The hunt for Mulder continues when the Alien Bounty Hunter in Mulder form attempts to find and retrieve Gibson Praise while Scully and Skinner try to protect him.

The biggest problem with this story as a whole is that a) we all know Mulder will have to remain captive by the end, so we’re unlikely to get closure and b) we’ve seen it all before. The only real differences are that where the sceptical person used to be Scully, now it’s Doggett, and instead of Mulder and Scully chasing around the landscape, it’s Scully and Skinner. Frankly, Gibson Praise has been tracked down so many times now that it’s a wonder he doesn’t use his powers to get away once and for all. We all know he’s the ‘missing link’ that proves much of what is in the X-Files, but we still don’t know why. We also don’t known how he got from alien minder in The Beginning to a school in the middle of the desert.

The running around after the alien bounty hunter is taken from any number of past episodes, although Scully does finally manage to kill him this time, a fact made less significant by the closing scene. Skinner and Scully pointing guns at each other was done way back at the start of season three and there’s no real plot. All we get is Doggett getting frustrated, an admittedly quite clever way of making him Scully’s new partner and much running back and forth. Plus, after Scully has chased her double into an enclosed space knowing it’s the bounty hunter, how come she doesn’t realize that the man who walks back out is clearly the alien she’s been looking for?

There was no real need for this to be a two-parter, and it just makes me look forward to some nice straightforward investigations again and to seeing a new partnership take form. And I bet Cancer Man turns up eventually as well, you mark my words…

**

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