Darin Morgan wrote and directed this week's episode of The X-Files. It was full of humor and inside jokes from the golden years- especially those episodes that Morgan wrote back then. Many of the comments from self-proclaimed fans of the show that have commented on other reviews such as this one on indiewire.com have not agreed with the reviews that point out the cleverness of the writing and wondered why they seemingly have forgotten about the government conspiracy theory in the previous two episodes. Sometimes you just have to lighten up and poke fun at yourself.
For those who haven't seen this episode yet, there won't be full spoilers here. Just a little review of some of the quirkiness found in the episode. There are also some X-Files Easter eggs.
The episode opens with two people out huffing spray paint in the woods. These characters have been stoned multiple times in the third season of the show. They are played by Tyler Labine and Nicole Parker.
The premise of the episode is that there is a monster attacking people and biting and killing them, similar to a were-wolf, but more of a lizard man.
Scully goes to Mulder, who is throwing pencils- not at the ceiling, but now at the "I want to believe" poster on the wall. Mulder is now the skeptic-seeing the explanation of everything in the past two episodes have made him doubt his whole life work.
Scully manages to pull him out of his slump to go and investigate this monster.
Apparently, Mulder is not quite used to modern technology, as he tries to take pictures of this mystery creature with his cell phone. "This new camera app, it's not working quite right," as he takes multiple pictures with the flash going off. He also gets some video- of himself.
As Scully is examining medical evidence, Mulder is back to his believing self, and trying to show skeptic Scully his evidence about creatures that shoot blood from their eyes(as this creature apparently does). He shows her the horned lizard- which also shoots blood out of its eyes as a self-defense mechanism.
"Mulder the internet's not good for you," quips Scully.
.In the hotel they are staying in, Mulder investigates the hotel manager's yelling about a monster. The manager remains tight-lipped, though while he drinks rubbing alcohol from the bottle. Mulder checks out a room that looks to have been trashed, a jackalope head on the floor. The Jackalope gets referenced quite a bit throughout the show. He finds a secret door where he can peek into rooms through the eyes of the taxidermied animals hanging on the walls. Fox Mulder sticks his head into - wait for it- a fox's head.
The bantering that Mulder does with Scully, more like the monologue is hilarious but too quick and long to be typed out here. Just watch it for yourself. It's a little refreshing to see the sullen, flat Mulder character be brought into some comedic levity.
Mulder goes to visit the psychiatrist that prescribed the pills he found. Maybe the most poignant moral of this story can be found in the psychiatrist's words, "It's easier to believe in monsters out there in the world, than to accept that the real monsters dwell within us."
The twist in this episode comes out at the cemetery where Mulder finds "Guy Mann." Interesting tidbit- the headstones in the cemetery that they stand in front of are engraved with the names of Jack Hardy and Kim Manners- previous characters of the show who have died. Also, Mulder wakes up in the cemetery later after drinking a lot to his cell phone ringing. The ring tone is the show's theme song.
Mulder, at the end of this episode, brings it full circle, saying,"I want to believe."
Many fans are wanting to believe that other episodes will not be as absurd as this one. Will we be brought back to the seriousness there was before? It should also be noted that this episode was shown out of order of which it was filmed. Tell us your thoughts. If you haven't watched, the new episode is available on Fox's website. Don't forget to tune in for next week's episode!
