X-Files S8E2: Without or within you

Sestra Amateur: 

We left off last week in the season opener "Within" with our intrepid hero, Fox Mulder, appearing to kidnap young Gibson Praise. And as much as I’m looking forward to Gillian Anderson assume the lead role, was it really necessary to have her take over Mulder’s opening voiceovers? They can’t really be of any help; ongoing fans don’t want to be patronized and new viewers won’t care. This voiceover seems to be about aliens. I’m assuming that because there’s a huge UFO cloaking itself in a desert while Scully rambles. 

So John Doggett has “Mulder” at gunpoint and convinces him to let Gibson go. I use quotes because this guy may look like Fox, but he isn’t physically acting like him. He also doesn’t talk or comply with Doggett’s demands. Instead, he walks off a high cliff and plummets to his apparent death. Don’t worry, he’s not dead, he just has a broken arm. And he’s gone before the FBI can get to his body. Yep, he did just get up and run away. What I find interesting is how after seven years, Assistant Director Walter Skinner still uses words like “impossible” when it comes to X-files-related situations. Dana knows the score immediately, that “Mulder” was the alien bounty hunter. And with that line, Scully officially becomes the new Mulder.

Doggett accidentally tracks the bounty hunter back to the school, but since he’s impersonating a teacher now, John doesn’t “see” him. And Gibson Praise is still missing. Team Sculner want to follow Gibson’s friend, but one of Deputy Director Kersh’s lackeys catches them. Walter runs interference so Dana can follow her to Gibson’s location, which is in an underground bunker. Praise is scared because Fox was taken and he doesn’t want to be abducted too. Scully makes promises to an injured Gibson that she may not be able to keep.

Kersh micromanages John from D.C., but Skinner clarifies the career collateral damage situation for Doggett, who finally appears to be on board when he realizes Dana is in two places at once. It looks like John and Walter have the real Scully because the other one has a harsh musical score attached to her/its presence. “Scully” attacks the agent who tries to restrain her, but Dana gets a glimpse of her/it before she/it runs away and morphs into someone else. Too bad Doggett has “I don’t know what I saw” face. Meanwhile, Gibson is also having dreams of Mulder being tortured by aliens. 

Scully tries to leave, but Skinner has the car keys. She thinks he’s the bounty hunter, so Dana pulls her weapon on him. Walter responds as he should and points his gun at Scully. He proves his identity by lowering his gun, turning his back and talking about her secret. Team Sculner regain their mutual levels of trust and leave together to rescue Gibson, who is burning up with fever. Skinner takes the boy to the hospital while Scully remains in the desert. Praise awakens but is terrified when his deaf friend appears with the appropriate bounty hunter musical cues. And Dana sees a bright light in the sky while wandering around the desert. Despite the mystical music, it’s pretty obvious it’s just a helicopter. 

Scully is annoyed because Doggett continues to follow her but, as he so eloquently puts it, “You’re where the action is.” Dana is livid when she realizes John’s men followed Walter to the hospital because the alien bounty hunter is probably hiding with them in plain sight. They fly to the hospital, never realizing how close they were to the cloaked alien ship … and to a tortured Mulder crying out for Scully.

Team Sculett (Doggy? Doggly? Sculett, it is.) arrive at the hospital and realize all of the FBI agents are idiots. They desperately search the hospital. Dana finds Skinner, but this time it isn’t the real Walter, who’s left unconscious and possibly blinded up in the ceiling. Gibson warns Scully, who struggles with the bounty hunter before shooting him in the throat. Of course, the body disintegrates into a puddle of green ooze before Doggett can see it. I don’t think a green stain is going to convince the deputy director of anything. But John clearly sees the writing on the wall during his debriefing. 

Afterward, Doggett meets with Dana in the hospital to tell her Skinner and Agent Landau (the one she/it attacked) are both in stable condition. Gibson is also safe and will be under state protection. And John breaks the news that he has been assigned to the X-files. With Scully’s facial reaction, you’d think he just told her his dog died. Maybe she should give him back the get-well card he just gave to her. And it’s a good news/bad news situation for Brian Thompson fans: There are several alien bounty hunters who look like him still alive on the ship with Mulder (good), but this is the last X-Files episode credit for Thompson (bad). 

Sestra Professional: 

Last week, the show set up John Doggett's entrance as well as it could have possibly been done. Now it's time for him to get initiated into the supernatural. That too is handled with aplomb, this has been a fairly smart two-parter penned by showrunner Chris Carter. Sestra Am's right, though, Scully's opening voiceover was not necessary in the slightest. It just comes off as annoying and pretentious. I'm wondering whether that drove off more people than the idea of replacing the male lead. I know it really didn't, just hypothesizing a more valid reason for not giving the new normal a chance.

Don't turn this into a movie: So back to the top of the Arizona cliff we go. And this faux Mulder is showing more personality than our real-life one did on occasion during the run of the series to this point. Kidding ... sorta. But question, if the shape shifter Doggett encountered was not Fox, then why is that guy falling utilized in the new opening of our show? We're supposed to be reminded of a shape shifter every week until we see David Duchovny again?

It's a pretty jaw-dropping initiation into the proceedings for John. We know he's seen an array of unfathomable circumstances during his years as a New York City detective. But certainly nothing like a man falling off the top of a cliff ... and then running away from the scene before anyone can get down to the point of impact.

I'll have to put a pin in that for now, because, boy Gillian Anderson looks incredible in the desert. Taking over the outright lead of the show really becomes her. Dana gets to spout all the dialogue formerly attributed to Fox, as Sestra Am pointed out. Including the clunky "Wherever Mulder is right now, he better damn well be smiling." Yep, we know it's a Carter script without even looking at the credits.

The only other flaw I find with this episode is that Doggett falls as silent as faux Mulder when he's asked what he does believe if he won't buy Scully's arguments. Not a peep. He's sharp, though, he knows that Fox -- faux or not -- went back to the deaf school, even if he won't admit it's not the real Mulder. He can't wrap his head around the idea of the shape shifter yet. And I'll buy that, although I'd like to him to proffer his own theory. Maybe I'm just used to when Dana at least made an attempt to do that in the days when she filled the skeptic role.

Scully, for god's sake, stay hydrated. Even if you didn't have a bun in the oven, you must take care of yourself. You're almost all we've got. Dana's ability to take up Fox's slack apparently has become even more finely honed, she figures out Gibson's hiding space with very few clues and by leaning heavily on guesswork.

You painted me a picture, now put it in a frame: Conversely, Deputy Director Kersh continues to be the most frustrating guy. There's seemingly no answer John can give to satisfy him. So we're lucky to have Skinner around more than usual. And Walter tries to give John the lowdown about being a pawn in a rigged game. Doggett's been set up to fail. It's the only reason people wind up on the X-files. Skinner says it's been Kersh's plan all along. Not sure why he would want one of his best in such a no-win situation, but so be it since that benefits us.

It's fun to see Gillian play the shape-shifted version of herself. She's the Terminator here. The subtleties she provides, even in the characters' different ways of running are magnificent. We don't need Mark Snow's score or dialogue to know which one is which. Meanwhile, the Tormenting of David Duchovny continues on the ship. I mean, the Mulder torment. I can't get past the fact that it feels like Carter might be doing that to David deliberately as some small measure of retaliation for him bargaining his way into getting half the season off.

It hasn't gone far enough: But if that proves disappointing, we always have Skinner and Scully pulling guns on each other. We have seen that before, of course, at the beginning of the third season -- "The Blessing Way"/"Paper Clip." That can either be seen as a bracing development or a needless retread. I lean toward the former. It's a scene that carries emotional weight, playing nicely against the thriller aspect of the storyline. For a second or two, we don't actually know if one or the other really are the shape shifters, so it keeps us on our toes as well.

But then something else familiar at the hospital is less welcome. Yep, Walter's gonna take another beatdown at the hands of someone who looks like she shouldn't be strong enough to take him down, à la Holly in "Pusher" (S3E17). Of course, in this case, it's the shape shifter all dressed up, or rather dressed down to half his size as Gibson's deaf friend, Thea. And speaking of familiar, that helicopter that initially appears to be an alien ship is right out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Maybe that's why it was so easy for Sestra Am to figure it out.

If something tries to rip your throat out, I got you covered: So Doggett makes a mistake sending the agents he's working with to the hospital. But he is bright enough to figure out the ceiling escape. It's kind of a shame that soon after the earlier trust sequence Dana's confronted with the fake Walter. And she is veeeeeery lucky that the green ooze emanating from the shape shifter isn't as toxic as it was in the early seasons.

And we wrap up with more disappointment from Kersh. He doesn't like the pot-boiled science fiction -- as though there was any other way to report what happened. There's really nothing Doggett can do about that. As Walter predicted, it's the kiss of death for John -- assignment to the X-files. I do hope Doggett comes up with better platitudes than "It's not who wins or loses, it's who takes the worst beating that counts," That doesn't really seem like it should be the case, although we've stuck by our heroes when they suffer all manner of beatdowns, so maybe it's not so bad after all. Kind of like John Doggett?

Guest star of the week: Jeff Gulka didn't get to do much besides look scared in his return to the show for the season opener. He figures more into the proceedings in the conclusion of the two-parter, and it may not be much more, but there's something about his portrayal that conveys the drama of Gibson's story. He does seem wise beyond his years. With our mythology so out of whack at this point, it's clutch for a young guest star to be able to provide that.