X-Files Episode Guide: Roadrunners

Written by Vince Gilligan

Directed by Rod Hardy

Gilligan has been the most consistent writer on the series, even in the last couple of seasons when it was at its most erratic, being able to follow the changes in tone, and even move somewhat ahead of them. So it makes a certain amount of sense that, in Season 8, his first offering is a story that matches the shift back to genuine thriller. In fact, Roadrunners is one of the scarier X-Files we've had in quite some time, even if it has one of the more eccentric ideas at its center.

Over the past seven seasons, Mulder has left Scully behind in so many crimes that X-philes had begun to call them 'ditches'. It's a little less powerful that, when Scully decides to go rogue for the first time as senior agent, she finds herself in a near-death experience. What is more arresting is that the situation is far more dire than any of the escapades Mulder got himself into. Mulder at least let his conscience be his guide; Scully goes out on a consult, and finds herself, step by step, being lured into a situation involving a lunatic cult.

Now we've seen some strange things on the series (understatement of the year) but very few bring about the fear and dread that the series has been capable of maintaining that Roadrunners does. We can see the danger early on (the opening teaser is one of the more shocking that we've seen on X-Files in quite some time), but its still unsettling to see Scully, being forced into a situation where she finds herself the vessel for a monstrous slug.  I can't think of a writer on the staff other than Gilligan who would be capable of mining this story for all the shocks that he does. X-Files has done very little with actual cults, and there are few scenes as scary as seeing these people praising the lord when their vessel for Christ seems to be recovering, or when a man who has been that vessel allows himself to be stoned to death. The fact that their Christ-figure is a disgusting banana slug is one of those twists that only the X-Files could do.

Roadrunners also plays in a way like a grizzly episode of the Twilight Zone - there were more than a few episodes where lonely protagonists would find themselves in desolate settings surrounded by strangers who seemed not quite right. First-time director Rod Hardy seems to establish the atmosphere of paranoia that the former series was so good at it, not showing us the monster in its glory until the episode is more than three-quarters over. He and Gilligan also do a fine job of eliciting a fine performance from Anderson, climaxing in the moments when she sees what the townspeople are capable of, and screams with a fury that we weren't sure even now she had in her. (It would be nice if this wasn't the only time her pregnancy would be mentioned for the next third of the season, but none of that is Gilligan's fault.)

The episode stammers a bit in the final act. Doggett seems a little irked at being left behind, but manages to perform heroically throughout, alerting the local authorities that Scully is in danger, finding out exactly what is going on behind the mysterious deaths, and finding out where his partner has gotten to. It does, however, seem a little contrived how he manages to swoop down and rescue her in the last few minutes of the episode, finally managing to do what must be done to save Scully. The awkwardness in the denouement, though, throws things off a bit mainly because it seems to do  a lot to start a double standard. Mulder spent seven seasons leaving Scully behind, risking his life to the point of lunacy, and Scully never asked for an apology. Scully does it one time,  there's nothing deliberate about it, and she gives a mea culpa to Doggett. Now granted, this may be due to more pressing circumstances in her life, she is pregnant, and she wants to find her partner. But it does seem to have a double standard that just shouldn't be there, considering everything she's already gone through, and that Doggett shouldn't have to ask for. One could say that it would do more to solidify them as partner, except the series neither in its present or future states would have Scully have to apologize.

Parsing that problem aside, Roadrunners is a much better episode than last week's and does a good job of setting the tone for what future stories in the X-Files could be like. Had there been more episodes like it, relying on chills and the feeling of dread, themes the series had all but abandoned over the last few seasons, the new series could've stayed in this particular groove for quite some time. But then again, not every writer on the staff was Vince Gilligan.

My score: 4.25 stars.