Well, this was unsettling. And creepy. And disturbing.
And conveniently, all the evidence has been destroyed and all the people who knew or suspected anything have been disposed of, so Mulder and Scully are pretty much back to where they started, except that Scully has now witnessed nearly indisputable evidence of extra-terrestrial life and even asserted such to Skinner. That's new.
I'm going to work backwards a bit in this one, because like any good mystery, I can really only tackle it from the points I figured out something wasn't quite right.
I suspected Diana had been the one to deliver the keycard to Scully. She seemed uneasy during whatever procedure was being done and left the room. She had a change of heart, and naturally that cost her her life. As soon as Scully told Mulder that Diana had been found murdered, I knew she'd been the one to lead Scully to Mulder. I never liked her interaction with Mulder in her short time on the show, but I think she finally realised that the two of them had grown apart and that he and Scully had grown together. She returned Mulder to Scully, which may not entirely redeem her, but I think helps me appreciate her character a little better.
Mulder's alternate life in what I can only describe as The Attic seemed a little off at first, but not so off as to believe it was any more contrived than say, The Truman Show. It never occurred to me that there was no physical neighbourhood, but the entire thing was constructed in Mulder's mind. It was a little bit Inception, too. And it was a LOT disturbing. Especially once we got the reveal that it was just in his mind and that he was strapped to the table. How the hell is he going to get out of this one?
Well, Scully will save him, obviously.
Assuming, that is, she can get there. Her part of the story in the Ivory Coast is only somewhat intriguing here, and had me looking up the ten plagues of Egypt to see if that's what they were going for, and L even pointed out that if they continued with that analogy, Mulder represented the 'first born', since he's his mother's first born son. However, they didn't keep that going, so I don't think it's likely to come up again.
The story got a lot weirder when fish and people who had previously appeared to be dead started coming back to life. Oh, well, and the bit where Dr Barnes loses his mind and starts threatening and killing people. But hey, at least one of those people came back to life and killed him, which pretty much ended that threat. But what is behind all of this? What is the power of the spaceship on the beach? Creating life? Restoring life?
There's a definite religious thread here, and while it's stated as a theory that they've angered god and much of this is revenge, obviously I don't believe that and I think even Scully is pretty skeptical about that explanation. There's just a lot going on here that doesn't really get explained and I don't think it really matters, which is why I have a hard time getting invested in that part of the story. (Though, there is one thing - where the hell did the spaceship disappear to?)
I liked that when Scully returned she didn't go home or change, she just went straight to the FBI. That's dedication.
Most of the second half of the two-parter was just cleaning up the various messes that were started in the first half, and wow, they cleaned up everything. Not only was all the evidence destroyed (DAMN YOU, KRYCEK!) but Kritschgau's been murdered, which means that anyone who knew anything about what was done to Mulder is out of the picture, too.
And speaking of that whole plot line, there was another 'Field Trip' kind of moment in that I don't know what parts of Mulder's removal from the hospital were real, or rather where the fantasy began. Like in 'Field Trip', it doesn't really matter because the payoff for it is so rewarding. There's also that disturbing shot of Mulder that's kind of reminiscent of crucifixion.
Which is another of the religious threads continuing in the episode, but unlike other episodes that have focused on religious beliefs, this one doesn't seem to be getting into Scully's feelings on it. We know she's religious, and now we've seen her explicitly state she believes in extra-terrestrial life, though I guess with a healthy dose of skepticism towards the idea that it originated life on earth (but how did that life originate, then? It's turtles all the way down, I guess.)
So this is an interesting new plot to introduce at this point in the series. With the colonisation plot wrapped up in season six, this seems a bit like a prequel to that, but it all still ties together. I suspect we'll learn more about both the arrival and the departure and/or planned extinction throughout this season. Plus, with only three seasons left, we're bound to find out some actual answers sooner rather than later.
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