The X-Files Season 2, Episode 25: Anasazi

Um. Whoa. I think I need some time to digest 'Anasazi'.

This was clearly the work of writers who knew the show was being renewed, and went all-in with a cliffhanger season finale. I was right, it was epic.

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 24: Our Town

It's 'Red Museum' Part II. Well, not exactly, but close enough.

'Our Town' is about isolation and secret keeping, and oh yeah, freaking cannibalism. And a woman being killed and then sinking into a vat of half-processed chicken bits. Because that's something I've always wanted to see.

The X-Files Sesason 2, Episode 23: Soft Light

You know that thing in fiction where people who try so hard to avoid a particular outcome end up walking right into it? Well, 'Soft Light' was kind of like that.

And in this case, it turns out to be total disaster.

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 22: F. Emasculata

Dear The X-Files,

You know what I really need to see? Something hideously gross, because you haven't done that in a while. Howabout something with explosive, pus-filled boils? That seems to be the kind of thing you guys are into, right?

Thanks, I knew I could count on you!

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 21: The Calusari

Sometimes this show is very predictable. Other times it's not. Sometimes they lead you well down a certain path only to completely destroy your expectations.

'The Calusari' fits kind of into that last category. (While the episode is titled without any diacritical marks, I believe the correct way to write the Romanian word is Căluşari, which I had to cut and paste from Wikipedia, as I'm not entirely sure how to make the letters on my keyboard.)

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 20: Humbug

In a way, I kind of wanted this episode to suck, so I could say, "Bah, Humbug!" but it did the exact opposite. It was entertaining and funny and intriguing and ... did I say funny already?

The X-Files decides to do comedy to change things up a bit from the fairly gloomy and uneven season 2, and it does not disappoint in the slightest.

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 19: Død Kalm

Apparently the filming crews still had access to the ship set from 'End Game' and didn't want to waste it. 'Død Kalm' was the result, and it wasn't half bad.

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 18: Fearful Symmetry

Someone told me it's all happening at the zoo.

OR

Elephants and tigers and gorillas, oh my!

The X-Files Season 2, Episodes 16/17: Colony/End Game

Another two part episode in the middle of the season. Why do I feel like they're building towards and absolutely epic season finale here?

So, the 'Colony'/'End Game' combination isn't quite on the level of 'Duane Barry'/'Ascension', but I'm OK with that, because these episodes still told an amazingly deep and complex story, and were quite tense at times. Plus, now we see Mulder in danger. I figured that had to happen at some point. (Besides 'Aubrey', I mean, since that wasn't part of the main plot.)

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 15: Fresh Bones

Zombies and voodoo, what could possibly go right?

Very little, apparently. I thought 'Fresh Bones' was all over the place, and I'm not sure I really followed what was going on.

And for some reason, X showed up, despite this being otherwise unconnected to any of the past storylines. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like that kind of cross-continuity, but why would he waste his time on this?

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 14: Die Hand Die Verletzt

A witch hunt! Only not?

I kind of liked the subversion of the typically very conservative Christian school board by making them devil worshippers instead. Of course, then everything got very weird and seriously fucked up. Because apparently they aren't devil worshippy enough.

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 13: Irresistible

OK, so clearly Scully is not OK. This case, more than any of the others she's worked since 'Ascension' and 'One Breath' definitely got to her, and we even got to see some of her own flashbacks that were triggered during her abduction, though we don't necessarily know how reliable those flashbacks are.

But almost more importantly, the show is back to doing what it does best, which is telling creepy and unsettling stories. And in this episode, it did that extremely well.

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 12: Aubrey

Finally, some quality.

I honestly didn't know what to think for most of 'Aubrey'. I often try to come up with theories while watching, only to watch those theories completely shattered by the end of an episode.

In this case, though, I think I was only partly wrong?

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 11: Excelsis Dei

I found 'Excelsis Dei' (which is mislabelled on Netflix as 'Excelsius Dei') pretty creepy and unsettling, like most X-Files episodes, but otherwise not very compelling, unlike most X-Files episodes.

It seems we're in a stretch of mediocrity between 'One Breath' and whatever the next great episode is going to be, because 'Firewalker' and 'Red Museum' were only marginally OK, if that.

Either way, that's certainly not all there is to this episode.

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 10: Red Museum

In what initially seemed to be a run of the mill case - well, as run of the mill as anything on The X-Files can be, suddenly an assassin shows up who Scully remembers as being the man who shot Deep Throat, and we're made to wonder how everything is connected.

The only problem is this episode feels incomplete, and not in that way of there's more to be revealed later, but that only part of the story will ever be told.

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 9: Firewalker

'Ice', 'Ice', baby.

This essentially felt like a rehash of a much better first season episode. People doing scientific exploration in an isolated and harsh environment discover a previously unknown biological entity that infects them and eventually leads to their demise.

That doesn't mean it was a total loss, though.

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 8: One Breath

Dear The X-Files,

Please save some good episodes for your later seasons. How can you possibly top this?

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 7: 3

Wow, that title isn't confusing at all. Episode 7: 3!

Three ... vampires, apparently? This was a really strange episode, and felt really out of place, considering what we just saw and is still unresolved from the last two.

I don't even know if I can write much about this episode, because for the most part, I didn't really understand it. But also because I kind of hate that it's where it is.

The X-Files Season 2, Episodes 5/6: Duane Barry/Ascension

OK, this two part sequence really ups the ante, doesn't it? I feel like this is where the series goes from being merely good to great, and even spectacular.

And to think that at least some of this plot line came out of the fact that Gillian Anderson needed to take maternity leave.

Well, regardless of the reason, 'Duane Barry' was already an excellent episode, but then the last 2 minutes happened, and everything changed.

The X-Files Season 2, Episode 4: Sleepless

OK, this is getting seriously good. We have in 'Sleepless', for the first time, an episode that deals with government conspiracy but not aliens.

And we finally meet X, the mysterious man on the telephone who has been slipping clues to Mulder and Scully the last couple of episodes.

But really, the main plot of this episode is plenty disturbing, even without the rest of the plot going on at the FBI.