The X-Files Season 6, Episode 1: The Beginning

The Beginning. Welcome back to the regular old small screen X-Files, where everything is a disaster right from the start! This felt like mostly an establishing episode, since I would assume the movie was expected to bring in some new fans. So we get re-introduced to a lot of the characters and plots and sets - which are new sets in L.A. now.

Plot-wise, this one didn't particularly wow me, though. It's kind of a continuation of 'The End' and also somewhat comes out of the movie, so I'm not entirely sure what they're trying to do here.

Apparently Gibson, the kid from 'The End' (I know it's been like two days since that review went up here, but it's been over a week since I watched the actual episode - and I guess for people who were watching this on the air, it would have been an entire summer) can apparently communicate with the aliens somehow. His psychic ability seems to be more than just the ability to read others' thoughts, but to decode and interpret them.

This is a fascinating ability. I wonder if it works on all beings with minds. Can he figure out what cats are thinking about when they're chirping at nothing? I'm curious.

Either way, the main plot is basically just the Smoking Man and associated goons (I did learn from 'Inside the X-Files', which was appended to the end of season 5 on Netflix, that apparently this group is called 'The Syndicate'. I don't think I've ever heard them use the term in the show before, but maybe that's something the fans started calling them?) trying to get their hands on Gibson to do horrible experiments on him while Mulder and Scully try to save him from that fate. Except they can't, and he knows it.

The problem, of course, is that he can read minds and can't shut off that ability, so despite her apparently good intentions, Scully kind of frightens him. He knows she's a scientist and knows she's curious. This obviously unnerves her, and she illustrates very clearly what the problem with mind-reading is, as Buffy did in 'Earshot': When you know someone can read your mind, your thoughts will naturally focus on the exact information you don't want to share. No matter how much Scully tries to hide it, she really does want to run more tests on Gibson, and she feels horribly guilty about it. She's not a butcher like his original captors.

However, there's not much more to his plot - standard kidnapping and rescue and re-kidnapping. The rest of the episode, though, is far more intriguing and has much deeper potential consequences. Diana Fowley, who is now recovered from her gunshot wound, has taken over the X-Files with Smoking Man JuniorJeffrey Spender. (Maybe I should start referring to him as Little Spender and the Smoking Man as Big Spender?) This cannot end well. Like, there is literally nothing good about this. The X-Files have been forcibly ripped from Mulder's hands and are now being managed by people whose motives and methods are nowhere close to his, and whose goals are not necessarily the same, either. It's really a complete disaster.

I don't trust Spender and I don't trust Diana. They have ulterior motives, or they're being manipulated by outside forces. Spender, especially, now that he knows the Smoking Man is his father. Obviously they've had a rather strained (read: non-existent) relationship for most of Jeffrey's life, but an attraction to power must run in the family. He's intrigued by the possibilities here, and I'm guessing that before he reveals his true allegiance, whatever that may end up being, he'll use his father's connections for all they're worth. He seems clever like that, and just the sort who would betray his own father.

And Diana. Well, I think we can safely say her relationship with Mulder is not going to be rekindled any time soon. Maybe they just introduced her to add to the tension between Mulder and Scully, but it's so clear at this point that she's on a different path and that Mulder needs Scully. Diana realises there's something special between Mulder and Scully, and I think she's realised, too, that this isn't the Mulder she once knew, and as a result, she gets rather cagey about her new assignment on the X-Files.

Diana has got to the point she always wanted to be, investigating the weird stuff that only she believes. She's kind of a female version of Mulder from season one. I don't think her outcome is going to be quite so positive, though. She's already been shot once, and she's now working with the enemy. I'm not really going to bet on her long term survival.

It'll be interesting to see where the rest of this season goes, given what we saw in the movie and in this episode.

(Also, a random other point from this episode - it's finally in widescreen on Netflix, and it looks awesome and modern. The film and lighting are also brighter now that they've moved to L.A., and everything just generally looks more polished. Some of the earlier episodes felt like they should be watched on a 15-inch TV with a built in VCR.)