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.