A man survives a head-on encounter with a car, killing the driver. As Scully and Doggett investigate, further murders are committed by a man whose body is apparently as tough as steel...

Robert Patrick must be getting déjà vu, as the main character here is one step removed from his Terminator 2 role. In fact, it even slyly references it at one point. You get the impression that maybe The X-Files is running on empty; after all, you've seen one genetic mutation you've seen 'em all, and it's merely a matter of coming up with enough strange creatures to make up a season. It didn't used to be like this. Sure, there were mutant humans, but there were plenty of other odd things going on inbetween. The problem is that once you've come up with the mutant of your choice, there's no plot to hang it on any more.

That said, Salvage isn't bad. It holds the attention rather well considering, with enough incident to keep things going, from smashing through a wall to people buried in vats and having an arm blown off. The reason for the metal man's condition isn't given more than a cursory explanation, nor is it explained why his condition is deteriorating and how it relates to his earlier illness. It's simply a revenge tale, and as such something this series has done before. There's plenty of dark, brooding atmosphere here again, and some wonderfully grotesque images. There's not enough made of Ray's emotions when he causes injury to someone (when hurting his wife, you'd think he'd show some feeling), but although derivative, it's different enough to make an okay X-File. Let's just come up with something a bit more 'out there' now, eh guys?

**

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