To prepare for this episode, I thought it would be a good idea to reread the blog from the very first X-Files episode because I have seem to have near-zero retention. A few things I’ve learned -- my writing style and font preference have changed since 2016 and I’ve broken that habit of double-spacing in between sentences. If your brain is leaky like mine, then I suggest rereading the blog for "Pilot" (Season 1, Episode 1) before starting this one. In present day Bellefleur, Oregon, Detective Miles is rushing to back up a deputy when his car experiences electronic interference. The vehicle loses power and digital clock goes wonky (I’m plagiarizing myself again). Miles crashes into Ray’s car but the poor deputy appears to have injuries unrelated to a traffic crash. Then Miles really steps in it, literally. It’s that green ooze we’ve seen before. Ray is no longer Ray, he’s an alien bounty hunter! (No, not a bounty hunter that hunts aliens, he is alien!)
The scariest thing in the world is happening to Sculder right now: The X-Files Division is being audited! They sent a “Scully” to examine the FBI’s most costly unit. Dana tries to make an impression by explaining to the auditor how one of the related investigations left her unable to have children and nearly killed her. (Maybe that’s why she and Mulder didn’t use a condom all those weeks ago.) The evaluator is convinced Fox could be more cost-effective if he conducted more investigations from the office computer. Meanwhile, in a Tunisian prison, Marita Covarrubias is arranging Alex Krycek’s release. Even he is stunned to see she’s still alive. Apparently, the Cigarette Smoking Man is in need of his services. And back in Oregon, two young men, Gary and Richie, head toward the woods to check out reports of a crashed UFO. Det. Miles runs interference and sends the boys away. The detective's son, Billy, calls Mulder who confirms -- once again, “It’s happening again.”
Krycek and Marita meet with a terminally ill and wheelchair-bound Cancer Man and he reveals an alien ship collided with a military aircraft in Oregon. He sends Alex to the scene for damage control. Probably a good idea because those two young men weren’t deterred by Det. Miles and are creeping around the woods after dark. Gary walks over an area that lifts him in the air and thrashes him about. Meanwhile, Richie’s flashlight becomes too hot to handle. He drops it and leaves.
By the way, Billy is now Deputy Bill Miles, divorcee. Sculder meet with him at his father’s home in Oregon and he reveals a Navy pilot hit an unidentified aircraft that has not yet been recovered. And Deputy Ray is still missing, as far as Bill knows. His father returns home and gets reacquainted with our heroes. They head to the scene from the agents' first investigation together, which still bears the orange X that Fox spray-painted on the road to mark the location of their electrical disturbance. (That’s some industrial-strength spray paint to not get weathered or washed away after seven years. Florida DOT sure needs it on all of their road construction sites.) By the way, it’s the same location where Det. Miles’ car died. Scully finds evidence that Deputy Ray shot his gun three times, but at whom was he shooting? That’s almost unimportant once we realize Det. Miles is hiding the missing deputy’s dead body in the trunk of his patrol vehicle. And to make it worse, he upsets the chain of custody with Dana's shell casings.Mulder and Scully visit Ray’s wife, Theresa Nemman Hoese, and learn she’s the same Theresa from their original investigation. She reveals Ray was also an abductee and claims to have proof in his medical history documents. Theresa hands her baby to Dana while she retrieves the documents and Fox is transfixed by her maternal side. Later that night, a sick Scully goes to Mulder’s room. She’s chilly so Fox tries to warm her up. He decides this case is too much for her to handle emotionally and tells her to head home. Mulder’s right about a few things; their personal costs are too high and there is more Dana needs to do with her life.
Meanwhile, the impossible has happened: Cancer Man doesn’t know everything. He’s genuinely shocked to hear Sculder are in Oregon looking for the missing deputy, who, according to CSM, will be with the missing spaceship. Good news: Ray returns home. Bad news: it’s not Ray. Theresa stabs her “husband,” who oozes green acidic liquid before dragging the poor woman away from her screaming baby. If only she had one of those silver ice-pick-like weapons handy. The next morning, the agents inspect the baby’s room and find the same scorch marks on the carpet they saw on the road. Scully experiences another dizzy spell. Looks like she’s ignoring Fox's suggestion to go home.Cancer Man and Marita have a discussion about how much they do (or don’t) trust Krycek. Very Sick Man is convinced the person who possesses the crashed alien ship will “possess the answer to all things” blah, blah, blah. He even has a psychotic look in his eye as he denounces God and worships the alien race’s knowledge. He’s so far from being the puppet master of Season 7, Episode 15 (En Ami) only two months earlier that it feels truly unbelievable. But we’ll suspend our disbelief – once again -- for the sake of the story.
Outside the Hoese residence, Mulder confronts a suspicious-looking Richie who claims Gary was taken and Det. Miles is a part of it. While looking for Gary in the woods, Dana finds the same pocket and gets thrashed. At the same time, Richie and Fox locate Richie’s burned-out flashlight. Mulder finds Scully but assumes she just had another fainting spell, not an alien spacecraft-induced epileptic fit. Billy confronts his father at gunpoint, but the detective gently disarms his son before morphing into the most familiar alien bounty hunter form, Brian Thompson. Of course, Sculder pick that exact moment to arrive at the Miles residence. But when they enter the house, it’s empty.Two days later, Fox is back in his FBI office and Assistant Director Walter Skinner has a frank discussion with him before letting Krycek and Covarrubias into the room. Alex claims the ship is still cloaked in the woods while the alien bounty hunter cleans up the evidence. Marita insists Cancer Man is really dying, but Krycek is willing to assist the FBI because he wants payback against his former handler. A perplexed Dana arrives late to the party. And now it’s time for the Lone Gunmen to work their magic and find the ship. During the powwow, Scully gets frustrated and leaves the room. Fox tells her she’s not going back to Oregon because the bounty hunter’s mission is to take care of abductees like Dana. He won’t risk losing her, but she won’t let him go alone. Skinner goes on the Oregon snipe hunt in her place (snipe, snipe).
Back in D.C., Scully is reviewing the Miles and Hoese medical files when she realizes Mulder is the one in danger, not her. She then has another ill-timed fainting spell. And in Oregon, Team Skinder (Mulner?) use laser light beams to locate the cloaked ship. It obscures Fox, who has found all of the recent abductees. Mulder walks among them and stares at the alien ship hovering above the group. The alien bounty hunter joins them and the ship leaves with its precious cargo while poor Walter watches helplessly. Team Krybias (Covacek?) return to Cancer Man, who is understandably disappointed. Krycek responds by throwing CSM down the stairs. It would have been more definitive to just break his neck with your bare hands, Alex. Snipeless Skinner visits Scully in a D.C. hospital, but she already knows Mulder is gone. Walter claims he can’t – and won’t – deny what he saw in Oregon. Dana resolves they’ll find Fox together (Team Sculner! No, Team Skinly!), then breaks the stunning secret news that she’s pregnant. OK, now that I’ve patiently watched “The Duchovny Show” for four years and six months, may I please have some Robert Patrick?
Sestra Professional:
The takeaway from last week's episode, "Je Souhaite," was to be careful what you wish for because it just might come true. For seven seasons, Fox Mulder wanted to unlock the mysteries of the X-files. Well, that idea had sort of been tamped down this year, especially after the mystery of Samantha was resolved, but it still rang true. Now he knows.
What exactly is left to investigate? So we go back to the very beginning to wrap up this season. It's kind of nice to return to garden-variety X-Files, the stuff that got us hooked with shape shifters and green goo. Cigarette Smoking Man's in ... Skinner's in ... Alex's in ... the Lone Gunmen are in ... it's even great to see Marita again. I didn't really how much they were missed until this exact moment. Well, except for maybe the Krycek part.Since we're at that point ... and the script is by series creator Chris Carter ... we get a bit of a clunky recap of our seven years with Sculder by virtue of an auditor who has just realized they're spending more than the FBI's other agents. (That's government efficiency for ya.) Scully counters with the standard line about not being able to measure their work in regular terms. She reminds us that she blames her Season 2 abduction not on aliens, but on a conspiracy of men who subjected her to medical tests that left her barren. But ultimately it gives the non-believer a reason to say she has seen things she can't deny.
Cancer Man, still smoking despite having a trachea tube, sets the stage for what's to come -- "I'm hoping we can all move forward, put the past behind us." But there's a lot of water under that bridge. It makes logical sense in terms of our canvas for CGB Spender to depend on Krycek and Covarrubias to get him back in the middle of this. After all, how reasonable was it to think the alien takeover just ended after The Syndicate was taken down? So CSM turns to the people who understand -- as much as they can -- what it all means.
Seeing Billy Miles again is strange, not because of what's come before, but because of what I know comes after. Like Mulder quoting the legendary Yogi Berra, it's déjà vu all over again. Being crack law enforcement professionals, I wonder if Billy and his pops noticed how much better Dana dresses now. Scully's clothing choices when they first met were downright dowdy, now she's all sleek and tailored.There's so much more than this: A certain parallel is evident between the former Teresa Nemman and her missing husband, Ray Hoese, and our leads. Particularly when Teresa points out that his experiences were even worse than her own. They had a connection that was deeper and different than with everyone else they knew too. So after our heroes see her again, it's rather effective to see Dana and Fox snuggling in bed, even if it's because she's feeling under the weather. Then the return of fake Ray provides some sharp shadowing of what we're in store for in the future.
The shippers finally have something to cheer about. They're past having to cling to looks or brief touches between Mulder and Scully. There's genuine caring, Fox won't let her go back out in the field after a couple of spells -- the jostling of Dana by the magnetic field is literally one of the more jarring things we've seen in some time. Particularly after the big reveal at the end, something that the fans were so ecstatic about at the time that revival history really put a damper on.Luckily, we get Skinner back soon after to point out that if Fox brought an alien to shake hands with the president the bureau's impression of him wouldn't change. That point might have seemed more valid if he didn't follow that up by bringing Alex and Marita into Fox's office. Does it feel a little like they're throwing everything into a pot and hoping for a savory stew when the Gunmen are called in too? Maybe, but again, having these cornerstones of the franchise make for at least a more absorbing episode than we've had for great stretches of Season 7.
Sending the old devil back to hell: The Smoking Man allegedly may be dying, but as we know well, true evil doesn't seem to ever die. So throwing him down the stairs -- while kinda cool -- doesn't seem like it would get the job done. I enjoy Krycek and think the canvas is more interesting when he's on it, but his job success rate is even lower than the one Mulder and Scully got raked over the coals for by the auditor. Speaking of people who aren't up to the tasks they're given, you just knew sending Walter back to Oregon with Fox wouldn't pan out as planned. Having Mulder see things in the magnetic field that Skinner couldn't was a fine touch, though. All credit here to Kim Manners stepping in for Carter to direct the season finale. And it's not like Skinner could have done anything to save him under those conditions, even a completely healthy Dana would have had a problem doing that.
For a large portion of Season 7, the powers-that-be at The X-Files thought it might mark the end of the series. David Duchovny wanted out, but Gillian Anderson was still under contract for another year. The final decision on an eighth season hadn't been made at the time "Requiem" was written and filmed. That's when the creative team decided to go back to the pilot to bring everything full circle, according to the official episode guide. Shortly before it aired, FOX announced the renewal, with David agreeing to be in about half the episodes. The series could have easily ended here and continued on just in movies, but as we'll see, there is more left in the tank.
Guest star of the week: Apologies to Zachary Ansley as Billy Miles, but ... he'll be back. Anyway, I was more touched by Sarah Koskoff as Theresa Nemman Hoese, who retained so much of her character's appeal from the pilot, with glimmers of hope amid much confusion. It's that dimension and glow that later sets her apart when Mulder ultimately gets pulled into the group taken by the UFO.
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