Case 05, File 17: All Souls

AKA: In The Arms Of An Angel

There was this kind of a trend in fantasy circles in the 90s of instead of drawing on stuff like Norse and Greek mythology for their stuff, they would instead draw on Catholic apocrypha and Antediluvian (it's a word, look it up) myth. This was partially for access to some really odd shit (Antediluvian myth is really weird guys) but also to grant it a slight edge. After all these aren't just weird monsters, these are weird monsters that are based on stuff that is kind of technically related to stuff that people actually believe. Some of this stuff was good, a lot of it was bad but all of it was really really weird.

Case 05, File 16: Mind's Eye

AKA: Justice Is Blind But Also Has Psychic Powers

What makes an X-Files episode good is a nebulous thing, and honestly, even I can't pin down exactly what connects the episodes I like. Sure there's some common elements (good script, solid concept, entertaining banter, all the usual suspects) but what exactly tips an episode from "Good enough to watch" (which is basically the entire series, outside some outliers) to truly great is something I have trouble nailing down.

Case 05, File 15: Travelers

AKA: Turns Out Roy Cohn Is The Real Monster

I always got the sense The X-Files regretted killing off Mulder's dad as early in their run as they did. Mulder's dad is a conceptually fascinating character, with his conflicted loyalties to his family and to the Conspiracy, the fact that he gave up Samantha to be abducted, his friendship with the Cigarette Smoking Man, all of that stuff could make for a fascinating character, but they killed him off in more or less the same breath in which he arrived in the series. So it's understandable they'd want to jump back to show him in flashbacks.

Case 05, File 14: The Red and the Black

AKA: Is The Title A Chessboard Reference, I Don't Get It

I mentioned this earlier, and I'm sure I will mention this again but at a certain point the Myth Arc episodes begin to get a little...frustrating. Not because the episodes themselves are bad or unengaging, but because you know that huge chunks of the plots of them will either be undone or just will never pay off. I brought this up at the beginning of the season because the big plot twists and status quo shakeups from Redux were destined to be undone, and now here we are.

Case 05, File 13: Patient X

AKA: I Have No Mouth But I've Got A Good Reason

As ongoing mystery stories get more dense and complex, it is inevitable that the authors have to begin making up stuff on the spot to keep the plot going, or more importantly to keep the audience coming back. Once you have established grand new revelations as your primary audience engagement, you have to keep coming up with new ones, which can lead to Mystery Inflation which is, to put it lightly, where the fun train stops. It happened to Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Attack on Titan and it was inevitable that it would happen to The X-Files.

Case 05, File 12: Bad Blood

AKA: What We Do In The Texas Shadows

After Darin Morgan stopped writing for The X-Files, there was a desire to recreate some of the stuff he did for the show. Of course a lot of the later attempts (especially in Season 6 onwards) would forget that part of what made Morgan great was his shocking insight into his characters. But without that, the least they could do, is make the episode absolutely, screamingly, hilarious.

Case 05, File 11: Kill Switch

AKA: Their Only Crime Was Curiosity

90s understanding of hacking and computers was uh....quaint. Not to say that modern day understanding is any better, there's a lot of silly stuff out there. And sure there were a handful of pieces of media that got it right-ish, but those are not the ones that stick in people's minds, the ones that stick in people's minds are the ones that got it hilariously wrong, like Lawnmower Man or the ones that were profound like Neuromancer. So if you wanted to bring hacking to The X-Files, you should probably look into hiring the writer of Neuromancer. Especially if you already hired the author of Lawnmower Man.