Written by Steven Maeda
Directed by Tony Wharmby
Steven Maeda's best script for the
X-Files, so far, was last season's Redrum, an episode which bent the already
fractured format of the series by turning it, for one week, into Twilight Zone, and making the focus of
the paranormal on a single character. In 4-D, he tries something similar, using
a theme that would not be out of place in Twilight
Zone, focusing the episode on a
serial killer who has the ability to shift between parallel universes. In some
cases, he does a better job than last time; at least, he has the logic to
realize that if you're going to write for the X-Files, you damn well better
utilize the characters that you've been given. In another sense, he's still
clearly struggling with the format - we don't really get an explanation as to
why serial murderer Erwin Lukesh has the ability to flit between these two
worlds, nor why John Doggett ends up between the two, albeit ending up getting
shot. And for that matter, he doesn't seem to really much of a better handle
when it comes to resolving the mysteries that he's trying to unfold. Monica
Reyes somehow picks up on what is going on - again, much faster than Mulder
probably would - and then once she figures out a way to resolve the issue, the
timeline is magically restored, and she's back at her apartment with 'her'
Doggett.
But even if you want to count all
these things as negative, the fact remains 4-D does what none of the writers
have managed to do so far, and that's breathe life into a series that has
practically been stillborn so far. For the first time, the characters have a
movement and spark to them that's been missing, and that's particularly true
with Annabeth Gish, whose finally been given something to work with Monica
Reyes, other than seeming a little kooky and possibly having an affair with the
boss. She's given something emotional to work with, being suspected of a murder
there's no way in hell she could've committed, while simultaneously trying to
deal with the fact that Doggett is now paralyzed. There's an energy and
freshness to her character that we haven't seen before, and Gish clearly seizes
on it.
Admittedly, the hospital scenes in
the series have practically become a running gag, but for the first time in
many season, they too have a poignancy to them because they are dealing with
characters we are still coming to know. If Mulder and Scully had been in them,
we'd been able to dismiss it as the writers just mining the same old angst of
the week crap. But because of the relationship between Doggett and Reyes -
particularly in seeing this vital man, probably paralyzed for the rest of his
life - it has a sharpness that the writing hasn't been willing to give. One
could make the argument that this is poor man's approach for the series trying
to deal with euthanasia, but the ability of Patrick to go through with the
performance focusing solely on his face for most of it, makes for riveting
drama.
And the performances aren't limited
to Gish and Patrick. The X-Files has always done particularly will in trying to
reveal its serial killers as small men with little lives. In a way, that's no
less true of Erwin Lukesh, who is given the power to flip through dimension,
and only uses is to kill women. But there's a strength to this that we've
primarily only seen in Vince Gilligan. This is particularly true when Lukesh
comes closest to be caught - he may be an amoral monster, but when he realizes
he has to kill his bedridden mother in order to avoid capture, there's a level
of emotion that we really aren't accustomed to seeing in our
killers-of-the-week. Lukesh's attempt to murder Reyes in the final act seems
more an act of deliberate suicide than anything else; its clear that he's
broken. Dylan Haggerty gives a far more convincing performance than we're used
to seeing at this point. There's some similar good moments from Anderson
for the first time, particular in the moment when she admits the paranormal
aspect to the early moments of Beyond the Sea - its a subtle aspect that we
really wouldn't have expected of her even by now.
4-D is by no means a perfect
episode. It's still clear that Maeda doesn't seem to have a clear fix on how
the X-Files work. After spending a better part of half the episode dealing with
an investigation into Reyes' culpability into Agent Doggett's shooting, it all
gets dropped rather perfunctorily when Doggett regains consciousness. And given
how much effort is expended on Reyes saying she won't pull the plug on her
partner, the fact that she does it with nobody arguing seems a little hurried,
and even less explanatory. We know, given the way that the series works by now,
that Robert Patrick has to come back next week, but it still seems shoddily
done. But the fact remains that after a very sluggish start, the X-Files seems
to be moving in a promising direction at last, and maybe that there's a future
for this series with Doggett and Reyes in it.
My score: 4.25 stars.
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