Nightmare fuel alert: people being murdered and covered in clay as if they are sculptures. That's horrifying. But also leads to a pretty interesting episode in 'Grotesque'. Oh, and Mulder becomes delusional and paranoid. Well, more than usual, I mean.
The main issue I had with this episode is that it was extremely dark. Darker than a lot of other X-Files episodes, and sometimes to the point where it was kind of hard to follow what was going on.
There's also the whole issue of what is or isn't real, but at the end, I think it's more or less clear that Patterson really did commit the other murders, and that something caused him and Mostow to believe they were being controlled by the grotesques (they aren't gargoyles unless they have water spouts, and the show gets it wrong every time). Or maybe it, in Patterson's case was just a case of getting a little too far inside the killer's head as a profiler. In Mostow's case, it was more likely just some form of mental delusion that he was being directed to commit these crimes on behalf of the groresque.
I'm glad it seems Mulder and Scully have put 'Syzygy' behind them and are acting like normal adults again. Well, to some degree at least. Scully expresses great concern, rather than annoyance with Mulder, but Mulder continues to shut her out. (More on that later.) Which, OK, still better than where they were in 'Syzygy', but given the positive dynamic they had as a team prior to that, even that can still be frustrating to watch. At least they aren't constantly snapping at each other, though.
It's interesting that Skinner actually directed them to investigate this case. I didn't think they really bothered to worry about whether or not they were supposed to be investigating the bizarre and gruesome cases they came across any more, usually they just show up somewhere. Obviously Skinner didn't do this out of the blue, because Patterson specifically asked for him.
And once we see that Patterson is behind the new murders, it's clearer that he called Mulder in so he could pass the murders on to him and release himself from pursuing the case. But the one thing that's interesting is that the episode never makes it explicitly clear that there was some kind of possession or that there wasn't, and I actually enjoyed that. It's one of the most disturbing cases they've worked, and also one of the most 'normal'.
Actually, I think that's what makes it extra disturbing. If an actual sculpture were behind the murders, rather than simply the power of suggestion and the idea of living inside the head of a serial killer, it would have detracted from the satisfying conclusion of the episode.
During the episode, we also get Mulder's descent into madness, only given his lucidness at the end, I'm not sure he ever was really that far in or just seemed like he was. Maybe he's better at compartmentalising than Patterson was, and was able to give the appearance of getting inside the killer's head, and even actually get there, but not lose himself in the process.
At the end, I like that Scully arrives to get him out of the jam, and when Patterson attacks them, his first action is to help her and tell her what's been going on. Sure, it would have been helpful if he'd let her in on it beforehand, since her conversation with Skinner reveals, 'off the record' (there is no such thing) that she really is concerned about him. Gotta say, I was a fan of that interaction, since despite some of Skinner's behaviour in the mythology arc episodes, he's still basically on Mulder and Scully's side, especially in the standalone episodes.
All in all, this was a good episode that was able to create tension without being obnoxious. (Yeah, I'm still not over 'Syzygy'.)
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