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The X-Files Season 8 Review

The eighth season of The X-Files continues the tradition of solid, but far from great seasons of the show with some strong episodes, but most being only okay.

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“Look… I saw what I saw“

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Within is important as in this first episode we get to see a huge shift. Duchovny’s Mulder is gone, at least for now, and a new character of John Doggett is introduced. He replaces Mulder as Scully’s partner and he is actually surprisingly good. His introduction is greatly handled and Robert Patrick is terrific in this role. The changed dynamic in this season where Scully is now the believer as Doggett is the skeptic produced quite interesting results. Without closes this first storyline of the season where we learn what happened to Mulder and the thriller tone of this particular episode was phenomenal.

Patience is a forgettable, silly Monster of the Week episode about a bat-like creature. Roadrunners is yet another episode about a cult, so it wasn’t really memorable. Invocation and Redrum are Doggett-based episodes and they are only serviceable. He is a very good character in actuality, but he rarely got the stories worthy of him in this season.

Via Negativa is one of the better episodes of this season as it has a solid thriller storyline and a great treatment of Scully’s pregnancy. Surekill started the trend of mediocre episodes in this season unfortunately. This one is forgettable, but Salvage is also mediocre with a superhero-like premise that was quite bland. Badlaa is also weak as it failed to utilize on its interesting premise properly. The Gift is only okay while Medusa has a solid Scully, but not a great plot at all.

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Per Manum is a terrific episode. This is one of the best episodes of the season and the one that broke the streak of mediocrity that ran during this span. Scully’s arc is quite personal and it accompanied this strange alien pregnancy storyline deftly. It’s a creepy episode that really worked. This Is Not Happening finally makes the return of Mulder and those sequences are quite disturbing and tragic.

Deadalive started this ambitious storyline where they set out to save Mulder and bring him back to life. The inclusion of Krycek was wonderful as he has always been such a great presence. Skinner got some solid scenes here as well. Three Words successfully continued the alien colonization storyline with more politics involved.

Empedocles is particularly memorable for the clashing dynamic between Mulder and Doggett, who obviously are both wildly different. Their scenes together are so much fun. Vienen is superb. This is one of the most purely entertaining and intense episodes of the season where everybody got a moment to shine of the three characters and the black oil got a triumphant return.

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Alone features a solid case for character development-based episodes, but the storytelling left a lot to be desired. Essence is effective in its thrilling storyline with the alien replicants. The frantic pacing was actually a big plus here as it led to such a fun and effective episode. But the finale is even better. Existence not only concludes most of the major storylines of the season, including Scully finally giving birth, but it also has a kiss between her and Mulder that was long and passionate and it was unforgettable.