The discovery of a woman encased in a limestone tunnel brings Cade Foster and two agents from the Missing Persons bureau to investigate.

This is one of the weirdest episodes to date of the series, kicking off with an impossible discovery and throwing in increasingly strange elements until it reaches an equally odd ending.

The gradual investigation of how and why a woman is found encased in a wall (and there are others) is fascinating, as I had no idea where the story was going at all. Although the agents are a sort of lower-importance Mulder and Scully (they investigate unexplained phenomena, apparently), they’re well-drawn even if their apparent relationship is unconvincing until later in the story.

The explanations when they come are a little far-fetched, but somehow oddly believable, although it’s the ending that lets things down somewhat. And the simple reason for that is that it’s too quick. There’s a fight and Cade turns tail and runs. Admittedly fighting four Gua is maybe a little silly, but he usually carries a gun and he could at least make an effort to take them on. Not only that but the next thing we see is him mulling over events to Eddie. Why isn’t he out wiping out these Gua before they hide themselves? This quick wrap-up spoils what is essentially an extremely thoughtful and unusual story that contaisn some moments of great horror as well as fascination.

****

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