3X10 - 731 [REVISITED]

Summary

This was exciting, I have to admit. That stuff aboard the train between the oddly spooky NSA agent and Mulder was The X-Files at its best, threat of a bomb or no. In the midst of all this, there was Scully in the background, finding out everything she is supposed to find out and nothing more — as usual. (And of course, most of it appears far too mundane to be convincing to Mulder.) Is this just a case of "simple" experimentation on lepers using the alien angle as a cover-up, or is the alien connection real? In the end, we revisit the idea — last put forward to us in the season openers — that this conspiracy may be more significant and more familiar than we think. After all, CSM isn't quite to the point of puckering up and kissing Skinner's ass yet, is he?

One of the most thrilling sequences in TXF history

Exciting yes, but almost annoyingly so for no reward at the end, as this viewer sees it from a distance of eighteen years. I watched both Nisei and 731 and while I was again mighty impressed by the scope of what the X-Files put on our TV screens on a regular basis, I saw where one may have begun to get frustrated with the constant carrot dangling. Check out this dialogue:

Scully: What was he exposing these people to?
1st Elder (AKA The Consortium Guy Who Out Deadpans DD): Terrible things.
Scully: What kinds of things? Have I been exposed?
1st Elder: I don't know. [After having said to her only seconds ago, "I know most everything about you, Dana."]
Scully: Who knows?

Me: AAAGGGHHH!

This episode was really about how our agents can be manipulated. We see how they can be provided with "leading" information from various shady people, causing them to draw their own conclusions — based on their existing proclivities, preferences and prejudices — about the elusive truth. Scully is shown a room where she believes she was tested on by Dr. Zama and chooses to believe that while that whole affair is distasteful in the extreme, it does not involve aliens... because she doesn't want to believe that it does. Mulder, on the other hand, is eager to substantiate his own beliefs from his conversation with "Elaine's psychiatrist" (I was a huge Seinfeld fan and will take this opportunity to state that that series never disappointed me, subpar finale aside). NSA guy only needs to ask "What could be more valuable than Star Wars? More valuable then the atomic bomb or the most advanced biological weapons?" before Mulder jumps to the conclusion that the being locked in the back of the boxcar must be an alien-human hybrid... because that's what he wants to believe.

Picayune Peculiarities

So with an hour and change left before Mulder is blown to smithereens, Scully races back to his apartment to check out his address book?? Did she not know what senator he had on his side and therefore could not have called him from wherever? (Why in fact did Mulder have Matheson's number in his address book anyway? Isn't that relationship supposed to be somewhat secret?) Also, in what little time she had, what was the point of signaling X — unless he's Batman? (I'm pretty sure that his saving of Mulder at the end had nothing to do with Scully's last minute tape job on Mulder's window.)

Best or Worst Moment

"It's for you." In the midst of all that tension, wasn't that a great moment? Made me smile, anyway. Otherwise, the image that stands out for me has to be the one near the end where X carries Mulder out of danger, with the rail car exploding in the background. Did I say this was The X-Files at its best? Make that at its biggest best.

Original Rating: * * * *

Revised Rating: * * *