The X-Files
We are blessed with an episode written by Darin Morgan so I don't think we should waste anytime. Let's get right into it.
"Revelations"
Priest: "Sometimes we must come full circle to find the truth. Why does that surprise you?"
Dana Scully: "Mostly it just makes me afraid."
Priest: "Afraid?"
Dana Scully: "Afraid that God is speaking, but no one's listening."
Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW
X-File of the Week: Reverend Patrick Finley, a minister in Waynesburg, PA, is murdered by a strange silver haired man after showing signs of stigmata. Special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully come to investigate because Finley is the eleventh "stigmatic" to be killed and just like the others, Finley is revealed to be a fraud. An elementary school boy, Kevin Kryder, is the next to show signs and the first to seem genuine. It's a role reversal for the agents as Mulder is the skeptic of Kevin's stigmata and his importance, while Scully believes she must protect him.
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| Y'all wanted a twist? |
For the past two and half seasons, we've been confronted with a pretty straightforward motif when it comes to Mulder and Scully. Mulder believes and Scully is a skeptic. It is a tried and true formula that has worked for the show from the onset. Well, guess what? We are getting a shift as the show for the first time really leans hard into Scully's Catholic faith and how it changes her perspective on things.
Scully has always worn a cross and spoken briefly about faith, but "Revelations" is really the first time the show has leaned into it and shown how it impacts her partnership with Mulder. I think my main problem with the show introducing this is that it feels really stereotypical and lazy. It feels obvious and the writing on the show isn't always nuanced enough to take it to a different place.
Luckily, the show has an ace in its sleeve in Gillian Anderson. Anderson is a phenomenal actress and she does a great job of selling all this. There are some nice moments where Anderson does some stellar face acting. You see her shift from not being sure of what to make of this boy to deciding that she needed to take his place as his protector. I really enjoyed her ending monologue with the priest at confession. I don't necessarily buy what she is selling, but that doesn't mean that Anderson doesn't sell every word of it.
Part of my struggle is that the writer, Kim Newton, really puts the pedal to the metal. Scully is dropping so many Catholic facts, like when she tells Mulder that saints smelled like flowers when they decompose when she is performing the autopsy of Owen Lee Jarvis. I just wish this had been part of Scully's character from the start. It would be way less jarring. And the the role reversal between the two agents is too much as well. There's no nuance at all. It feels like when Mulder and Scully disagree about viewpoints they at least try to see each other's point of view. Mulder is staunchly agains this. And I kind of get it. I don't love religion so I would probably be just as incredulous but if I was someone who was routinely asking my partner to believe things that are impossible, I might give her a little more grace when she asks the same of me.
I actually really. like the plot of this episode too. I think there is a lot here. The idea of these fake stigamatics being killed. A child being the one that might be legit. This could have been really compelling stuff. Kenneth Welsh is great as the killer, Simon Gates. He is very unassuming which makes him even more terrifying when he chokes someone out or just causally reaches out and touches a scalding hot engine. He's one of the best things about the episode.
"The X-Files" likes to vague things up, but maybe things are a little too vague in this episode. I needed more backstory on Gates and Jarvis. I needed to know more about Kevin's dad. Was he always a religious fanatic or did this just kind of spring up when Kevin displayed the stigmata. I'm really ragging on this episode, but it was still entertaining. It wasn't like a slog to get through. It just doesn't live up to the standard that season 3 has set so far.
Grade: C
"War of the Coprophages"
Fox Mulder: "Bambi also has a theory I've come to acro..."
Dana Scully: "Who?"
Fox Mulder: "Dr. Berenbaum. Anyway her theory is..."
Dana Scully: "Her name is Bambi?"
Fox Mulder: "Yeah. Both her parents are naturalists. Her theory is that UFOs are actually nocturnal insect swarms passing through electrical fields."
Dana Scully: "Her name is Bambi?"
Notable Guest Star: Tyler Labine (of "Reaper" and "Dale & Tucker Vs Evil") as Stoner
Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW
X-File of the Week: In Miller's Grove, MA people are being killed by cockroaches. Special Agent Fox Mulder just happens to be near there on a walkabout and gets pulled in to investigating these strange murders. Conversing with Dana Scully by phone, she provides him plausible explanations for each murder but when Mulder discovers secret experiments being ran by the government involving cockroaches, Mulder gets deeper involved and Scully decides she needs to join him... and Dr. Bambi.
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| Scully working from home. |
Darin Morgan pens yet another all-time "X-Files" classic with "War of the Coprophages." From the cold open, you know that you are watching something special. The almost Shakespearean soliloquy that the man gives at the beginning is pitch perfect. The lighting. The inflection. The way the man is holding the cockroach to the light. He handles that cockroach as if it is poor Yorick's skull. It makes the shift so much more impactful. The reveal that this is just a common exterminator. The way his voice changes and morphs into that rougher New Englander accent. His assertion to Dr Eckerle that there is a more humane way to kill these cockroaches but he prefers this spray that will stay on a roach until it makes its way back to its nest infecting the rest of them and killing them all. When he gleefully crunches the cockroach under his shoe. It makes the murder of the exterminator that happens moments later feel almost personal. I have to give mad props to the director of this episode, the late, great Kim Manners. Kim directed this and many episode of "The X-Files" and "Supernatural." This episode proves why he is a legend. Every choice he makes in this episode is the right one.
Darin Morgan knows the characters of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Every conversation they have just crackles and he does some of the best showcasing of the characters chemistry the show has seen so far and the craziest thing about it is that most of their scenes occur while they are both on the phone. The conversation they have at the beginning of the episode before the local sheriff stumbles up on Mulder in his car is one of my favorite exchanges between the agents of all time. There's a reason why I would just show all of Morgan's episodes to anyone who was curious about the show but was on the fence about making the time investment. They just show someone exactly what this show and what these characters are all about.
The role reversal that happens in this episode is much more organic and impactful than the one we got in "Revelations." Usually in a situation like this, Mulder would encourage Scully to come and meet him in Miller's Grove. Instead, he accepts her explanations without question really. It could be because we are talking about killer cockroaches? Who knows? But it's not long before Scully starts to feel the FOMO and heads to Miller's Grove on her own. This episode really allows Anderson to flex her comedic muscles, which is not what Scully usually gets to do. That scene in the convenience store is just comedy gold and Anderson really does great. There are so many fantastic micro moments like her eating the spilled candy. And the reason I made her conversation with Mulder about Bambi the opening quote is because it makes me laugh just reading through it think of Scully's inflections and reactions to Mulder's casual mentions of Dr. Bambi.
Dr. Bambi Berenbaum is one of the great "The X-Files" one off characters. It's not a surprise that the majority of these memorable characters come from Darin Morgan penned episodes. Dr. Bambi is introduced as a joke initially, but she is far from that. She's clearly very smart and the moment she starts talking to Mulder about her theories about what UFO's really are, he's a smitten kitten. It feels like she almost gets him to reconsider his entire ideology. Tyler Labine's stoner character gets a special mention here because this isn't the only season three episode he and the female stoner will be featured. Stay tuned.
There are some really cool sequences in this episode and the creep factor is amped up by the use of cockroaches. Everyone pretty much feels like cockroaches are gross and I am right there with Mulder in regards to his feelings about insects in general. They are the worst. The moving walls in the USDA house where Dr. Bambi is conducting her research. The cockroaches burrowing under and moving under the skin of the poor stoner that tries to cut them out of himself. It's so freaking good.
The way that Morga weaves this kind of ludicrous idea of killer cockroaches into the fabric of the show with potential alien drones and government conspiracy nonsense is both hilarious and extremely, extremely clever. It never goes fully into the serious zone but in the back half of the episode as Mulder learns more about these "cockroaches" the tone shifts a little bit and you wonder if maybe there is more to it.
I could go on and on and on but instead I'd rather encourage you to go watch this episode. If you've seen it, go watch it again. You won't be disappointed.
Grade: A+
Next up the agents face high school girls and a gargoyle.
What do you all think? Am I being too harsh on the shift of focus to Scully's faith? Is "War of the Coprophages?" an instant classic? Let me know in the comments.
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