TRUST NO 1   *   JOHN DOE   *   HELLBOUND   *   PROVENANCE   *   PROVIDENCE

Directed by Tony Wharmby. Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz.

RATING: **

Scully by chance meets a young mother, who appears to be having trouble with her husband. Soon, she learns that the couple (Steven Flynn and Allison Smith) went out their way to find Scully and enter her life. Like Scully, they have a young baby who is connected to the Super Soldier program, and may share William's special gifts. It also appears that Scully, and for that matter Reyes and Doggett are constantly under watch by those behind the program. These mysterious people also want to locate and kill Mulder. Indeed, Scully is then contacted by a shady figure (Terrance O'Quinn), who knows she had contact with Mulder via E-Mail the previous day, and insists she tell him to return to DC to uncover the truth about the children and the soldiers. Scully does contact Mulder, and tells him to return via train, but Doggett believes she is unwittingly sending him into a trap.

This conspiracy-orientated show is a complete clash of styles and ends up being than it deserves but still an utterly minor affair. In the pre-credits sequence, we hear Scully whining about her relationship with Mulder, and how it affected her when he was forced into hiding. During this, we're presented a series of photos and clips of Mulder and Scully together during happier (and more interesting) days, and ends with a brief scene of Scully sadly leaning over a corpse. Do Carter and company expect us to believe the dead man is Mulder? I seriously doubt any of the fans would have thought this for a second. Alas, we're given the same kind of tease later on later in the show when Scully nervously awaits Mulder's arrival on the train. We all know David Duchovny is not going to show up in the episode, and we also know theres no way Mulder is gonna get killed off. 

The wannabe-poetic narration of Scully's narration and the annoyingly sentimental pieces of Mark Snow's score through out the show seem out of place with the more thriller-ish elements that, luckily, come into play half way through the episode. Those scenes aren't bad either. They pick up some of the slack that those featuring the weepy Scully drop the ball on. The last 10 minutes are pretty tense, and does reveal a crucial bit of info about the Super Soldiers that will doubtlessly come into play later in the season. The presence of Terry...opps, Terrance O'Quinn is always a welcome thing. O'Quinn, who appeared in 'Aubrey' and the motion picture, in different roles (not to mention other Carter shows), is matter-of-factly menacing in his couple of scenes as the mystery man who contacts Scully. The sequence where he meets up with her is a little too elaborate (guys like Mr. X used to just appear at Mulder's door), but O'Quinn himself makes it interesting. He would have made for an potentially intriguing new recurring character.

Frank Spotnitz on O'Quinn in 'Trust No 1': "We couldn't resist! He’s just one of our favorite actors. He can do no wrong in our eyes. We'd used him in Season Two's 'Aubrey' and we used him in Millennium and The X-Files movie and in Harsh Realm. We missed him and we wanted a chance to use him and we did it despite the fact that many, many people would recognize him, especially from The X-Files movie."

Directed by Michelle MacLaren. Written by Vince Gilligan.

RATING: **

Dogget awakens in a small Mexican town, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Immediately he has a run in with the local law enforcement and finds himself thrown into a lockup, where he meets a local, and fellow prisoner Domingo Salmeron (Frank Ramon), who is about to be released. He offers to bail Doggett out of the jail in exchange for his work services. At first he refuses, but soon realizes he has need for money. He also starts to figure out his true identity, going on mental flashes of his family and the marine tattoo on his arm. Elsewhere, Scully, Skinner and Reyes are attempting to track down their missing friend, and with little resources, as Kersh has essentially cut back the bureau's investigation. 

I fucked up taping this episode when it first aired, and didn't get to see it in full until it was rerun a year and half-ish later. Alas, this isn't a particularly good episode. Actually, it's rather mediocre, which is par for the course for the final year. The premise and setting is decent, yet the show doesn't really give us anything else to work with. There's nothing in the way of surprising plot twists or three dimensional characterization, save for Doggett himself. What's more, the Mexican town itself is a virtual B-movie cliche...it's sweaty, rundown, and corporate as hell; the whole community is run by a drug baron, the cops are on the take, etc. There's not a single honest citizen living there at all, as far as we can tell. Another key problem is the supernatural element. For about half the show, we don't even know if there's a monster or superpowered bad guy behind it all, and when we find out who's responsible, it doesn't click at all. Spoiler alert: He's a dude with the power to destroy peoples memories, and paid to do this by the drug lords. Why? Isn't it just easier to bump the victims in the first place instead of leaving them to wander around? Another problem I have is with Mark Snow's score. Like other ethic-themed shows in the past, he floods the scenes with Mexican-toned music. There's nothing wrong with that in theory, but the guitar-strumming and whatnot has been overdone in settings like this. Why not do something fresh and inventive, instead of standard stuff?

On the upside, executive producer MacLaren does a pretty decent job for her first time in the director's chair. She brings a grainy, overly bright approach to the material, ala Steven Soderbergh's south of the border scenes in Traffic. She paces things pretty well too, which is surprising considering the script gives her little to work with. Also look out for a very funny moment in which Reyes starts talking to a suspect in Mexican, to which his uncomfortable lawyer replies "Can you not speak Mexican any more?". His reading is great.

Directed by Kim Manners. Written by David Amann.

RATING: **1/2

An anger management program for ex-cons seems to be cursed. One member, Victor Dale Potts, is found dead, all his skin stripped from his body. The X trio learn that Potts had been having dreams and visions of skinless corpses just prior to his horrific death. A second group member, Terry Pruit (celebrity sibling Don Swayze, who's career is probably in better shape than his brother) is found in a similar way days later. The key suspect in the deaths is member Ed Kelso (Cyril O’Reilly. I'm a Oz fan. The actor's name amuses me), who had a hostile confrontation with Pruit before his death. But Kelso himself is in fear of something, and ends up the same as the others. Throughout the whole investigation, Reyes is struck with a sense that she is somehow involved in a way she can't understand, and has even experienced the dream of a skinless figure herself.

Modest episode that at least gets back to the yucky stuff, which we haven't seen much of this season. And to be sure, the whole concept of someone...or something...peeling the skin off it's victims is pretty nasty. There's a lot of it on display here too, giving the makeup FX boys more here to do than the rest of the season at this point. The most unsettling is the moment where one of the victims, found by our heroes hung from the ceiling, is discovered to still be alive. However, I think the director took things too far by giving us too many glimpses of the corpses, and the visions. More is less sometimes, and the impact is softened because we see they same thing every five minutes. I was thinking how cool it would have been if the villain doing the skinning was in fact the Predator, Hey, that could be the next X-Files movie right there!

The script ends up being a variation on the stuff we saw so damn often in the first season (yeah, you know what I mean), but manages to avoid tipping it's hands too early. We really are kept in the dark for quiet some time before things start falling into place. The reasons for the events in the show don't really do anything for me. I'm neutral on it. Not great, but not bad either. At least Reyes gets another chance to take center stage in the proceedings. This time she doesn't just get to be the one to figure it all out; this time, she is part of the situation. Gish does a decent job with the material, but she still hasn't gotten a chance to sink her teeth into any character drama, the way Anderson did in the fourth and fifth seasons. Oh, yeah, Scully herself is on hand a couple of times, but again is nothing more than a glorified supporting player. 

'Hellbound' is a pretty average, if watchable, show, but in such a wheezy season, it'll have to do.

Directed by Kim Manners. Written by Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter.

RATING: **1/2

A man (Neal McDonough) is nearly killed trying to escape via motorbike from law enforcement while sneaking across the Canadian border. However, it manages to escape custody, but does leave something behind that holds interest for the FBI. Scully is called before Kersh, Skinner and Follmer and asked it she can identify what the markings are on a piece of paper. Without being given any more details of where this came from, she lies and says she can't help them. However, she examples to Doggett and Reyes what they mean, and relates the discovery she made several years earlier on the Ivory Coast, South Africa, in which she came across an apparent spaceship that may hold the answers of the origin of mankind. She also believes that somehow the ship and the markings are linked to young William. Scully's son soon becomes endangered when a man...the one who crossed the Canadian border into the States...breaks into her apartment and attempts to murder William. Later she and her fellow agents learn the man was in fact an FBI agent, sent to infiltrate a UFO cult, but seems to have fallen in with them for real. However, there are others who are out to find William...

It's conspiracy time again, and 'Provenance' is a pretty good installment. Nothing earthshattering or anything, but this is a well paced and, for the most part, compelling. The most interesting aspect of this show is the inclusion of the plotline from season six's 'BioGenesis' and season sevens two 'Sixth Extinction' saga. That triple header was one of the weakest conspiracy storylines on The X-Files ('Amor Fati' was terrible and pointless, and killed off interesting characters like Diana Fowley and Michael Kritchgau for no fucking reason), and gotten completely buried over the next few years. But the whole idea of life on Earth coming from space was a bold and arresting one, and although season six dropped the ball, season nine picks it up and adds it to the, alas, lumbering mysteries surrounding William Scully. Is this actually a good thing? Well, it's too early to really judge, but it is an interesting turn of events. What's more, the rubbings and symbols still have a real sense of awe about them...they are an intriguing McGuffin to base a script around. The best scene is the one in which McDonough (who I've enjoyed in Star Trek: First Contact, Ravenous and as Buck on Band Of Brothers) attempts to kill William. It's as tense as anything the show has done all season, and Anderson does a hell of a job in showing Scully's anger and fear. Anderson has been quite annoying so far this season, so this is one of her stronger hours for sure. A sequence in which Doggett is run down by a mysterious car is another powerful piece of the scenario. The suspense is kind of stop-start, but there's enough breadcrumbs of information dropped for the viewer every couple of minutes. 

PROVIDENCE

Directed by Chris Carter. Written by Frank Spotnitz. 

RATING: **1/2

In wake of William's kidnapping by members of the UFO cult, a FBI task force, headed by Follmer is assembled to locate Scully's son. Scully, however, isn't content in the way Follmer and his superiors are handling the matters. However, Byers informs Scully that he tuck an cell phone into the babies car seat, so they can track him through the phone's signal. Doggett meanwhile, is a coma as a result of a hit and run attack by the kidnappers. Elsewhere, William is taken before the leader of the UFO cult...a gulf war veteran by the name of Josepho (the late Denis Forest, veteran TV and movie heavy), who believes the child is the key to unlocking the secrets of mankind...and a spaceship in their possession. Scully interrogates the rogue FBI agent for information about why he attempted to kill William, and why the child is so important to all sides of the current conspiracy plot.

As follow ups go, 'Providence' is pretty good. It begins on a very strong note, with a flashback to the gulf war conflict in which Josepho remembers witnessing the arrival of what are revealed to be the indestructible super soldiers. This teaser is extremely well shot and edited, and makes for a memorable couple of minutes. Josepho's character is also quiet interesting. He doesn't come of as a raving, over-the-top loony like these kind of characters often can be. Another plus is the sequences involving his followers and the captured spacecraft are well done and convincing. The resolution of the cliffhanger finale of the previous episode seems like a bit of a cop out...like that of 'Nothing  Important Happened Today'. The Gunmen's survival of a seemingly fatal situation is also rendered a little less effective as we all know what happens to them later in the season. Anderson is strong again, showing more range than she has throughout the series at this point. The recurring characters of Kersh and Follmer are once again rather baffling, and Skinner himself seems to be more foe than friend here for some reason. The episode is wrapped after a little lazily...as our heroes are in time to save the day, but not solve the mystery. How many times have we seen that in the past? 

'Providence' is one of the final mythology shows ever on The X-Files, and though it can't hold touch past stunners as 'Redux II' or 'Paper Clip', it thankfully doesn't drop the ball in any serious way.