Things Are Getting Strange

Dreamland II continues with some possible stake-raising. Can Mulder and Fletcher get back to their original bodies? And what might be the fallout if they can? Not that Mulder learns a huge amount during his somewhat brief visits to Areas 51. Meanwhile Fletcher sets his sights on Scully...

We discuss the weirdness of extending the joke episode out this long and how a fair amount of it doesn't really make sense. We completely forgot that Fletcher - like the rest of Area 51 - knows less about aliens that Mulder at this point. And Samantha is referenced and apparently we're continuing to ignore what Redux II had to say about her...

It is a bold choice to continue The X-Files with Michael McKean in place of Mulder after the events of Dreamland. Okay, so the body-switch did get reversed in time for this Christmas special of How the Ghosts Stole Christmas.

Which is a much better Christmas special than the last time The X-Files did something so seasonal. But while the episode is fun, the weird limitations of the episode hamper things - and we note how weirdly blunt Chris Carter is being in this episode.

Where has the darkness in The X-Files gotten to?

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Triangle is the second X-Files time-travel episode!

Maybe.

It could be the first Wizard of Oz X-Files episode which does make everything a lot weirder. And if we're honest, its a bit more likely. It doesn't help that the ship is less than accurate, the German is less than accurate and even the code names are inaccurate. Still this is a popular episode from Chris Carter himself.

It feels a bit like a Doctor Who episode at points. And does deliver a Sculder kiss. Sort of. More of a surprise was the Skinner/Scully kiss we'd completely forgotten about.

If venturing near Area 51, try to do so when malfunctioning US made UFOs aren't overhead. Then you won't get body-swapped with a genuine MIB....

Dreamland has a lot of great gags and a lot of not great other monster of the week stuff. While One Breath might have given us a glimpse of how CSM spends his days not at work, Dreamland gives us a whole MIB family for Mulder to make everything worse for.

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The X-Files returns to TV with season 6. And a new locale. One these first two episodes are not remotely subtle about...

For The Beginning, we talk about apparent Grey alien lifecycles and Chris Cater's pettiness. And where is Krycek even now? Its so hard not to contrast the black oil as it exists back to Piper Maru and how different everything was. We just don't talk about bees.

Drive kind of gets overwhelmed by its big guest star - not least this is a major part of how he was cast in Breaking Bad. But its a great episode - and as far as Nick was concerned for the longest time; the series opener.

For a change its Mulder's turn to get kidnapped but we do have to ask how he still doesn't get how to operate within the FBI on non-X-Files stuff without lashing out constantly.

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We're off to the movies!

The X-Files film (or Fight the Future - however rightly or wrongly it is so named) still holds up really well all these years later. Actual concrete details about the whole conspiracy are unveiled! Backstory! The threat! The slim hope of salvation!

Just... We get into how much the Black Oil has changed since its introduction in Piper Maru. And how the Syndicate have gotten very kill Mulder in this film. Also its hard not to notice some weird echoed plot-beats to season 5 episodes, how rapidly Well Manicured Man pivots depending on situation and episode and ask where the hell is Krycek?

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The inevitable episode where Mulder gets himself committed.

Folie a Deux is a great creepy episode that is almost a black comedy, but remains a fine creature-feature for the tail-end of season 5. There's some Philip K Dick in this episode - as well as a touch of Lovecraft.

We are admittedly in danger of just praising Vince Gilligan all the time, but this is a really good penultimate episode that has nothing to do with the conspiracy.

The End is the end. Or at least was going to be when The X-Files - like Star Trek - shed any mundane ideas about being a TV series and would instead metamorphose into a film series. That came crashing down to Earth pretty fast, but this episode at least seems prepared for all change and soon.

Shame its a bit of a mess and stuff happens and people do things and Nick is still better he was charged fuil-price for one VHS tape of this episode as it was allegedly vital to the film's setup (Spoiler: barely).

Since we've hit the end of a season we do the usual best and worst episodes - along with best villains.

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It feels a lot like All Souls forgets all about the events of Revelations from season 2 - that time it heavily implied Scully was set to be the next Messiah's guardian in some future conflict. Instead Scully has an opportunity to come to terms with the events of Emily - but also encounter a Seraph (maybe) and the Devil (maybe).

All we really know is that the CGI is terrible. And its oddly easy to get the Seraph confused with one of the other guest cast members. And if we have a devil wandering proceedings, why couldn't we get Mrs Paddock back from Die Hand, Die Verlezt?

Seinfeld has kind of poisoned our estimation of certain actors - thus both of us noted one of them as Kruger rather than the character he was actually called in The Pine Bluff Variant. Inevitably discussion quickly winds up with: if Mulder and/or Skinner just told Scully what was going on, things would go so much more smoothly.

But despite our best efforts, we can't quite make sense of how the part in the cinema actually works - and why anyone would dare touch anything the militia group in this episode has handled.

For those interested:

The composer for the Disney Channel theme video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_rjBWmc1iQ

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...as final words instead of a guy shot by a cop blurting out 'Mulder'.

Well, I suppose he had to get involved in this flashback into the 1950s for Travellers somehow. Into a world of red-scares and transplantation with a mind to... We never quite get what the whole spider in the throat thing is supposed to achieve in this episode. Presumably something but that deal evades the plot as it trundles along.

Also the second appearance of Mulder's wedding ring! Of which not a breath is said in this or any other episode. We're reasonably sure he's not married in the series present. Reasonably.

Seeing Ghosts, sorry, Mind's Eye is basically Oubliette version 2 but with less stakes and distinctly not as good as that earlier episode. We're also really unsure how this remote viewing thing Marty has in this episode actually works - or why the government hasn't seized on this after things like Soft Light?

We also end up talking about Red Dragon quite a bit...

For Those Interested:
The referenced plagiarism debacle is documented here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDp3cB5fHXQ

Maggie Mae Fish's video on HUAC and Strikes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07bwL0fiM1A

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Patient X asks the question of "What would The X-Files be like if Mulder was an absolute jerk" and reveals that it makes us really want to strangle him in this episode. We get into how odd his characterisation has been across this season and how his vehement denial of alien abductions feels a little out of the blue in this episode.

But otherwise we're very keen on both of these episodes even if the syndicate has jettisoned all of their careful euphemisms when talking about aliens and what they have been up to this whole time. Also Krycek has re-entered proceedings again! And we get possibly the most intense and effective cliffhanger for a two-parter since Anasazi!

....bit of a shame the potentially Buckaroo Banzai referencing The Red and the Black seems to lose its nerve with tension and resolves the cliffhanger a handful of minutes in and with a few oddities over it. We get into changing allegiances and discuss how the aliens keep insist on making things really difficult for themselves - seeming only so Mulder can be in the vicinity of weirdness happening.

And... we knew he couldn't be dead. Not really. A long-running villain returns to the fold. And Mulder seems to have his faith back and will hopefully be less insufferable now.

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We're heading back to the 80s for some serious cyberpunk action in the first episode this week with Kill Switch! But somewhat disappointed. Invisigoth has a cool name and a cool look, but ultimately the episode feels a bit unsatisfying.

We discuss William Gibson's writing outside of The X-Files and the vision of AI back here in the 90s and how it contrasts to any current discussion. Also try not to get bogged down in computer discussions about how little sense this makes but also some disappointing ideas not taken. For a fun drinking game, take a shot every-time someone says 'Kill Switch' in this episode.

Bad Blood might not be quite the episode you remember it as being...

This is a Rashomon joke. The second time The X-Files makes use of the differing personal slants on an investigation remains an absolute hoot and an all-time favourite. We are forced to admit how this - like many of the other comedy episodes - diminishes its status as a good X-Files episode even though we love it to pieces.

The X-Files second take on vampires is hard to top all things considered. We strive to not simply list all the moments that make this a thoroughly enjoyable X-File.

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Content warning - Schizogeny - discussion/depictions of child abuse

Content warning - Chinga - above average violence

Schizogeny often ranks amongst the least favourite of all The X-Files, and its really hard not to see it in that kind of light. How the plot fits together, what even is Man with Axe's deal, and how do the villain's powers remotely work are all questions left unanswered by a confusingly shot ending. Nor does the villain seem to have any kind of actual plan.

People overlook evidence and come to strikingly unsatisfying conclusions and even Mulder's oft-noted tendency to read the script doesn't really aid him. Still, for lesser known games, its fun to see MDK in the episode even if this is a fleeting neat moment.

Chinga should be fine. Great even. Stephen King had already written a huge amount by 1998, and yet this episode (in addition to being grossly offensive in Spanish) is something of a mess. A hugely entertaining mess but a mess nonetheless.

Starting with a pretty horrific sting, the episode struggles to navigate between slightly weird and serious and winds up as comedy for the most part. Its not really meant to be as funny as it turns out and the less than effective special effects don't help. Something of a shame this is King's only contribution to the series...

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