Teleplay by Chris Carter ; Story by David Duchovny & Chris Carter
Directed by R.W. Goodwin
Eventually, even the most loyal
X-Files fan will come to view mytharc episodes with equal measures of
anticipation and dread; the former because there would be the possibility of
revelation; the latter because what one got would eventually become more and
more unfathomable and always mired in purple prose. Anasazi, however, would be
one of the most glorious exceptions to the rule. It would remind us of the
reason we tuned into X-Files in the
first place. When TV Guide gave a
listing of the 60 greatest finales of all time, this one made the list easily,
along with the series finales of Six Feet
Under and The Shield, which would
be high on the list of the greatest episodes ever. It's not quite at their
level, but it's pretty damn close.
Part of the reason
this episode works so well is because there is a complete absence of the long
and rambling stretches of dialogue, usually handled in voiceover (there is none
in this episode). Instead, we are viewing things from an admittedly skewed
perspective, much like our hero. Mulder seems off the entire
episode----impatient, nervous, irritable (he can barely stand the Lone Gunmen's
usual antics when they show up at his apartment). For once, he actually seems
like the loose cannon everybody in the Bureau seems to think he is. His
punching Skinner in the hallway is only the start of his erratic behavior, and
seems to get angrier as the episode progresses. Yet despite how off Mulder
seems, given the events of the last five or six episodes, it doesn't seem
entirely out of character for him to be raging against the machine. And Carter,
for a change, is very subtle in his suggestion that something is wrong with
Mulder--- he mentions he hasn't been sleeping well, and we see him drinking a
glass of water in almost every scene in his apartment. When we learn that
someone higher up has been drugging the water in Mulder's building it makes
sense---- and it's actually something of a relief. That's how good Duchovny's
performance as Mulder is---- it's good enough that we can tell something might be wrong with Mulder, but subtle
enough for us to realize it might not have been.
Then again, the episode does seem
to have it's fair share of surprises. The first really big one is the
Cigarette-Smoking Man's visit with Bill Mulder early in the episode. We've
wonder at the real reasons why no one's tried to kill Fox before, now we see
why. CSM has been protecting Mulder out of loyalty to his colleague. Of course,
Smoking Man's loyalty to his friends only goes so far--- he no doubt sees how
fragile his old friend is, and arranges to have him murdered by Krycek by the
end of the next act. It's clear that Fox has no idea at the depths of his
father's involvement; this is one of the few things that the mythology will
make abundantly clear before it becomes incoherent. This is one of William B.
Davis' best and most textured performances, and its own way, it's a landmark
for his character as well. For the past two seasons, he has seemed like this
mildly threatening, nameless higher, with more implied menace than actual
threats. Now we actually see him do something angry and violent, and we get the
first real sign how dangerous he can be. From this point on, his evil will always
be somewhat measured, as for the next several seasons he will be shown as part
of a larger evil which seems to reduce his level of danger.
Despite all the revelations in the
Mulder family, its through Scully that we get some of the episode's best bits.
This episode puts to rest the last remnants of distrust between the two agents
as Scully finally puts to bed whose side she is on when it comes to Mulder vs.
the powers that be. Everything she does is to try and find the truth for
herself as much as it is for Mulder. She is the one who points out to him that
the MJ Files that are the prevailing
forces are encrypted in Navajo. She goes to extremes to proof that Mulder
didn't murder his father, and in the most desperate act of their partnership,
she shoots Mulder in the shoulder to stop him from killing Krycek, finally
giving the FBI the power to put him down once and for all. It's so well put
together that it's perhaps the biggest surprise of all is not that aliens are
not the biggest revelation, but how close their partnership came to breaking.
And if one wants to point out
revelations, well, there's the last act. Mulder is led out into the desert in New
Mexico to find a boxcar filled with aliens. But it
becomes clear very quickly that, like everything else in this episode, this
isn't business as usual. The bodies are stacked floor to ceiling, and from the
looks of tem they look as if they have died in excruciating pain. And then we
see another key element---- they all have the smallpox vaccination scar on
their left arm. Suddenly, this series no longer seems like it is only a show
about aliens, but rather something much darker. We recall the moments when the
MJ files were first hacked, and that the authorities that were told were
Italian, Japanese and German. We remember what they all had in common, and we
get a real glimpse at where the series seems to be taking the conspiracy (for
now, anyway). Admittedly, the final cliffhanger, where Mulder seems to be
trapped in a burning boxcar is one of the few things that doesn't resonate
because we know that Mulder has to escaped. What is more important is that The X-Files has opened a new chapter.
The second season has been a
revelation, featuring far less of the inconsistency that plagued the show so
much in the first season. Duchovny and Anderson have finally nailed down Mulder
and Scully, the mythology seems well-developed and actually full of dramatic
possibility, and the series has been able to survive the departure (or so it
seemed at the time) of the writers who had done the most to lay the foundation
of the series. If anything, the writers who have joined the staff this season,
seem to have a better handle on things than some of the more senior members.
What is perhaps the most astonishing, is that the series actually became even
better from this point on.
My score: 5 Stars
Season 2 Average: 3.96 stars
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