Zero Sum- I haven't got a lot to say about this episode. I'm not a big Skinner fan, and I don't like the fact that Scully wasn't in it at all! Also, wasn't a fan of the bee storyline the last time, so I'm a bit "meh" on the episode. 4.5/10
Elegy- I liked this episode. Happy to see Mulder and Scully on screen together again. The storyline was good and creepy, but loved the Scully scenes more. The moment she told Mulder she saw the ghost before the dead body was discovered, and then again in the car..... made it all clear to me that she is close to death Great acting on GA's part for sure. 8/10
Demons- Ooh, what's happened to Mulder? Was he involved in a homicide? I really enjoyed this episode, not just because of the storyline, but to see how far the two of them had become. How close has Scully grown to Mulder that she would believe him if there was obvious evidence that he had been involved? Think the ep for me was more about them two rather than the plot. Really enjoyed the way the flashback shots were done too. 8/10
Gethsemane- I don't know whether I'm disappointed in the overall episode or not. Especially being a season final, I don't know whether I loved it or didn't. The actual ploy to me wasn't interesting, but for me the whole episode was me thinking, "BUT, What... Mulder's dead?" Huh? So, I wasn't even paying proper attention to the episode, I was trying to think. "well, he can't be dead obviously... can he? Will they introduce resurrection on the series?". Well, end of the episode, Scully confirms this. I think maybe Mulder faked his own death, and Scully's in on it... BUT, she identified the body. I don't know how someone can fool a team of FBI and paramedics to look like a dead body! Fair if Scully was the only one there, but there were other people there when (at the start of the episode) she said "Yes, it's him". I'm confused. But sorry on the relatively low score for a final! 5/10
I like Zero Sum but maybe that's because I always had a lot of time for Skinner. You better get used to the bees, Salv!
Elegy is brilliant with some exceptional scenes but I always found Demons a bit ho-hum. Good, but never quite reaching any heights.
Gethsemene works so much better on repeated viewing and more so when you watch the whole trilogy as one long episode, rather than 3 separate episodes (if that makes any sense!)
As for season 5:
Fave episodes - Unusual Suspects; Post-Modern Prometheus; Kill Switch; Bad Blood; and I have a bit of a soft spot for Folie Á Deux.
I agree with LM, there's no real stinkers in season 5, sure there's some average ones but nothing dreadful.
Redux (1) and (2)- Really enjoyed these episodes. So many fantastic moments. First of all... Scully in the court room KICKS ASS. I love it when she does that. So many different things come into my head but I can't write them all down. SCULLY COLLAPSES. Oh Man, I love her character so much! and the fact Mulder wasn't around immediately when it happened. That is surely NOT Samantha. Give me a break. That's surely a clone? But wouldn't they have mentioned it if she was either real or fake? Or am I going to have to assume? Damn! Bill is an idiot. I think he's terrible. I do not like him at all. Get off my screen! The scenes between Mulder and Scully were at their best. Firstly, the scene when they are together again in the hospital, the scene when Mulder comes into the hospital room and breaks down, and the scene before the Priest comes in. The exposing by Mulder towards the end!! :D Really thought he'd name Skinner for a second! What a great scene! As well as the end when we find out... She's in remission!! And we see Mulder gleaming with joy at first when he tells Skinner. But the end Also, naa, I refuse to believe Smoking Man is dead. 9/10
Unusual Suspects- OK, people may hate me for this, but I'm not a big fan of the Lone Gunmen so this was just an OK ep for me. 4.5/10
Detour- Not a great second episode;. Redux started very strongly but these 2 have been a bit of a downer. It's not a bad episode, but was a little silly and cheesy. A tree monster? 5/10
The Post-Modern Prometheus- Unique. It's a good stand out episode. Was silly, but it was supposed to be. It kind of felt like a half-Darin episode. The humor was there, as was the weirdness. But I liked the fact it was shot differently to all other episodes. Good move from the writers. 8/10
Sorry for lack of posting, but I'm really busy lately!
Unsual Suspects bored me on the first viewing but has become one of my fav episodes on repeat viewings. The main reason for the creation of that episode was so it involved less of Mulder and Scully, as both actors needed time away to film the movie.
Unsual Suspects bored me on the first viewing but has become one of my fav episodes on repeat viewings. The main reason for the creation of that episode was so it involved less of Mulder and Scully, as both actors needed time away to film the movie.
Yeah I get that. But so far not been a fan of non Scully and Mulder Eps, especially those without Scully.
Shame I can't watch much as I'm very busy! So hope people understand
Unusual Suspects- OK, people may hate me for this, but I'm not a big fan of the Lone Gunmen so this was just an OK ep for me. 4.5/10
Detour- Not a great second episode;. Redux started very strongly but these 2 have been a bit of a downer. It's not a bad episode, but was a little silly and cheesy. A tree monster? 5/10
The Post-Modern Prometheus- Unique. It's a good stand out episode. Was silly, but it was supposed to be. It kind of felt like a half-Darin episode. The humor was there, as was the weirdness. But I liked the fact it was shot differently to all other episodes. Good move from the writers. 8/10
Sorry for lack of posting, but I'm really busy lately!
I'm the polar opposite to you, I love TLG and I love Unusual Suspects. It's a charming episode with a wickedly funny plot. The scenes at the computer fair are just brilliant.
Detour is not great, it's almost like a remake of Darkness Falls. I remember that the pacing of the whole episode just seemed to be really off.
Post-Modern Prometheus is really strange (even for The X-Files!) but one that I like and I love Mulder & Scully dancing at the end.
Christmas Carole (1)- I liked this episode a lot. It's good to see a bit more into the family lives of the characters. However, a point needs to be deducted for a missing Mulder (have a feeling i won't like the season he doesn't appear in much). However, I still cannot abide Billy. Was it on purpose that the writers made him so unlikeable? I really wouldn't mind if he got killed off, even if it does leave Scully "sibling-less", sounds harsh, but please, make him go away. Storyline was pretty good also.The end.... hmm, how does that work? How would Emily be Scully's daughter. I guess I'll find out later! 7/10
Emily (2)- 2nd part here we go. Well firstly I'm happy that Mulder is back as I missed his presence. It was a good episode, not great but I'm a sucker for scenes between the two of them. Oh look there's Bill again... go away please. Emily is creepy. She reminds me of a female version on Damien from the Omen...was she supposed to be? That odd green stuff coming out of her. Urrghhh. Well, that was all resolved a bit quickly. 6.5/10
Kitsunegari- I really liked this one, but I expected to because Pusher was back. And as of now, I have only given two episodes a 10/10, and Pusher was one of them (Home was the other). Of course, it didn't match Pusher for me, it was less tense but I enjoyed. A little annoyed that he was killed off though. Good Mulder and Scully moments... I love Scully and all, but it annoys me that 5 years on, she still constantly doubts Mulder when he's almost always right, same with Skinner. 8/10
Schizogeny- The episode was lame, really lame. And history has repeated itself with great episodes being followed by stinkers. Weirdly enough both followed a Pusher episode. Last time I gave Pusher a maximum 10/10 and Teso Dos Bichos a series low of 1.5/10. This time I gave Kitsunegari a 8/10 (a Pusher ep) and this one I will give just a tiny bit more than Teso. I present you with.... 2/10
I agree with you on Kitsunegari, Salv. Excellent, but was never going to top Pusher, Another brilliant performance from Robert Wisden and more proof that Vince Gilligan had become the top writer for the show.
Schizogeny is average for me. Starts off a bit like DPO from what I recall. And being a huge Lord of the Rings fan I loved the idea of the trees coming to life, would have been great if Treebeard had made a cameo!
Salv, your opinions intrigue me. It makes me wonder what your views would be on a future re-watch. I found my opinions of many XF episodes got better when i rewatched them. Same with Buffy and Xena to be honest.
Salv, your opinions intrigue me. It makes me wonder what your views would be on a future re-watch. I found my opinions of many XF episodes got better when i rewatched them. Same with Buffy and Xena to be honest.
Yes, I've been told that a few times by people who have watched the entire series a few times. Things like, "yes, i thought that too, but now I don't". With Buffy an example being the episode, Lie To Me. When I watched it the first few times (i've watched every episode, no joking, about 500 times!), I thought it was a filler. But now, I love it on re-watch. The story, how you can look back on it in the future, etc...
Chinga- As a big fan of Stephen King, I expected great things from this, I expected it to be creepy and disturbing. Maybe it didn't live up to the high expectation but I did find it creepy and disturbing. It had a kind of Final Destination aspect to it, but obviously you can see that King was involved too. That girl though, i know she was supposed to be annoying, but F me. I would have attempted to burn the house down with her in it alone, much sooner... :D I kind of liked the fact that Mulder and Scully were apart on this occasion. I don't like it usually, but I give them this one, only to see Scully's interactions with working with other people... whilst Mulder was the one slowly going insane from boredom! Finally, someone does the right thing and melts that damn thing! However, it comes back to life at the end... guessing we won't hear from that again, because that happened with numerous episodes in X Files, including the end of The Host, and I don't expect the Flukeman to return. 8/10
That girl though, i know she was supposed to be annoying, but F me. I would have attempted to burn the house down with her in it alone, much sooner... :D
Funnily enough Chinga is one of those episodes that I think gets better on repeated viewing. I have to admit I did hope for something more original from the pen of Stephen King than a "Devil Doll" story but it's pretty good. I especially love the phone conversations between Mulder & Scully, a kind of throw back to War of the Coprophages, and I really liked how Scully dealt with it all without the need for Mulder to be there.
Funnily enough Chinga is one of those episodes that I think gets better on repeated viewing. I have to admit I did hope for something more original from the pen of Stephen King than a "Devil Doll" story but it's pretty good. I especially love the phone conversations between Mulder & Scully, a kind of throw back to War of the Coprophages, and I really liked how Scully dealt with it all without the need for Mulder to be there.
Kill Switch- This episode was a good one. I liked a lot of the Mulder/Scully scenes. I actually quite liked the interactions with Esther too. She was a crazy one with short temper, but I did find her quite likable. Best scene of course had to be Mulder's dream-like sequence of him losing his legs, calling out for Scully, and she storms in there and in an odd-Matrix type of way, kicks all of those people's backsides. It looked so out of place, but so X Files at the same time. Shame, Esther had to die though. 7.5/10
Bad Blood- "Oh sh..." what has Mulder done? How's he going to get out of this one? I've heard a lot about this episode, when I first heard there was going to be a vampire episode, all I thought was "hope it's better than the other one" (can't remember which episode that was, but it wasn't great), but they were completely different! Luke Wilson appearance. Quite worrying that Scully's dissection of the organs, left her hungry for pizza after she found out that was the last time thing the victim ate....oh and she actually did order one!! Jeez that vibrating bed is annoying, I wouldn't be enjoying it as much as Mulder, makes me feel nauseous. Oh it really is horrible. Scully's nonchalant facial expressions whilst at work sums up my life at work too. I love how the episode focused on both Mulder and Scully's version of the vampire events. Got to say, I have to say it's funny that in his mind, Mulder paints himself in a much more sensible manner than the version Scully gave. As if Mulder thinks himself as that serious whereas Scully's version has him acting like a jester all the way through! (well apart from the time he was swinging at the back of the truck trying to make it stop!). I knew Wilson was a vamp from the start! So obvious. As if Mulder grabbed two pieces of wood to pretend he was holding a crucifix to scare the vamps away (or were they frenchsticks) :D
The Teeth on Wilson. Who's jealous, huh, Mulder? I love the luminous eyes though on Ronnie. When the two were waiting for Skinner, they looked like they teens about to go into detention! I do adore this episode though. I really, really do. I think it's close to perfect as you can get (something I said for Pusher and Home). I loved the story line, the interactions and the humor. 10/10
Kill Switch is vastly underrated IMO. I think it's brilliant. This is the first of the two William Gibson episodes, I always felt it a shame that he didn't do more.
Bad Blood is wonderful, Vince Gilligan does it again! It's just a sublime piece of writing. Clever and incredibly witty. I love how the story gets told twice with two completely different perceptions of everything from Mulder & Scully. In short, this episode is a gem.
Patient X- I was a bit confused during the lecture panel with Mulder. Why was he out of character by not believing the stuff Cassandra said? In the docs office she said things that Mulder had in the past. Why isn't he believing it?
Oh look it's Krycek and Marita! Yes I love her. Standard Krycek sowing the boys face together after injecting him with black oil. Poor boy throughout the episode. Talk about being innocent but receiving the brunt of it! 7.5/10
Sorry . Since the last time I posted it have only watched 4 episodes and they were all in the last 2 days as I was swamped with work and feeling down generally I will do a big update when I finish season 5 which should be by Monday morning.
The Red and the Black- This entire burned corpse storyline is quite frightening. In the series, not much has creeped me out, but this episode made me feel a little uneasy. I know Scully would be OK (obviously), but I was questioning, "how come she is always the one that happens to be safest", I know it's X Files, but tough odds. I think that hypnotic scene was pretty cool too. 7.5/10
Travelers- OK, i don't have much to say in this episode. Not a big fan of flashback episodes, especially if it doesn't include my beloved Scully so I wasn't really enjoying this episode. I didn't really feel for any of the new characters (or old characters per se) that we saw on the screen. But props to the fact they made that spider thing look quite good. 4/10
Mind's Eye- Great episode basically. I enjoyed it throughout, and I don't take that lightly considering at the end of Travellers it was 2am and I thought, "i'm quite sleepy, I'll give this one a bit of a watch, maybe watch the rest tomorrow" and I perked up quite a bit during the episode despite it being late. I really thought the opening scene was brilliant. Tense and all. I thought Marty was a brilliant character. I liked her no-nonsense, cocky-like attitude. At first, I thought she would be sweet and innocent (being blind, no offence of course), but I like the fact she had sort of vendetta against the world, which is understandable. I also liked the connection between her and Mulder, the fact that this woman, who was so cut away from the world, would come to really bond with Mulder, ie. especially the ending scene. 8.5/10
All Souls- This was an OK episode, I wasn't a big fan of the actual storyline. My positives come from Scully's performance really. I really liked the scene of her "confession". Perhaps I just don't like episodes with religious tones, maybe it's just me. 4/5/10
The Pine Bluff Variant- I loved this episode. It was great to see a wedge being put between Mulder and Scully with Scully not knowing whether she was supposed to trust Mulder. I can't imagine what was going through her head at that time, especially after everything they have been through in 5 years. The effects of the bio weapon was done fantastically. I loved it. Terrifying in fact, so that's a big pro. Mulder going undercover was a good storyline, and IMO it came at a perfect time because this season, Mulder had been pretty "un Mulder like", he has been more cautious, less willing to believe in X Files type cases, so the fact that he could potentially turn his back on Scully and the X Files and join another group wasn't far fetched. This wouldn't have worked between S1-3. The scene where Mulder was about to "die" was great, and the ending scene of the other guy being let go... being found dead in his car with his face eaten away due to the bio weapon being contaminated on him, his keys right? Lucky Mulder! 9/10
Folie à Deux- Another great episode. We have another Duane/Leonard here with Gary. It seemed a lot like a season final to be honest, more so, than the actual S5 final, which i will talk about next. Vince writing this episode... makes episode, probably why i enjoyed it so much. Mulder did look unstable throughout most of the episode. I'm sorry, I know he's FBI, but he was too brave in that room when being held hostage. I wouldn't be able to do that. But I guess he has been put in those situations a lot of times. Loved Mulder in the hospital bed and Scully coming to the rescue and finally seeing
something! 9/10
The End- I know I'm supposed to probably love this episode, but it was average for me. I think as time goes on, i'm liking the MOTW episodes over the ones tied into the story arc of the entire series. The kid was quite decent, but I didn't get that big final feeling... well up until the X Files office being set fire by the Smoking Man. I loved that. I hear that's the last time we see that office, right? They move cities, do they not? 5.5/10
Comments
I like Zero Sum but maybe that's because I always had a lot of time for Skinner. You better get used to the bees, Salv!
Elegy is brilliant with some exceptional scenes but I always found Demons a bit ho-hum. Good, but never quite reaching any heights.
Gethsemene works so much better on repeated viewing and more so when you watch the whole trilogy as one long episode, rather than 3 separate episodes (if that makes any sense!)
As for season 5:
Fave episodes - Unusual Suspects; Post-Modern Prometheus; Kill Switch; Bad Blood; and I have a bit of a soft spot for Folie Á Deux.
I agree with LM, there's no real stinkers in season 5, sure there's some average ones but nothing dreadful.
Detour- Not a great second episode;. Redux started very strongly but these 2 have been a bit of a downer. It's not a bad episode, but was a little silly and cheesy. A tree monster?
The Post-Modern Prometheus- Unique. It's a good stand out episode. Was silly, but it was supposed to be. It kind of felt like a half-Darin episode. The humor was there, as was the weirdness. But I liked the fact it was shot differently to all other episodes. Good move from the writers. 8/10
Sorry for lack of posting, but I'm really busy lately!
Yeah I get that. But so far not been a fan of non Scully and Mulder Eps, especially those without Scully.
Shame I can't watch much as I'm very busy! So hope people understand
Detour is not great, it's almost like a remake of Darkness Falls. I remember that the pacing of the whole episode just seemed to be really off.
Post-Modern Prometheus is really strange (even for The X-Files!) but one that I like and I love Mulder & Scully dancing at the end.
Hope you guys can hang around because I'm going to be a slow mo!
Oh really, I'll look out for that (even though I haven't been watching on Spike!)
Good cliffhanger wasn't it? Keep watching, it will all make sense soon enough. ;-)
Schizogeny- The episode was lame, really lame. And history has repeated itself with great episodes being followed by stinkers. Weirdly enough both followed a Pusher episode. Last time I gave Pusher a maximum 10/10 and Teso Dos Bichos a series low of 1.5/10. This time I gave Kitsunegari a 8/10 (a Pusher ep) and this one I will give just a tiny bit more than Teso. I present you with.... 2/10
Schizogeny is average for me. Starts off a bit like DPO from what I recall. And being a huge Lord of the Rings fan I loved the idea of the trees coming to life, would have been great if Treebeard had made a cameo!
Yes, I've been told that a few times by people who have watched the entire series a few times. Things like, "yes, i thought that too, but now I don't". With Buffy an example being the episode, Lie To Me. When I watched it the first few times (i've watched every episode, no joking, about 500 times!), I thought it was a filler. But now, I love it on re-watch. The story, how you can look back on it in the future, etc...
Chinga- As a big fan of Stephen King, I expected great things from this, I expected it to be creepy and disturbing. Maybe it didn't live up to the high expectation but I did find it creepy and disturbing. It had a kind of Final Destination aspect to it, but obviously you can see that King was involved too. That girl though, i know she was supposed to be annoying, but F me. I would have attempted to burn the house down with her in it alone, much sooner...
Funnily enough Chinga is one of those episodes that I think gets better on repeated viewing. I have to admit I did hope for something more original from the pen of Stephen King than a "Devil Doll" story but it's pretty good. I especially love the phone conversations between Mulder & Scully, a kind of throw back to War of the Coprophages, and I really liked how Scully dealt with it all without the need for Mulder to be there.
Bad Blood- "Oh sh..." what has Mulder done?
The Teeth on Wilson. Who's jealous, huh, Mulder?
Bad Blood is wonderful, Vince Gilligan does it again! It's just a sublime piece of writing. Clever and incredibly witty. I love how the story gets told twice with two completely different perceptions of everything from Mulder & Scully. In short, this episode is a gem.
Oh look it's Krycek and Marita! Yes I love her. Standard Krycek sowing the boys face together after injecting him with black oil. Poor boy throughout the episode. Talk about being innocent but receiving the brunt of it! 7.5/10
I'm concerned now that you may have been abducted!
Travelers- OK, i don't have much to say in this episode. Not a big fan of flashback episodes, especially if it doesn't include my beloved Scully
Mind's Eye- Great episode basically. I enjoyed it throughout, and I don't take that lightly considering at the end of Travellers it was 2am and I thought, "i'm quite sleepy, I'll give this one a bit of a watch, maybe watch the rest tomorrow" and I perked up quite a bit during the episode despite it being late. I really thought the opening scene was brilliant. Tense and all. I thought Marty was a brilliant character. I liked her no-nonsense, cocky-like attitude. At first, I thought she would be sweet and innocent (being blind, no offence of course), but I like the fact she had sort of vendetta against the world, which is understandable. I also liked the connection between her and Mulder, the fact that this woman, who was so cut away from the world, would come to really bond with Mulder, ie. especially the ending scene. 8.5/10
All Souls- This was an OK episode, I wasn't a big fan of the actual storyline. My positives come from Scully's performance really. I really liked the scene of her "confession". Perhaps I just don't like episodes with religious tones, maybe it's just me. 4/5/10
The Pine Bluff Variant- I loved this episode. It was great to see a wedge being put between Mulder and Scully with Scully not knowing whether she was supposed to trust Mulder. I can't imagine what was going through her head at that time, especially after everything they have been through in 5 years. The effects of the bio weapon was done fantastically. I loved it. Terrifying in fact, so that's a big pro. Mulder going undercover was a good storyline, and IMO it came at a perfect time because this season, Mulder had been pretty "un Mulder like", he has been more cautious, less willing to believe in X Files type cases, so the fact that he could potentially turn his back on Scully and the X Files and join another group wasn't far fetched. This wouldn't have worked between S1-3. The scene where Mulder was about to "die" was great, and the ending scene of the other guy being let go... being found dead in his car with his face eaten away due to the bio weapon being contaminated on him, his keys right? Lucky Mulder! 9/10
Folie à Deux- Another great episode. We have another Duane/Leonard here with Gary. It seemed a lot like a season final to be honest, more so, than the actual S5 final, which i will talk about next. Vince writing this episode... makes episode, probably why i enjoyed it so much. Mulder did look unstable throughout most of the episode. I'm sorry, I know he's FBI, but he was too brave in that room when being held hostage. I wouldn't be able to do that. But I guess he has been put in those situations a lot of times. Loved Mulder in the hospital bed and Scully coming to the rescue and finally seeing
something! 9/10
The End- I know I'm supposed to probably love this episode, but it was average for me. I think as time goes on, i'm liking the MOTW episodes over the ones tied into the story arc of the entire series. The kid was quite decent, but I didn't get that big final feeling... well up until the X Files office being set fire by the Smoking Man. I loved that. I hear that's the last time we see that office, right? They move cities, do they not? 5.5/10
Overall S5 rating- 7/10