Tuesday 19 January 2016

Mulder and Scully Revisited VII

It's getting to the pointy end of 201 Days of The X-Files now! We're right near the end of the ninth season in our viewing now. Mulder and Scully have given way to Doggett and Reyes, but Scully is still around, as is Skinner. No Mulder until the last episode. But, let's look back two seasons ago, like I've been doing. The seventh series is lauded by some as the series' pinnacle. This could be due to how different the show became after Mulder's disappearance (catalysed by Duchovny's desire to leave). Anyway, here's my five favourites from season seven...

**Warning: spoilers ahead**

CLOSURE (7ABx11)
A strong contender for my favourite X-Files episode ever, as Samantha's fate is finally unveiled. I'm sure there were many who felt disappointed in this revelation, as it had nothing at all to do with an alien abduction. The episode before this, Sein und Zeit, was another great offering, and the way the plot shifted from a typical "monster-of-the-week" story into a Samantha one was just brilliant. I also quite liked Anthony Heald's performance as Harold Piller, the psychic that offers his help to Mulder. Piller's refusal to acknowledge his own son's fate is just as heartbreaking as Mulder's acceptance. The use of Moby's song My Weakness is eerily exceptional; it's so haunting. When I heard that music again during the episode it brought back all the feelings from the last time I viewed it. The whys and hows of what happened to Samantha aren't as important as Mulder finally knowing. The final words of the episode are Mulder's response to Scully when she asks how he is: "I'm fine. I'm free." As the title says, he gets closure and can now move on. 

X-COPS
(7ABx12)

The merging of The X-Files with reality TV show Cops was a stroke of genius, and who better to write the script than Vince Gilligan? I'm a big fan of how the cameras follow the action, and it's like we're not just viewers, we're participants. Watching Mulder and Scully look into the cameras is hilarious too. I love how Scully initially wants nothing to do with it, and then mugs for the camera as the episode continues: "Because the FBI has nothing to hide." Mulder seems to be a lot more comfortable with the situation and plays up to cameras beautifully, even giving the show's staple monologues a crack. What starts out as a hunt for some kind of monster gives way to an even scarier premise. Great episode!

HOLLYWOOD A.D. (7ABx18)
David Duchovny's second go at writing and directing an episode is a great romp that manages to lampoon movie studios, pop culture and religious relics. The appearances of Garry Shandling and Téa Leoni are fantastic too, as they play Mulder and Scully in the film version of the episode's events. It's a very funny outing with some great scenes and wonderful dialogue. My favourite moment is the three-way split screen of Mulder, Scully and Skinner in a bubble bath (separate ones). Put simply, I just find the episode a lot of fun to watch.

JE SOUHAITE (7ABx21)This episode was the directing debut of Vince Gilligan who also wrote the script. I remembered this entry as being fairly good, but I forgot just how funny it was. I laughed harder than any other episode in the seventh season. The sheer stupidity of Anson Stokes and his brother as they struggle to come up with decent wishes from a rug-living jinn, or genie, is truly hilarious.  It's dismissed by some as a bit of fluff, but I think it's hugely entertaining.

REQUIEM (7ABx22)
The season finale does a great job of bookending the series to that point. Harking back to elements and characters from the pilot episode, this outing quite rightly draws a circle around the entire show. We get to see Krycek, Cigarette Smoking Man and Marita Covarrubias again as well. From this point on, everything about the show changes, as Mulder's abduction signals Duchovny's departure. He would star in twelves episodes of the eighth season (roughly) and only the two-part final of season nine. The cliffhanger ending is all the more poignant for Mulder ultimately gets proof of alien life, but at the cost of abduction.


HONOURABLE MENTIONS:
The Goldberg Variation, Sein und Zeit, En Ami and The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati.


STINKERS: all things (sorry, Gillian!), Chimera and Fight Club

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