X-Files Episode Guide: Redux II

Written by Chris Carter

Directed by Kim Manners

If nothing else, this episode is, for the most part, free of the horrible Carter-speak that so deluged the season premiere. We're allowed some actual action for a change, and, what is far more important, some actual human drama, which was glaringly absent from Redux. As Scully's mortality finally seems inevitable, the characters are finally---- and frankly, a little too late for this particular arc--- allowed to show some actual emotion. Duchovny is allowed the full range that he's been hiding for awhile when it comes to his partner's wellbeing, mainly in the scenes with his partner, but also in the scenes with the Smoking Man, which have been absent for so long we've forgotten how good they can be.

For once, William B. Davis is allowed a certain range of emotion, as he tries to play himself as the hero for once, and even though he offers Mulder seemingly everything he's ever wanted---- a cure for Scully's cancer, the existence of his sister (we'll get to that in a minute)---- Mulder doesn't buy it for an instant. The scene where CSM tempts Mulder with real proof is very telling, and the fact that Mulder despite his bravado, seriously considers siding with a man he despises, is one of the better ones in the series.

Anderson is also at the top of her game as she finds her brave face slipping away along with her life. Her scenes where she shows emotion to her mother once again demonstrates how much she holds in for the sake of her partner. And while one wants to berate Bill Scully  for his beastly behavior towards Mulder---- by the way, where were you when Dana was abducted or when Melissa died?---- one can't help but see the logic from what someone from the outside looking in would think about what has happened.

Unfortunately, surrounding this real heart is a tremendous, and I mean ridiculous, amount of baggage connected to the conspiracy, one that demonstrates by now just how impossible Carter and company have made it for us to believe anything we see or hear. The scenes with Samantha are a prime example of this. It's interesting to consider the possibility that Fox's sister is the aggrieved party and not him, that she wants nothing to do with her overly obsessive brother, and she's trying to put the horror of what's happening behind her. But once again, we are given no definitive proof that this is the real Samantha, and not just another clone.  And frankly, considering that the climax of this episode seems to be built around Scully and Mulder, dealing with yet another piece of misleading information seems rather superfluous at this time.

And the other, larger problem with this episode is the fact that it has taken the what has been the center of this rather unwieldy three-parter---- the hearing discussing Agent Mulder's 'death'---- and added so many red herrings that it no longer has any value. If it were possible that Skinner was really being painted as the mole who has been responsible for the conspiracy---- well, frankly we wouldn't believe it anyway. Hell, at this point it would be a betrayal of what we've learned about the character for the past three seasons. So instead, the true villain behind the picture is Section Chief Blevins, a man who falls victim to Ebert's law of extraneous characters, a man who even Carter can't seem to come up with a legitimate piece of evidence to go along with the accusation so he has Mulder make a wild guess.

And of course, there's the 'death' of the Smoking Man. Now really think this through, Skinner believes CSM has been murdered, even though a) he doesn't know Smoking Man's name, b) no body is found at the scene, c) even if the apartment was his, and there was too much blood for him to lose and live, how would we know the Smoking Man's to begin with?   We know he's just going to turn up again later, so why bother killing him off in the first place. Again, we see Carter getting in the way of himself. It would've been a ballsy move for the conspiracy to actually kill off its flagship character, but as we're never a given a legitimate reason for that, why bother doing it at all? As a result, one of the most distinctive characters in the canon will essentially be regarded as a cliché, a supervillain for whom death has so little effect on, it's essentially become a running gag.

Hell, even the revelation that supposedly is going to bring relief---- Scully's cancer has gone into remission---- seems anti-climatic as well/. We knew that they were never going to kill Scully off, so the series doesn't even bother giving a legitimate reason for her cure.  It doesn't even have enough confidence in the mythology to say that the implant was what cured her. What it feels like is Carter trying to extricate himself from a storyline that, for the most part, never was well-executed, and didn't offer much in the way of emotional or dramatic strength.

Perhaps the greatest relief is that when Redux II finally ends, is that we're finally going to begin the series proper, and have stories with beginnings, middles and ends again. Of course, we don't realize that we're going to be getting a whole new set of problems with this truncated season, and that while we'll be taking some interesting arcs for our characters, Carter clearly seems to have no idea what direction to take them in  now. If Mulder knew that, he'd have a real reason to be crying at the end of this episode.

My score: 2.25 stars.