This Sunday, "The X-Files" took a detour back to its roots, giving us a high-paced, action-packed, trapped-in-the-woods thriller.  Chris Carter has stated that his original goal for the series is to scare the pants off the audience every week.  That goal was definitely achieved with "Detour".  Everyone loves to be scared, no matter how terrified they feel, because they know they can't really be hurt by a television show.  But after watching this episode, I wouldn't blame anyone for checking under their
bed, just to make sure those glowing red eyes weren't there.  The suspense, the thrill of wondering "What's behind that tree?!?", and the plain horror of "Detour" made for one great, scary, monster show.

A mix between the first season episode "Darkness Falls," and "The X-Files" novel "Goblins," this episode was a fresh take on some old ideas.  First, we have a invisible predator lurking around the woods, seemingly able to camouflage itself wherever it goes.  Next, we have all the fun, and all the excitement of Mulder and Scully being trapped in the woods, trying to survive.  Last, there is the environmental aspect of this show.  We have the "enemy" of encroaching development taking over the forest.  However, we are shown that if we start to push too hard into nature, nature might just push back.  There have already been cases of this pushing occurring, only with a slightly more mundane mountain lion rather than a chameleon man.  The ironic part about it is that even though we're the ones disturbing their homes, the animals are always the ones that end up getting killed.

This episode brought some humour back to the series.  Frank Spotnitz's clever writing combined with David Duchovny's dry delivery in the opening scenes (and throughout the episode) resulted in a very amusing blend.

"I couldn't believe how hard it was not to use the word 'but'."
"I'm having that same problem right now."

This type of dialogue continued throughout the rest of the show, with some great one-liners and banter back and forth between Mulder and Scully.  At the same time, they got to poke fun at those wonderful communication seminar all management seem to be subjected to.  After the somewhat depressing cancer episodes at the beginning of this season, it was great to see Mulder and Scully smile again.

"You know Mulder, sometimes I think some work on your conversation skills wouldn't be a bad idea."
"I'll be back soon, and we can build a tower of furniture, okay?"

For anyone out there interested in a relationship between Mulder and Scully happening, "Detour" gave us a whole bunch of unresolved sexual tension to drool over.  The wine and cheese scene at the beginning of the episode was chock full of underlying messages between Mulder and Scully.

"However, I must remind you that this goes against the Bureau's policy of male and female agents consorting in the same motel room while on assignment."
"Try any of that tailhook crap on me Scully, I'll kick your ass!"

The Conversation on the Log will probably be remembered as fondly as The Conversation on the Rock from "Quagmire".  Here we saw the closeness between our two favourite agents expressed in both verbal and physical form.  The conversation they shared was great, flipping back and forth from serious to silly topics.  Even though Mulder was in shock, he still managed to throw out some of his famous wry remarks to Scully's serious questions.  The hug was wonderful as well.  It demonstrated their close and caring relationship.  It was very sweet of Scully to sing to Mulder, although I've never heard anyone sing "Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog" with less enthusiasm.  :-)

Not to nitpick too much (I thought this was an excellent episode) but I found a few little inconsistencies in the show.  So, it took place in Florida, huh?  Sure.  Fine.  Whatever.  If you've ever been to the forests of British Columbia (where the show is filmed) you would recognize them right away in "Detour."  Scully wasn't dressed too well for their hike in the woods either, even if they were only going out for the day.  Any hiker knows that the weather is very unpredictable, and that you should always be prepared for all conditions.  I know she's an FBI agent, not a naturalist, but a coat would have been a smart thing to bring.  One last thing - why would the creature attack them in the day, but it didn't make one attempt during the night?  Mulder and Scully were essentially 'sitting ducks' all night long, but yet it didn't try to get them once.  Perhaps it was scared away by Scully's singing.  :-)

Another point that disturbed me was the lack of an ending for this episode.  I know, you're thinking, "This is The X-Files!  Its endings never have closure!" but this was more obvious with "Detour."  Mulder's explanation was completely far-fetched, and Scully didn't even have one.  In a way, though, perhaps it was for the best.  The ending left you wondering what really happened, letting you imagine it for yourself.  This can only add to the horror.  What you can imagine is always more frightening than anything a television show can throw at you.
 
Of course, everything turned out all right in the end.  Michele and the boy's father were found, Mulder had concocted another of his wild theories, and Scully was still convinced that "There has to be a scientific explanation for this."  Everything ended happily ever after...or did it?  Just when you thought everything was okay, the red eyes appeared again.  A characteristically frightening ending to a classic monster tale.