Take Two: THE X-FILES Season 7 (Part 3) - Give Me My Remote : Give Me My Remote

Give Me My Remote > Take Two > Take Two: THE X-FILES Season 7 (Part 3)

Take Two: THE X-FILES Season 7 (Part 3)

September 1, 2023 by  

THE X-FILES Season 7 (Part 3)

Credit: Fox

On Friday, September 10, 1993, Fox debuted THE X-FILES. Now, ahead of the show’s 30th anniversary, Give Me My Remote is looking back at all 11 seasons (and the two feature films) in a new daily series Take Two.

If you’ve read About Last Night, this will be formatted in a similar way: Each episode will get its own subsection/reaction, though in this case there may be slight spoilers or alluding to what comes ahead in the series. In the event a major spoiler is discussed, there will be a warning to be extra safe. Each Take Two will cover approximately 5 episodes and will wrap up the Friday before the show’s 30th birthday.

(I’ll also note how I’m watching the episodes, because some of the streaming platforms have utilized syndicated cuts of this show.)

Today, we’re finishing season 7!

(These were viewed on the original season 7 DVD set—released back in 2003. The episodes are also streaming for free on Freevee or with a Hulu subscription.)

“En Ami”:

There is no episode of the series that has held up worse than this, full-stop. And to be clear, I don’t blame William B. Davis, who penned this hour. (And, a note, this will go into spoilers for the duration of the series, specifically season 11.)

At the time, the episode was decent, if a bit self-indulgent. It would make sense Scully would be drawn into CSM’s promises of curing diseases, even if it was obvious, as always, he had his own agenda. He always does, we all know this. Scully tries to outsmart him here, but she can only play the cards she has; he’s already rigged the deck.

The episode is actually decent, even in the rewatch until about minute 26. Originally, there’s subtext to the encounter between Scully and CSM: he drugs her, she wakes up (changed out of her clothes) in bed. In later seasons, it gets confirmed and we learn CSM medically violated her.

Honestly, those last four words make me want to scream in rage for a week straight. I’m glad we didn’t see it, but Scully was abused for years on this show. She was abducted, given cancer, and tormented. Leave her alone.

And it was truly violating enough to think he had done something that might have made her able to conceive a child. (Something she wanted! But DONE WITHOUT HER CONSENT.) Now, if we trust CSM and what season 11 said, he also impregnated her.

Again, burn everything down.

It’s hard to watch this episode without that knowledge infecting everything. It makes everything a lot more infuriating. This will never be an episode I rewatch outside of a full series rewatch at this point.

  • “Do you know how many people have died in there?” Mulder has jokes for Scully’s landlord!
  • CSM is a twisted POS, but it’s very funny how deeply he understands Scully’s feelings. “You’re drawn to powerful men, but you fear their power” and “You’d die for Mulder, but you won’t allow yourself to love him”…well, he’s cutting to the chase.




“Chimera”:

It’s pre-DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, but it’s like DH-meets-XF, basically. Perfectly fine, with a bit of soap. I wish Mulder and Scully weren’t separated for the bulk of the episode given (spoiler alert?) Duchovny’s full-time status with the show is about to end, but alas.

  • Men of the world, a warning: Birth control pills can be used for things other than birth control. 
  • “Just know my last thoughts were of you. And how I’d like to kill you.” Poor Scully. 
  • “Not in the widely understood definition of that term.” Mulder, why don’t you talk to your significant other about that, please?

“all things”:

Gillian Anderson does a gorgeous job directing this episode, but I’ve always struggled with how much of this episode feels very…off-kilter.

It’s entirely believable Scully would have had an affair with Daniel. (More on his creepy self in a second.) I don’t have a problem, at all, with Scully trying to figure out what she wants from her life and what comes next; we’ve seen Scully face those issues and struggle with it.

And, to be clear, Anderson deserved to put her thumbprint over an episode in whichever way she wanted to. Honestly, in some ways, this episode would have been interesting to see done in an era when Scully and Reyes were there; certainly she’d have things to say about what Scully went through. Alas.

But, God, Daniel is a creep and pathetic. It’s one thing to have an affair. To follow the woman who dumped you to her new location, but also not tell her you’re there for a decade? WHAT. Creepy, creepy, creepy. And an awful father. Scully saved herself from absolute misery.

Arguably, it seems that Scully finally realizing she’s right where she wants to be that pushes her to take the next step with Mulder. It’s perfectly X-FILESy* that we never get confirmation of whether they slept together in this episode, but we do see her redressing and Mulder is fast asleep in bed. 

*Again with the screaming. HOW? These two dummies danced around each other for so long, we should have at least seen their first romantic kiss. Sigh. 

  • Mulder dragging Scully into the office on a Saturday? Oh, she had absolutely every right to be pissed.
  • “We’re always running, we’re always chasing the next big thing. Why don’t you stay still?” Interesting that Mulder was just given similar advice in “Chimera.” But it’s something Mulder and Scully keep circling around post-”Fight the Future”…when is enough enough?
  • A number of scenes were filmed on the Fox lot, and I know this is probably interesting to literally only me, but, man, I miss that lot so much. May the unions get a fair contract soon.
  • No, seriously, Daniel is traaaaaaash.




“Brand X”:

It’s a perfectly middle-of-the-road episode, made better because it’s very funny they dove into how cigarettes are bad. (They are.) Of course Morleys weren’t only giving people terrible diseases, the attempt to make them less terrible also led to even more death. Sure, sure, sure.

(Mulder being a total smartass to the Morley execs and legal team is hilarious, though.)

“Hollywood A.D.”:

I feel like this might be an unpopular opinion, but I think this episode is good, but not great. The parts that work? EXCELLENT. But there’s enough that I’m iffy about that it never makes my personal top 10/20 episode list. 

Of course most of the meta stuff delights me, though Wayne is absolutely insufferable, to the point of being unbelievable. Would a writer or producer be ridiculous while trailing law enforcement? Sure. Would someone be repeating to a tape recorder versus taking notes? I don’t know. (I also find it hard to believe Skinner would be friends with him.)

And I find the dancing skeletons to be take-you-out-of-the-episode ridiculous. 

But! Then there’s the ridiculousness of the fake Mulder and Scully, which is just hilarious. Scully having to show Tea Leoni how to run in heels—while Leoni quickly gets distracted, but Scully keeps running—is still laugh-out-loud funny. Skinner’s glee at Movie!Mulder and Movie!Scully making out is so ridiculous.

(Of course, there’s also the three-way split screen of Mulder, Scully, and Skinner in their respective bubble baths. Again, funny as hell.)

  • “It’s actually a hindrance slash pain in the neck.”
  • Scully being so outraged Mulder has seen a movie 42 times makes me sad she doesn’t obsessively love things. And also makes it VERY clear she could never know how many times I’ve seen FTF. (I know she’s a fictional character.)
  • “A.P. Skinner, huh?” (Related: “Scully, Skinman is calling me from a bubble bath.”)
  • I feel like Mulder might revise his take on zombies after seeing THE WALKING DEAD. But maybe not.
  • The timeline on this is an interesting mess. The film premiere is set 16 months after the case, meaning the investigation/most of the episode must take place in a season 6-esque timeline. It’s bittersweet, because Mulder and Scully are very sweet as they navigate the mess of the movie…but also plot to have a fun, relaxing night out in LA thanks to the FBI’s credit card. I mean, they walk out of frame hand-in-hand. It’s a sweet look at how their relationship may have shifted post-”all things,” even if they didn’t jump into becoming a couple.




“Fight Club”:

Some episodes are ridiculous and fun. Some are ridiculous and dumb. This leans more toward the latter. 

There’s cute stuff here, with Mulder and Scully playing guessing games as she tries to figure out their case, and Scully even thinking there might be a psychic connection at play. 

But the story is thin. The effects are cheesy. It’s just all too much.

“Je Souhaite”:

On the flip side, this is ridiculous and fun. A genie!! Of course things go awry. But it’s delightful.

Scully’s joy about the invisible body? Incredible. Not only is it her experiencing a life-changing phenomena she (briefly) believes is real, but she’s like a little kid sprinkling powder over the corpse. She should get to be giddy about this undeniably cool and weird thing on the table in front of her.

And then Mulder asks for world peace and everyone goes away? Yeah, that makes sense. (Why do these people not ask for something like legally obtained, completely ethical, multi-million dollar lotto tickets? Money can solve so many problems!!!)

I’m curious if Mulder was too paranoid to ask for it, but I’m surprised he didn’t ask for, like, answers to where the aliens are. Or ask for Scully to be able to have her fertility back. Or something a bit more selfish. But him releasing Jenn is very, very nice.

(Mulder and Scully’s movie date night is perfect, though.)

“Requiem”:

This is the beginning of the end, and, man, it’s…hard. It’s a good episode, to be clear, and in many ways, it would have been incredible if this had been the series finale. (Minus the last ten minutes.) They went back to the pilot case, everything felt very full circle.

But then the end happened. I’ll be honest, when I watched this for the first time, I had been spoiled on the cliffhangers and truly thought it had to be BS. Mulder abducted and Scully pregnant? What in the world…? 

But nope. It was real. The abduction, at least, is an effective way to get Mulder out of the storyline for much of season 8. Scully’s pregnancy…well…if you know how it goes (and given the retcon with “En Ami”…)…I just…yeah. I’m happy for her that she has this hope to hold on to for the moment, especially with Mulder gone.

  • “We could start sharing rooms.” We were robbed of Scully’s reaction to Mulder’s pitch. (Which, to be fair, ended up happening anyway, but after they paid for two rooms.)
  • “Did you hurt him?” “I reduced his vision a little bit.” We were also robbed of seeing this.
  • The episode does a good job of making you think Scully is the one in danger, between her physical ailments and also the energy force knocking her around. Putting aside the literal closeness of the conversation, I love Mulder and Scully talking about when enough is enough. Again, this is something they’ve danced around, but this is the first time Mulder really seems to acknowledge the sheer toll this has taken on his partner. (And, yeah, him watching her hold that baby breaks my heart in a billion different ways.) 
  • Marita and Alex double-crossing CSM is so funny, but it’s also so unbelievably dumb they tried to murder him by throwing him down a flight of stairs. “Sending the devil back to hell”?! Bullets didn’t kill him! You think stairs will do it? At least check he’s dead before you dramatically walk over him. You should have burned his corpse to be sure. (Yes, I know it might not have done the trick, but come on.)
  • (Skinner holding back Mulder from attacking Krycek is so funny.)
  • Okay, but the most hilarious part of the episode is definitely Skinner’s reaction to Scully’s pregnancy announcement.

What did you think of these THE X-FILES episodes?

RELATED:

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page or our Instagram.

And be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made through links/ads placed on the site.

Related Posts

Filed under Take Two, The X-Files

Comments Off on Take Two: THE X-FILES Season 7 (Part 3)

Comments

Comments are closed.