David Duchovny – Mikes Film Talk

The X-Files: My Struggles II – A Nod to Millennium & Paranoia

The mini-series season 10 appearance of The X-Files ended on Monday with My Struggles II. The season finale felt a little like a nod to the season two finale of Millennium (Chris Carter’s other odd-ball series featuring the weird and wonderful as well as another “mother” of all conspiracy groups).

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The mini-series season 10 appearance of The X-Files ended on Monday with My Struggles II. The season finale felt a little like a nod to the season two finale of Millennium (Chris Carter’s other odd-ball series featuring the weird and wonderful as well as another “mother” of all conspiracy groups). The season 10 ending, besides being a cliff-hanger of course, also felt a little like a kitchen sink scenario. Carter throws it all in the mixer in the end and leaves us wondering what will come out after.

Peel away all the various mad plot threads; viruses running amok and killing all who do not have the alien DNA, the corruption of the immunity gene and even contrails. What do you have left? The three Carter “Horsemen of the Apocalypse” Dana, Fox and Cigarette Smoking Man. This triangular set of characters who stand above all the madness.

Added to this end game lunacy is aluminum being spread by those contrails, global warming, alien technology, vaccines and not one but a multitude of pandemics all on top of a conspiracy that trumps all others.

The show starts with Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) telling us who she is and a reader’s digest version of her story. In a short time Tad O’Malley (Joel McHale) pops back up on the Internet like a whistle blowing “Tad-in-the-box” warning of a global pandemic that will decimate the earth’s population, beginning with those in authority; police, the military, et al.

The first step in this end-game being run by the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis) starts with Anthrax vaccines running amok in soldiers with no immunity. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) goes missing and as the sick increase in number and the hospital staff treating them start succumbing to the various viruses that surround them, Scully and Einstein race to find a cure.

My Struggle II is, in essence, one long race against time. A touch of backstory exposition is added into the mix and director Chris Carter has worked very hard to cover all his bases. There is a small shift in character arc. Dana, for instance, gets her own personal “Deep Throat” via former FBI agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish).

Sidenote: On top of Dana’s step left, Fox is now (as he has been throughout of the season) the new Scully, an almost official “doubting Mulder.”

Back to “Deep Throat” Reyes, she turns out to be more a bringer of news instead of a whistle blower. Reyes’ job is exposition, she reveals who is behind the pandemics sweeping the planet; Cigarette Smoking Man. The former fed also tells Dana that she is safe and that Fox could be as the CSM “loves him” and wants to offer him a chance to be one of the “chosen.”

The X-Files season finale allows Chris Carter, who also wrote the end episode, to bring all his chickens home to roost. Sadly, while the creator manages to touch base with all the X-File “Boogeymen” in terms of alien conspiracy, the episode drags a little.

Certainly enough that, despite the “race against time” scenario on offer, the finale feels a little over-long. This does not, however, detract from the paranoia on offer from the maestro of all things odd and upsetting within Mulder and Scully’s world.

As Dana and Einstein work frantically to come up with a cure, there are a couple of points in their journey where the viewer cannot help but doubt Einstein’s veracity. The younger red-head manages to be healthy for far too long. So long, in fact, that we begin to believe that she is a member of the Cigarette Smoking Man’s entourage.

For all the build up, finding the missing alien DNA, Mulder’s meeting with CSM, Miller trying to save Fox and so on, the end manages to feel a little rushed. Although kudos to Carter for working Mulder and Scully’s son into the the finale as a pretty important plot point for future episodes.

The ending, with a “space-ship” hovering over Miller, Dana and a dying Fox seconds after Scully explains about stem-cells (another modern boogeyman) from their son being the only thing that may save her baby daddy from dying, was on-point and clearly leaves an opening for a further season, or two, on the cards.

XF_sc35_0009_hires1 — Fox looking a little worse for wear.

Standout Moments:

The Abominable Dr. Phibes moment where William B Davis’ character removes part of his face (also reminiscent of another Vincent Price moment House of Wax) was, perhaps, the highlight of the finale.

The UFO turning up at exactly the right time.

Dana meeting with Reyes a’la Mulder and his own previous “Deep Throat.”

Final Verdict:

This final episode was a grim reminder that behind all the humor of the middle episodes, Carter’s world is full of death, conspiracy, alien technology, the Cigarette Smoking Man and an end game that only a few will survive.

The end and the beginning of this 10th season were a little morose and glum. In between, each installment contained enough gags and joviality (along with a good portion of nods and winks to older episodes and characters) that some moments felt like finely crafted vaudeville routines.

At the very least, a sort of homage to the old Crosby and Hope “road” pictures. For example, when Agents Miller and Einstein knock on the X-Files office door, in Babylon, the following dialogue takes place:

Agent Miller: “Hello? Anyone down here?”

Scully: “Nobody but the FBI’s Most Unwanted. I’ve been waiting 23 years to say that.”

Fox: “How’d it feel?”

Scully: “Pretty good.”

Fox: “Yeah?”

This little exchange feels like a well rehearsed comedy routine done more for David Duchovny’s benefit than for the viewer’s. (And seriously? If you close your eyes, it does feel like Der Bingle and Hope doing a gag.) The exchange does give the two characters a chance to reconnect though, so it makes a certain amount of sense.

In essence, The X-Files, via My Struggle II, brings us right back to the show’s bare bones, which is these three main characters, the two “good guys” and their main nemesis, Cigarette Smoking Man, and this is as it should be.

XF_sc35_0036_hires1 — William B Davis, aka Cigarette Smoking Man.

After all the original series, with Tooms, “Squeeze,” and all the other oddities of Carter’s verse which included Christmas ghosts and other strangeness aside, was really about UFO abductions and Fox’s search for the truth. A voyage of discovery that tangled Scully, Mulder and Cigarette Smoking Man into a single entity of conspiracy and paranoia.

How fitting that these three are once again tied together in the season’s beginning and finale. Well played Mr Carter, well played, even with the kitchen sink.

The X-Files: Review – Babylon

On the surface of The X-Files: Babylon it is an episode where the duo of Mulder and Scully are mirrored in the younger versions of themselves, Miller and Einstein.

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On the surface of The X-Files: Babylon it is an episode where the duo of Mulder and Scully are mirrored in the younger versions of themselves, Miller and Einstein. These mirror images are virtually re-creations of the old team as they were “back in the day.” Scratch past this amusing premise and the real issues of the episode explode in the viewers face, making one think pretty deep thoughts, even while laughing at Mulder’s “trip.”

The episode begins with an Arabic man praying and then eating a PJB sandwich while drinking a glass of milk. The camera follows the young man as he drives to an unknown destination, listening to some “hip-hop” Arabic music and encountering “scary” locals who cause him to wind up his car windows.

The man picks up another young Muslim and they go to an Art Gallery. The duo enter the gallery and seconds later it explodes in black dust and fire.

The opening of Babylon has a two-fold function. It sets up the episode’s main plot line while showing the viewer what the popular concept is of young Muslim men. When the building explodes and burning injured people stagger from the smoke, there is no element of surprise. The episode sets up this premise as an aid to the story.

Despite the “mirror, mirror” aspect of the case, with Agent Miller (Robbie Amell) and his version of Dana Scully; Agent Einstein (Lauren Ambrose) showing an alternative, yet similar, X Files look-a-like team of believer and skeptic, this could be seen as one of the deepest installments of Chris Carter’s verse.

X-Files_1004_072315_sc19_0131_hires1 — Mulder and Einstein…

Carefully hidden in an episode full of amusing and outright comic touches, mainly from Mulder, is a message, or two. Scully provides one, which is that our world right now is split almost equally into hate and love, with no in-between being allowed. Mulder provides the other; “God” whichever one is being looked at, via the Bible or the Koran, does not want man to have a common language, a message supported by the title of the episode; Babylon.

In the Christian Bible, Babylon is mentioned repeatedly, mainly in relation to its “badness.” In history, the most famous city of Mesopotamia (Iraq) was well known for its architecture and its vast amount of “learning.” Similar to the biblical tale of this impressive city, the denizens were very educated, so much so that “God” stopped their advancement and made it impossible for them to communicate (see: Tower of Babel).

There is, perhaps, another message. This one passed on by Agent Einstein who learns from her interaction with Mulder that scientists do really believe that there is beauty in mystery, as quoted by her namesake.

Introducing the pseudo Mulder and Scully allows the real team to separate and partner up with their younger opposites. Miller calls Dana and asks her to help him and Einstein, after learning of her partner’s action, agrees to help Mulder in his quest.

In Babylon, after the explosion, one of the terrorists survives but is in a vegetative state, being kept alive by machines. Miller believes that with Scully’s help, they can communicate with the comatose patient and learn more about the terrorist cell. Mulder reaches out to Einstein (who is so uptight to be practically hemorrhoidal) with a request that she administer magic mushrooms so he can speak with the terrorist while tripping.

The dual approaches to communicating with the comatose man are successful. Scully and Miller are delayed by some mysterious Arabic speaking “Home Security” types with a deadly agenda. This allows Mulder and Einstein their chance to try the “trip” solution.

The Home Security types are not the only murderous individuals who want to “kill” the terrorist. The ICU nurse turns off the man’s life support equipment and hurriedly turns it back on when Mulder and his younger version of Dana appear. As Einstein removes the nurse, Fox takes the “mushrooms” and trips out.

Duchovny shows once again that his comedic chops are mighty in the entire mushroom trip scene. His Mulder is having the time of his life under the influence. (At one point walking down the hospital corridor nodding, smiling and saluting the people he strolls past.)

XF_BTS_0251_hires1 — The Lone Gunmen in Fox’s trip…

Mulder ends up line dancing at a cowboy bar, where he encounters the Lone Gunmen and turns up on a boat, with Cigarette Smoking Man , sans cigarette but wielding a whip on a row-boat clearly meant to be on the River Styx, where he sees the dying terrorist in the arms of a woman. This weeping woman, clad in white, is just as clearly meant to be the man’s mother. In the vision, the terrorist whispers something to Fox.

(It should also be mentioned that Skinner also appears in the cowboy bar scene, as a participant. The music, which generates much of the humor in the scene, includes Achy Breaky Heart and Trace Adkins singing “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk,” while Mulder almost expressionlessly “performs” to the music.)

Mulder blacks out after hearing what the terrorist tells him in the vision and awakes in a hospital bed with Skinner and Einstein by his bed. With the chief telling him that he faces disciplinary action, he learns that the younger version of Scully gave him a placebo. The entire trip and the visions he had while “under the influence” were all powered by his own mind’s suggestion.

Despite the pseudo trip Fox takes he helps Scully and Miller to communicate with the comatose man by recognizing the man’s mother and getting her in the ICU room. he also remembers what the dying man whispered to him, in Arabic, in the boat vision.

The information that Mulder provides, “The Babylon Hotel,” translated by Agent Miller, who was stationed in Iraq, turns out to be solid as the terrorist cell is arrested mid-prayer.

Mulder gets the lion’s share of amusing moments and lines. He calls Einstein a mugwump:

“I don’t even know what that is and I’m offended.”

This after she calls his ideology “woo woo paranormal B.S.” to which he replies:

“I don’t do woo, woo.”

Apparently this sticks in Fox’s mind as during his trip, just prior to the boat vision, Mulder is strapped to a pentagram, flat on his back, and being whipped by Einstein:

Einstein: “Is this what you wanted Agent Mulder? Your ‘woo woo’ paranormal?”

Einstein (Whipping Mulder): “Come on say it!”

Mulder: “Woo woo.”

Einstein: “Say it!” (whipping the prone Mulder harder)

Mulder: “WOO WOO!”

Despite its comedic trappings, there are disturbing elements in the episode, the murderous ICU nurse’s diatribe about all those immigrants taking jobs, the supreme hatred of the “Homeland” men and the fear of the young man who later becomes a dying terrorist.

There are amusing scenes aplenty which serve to hide the real message, the one that The X-Files, and Chris Carter, have preached all along; that it will take a mixture of science and mysticism to learn the truth that Fox Mulder seeks.

Babylon also indicates that this combination is what the world needs to seek peace and understanding. Although the other requirement, a common language, may well be frowned upon by “the big guy.”

The X-Files: Babylon may just be the best episode of this short 10th season, surpassing even the “Were-Monster” in terms of “hidden” messages and brilliant comedy. This was the penultimate episode with only one left, My Struggle II.

The season finale airs February 22 on FOX. Be there to see what can possibly top this last episode.

The X Files: Home Again – Golem With a Bandaid

In The X Files: Home Again it appears that the Golem has been resurrected, but in Philadelphia and with a bandaid on its nose as a mysterious giant man wrecks vengeance upon those who threaten the homeless.

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In The X Files: Home Again it appears that the Golem has been resurrected, but in Philadelphia and with a bandaid on its nose, as a mysterious giant man wrecks vengeance upon those who threaten the homeless. A similar scenario to the legend of the Jewish creation of clay made to protect the denizens of a long ago ghetto. There is more to this episode than the rehashing of an old myth, Dana’s mother dies and issues about her and Fox’s son arise as a result.

The episode begins with a forced rehousing of the homeless in the city of “brotherly love;” Philadelphia. The agent responsible is not the most empathetic of men and after clearing out a street full of homeless denizens using the police and fire department (who hose the transients down) he returns to his office.

Once there, someone enters the building. Panicking the man pulls a gun as an enormous, and apparently very smelly man enters the office. Coming into the room, the giant man grabs the armed man’s arms and pulls him apart. Flies buzz in the office as the creature leaves the crime scene.

Detective Aaron Dross calls in the FBI and reveals to Scully and Mulder that:

“They said that you two have experience with, these, um…spooky cases.”

After some preliminary fact sharing, the two special agents learn that the dead man was pulled apart and his body strewn across the office, with the victim’s head placed in the room’s trash bin.

There is a bloody print on the floor of a bare foot, a big one, and it has no ridges, not actually footprint at all just the shape of the appendage left in blood. While Dana and Fox begin to investigate the crime scene, Scully gets a call from her brother William. Their mother has had a heart attack and is in ICU at the hospital. Fox tells his partner to go and continues working and picking on the local detective.

Earlier, when the two agents arrived they noticed a giant figure painted on a blank billboard across the road from the dead man’s office. After Dana leaves, Fox looks through CCTV footage that should have caught the crime.

The camera’s were all moved and they only thing that Mulder discovers is that at the time of the man’s death, the giant figure is not visible. This means it was painted after the man’s murder.

Dana discovers that her mother asked for her estranged son Charlie before slipping into unconsciousness. She is upset to learn that her Margaret Suclly did not ask for any of her other children.

In Philadelphia, Fox plays “Pontius Pilate” as he speaks to two antagonistic citizens who each claim to care for the homeless:

“Okay, okay, okay, I hear you speaking for them, but really you’re speaking for yourself. And I hear you speaking for them, but really speaking for yourself. What I don’t hear is who speaks for them.”

After this wise pronouncement Mulder learns of the Trashman.

The Trashman, it is revealed later, created The Bandaid Man that manages to kill its way through a number of parasitic people who are taking advantage of the voiceless denizens that he was sent to protect. Two art thieves who steal work done by the homeless, including the portrait of the Bandaid Man that Fox wanted to inspect, are murdered.

XF_sc40pt2_0030DJ1_hires1 — Dana and Fox discovering the Trashman…

The list of dead includes Nancy Huff (Peggy Jo Jacobs), the suburban woman who wants the homeless left where they are rather than be moved near the school in her area and Daryl Landry (Daryl Shuttleworth); partner of the first murdered man. (It is these two Philadelphia citizens that Fox speaks to earlier.)

The latter two victims’ deaths reek of irony, Huff has an almost OCD aversion to rubbish and Landry is a humorless and mean man who despises the very people he is “helping.”

Dana’s mother has changed her “living will” so that she will not be kept alive on a support machine. Mulder arrives and while he is there Charlie rings and after Scully puts the phone on speaker, he speaks to his unconscious mother.

Margaret opens her eyes and seeing Fox, grabs his hand and smiles:

“My son… is named William, too.”

Dana’s mother dies.

Scully makes the connection between her mother’s last words and the son that she and Fox gave up. Dana insists that she needs to return to work. Back in Philly, the duo track down the “Trashman,” the artist responsible for the giant painting on the billboard.

They learn that the artist (played by Tim Armstrong) created the Bandaid Man to protect the voiceless homeless who are preyed upon by the city. The two agents also see several other creatures roaming around in the dark basement where the Trashman works.

Mulder and Scully try to save Landry’s life and fail. After the last victim of the Bandaid Man dies, the Trashman reshapes the face of his creation into a smiley face and leaves his basement art studio.

Dana and Fox sit on a pebble beach with Mrs. Scully’s ashes on the ground. Scully has an epiphany about why her mother asked for Charlie and then mentioned their son.

This episode clearly paid homage to the Jewish myth of the Prague Golem with the Trashman replacing Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel as the creator of the clay creature. While the protector of the homeless does not go on a rampage and kill a lot of “innocent” people in this iteration of the myth, it cannot be controlled by its creator, similar to the Golem of legend.

The X Files in this truncated 10th season has managed to cram a lot in. Last week’s homage to “Bad Blood” and Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) was a one-off though and it appears that this season will ultimately be all about Mulder, Scully and their son.

XF_sc68_0073DJ1_hires1 — Dana and Fox talk about William…

Chris Carter’s verse only has two more episodes before this mini-series ends. The X Files airs Mondays on FOX. Tune in and catch the old fever and see if the truth is, indeed, out there…

The X Files: Mulder and Scully Meet the Were Monster (Review)

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With an abbreviated “special event” sort of season, The X Files has accelerated its time line, putting in a Bad Blood type of episode with Mulder and Scully Meet the Were Monster. While not as intricate as the Vince Gilligan scripted tale where both the FBI agents had wildly differing versions of the same event, “Were Monster” is just as clever and well put together.

Prior to discussing the storyline and all its random “Alice in Wonderland” type of oddities, a word about guest stars in this latest visit to Chris Carter’s verse. As in prior episodes a well-known face, or two, appears in this episode.

First and foremost, Tyler Labine (Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, Monsters U) appears in the opening moments as a “stoner” sniffing gold spray paint from a bag as a “were creature” dashes past him, and his girlfriend.

Alex Diakun is another familiar face from the world of science fiction and horror, the Canadian actor has worked since 1971 in a variety of television and film projects, including Dead Zone and The X Files: I want to Believe and has worked on the series before, notably on episode’s written by “Were Monster” director Darin Morgan.

The X Files takes the legend of the werewolf and turns in on its head and changes the type of creature into a were-lizard. All during the episode, Fox Mulder is having a crisis of faith. Doubting his own mission in life along with his beliefs. As the one who “Wants to believe” Mulder suddenly turns into a male, and sarcastic, version of his more level headed partner.

This transition is not the only one that takes place throughout the episode. Many characters in the show, met by the agents, are in a phase of change, or are not what they appear. The transgender hooker, the animal control officer, the psychiatrist and, of course, Guy Mann (Rhys Darby).

Mulder and Scully Meet the Were Monster has its fair share of humor, a’la How the Ghosts Who Stole Christmas (voted one of the best episodes out of the first multi season run of The X Files). From Mulder’s telling Dana that the creature “shot blood ‘out’ its eyes” to the malfunctioning camera app, there are comic moments.

XF_sc11pt_0003DJ1_hires1 — “Shoots blood out its eyes…”

In fact the entire story deals not only with transitions and points of view, it brings up self-doubt and a mix of warped humor with more sophisticated views on life. (The entire exercise in monster hunting by Fox (as doubting Thomas) and Scully who plays Devil’s Advocate, has a twist on the Pogo punchline: We have met the enemy (monster) and it is us [sic].)

As the two agents track down the “were monster” (which is another “monster of the week” plot scenario devoid of any long running storyline connection) a number of homages, or just plain X File references, appear. At one point Fox’s phone rings and it is The X Files theme that floats out from his cell.

The outfit that Guy Mann wears, when he is not the were-lizard, screams Carl Kolchak aka Darren McGavin (from The Night Stalker) who appeared in an episode of the original X Files in 1999 as Agent Arthur Dales in two episodes.

Sidenote: Darby kills it as Guy Mann, full stop.

There are other less apparent gestures to things outside the verse. The green bottles are evocative of the Absinthe bottles back in the time of werewolf legends for example. Others are more of an insider nod and wink, like the headstone for former X Files producer Kim Manners at the cemetery.

Some of the scenes play out like some comic sketch, the doctor and Mulders conversation about the monster (and the show’s clearest Pogo reference) and the tale that Mann relates to Fox also feels like an oddball comedy expository gag.

Apart from the monster of the week plot, Mulder admits to feeling old, “middle-aged,” and out of it. On a sidenote, Gillian Anderson actually looks younger in this show than she did in all of Hannibal… His crisis of faith in his own mission statement makes the viewer uneasy and this never quite leaves even as the tale winds down.

The X Files: Mulder and Scully Meet the Were Monster is not only a long and well done “Shaggy Dog” story, but is also a long punch line to the “man bites dog” gag (or in this instance “man bites lizard-man”).

Before the end of the episode, Fox has a long scene with Mann and the two indulge in a comedic double act to die for. The entire episode is full of Easter eggs for fans of the long running series check out the article over on Vulture where Keith Uhlich goes through a number, including the Daggoo reference, the other tombstone, and a number of fan favorite moments or plot devices.

The X Files Shaggy Lizard story ends with Mulder regaining his faith, and enthusiasm, for the hunt. Fox airs this return to Chis Carter land on Mondays. Tune in for some nostalgic enjoyment and to see where Mulder and Scully will head next.

The X Files: My Struggle and Founder’s Mutation – A Slow Burn Start (Review)

Mulder and Scully are back, treating The X Files fans to a slow burn start versus rocket ride back into the world of the weird, wonderful and conspiratorial.

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Mulder and Scully are back, treating The X Files fans to a slow burn start versus rocket ride back into the world of the weird, wonderful and conspiratorial. Episode one of the two part pilot for season 10; My Struggle, reminds us that it is Fox’ obsession with UFOs, governmental coverups and that burning need to know. Founder’s Mutation steps forward at a snail’s pace and takes us back into “Toomy” land.

Granted, the second half of the two part open is not as disturbing, or downright creepy, as Toomy’s tale, it reaches back into the yesteryear propensity of Chris Carter, and now James Wong as well, to lead the viewer by the nose to whatever odd thing comes up next.

The latter episode also puts Dana and Fox into the world where they belong. Sure Scully turned her back on much more than just her old partner, and father of her child, heading on a path where she did a lot of good. Regardless of her samaritan standing in the medical community, the ties between her and Fox had not been completely severed.

After all, only she knows how to get in touch with Mulder, something she points out when Skinner tried unsuccessfully to call Fox regarding “scare monger” newsman Tad O’Malley (Joel McHale). Tad, who Mulder feels is an alternative Bill O’Reilly (surely the name similarity is no coincidence…) promises to have information that will change everything and O’Malley swears that he will reveal all.

Tad’s rant about the secret agenda of the American government, militarizing local police, fattening and dumbing down the denizens of the country and erecting prison camps.

Like the previous seasons, before the show’s long hiatus, the message in episode one, My Struggle, is this:

Do not trust the government. They do not have your best interest at heart and they lie.

Mulder believes this with all his essence and Scully continues to be in a form of denial. The counterbalance of the two is back in place, her pragmatic and agnostic attitude about the unexplained still tempers her behavior and belief system. Fox, who suffers from depression, is in full “survivalist” costume in the first opening segment.

Unshaven, wearing jeans and a combat fatigue jacket, Mulder looks similar to every other Area 51 conspiracy junkie out there. Scully is the very picture of respectability and has trouble getting back, as does Fox, into the swing of things.

My Struggle starts as a history lesson; Roswell, an injured alien (murder of same), questionable DNA and those decades old conspiracies. It also entails a young woman with scoop scars on her abdomen, a string of abductions and stolen fetuses, She is convinced her DNA has been added to and after the “men in black” learn of what O’Mallory, Mulder and Scully have been up to, they clean house…

With extreme prejudice.

The first episode ends with the Smoking Man (William B. Davis), face covered with scar tissue and looking like death personified, smoking his cigarette via the hole in his neck and stating that the X Files have been reopened.

XF_sc47_0033_hires1 — William B Davis returns as the Smoking Man…

Founder’s Mutation shoves a badge back into the duo’s hands and starts going into a true X File non-UFO-type case. Although the entire episode is focussed on another conspiracy; one that ties in to episode one, to huge degree, with a storyline dealing with experiments on children and a brother and sister with special abilities.

By the second episode, Mulder has cleaned up and lost the scruff. Scully learns that like the doomed Sveta she too has alien DNA. Dana also steps back into the role of medical expert, performing the autopsy on the show’s suicide victim.

The mind control aspect is disturbing, as is the manner of the first man’s death. It also features a “mad scientist” type (Damon) who meets a fitting end…

XF_sc4_0025_hires1 — Death by letter opener.

As the two part premiere ended, each of the duo were back in their old shoes and leading us back into the world of The X Files.

A number of familiar faces joined the premiere as guest stars (and it was brilliant to see Mitch Pileggi back as Skinner). Joel McHale from Community, Christine Willes from Dead Like Me (As Dolores Herbig with the “big brown eyes.”), Doug Savant from Desperate Housewives and Vik Sahay.

There were a number of other notable appearances by names well known in the industry, for example, Rance Howard (father of Ron and Clint) also shows up in the credit list. The appearance of so many known performers signals an acceptance of Carter’s world back into the fold of television.

The X Files, with its slow re-emergence, has not pleased all the television critics but fans are excited, and so they should be. Sure the dynamic between David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson may feel a little clunky but the chemistry is still there. Fox and Scully still have the bond that made them work so well together.

X-Files_1005_081115_sc4243pt_0095_fDJ1_hires1 — Mulder and Scully…

The series airs Mondays on FOX. Tune in for some nostalgic vibes as well as superb television and watch the new tales of The X Files unfold.

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