X-Files S8E9: Metal man downgraded to T-10

Sestra Amateur: 

In Muncie, Indiana, Roy Neary is about to go on the adventure of a lifetime. Whoops, wrong Muncie story. This isn't Close Encounters of the Third Kind, our tale is about Ray Pearce, a man who served his country, got sick and mysteriously died. His widow, Nora Pearce, is angry and grieving. (I wonder if Ronnie Neary felt the same way after Roy left.) His friend, Curt, doesn’t know what to say so he leaves. (Did Roy Neary even have guy friends?) Curt drives while distracted and hits a man standing in the road, but the man is Ray, who flawlessly wins the battle of car vs. human. The “friend?” Not so lucky.

When the local traffic homicide investigators get stumped, they call in Team Sculett. Curt is missing, but his permanently damaged car tells quite a story. Scully finds shoeprints in the asphalt, but Doggett tries to “Scully” his way out of the possible scenario that a man physically stopped the vehicle. Dana easily finds Curt’s dead body while canvassing the crime scene. (Nice work, local popo. This is why no one respects you.) Scully performs the autopsy and learns someone treated the victim's head like a bowling ball, pulling him through the windshield of his car. Scully rules out ordinary men as suspects. Doggett identifies Ray Pearce from the fingerprint and blood left on the windshield. Meanwhile, Ray, played by Wade Williams, is hiding out in a depressing room, clipping metal “hairs” from his face.

John meets with Nora Pearce and Harry Odell, the owner of the salvage yard where Ray and Curt worked together. Nora (Jennifer Pearce) claims her husband died from Gulf War Syndrome and was cremated. Doggett says Ray is still alive and responsible for Curt’s death. Nora and Harry strongly object, but it’s not like they have proof to show John. Meanwhile, Ray is in a halfway house where volunteer Larina (Tamara Clatterbuck) tries to help him. Harry the boss knows more than he’s letting on, because he starts a shred party in the salvage yard office. A clearly ticked-off Ray interrupts, but Harry shoots him with a shotgun. I’m not sure how a gun managed to cause more damage than a vehicle traveling 40 mph, but we’ll just put that in the “taking liberties for storyline purposes” column. Of course, Pearce still gets his man. Ray: 2, His Enemies: 0. 

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Doggett is at the salvage yard crime scene while Scully is at the morgue. They compare notes and John easily determines what Harry was trying to shred. Back in the halfway house, Ray is cleaning up when nosy Larina enters his room and asks about the blood on his clothes. She still can’t get through to him and panics when she sees the metallic changes to his face.

Looking for Dr. David Clifton at Chamber Technologies, Doggett learns about smart metals from Dr. Tom Puvogel, who has one of those awkwardly rare last names that probably means something to someone but even the internet can’t tell me what it is. We should ask the writer, Jeffrey Bell. (This ended up being his last X-Files episode, probably because the TV show Angel would keep him busy for the next couple of years.) 

Dr. Puvogel, played by Arye Gross, claims Dr. Clifton is no longer affiliated with the company. John gets in touch with Dana, who learned Ray’s “Gulf War Syndrome” was actually exposure to a “non-identifiable contaminant metal.” No wonder his wife couldn’t get military benefits. Meanwhile, Larina reads Ray’s obituary while simultaneously watching the news update about the salvage yard incident. She decides to call Ray’s house.

When Doggett picks up Scully, she updates him on Ray’s medical condition. John manages to make his second Superman reference in two weeks. Maybe next week he’ll go for the turkey. For some reason, Scully and Doggett are tossing around the “Agent” titles more than usual, and it’s bordering on condescension. It seems like their relationship regressed back to when they first started working together. Maybe this episode was filmed earlier and aired out of order. Back inside Chamber Technologies, Ray has fallen into a trap set by Team Sculett and Dr. Puvogel, but punches his way outside and escapes. He leaves behind traces of blood that turn to metal before their eyes. (How come the blood he left on the car windshield didn’t do that?) Doggett arranges for Puvogel to be taken into “protective custody,” but clearly he’d rather arrest the lying doctor.

Nora waits for Ray at the halfway house, but she still doesn’t quite understand what’s happening. John finds a dead metal man at the salvage yard and links him back to Chambers Technologies. Team Sculett identify him as Dr. David Clifton and demand answers from Dr. Puvogel. He claims Clifton was already dying when he became infected. Somehow, the hazardous waste barrel containing his body ended up at the Salvage Yard and infected Ray. So maybe Pearce is turning into a Terminator, Doggett? Seems legit. 

Meanwhile, John sees Nora infiltrating the office to read a file. She calls Ray with an update, so Doggett sends the SWAT team to the halfway house. Ray tries to keep Larina silent but his metallic hand accidentally(?) smothers her. Nora learns of Larina’s death and leads the SWAT team to his current location. Ray’s last target is Owen Harris, the accountant who authorized the transport of the barrel from the Chambers lab to the salvage yard. Ray easily tracks down and starts to kill Owen in front of the man's son. Somehow, the panicked boy gets through to the old Ray, who lets Harris go. Turns out, Ray the Terminator is more Arnold in T2 than T-1000 after all. Ray even chooses a similar fate: he “commits suicide” by hiding in a car being crushed at the salvage yard. Roy Neary’s fate was way more optimistic. 

Sestra Professional: 

This one is just a hot molten mess. There's just no other way to put it. The first and most egregious issue is attempting to go all Terminator during Robert Patrick's first season on the show. There's just no way it can compare with his T-1000 image. If we needed proof of that, check out the awesomeness of this tweet I ran across yesterday. I'd rather look at that 1,100 more times (length of the gif times the 44-minute run time of "Salvage") than watch this episode again.

There's an attempt here by Angel/Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. writer/executive producer Jeffrey Bell to show some relevance to the times we were living in when the episode aired in January 2001. Of course, the fact they didn't even spell his first name right in the credits might indicate there wasn't an immense amount of care put into this one. At any rate, this wound up being the final of Bell's five scripts for the series after Season 6's "The Rain King" and "Alpha" and Season 7's "The Goldberg Variation" and "Signs & Wonders."

Bell tries to play on our inherent sympathy for veterans of the Gulf War coming back and not being able to resume their regular lives. But the story gets pulled in so many directions that it's really hard to get invested, and by the end, they just couldn't salvage a feasible story from it.

The set pieces are certainly striking. We first see Scully standing halfway through where a car engine would be under normal circumstances. (This is probably a good time to point out how amazing Gillian Anderson looks in Season 8. I think the series change wears very well on her.) As with "Surekill" last week, "Salvage" is kind of interesting when it starts off with the agents' initial investigation. But, also as with "Surekill" last week, the story kind of peters out after that. 

Part of the problem is we again follow the guest stars of the story for copious amounts of time. We get to see Dana and John whenever the body count goes up, but the story revolves around people we don't know nor care about. The continual T-1000 winks are undeniable -- including two "Get out" occurrences -- but as they happen, so do the realizations that this is most definitely not like a Terminator movie. 

Sestra Am pointed out some surface similarities to Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and there are elements that keep reminding me of my favorite movie too. At the halfway house, Larina tells Ray "you're not alone." That's pretty similar to CE3K's tag line "We are not alone." Actress Tamara Clatterbuck, playing Larina, reminds me of Jillian Guiler too, the one person seemingly able to talk to Roy Neary as his obsession gets worse and worse.

That only happens in the movies: But that's also the problem. I'm thinking of Close Encounters ... I'm thinking of Terminator ... I'm thinking of The Shawshank Redemption ... and I'm even thinking of the new Amazon Prime series Truth Seekers, an eight-episode riff on ghost hunting that paid homage to Shawshank Redemption a lot more fluidly than the powers-that-be do here. I'm just looking for anything that will help me get into the story. 

Ultimately that's not possible because Ray's reign of terror is rather aimless. His best friend gets killed, but the CEO of the company apparently has nothing to fear. For some reason, Larina's felled even though she didn't really stand in his way and he targets an accountant -- really, the paper pusher? -- but stops in his tracks when the man's son yells out for his daddy. 

This time, you stay dead: There are points to be made, for instance, Doggett points out soldiers are often able to keep going even when they're riddled with bullets and holding their insides in the hands. So there's insight into John the veteran that we didn't have previously, even though when Doggett later calls him Ray we should root for, it doesn't really sway us to his side.

Scully seems to be standing by as John tries to suss out Pearce's motivations. Doggett thinks Ray will act and think like a man even if he is more powerful than a locomotive. Even with enough metal alloy in his body to poison an elephant, John doesn't think Pearce would kill his friends. So any character development in "Salvage" belongs to Doggett, with Dana on hand as our resident autopsier/sounding board. Kind of sounds like the old days a little bit, doesn't it? (By the way, I don't think they're tossing around "Agent" more than usual, and they'll continue doing this for a while, so it's going to continue to irk us both, I'm sure.)

A machine doesn't know blame ... nor mercy: I'm torn in regards to giving props to director Rod Hardy -- who also helmed two of the more memorable episodes of the season, fourth episode "Roadrunners" and the upcoming "Vienen" -- for the exciting moments, because I can't get past the ones where the story falls dead in its tracks. Definitely deserving of credit is the makeup department as Pearce transforms more and more into the metal man. 

Guest star of the week: I'll go with TV and movie veteran Arye Gross as the uniquely monikered Tom Puvogel. The doctor's a company man, he withholds details, he whines and simpers, but I'll admit he does all of that really well.

X-Files S8E8: Sure killed the momentum

Sestra Amateur: 

In Worcester, Massachusetts, a frantic man is using a public pay phone (ah, memories). He runs into a local police precinct, screaming that the man chasing him is going to kill him. But he’s too vague and desperate, so the cops rightfully put him in a cell. Well, at least two officers should have checked outside to see whether someone was actually there. While locked up alone, the unarmed man suffers a fatal bullet wound to the head. Looks like Season 8 has a larger red paint budget than the previous seasons. Another example of what they can afford with less Duchovny.

Worcester Police wisely hand it over to the X-files Division. (Shouldn’t these actors at least sound like they’re from Massachusetts?) Looks like the bullet came through a tiny air vent in the cell. Agents Scully and Doggett learn the bullet went through the roof, fiberglass and concrete before hitting its target. Both agents are trying to determine a practical cause, but keep debunking their own theories. 

Meanwhile, at AAA-1 Surekill Exterminators (wonder whether that name guarantees they’re first in the Yellow Pages … ah, memories), secretary Tammi Peyton checks the answering machine (ah, memories) and hears the dead frantic man’s last message. She knows him as Carlton Chase and is following his last instructions when the boss, Dwight Cooper, startles her. Dwight, played by frequent Tarantino actor Michael Bowen, has little patience for the skittish Tammi (Kellie Waymire) and wants to see his brother, Randall, when he arrives. Randall (Patrick Kilpatrick) claims Carlton was stealing and Dwight alternates his behavior between controlling and nice. And it looks like the boys are going out later that night. Dwight is gleeful; Randall is dreading it.

Team Sculett are on the trail and find Carlton’s hotel room. Poor guy had been armed with a .45 and was still terrified. Meanwhile, Dwight and Randall’s nighttime activities have turned them into greedy Robin Hoods: They rob/shoot the rich (drug dealers) and give to the poor (I’m assuming themselves). Team Sculett are called to the latest murder scene where Dana floats the theory their shooter may have X-ray vision. John makes the obligatory Superman reference, but it turns out this is the fifth similar shooting in the area. He (incorrectly) assumes rival drug dealers are doing it.

Back at the pest control office, Tammi and Dwight are about to have sex while Randall spies through the wall. She says she always feels like somebody's watching her. Luckily, Randall shows some decorum and walks away, right before Team Sculett arrive. Dwight, who claims he’s legally blind, says Carlton was one of their clients. Doggett reveals Chase called the exterminator’s office shortly before his death. Our intrepid heroes really need to get Tammi away from Dwight if they want any useful information. I hope Tammi didn’t get him anything for Boss’s Day.

Scully and Doggett learn Dwight did time for grand theft auto and Randall, his twin, committed the crime with him. Tammi continues to feel watched in her apartment, but takes a shower anyway. The next morning, a frantic Tammi tries to get to the ledger book (ah, memories) from her desk, but Dwight and Randall are right behind her. So are Team Sculett, with a search warrant. Unfortunately, the ledger is gone, but fortunately, Scully finds the Chase Realty files that incriminate Dwight. 

At the police station, Dana takes on Randall while John interrogates Dwight, but the rooms are close enough that Randall can spy on Dwight and know what to say. Scully immediately picks up on Randall’s ability and lays out their rob-and-kill plan to make money. Team Sculett let the Cooper brothers stew while they interview Tammi. They let Tammi go home, but later learn she may have been involved with Carlton. Tammi meets with her spying neighbor – Randall – and asks for his help. But this Tammi is not the shrinking violet we’ve seen; clearly that’s for Dwight’s benefit. Lovestruck Randall gives Tammi the ledger with the key to the safe deposit box containing her stolen money.

Back in Tammi’s apartment, Scully thinks she’s on the run out of fear, but Doggett is convinced it’s a planned escape. Dwight is also on to Tammi and hides in her car with a gun while she cleans out the safe deposit box. He takes her back to the office and confronts her about everything. Randall, who thought Tammi abandoned him at the bus station, stumbles into the drama. Dwight tries to play the loving brother card to get Randall to kill Tammi, but Randall takes out his brother instead. So Dwight’s dead, Randall gets arrested and Tammi (and the money) are in the wind. This might be the equivalent of a happy ending for an X-files case.

Sestra Professional: 

Well, this was disappointing. After a very strong start to Season 8 with the near-impossible task of transitioning to a new co-lead, The X-Files hit the wall -- not even proverbially -- with this one. To make it worse, it's a rut the show won't climb out of for a few episodes. 

I don't know if it's the case, but I always think of "Surekill" and the two that come after it as the lowest point of the original run. Maybe it's because the show was invigorated by John Doggett and the way he had been implemented into the series. It could be because in every long season there's a patch that can't possibly live up to the creativity coming before or after. And although the last one in this trifecta has more going for it than the first two (more on that in a couple weeks), that's the implanted vision I continue to live with. We'll see whether the rewatch changes my mind.

It was a legitimately interesting teaser. Frenetic Carlton Chase seemed genuinely petrified and the fact that he tried to grab one of the officer's guns certainly was grounds for locking him up, although Sestra Am was definitely right about that cops-shoulda-looked-outside thing. And, of course, the future splatter also was on target about the fact that whoever was after him could still get to him. Not sure the officers could have prevented that from happening.

Stupid ain't cute: John and Dana's initial investigation is somewhat compelling as they try to figure out how the impossible was made possible. ... And then we get to the exterminating business office. I feel like I was dosed with that high-quality insecticide they were talking about. There's a squirrelly receptionist who doesn't take off her coat. Then one creepy guy, then the creepy guy's even creepier brother. And lots of rats. It's really not a recipe for an all-time favorite episode. It's about as good a recipe as Randall's proclivity for sandwiches with both mayonnaise and ketchup on them. Yuck. 

Despite some forays involving our heroes arriving at bullet-ridden crime scenes and quipping lines like "You know, Elvis used to do this to his hotel rooms," most of our time is spent with the low-rent schemers. Their tawdry affairs in the midst of money-making schemes and subsequent ripoffs aren't very absorbing. Apparently Tammi was the only game in town too, because they all wanted a piece of her at least as much as the money.

I hate twins: That's one powerful lighter Randall carries on his person. I guess he needs an eight-inch flame for better hallway vision, although he probably should be able to determine that Tammi's lying since it's been painfully obvious to us as long as we've known her. Not that she doesn't have reason for being bugged out when she knows that she's a glorified peep show for the eagle-eyed brother. Guess she was biding her time until the sting was complete. 

Which brings up the question, how long did they plan to keep up the Robin Hood act in Worcester? They had scored over $700,000 in five drug ripoffs. Might it have been time to ditch the rat race and at least move on to another burg? There's an abundance of reasons why Dwight -- the alleged brains of the operation -- might have wanted to get his moneymaker out of Tammi's sight lines, No. 1 on the list being that he might have lived. 

When push comes to shove, the problem is that "Surekill" is a yawner. The biggest crime in this episode isn't the drug dealers wiped out, the money stolen or the affairs. (OK, maybe it was, but that was for melodramatic effect.) It's that none of this bears rewatching. Dana and John try to understand why a man who could look at anything in the world singled out Tammi. Well, to quote the knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, he chose poorly. 

Meta mopeds: Robert Patrick got revved up for this episode since he got to share the screen with biker buddy Michael Bowen, according to The Complete X-Files. ... Kellie Waymire, who passed away in 2003, was in Playing by Heart, which starred Gillian Anderson. 

Guest star of the week: The only believable non-regular performance in the whole thing for me came from the guy whose death set everything into motion. Carlton Chase was played by Tom Jourden, whose IMDb filmography includes lots of bit parts in movies, soap operas and other television shows. Background players often complete the picture for the viewers. Here, Jourden made it for me. 

X-Files S8E7: Dare we say he's third eye blind?

Sestra Amateur: 

Schedule-wise, this would have been The X-Files' Christmas episode, but I don’t think the Season 8 timeline was running concurrent with reality, so put away your jingle bells and your first noels because this episode is going in a ... (ahem) negative direction. It’s been a silent night for an FBI agent on stakeout in Los Angeles’ version of Pittsburgh. He fell asleep on the job and now the door to the cult house he was surveilling is wide open. His partner arrives to search the place, which has jolly red footprints leading to children all nestled and snug in their beds. Actually, they’re adults and they’re all dead with bloody head wounds. The agents quickly suffer the same fate. This is feeling more like Silent Night, Deadly Night.

Assistant Director Skinner calls Scully who calls Doggett to run point while she deals with a personal issue. The next morning John meets with Walter at the scene. Agent James Leeds, the one who fell asleep, is back in his unmarked vehicle right outside the target house. (That’s not very tactical, Jimmy.) Inside the house, John and Walter find 20 dead cult members. Their leader, Anthony Tipet, played by Angel villain (the TV series, not the Christmas one) Keith Szarabajka, is missing. So is Agent Stedman, so Team Skinett (Dogner?) check his nearby apartment and they find him dead in his bed with no visions of sugar plums dancing in his head.

AD Skinner updates Director Alvin Kersh and some well-suited extras. Anthony Tipet, a man who served time for murdering his own wife, is the only reasonable suspect, but the physical evidence doesn’t support the theory yet. Kersh blames Scully for the “impossible” conclusion of Tipet reaching a higher plane of existence through drugs, but he doesn’t know she’s not on the case. Skinner’s science-fiction updates leave Doggett hanging out to dry and John is not happy about it. He just wants to catch Tipet, who’s wandering around Pittsburgh and leaving threatening phone calls. Dr. Andre Bormanis seems too afraid to pick up the phone, but not too afraid to cut himself with a razor blade. 

Back at FBI headquarters, Doggett determines the murder weapon is a 1,000-year-old ceremonial axe, but he wants Dana on this case because it's her area of expertise. Walter says she’s taking personal time, which is true; Scully's been admitted to a local hospital. And Tipet, who was accosted by a homeless man, now sports a third eye and takes his revenge with some questionable cement and that axe.

Skinner forwards the murdered man’s info to John, who still wants facts. Luckily, Walter obtained the pay-phone records and learns Andre served time with Anthony. They interview Bormanis in his drug lab and he admits to supplying Tipet with hallucinogens. He also carved an X into his forehead for protection. While at the jail, Doggett dreams of a levitating three-eyed Tipet. John also leaves bloody footprints and somehow ends up with Dana's severed head in his hands. Luckily, Skinner wakes him from that nightmare to take a phone call from Scully, who is sending the Lone Gunmen to assist Doggett. Walter learns Andre was creating a super amphetamine and John deduces Bormanis is afraid to fall asleep because of Tipet. (When did we change horror movie franchises? Somehow this became A Nightmare on Elm Street.) But Andre does fall asleep and Freddy – I mean Anthony – kills him with rats.

Downstairs in the X-files office, the Three Wise Men have arrived and they’ve prepared a slide show about the All-Seeing Eye and the CIA’s history of LSD experiments on an unsuspecting public. Doggett thinks Tipet believes he opened his third eye and is trying to destroy it in others while invading their consciousness in their sleep. Team Skinett return to Andre’s lab, where they find a two-eyed Anthony taking out his third eye with a circular saw. Tipet gets rushed to the same hospital where Dana was admitted for acute abdominal pain. 

John checks on a sleeping Scully before returning to FBI headquarters. He tells Kersh a more believable version of Tipet’s murder spree and suicide attempt. (By the way, the only correlation between "Via Negativa" and the “Path of Darkness” on the Internet relates to this particular episode, so let’s assume Doggett’s translation is inspired by Tipet’s beliefs.) Kersh -- “Alvin!!” (sorry, the Chipmunks' Christmas song popped up in my brain) -- is satisfied with the end result, but John still has questions, especially when he sees a three-eyed Tipet reflected in his mirror. Doggett shrugs it off and heads to bed, but Anthony and his spirit Halloween-quality axe are waiting.

The next morning, John – and his own third eye – head to work. While in a dreamlike state, Doggett seems terrified because he can’t tell the difference between his dream and reality. Poor John is going to end up at Westin Hills (another Elm Street reference for the uninitiated) and Skinner doesn’t exactly dispel his concerns. Neither does his trippy confrontation with Tipet’s all-seeing eye or his vision of nearly murdering Scully with that awful axe. Luckily, it is a dream and the “angel” who wakes him is Dana, who entered Doggett’s house through an unlocked front door. She brings three “gifts” -- she saved John’s life without even realizing it, news of Tipet’s death and her return to work. Maybe next week they’ll end up at Crystal Lake because some irresponsible camp counselors went missing.

Sestra Professional: 

The next logical step in Doggett's X-files indoctrination, becoming what he's investigating. And since John doesn't do anything halfway, he really goes the whole nine yards in "Via Negativa." This is something of a fan favorite among those who stuck out the Mulderless episodes, well, actually it's more of a love-it-or-hate-it-type show. There's not much of a grey area with this one. Put me firmly in the former category.

This feels much more like a Halloween episode than a Christmas one, so it's an appropriate time for it to come up in our rewatch rotation. Speaking of such things, I'm on a personal Angel rewatch, so I've recently seen both the episode in which Cordelia gets impregnated in the skull with a third eye and the introduction of our guest star Keith Szarabajka's vampire hunter Daniel Holtz. 

This is damn weird: At least we get some Skinner time, and he's not just second-guessing Mulder's abduction or babysitting Scully. It's a nice beat for John to say he won't fill the roles of Fox and Dana for Walter. I kind of wish there was enough time for Skinner to suffer some of the delusions Skinner had, but only so much can be done within the confines of a 45-minute show. I imagine his nightmares would be fierce. 

I just grabbed a few winks: That's not to take anything away from what executive producer Frank Spotnitz dreamed up and director Tony Wharmy brought into action. "Via Negativa" contains some amazing set pieces that are really brought home with Robert Patrick's strongest performance yet. He hasn't exactly been a slouch since joining the ranks, imbuing the show with much-needed fresh air. And Spotnitz's script seems like it contains hallucinogenic properties. I always feel lulled into it, the same way John gets dragged -- or vicariously drugged -- into the proceedings. 

It isn't the first time The X-Files has taken on the idea of cults and tried to come up with some logical reason why things like Jonestown or Heaven's Gate happen. It's unfathomable to most of us that a person can be so charismatic that their minions will do their bidding no matter what. An "X-files explanation" seems as good as anything else when it comes to how and why people off themselves in the name of religion.

Despite the fact that Scully is on the sidelines for much of this one, more of connection grows between our Season 8 early leads. John dreaming about Dana is certainly a telltale clue. And while it might seem like an odd time for Scully to tell Doggett to trust his instincts, it helps keep us on John's side throughout all the ensuing madness. I find myself starting to draw a parallel between Doggett wondering whether he should have let Tipet die and Dana's ambiguity regarding expelling her greatest fear, fetishist Donnie Pfaster, at the end of "Orison" (Season 7, Episode 7).

That's not bad for a beginner: The Lone Gunmen's inclusion here feels a bit jarring. Their detailed exposition to the contrary, this doesn't seem to be their area of expertise. (Although wouldn't Dr. Bormanis have fit the bill as a medical Lone Gunman ... had he lived?) Langly claims John is in way over his head, but I kind of think Gunmen are. They're not who I'd turn to for advice in this particular circumstance. I think they would have been more apt to provide Sestra Am's Nightmare on Elm Street reasoning then come up with hallucinogenic astral projection. 

By the way, we obviously need "Via Negativa" at this point in our ongoing story, but this offering might have provided a far better basis for a "Millennium" crossover episode than the substandard effort we were given in the seventh season's denouement of the sister show.

It all wraps up with an amazing final dream sequence bathed in blue light that fades in and out and puts Doggett in different places with the telltale ax reminiscent of when we played "Red Light, Green Light, 1-2-3" as kids. Not only gorgeous, but it evens up the score in the partners' life-saving department. You can mark down on your cards, it's 1-1 after Doggett did likewise in S8E4's "Roadrunners."

Guest star of the week: Of course, it's Keith Szarabajka, who found a niche in these type of shows -- eventually Supernatural was added into his supernatural mix -- by virtue of his ability to portray symbolic characters with gravity and believability. That's no small feat, witness me questioning our tried-and-true buds, the Gunmen, earlier for further proof of that.

X-Files S8E6: Shining a light on this memento

Sestra Amateur: 

With a title like "Redrum," it's very difficult not to make a reference to The Shining. I’ll do my best, but I won’t make any promises. However, it is a subtle way to describe this episode. It’s Friday, Dec. 8, 2000, and an inmate is being transferred to another jail. But this is no ordinary prisoner and not just because he’s played by Joe Morton, the actor whose character in Terminator 2 inadvertently creates Skynet, but whose character in Speed utters my favorite line in the movie. 

The inmate, Martin Wells, personally knows John Doggett and calls him by his first name. Martin also gets shot in the chest by his father-in-law in front of Team Sculett and sees time move backward, but would you expect anything less from this show? So let’s go back to Thursday morning and see how we got here. 

Martin, who has a freshly stitched-up scar on his cheek, meets with our intrepid heroes but Wells clearly has no idea of what’s going on. Doggett, who thinks Martin is trying to create an insanity defense, shocks Wells with horrific photographs of Martin’s murdered wife, Vicky. Wells is transported to the courthouse for his bail hearing and the decision is made to deny him bail while arranging for Martin’s transfer. Surprisingly, the judge, attorneys and gallery peeps don’t listen to Wells when he claims he’ll be shot during tomorrow’s transfer.

Scully and Doggett meet with Martin, who doesn’t remember meeting Dana for the first time the previous day. He tries to explain his lack of recollection, but Scully reminds him just because he can’t remember not killing Vicky doesn’t mean he didn’t do it. Back in his cell, Wells takes out his frustration on an innocent spider. Later, Martin begins to see violent images involving Vicky in reverse. His children visit in the jail and Martin arranges for the babysitter to retrieve a nanny cam from their bedroom. It doesn’t show the actual murder, but Wells definitely appears to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The next time Martin wakes up, he sees the spider at work on a new web. Actually, it’s the old web, which Wells has not yet destroyed, because it’s Wednesday, not Friday. The days continue to pass normally for everyone but Martin. He also doesn’t have the cut on his cheek yet, so clearly it’ll happen today. Wells meets his defense attorney for the first time, not realizing he hasn’t met her before. Back at the jail, he’s put in general population, a dangerous situation for him since he prosecuted some of the inmates. Who gets the honor of causing the facial scar? Machete himself, Danny Trejo, who conveniently has a spider web tattoo on his hand. After some shoddy patchwork, Martin meets with Team Sculett and tries to explain his unique passage of time. Doggett is less patient than Scully and leaves.

Wells later reviews the case file and realizes who killed his wife. Too bad his week continues to unfold backward and he wakes up on John's couch on Tuesday. Martin claims Vicky’s murderer is the inmate with the spider web tattoo on his hand. He relays the information to Doggett, who learns no inmate matching that description has been processed … yet. Martin and John go to the Wells’ apartment to retrieve the nanny cam. Doggett helps Martin’s case by pointing out how the camera activated at Wells' arrival after sunrise, not during the time of the murder that occurred before dawn. 

Team Dogwells meet with baby sitter Trina and learn “Spiderweb-Man” Cesar Ocampo is inside. John arrests him and Martin learns Cesar’s brother, Hector Ocampo, was a three-striker when Wells prosecuted him. Martin unethically suppressed evidence that would have exonerated Hector, who recently committed suicide. So Cesar’s plan to murder Vicky and set up Martin by using Wells' key card to enter the apartment worked perfectly. Martin is arrested for killing his wife.

And now we’ve made it to Monday. Martin wakes up in his hotel room at 2 a.m. – two hours before the murder -- and frantically tries to reach Vicky, but she’s not answering the phone. He calls the Baltimore Police Department to no avail, so he goes to Doggett’s place. John hasn’t seen Martin in three years, so Wells' talk of suppressing evidence and disbarment is alarming. But Martin just wants to save his wife, regardless of the cost to his own career. 

Doggett makes a phone call while Wells heads to the apartment, which is now full of police officers. They leave and Vicky returns home so quickly that she really should have run into a few cops in the hallway. So should have Cesar, who sneaks in a minute later. He pummels Martin and is about to slit Vicky’s throat when Team Sculett arrive and John shoots Cesar to death. Three months later, Wells is serving his deserved time in prison for his illegal acts. Let’s hope he’s more considerate to innocent spiders this time around.

By the way, Fathom events is hosting a 40th anniversary showing of The Shining in movie theaters starting Oct. 17. There, I held off as long as I could.

Sestra Professional: 

Guest star of the week: Joe Morton often is woefully left behind when X-Philes compile favorite guest-star lists. And it's a shame, because not only is the television, film and theater legend impactful in this episode specifically and the season overall, but he's truly the strongest guest star we've had in ages. That's, of course, important because the entire episode focuses around him to the point at which our regular leads wind up filling supporting roles, much like "Hungry" (Season 7, Episode 3). You've got to be a particularly strong actor to make that work. Morton is. For my part, he'd be near the top of the show's all-time best guest stars.

While we're being disoriented by the way this tale unfolds, "Redrum" hits us with an intriguing morality tale. I'm reminded of similar methodology from an episode in which the FBI agents were mostly relegated to a background role -- "Mind's Eye" (S5E16) -- also hinging on a dynamic guest-starring performance by Lili Taylor. In that one, Marty Glenn was cleared of the murders she didn't commit, but ended up imprisoned for the one that eliminated the supernatural aspect of her life.

By continuing on this way, the fabric of the series could have been altered slowly and surely, the same way the spider went about spinning its web. It wouldn't be the easiest thing to accomplish, having a non-regular at the focus of the action and needing fans to care about redemption for someone who won't be seen again. In this one, Morton did the heavy lifting. Also all due credit for Peter Markle for rising to the challenge of helming the final of his three X-Files offerings. (He also directed the demanding sixth episode of the fifth season, "Christmas Carol" and sixth-season dog "Alpha.")

 

I think "Redrum" could have provided a jumping-off point for getting more into Twilight Zone-esque yarns like this one. Maybe that would have quieted the calls for actors and crew who were ready to move on after investing so much time and effort in the show for years, cultivating a new wave of fans while slowly establishing newer leads and enabling those primarily invested in Mulder and Scully to ride off gracefully into the sunset with them.

How can telling this tale further our ongoing story? By showing us yet again that John Doggett is on the straight and narrow. Too many times over the course of our series, there's been someone we thought could count on who wound up being just the opposite -- in the most extreme cases, Alex Krycek or Diana Fowley. Even on occasion, Walter Skinner or Deep Throat had to throw our leads off the track in order to maintain their positions. By having John go to lengths to help unravel Martin Wells' mystery, he takes another big step toward being worthy of Dana's trust ... and earning ours in the process. 

All I need to know about you is that you broke the law: So we're in a story that can't advance the course of newly paired Scully and Doggett too much. But it does provide clear and concise character studies for who they are at this point. Dana's taking the facts as she sees them into account, but really listening to what Wells has to say without knowing whether that ultimately changes anything. John, a man who makes his decisions based on what he's seeing and hearing, is still quick to dismiss the surreal aspect of Martin's arguments. He's in the formative stages of his web.   

There's a lot of mileage gained by having Morton play Wells, that comes with the built-in Terminator 2: Judgment Day connection between Robert Patrick and Morton. It provides a lot of power and heft to the story, an emotional component that makes us care about Martin and what happens to him. Then again, maybe it's just having an actor who completely invests in his story. Morton seamlessly takes us along on Wells' journey, so much so that we need our leads to figure out what's going on and find a way to remedy the situation.

It looks like Woodstock out there: This episode is the second of five strong scripts from future Lost co-executive producer Steven Maeda, from a story crafted by Maeda with Daniel Arkin (who also penned S6E15 shipper favorite "Arcadia.") Maeda previously smoked out the cigarette industry in "Brand X" (S7E18). He'll deliver another of Season 8's highlights "Vienen," before providing two of the ninth-season's peaks -- "4D" and "Audrey Pauley." He's been heralding the way to that different method of storytelling that could have sustained the original run.

For all the ways "Redrum" is reminiscent of The Shining, most obviously the reverse spelling of the title, it's also a precursor to two seminal moments in pop culture -- Memento, the Guy Pearce film that came out to great acclaim (and an Oscar nomination for best screenplay) the following May, and "Blink," a fan favorite from the third season of the reboot of Doctor Who in June 2007. Maybe this episode really did happen before its time.

X-Files S8E5: Billy, don't be a hero

Sestra Amateur: 

According to the onthisday.com website, on Sept. 21, 1990, almost nothing significant happened in history. The price of crude oil started to rise, three “famous” people I’ve never heard of celebrated birthdays, no one “famous” died, and since it was a Friday, I was probably in a movie theater watching Gene Wilder’s Funny about Love or Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. Meanwhile, in fictional Dexter, Oklahoma, on 9/21/90, a mother neglects her 7-year-old son while he plays on the swing and he gets kidnapped. Luckily, she is very pregnant, so she can just replace her lost little Billy with the new baby. 

When the woman, Lisa Underwood, picks up son Josh at school 10 years later, she learns Billy is there, on the swings, looking exactly as he did the day he disappeared. This sounds like a case for the X-files, so Scully and Doggett head to Oklahoma. County Sheriff Sanchez confirms Billy’s identity through fingerprints. Dana conducts the medical exam while John interviews the boy like it’s a typical kidnapping case. He veers from the traditional forensic interview formula by trying to trick Billy into giving up the name of his abductor. The parents object and take their son home. Scully reminds Doggett this is not a typical kidnap case.

Things are not going well in the Underwood home. The family dog wants to attack Billy but can’t get through the door. Josh also knows something is wrong with his younger -- older -- brother. Later that night, Scully compares Billy’s medical records from 10 years earlier and learns his physiology has not changed at all. Doggett accuses Scully of using “lazy” adjectives like supernatural and paranormal because she can’t yet explain what happened to Billy. He continues to cross the lines of legal investigation by opening sealed juvenile records for Ronald Purnell, a young man who was interviewed at the kidnapping scene and released. Too bad responding law enforcement didn’t see Ronnie holding Billy’s backpack immediately after the abduction. 

That night, Billy eavesdrops on his parents while they argue about him. Then he takes a knife and enters Josh’s bedroom. The next morning, Doggett goes to the Purnell trailer to interview Ronald, who tells the agent to leave him alone. While alone in his car, John pulls out a photo of a little boy about Billy’s age … his son, perhaps? And good news on the Josh front: Billy stabbed Josh’s mattress, not Josh. But somehow it has Billy’s blood on it, even though he doesn’t have visible injuries. Scully suggests Billy be removed from the Underwood home until they have more information. Doggett notices a stick-man symbol carved into the knife and learns from the sheriff that a psychic described the same symbol 10 years earlier. It’s also what Billy was drawing over and over again on paper when Doggett interviewed him, so John’s observation skills are somewhat hit-and-miss. Luckily, Scully remembered. And right about now, Sestra Pro is probably thinking the Blair Witch was Billy’s kidnapper.

Mama Underwood sounds obsessed as she prepares Billy for his next doctor appointment. Papa Underwood is more concerned about Josh’s well-being. Billy disappears from the car and appears in Josh’s room to terrorize him. And speaking of terrorizing, Ronald’s trashy mother’s trashy boyfriend, Cal, does some taunting of his own. Ronnie escapes him, heads into the woods and unearths a human skull. Meanwhile, Team Sculett bring psychic Sharon Pearl to the Underwood home, where Billy’s blank stare immediately elicits a reaction. She’s also genuine enough to read Doggett’s loss involving his own son before suffering a psychic attack that results in her being marked with the stick-man symbol on her forehead. And back at the trailer, Cal cuts Ronnie and threatens to tell the police about the boy’s body Ronnie buried in the woods. 

Doggett is in full denial mode about the psychic’s revelations, until Scully reverse-plays a recording of Sharon Pearl’s perceived gibberish. It’s a lullaby John clearly recognizes. Unfortunately (luckily?) they are distracted when Ronald arrives at the Underwood home and Doggett spies Billy in Purnell’s front seat. The chase is on until they force Ronnie to stop his car, but now Billy is gone again. Josh gets into some trouble on his own because he’s mesmerized by a show pony near the gas station and he winds up trapped. Did I mention the Cal’s Pony Ride Along company logo has the stick-man symbol? You’d think local law enforcement would have made the connection since Cal’s ponies were at the abduction scene and their hired psychic drew the same symbol back in 1990. 

Team Sculett are dealing with Ronnie at the police station when they learn Josh is missing too. During Ronald’s interrogation, he flashes back to his time with Billy, but his statements sound like he’s confessing to a typical kidnapping. Scully, Doggett and the local police raid the Purnell property, where Cal’s horse trailer is parked. They find Josh tied up in a narrow cage in the ground. Doggett chases down Cal, who doesn’t get far, but Billy continues to be the most annoyingly uncooperative victim, disappearing yet again. Then John finds Billy’s skull where Ronald unearthed it earlier. The next morning, Billy’s body, which had been buried for the past 10 years, is recovered and Doggett can’t explain how they all saw, examined and interviewed what is essentially a ghost. John watches Billy’s grieving parents and clearly can relate to them. Looking forward to watching more about his backstory.

Sestra Professional: 

It is background o'clock on our Doggett integration meter. And truth be told, it's not a bad way to get into his history. "Invocation" feels like one of those old-timey X-Files stories that used to be told in the Vancouver years. It's also pretty suspenseful, you don't know where it's going until it gets there.

There's a lot of emotional resonance in this episode. Missing children always have been a frighteningly regular occurrence in society. And if it seemed as though the show pretty thoroughly covered that in wrapping up the Samantha saga last season with episodes 10 and 11 "Sein und Zeit" and "Closure," it's also important to remember that the FBI routinely is called upon to make sense of a multitude of such senseless and horrific cases.

Failure to thrive: It's very eerie when an older Lisa Underwood is reunited with her missing son. And it's pretty evident the kid's not the same. Indulge me for a minute with a story about my late cat, Frankie. The once-beautiful, well-adjusted house feline jumped out a window one day, and we didn't find her despite canvassing the neighborhood every day and night until about a month later. Even though she was happy to be home, fed and sheltered, there was something amiss after her return. Like Billy here.

I'm not fully on Scully's side in regards to rebuking Doggett for his technique in questioning the returned child. The veteran of many a child abduction task force didn't appear to be pushing particularly hard, in fact, he was handling his job in as sensitive a manner as he could. And although Billy's state may be a biological impossibility, it didn't seem like something that John needed to delve into in order to try and catch the captor.

Call the exorcist: Then again, Doggett's job is to help Dana discern the "how" rather than the "who." John, if you consider "anomalous," "supernatural" and "paranormal" to be lackadaisical explanations, for all intents and purposes, then you're working on the Lazy Files. That doesn't necessarily preclude catching the person who did it, so Scully's point taken -- understanding what's going on internally could help accomplish that.

What's encouraging about the burgeoning partnership is that even when Dana and Doggett disagree, they're thinking along similar lines. John doesn't agree with Scully's suggestion that the boy should be taken away from his family -- and a lot of that obviously has to do with his own history -- but he recognizes Billy might be trying to communicate something with his strange and frightening knife usage. Then Scully draws the line to the stick figures -- and yep, I'm thinking Blair Witch now like Sestra Am presupposed. It certainly explains why the little tyke's state was akin to Michael at the end of the original Project.

As "Invocation" continues to play out, parallels can be drawn back to "Oubliette" (Season 3, Episode 8) with Ronald having a connection to the ongoing situation that he -- and the audience, in turn -- can't really understand. Without the details, we can sense he's been through something similar, or at the very least, something harrowing. The same holds true for John Doggett regarding his son, Lucas. 

For the first time this season, we don't have a mention of the missing Fox Mulder, but Scully certainly pulls something out of his bag of tricks by saying they should play the tape of the psychic backward. Way to go, Dana, that is some Fox-like sussing out.

Don't ask me to believe that this is some kind of justice from beyond the grave: Despite a strong scene between Gillian Anderson and Robert Patrick discussing what constitutes case success, David Amann's script loses traction with the denouement. That'll be a recurring occurrence in Season 8. There isn't much of an explanation for Billy -- particularly his creepiness if he's there to help -- and Josh curiously getting out of the car when he already seemed very upset was rather weak. Cue the self-fulfilling prophecy, it is a little lazy to just determine something supernatural when you can't offer up other explanation. Where "Oubliette" and "Sein und Zeit" once handled it more smoothly, "Invocation" ultimately feels more clunky.

Guest star of the week: Thanks to Rodney Eastman, Ronald's fear is very palpable. We know he is absolutely not the bad guy. Sestra and I get a strong Nightmare on Elm Street vibe off him. Maybe it's because he was in the third and fourth incarnations of that franchise ... and maybe not. Well, probably yeah.