AKA: Does Motzart's Requiem Have Words? Pretend I Put Them Here
Part of me assumed I'd never get here.
I'm serious, I'd always thought in the back of my head that I'd just never get to the end of Season Seven, that something would come up, I'd get bored or my hilariously low view counts would get to me and I'd stop for long enough that I'd just never go back. I didn't even buy The Lone Gunmen on DVD until a few months ago. But here I am, staring down 2 full, Mulder-less seasons with no reason to stop and everything urging me on. All that's left is to jump in.
Our episode opens in the Oregon town from the pilot (remember that?), where the sheriff from the pilot (remember him?) discovers a downed UFO. His deputy has crashed his car there and is bleeding the green alien blood, which naturally has adverse effects on the sheriff. Meanwhile in Tunisia, Marita Covarrubias (remember her?) arranges to have Alex Krycek (remember h-oh he's a main character) released from prison. No we never learn when he went to prison or why, just roll with it. Turns out Cigarette Smoking Man is dying and he wants Krycek to find the downed spaceship in Oregon so that he can restart the conspiracy, and Krycek agrees.
Back in DC, Mulder and Scully are getting a budget audit who points out that they never really manage to get any arrests despite costing the FBI a ton of money. He thinks Mulder and Scully should look into their weird shit on the internet, which, you know, fair. But when they get a call from Billy, the kid from the Pilot (remember h-oh I already killed this joke) they decide, screw that guy, and jet off to Oregon to check out the UFO. Also a pair of dudes out in Oregon try to go check out the crash sight and one of them gets caught up in the shaking effect from Jacob's Ladder and disappears.
After a brief check in with the Cigarette Smoking Man, who is stringing Krycek along because he knows Krycek will betray him if he can, Mulder and Scully find that the Sheriff is acting oddly and Billy is now a deputy, and after investigating the spot where Mulder put the X on the road in the pilot, go see, Theresa, the wife of the missing deputy, who was, of course, also abducted during the pilot (and the missing deputy was an abductee too). That night the deputy comes back, but Theresa recognizes that he's an alien replacement and he abducts her. But that doesn't matter, because Scully gets the chills and has to cuddle with Mulder, that's the important part.
Anyway, while investigating they find evidence of the aliens and the random dude who was out in the woods, who says his friend is still missing. They go out into the woods to check it out, but Scully gets caught in the Jacob's Ladder effect and faints, so they head back to DC. Before they leave, Billy has a confrontation with his dad (who is an alien replacement) and he gets abducted too. Back in DC, Skinner brings Krycek into meet Mulder, and Krycek tells him that, surprise, he wants to betray the Cigarette Smoking Man.
But they need help to find the spaceship, so they bring in the Lone Gunmen and together they find the spaceship, but Mulder is worried Scully will get re-abducted and so they leave her behind in DC while Skinner goes with Mulder. Of course 20 seconds later, Scully finds that the aliens are actually abducting people who have the brain wave Mulder had at the start of the season, and so yeah, he gets abducted while Skinner watches. And so the episode, and the season ends, with Scully revealing that she's pregnant but she and Skinner will find Mulder. Oh and I guess Krycek and Marita shove Cigarette Smoking Man down the stairs, that's cool.
Requiem is, like Hollywood AD before it, an episode pulled to be two different episodes. The first is a final goodbye to David Duchovny and this era of The X-Files, so busting with callbacks and fanservice, they're leaking out of its pores. The second is trying to set up the pins for the series going forward, without Duchovny or the guidance his character brought to the overarching plot. It doesn't merge these two stories painlessly, and I'm not convinced it was possible, or wise, to merge them painlessly.
Take the central plot of the episode, a lengthy callback to the Pilot that the episode can't even sum up the energy to disguise as something more. Is there any particular reason why this episode has to take place in the town from the pilot? No but isn't it nice to see all these characters again? And then there's the episode grabbing fanservice everywhere it can, from Mulder and Scully cuddling in bed to the final alliance of basically every secondary character still standing to stop the Cigarette Smoking Man, this episode is giving such a fond farewell to Duchovny, it makes The Office's Goodbye Michael look positively subtle.
And the thing is, all that stuff works, almost in spite of itself. Sure it may be a transparent attempt to tug on my heartstrings, but my heartstrings were tugged. I like seeing Krycek and Marita team up with the Lone Gunmen, I like seeing Mulder and Scully stop in front of the X they spray painted on the road seven years ago (even if I suspect it wouldn't still be there), and yeah, the fact that as the spaceship takes off, a triumphant sounding version of the main theme plays does actually fill me with some kind of emotion.
The other half of the episode, the part where they try to imagine the way forward, is the part I'm less enthused about, and I'm not just talking about the fact that Mulder gets abducted. The series has always had an issue where it doesn't have a solid idea where it's going with things (it's called the Chris Carter Effect for a reason) but this episode really does exemplify this. I'm prepared to give seasons eight and nine a proper shake but they exist not because the series' story demanded to go on, with or without Mulder, but because the series was so huge that Fox wouldn't dream of cancelling it, and the story was bent around that.
As a result, big chunks of this episode feel less like organic plot evolution and more like desperately grabbing at elements to pull a plot out of thin air. Scully suddenly announcing she's pregnant is the big one; Wanting to have a kid hasn't been a major part of her character for a couple seasons now, so dragging it back in with a single scene feels cheap, and then having her get mysteriously pregnant at the last minute feels cheaper. The actual plot will play out like it will (and we'll get there, oh god will we get there) but introducing it this suddenly, like it's a Soap Opera 3 days before sweeps week, is not opening up on the right foot.
Back in DC, Mulder and Scully are getting a budget audit who points out that they never really manage to get any arrests despite costing the FBI a ton of money. He thinks Mulder and Scully should look into their weird shit on the internet, which, you know, fair. But when they get a call from Billy, the kid from the Pilot (remember h-oh I already killed this joke) they decide, screw that guy, and jet off to Oregon to check out the UFO. Also a pair of dudes out in Oregon try to go check out the crash sight and one of them gets caught up in the shaking effect from Jacob's Ladder and disappears.
After a brief check in with the Cigarette Smoking Man, who is stringing Krycek along because he knows Krycek will betray him if he can, Mulder and Scully find that the Sheriff is acting oddly and Billy is now a deputy, and after investigating the spot where Mulder put the X on the road in the pilot, go see, Theresa, the wife of the missing deputy, who was, of course, also abducted during the pilot (and the missing deputy was an abductee too). That night the deputy comes back, but Theresa recognizes that he's an alien replacement and he abducts her. But that doesn't matter, because Scully gets the chills and has to cuddle with Mulder, that's the important part.
Anyway, while investigating they find evidence of the aliens and the random dude who was out in the woods, who says his friend is still missing. They go out into the woods to check it out, but Scully gets caught in the Jacob's Ladder effect and faints, so they head back to DC. Before they leave, Billy has a confrontation with his dad (who is an alien replacement) and he gets abducted too. Back in DC, Skinner brings Krycek into meet Mulder, and Krycek tells him that, surprise, he wants to betray the Cigarette Smoking Man.
 |
| "Look, my name is the Cigarette Smoking Man, I've gotta keep that going." |
Requiem is, like Hollywood AD before it, an episode pulled to be two different episodes. The first is a final goodbye to David Duchovny and this era of The X-Files, so busting with callbacks and fanservice, they're leaking out of its pores. The second is trying to set up the pins for the series going forward, without Duchovny or the guidance his character brought to the overarching plot. It doesn't merge these two stories painlessly, and I'm not convinced it was possible, or wise, to merge them painlessly.
Take the central plot of the episode, a lengthy callback to the Pilot that the episode can't even sum up the energy to disguise as something more. Is there any particular reason why this episode has to take place in the town from the pilot? No but isn't it nice to see all these characters again? And then there's the episode grabbing fanservice everywhere it can, from Mulder and Scully cuddling in bed to the final alliance of basically every secondary character still standing to stop the Cigarette Smoking Man, this episode is giving such a fond farewell to Duchovny, it makes The Office's Goodbye Michael look positively subtle.
 |
| "That's weird right? My sense of what's weird is so fucked at this point that this seems pretty normal." |
The other half of the episode, the part where they try to imagine the way forward, is the part I'm less enthused about, and I'm not just talking about the fact that Mulder gets abducted. The series has always had an issue where it doesn't have a solid idea where it's going with things (it's called the Chris Carter Effect for a reason) but this episode really does exemplify this. I'm prepared to give seasons eight and nine a proper shake but they exist not because the series' story demanded to go on, with or without Mulder, but because the series was so huge that Fox wouldn't dream of cancelling it, and the story was bent around that.
As a result, big chunks of this episode feel less like organic plot evolution and more like desperately grabbing at elements to pull a plot out of thin air. Scully suddenly announcing she's pregnant is the big one; Wanting to have a kid hasn't been a major part of her character for a couple seasons now, so dragging it back in with a single scene feels cheap, and then having her get mysteriously pregnant at the last minute feels cheaper. The actual plot will play out like it will (and we'll get there, oh god will we get there) but introducing it this suddenly, like it's a Soap Opera 3 days before sweeps week, is not opening up on the right foot.
 |
| "God, could you hurry up? We've been standing here like for like, 3 days." |
The attempts to bring new elements in, Skinner now believing in aliens for example, or purging old ones, are a mixed bag. Dumping Cigarette Smoking Man down the stairs and putting Mulder on a spaceship sound like good ways to find a new path, but they were the series two major guiding stars, and the overarching plot already tends toward feeling directionless, taking away its major sources of direction is only going to exacerbate the issue. Putting Skinner into Mulder's position might have helped, since he's an existing character with a strong presence, but as we all know, they didn't do that.
Season Seven is a rocky season of The X-Files. It's usually regarded as the time when the series began to go off the rails, and I find it hard to disagree with that; The good episodes weren't quite as good as they were previously, and the bad episodes were downright terrible. There is probably a version of this series where this is the final episode, and it might be a better version of the show. But that's not the version we got and I promised I would see these reviews through to the end.
To the bitter end...
Case Results:
Case Notes:Season Seven is a rocky season of The X-Files. It's usually regarded as the time when the series began to go off the rails, and I find it hard to disagree with that; The good episodes weren't quite as good as they were previously, and the bad episodes were downright terrible. There is probably a version of this series where this is the final episode, and it might be a better version of the show. But that's not the version we got and I promised I would see these reviews through to the end.
To the bitter end...
Case Results:
- Best Episode: Hungry
- Worst Episode: Fight Club
- It took me a moment to grok how much of a call back to the beginning of the series the cold open is. It's even the same sheriff and town as the pilot.
- I'm a sucker for suddenly revealing doubles who are bleeding the green stuff.
- I gotta say, I do kinda like the FBI going to Mulder and asking "You are costing us HOW much?"
- Krycek showing up and getting release by Marita is kind of proof that this is going to be the all cameo finale for Mulder that we're expecting, but I feel like I skipped two pages in a book, how did he get into a prison in Tunisia? Wasn't he stealing a laptop last we saw him?
- Alex says to Marita "Last time I saw you, I betrayed you." Bet he says that a lot.
- I like Scully looking slightly awkward and trying to explain what they do at the X-Files, but staying firm. Good Scully work.
- The accountant guy saying Mulder should look for answers on the internet is REALLY funny to me in 2020. I think conspiracy nuts are doing that a little too much.
- Mulder attacking the accountant seems out of character, but Scully's delight at it is good.
- Holy shit, it's the kid from the pilot.
- Mulder and Scully bantering about going to waste FBI money to investigate aliens is exactly what I want right now.
- I'm not clear why the Cigarette Smoking Man would trust Krycek to do something, given that he habitually betrays everyone he gets within 10 feet of, including the Cigarette Smoking Man, several times.
- Okay, Cigarette Smoking Man smoking into his chest is a pretty solid bit of character work, and the actor sells the hell out of it.
- The Jacob's Ladder effect on the guy who gets caught in the alien area is good, the forcefield less so.
- I like the brief moments of Billy's life we get, it really drives how much time has passed since the pilot.
- The really faded X is a plot point, yes, but it's another moment of the series getting all nostalgic and I'm getting all nostalgic too.
- Again it's a bit of a call back, but driving around with a body in your trunk seems like a really easy way to get caught.
- It took us Seven Fucking Seasons, but we finally get Mulder and Scully in bed together.
- Okay, I made a joke there, but the scene with Mulder and Scully in bed a really excellent, soft scene that does a lot for the characters. Duchovny and Anderson do great work with it.
- I'm not gonna lie, the fact that stabbing/shooting the aliens kills you from 10 feet off still feels like cheating.
- The lady taking care of Cigarette Smoking Man is really patient, and I like the cut to Marita looking skeptical.
- Okay, both Cigarette Smoking Man and Marita basically saying "Krycek will betray us first chance he gets" is good, it means they're learning.
- Scully getting caught in the Jacob's Ladder effect is really good and really sudden, it ups the stakes.
- Hey, face morphing. It's been a while since we saw that, the effect is getting better.
- The shift from Mulder and Scully in Oregon to Mulder back in his office is VERY abrupt, like a longer script got cut down.
- Skinner bringing in Krycek and Marita like it won't piss off Mulder is very funny to me for some reason.
- I liked Cigarette Smoking Man being worried that Krycek would sell him out if he got information, but I LOVE that Krycek is selling him out even without it. Krycek just can't help it
- Mulder and Krycek bonding over mutual hatred of the Cigarette Smoking Man is good.
- Mulder refusing to let Scully go with him because he's worried about losing her is making me even MORE misty eyed, goddamn this episode can play me like a violin.
- Mulder being at risk of being taken because of the psychic thing at the beginning of the season is good plotting.
- Even as the episode is drawing to a close, Mulder is STILL salty about the budget thing.
- The group of abductees standing the light is REALLY good, especially since it looks a lot like the same spot (and kind of light) from the end of the pilot.
- Skinner being the one to see the spaceship makes a certain kind of sense.
- I like Marita and Krycek sending Cigarette Smoking Man down the stairs out of sheer spite, it's good character work.
- Skinner and Scully vowing to find Mulder is also good, especially Scully, Anderson is so good in this scene.
- As always, these reviews are supported by my Patreon. Check it out and consider donating so I too can go out into the world and seek David Duchovny.
Current Celebrity Watch:
Eddie Kay Thomas, who plays one of the two dudes who goes into the woods (not sure which one), was well(?) known for a role in American Pie as Paul Finch. I can't stand American Pie so I'm not sure how prominent that is, but he also played a main role in a CBS show called Scorpion. There really is so much TV I've never even heard of.
Audio Observations:
I mentioned in the review itself that the scene where Mulder is abducted has a triumphant sounding version of the main theme playing and I just fucking love it. As my comments on everything from She-Ra to Lord of the Rings prove, I am an absolute sucker for reusing meaningful leitmotifs and changing them to shape the mood, and this is just an excellent example of that.
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