X-Files 8.17 "Empedocles"--sorry for the delay, I was abducted by aliens...

I thought about telling you all about it but...nah, I'll just go on with my
life as though nothing out of the ordinary happened.

This episode was pretty OK. What really hacks me off is I'm so freaking
desperate that I considered calling this a good episode because the 8
minutes or so that Mulder and Scully were together were so wonderful and so
sweet and so pickin' adorable I forgot that....HEY We used to get 40
minutes or so of Mulder and Scully together (OK 30, then he'd ditch her and
then 5 at the end). We can't let them manipulate us like this.

The show opens with a guy, Jeff getting unexpectedly fired from his job.
He's kinda in a state of shock, and he wanders outside the office, where he
witnesses the end of a high-speed police chase. There's a fiery crash, and
this guy gets out of one of the cars, ON FIRE, and walks up to Jeff and
*passes through him* but no one seems to notice. Jeff's eyes get all red
and flamy, he goes upstairs and shoots two of his bosses. Did I miss the
part where we understand why he had a gun or where he got it? Doesn't fit
with the whole "thread of evil made me do it" thing.

Agt. Moonbeam Reyes arrives. The investigators have called on her because
they think Jeff (who's fled the scene) was into weird stuff--Moonbeam's
specialty. I thought Annabeth Gish was much improved in this ep over her
debut, but she was still a little too chipper when she told the Atlanta cop
that her area of expertise was satanic ritual murder *big grin.* The cop
finds what he thinks is satanic literature, but Reyes tells him it's just
the CD booklet for a "Marilyn Manson" album--"you're kids probably listened
to it," she smiles. Uh, yeah, X-Files, maybe if it was 1998--but then you
were pretty darn good and scary in 1998 weren't you? Maybe it's wishful
thinking. Reyes stoops to examine one of the body and it turns to ash
before her eyes--what the ???? But then we realize it's all in moonbeam's
head.

Cut to: Adorable Mulder and Scully banter. Scully is waiting for a pizza,
and Mulder wonders if said pizza man is the father of Scully's baby. Yuk,
not knowing who the father of your kid is--hilarious, especially when you
can't even figure out how you got pregnant. Not scary AT ALL.

Scully tells Mulder she feels like they're stuck in an episode of "mad
About you"-- you mean the last year of the show when the overpaid stars
tried to get blood out of stone when they should have bowed out gracefully
the year before?

Nice dialogue alert: When the pizza guy asks Mulder for $29.08, Mulder
quips, "What'd she get on it, a tank of gas?" Mulder has a present for
her--a family heirloom, he claims. But Scully has abdominal pains and must
be rushed to the hospital before the gift can be opened. Mulder and Dogg
both arrive at the hospital (Dogg having found out about Scully's condition
from her building manger). The nurse asks the very unlikely question "Are
you the husband?" to both men. In 2001, wouldn't she just ask if they were
the father? Or merely if they are family (later in the episode, Jeff's
sister accompanies him, without being asked "are you the wife?" ) the men
snarl at one another. Reyes calls Mulder's cell phone and asks his help.
He tells her to ask Doggett. "I can't, it involves Dogg. So Mulder leaves
Scully at the hospital because...he's THAT suspicious of Dogg? I didn't
buy it.

Jeff tries to kill himself, but then sees the fiery evil in himself in the
mirror and doesn't do it.

Reyes is in a big old room full of files when Mulder arrives. Mulder, by
the way, is wearing the never-before-seen combination of baby blue sweater
with black leather jacket--very nice. Mulder learns of Dogg's son "Luke
John Doggett," who was abducted and murdered at the age of seven while Dogg
was with the NYPD. Reyes worked the case, they never found out who did it.
Mulder is shaken by the revelation. Reyes tells Mulder she had the same
vision of a body turning to ash when she found Luke's body four years ago.
Reyes informs Mulder that Dogg told her he had the same vision, but has
since talked himself out of it. Mulder is intrigued by the revelation
about Dogg and refreshed by Reyes's open-mindedness.

Meanwhile, Dogg visits Dana, but has a flashback to finding his son's dead
body. Dana's too drugged out to notice. The nurse kicks him out, saying
visiting is for "immediate family" only. Yeah, what're the odds of them
showing up? What if you don't have immediate family anyway, does that mean
you can't have visitors ever? Dogg finds Mulder looking at his son's file
and screams at him to stay out of his life. Reyes tells Dogg she asked him
to look into it. Dog is displeased. She tells him that Mulder has found a
connection between Dogg's son and Office Jeff--the flamy guy that was
killed in the car wreck had been a suspect in Luke's murder. Dogg ain't
trying to hear that.

Reyes visits Jeff's sister, who insists he's to sweet and gentle to be a
killer. Jeff calls her while Reyes is there, but sis covers.

Dogg visits doped Scully again--you know, Gillian did a lot more
work/stunts when she REALLY WAS PREGNANT. Now that she's merely faking,
she's out of the picture all the time. Dogg asks Scully what changed her
mind about the paranormal, what made her believe. Scully tells him she
realized she had been afraid to believe, and doesn't come with anything
really specific about what she does actually believe, naturally. Dogg has
another flashback about Reyes and a bunch of cops standing over his son's
dead body. Scully's concerned for Dogg but to druggy to be any help.

Mulder tells Reyes he knows the X-Files like the back of his hand and that
her visions don't mean jack. She insists they mean something. He tells
her they're HIS X-Files--how dare she read something into them that he
doesn't see, nyah nyah?? Reyes accuses him of being so bitter about
losing the X-Files (where IS Mulder assigned these days? ) he's refusing to
help DOgg. Mulder blows her off, but not before Reyes throws him the
ultimate insult--"close-minded." Yee-ouch.

Jeff kills someone else. Reyes see the vision at this body too. She calls
Mulder and Dogg to the scene and wants Dogg to tell her if he sees the
vision. He says he doesn't and Reyes accuses HIM of blinding himself to
the truth. She tells the boys her theory: she thinks a "thread of evil" is
connecting all these deaths. Mulder is both impressed with her audacious
theory and irked at her lack of sensitivity. Who does she remind me of?
He defends Doggett, telling her to leave the guy alone. Dogg and Reyes
exchange a "I'm very disappointed in you" look.

Mulder visits Scully. She says they need to monitor her for awhile. He
feels the baby and tells her he was with Moonbeam and Dogg. Scully says
she likes Agent Reyes--uh, interesting. I don't really your liking her
much at all, Dana. He inquires about Dogg's dead son. She says she knows
about it (presumably from when she read his file) but that he's never
discussed it. OK, the only two Dana/Dogg scenes I actually want to see are
1) Dogg talking about his kid and 2) Scully talking about her lifelong
experience with military types such as Dogg. Doesn't look like I'll get
either. I would have liked to see Dana and Dogg open up to each other more
earlier in the year WHEN THE SHOW SUCKED. It would have helped. Anyway,
Mulder tells Scully he was unable to help Dogg because he didn't want to be
helped. Scully tells Mulder that Dogg is a good man, and worth his effort.

Jeff arrives at his sister's place. Despite her earlier claims to believe
in his innocence, she's freaked to see him.

Reyes and Dogg have it out. She tells him he needs to follow the vision to
find Jeff, but he wants to do it in his no-nonsense New York cop sort of
way. He confesses to Reyes that he's afraid to believe in the paranormal.
He's afraid that there were other avenues to explore in trying to find his
son, and by not believing, he let him down. They are interrupted by Jeff's
sister, who calls Reyes and asks for her help with Jeff. Jeff is getting
flamy eyes again and smells a trap when his sister asks him to get away
from her daughter. He takes the little girl hostage when Dogg holds a gun
on him. Dogg drops his gun, and Jeff makes a move as if to fire at him, so
Reyes shoots him.

At the hospital, Reyes tries to comfort Dogg with her theory--maybe the
whole point of following the thread of evil was so they could save this
girl. Which makes no sense to me at all because the implication with the
on-fire car crash guy was that it if it wasn't for Jeff encountering him,
he wouldn't have killed anyone in the first place...right? Regardless,
Dogg isn't convinced. He visits Scully, then Mulder asks him into the hall
for a man to man chat. He tells Dogg about the horrifying things he saw
when he was in the violent crimes unit. He imparts a theory about evil,
that people have an immunity to it that can be weakened by a loss or
traumatic incident, and then a person can be open to it. Dogg asks "Do you
believe that?" Mulder shrugs, "I'm a bad example. I'll believe almost
anything." Dogg is still upset, but the men seem to have forged an
understanding.

Jeff dies. His doctor is played by Denise Crosby, Bing Crosby's
granddaughter who played "Tasha" on Star Trek:TNG. Reyes tries to comfort
Jeff's sister--which seemed pretty farfetched. I mean, justified or not,
she killed the guy. Why on earth would she think his sister would be open
to her even hanging around, let alone trying to help her? The sister gets
the flamy eyes from her brother and bashes Reyes over the head with some
sort of oxygen canister or whatnot and then takes Reyes's gun. Dogg is
able to restrain her.

Scully is out of the hospital. She misses her pizza guy, as Mulder has
brought the food. It is soft T-shirt Mulder, my favorite. He reminds her
to open her gift. Mulder, who gave her a "Superstars of the Super Bowls"
video to celebrate her return from alien abduction (One Breath, season 2)
and a silly NASA key-chain to tell her "happy birthday and please don't die
I love you" ("Tempus Fugit" Season 4), stuns Scully and me both by
presenting her with an antique doll. She is moved. She thanks him for
this, and his greatest gift to her: courage to believe.

Dogg is left at the hospital looking at Jeff's sister, wondering if the
thread of evil will go on, and if the answer to his son's death is at the
other end somehow.

This episode was penned by Greg Walker, who wrote that icky abysmal "twin"
episode earlier in the year, with the guy that had x-ray vision? This is a
vast improvement. But the overall story problems continue. Why wasn't
Dogg's son brought up between Dogg and Dana? Is Mulder the father or not?
This isn't suspenseful, its irritating. Worst, Scully was in the hospital
and her baby was monitored for a length of time--is this all part of the
conspiracy, or does this mean the baby's human? I'll say it again, how
"shocking" is the delivery going to be when "alien baby" has been in the
back of everyone's mind ever since Season? Whatever.

To its credit, I could see potential for a working relationship between
Gish and Patrick as moonbeam and Dogg. The problem is, I have always cared
about the black oil and the bees and the cigarette smoking man and the
fluke worms and the contagions and the lone gunmen blah blah blah BECAUSE
of Mulder and Scully. I can see "The X-Files" carrying on with Reyes and
Doggett--it might even be an interesting, occasionally dang good and creepy
show.

But without Mulder and Scully, it won't have my heart.

Christine :)