X-Files Episode Guide: Without

Written by Chris Carter

Directed by Kim Manners

At this juncture, most of what happens in Without is basically more of X-Files greatest hits: we have the Mighty Morphing Bounty Hunter impersonating everybody he comes into contact with. We have Scully and Skinner holding guns on each other. We have an FBI agent being attacked by someone he thinks is someone else. Oh, and as an added bonus Kersh is publicly berating a subordinate who doesn't deserve it.

And yet, this episode works a lot better than most of the mytharc has in quite some time: mainly because for once the Bounty Hunter is impersonating characters that we have come to know and trust for nearly six years instead of random strangers. For the first time, the aliens ability are being used in a way that give it strength, and because it's being done off someone who has no history with it - Doggett - it actually seems fresh and vital in a way it really hasn't since as far back as End Game. Seeing Mulder being someone dangerous, watching Scully physically throttle a man twice her size, seeing Skinner throw Scully across the room give the Alien Bounty Hunter a menace that he just hasn't had in almost in his entire existence. (Of course, there's a real drawback to this, but we'll get to that in a bit)

 There's also a real vitality to what we're seeing because Scully's the one seeing it, not Mulder. The scene where she finally admits that she believes in the existence of extraterrestrials should come as an anticlimax, considering how much evidence she's had to refute just to try and be skeptical, particularly for the last couple of seasons. But because of what she's being forced to go through at this juncture, there's a real spark to it when she finally admits, probably because she's doing it more to herself than anybody else. Similarly, when Doggett is chewed out by Kersh for losing Mulder in the middle of the desert, and Skinner lays out the brutal reality of what the search is really about, there's a genuine anger to it. Partly because Skinner is expressing some of the genuine frustrations he's had being head of the X-Files all these year, but mostly because he's a human being who now realizes what's going to happen to Doggett - a fact that becomes all too real at the end of the episode when Doggett gets assigned to the X-Files.

Without also has a spark, because it genuinely seems to be playing how the series would work if it had followed the path of 'the search for Mulder' the way Fox advertised it. There's a genuine mix of the X-Files elements being put into the play along with the real life search. Doggett's genuine search for Mulder is being negated because none of the usual elements apply, and his reaction to his description of what he thought was Mulder at the episode's beginning is one of the more sincere reactions we've had from any authority figure. Watching him deal with the combination of the paranormal and the possible betrayals of the FBI are intriguing. And the heartbreaking moment when Scully leaves the desert not knowing how close she was to finding Mulder is one of the more shocking moments of the series.

All of this new energy gives The X-Files a spark it hasn't had in awhile. The problem is, however, that we are now officially leaving the mythology completely behind. And as a result, the series loses a lot of momentum again. There should be a great deal of symbolism in the fact that the Bounty Hunter has finally been really killed, but its negated, not merely by the fact that we immediately afterwards see Mulder being surrounded by them, but by the fact that the series will never deal with shapeshifters again. One could say the series will never recover from this, except that the mythos long since left the point of being comprehensible.  What makes it especially painful is that this shows how the series could have work, and once again Carter makes the choice to walk away from it for the purpose of extending the series. One really  wonders why he chose to. The X-Files has now decided that it can operate without it's leading man; couldn't it have at least decided to continue with some semblance of continuity in its underlying plotline. And having yanked Gibson Praise out of the air very perfunctorily, the series realizes what a mistake they've made, and throw him back into the ether just as perfunctorily.

The other major problem is the fact that, having announced that the series is going to be about the search for Mulder, it then spends nearly half the season, doing anything but. Now, I realize that part of this was a necessity brought on by Duchovny's absence. But one could've seen this work based on scheduling. If Duchovny really wasn't going to return until the last six episodes of the season, they could have spread out the other three in such a way so that it would've been more spread out. (And given the way the series ended up using him, frankly anything would've been an improvement over the way they handled the five episodes before Mulder's return). One could use the excuse that by this point Carter and company really were flying by the seat of their pants, except by now we've seen how other series handle situations like this. And honestly, considering how badly they handled Season 9, its clear they didn't learn much from what they did.

Because of that, Without suffers from being considered a true step forward, and a truly great episode. But the fact of the matter is, even with all the baggage, this is a major step forward than anything we've dealt with in the mytharc for quite some time. And the ferocity and honesty of so many of the performance, particularly the good work of Patrick, make us feel that maybe The X-Files can survive this major shift. The fact that it would very quickly take a major step backwards doesn't detract as much as it could from the force of those changes.

My score: 4 stars.