Mulder's continuing quest for his sister concludes when his investigation continues into the deaths of a group of children.
I really can't be rude enough about this episode. I hated it. After promising a final solution to the Samantha Mulder question, ie some closure, that is ironically exactly what we don't get. Well, nothing conclusive or satisfying, anyway. For those who don't want to read spoilers, I'm going to run free on this review, so turn away.
The biggest problem with this episode is that not only does it not properly answer the question it's supposed to, it doesn't explain any of what's been going on in the first part of the story. I used to look forward to the conspiracy stories, but I'm really losing patience with Chris Carter now. Why do people keep seeing their children dead in brief flashes? No explanation. How have the kids disappeared from inside locked rooms? No explanation. What happened to Samantha and why is she dead? No explanation. Frankly, I'd rather that the explanation of Paper Hearts had been true as that would have been a better wrap-up than this, in which Mulder meets Samantha's ghost and he has to admit she's dead.
And that's not all. Cancer Man drops by to tell Scully to stop looking for Samantha and is branded a liar by Mulder at every opportunity. It also leaves continuity in a ditch somewhere, dying. Who is the woman Cancer Man claimed was his daughter who he introduced as Samantha? If it wasn't Samantha that was cloned, who was it and why did all the child clones look like Samantha? Why did Well-Manicured Man tell Mulder that his sister was taken by the Syndicate and she was still alive? The idea from this is apparently that she was experimented upon until she died, but it would have been nice for someone to actually state this fact at some point rather than the supernatural rubbish that has to suffice. And if Mrs Mulder was going to commit suicide but wanted to tell Mulder what had happened to his sister, couldn't she have waited a bit longer? Or left a note? I mean, why come back as a ghost because you're too stupid to finish what you started in life?
This episode is full of itself, provides nothing whatsoever, moves incredibly slowly to get wherever it thinks it's going and yet still manages to go nowhere. Closure? If only.
* (and that's kind)
Would you like to go to the The X-Files Season Seven guide, head back to the main TV reviews page, read older reviews in the Reviews Archive or return to the front page?
Get your own Free Home Page
