Written by John Shiban
Directed by Tony Wharmby
It's a rather sad fact of where the
series is these days that it now takes John Shiban to lift us into a slightly
higher plain. Never the most coherent of writers for the X-Files, the fact is
the episode at least opens with a level of imagination - and grotesquerie -
that the series has been lacking. The opening sequences are rather disgusting,
though not even by the standard of 20th century TV, but its nowhere near as
bland or tepid as we've been getting the last couple of episodes.
Unfortunately, Badlaa, not content
with the literally stomach bursting scenes, decides to go to fall back on some
rather standard X-File tropes. The idea of a criminal literally sneaking into
the country through a body is intriguing in away that has been sorely lacking.
It's also imaginative to have the apparent killer being an Indian beggar, with
no legs who doesn't speak a word for the entire episode. (Give credit to Deep
Roy for being able to exude menace in a way very few actors can, by seeming
completely harmless.) However, like so many of Shiban's scripts, he doesn't
have the gall to follow through with it, and has the mystic also somehow have
the power to, assume the images of other people, magically spirit himself into
tight spaces, and create entirely false images of himself.. All of these are
interesting ideas, but we've seen variations on them before way earlier in the
series.
The idea of having this killer be
the equivalent of an Indian fakir, who basically has the skills of a mystic who
can do some of the most brilliant arts, is also interesting. However, like way
too many episodes of the series at this point, it has the man who lives an
entirely peaceful existence, whose tenets are based on living a life of peace
in fact - and than has him committing - say it with me, folks - a series of
supernatural revenge killings. If the explanation was good enough, it might at
least be interesting. But Shiban barely makes an effort to come up with any
reason why. He comes up with a vague explanation that the man's son might have
been the victim of a chemical explosion, but since he doesn't even seem interested
enough in the idea to give his killer the dignity of a name or a voice, its
just as vague as everything else in the episode.. It's possible the mystic is
systematically killing people he thinks are responsible, but why bother to kill
their wives and families after the victim is dead? There's no logic or
structure to it, the whole plot just seems to be a runaround. I never thought
the day would come when I would be crying out for the Talking Killer cliché,
but if this isn't an episode that warrants it, I don't know what would. John
Doggett is right when, in the middle of the episode's third act, he says that
there is no real pattern to the killings in this episode, and frankly I'm
beginning to wonder why Scully didn't agree with him.
Yet, there is a moment near the
end, where all of this chasing a monster seems to be worth it. Scully has just
shot what appears to be to her eyes, a middle schooler but real was the mystic.
Once it's over, she finally has an emotional breakdown that is partially due to
what she has just had to do, and more importantly, its because she realized
that this is something that Mulder would have done. After half a season of
trying to play Mulder, she finally admits to herself that she just isn't up the
task; she just doesn't have the faith to see things the way that Mulder can.
She needs someone to push against her, and Doggett just doesn't have it in him
to do it. It's a scene that has been a long time coming for Scully, and its one
of the few times in Season 8, where the angst actually seems to merit the
situation. Gillian Anderson finally has a moment where she is allowed to
realize that as far as she has come on the X-Files in seven and a half years,
she is not Mulder and never truly will be. (It's so powerful in fact, that you
really wish Shiban hadn't popped in the last scene by having the mystic
reappear at the airport in India, apparently about to start the whole thing all
over again. It seems like a kicker for the sake of a kicker, and it just makes
the whole episode seem quite a bit worthless.)
Badlaa is a confusing mess of an
episode, sometimes literally, more often just figuratively. There are some
scary scenes and some pretty gruesome ones, and its always good to see Bill Dow
back as Chuck Burks, and its a little sad that its going to be for the last
time. But minus the admittedly creepy sights and sound effects that we get
involving our mystic, there isn't much here that we haven't seen before, and
done better. If this is what the X-Files is going to be now (and considering
that at this point, Anderson contract was supposed to end at Season 8's close),
one wishes that it would at least try a little harder to make the MOTW's more
interesting if searching for Mulder has basically become something that the FBI
has forgotten. If it is, the series really doesn't seem to be justifying
staying around with no Duchovny.
My score: 2 stars.
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