X-Files Episode Guide: Babylon

Written & Directed by Chris Carter

This is by far the most confused episode of the revival - mainly because it deals with a bunch of tropes that, even when the X-Files was in its primes, the show could never deal with particularly well. There's the fundamental fact that the series is finally dealing with the terrorist threat that the FBI has been fixated ever since Mulder and Scully left the Bureau, but the series never dealt particularly well merging the real world with paranormal themes. It's perhaps not that surprising that Carter does the best with some satiric posts - the two pundits trying to determine by shouting at the tops of their lungs what the terrorists were killing for, and the messed up nurse whose probably been listening way too long to too much of those same pundits.

Then there are the religious themes, which the X-Files seemed to delight in screwing up. Biblical prophecy is mixed with the idea of Islam fundamentalism, and there's a ton of religious imagery, with once again, Mulder refusing to admit that there's any real credence to it. The fact that he's at least willing to be a little more open after nearly twenty years of arguing against is a good sign, but its so drowned in philosophy that it barely emerges coherently.

And of course, there's the hallucination/trip that Mulder seems to take on 'magic mushrooms' that is even more hysterical than usual. There are some interesting elements to it, and its nice to see the Lone Gunmen do their cameo, but like all the dream sequences that Ten-Thirteen has brought us, you wonder what the point was.

All of this is surrounded by way to much Carter-speak to deal with. Usually, Carter had the good sense to safe this kind of dialogue for the alien conspiracy episodes; it may have reached the point where the average fan cringed when they came along, but at least you knew it was coming. Now, with only one episode left in this revival, I don't know, maybe Carter thought that it was time to throw in the kitchen sink, though again, I can't imagine that there were fans who missed it that much. I know I didn't.

All of this should make Babylon a complete misfire. And yet, somehow, it manages to pull itself beyond all this and entertain a fair amount of the time.  And what really saves the episode, of course, is the work of Robbie Amell as Agent Miller and Lauren Ambrose as Agent Einstein. It's made clear, right from the moment Scully welcomes the two into their office, that these two are obviously younger versions of the agents we've come to know and love. And given their rapid back and forth, their completely contrasting feelings towards the X-Files, and the way that they approach Scully and Mulder respectively, its very clear what Carter is doing. What makes it work is the fact that entire series run, neither Carter nor any of the other writers ever attempted to do this for the series - give Mulder and Scully an attempt to approach other agents considerably younger them as mentor/ subjects. (One almost wonders if Carter is writing this in self-reproach for how he handled Doggett and Reyes in the last two seasons. Speaking of which, where are Doggett and Reyes?)

It's also fairly daring of a  revival which has, even at its best, stuck far closer to convention, to try and split Mulder and Scully up for the majority of the episode. Scully's approach is more scientific, as to be expected, but there's a genuine humanity to it that she sees in her mother's death in the last episode, in the way that she approaches trying to talk to a terrorist who strapped on a suicide vest. There's a certain level of patience, too, that she demonstrates that we just haven't seen in Scully awhile, and it really works. Mulder's approach is far more off-center, and much of the comedy in the episode comes from the fact that Einstein will have nothing to do with any of it. What makes it even more remarkable is that when she gives in to Mulder, she takes an approach that I'm relatively certain not even Scully at her most skeptical would've tried.  It's these small details about Miller and Einstein that makes us realize that for all the obvious similarities, these are genuine characters in their own right. It's hard to imagine Mulder being able to come up with the solution that Miller does in the final moments.

That doesn't change the fact that Babylon is still very maddening. There are parts of it that are extremely funny, but most of them contrast very badly with the seriousness of the situation that we are supposed to be dealing with. The next terrorist plot is clearly imminent, but it gets so buried under so much of the cliches and paranormal trips that the stopping of the threat seems anti-climactic. There are so many extra parts that the episode could've dealt with a lot less - just what was the point of that crazy nurse? But even with all that, and in a strange way, because of that, the episode kind of works. Amell and Ambrose have such good rapport together and with Duchovny and Anderson that you can see them clicking in the right ways. When the next revival comes in 2018, I hope that they will be a part of it.

My score: 3.25 stars