The X-Files review: Season 11, episode 3, Plus One
Doppelgängers and mind games are at the heart of the case of the week in another very strong episode of The X-Files. It is also a week of retrospection as Mulder and Scully start to look towards the future, and writer/creator Chris Carter looks towards the end.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Last week, I spoke about how Glen Morgan was perhaps taking a look into where The X-Files stands in today’s world. The fact that 1993 is so long ago, that the purpose and the reason the show is relevant has shifted.
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It seems as though this week, writer and creator Chris Carter is looking at where Mulder and Scully are, what their relationship means and what will happen to them after their character journeys come to a close.
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It should be common knowledge now that this is very likely to be the last ever season of The X-Files. With that in mind it makes narrative sense to there be some closure to characters who have been a cultural touchstone for a quarter of a century. Everyone knows what The X-Files is, even if they have never seen an episode, it is THAT ingrained in our pop culture sensibilities.
In this episode, Mulder and Scully look into the strange deaths of people who see their doppelgangers. This leads them to a pair of twins, Little Judy and Little Chucky. Both twins are schizophrenic and also use their strong telepathic connection to kill people in a gang of hangman played telepathically. All very normal, for The X-Files. Karin Konoval‘s performance is staggering. She plays four different characters, each completely different and unique.
The episode has Mulder and Scully discuss the notions of where evil is in their world and how one can feel it. A discussion as evil as a concept, the fact that evil feeds on fear. At one point Scully states that even she can feel the “evil” in the air. This is not something they have encountered before. They have seen some amazing things, and some horrifying things, but this is the first time as a viewer that I felt the characters where actually in the presence of an “evil” (Tooms wasn’t evil, he was a monster, a creature, not evil).
That leads me back to Mulder and Scully. There is a nice conversation of them in bed together, Fox comforting Dana, where they talk about what will happen to them after they retire, whether either of them will find love, whether Scully will bear a child. This is a nice thing to see, that after the alien abductions, government conspiracies and weirdness, both of them seem to want something more from life.
Next: The X-Files review: Season 11, episode 2 This
The X-Files has always had the rational thinking Dana Scully and the believer in Fox Mulder. Both of these two come back into the fray, these personalities are seen again. We even get an almost tongue in cheek “I wouldn’t rule out ghosts” from Fox, baiting Dana into going into one of their debates on the science and myth of such.
Where Chris Carter leaves the episode has made The X-Files nerds kind of freak out. But it shouldn’t. We should let these two have their moment. They feel an evil for the first time and it could be this that opens them up to love.
The X-Files airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Fox.