Oh, hello! Please sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'm going to ask you a few questions to help you better remember your, um, experience. Maybe I can even help you understand what truly happened to you...where did you say it happened? Ah yes. Skyland Mountain. Okay, let's begin. Since your experience, have you ever had flashes of bright lights in your dreams? Yes? Have you noticed an implant attached to the back of your neck? Okay... Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night, sensing you should be somewhere, but not sure exactly where that place might be? That too, huh? Hmmm... This case is more complicated than I thought. I'll have to refer to you another agent. Just take the elevator down to the basement, and turn right. What's that? No, the agent's name isn't Mulder...her name's Scully.

Tied up with other activities Sunday evening, I was unable to see "Patient 'X'" until the Monday afterwards. This was enough torture in itself, but it was only made worse by the fact that I *knew* everyone else had already seen it. Since the thing I love most about "The X-Files" is its ability to surprise, I refrained from reading other's comments on the show, waiting to see it for myself. And boy am I glad I did. This episode was definitely worth the wait. "Patient 'X'" was a kick-butt, heart-wrenching, mind-bending, gyro-pyro, levitating, ectoplasm alien anti-matter story all the way. It offered everything a drama show could offer, and added that special X-Files touch. It's amazing that after all these years, "The X-Files" has still found ways to continue its storyline, to expand on both the characters and the plot, taking imaginative twists and turns, and still make sense. But then again, those are the reasons we watch this show!

A true mythology episode, Patient "X" answered some questions, but raised still more. Finally we know for sure what Mulder and Scully's beliefs about aliens are, how Marita is involved in the conspiracy, what happened to Krycek, and how the chip in Scully's neck ties into the "plan." Actually, that chip is quite a clever little device. With it, you can be tracked down and reabducted, but without it, you become sick with cancer. So you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't. But as I said, this episode brought up more questions than it did answers, tying back to old X- Files to ask the question, what if...? As the episode closed, I was filled with a number of queries. What happened to Marita? (Do I care? ;-) Who is really behind this whole plot? How is Cassandra involved? What role does the black oil play? How did Dmitri end up on the bridge? And more importantly, how to you say "ectoplasm alien anti-matter" in Russian? ;-) Unfortunately, I will just have to wait until "The Red and the Black" to find the answers, but even then, the truth may prove to be more elusive than the lies.

"And while we've chosen now our monolithic and benevolent Gods and found our certainties in science - believers all - we wait for a sign, a revelation. Our eyes turn skyward ready to accept the truly incredible. To find our destiny written in the stars. But how do we best look to see? With new eyes or old?"

Chris Carter has certainly proven himself to be the master of voiceovers. I found Mulder's opening monologue to be quite interesting. It questioned whether our gods really offer us any support, yet no matter what the answer to that question is, we will believe in them. Like Mulder, we want to believe, for not believing is much harder. However, in some sense this can also be applied to the series itself. What are we, the viewers, supposed to believe from the "gods" of the series, the writers, directors, and producers? Are we supposed to believe that aliens really are running the world, even after years of questioning and logical answers give to explain the phenomenon some would classify as "alien"? Has everything Mulder and Scully found, everything Kritschgau has told them been false? Or have all these people, including Scully, been abducted by aliens?

Personally, I can't accept that. After all I've seen - the train cars, the secret "abduction" rooms, the government warehouse housing the chip that saved Scully - I won't accept that. To throw that all away and just conclude everything by saying, "Yup, the aliens did it" seems too simple, especially for a show that has prided itself on presenting both points of view, not just the most convenient one.

"I think that if you prepare people well enough to believe a lie, they'll believe it as if it were true."

In one respect, this episode was a classic mythology episode. But in another, it couldn't have been more opposite. Usually when you think of "The X-Files" you associate Mulder with a belief in aliens and Scully with a faith in science. Not so in this X-File. Their role reversal couldn't have been more startling. However, it didn't bother me that much, for I felt it was handled very well in "Patient 'X'". I enjoyed that part of this episode because we got to see another aspect of Scully's character come through. She has a very strong spiritual side, but we rarely get to see it, for it is mostly hidden behind her cool, skeptical exterior. And for once I actually found myself agreeing with Mulder! His rational, logical explanations to Patient "X"'s condition made perfect sense to my scientific, Scully-like view of the universe. These two conflicting beliefs made for an odd paradox, but a paradox that worked. It made sense and worked well in the plot...I just hope it doesn't continue this way throughout the rest of the season. By challenging Mulder and Scully's beliefs and making them reevaluate their feelings so they don't believe blindly, they become more rounded characters. But I question whether it is wise to have them throw their belief systems away entirely. It is refreshing and interesting to have a role reversal every once in a while, but by altering one of the fundamental aspects of the show, the main character's very beliefs, you risk changing the entire series.

"You've come a long way, Mulder."

Both Mulder and Scully have come a long way from that March morning in 1992, and so has their relationship. If anyone tries to tell you that "The X-Files" would work without either of these characters or the chemistry between them, don't believe them. They're either lying or incredibly short-sighted. The show comes alive when Mulder and Scully grace the screen, especially when they're together. This may not have been too obvious in this episode, as they were both going through a difficult time in their lives, but it does exist. In "Patient 'X'", they were experiencing a moment in their existance when they must reevaluate their feelings and discover their true faiths. When he found his sister in "Redux II", Mulder's quest essentially ended. Now what he wants are some answers, the real truth behind Samantha's disappearance. Scully wants answers as well, but answers of a different kind. Her quest is just beginning, only fully realized after contracting cancer and attempting to find her lost memories.

"Mulder, maybe you shouldn't be so quick to rule out what Cassandra Spender has to say."

Throughout the episode, Scully was going through a confusing time. On one hand, she has the logical side of her mind telling her to find a rational explanation behind Cassandra's story, but on the other, she has her own experience to contend with. Something happened to her. If it wasn't an alien abduction, then what was it? Unfortunately, Mulder didn't seem to pick up on the battle being waged within Scully, causing him to come across as being insensitive and uncaring towards her. He overlooked her new belief, a belief that must have been very hard for her to admit, tossing it aside with the rationalization that Cassandra (and Scully too?) was a nut. Scully was acting very strange, almost crying in this scene, but still he ignored her, opting instead to answer his phone. Is it any wonder she left? Luckily, I think this was just a momentary brush-off, not even realized by Mulder because of the conflicting emotions he too was experiencing. Well, at least I hope it was simply momentary. If not, I can see something drastic having to be done in the season finale to rectify this situation.

This episode certainly had it all. New characters, old characters, Russians (one of my favourite languages, by the way), and those lovely graphic scenes they so deliberately warned us about. This is one of only a handful of X-Files that actually had to slap a parental warning on, ranking right up there with such episodes as "Home" and "Leonard Betts." But I think I can see why they did it. Those crispy critters impersonating humans were absolutely nasty looking. But I can't decide which was worse, the conflagrated, carbonized, and cremated human beings, or that sizzling kiss between Marita and Krycek. *shudder* It certainly gave me the willies.

As for the ending, all I have to say is, ARGGGG!!!! But I loved it. :-) It was one of the better cliffhangers they've had for a while. Just as I was shouting at my TV screen, trying to get Scully to run away from the alien bunsen burners, it went blank, the words "To Be Continued" emblazoned on the dark void. Obviously Scully isn't going to die, for the X-Files movie posters already declare "Starring Gillian Anderson", but this ending is still certain to draw me back for more. I'm not really interested in *what* happened, but the how and why of it, as we draw ever closer to the end of the series, and what I hope will be the truth.

"Well, I guess I’m done here. You seem to have invalidated your own work. Have a nice life."