A Review of "The X-Files" (season 3)

Took me quite a while to get through this season. I trailed off doing other stuff and watching other things, but I can go ahead and write about it now. Something tells me we'll need a bit of a breather away from my top 30 favorite movies countdown if it isn't already finished.

So what can we say about The X-Files' third season that hasn't already been said about the other two seasons. Well, what I liked is a lot of the Monster of the Week episodes have improved greatly in quality. Many of the Monster of the Week episodes are quite more memorable than their season two counterparts. Many notable ones to go over. This season sees Mulder follow the order of a UFO autopsy tape into the back of a mysterious train car. There, in the two parter Mythology episodes "Nisei" followed by "731", Mulder questions a lot of his beliefs and pushes further, trying to delve deep into the origins of the Syndicate as well as trying to find out when and where the alien colonization of Earth is bound to take place, if it hasn't already started. Mulder's informant from the previous season "X" pops up from time to time here, mostly to give either misleading information or to convolute things by making Mulder wonder whose side he's on and which side's information he's leaking.

 Joining Mulder as always is his faithful chum and partner-in-alien-busting, Dana Scully. Scully takes more a central role in season three in the Mythology episodes, but the Monster of the Week episodes she takes her usual skeptic's role. Her and Mulder's boss and secret ally Walter Skinner even gets a minor role bump, even having an entire MOTW episode based around him. The episode "Avatar" shows Skinner hiring a prostitute only to find her dead the next morning and be accused of murder. The episode "Hell Money" guest stars BD Wong of Jurassic Park fame as an investigator who aids the agents in tracking down a malicious bogus lottery ring, where the losers must surrender internal organs as opposed to cash. BD Wong had yet to film Mulan by this point, so he was still just pretty much known for Jurassic Park.

In this season, the villainous Alex Krycek and the Cigarette Smoking Man aren't far off Mulder's investigations into the truth. Skinner and Scully work together with Mulder to put a stop to them, but they seem to be at every corner where he is. The season also marks the first appearance of the infamous X-Files "black oil", the infectious extra-terrestrial bacteria that infects hosts and turns their eyes black. The oil during the season infects Alex Krycek as Mulder is pursuing him. It was the material discovered in the Mythology two-parter "Piper Maru" + "Apocrypha". At the conclusion of it all, the infected Krycek dumps the black oil into the hidden UFO inside the missile silo. Another subplot involved Scully hunting down and arresting Luis Castillo, the man who mistakenly killed Melissa Scully, Dana's sister. While he's in prison, he was eliminated to be silenced.

The season ends with the Mythology episode "Talitha Cumi", where the agents find a man with strange and powerful healing abilities. He heals everyone involved with a shooting at the start of the episode. In this episode, the Alien Bounty Hunter hunts the man who heals as he is supposed to be some sort of extra-terrestrial presence. Meanwhile, Jeremiah Smith, the alien shapeshifter member of the resistance against the Syndicate, is interrogated by the Cigarette Smoking Man. It is during this investigation that Jeremiah reveals the Cigarette Smoking Man's supposed lung cancer diagnosis. Grave stuff.

One of the best episodes of season three is also one of the best of the whole series, and it starts the grandpa from Everybody Loves Raymond, Peter Boyle. "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", where the agents find that Clyde (Boyle) can see the future, as well as the murderer they're trying to catch. Several psychics die as Clyde and the agents race with the murderer to apprehend them before it's too late. In fact, "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" is just one of a few MOTW episodes I recommend from this season. Let's take a look at a few of my favorites.

• DPO: The agents travel to Oklahoma where they find that a boy who survived a lightning strike can conjure lightning strikes and fry electronic devices at will.
• Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose: As stated, Mulder & Scully find a man who is actually psychic in a world of bogus psychics who help them track and kill a fellow psychic who is also a serial killer.
• The List: Mulder & Scully visit a prison where one of the death row victims seems to have returned from the grave to seek vengeance on five prison personnel who had him executed.
• 2Shy: Mulder & Scully track a serial killer who stalks insecure women through online dating, inviting them to meetings and then feasting on their innards for sustenance.
• Oubliette: A little girl is kidnapped, causing a woman who went through similar circumstances to develop a psychic link with her, allowing Mulder and Scully to use her to track the little girl.
• War of the Coprophages: As Scully works from home and offers scientific answers, Mulder and a bug expert track mysterious killings where each of the victims are found in cockroaches in murders most alien.
• Pusher: Mulder & Scully work with local authorities to stop a man who can use his mind to bend people to his will.

The X-Files season 3 continues to thrill and shock its Earthly viewers with strange twists, bizarre episodes and even spookier creatures. It's definitely a step-up from season two, but it's not quite on par with the show's stellar debut season. Season three features more memorable MOTW episodes if that is what you're into, but season two was a more Mythology based season. Now, as I'm writing this, I just started watching season four, so hopefully we'll see some more spooky stuff. There were a couple images in the season that were unsettling, such as the final shot of "2Shy", where the man who hadn't eaten innards in a while was decomposing as he was talking to Mulder and Scully at the end. That final shot was horrifying. So far as I'm going through the show, I'd rank this season second on the list, above two but below one. It was a pretty great season, for both MOTW and Mythology, we'll see how season four unfolds!