Summary
What a relief not to feel overly critical of this one! David Amann finally comes up with one that breaks out of the subpar category for me. In the fashion of this season's earlier Rush ep, he doesn't much like to explain the real nature of the situations that he creates, but I could accept this one better than the "let's pour concrete into the cave" denouement of the former outing. It was a successful MOTW, and that says something given how these must be terribly difficult to write at this point in the show. In fact, I really didn't have too many problems with this one — didn't even miss Scully. The other characters were interesting enough (even in their stereotypes, but at least it wasn't the Agua Mala style of stereotyping) that I cared about their outcomes. The only thing I wondered about was the motivation of the Sheriff to find himself drawn to two such different women. It's fine that we're not privy to whatever has caused the marriage to go sour (obviously he doesn't care for her amazing efficiency) and I personally know people who are as warped as she is to want to preserve a relationship at whatever cost, but the fact of the husband sleeping with the wife's best friend as well as this rough-looking chick from the wrong side of the tracks seemed more for the sake of throwing the viewer off than a convincing reality that I could buy.
Best or Worst Moment
Outside of the obvious "shipper" moment (and it seems like there's now one of these in nearly every episode: people who tell either Mulder or Scully that love will conquer all), this was another of those eps where I was left with memorable images rather than whole moments. There were those admittedly fascinating shots of Mulder chewing gum and eating bacon(!)... the inexplicably unshaved face, the slightly self-conscious way in which he arrived to the breakfast table, and — wonderfully funny — during the conversation with Skinner, "No, really, what did I do?"
Original Rating: * * *
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