After magician The Amazing Maleeni manages to turn his head completely around, he decides to retire from the magic business. However, when his head falls off shortly afterwards, Mulder and Scully investigate what may be a murder or a very clever trick.
This actually plays like an episode of Jonathan Creek, with Mulder and Scully investigating how a crime was done without using magic rather than working from the given that it's an X-file. In fact, the only unexplained element remaining by the end is how Maleeni managed to turn his head round completely. The rest is all achieved through the use of smoke and mirrors.
This idea leads to a completely different kind of episode, as Mulder must do some analytical problem-solving and detective work rather than trying to bring some kind of mutant to justice. To the writers' credit (Gilligan, Shiban and Spotnitz collaborated on this one), this is an intricately-plotted episode that holds togetehr extremely well, twisting and turning constantly to throw up a new surprise. In the early stages, it's possible for the viewer to get a handle on what the criminals are planning, but their ultimate aim is extremely clever yet still oddly simple. It's almost as if each writer was given the task of unravelling a mystery one of the others et, then creating a new one for the next writer to solve.
For their part, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson seem to be having a great time doing tricks and scoring points off each other, with both doing their share of puzzled looks. With the leads enjoying it,. it allows the viewer to have a good time too, encouraging those watching to solve the puzzle as well. The standalone episodes so far this year have generally been extremely good, and this is no exception. Seven years and still hitting the mark with ease.
****
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