X-Files 8.5 "Invocation" NOT the worst episode ever....

We're at least moving in the right direction.

I liked the overall story, but the execution was faulty. This was written
by David Amman, who wrote the horrible "Agua Mala" hurricane in Florida
episode that was played for laughs despite the deaths of several people
including a small boy, and the pretty cool "Rush" where the kids get
addicted to those caves that make them experience super fast time or
whatever? (Yes, Laura, the guy from Young Americans was in it. Be Strong.)
This episode was neither as bad as Agua, nor as good as "rush."

I thought this one would've been a million times better had they TONED DOWN
THE FREAKIN' MUSIC. I've ranted about this before but it really is like
we're stupid. The "twist" ending, the kid NOT being evil, would have been
cooler if not for the overkill of satan-kid horror movie music. I kept
thinking "this can't be a demon possessed kid, it's too obvious." Had they
not had that annoying music and just had it unfold (dog freaking out etc.)
with a bit more subtlety, it would have been a stronger outing. I also
wondered if this was an old idea they had from the Mulder days, but maybe
not. A kidnapping case is a logical thing for the FBI to be called in (in
real life, I don't think the FBI can have jurisdiction on cases just
because they're weird).

The kidnapping angle of course leads us to Mulder's sister Samantha, and
Scully's comment about some alien abductees returning unaged was the thing
that made me wonder if this script predated Doggett. It also made me thing
about how royally the show botched the whole Samantha thing. It was this
painful loss that informed Mulder's every move and thought and his quest to
find her was our quest, and then it sort of petered out in that bizarre
freaky kid world that Silent Billy seems to be from (hey, continuity???
Nah.) Mulder gave up the search for his sister with a shrug--"yeah, she
must be dead, never mind the last 25 years of my life."

The fact that Billy wouldn't speak seemed to be more surprising to everyone
on the show than it would be to me--I mean, wouldn't he be traumatized. I
liked the idea that everyone would be put-off by the kid, but people
weren't freaked enough. And where were the tabloids? the media crush? It
hardly seemed to be a secret and wouldn't it have caused a sensation? Mom
was a little too willing to accept it, but maybe that's how a mom would
be--everyone else sensed what he WASN'T--a 'real boy," where as mom knows
what he IS--her baby.

Dog was again irritating with his whole "see no paranormal hear no
paranormal" spiel where he says (basically)"all I care about is who took
him, I will not concern myself with the fact that he should be 10 years
older." Again, Scully's too angry at his rationalism, although she does,
at the end, finally say "Been there done that " about the Skeptic thing.

The knife thing was cool. At the commercial, after he goes into Josh's
room, I was like "It CAN'T be this stupid" and it wasn't. His blood on the
knife (his murder weapon) was the first real clue to the fact that he's
just passing through trying to avenge his own death. But, his going into
his brother's room and plunging it into the mattress was...troublesome.
Again, like the music, it was trying too hard to lead us in the wrong
direction, which made me go "why are they trying so hard for him to seem
evil, it's gotta be something else." I was leaning towards Josh, the other
kid being evil or something. Fortunately for them, the show's abject
lameness the first four episodes made me willing to view the red herring
story as a possibility to the bitter end--I knew it was indeed possible
that this was just another demon-kid story.

If I were from Oklahoma, I'd be really pissed about the trailer park thing.
It seemed kinda clichй in a "God only knows what people are like in that
bid wide expanse I fly over between NYC and LA" typical Hollywood way.

Doggett looks at a picture of a little boy--yea! he has
angst/demon/personality SOMETHING--a past! Booo--may be to close to
Mulder's angst/demon/past. Hopefully the kid is merely dead and not
kidnapped (he's not a REAL child, merely a means to an end--making one of
our leads more interesting--so it's OK for me to say that.) Maybe he died
in an accident, maybe he was murdered--maybe he's a troubled teen in a
mental hospital. We'll see. If he's missing, I'll scream.

The whole thing where Dog got mad because they wanted to remove him was
bizarre--kids wandering around with knifes: bad.

I found Scully's being open to the possibility that this psychic wasn't a
crackpot TOTALLY FRUSTRATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll scream a
little now, "AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!" I mean, OK, maybe
she believes in the conspiracy and aliens but have they just decided she
Believes everything now? It's never been established that she would take
this woman seriously at all. I believe in demons but not ghosts, the loch
ness but not vampires, angels but not aliens. She's too blasй about
believing stuff that last year she would have rolled her eyes at. I also
don't always have a bead on what Dog and Dana are arguing about half the
time. Mulder and Scully's conflict was so basic and motivated by their
worldview: his need to believe in the unbelievable, her need to explain
everything. Dog and Dana just seem to bicker, just seem to be contrary,
just seem to shift opinion throughout the cases for no reason other than to
illustrate THEY ARE DIFFERENT. Get over it. Get past this.

DIALOGUE ALERT: "I take psychic readings, not see through walls."
HUH? If she'd said "I take psychic readings, I don't see through walls", I
would have understood what she said without having to think about it for a
minute. Dog's joke about her knowing whether or not they were coming
seemed reminiscent of a similar joke in "Poltergeist" although, I'm sure if
you purport to be a psychic, you probably get jokes like that all the time.
If you are a psychic in Oklahoma, people probably wonder why you didn't
know that tornado was going to demolish your trailer. I can't believe that
Scully, Dog or Mom would let this woman freak out around this kid. I mean,
as far as they know, he's this traumatized kid and they want this strange
woman getting readings off him? Anyone else thing that symbol looked like
the Blair Witch symbol? Did Scully pick up on the thing about Dog's kid(?)
or not?

If you had one kid abducted, I'll bet you a million dollars you don't leave
your other kid alone in a parked car, and I'll bet if you are said kid, you
don't WANT your dad to leave you alone and you certainly don't wander off.
He should be more clingy and dad should be all smothery. Josh also seemed
to old to be lured by a pony--especially as...don't they have alot of them
in Oklahoma?

The tape thing--singing on the tape fell flat to me--trying to hard.

So, creepy guy only kidnaps once every ten years? And accomplice/victim
guy...did he kill Billy to save him or did creepy mustache guy do
everything and a/v guy was just a witness? I wasn't sure. But, it was
cool that Billy was reappearing to avenge his death (why now? and how
could Dog (according to psychic) be a sort of catalyst if he only came onto
the case after Billy appeared?) So, not a great episode, not very
well-written, but a nice X-File. Improvement, that's good.

Where's Mrs. Scully? I want my Scully's!

Whether it's in the Superbowl, or merely in a meaningless game between two
sub-par teams, there's something deeply satisfying about kicking some San Diego
Charger butt.

Next week look cool to me--Joe Morton, always good, and the story looks
cool, and premonitions are neat. Have a good week! Christine :)