EMPEDOCIES

AIR DATE: April 22, 2001
Written by Greg Walker
Directed by Barry K. Thomas

        Who would have guessed having Mulder in an episode for more than 5 minutes would make an episode better than it should have been. The only problem with this is it shows how much the show has suffered without him and it wasn't helped by the lack of Scully in the episode. The interaction we did get between Scully and Mulder is great and it makes one yearn for the old Scully and Mulder days when these two people had charisma with each other that Doggett and Scully do not have. Maybe it would have been better to have kept Mulder dead because this way we never would realize what we've been missing. Also, it would have been interesting if Scully had been part of the investigation to get her view of evil. At least what we got wasn't bad though the whole evil infecting humans at their most weakest moment didn't quite work for me since they didn't go anywhere with it other than bring up Doggett's dead son. Somehow, according to Reyes, Doggett will help lead them to this evil. Whatever. I hate to write this, but Annabeth Gish as Agent Reyes didn't bother me at all. Once again we see the weakness in Doggett's character. By having him yet again being pig-headed in such a way that you want to smack him in the head. It keeps his character one-dimensional instead of three-dimensional. Compare Doggett and Reyes scene to Mulder and Reyes scenes together and there is a difference. With Mulder and Reyes there seems to be something. It was as if Mulder enjoyed being pushed by Reyes that he was amazed someone else knew how to push people's buttons to get them to go where they didn't want to go. If they want the series to continue with Doggett and Reyes the writers have to work on the chemistry between Doggett and Reyes because in this episode there wasn't any.

        A few comments on "Empedocies":

• Whatever company Jeb Dukes worked for needs to take a class on how to fire an employee. Most employers these days no matter how good an employee you are would escort you to empty your desk and show you the door. Also, what kind of business still has that many employees at 5:45pm?

• I must need my hearing checked because I was sure for half the episode Jeb Dukes was being call Jeff.

• Let me get this straight, this evil spirit has been in Ben Harvey since Doggett's son's death which was a few years ago and Harvey hasn't done anything evil since then because if he acted the same way Jeb Dukes and his sister Katha did when they had this evil thing in them then he should have been taken out a long time ago. Face it, Jeb wasn't exactly acting the most innocent person in the world. Maybe the evil infects people differently so some act more crazy than others once they realize what they did. In the end does it really matter since the only point was to find some excuse to bring in Reyes to the X-Files and to finally tell us what happened to Doggett's son.

• Somehow I find it hard to believe the detective in New Orleans wouldn't know that was the booklet to a CD.

• Loved how they kept throwing the fact Scully doesn't know who the father is during the episode from the moment Mulder kept teasing Scully about the Pizza Boy to the hospital nurse asking Mulder and Doggett if they are the father. Oh yeah, it wasn't a good idea to have Scully and Mulder compare themselves to the old tv show "Mad About You" because most everyone would agree the show went downhill with the arrival of the baby.

• Boy, don't mess with that nurse at the hospital. If you are not family you are not getting near the patient.

• Anyone remember the episode earlier this season called "Invocation" where Doggett and Scully are investigating the return of a boy who has been missing for 10 years. During the investigation Doggett takes out a picture of a boy and it is not explained to us who the boy is or his relationship to Doggett. Just imagine how much better that episode could have been if they had actually explained who the boy was because it would have given meaning to everything Doggett did in "Invocation". Finding out Doggett's son is dead did give "Empedocies" a meaning to some of Doggett actions and why Reyes went to Mulder concerning Jeb Dukes.

• What woman would be stupid enough to ask a strange man in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night to help her fix a flat tire. A dumb woman who had to have no common sense to move the story along and to have Dukes murder one more person to show how evil he has become.

• In the scene with the cops standing around the dead woman's body I couldn't help thinking it was a construction site and the cops were a bunch of construction workers watching someone dig up a hole. How many cops does it take to observe a dead body?

• Poor Jeb Dukes had to have Dr. Speaks and not one of the doctors from "E.R." because she gave up on him after about 1 minute. I guess she was too busy.

• Also, shouldn't Mulder have been in that raid of Katha Dukes house since he was working on the case as much as Doggett and Reyes.

        "Empedocies" wasn't bad for a season 8 episode though it had its problems with this whole evil thing going from person to person at their most vulnerable. It wasn't helped by having Scully stuck in the hospital during the whole episode. I wish I could remember the X-Files episode where Scully says she was afraid to believe in the things Mulder was telling her (I believe it was "Revelation"), but it was a good thing for her to tell Doggett why she is more willing to believe in the paranormal. Otherwise it was great to have Mulder back for at least one episode.

Claudia

E-Mail: Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

04/23/01

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