Summary
Still left me kinda puzzled at the end, but this one had enough emotion to carry me through the confusing moments. I commented to a fellow fan during this past year (season seven) that the show has lost those panoramic, "feature film" style episodes with great locations and thrilling effects that we used to see once or twice a year, particularly in the guise of these mytharc two-parters. While this one was not quite as ambitious as Mulder hopping onto a moving train, I still think it's a good throwback to that genre. The opening credits sequence where Mulder is walking among the bodies looking for Scully was chilling. His subsequent conversation with her in the hospital was almost painful to watch as the two of them struggle against one another's changing yet still opposing belief systems.
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| "Oh my God" indeed |
Yes, it is time to thank your lucky stars, Dana, because you probably should have been fried, given where you were. (Seemed to me like she was right in the thick of the action, not on the fringes where she could have easily run off.) Despite that, Scully lives to see another day to dispute the truth about aliens with Mulder. Powerful conversation during Mulder's second visit, when he tells her, "If I could prove that I was right and that what I believed for so long was wrong" and she responds with, "Is that what you really want?" The truth is, Mulder doesn't know what he really wants right now; he is at the apex of his confliction. After her subsequent "Oh, my God" regression hypnosis session, a pained Mulder tells Skinner, "Then I suggest you put that in your report" when the AD tells him that — despite what Mulder now believes — extraterrestrial phenomena seems the more plausible explanation in this case.
By the end of the episode, I suppose Mulder is a bit more clarified himself on the matter. After Krycek's visit (wasn't that a doozie?), Mulder takes the clue Krycek left him and goes to Wiekamp Airforce Base just in time to catch a ride on the truck that's carrying the alien resistance dude (having been turned over to the colonists by the Syndicate). ABH is driving and subsequently stops to kill the rebel but — apparently — a successful rescue attempt occurs? Mulder is witness to this event, but it is all bright lights and confusion as usual so when he finally reunites with Scully, he doesn't know what has really transpired.
A bit about the alien storyline at this point. I felt clarified during this revisitation in that I understood that there was one captured alien rebel (maybe the one with the original bright idea that "oh, we shall 'mutilate' ourselves to make us immune to the powerful black oil substance"), taken from a group who are leading a resistance, AKA an "attack on the alien colonists" which, unfortunately, seems to have no regard for collateral damage... rather than have all these human beings be taken for testing, let's just burn them instead? (By the way, I think I mentioned a long time ago that CC's many variations of aliens ultimately made me lose interest and snapped that suspension of disbelief thing.) As an aside, I suppose this clearly indicates that the black oil substance is capable of controlling even the aliens themselves in terms of how they act and think? Is this black oil the TXF version of Star Trek's Borg?
Best or Worst Moment
Not so much a specific moment as a pervasive "feeling" throughout the episode that even though our heroes are each suffering his or her own pain — and feeling justifiably perturbed by the other's refusal to see things in the same way — they don't "lose" one another. I liked that. The little touches that they shared in this one were comforting.
Among all those painful moments, it was refreshing to hear a typical Mulder quip: "If those are my last words, I can do better." I'd kiss him too, just for being that clever in the face of death.
Original Rating: * * * *
Revised Rating: * * * *
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