Case 04, File 24: Gethesemane

AKA: Old Alien and the Mountain

End of season cliffhangers are a risky business, not least because they require a degree of certainty that the series is coming back. You want to give the audience a desire to return without making them feel like they're being manipulated. It's a fine line to walk, but if you do it right, you can keep your audience always coming back. There's a reason why I'm writing this review while watching Orange is the New Black. Fumble it thought and the audience can feel they're being manipulated for cheap effect.

Case 04, File 23: Demons

AKA: Cucked By The Cigarette Smoking Man

Mulder makes bad decisions. This is not a complaint or an insult, this is a fact of his character, one that other characters are aware of. There is a moment in the second movie where Skinner insists that Mulder wouldn't do anything rash and Scully just looks at him in disbelief. As much as I love Mulder, the fact that he can do some stupid stuff is basically just something we all have to live with. But still, even among his many odd choices, there a handful that stand out.

Case 04, File 22: Elegy

AKA: Fuck It Dude, Let's Go Bowling

It's pretty safe to say that non-neurotypical people didn't get great media representation during the 90s but one of the ones who had it worst was...actually, I have no idea how to even rank that, but people with autism certainly didn't have the best, usually portraying them as people with no ability to talk or even act normally but with some sort of number or memory related super power. And while The X-Files dipped its toe in that pool before, it almost feels inevitable that they'd return to it.

Case 04, File 21: Zero Sum

AKA: DIY Cover Ups With Walter Skinner

Skinner is a difficult character for the series to handle. He's unquestionably one of the most important characters, appearing in more episodes than any other non-Mulder/Scully character, but the first attempt to center an episode around him failed miserably. So, I suppose the thought process went, since one of the more interesting aspects of him is his combative relationship with the Conspiracy and his sparring with the Cigarette Smoking Man, why not center an episode around that?

Case 04, File 20: Small Potatoes

AKA: The Ballad of Eddie van Blundht

After Darin Morgan stopped writing episodes for the show, the series would make several attempts to recreate what he did for the show, to varying degrees of success. It would lean heavier on the funny episodes as the series wore on and it started to get stretched for content, but even in the golden age, it would bring back come comedic episodes, some good, some bad, some involving Mulder singing the Shaft theme song and therefore amazing. But for my money, I think that the smartest decision one could make is, if you can't have Darin Morgan writing, have him acting.

Case 04, File 19: Synchrony

AKA: This Villain Is A Dumb Name Away From Being A Batman Villain

One of the reasons I wanted to do this project was to interrogate my own opinions, something I do a lot. The X-Files is my favorite show, yes, and that is very unlikely to change, but I wanted to examine that feeling. What is it about The X-Files that I love, what episodes speak the most to me and, perhaps just as importantly, what episodes don't work for me and why. And while the answer to that question is usually pretty straightforward, sometimes it can be more complex.

Case 04, File 18: Max

AKA: He's The Man Who's Name You'd Love To Touch

Each individual X-Files episode is, ultimately, futile in the grand scheme of things. Mulder and Scully can't prove the existence of aliens, capture a supernatural being or otherwise accomplish their goals, or else the series would be over, or at least the dynamic would change a lot. It's part of the contract with the audience, and how well we agree to take that futility depends on how well the episode presents it.