3X16 - Apocrypha [REVISITED]

Summary

The pacing of this one was a bit frenetic, but as usual in these mythology eps, our heroes are left empty-handed at the end. Despite crashing cars, jumping through hoops and showing up at the right places with the help of extremely vague information, Mulder and Scully continue to be just a step behind. The ever-elusive tape proves ever so slippery once again (although I enjoyed the scene at the ice rink where the LGM deliver the empty case to Mulder) and while Scully helps nab the murderer of her sister, he ends up dead in his jail cell a short time later. Entertaining and still engaging at this point in the series, but you can begin to see where this will eventually get very frustrating.

A little bit of real life between aliens and conspiracies

I'm now convinced that I only ever watched Piper Maru and Apocrypha twice because during this recent re-viewing, I was reminded of a lot of things that I had forgotten. It's not unusual for someone to have that experience with mythology eps, but here I encountered a few of those "oh so that's why" clarifications. Interesting enough, the "big moments" of this episode have always remained with me, most specifically the ones involving Krycek.

It's too bad that the TXF movie never made it to the big screen until after the fifth season, because I think that the mythology was primed for it after season three. I thought to myself while watching this two-parter that it prepped the viewer quite well for the movie, whereas by the time I actually saw the big screen feature, I definitely felt removed from this (important) early history. After all, by the end of season five, we had seen Dana Scully get cancer and beat cancer, we had seen the introduction of Cassandra Spender, son Jeffrey and Diana Fowley... all storylines with specific links to that same growing mytharc.

In this pair of episodes, we established the origin (or, I suppose, one of the origins) of the black oil alien entity on earth. We see how it can jump from body to body to affect its human host. We see how, when it deems necessary, it can turn itself into a solar-like flash of radiation to eliminate all comers. (Note, however, that while that provides an interesting plot element here, it is, in essence, an "all powerful" device that can be hard to write around in future.) And we see how its existence and secrets have been managed by the government and the ever-present Consortium for many decades. (Must say that young Bill Mulder and young CSM look incredibly hot... and no offence, but they bear no resemblance to their later selves.)

But the real highlights for me during this re-watch were the personal moments. I appreciated seeing Scully rant about the lack of movement on her sister's murder case. (And I liked the support that Mulder and Scully gave to Skinner in his moment of need.) The visitation scene at Melissa's gravesite at the end of Apocrypha was touching and appropriate. The problem that I had with the mytharc episodes as the seasons wore on was that it became harder and harder to believe that these two could actually function as real people on a daily basis, given what they had to deal with. A simple scene like this one (despite the fact that Melissa's death is ultimately connected with their work) is almost reassuring in its "real life"-ness.

Best or Worst Moment

The best moment at the time that I originally saw this episode was seeing Krycek get his just dessert at the end, but in retrospect, this marks one of the first blatent examples of TXF dealing with difficult plot points by ignoring them altogether. In that sense, Krycek being locked up in that silo was the best and worst moment of this ep because while it was certainly a dramatic way to end the story, he does escape and it's like the audience doesn't need to know how.

Original Rating: * * *
Revised Rating: * * *