Death is your gift.
Much like Buffy's 'The Gift', this was a pretty great hour of television.
For one thing, Mulder was back. Well, OK, David Duchovny was back, and it's kind of weird that rather than credit him as a guest star, they just change the main credits whenever he's in an episode. I mean, he's either a series regular or he's not, right?
Also, this was one of the few episodes I've seen in which Scully did not appear that didn't completely suck. Quite the contrary, in fact.
I like that we finally saw more development of Mulder's mysterious illness, even just in flashbacks (it's going to be the very end of the season before we see him in the present, isn't it?) but it's still weird that he kept that from Scully. I'm sure if he hadn't been abducted at the end of season seven, he, rather than Skinner, would have been the first to know she was pregnant (speaking of which, maybe that's where she was this episode? They didn't even give a reason for her absence.)
This was also an interesting exploration of perspective. To the people of Squamash, the soul eater is their saviour, healing them of all their illnesses. To Doggett, and as we find out, to Mulder as well, the soul eater is a being with its own thoughts and desires, and most importantly, pain. I don't know if Doggett expected to be shot, but I think a case can be made that his death was intentional, because he realised that would allow the creature to die and end its suffering, but also that he would not stay dead. Though that was obviously a pretty big risk to take, especially for someone so skeptical as Doggett.
In the same vein as 'Miracle Man', 'Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose', and 'Tithonus', there are some things people would consider miracles and gifts without considering the pain and suffering they cause their possessor. Because the soul eater had the appearance of a dishevelled and dying man, it was easy for the people of the town to dismiss his suffering. He just provided them with their cures, and who really cared what he felt, if he even felt anything at all?
But Mulder was able to see the pain. I know Mulder often came off as callous and uncaring in the series, especially towards people who could not see what he did or couldn't understand why he did what he did, but he was a profiler. He had a background in psychology. That doesn't necessarily make someone good at reading people's emotions, but Mulder had a great deal of empathy, especially for those who were often on the receiving end of some pretty shitty treatment.
So I think his compassion really shines through here. As does Doggett's, which I liked seeing. He's not Mulder, and he was never meant to 'replace' Mulder, but his actions in this episode are very much what Mulder would have done in the same situation. (Assuming, that is, that someone other than Mulder had been there six months before and tried to save the soul eater.) He's trying to save the soul eater in his own way - obviously Mulder's way was a bit on the rash side. I'm not really sure where he was intending on taking the soul eater, because everywhere he goes, he's going to have the same ability, right?
I think another big lesson here, as in episodes like 'Je Souhaite' and 'Small Potatoes', is that people are generally selfish and greedy and will make the worst possible decisions when they are presented with some option or another that they think can benefit them. It's especially true of people in desperate situations. Someone so sick that they would resort to being swallowed alive and then regurgitated is certainly making a selfish, if understandable decision.
At least Doggett didn't make that choice intentionally.
And in some of the best character development in the entire season, the scene between Doggett and Skinner at the end represents not necessarily character growth, but the show's growth when it comes to Doggett's character. He's reached the point now where he has to accept that working on the X-Files, there are things he has to simply accept and not report up to Kersh.
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