The search for Mulder is on, but both Scully and Skinner have a run-in with the leader of the task force charged with finding the missing agent before setting out on their own to recover him.
A new season and potentially one too far. Time will tell if continuing The X-Files to another year was a good idea, but this opening episode doesn’t fill me with enthusiasm. The problem is that there’s a powerful sense of a series just going through the motions. Although Robert Patrick is a strong presence on screen and lends a new dimension to the series, Doggett’s military background has me worried, especially when he and Kersh start chatting about planes. The relationship between Doggett and Scully is well handled, and Scully herself is on fine form, protecting her partner, defending him to the hilt and trying to protect Skinner from himself.
The problem is that it’s all been done. Countless times Scully has been under threat from internal politics, as has Skinner from time to time. The plan to track Mulder is a little too easy and features yet another rather unnecessary appearance from Gibson Praise, a child who it should have been possible to catch by now, had the aliens wanted to. If he really is the key to understanding the X-Files, how come he can hide in plain sight in a school and anyone can find him?
There are some powerfully unpleasant scenes with Mulder (although it’s not clear which are real and which aren’t), and they do rather beg the question that if they wanted Mulder so badly, why are they doing such horrible things to him? And while he’s awake at that? It’s all very restrained, and considering it’s unlikely Mulder will be returned by the end of this two-parter, it needs to have a lot more going on than his search to retain interest. The scattered good parts are too few and far between to make this a good episode. Oh, and the new title sequence is just silly.
**
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