X-Files Episode Guide: Providence

Written by Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz

Directed by Chris Carter

And the answer to the question I asked is, no, things don't get worse. But they don't really get much better either.

At this point, the viewer is now painfully aware that Carter had no bible for this series. But considering that the majority of the mythology episodes were written by him, you'd think that he would have at least tried to remember what he had done in episodes past and hold fast to some kind of pattern or, if nothing else, to some kind of character growth from season. But now that the series is coming to its end, its now clear that he just wants to play with the toys as much as possible before the lights go out, and damn consistency. 

So now, to wrap up this two-parter, Providence basically uses every trick from the old X-Files book. A vital character is missing (and yes, we'll get to the problem of William being considered vital) and the FBI can't be trusted to run a coherent investigation. A character is in the hospital after an attack; this time its Doggett, who spends the majority of this episode comatose, emerging to give a veiled warning to Scully that he can't explain.  The person who is critical to this attack, Agent Comer, is in the same hospital, gets mystically heal to give a whomping big pile of exposition before being mysteriously murdered. Another character gets up and arms, and accusing everyone of the crime, - this time it's Monica Reyes. One of our characters goes to a mysterious meeting - Scully meets with this bizarre UFO cult leader Josepho, who makes an unthinkable deal - William alive for Mulder's death. The Lone Gunmen try to aid in tech support, but by now they're so passe, they can't even do that. We see an actual spaceship for once, treated like a mysterious relic. A character whose allegiance is flagging seems to lean more towards our heroes - but it's Follmer, so who cares? And when its all said and done, we learn there is someone in the FBI whose evil. What else is new?

It would be ridiculous we've seen all this done before and better, because frankly, it really hasn't been done well, but at least in previous outings, it had the  sheen of effort to it.  Now it just seems like Carter doesn't even want to try anymore. It was bad enough when he 'revealed' what happened to Samantha Mulder; at least the viewer was invested even if they had gotten tired of the runaround. Everything that Carter seems to be doing seems to be in rejection of everything we've seen. And the one who really has to pay for is Gillian Anderson. She spends most of the episode sniffling or in tears, and the few occasions she doesn't, she seems to be hearing that her baby is some kind of messiah, or that Mulder is dead. And whatever anger she seems to have seems so phone in under the level of sadness she has that  its almost laughable by this point.

No one else seems to be doing any better. Mitch Pileggi seems even more restricted than he did in Provenance; its as if Carter has reduced Skinner to the level of distrust in him we had when we still he thought he might be an enemy. Annabeth Gish looks so ridiculous when she comes into Comer's room after the man has been murder, halting out baseless accusations. Its as if Carter's decided that everybody has to play Mulder now that Duchovny's gone. And all of this pale to the biggest problem - the fact that everything surrounded the UFO cult that has been at the center of everything seems to center on either Mulder or William. Mulder's not here, and William can't do anything. We're supposed to believe that just because he cries that causes this mysterious ship to react take off, and kill all of the followers, except William. Is Ed Wood now on staff for the final season? During this same time period, Angel was attempting something of a similar scale involving a miracle pregnancy with similar concerns about its offspring. Its very telling that the newer series managed to handle it better. And this was a series involving a vampire in love with a slayer.

The mythology has never been coherent, not remotely. But at least, last season Carter and co managed to give some spark to it, some humanity. Now its as if he's unlearned everything that he did last season, and is worsening things, by trying to tie up what can be tied up. The supersoldiers seem somehow tied to this battle in the First Gulf War, but are connected to a ship with Scripture on it, and somehow those same supersoldiers have infiltrated the FBI? It's as if Carter is making mad-libs with the mythology by this point.  All of the guest cast- Cary Elwes, Neil McDonough, Alan Dale- are capable of so much more depth and breadth then this. And now that they've been swallowed by Carter's morass. I didn't think I would miss the purple prose and talks of alien-human hybrids. Boy was I wrong.

The series (at least for now) is approaching its conclusion. Conclusions have never been a great strength for a series that's all about ambiguity, but they should at least be trying by now. Providence's only real accomplishment seems to be that its making the viewer glad that the X-Files is coming to a conclusion. Any more exposure to writing and acting like this would make us feel grateful for an alien invasion. At least that would be more action than a baby crying, and starting an apocalypse.

My score: 1 star.