2023/04/08

Historically, the 7^th season of the X-files has always been my least favorite season. However, when I check how I rated the season 7 episodes I have to admit that, yes, there are some forgettable episodes, but most of the episodes are from above average, to good, to very good. Season 7 is the final season where David Duchovny’s character Mulder is there the full season. Season 7 also gives Frank Black’s Millennium closure. As you probably know, same has been done for The Lone Gunmen in season 9.

Although I love the monsters of the week stories, I am mostly here for the mythology episodes, the alien stuff is what I like most. But the monster of the week episodes can also be fun. In general, the quality over a whole season can vary. What is always top-notch are Mulder and Scully, that is the real reason I keep watching The X-files over and over. Their relationship is one of the most interesting TV relationships in TV history, at least in my humble opinion. Even, or especially, in the last 2 seasons (10 + 11) this is still the case, after all these years. While watching the original series I often wonder why Scully remains to skeptical after everything she has seen, she keeps trying to rationalize what has happened, even though Mulder mostly is right from the beginning of an episode. I know, it is more interesting to see two characters having a difference of opinion than that they agree all the time. When season 8 starts it is the other way around, suddenly Scully is the believer, and her new partner Doggett is the new Scully!

The 7^th season starts with a continuation from the season 6 finale, “Sixth Extinction” parts 1 & 2 where Scully is in South Africa, while Mulder is in a mental hospital. When Skinner visits Mulder, he attacks him, but he does this to get his help, he passes on a not saying: Please help! It is also the end of a recurring character, fairly close to Mulder. The two-part episode is like a TV movie, it something that The X-Files, in my opinion, often does, the look and feel is often more like a movie than of an episode. Note - In the final moments of the two-parter we see Mulder and Scully in a nice emotional moment. These scenes make their relationship extra special to me.

“Hungry” is about a guy who is addicted to eating meat, human meat, or rather human brain! he tries to not do it but the urge is stronger than himself. Thought it was a good episode, fun how Mulder almost from the beginning knows he is the one they are looking for. “Millennium” is the series finale for the TV show Millennium where Lance Henriksen plays Frank Black. It is a solid episode, solid finale for the TV show. “Rush” is an okay episode about two kids who have tapped into something which makes them stronger and faster, as fast as light. The 3^rd kid is charged with a murder done by first two. “The Golberg Variation” is actually a very entertaining episode where Willie Garson is Harry Weems who apparently is very lucky in life, he keeps miraculously escaping death. Willie Garson died in 2021.

“Orison” is sort of a part two of an episode in an earlier season. Serial killer Donald Pfaster escapes again and has a compulsion to wash the hair of his victims. Scully has some nasty memories about her experience with him and he still is into redheads! A bit of a boring episode is “The Amazing Maleeni” about a magician, The Amazing Maleeni, twists his head completely around at a carnival. While he's leaving, his severed head falls completely off. A bit of a bland episode. Also, not a favorite of mine, “Signs and Wonders” where Mulder and Scully investigate a gruesome and unexplained snake-bite death, which points to a religious group in the deep south. Note – I never like these episodes where religion is the focus. “Sein und Zeit” is, for me, one of the best episodes of the season where a girl has been kidnapped from her room, her parents were home, at first, they are under suspicion but Mulder does not believe they are guilty. Mulder also gets unexpected sad news. Note – Real good episode if you ask me, especially the combination of the case Mulder and Scully are working on, and the personal news Mulder gets.

In part two, “Closure” Mulder finally gets closure about this sister, who he now knows is in a safe and secured place in another life. Just like Amber Lynn, the girl that was missing. The guy who poses as Santa Clause killed 24 children. I don’t do this often, skip episodes but I did skip “X-Cops” & “First Person Shooter” because I consider these weak episodes and I could not get myself excited for these two, so I skipped them. “Theef”, an interesting episode about a man who uses voodoo to kill a family of a doctor who was unable save his daughter. The doctor could only ease her pain. Scully says she would have done the same.

“En Ami” is another favorite of mine, Cigarette Smoking Man (CSM) lures Scully to the other side of the country, he promises a cure for all diseases known to mankind. Mulder does not know where she is and asks the Lone Gunmen for help to find her. When Scully obtains a disc with so-called a cure for all know diseases of mankind, it is empty, CSM switched the discs, he throws the disc in the water. Note – Scully with Mulder is always interesting TV but without Mulder, for me, Scully is even more interesting. These emotional stories, Gillian Anderson does a wonderful job here. In “Chimera”, an okay episode, where Mulder investigates what appears to be a case of a woman from a small town gone missing, but soon turns out to be a murder by a spirit summoned from the underworld. Scully, meanwhile, must endure an uncomfortable stakeout. Scully complaining about her case is fun to see! Another good episode is “All Things” where Mulder is in England and Scully is questioning her choices in life. By sheer coincidence she meets a man in a hospital whom she had an affair with during medical school. He was married of course, and his daughter is angry with her.

In “Brand X” is about a man who smokes a unique kind of cigarettes, the second-hand smoke of which, has deadly results for the inhaler. An okay episode. “Hollywood A.D.” is kind of a fun episode; it is about A screenwriter who tags along with Mulder and Scully as they investigate a church bombing. The case becomes the plot of a Hollywood movie, but the agents find their case, and themselves, distorted on the big screen. Note – Gary Shandling is Mulder and Scully is Tea Leoni, at that time I believe, Duchovny’s wife in real life. “Fight Club” is a bit of a boring episode if you ask me, two identical women, who, when they come close, they start immediate fighting in their surroundings. Everywhere they come together, there is fighting. They keep moving to get away from one another, but they are the same, so they go to the same places.

“Je Souhaite” is another fun episode, some unforgettable Scully scenes in the morgue! A guy cleaning out a garage box finds a woman rolled up in a carpet! It is not a woman perse but a genia (female genie), calling herself Jenn. He does some stupid wishes, with the last wish, he become invisible, gets him killed by a bus. His handicapped brother though, is not wiser in making his wishes. When Mulder unrolls her, his last wish frees her from her immortal life. “Requiem” is another favorite of the season, a mythological episode and of course the episode where Mulder disappears, to sum-up what happens in this episode: An alien crashlanding; Krychek is back; back to the spot of where the X-Files started 7 years ago; Scully is pregnant, and Mulder has been taken!

Final Word:

As said, the 7^th season is not a favorite season of mine, but it does have some very good episodes and it is the final season where David Duchovny’s character Mulder is there full-time. And I have to admit, although I am a fan of the Mulder & Scully partnership, I really am looking forward to the upcoming season where Robert Patrick as John Doggett becomes the new partner of Scully! I really think season 8 is a fresh season and, in my opinion, can easily compete with the earlier seasons.

Screencaps taken from: XfilesArchive.com