank Black on MILLENNIUM didn’t see a lot of translucent “ghosts”, he did see at least one the way Scully “sees” Mulder here: translucent.

There’s also a Doomsday Cult and its Judson Scott leader. Judson, Patrick, and Thinnes never appeared on MILLENNIUM but they would have fit right in if they did. There are kidnapped women, dead bodies, some of them seemingly coming back to life in this and the next episode, talk of the end of the world (and this being X FILES of aliens coming to save the cult).

Loving Doggett again and Scully’s rants against him are pretty good too. Especially when he says, “I’m going back to the real world.”

These episodes are a weird (any other ways in the X FILES?) to bring back Mulder. He’s dead.

176 15 "Deadalive"‡ Tony Wharmby Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz April 1, 2001 8ABX15 12.57[39]

GOD I LOVE DOGGETT: BILLY MILES: They took so many this time. But now I understand. They're here to save us. (he smiles gently)

DOGGETT: (sarcastically) Well, that's great news. I'm going to let you two talk.

(DOGGETT leaves the room. SCULLY follows him into the hall.)

SCULLY: Agent Doggett... Where are you going?

DOGGETT: Back to the real world. Why?

SCULLY: You just won't believe it, will you? Not even for a minute. Not even with it staring you right in the face.

Three months after Mulder's funeral, a former abductee awakens from the dead and Scully pins her hopes on resurrecting her partner. Meanwhile, Alex Krycek offers Skinner a loathsome deal which he claims can save Mulder's life.

He’s not dead. More MILLENNIUM feels here. Krycek’s resurfacing is truly shocking as that elevator opens but there was a clue or two (Skinner feeling ill). Doggett continues to impress as he goes right after Krycek from outside his car! He may not always seem like it, but Doggett is loyal to Scully and Skinner. The head of their department is trying to get him off the X files.

Truth is: if you’re going to bring back a beloved, fun and obsessed and audience draw character ---these three episodes are the way to do it.

I also loved Skinner’s dilemma: choose between killing Mulder or Scully’s baby! Krycek always was an evil bastard.

177 16 "Three Words"‡ Tony Wharmby Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz April 8, 2001 8ABX18 10.46[40]

Mulder secretly conducts his own investigation after a man is gunned down on the White House lawn attempting to inform the President of a planned alien invasion. However, he is soon in over his head as he tries to expose further evidence of colonization.

GOD, I love Doggett: DOGGETT: Impressive, sir? The only thing impressive about my work on the X-Files is that I even know what's going on half the time.

Stunningly good if a bit predictable though I wasn’t really predicting in predicting mode. And also a bit familiar as the Lone Gunmen try to get Mulder into a facility to get data but this time Doggett, who I can’t seem to love more and more than I already do---he’s a great character played by a totally great actor in a believable manner given great dialog and lines----goes back in to save Mulder. The friction between them is believable too and well done, even if it makes Mulder a bit of a dick at times. I should have seen the betrayal by Doggett’s friend (it’s Adam Baldwin of THE PATRIOT, of course he’s going to be evil) in the government but didn’t. Mulder shouldn’t really pick apart Doggett’s story because he himself has been used numerous times.

Surprisingly good! And again, this feels a lot like…even with talk of aliens…MILLENNIUM.

Love Frohike’s “Dead …” well here:

FROHIKE: You know, it's really not fair. You've been dead for six months and you still look better than me. But not by much.

(FROHIKE hugs him tightly around the waist. MULDER embraces him back and laughs softly.)

MULDER: Melvin. I'd be a whole lot happier to see you if you'd just take your hands off my ass.

178 17 "Empedocles" Barry K. Thomas Greg Walker April 22, 2001 8ABX17 12.46[41]

Reyes enlists Mulder's help investigating a killer's connection to the unsolved homicide of Doggett's son but Mulder soon finds himself clashing with Doggett.

God, I missed Mulder’s humor:

There IS no source of evil and no death, just humans denying the God aspect of themselves in their own inner spirit. Yet we do get some good fiction and lines like this from shows, books and movies. Here's this from Mulder....

REYES: What if this is a thread of evil … connecting through time through men, through opportunity, connecting back to you. In India, in Africa, in Iran, in the Middle East, in the Far East. Most of the world, they take it as a given. They see evil in death the way other people see God in a rose.

MULDER: (dryly) I saw Elvis in a potato chip once.

For the fourth of fifth time in a row, the show is A LOT like MILLENNIUM…so much so that I wonder if some these were tweaked MILLENNIUM season four scripts….With flaming bodies and eyes glowing, a man who kills someone on the side of a road and takes his niece hostage for a short time, a phone booth scene, a past cold case involving a dead child (Doggett’s son!), visions of ashes that are shared by multiple people, a murder in the opening (well, to be fair, that’s typical X FILES, too), the idea that evil is a thing that passes like an infection and makes people do things they normally would not do but Mulder pushing against that in the idea that we all have that inside of us (we don’t), and a lot of location shooting (again X FILES did this a lot, too but with a lot of FBI jackets around it’s a lot like MILLENNIUM). And I’m sure I can pick more moments in this entire season (and some of the last season and the one ahead) that are a lot like MILLENNIUM.

Jay Underwood, former child star, performs well here but was also in MILLENNIUM in season one’s COVENANT, a great episode. Here, he plays a more significant, if slightly more sinister role.

We also get this and it has to be intentional and it’s what sets most, but not all, MILLENNIUMs apart from X FILES: the humor X FILES had more of :

MULDER: I do, I do. What-what I'm trying to say is that, uh... we have no good reliable information on this man. I mean, what I am saying is the pizza man...

(As SCULLY comes back out of the bathroom, MULDER points at her swollen belly.)

MULDER: … is not above suspicion.

SCULLY: Ah, I see.

(SCULLY looks up at him. He smiles and glances significantly to the couch beside him. She follows his gaze and notices the almost hidden present on the couch. Her eyes light up.)

SCULLY: Is that for me?

MULDER: Yeah.

(She bends down in front of MULDER to pick up the present.)

SCULLY: Nice package.

MULDER: (modestly embarrassed) Thank you.

BTW, whoever had the idea to make Doggett the skeptical one (like Scully used to be) and male (where as Scully the female was skeptical in the first seven seasons, sort of, more so at the beginning) and to make Reyes more open to supernatural phenomena (like the male Mulder) and female, so unlike Scully is genius. It’s a simple idea but it would have been even more simpler and lazier to make the new twosome just like Mulder and Scully with the male the believer and the female the skeptic. Here, they switched them and it works so well. When the four of them are in the same episode it’s brilliance. I love all four of them, though Reyes a lot less, especially as here, she shoots Jed in the head in front of his niece, seemingly to save the girl and Doggett but it’s a cold and cruel act by her and makes suspicious of her.

Later episodes in season eight and nine made me rethink my suspicions but season 10 or 11 or both have her working for the evil one, the CSM, I think…or maybe she was bluffing him and was good all along?

179 18 "Vienen"‡ Rod Hardy Steven Maeda April 29, 2001 8ABX16 11.81[42]

Mulder and Doggett are asked to investigate several deaths aboard an oil rig, but Mulder is convinced the rig is carrying an alien black oil; meanwhile a heavily pregnant Scully attempts to protect Mulder in absentia.

Well right there under our noses, the X FILES, which always had the arc about it, became a soap opera and a damned good one, too. Well, almost. Sorta. In any case, the visuals here are stunning and the action on a par with some of DIE HARD, LETHAL WEAPON, RANSOM, RUSH HOUR, and other action movies but with the black oil back. I’m not sure that the black oil in the past…I’ve always forgotten those plots details and episodes, not sure why. Maybe they’re not memorable? Or too disturbing…but I’m not sure the black oil was properly contained. I guess it was. Here, it might escape an oil rig. The oil rig setting is not as confining as it sounds and this looks like most big budget movies and looks good.

I like that Mulder and Doggett finally and slowly get to be friends, somewhat and shake hands. Mulder leaving again makes sense as he takes the fall for Doggett, Scully and Skinner and mostly the X Files, to protect the X Files. He feels it is necessary to do so and the acting from all, especially Robert Patrick and David, really sells this.

WTF is Kerch’s problem? Doesn’t he listen? Did anyone tell him? Does he want the oil to spread? Is he a good guy or bad guy? In the past when there was ambiguity to their bosses and/or over head controllers, heads of departments, and even at times, Skinner early on, it made some kind of sense and logically, there were unknowns to it all but here, Kerch just seems to be acting like a douche bag just to act like a douche bag. WTF?

Good actor though.

A lot of the dialog of late has been really ironic, good, and fun, even funny given how long the X FILES has existed as a show and it has been making good use of that, where in the past I don’t think they relied on that enough.

This works as a frenemies to buddy action adventure, though some things feel…a bit rushed. We don’t see poor Garza’s death or how they got to him after all this time, finally finding him? We also don’t see how Mulder goes from walking around with the man investigating the fire in the radio room (who seemed fine and not infected) to running around as the only other one besides Garza and Doggett NOT infected. Mulder’s revelation comes off screen or did I miss something?

The jump off the rig is very impressive effects and stunt work.

180 19 "Alone" Frank Spotnitz Frank Spotnitz May 6, 2001 8ABX19 12.71[43]

With Scully on maternity leave, Doggett is paired with an enthusiastic young agent named Layla Harrison who knows everything about the X-Files, and her apotheosis of Mulder and Scully leads to him learning a thing or two. But when Harrison and Doggett disappear, Mulder defies orders in an attempt to find them.

Doggett continues to impress and it is really in the writing and acting to be honest. Mulder continues to do pretty much the same. I remember thinking Harrison was going to get killed but happily, for once, they didn’t go there. She’s an interesting different character whose leaps and bounds are pretty much, against what doubting Doggett eventually tells her he thinks is her problem, TRUE. It’s not her problem, it’s her strength. That Doggett feels alone is pretty much a slap in the face for Doggett and yet he does feel that earnestly with Mulder back and Harrison leaving of his own accord. There’s always Reyes, who surprisingly is not a part of this season fully yet and won’t really be until next season.

Other than that it’s pretty much a simple monster of the week story which is what was needed with what has become pretty much a soap opera of horror and science fiction, aliens and mutants. And…that’s a compliment. I like it this way. It had to change and evolve a bit and it did and it stayed on the air. Some might find that bad but I am enjoying these episodes. LOVE Mulder impersonating Kerch. That is funny as hell and the climax with a blind Doggett being urged by Mulder to shoot his way as the monster ranges in on readying to kill him is super.

The scientist is rightfully creepy by a good actor who makes a great under stated villain but he’s creepier for it. And that monster…it looks fantastic and moves just as realistic as possible and in the dark, it could be one of the scariest monster of the entire franchise, at least physically. It IS convenient that the body melts in the end so like in almost every KOLCHAK THE NIGHT STALKER, there will be no evidence of it existing.

Doggett leaves as Scully and Mulder discuss to Harrison in hospital recovering (she’s cute!) that he believes it was a spaceship in Antarctica while she claims there is no proof. While I’m smirking, Doggett sees it from another POV and a valid one.

Maybe it’s just me but I think despite what could have been a routine episode, this is good writing. And compared to most stuff today (2026), it’s downright brilliant.

181 20 "Essence"‡ Kim Manners Chris Carter May 13, 2001 8ABX20 12.75[44]

Mulder, Skinner and Doggett come up against the horrible consequences of the Syndicate's pact with the aliens, as a hybrid attempts to erase all evidence of the tests – including Scully's soon-to-be-born baby. The men call on Reyes, and – reluctantly – Alex Krycek to help them.

The soap continues and…it’s riveting. I’ve enjoyed conspiracy episode before but…never like this. I really think maybe THE X FILES was even more ahead of its time here as it now seems to be one long story and that’s a compliment. I still didn’t fully trust Reyes but after this and the next part I did, which is why season 11 sucks balls regarding her character but season 10 sucks balls regarding the entire debunking of the entire X FILES premise but getting ahead of myself. This might be slow in places but it feel wonderful, tense, urgent and the stakes are raised with Scully being pregnant. Billy Miles presents an unstoppable and very cool and quiet TERMINATOR style villain that beheads the doctors and others behind the experimenting on Scully. He’s truly formidable if not scary. That he comes face to face with Mulder is immensely satisfying.

182 21 "Existence"‡ Kim Manners Chris Carter May 20, 2001 8ABX21 14.01[45]

Mulder, Doggett and Skinner face off with the alien replicants as they desperately try to expose the conspiracy within the FBI. Meanwhile, Scully goes into labor in a remote location, but Reyes soon learns they may be no safer there.

Nothing more satisfying than two things in this episode: Scully and Mulder seem to have a happy ending and the show could have ended right here AND Skinner shoots Krycek in the head. The moment Skinner did that could have had more impact if I wasn’t sure it WAS Skinner. I mean other FBI agents here have turned out to be …well replicants or TERMINATOR style super soldiers. The action is well placed and fun and needed. The town Scully and Monica find themselves in is a bit…well odd but nevertheless atmospheric. Again, I felt here, that Monica maybe wasn’t quite right but then she delivered Scully’s baby and tried to protect her. Did the baby cover itself using some kind of forcefield to ward off the many antagonists that show up? Why did Billy Miles alien let him go? All in all a great set of episodes and a great season really. Robert Patrick is amazing and if he alone ran the X FILES I’d watch that.

Despite all this, and the next episode in season nine no less, I don’t think anyone actually assigned Monica Reyes to the X FILES but she’s there…did John have that power? John ends with a one upmanship on Kerch but this being the X FILES, the good guys won’t have the upper hand for long.

The soap continues…next season.

I didn’t expect to like this season as much as I did and a huge part of that was Patrick. He is amazing. I wish if the X FILES does come back, he would be a part of it. He has excellent rapport with every single other actor and character.

I’d give this season a 9/5/10. And most episodes a 10/10. Fun, exciting, dangerous, and different.