X-Files S9E3: It's your move, Satan

Sestra Amateur: 

Is it just me or is it a little jarring to return to monster-of-the-week episodes after a mythology arc? In Weston, West Virginia, Darren and Evelyn Mountjoy are playing Scrabble when their dog interrupts. Hubby uses the distraction to look at his wife’s letters. Two demonic-looking peeps kill their dog and trick the man into shooting his own wife. Who “triumphs” now, Scrabble cheater? 

Agent Monica Reyes arrives the following morning to a staged scene -- the dead Mountjoys are seated at the Scrabble table, but Evelyn has the gun and all evidence of Darren’s cheating has been removed. Now the only word on the board is “Daemonicus,” which is an implausible start because players only get seven letters at a time. Monica senses evil in the house. Agent John Doggett is on the scene and waiting to hear Reyes’ expert opinion. Satanic ritual? The Devil himself? Sure, there’s evidence of human beings outside the home, but snakes expelled from Evelyn’s chest tell a more complicated story.

Professor Dana Scully is instructing her first class in forensic pathology at the FBI Training Academy when Doggett requests assistance with the Mountjoys’ autopsies. Scully is able to determine how Evelyn really died while Reyes fills in the blanks based on the physical evidence. The snakes were added by a killer with mad surgical skills. Monica tries to explain to John and Dana the presence of evil she felt at the crime scene. Meanwhile, the real suspects are in a pickup truck with West Virginia plates. They arrive at a wooded area, grab their demon masks and meander away.

Team Johnica arrives at the Chessman State Mental Hospital in Kitsonville, West Virginia. Their contact, Dr. Monique Sampson, thinks Reyes is investigating demonic possession. The suspects in question are patient Kenneth Richman (a doctor) and guard Paul Gerlach. They were last seen in the presence of professor Josef Kobold, played by James Remar, who is known for playing either really good guys (Black Lightning series, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie) or really bad guys (48 Hours, The Dream Team). No, I haven’t watched The Warriors yet. Yes, I’ll get around to it eventually.

Back in the wooded area (and just a small editing note, in the time it took for them to stop walking in the woods, Doggett and Reyes drove 100 miles to the hospital) one of the men shoots the other. Team Johnica tries to interview Josef, who speaks in riddles. It’s a good thing Doggett doesn’t know about Scully’s tattoo (Season 4, Episode 13: "Never Again"), or he would have assumed the “snake eating its own tail” line was about her. Josef Kobold believes in the Devil, he doesn’t think the feds can help him.

Meanwhile, the surviving killer is back in his pickup and telepathically communicating with Josef. Kobold appears to change his mind about getting help because he calls the agents back to the hospital. This time, Josef is agitated and strapped to a gurney. He talks them into letting him go into the wooded area to find one of the killer’s dead bodies. Monica thinks he’s sincere, especially when she finds Paul Gerlach hanging upside down from a tree. Scully handles the autopsy. When Reyes mentions Kobold’s “Prince of the Apostles” comment, Dana says St. Peter was crucified upside down, just like Gerlach.

Doggett thinks Josef Kobold has knowledge of the crime scene because he planned everything. He was committed after gruesomely killing six college students. Reyes thinks he’s channeling the Devil and is willing to make him more comfortable to help their case. Meanwhile, Richman is stalking Dr. Sampson. Once Kobold is ensconced in his new digs, he starts messing with John’s head by knowing too much about the past. Doggett is about to leave when the demon’s voices seem to take hold of Josef. He tries to warn them about Dr. Sampson, but Team Johnica and the local cops arrive too late to save her. Scully joins them at the crime scene. (Are they all flying back and forth or just driving like maniacs?)

Kobold goes back to messing with John’s head on personal and professional levels. Doggett grabs Josef, who starts vomiting uncontrollably. I may never be able to eat baked beans again. Reyes thinks he spewed ectoplasm. Doggett stands alone while Team Danica thinks the evidence will remove doubt about whether or not Josef has been faking everything. Of course, John doesn’t reveal Kobold’s head games, so that’s on him. Later that night, it’s dark and stormy when security officer Custer gets sucked into the drama. Our intrepid heroes now need to go to Happy Landing, a marina on Scully’s route home (yep, driving, not flying). She goes there – without local law enforcement backup! – and gets accosted by Richman. Team Johnica, Josef, Custer and local popo finally arrive at the marina. They find Richman’s body, dead by suicide. It was just the distraction Kobold needed to escape. Doggett shoots Josef and he sinks into the water.

Team Johnica later meet with Scully at the FBI Academy. Doggett thinks Josef Kobold pulled off the perfect escape. He also demonstrates how Josef’s use of the word "Daemonicus" showed how deep his plan went. (Not-so-fun fact: If Richman was unable to kill Monique Sampson, he could have used Monica Reyes instead.) Whether or not Kobold was a genius or a man possessed, The X-Files had the perfect opportunity to make him a recurring character but they didn’t. He’s your Monster of the Week and the week is over.

Sestra Professional: 

I would have referred to "Daemonicus" as "Sanguinarium 2" had not the world as we knew it changed the week the episode was filmed. For some reason, this episode reminded me of much of the tone of that S4E6 gorefest, but that obviously pales in comparison to the events of 9/11. Even this many years later, it's hard to separate fact from fiction. Because as mentioned last time, that destruction changed more than our day-to-day reality. And as such, this isn't an ep I return to with much frequency.

Looks like we can rule out the Exorcist after all: While not as obviously prescient as The Lone Gunmen pilot featuring our nebbish heroes trying to prevent a plane from flying into the World Trade Center, "Sanguinarium" has a lot to say about the more abstract nature of evil -- a subject seared into all our brains around that time. 

 

There's something about the hospital's black-and-white checkerboard floors that semi-consciously tip us off to the fact that a game has been initiated. In this case, it's a tilt between Kobold (and/or his possessor) and John Doggett. That's what writer/director/executive producer Frank Spotnitz sets up perfectly. I'm less enamored of the dramatic clouds rolling in at high-speed rates with accompanying thunder and lightning effects. They're meant to heighten the terror, but they actually lessen it.

While it might seem jarring to shift from super-soldiers to a monster-of-the-week episode (and that always feels more pronounced at the beginning of a season), we do set up an interesting dynamic for Season 9. The "master manipulator" effectively nails the first part about Doggett, there's an unsolved tragedy for which John feels responsible. That will drive a lot of the story this year. I think he goes a little bit overboard regarding the feelings John has for Scully (and Reyes), but it's a smart ploy for a demon moving pieces around the board.

Monica's stance is similar to her Season 8 posture, only more so. She knows when something set up to look like demonic ritual isn't by trusting her gut. And Dana's kind of on the sidelines. She's doing her autopsies and teaching young brats at the FBI Training Academy. Those kids don't seem to possess the same gravitas as Jodie Foster and her compatriots did in Silence of the Lambs. But Scully will admit, to her charges and our co-leads, that sometimes science can't tell the entire story.

I kind of wish that story didn't shift back to the ol' ouroboros once again. Sestra Am mentioned Scully's tattoo from "Never Again," and it also became the defining image of the defunct Millennium. So while the technical name isn't actually uttered, the concept of the snake eating its own tail kind of feels like the show is doing the same thing. Sestra Am hypothesizes Kobold would have made a strong recurring character for this season, and I might buy that as an alternative to bland Knowle Rohrer. But "Daemonicus" also could have been configured as a better finale for Frank Black's series than the trite "Millennium" (S7E4).

So what are we talking now, the Ghostbusters? Worked into this mix are some pop culture references. The Exorcist was already mentioned. Then there's one that might be very slight if you're not familiar with Annabeth Gish's filmography. Doggett mentions flesh being used as fertilizer in a garden, that's a major plot point in her 1995 film, The Last Supper. The second is much more palpable -- ectoplasm, the familiar slimy residue from the Ghostbusters franchise. I guess that makes Kobold "father pus bucket."

All of that was in front of the cameras while the cast and crew were striving to get the show ready for air. In The Complete X-Files, Robert Patrick recalled how difficult it was to work that week. "It was the first time that I couldn't do my lines," he said. "Usually I would show up and they'd always put the camera on me first because I'd nail my dialogue, and then they'd shoot the other people. I really took a lot of pride in showing up prepared. And I couldn't do it."  

James Remar told me outright at a 2016 pop-culture convention that The X-Files saved his life. The veteran actor had spent the summer of 2001 in New York City, riding Ladder Company 3's fire truck with friend Patrick Brown. A couple of days before 9/11, the show implored him to do the role of Kobold. Then the towers fell and Ladder Company 3 lost most of its men, including Brown, in the attack.

Guest star of the week: As Sestra Am mentioned, Remar has made a career of portraying both good and bad guys. That plays into his (and the show's) favor in this episode. Is Kobold a victim, the Devil incarnate or just possessed? Remar embodies the swings with seemingly effortless ease until the ultimate reveal.

X-Files S9E2: Everything unimportant is important again

Sestra Amateur: 

A man enters a secured facility to give a decoded message to a scientist. How secure, you ask? Palm scans, retinal scans, armed guard, the works. And what’s the message? They are to return to base. This facility is so secure, it’s actually a ship in unknown waters. I’ll bet you’d rather know how Doggett escaped his watery fate. Technically, he didn’t. Shannon McMahon drowned him. But then she gave him underwater CPR, so no harm, no foul, right?

Assistant Director Brad Follmer calls Agent Monica Reyes into a meeting with Assistant Director Walter Skinner. My interest in Brad’s character (and Cary Elwes’ presence) dropped significantly the second Brad referred to Walter as “Mr.” Skinner. You have the same job title, you condescending tool! AD Follmer is hanging Agent John Doggett out to dry, despite (or because of?) Monica’s support of her partner. Reyes knows what he’s doing and she refuses to be a part of it.

John wakes up in his own bed with a nasty case of fluid in his lungs. Shannon admits she was made into a bioengineered combat unit and refers to herself and Knowle Rohrer as “Adam and Eve,” the first of their kind. But now there are more of them, lots more. The water supply is going to be tainted and Shannon wants John to stop it.

Remember the ship that was ordered to return to base? It’s a Navy ship now docked in Baltimore. (Of course, it is.) The captain tries to call Carl Wormus – the EPA deputy director who Shannon killed at the beginning of Part 1 -- but obviously can’t reach him. The captain returns to the ship where Knowle -- alive, well and not burned to a crisp -- has become his second in command. Walter pays a late-night visit to Dana Scully to discuss her request to let Fox Mulder disappear. Skinner doesn’t understand why Scully got involved with Doggett’s investigation. Since Dana can’t use science to explain what’s going on with baby William, she’s at a loss to articulate her son’s possibly supernatural ability. It’s like experiencing the five stages of grief; Scully overcame shock but is still in denial.

The next morning, Dana meets with Team Johnica and Shannon to get answers about her son. McMahon tells her altered chloramine will be added to Maryland’s water supply to breed a generation of super soldiers. Shannon shows Scully her wicked neck implants which we’ve seen before on Knowle (Season 8, Episode 16 "Three Words"), nu-Billy Miles and Agent Crane (S8, E20 – "Essence"). Speaking of Knowle, he’s trying to get information from a captain who refuses to talk. They’re interrupted when the officer Rohrer replaced is found dead in the water. Dana examines McMahon but doesn’t find anything else unusual about her. It’s not like Scully did bloodwork or took scans in John’s bedroom. Denial Dana is just looking for an excuse to not give credibility to Shannon’s story.

Skinner gives Doggett a heads-up about John’s pending suspension. Doggett bursts into a meeting between Deputy Director Alvin Kersh and AD Follmer, which just supports their allegations of John’s insubordination and reckless disregard for safety. Then Follmer really insults Doggett by comparing him to Fox Mulder. (I think I took more offense to that comment than John did.) Monica is in the X-files office researching McMahon when she gets a visit from the Lone Gunmen. She doesn’t quite get them – or their techie abilities – yet. The guys recover phone calls the captain made to the deceased Carl Wormus. Luckily, the captain -- who doesn’t know Carl’s fate -- chooses that very moment to call again. Frohike pretends to be Wormus and arranges a meeting with the captain. Too bad Knowle is also listening.

Reyes realizes Shannon is a special investigator with the Department of Justice and she asks Follmer to help get McMahon’s files. Monica tells him they’re both being set up. She seems to get through to him. Reyes meets with Team Sculett to warn them about Shannon; she’s killing whistleblowers and hoping John leads her to the last one, the captain. Too bad he’s trying to stop what’s happening on his ship alone. Rohrer sneaks up behind him when the captain demands the scientist’s hard drives. Too little, too late captain, but we appreciate your efforts.

Scully and Team Johnica arrive at the docks to meet with the captain. Doggett realizes Knowle is coming toward them and tries to distract Rohrer with useless bullets and punches. Just before Knowle squashes his head, Shannon saves John’s life again by decapitating Rohrer. Unfortunately, the headless Knowle punches a hole through McMahon’s chest and she ends up in the water. Boy, those Adam and Eve domestic disputes are violent! Team Scules (Reyly? I never made a decision on this one. How about Team Danica?) find the dead captain’s head while Doggett realizes the ship will explode in two minutes. Of course Monica and Dana find evidence in the science lab of ova manipulation, but there’s just not enough time to find the answers Scully desperately needs. The ship explodes but our heroes are safe and another conspiracy is buried.

Two days later, John meets with Kersh about Doggett's final report, which contains no mention of Alvin’s suspected involvement. Kersh explains the origins of “nothing important happened today,” then claims he’s the reason Mulder left. John thinks it was Dana. Personally, I think it was a contract dispute. While heading to the X-files basement office, Doggett experiences another uncomfortable elevator ride, this time with Brad. But John stands his ground, and with Reyes by his side, verbally levels the playing field. But did Doggett actually leave Shannon’s body in the water or is that just part of Scully’s nightmare? And is Dana ever going to oil that squeaky mobile?

Sestra Professional: 

While the Season 9 opener didn't pack quite the same punch as John Doggett's introductory arc, we were genuinely concerned about him the end of "Nothing Important Happened Today I." Not that we were worried he wouldn't make it. After all, the show just lost one male lead. It's not like we were going to squander the second one in the opening of the new season.

 

I'm definitely grooving on Mark Snow's uptempo score in the teaser. The suspenseful hi-hat drum beats work for me a heckuva lot more than the updated theme song. I get very distracted by the boy at the end of that sequence, by the way. He reminds me of brainiac alien Gibson Praise, but it's obviously not Gibson, so why is he there and what's he supposed to stand for? Ah, nevermind, I don't care enough about it to delve into that mystery.

 

The show can still have props for that drowning cliffhanger. That set piece isn't something we've seen before. It's even more impressive than the all-too-necessary ship explosion at the end of the episode that eliminates all evidence of the lab and the information Dana Scully thinks will tell her about her baby.

 

This witch hunt isn't going to expose anything but you: Then Doggett starts to face a lot of what Fox Mulder dealt with for eight seasons. He's being berated for unauthorized autopsies and searches of water facilities. Why even give him that job if you won't let him do what he needs to in investigations? That's a time-honored question that we used to ask on Mulder's behalf. John knows he's in the same position, suspecting a larger conspiracy and knowing it's him against the FBI.

 

Speaking of things we've seen before, I guess there's no such thing as an original idea. In the 50 years of military science experiments on bioengineered combat units, they've commandeered the idea of Adams and Eves. As we recall, the government used that name for its human cloning project ("Eve," S1E11). Although I would certainly buy that the government and military lack so much creativity that they don't mind utilizing the same monikers.

For all the promising elements, "Nothing Important Happened Today II" still feels kind of flat, like a can of soda left on a counter for a couple hours. It may have taste, but it's not too palatable. Part of the reason are premises like Scully's examination of Shannon McMahon. Really, you found absolutely nothing? She seems so normal that she could survive under water without taking a breath. Perhaps if Dana had held Shannon down in a bathtub she would have seen differently.

 

I think you've made a terrible mistake: As mentioned last time, Skinner's in complete reversal mode. He doesn't understand why Scully's getting mixed up in whatever's going on. Does he just want Dana and Fox out of it because Doggett and Reyes have taken up the charge or because he's concerned for them as friends? The worry for Mulder seems unwarranted. If you ask me, it's a lot more dangerous for Scully, her baby and everyone in that immediate circle. Fox seems to be the secure one right now. So I'm voting thumbs-down on his safety being why he's not on the canvas.

The Lone Gunmen have been shadows of their former selves as well (although at least Langly isn't blue anymore.) They may not be able to make it online on their own, but maybe they're getting some of their collective groove back after tying the Wormus connection to the lab on board. So maybe they can be of more service than they have for the past few seasons. It's disappointing that previous Guest Star of the Week Lucy Lawless won't stay on as Shannon McMahon. The show's plan for her to be a recurring character in Season 9 fell by the wayside due to Lawless' high-risk pregnancy, and that feels like a loss for the ongoing story as she started off with much promise. 

In other news, can we have our leads stop referring to each other as Agent Scully, Agent Reyes and Agent Doggett? (John did sneak a couple Danas and Monicas when the boat was about to blow, but even then he still called them Agent Reyes and Agent Scully as well.) Dana, they kept you and your baby safe. Monica helped deliver it, for pete's sake. You can probably be informal with them. They should even have little pet names for each other by this point -- Whale Girl or Snoop Doggett Dog or One Bad Momma or such.

This is just a little bureaucratic pimp job: Like Sestra Am, I'm not exactly sold on Brad Follmer. I'm also a Cary Elwes fan, and while Brad probably is right in surmising that paranoia goes along with the X-files gig, his shoehorned existence as a stopgap between Deputy Director Kersh and Skinner doesn't do him or the show any favors. Kersh and Skinner are big boys who can do their own dirty work. Agree or not with their actions, they've certainly have earned that much over the years.

 

Kersh proves that point with his history lesson about King George III. It's actually an interesting tale that the two-headed writing team of Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz had been waiting to spring upon us. They might have been better served to have opened the season with that little speech and then backtracked until they got to that point in the second episode. It would have given more resonance to the confrontations between Alvin and John and even the side meetings with Follmer. As it stands, that scene comes too late to save the two-parter, but it does give us pause about Alvin with a chance for James Pickens Jr. to finally take him in a more fully realized direction. Now if they can just do the same for Skinner, we'll be in good shape. Asking for that for Follmer may be too much of a hurdle. 

Things that changed the world forever: "Nothing Important Happened Today II" first aired on Nov. 18, 2001. At the end of the episode, there's a dedication to Chad Keller, a rocket scientist and family friend of show creator Carter's who died on 9-11. It's the first sign we had on the show of how the cataclysmic event reverberated in the world, and we'll be feeling that effect in different and distinctive ways as the season rolls on.

 

Guest star of the week: Although Knowle Rohrer is more of a recurring character than a guest star, I truly believe Adam Baldwin's the only one not in the regular circle who provided any kind of gravitas in this episode. Although it may not have been a complete surprise to see Rohrer again, the threat he offered up was palpable.

X-Files S9E1: Resetting with a 'Splash'

Sestra Amateur: 

The first episode of Season 9 – the final one in the show’s original run – is titled “Nothing Important Happened Today.” It first aired on Nov. 11, 2001, which according to the website onthisday.com, experienced only two noteworthy events -- three journalists were killed in Afghanistan and Belgium won their first Women’s Tennis Federation Cup. Guess which one is the highlight on the page. Since I’m writing this in the early morning hours of March 31, 2021, nothing has happened yet. Maybe I should have saved my review for April Fools’ Day.

In Baltimore, Maryland, a man (played by soap opera hopper Nicholas Walker) who clearly prefers his scotch straight up to on the rocks, chats up a woman (played by post-Xena Lucy Lawless) with the opposite mind-set. They leave the bar together. She forces him to drive his convertible off a bridge then has the gall to refuse to let him swim to the surface when his body needs air. Since he was complaining about the quality of water, is this coincidental or ironic?

Two days after giving birth, Agent Dana Scully looks packed and ready to leave, Agent John Doggett is one giant bruise and Agent Monica Reyes appears to be bruise-free. Assistant Director Brad Follmer (played by Cary Elwes, one of my faves) wants to see Reyes before she leaves D.C. Since Follmer is watching news footage of Carl Wormus, the dead man -- and Deputy Director of the Environmental Protection Agency -- pulled from the water, it appears to be work-related. But then Brad greets Monica with a kiss and gives us a glimpse into their previous relationship. Follmer gives Reyes surveillance videotapes related to Doggett’s drama from the season finale.

Meanwhile, John and Deputy Director Alvin Kersh share a tense elevator ride. Doggett meets with Monica, who shows him the tapes which seem to confirm nothing important happened that day -- no car chase, no explosion, no bullet in Krycek’s head. He goes to Fox Mulder’s apartment but it’s empty. (Yay!)

The woman who killed Carl shows up in the reclamation facility’s water. One of the employees follows her so she takes him for a swim. John goes to Dana’s apartment looking for Mulder, but she dodges efforts to explain where he went and why. Monica tries to get information from Assistant Director Walter Skinner but he’s not talking either. Skinner asks Doggett to drop his investigation in order to protect Sculder and their baby. Reyes picks a side, she’s with John. Monica later meets with Brad in a bar to complain about the loss of the X-Files Division and her expected return to New Orleans.

Doggett confronts Scully, who remains in denial about the possibility that her son may be a future super-soldier. She asks him to leave. John reaches out to his former Marine buddies to find information on Knowle Rohrer. He leaves a message for Shannon McMahon, the woman drowning everyone. (They should have obtained the rights to John Williams’ Jaws theme for her scenes.) Reyes crosses paths with her in the FBI building and senses something. In the X-files office, Monica later breaks a pencil, and because she can’t find the sharpener, takes one from the sacred ceiling shrine of lead. In the meantime, someone tips her off about Carl Wormus.

Dana has second thoughts about her “normal” baby and asks Doggett not to drop his investigation. She comes to assist Team Johnica at the county morgue. AD Skinner tries to warn John away from pursuing the investigation against Kersh while Scully does the autopsy. Doggett also requests assistance from the Lone Gunmen and they show up at his apartment. Langly’s looking a little blue (literally, not figuratively). Maybe because he misses Mulder? They don’t learn much about Carl, but Dana confirms he died by drowning. Reyes wants to know why Scully is back on board but Dana’s not talking … yet. Luckily, she gets distracted by the finger-shaped bruising on Wormus’ foot.

AD Follmer tips off DD Kersh about John’s unauthorized activities. Clearly, he’s out to get rid of his “competition,” but Alvin orders Brad to clean up his own mess. Shannon shows up unannounced at Scully’s apartment. Dana’s mom wisely doesn’t let her in. McMahon goes to the Maryland morgue, but Reyes gets herself and Scully to the elevator where they are overrun by Brad and his squad of agents. Dana plays the baby card to get out of there and leaves Monica to clean up the mess – figuratively, not literally. Luckily(?) Carl’s body is missing. Thank you, Shannon?

Reyes goes to Doggett’s apartment and hangs out with the Lone Gunmen. After insulting Frohike while also trying to keep him safe, she learns they found encrypted messages between Wormus and Roland McFarland (the other drowned dude). Team Skinett are looking for evidence at the reclamation facility when Follmer shows up with his men. John grabs some files and they run. Doggett hides in the water and it looks like he’s successful until Shannon grabs his foot and drags him down…

Sestra Professional: 

Another season, another new era on The X-Files, and not just because David Duchovny isn't in the credits (even the flailing Fox has fallen by the wayside). The less-eerie, more-techno opening theme made that abundantly clear. I've always been a proponent for the series being malleable enough to extend beyond the Mulder and Scully relationship, but this intro has lost a lot of its charm and creepiness. As we all know well, those co-existed seamlessly for many moons.

 

Is Annabeth Gish smiling in her FBI badge photo after graduating to series regular? She looks awesome, but if we can't smile in driver's license photos, it can't be acceptable to do so as a representative of the U.S. government. Well, at least Mitch Pileggi finally made it into the opening credits.

So aliens are out ... sorta ... and Xena: Warrior Princess and super-soldiers look like they're in ... kinda. It almost makes you long for the days of implants and shape-shifters. And now there's the requisite need to deal with Dana's bundle of joy. That's gonna weigh us down like a psycho mermaid pulling on our legs in deep water. At least the mind-bending trippy Scully theme seems to have been left behind in the eighth season. 

 

They can't just make this all go away: But John Doggett's back, and with a season of all preternatural craziness under his belt, he's got to be more open to possibilities, right? Looks like free-thinking Monica Reyes has returned with extra baggage in the form of Brad Follmer. Meanwhile, the tension between Doggett and Deputy Director Alvin Kersh has remained at a boiling point. That's almost comforting with everything else in a state of flux.

 

John's understandably unhappy about all the things missing from the FBI's video collection. Sure, there's nothing about Knowle Rohrer driving his car into a wall. Don't care so much about that, I'm still clinging to the last vestige of Krycek. If there's no footage of him being killed ... and staying dead ... maybe the "Alex became a super-soldier" theory isn't all wet.

 

And once again, the show needed to come up with a plausible reason for Mulder being gone since Duchovny didn't permanently return to the fold. It's not like Fox stopped by his apartment to pick up some things and then reboarded the spaceship. Meanwhile, Skinner's doing his annual regression thing under the guise of fear for Mulder, Scully and the baby. Well, at least he doesn't seem worried about nanobots any more.

I'd never betray a confidence: It makes no nevermind to me, I'm all in favor of turning the X-files investigations over to Doggett and Reyes. On one hand, we have John Doggett, the stalwart by-the-books investigator. On the other hand, there's Monica Reyes -- and mark this down, because it'll come up later -- the dedicated agent who actually wants to be in that basement office.

So where does that leave Dana Scully? Right now, she's a reluctant sounding board, worried mama and autopsier extraordinaire. It's certainly not what we want for a woman who has battled every conceivable obstacle for eight years. And it's not what we'd want for Gillian Anderson, who has proven she can convincingly act her way out of any supernatural situation. 

Like we got anything better to be doing these days: There's a tremendous amount of set-up work in the first episode of the season. The Lone Gunmen are back in the fold after their spin-off series was canceled. (That just might have worked had it gotten underway earlier in The X-Files run, they certainly haven't added much of note to the starter series the past few years.) If you weren't one of the few who watched their series finale, then you probably think Langley blue himself like Tobias from Arrested Development. A strange relationship seems to be building between the deputy director on the ropes and Monica's boy toy. And, of course, the miracle baby has some kind of X-filey powers.

Scully refers to Monica as Agent Reyes. That's a wee bit formal conversation for her to have with the woman who helped deliver her baby and even sang a whale song for her. And because Monica did all that, it also would have been nice if Dana didn't flatleave when Follmer confronts Reyes about the autopsy.

Nevertheless, as we determined at the start of Season 8, Doggett's good at his job. John pinpointed Shannon, he realized the connection to chloramine. If we can't have Fox -- yeah, I know Sestra Am's not exactly broken up about that -- I personally think the X-files are in as good hands as they can be with Doggett at the helm, even with the Dread Pirate Roberts serving as Kersh's wingman. If John manages to avoid the watery grave, that is.

Guest star of the week: Lucy Lawless doesn't need (or get) much time to settle in as the inversion of her Xena character. She's got to deliver on a demented Splash theme and Lawless makes it work for our new premise, even if she's not anywhere as scary as the Flukeman in "The Host" (Season 2, Episode 2).