The X-Files
It's been a journey but we've reached the end of season three. I'm sad to leave it behind because it's a really great season. Really peak "X-Files." Let's get into these last two episodes.
"Wetwired"
Fox Mulder: "Scully, you are the only one I trust."
Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW
X-File of the Week: In Braddock Heights, MD, a man murders multiple people including his own wife, but he keeps seeing the same face on all of them. A nameless informant points special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully to the case. It turns out another woman in the neighborhood attacked the children she was babysitting because she thought they were wolves. Things take a turn when Scully begins acting like the people who are murdering people seemingly out of nowhere.
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| These guys... |
This episode is kind of a combination of mythology and monster of the week. It's not mythology really because it's not really tied in to the Syndicate and their plans of colonization and alien/human hybrids, but they are certainly involved in what is going on in this episode. Mulder is told about the murders through an informant that is clearly working for someone that Mulder knows. I like this as the penultimate episode. The season finale episodes are always mythology episodes that push the main storyline of the series forward, so I think it's a good idea to remind people of what's going on to prepare them for the final episode.
As usual, Scully is a highlight in this episode. We get to see her in a light that we don't usually. It starts even before she becomes ultra paranoid. When they are discussing what could be going on, Scully suggests that perhaps the murderers got these violent impulses because of what they were watching on TV. Mulder scoffs at this, referring to it as pseudo science. It is definitely strange to see Mulder denouncing pseudoscience because he is usually the one championing it. This definitely feels like the show commenting on something. In the '90's it was very common for parents groups to rampage against shows like "The X-Files" trying to claim that kids would become violent because they were watching it, which is ridiculous. It definitely feels like this episode is pushing back on that, but in a way that doesn't feel overly preachy.
Gillian Anderson continues to be the show's not so secret weapon. She's such an amazing actress. When she starts to see things and become suspicious of Mulder you feel it. Her body language. Her facial expressions. They are all so good. I love the scene in the hotel room when she thinks she is hearing the clicking noise on the phone and the way her eyes dart around. How she's kind of withdrawn in to herself like a cornered animal. This episode also touches maybe the most directly on Scully's feelings on her abduction. When she confronts Mulder at her mother's house, there is just so much emotion about everything she's going on and it's kind of nice to see her verbalize these anxieties. It would have been nice of her to do it without the gun, but still...
I really love this episode and I kind of forget how much I do, so it sort of sneaks up on me. The pacing is so good. It plays really well into the things that make "The X-Files" so great. The paranoia. The conspiracy theories. The idea that the government is plotting against us at all times and of course, they would use television to do it.
We get the return of the Lone Gunmen which is always great. I love when you can tell that the writers of an episode have really thought about everything. I immediately wondered why Mulder was unaffected by the tapes when Scully was and the Lone Gunmen bring this up. It turns out that Mulder is red/green colorblind, which they posit is maybe why he wasn't impacted in the same way Scully was.
This is really a classic episode. X showing up and saying that he is the one that sent the informant to Mulder. The doctor from the asylum working for the Syndicate. It all ties nicely together and we are left pretty much exactly how we began with the agents having no proof and the villains getting away scot free. Classic "X-Files."
Grade: A
"Talitha Cumi"
Jeremiah Smith: "You're wrong."
The Cigarette Smoking Man: [smiling coldly] "Oh, am I?"
Jeremiah Smith: "... You're dying of lung cancer."
The Cigarette Smoking Man: [looking confused and shocked] "That's a lie."
Jeremiah Smith: [smirking] "You think it's a lie."
Mythology or Monster of the Week: Mythology
X-File of the Week: At a fast food restaurant in Arlington, Virginia, a gunman threatens the crowd. He's approached by a man who tries to stop him but he ends up shooting three people and is shot himself by the police. Everyone is healed by the mysterious man who promptly disappears. Special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are called in and learn that the mysterious man is Jeremiah Smith. Mulder is thrown when he learns that his mother has had a stroke soon after meeting with the Cigarette Smoking Man.
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| All SSA employees look the same. |
This is maybe a little more low key than the previous two season finales. Those were much more fast paced and like pedal to the metal. This episode is much more cerebral and there is a lot of talking but that doesn't mean it's boring. It's a nice change of pace and leads to a great cliffhanger that I'm sure had X-Philes wringing their hands all summer long.
Roy Thinnes plays Jeremiah Smith and he is really great. He looks extremely familiar to me, but when I looked at his IMDb, I didn't see anything that I think I had seen him in beside this. He can be calm and soothing like he is in the cold open, but at the same time, he can be cold and vindictive like when he is speaking with the Cigarette Smoking Man.
Speaking of the Cigarette Smoking Man, this is an interesting episode for him. So far, what we've seen is him being just evil and shadowy, but this episode gives up more sides to him. It's almost like we are starting to get an evolution of him beginning with this episode. There is a lot of talking around things when he speaks with Teena Mulder at their old vacation home. You can tell that she really hates him, but there is more there too. When he is interrogating Smith, Smith keeps changing shape to people that the Cigarette Smoking Man killed including Deep Throat and Bill Mulder. It's great to see the CSM unsettled. He's usually so in control, but he's definitely freaked out when he sees his old "friends" and when it's revealed that he is dying of lung cancer. His scene with Mulder at the hospital seems... genuine? Like he's really there to check on Teena. That may be the most unsettling thing of all.
If I have one complaint about these interrogation scenes, it's almost that they are talking in circles here. There is a lot of talk about the project and how Smith lost faith in it. There are these roundabout things and it is kind of frustrating. I'm all for a good edging, but maybe it's time to give viewers some release. So, I did appreciate towards the end of the epsidoe when Mulder talks about colonization and there actually being a date in mind.
It doesn't pay to be related to Fox Mulder or Dana Scully. Mulder's dad and Scully's sister have both been assassinated and now it is dear, sweet Teena Mulder's turn. I have a soft spot for Teena and I love how she holds her own with the Cigarette Smoking Man. I was super sad when she had that stroke and things aren't looking good for her when the episode is over. Though, even throughout all that she's able to give her son one last clue that leads him to finding a stiletto like the Alien Bounty Hunter used to murder his victims.
Speaking of the Alien Bounty Hunter, he's back, back, back again. Once Smith is taken into custody he masquerades as Smith and escapes when the agents confront him at the Social Security Administration where the actual Smith works. Things do start to pick up right as the episode ends. Scully discovers an identical Jeremiah Smith working in Social Security Administration offices throughout the country. The episode ends with the Alien Bounty Hunter showing up to murder Smith.
If there's one thing that is not necessarily bad but kind of funny is the fight between X and Mulder in the parking garage. Whenever there is a fistfight in "The X-Files" it can feel really clumsy and awkward. It doesn't feel like any fight choreographer at all. It's just like the actors are whinging it.
Overall, this is a great episode and I appreciated the slower paced more emotional approach to the season finale mythology episode. And there is a solid cliffhanger that will tide us over to season four.
Grade: B+
Next up, season four begins as we learn the fate of Jeremiah Smith and then we meet the worst family ever.
What did you all think? A strong ending for season three? And what did you think of season three as a whole? Let me know in the comments.
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