X-Files Episode Guide: Jump The Shark

Written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban & Frank Spotnitz

Directed by Cliff Bole

All right, let's get this out of the way. If you're an X-File fan, you either hate or love the Lone Gunmen. Personally, I was always indifferent to them. I thought that they could occasionally be entertaining, and sometimes even helping get the plot moving, but I never felt that, as a unit, they were worthy of much praise or damnation. As I've made clear repeatedly, I'm not sure they ever had the prowess to carry an episode by themselves, much less an entire series. So I wasn't particularly overjoyed when they finally got a spinoff series in 2001. And judging by the ratings and reviews, I was clearly not alone.

Now, I understand - at least in theory - why the X-Files decided to do a crossover with Millennium in Season 7. It may have been a mistake, but the series was a fairly intriguing one, and there was an argument made to try and give its fans closure. (The episode failed because it didn't remotely do that.) To try and do a similar thing to The Lone Gunmen  is another matter altogether. The Gunmen have been here for the final season, albeit appearing only in particularly ghastly mythology episodes. So to try and do a follow up episode to give closure to the fans of the show seems not only self-indulgent, but considering that the parent show is planning to wrap up in just a few weeks, a waste of much needed time. Theoretically, I could see why it might make sense to try and give some closure to those fans who thought the characters deserved some kind of resolution. For better or for worse Byers, Langley and Frohike are about the only recurring characters who have survived the entire length of the series. If nothing else, they deserve some kind of acknowledgement for that.

But Jump the Shark doesn't do either. Having never seen any of the episodes of the spinoff series, I'm clearly in no position to judge whether this qualifies has an episode in that style.  But if we're going to view it on the merits of what the series tried to be, then this episode is clearly a failure. In the past couple of episodes, the writers have clearly regained some of the self-confidence, and made some very funny episodes. But this episode doesn't have a laugh to be found. Indeed, its very telling that the few entertaining moments that come out of this episode come from Michael McKean recreating his wonderful character of Morris Fletcher. And even then, the story seems incredibly entrenched in the horrible mythology that the X-Files has gotten bogged down in. To try and call in Yves Adele Harlow as a supersoldier seems insane, and just an excuse to try and laugh at where the mythology is now. Instead, we get dragged into a laborious terrorism plot that seems to involve a horrible villain who isn't seen or even named in the episode. Even Mulder and Scully would have a hard time believing in it.

That's another bad thing about the episode. Mulder and Scully have always been the link to the Gunmen. But with no Duchovny and Anderson held absent to the last scene (believe me, we'll get there), it doesn't have any sparks there. Instead, they call in Doggett and Reyes who've never had any particular rapport with the Gunmen and don't now. It just seems like another reason to imply that, like the X-Files, the Gunmen have outlived their use to the series. That's a recurring theme throughout the episode. We learn the Gunmen haven't published an issue of their paper since their series was cancelled. They bring in Jimmy Bond to justify that they've spent all their money trying to find Yves. And it becomes clear that the Gunmen are finally becoming disillusioned with fighting the good fight. So clearly what the episode should do is give them a spark, a reason to keep moving, and give them hope going forward.

But this is the X-Files  A series which will, with the exception of its leads, believe every journey can only end one way. So they decide to gas the Gunmen to death. What?

There's no spark here, and not even logic by the X-Files standard. Even if you want to make the argument that the terrorist needed to be stopped, there is no reason one of them couldn't have pulled the lever shutting the fire doors while the other two escaped to safety.  And its not as if this sacrifice even has the spark of the kind of heroism you would see when even minor characters did it a few years later on 24. No, the only reason they did it was because the X-Files was closing up shop, and they wanted one more moment of angst.  Was burying the Gunmen at Arlington supposed to be the symbol of glory? I just don't see how. It doesn't go anywhere near the kind of that the Gunmen would've wanted for themselves - Langley in particular would be appalled. And the po-faced eulogies that we get from the characters at the end of the episode, particularly from Scully, just seem like that they could be for anybody. No matter what you thought of the Gunmen, this is probably the worst kind of fate they could've endured. (My God, they've already been making hallucinatory appearance in future episodes, so its not like this has any more significance than anyone else)

Jump the Shark is a wretched mess. As a wrap-up to Lone Gunmen the series, it makes you wonder why anyone would've wanted to watch the series. As a wrap-up to The Lone Gunmen the characters, its even worse because there's no truth to any bit of it at all. And as an episode of The X-Files, particularly one written by three writers who had penned two slightly better Gunmen-centric episodes, it doesn't even work as entertainment. Congratulations guys, you did something I didn't think would be possible, even at this stage in the series. You wrote an episode that has something to piss off everyone.

My score: 1 star.