And we’re back! One more season of our X-Files rewatch down means another comprehensive recap panel for you. And this time, we’re joined by #TrustNoOne’s resident newbie, Sarah! Nothing in this world makes me happier than watching someone fall in love with this show for the first time, so we’re thrilled to have Sarah’s thoughts on this funny, emotional, and intense season of TV.
We have a ’90s network TV episode order to get through, so let’s crack on. Keep reading for all the best and worst of The X-Files Season Three. — Sage
- Favorite Mythology Episode?
Sage: The finale of the trilogy that began in Season Two with “Anasazi” kicks off with an armed standoff among Mulder, Scully, and Skinner and never really slows down from there. “Paper Clip” remains one of most electrifying mythology episodes of the entire series run, giving us the Syndicate’s Nazi-sympathizer origins, proof of the government cataloging citizens for some nefarious purpose, and CSM severely fucking up by allowing Krycek – the most easily bought-off villain in our cast of characters – to get away with the incriminating digital tape.
Among all that bigger picture stuff, we have galvanizing moments for all of OT3: For Mulder, the revelation that his father chose Samantha to be taken instead of him; for Scully, the death of a sister who took a bullet meant for her; and for Skinner, proof that CSM is not the god-like figure he puffs himself up to be but a pretender who can be intimidated with an enthusiastic “pucker up and kiss my ass.” With the momentum it maintains, “Paper Clip” feels about ten minutes long, and it offers a nice balance of questions and answers – enough for it to feel like the conclusion of a three-parter and the beginning of a new era with higher and more personal stakes for both agents all at the same time.
Sarah: “Paper Clip”! The real Operation Paperclip is such a weird and fascinating story that I love/hate seeing it in stories like here and Winter Soldier. The chase through the mining building is incredible and the reveal of the saucer? Iconic. I literally gasped when I saw it for the first time.
Kim: It is I, your local stan for the “Anasazi” trilogy, and I’m here to tell you that despite two excellent sweeps two-parters that further the mythology canon, “Paper Clip” is still the best of the season. “The Blessing Way” is a super-bold start to the season, the first 75% having a bit of a dreamy quality as Mulder goes through the ritual that saves his life, while back in the land of the living, Scully discovers a microchip in the base of her neck all while doggedly refusing to believe Mulder is actually dead. It’s like the episode is slowly weaving threads together, so slowly that you don’t fully realize what’s happening until BOOM! Melissa Scully is shot in her sister’s place. BOOM! Scully and Skinner draw their guns on each other in Mulder’s apartment as his door knob turns. BOOM! End Credits.
And then “Paper Clip” starts and doesn’t let up for the whole 45 minutes.
The X-Files is at its best when it takes real world events and twists them just enough to make them plausibly fit into the universe of the show. The use of Operation Paperclip as a framework is brilliant because it takes something fucked up that the government actually did and makes it even more fucked up by positing that the population is being cataloged through smallpox vaccinations (never show anti-vaxxers this episode, okay?) in order to prepare for the inevitable alien invasion and colonization effort. That is mind-blowing on its own, but the genius thing about this episode is that it makes this conspiracy deeply personal for our two favorite agents. First of all, Scully’s got a file in that massive bunker. Second, Mulder discovers that Samantha’s folder was originally meant for him and that his bastard father literally chose which one of his children to sacrifice. It’s a lot to process and it’s only a small chunk of the episode. It’s also a fantastic episode for Skinner between the breathless Mexican standoff that opens the episode to him openly declaring his loyalty to Mulder and Scully to the very thorough dressing down he gives CSM. Then there’s the emergence of Well-Manicured Man, the best member of the Syndicate, as well as the revelation that CSM isn’t nearly as powerful as we thought. We have the first attempt on Alex Krycek’s life in what becomes a recurring theme of him flat-out refusing to die, and we have the untimely death of Melissa that I’m still mad about to this day tbh. And at the center of it all is Mulder and Scully, holding on to each other tighter than they ever have before, rededicated to their search not just for the truth, but for some fucking answers. It truly is The X-Files at its best.
- Favorite Standalone Episode?
Sarah: I’d never heard The X-Files praised for writing strong mystery stories, but I’ve been surprised at how many episodes so far have captured my attention and made me want to learn the true cause of events, rather than just enjoying the ride. The conflict between Mulder and Scully’s viewpoints means the writers have to provide strong bases for both of them, and as such there’s a lot of fun with stories having both supernatural and more logical explanations. “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” is a great example of this. Peter Boyle’s performance is gently funny and sad, and I wish there were a world where he’d continued to be a minor player throughout the show like the Lone Gunmen. I also have to shout out the scene where Clyde watches his own body decompose – I love practical effects and that shot is just stupendous.
I know most people are probably going to choose “Jose Chung” here, and I don’t disagree! But I feel like that’s a story that gets richer with every rewatch, and isn’t enjoyed to its fullest on the first viewing. As a casual first-time viewer, “Clyde Bruckman” is an easy choice over “Jose Chung.”
Sage: We’ve already established that if Darin Morgan has a thousand fans, I am one of them; if he has one fan, it is me; and if he has zero fans, I am dead. Though he’ll go on to write more standout episodes of the show (including the two best installments of the revival), “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” is his masterpiece. The story of a reluctant seer, it’s as hard as the series has leaned into comedy so far, while also being deeply sad and poignant. Darin has a knack for honoring the weirdos and losers of this world with both whimsy and clear-eyed rationalism. There’s no saving Mr. Bruckman; there’s no way out of the hand he was dealt. Yet there’s more to him than his depression, and the late Peter Boyle gives him that twinkle in a magical guest performance. He’s especially wonderful in his scenes with Gillian, as Scully develops a heartbreaking amount of empathy for this doomed man.
“Clyde Bruckman” is chock full of quotable lines and intricate details – I notice another little gem every time I watch it. From the Stupendous Yappi and his silent assistant to Mulder’s future death of autoerotic asphyxiation, you can’t let your mind wander for a moment. And the monologues Peter gets to deliver are top-tier, whether he’s rambling about his love for Big Bopper or prognosticating his own end to Scully.
It’s really something for an episode of a genre procedural to knock your worldview off its axis a bit, but that’s what happened when I first saw this episode as a teenager. And I like to think it’s grown along with me (or the other way around). “Clyde Bruckman” is so rich, especially in its mediation on the question of whether or not anything we’re doing really matters in the grand scheme of things. I imagine that I think about it the way people who know visual art think about their favorite painting: to me, “Clyde Bruckman” contains multitudes and deserves an endless amount of consideration.
Kim: God Himself Vince Gilligan only has one entry in Season Three but my God, it’s a doozy. “Pusher” is by far my favorite “serious” standalone/MOTW episode of the series, and I make that distinction purely because I refuse to choose between this and GHVG’s Season Five masterpiece “Bad Blood,” you can’t make me. What astonishes me the most about this script is that it’s only GHVG’s second go at writing Mulder and Scully, but it feels like he’s been writing them for years. He just had an intimate knowledge not only of what made their dynamic work but why the fans responded to it. (Also, he was a known shipper, which always helps.) His scripts are always full of banter and flirting and longing looks and lingering glances and fleeting touches.
What “Pusher” has on top of all of that is a compelling case and a villain that feels like he’s always ten steps ahead of our heroes. Plus, Robert Modell does what he does because he’s bored and looking for someone to challenge him in what little time he may have left. There are no mommy issues or traumas that manifest his evil, he’s just evil and wants to see the world burn. It’s a battle that often feels like one Mulder can’t win, which is why that Russian Roulette scene is so damn thrilling. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the episode, but I do know that I never breathe during it. I feel like I’m a broken record at this point, but David and Gillian both turn in top-notch performances in this episode, especially in this scene, from Scully’s single tear to Mulder’s whimpered “Scully” as his index finger twitches on the trigger. The whole episode feels like lightning in a bottle, which is exactly why Season Five’s “Kitsunegari” doesn’t work, but that’s another story for another post.
- Least Favorite Episode?
Sage: “2Shy” is a low-rent “Squeeze” knockoff with a sprinkling of ick and a complete disregard for reality. It relies on every woman guest character being desperate for validation and acting as though she were born yesterday. And the casting of midsize actors as Virgil’s victims requires a suspension of disbelief that just isn’t accessible to me. Surely if you lived off of body fat, you wouldn’t exclusively be targeting size 12s, right?? “2Shy” is gross in a decidedly un-fun way, and its writer would thankfully be out of our hair after subjecting us to one more flop.
Kim: First of all, “Hell Money” isn’t an X-File by even the greatest stretch of the imagination, so why was it made? Really, that’s the least of this episode’s problems though, because I think I would let a more procedural-based episode slide if it was executed perfectly. And my friends, “Hell Money” is the opposite of that. It’s truly offensive to assemble such a fantastic roster of Asian talent for this episode (James Hong! B.D. Wong! A baby Lucy Liu!) and have them act out such a clumsily executed script with deep-seated stereotypes and out of touch depictions of Chinese culture. All of the guest actors, B.D. Wong in particular, do their best to elevate the shitty material, but at the end of the day, that’s just putting a little lipstick on a very racist pig. Yikes all around.
Sarah: I knew from the cold open that “Teso dos Bichos” wasn’t going to be at the top of any list I made for the lazy costuming and archeology. It then puts the racism accelerator to the floor and doesn’t let up for the next 40 minutes. But in the words of Britta, I can excuse racism but I draw the line at rats. The image of the toilet overflowing with rats will stick with me for a long time – and it’s not even in service of a good story.
- Scariest Episode?
Kim: Doctor Who taught me to fear statues, so I am going with “Grotesque” here. This episode is terrifying even without Mostow’s truly horrific gargoyles. It’s disorienting stylistically, really putting the viewer in Mulder’s shoes as his obsession with the case spirals into madness. David Duchovny turns in another fantastic performance and we get some excellent fuel for the Skinner/Scully crackship as the pair of them team up to help their collective boyfriend. Plus we get a stellar performance from chronically typecast bad dad Kurtwood Smith!
Sarah: Based on my least favorite episode and my fear of rats, you might think “Teso dos Bichos” has the easy win here. But listen folks – we watch these episodes at the end of the work week. Sometimes I have an adult beverage or a tasty lil candy while I watch. And that’s why when the cockroach crawled across my screen in “War of the Coprophages,” I jumped in my seat and then immediately had to look it up to confirm I wasn’t seeing things.
Sage: Few X-Files moments are as harrowing as the Russian roulette scene in “Pusher” – a sequence so intense, it almost didn’t make it to air. It’s the capper to an already intense episode, which taps into a very human fear: what if you were no longer in control of your own actions? I feel uniquely qualified to talk about this one, as I’ve dealt with OCD and intrusive thoughts most of my life. Some people who struggle with this condition can become paralyzed by the idea that they may hurt themselves, someone they love, or a perfect stranger, even if they have no desire to do any such thing, almost as if a tether is rapidly fraying. Robert Patrick Modell snaps that tether and grabs hold of one end, puppeting his victims into acting against their will.
It makes for a dark episode, with some horrific instances of self-harm. (And self…coronary? I don’t know how we classify Frank Burst’s murder, but RIP to him.) From a police officer driving his passengers straight into traffic to a gasoline-drenched SWAT team member begging for someone to stop him from lighting himself on fire, the deaths in “Pusher” are harder to watch than our more traditional monster-based kills.
As for that iconic showdown, how thankful am I that Chris Carter, God Himself Vince Gilligan (Kim coined this last season and we’re going with it), and the rest of the team were able to convince Fox that they needed to allow them to keep it in? It’s expertly directed by Rob Bowman, who ratchets up the already unbearable tension with well-placed close-ups, and it’s some of David and Gillian’s finest work so far. I don’t know how David manages to make Mulder look dead-eyed and desperately concerned for Scully at the same time, but he does. Stack that up against Gillian’s single tear amid Scully’s pleas for Mulder to come back to himself, and you’ve got one for the highlight reel. I’ve seen the end of “Pusher” at least two dozen times, and my heart still drops into my stomach every time he turns the gun on her.
- Underrated Episode?
Sarah: Bear with me – “Hell Money” is so racist and Orientalist that the character of Glen Chao even points it out in-universe. But it has a guest cast that no other episode this season can even think of besting. Lucy Liu! James Hong! BD Wong, the GD bomb! I can’t argue any of them are used to their full ranges, but if there were any episode that warranted a Doctor-lite approach with less of Mulder and Scully, this would be the one I chose. The reveal at the end that the lottery has been staged the whole time is horrific, and would have fit in perfectly to a Twilight Zone or Black Mirror-type horror show. File it next to the Sherlock episode “The Blind Banker” as interesting stories ruined by shockingly racist choices from the largely white production teams.
Kim: The burden of trying to plan a group rewatch of a series as massive as The X-Files is that some episodes get the shaft due to the strategic grouping of episodes when building a TV night. “Oubliette” was the odd man out when we sat down to plan out the season and it’s a shame because it’s actually a fantastic episode. It feels very SVU ripped-from-the-headlines-y with the way it closely mirrors the Polly Klaas kidnapping, but it works.
Listen. It’s always a good time when a young girl goes missing because you know that Fox Mulder is going to get too emotionally invested thanks to his own personal trauma regarding Samantha. David Duchovny always brings it in these episodes, and we also have two very compelling guest performances from Tracey Ellis as Lucy and a teenage Jewel Staite as Amy Jacobs. Again, “Oubilette” is a solid middle episode for the series. It will never make anyone’s top ten list, and you won’t see it on any worst of the series lists either. It is a classic Saturday afternoon scrolling through cable for something to watch kind of episode. It’s one that would have me say “Oooh, X-Files is on!” and as I’ve said before, sometimes that’s all you need.
Sage: A Howard Gordon joint, “Grotesque” fit my criteria for this category by surpassing my own memory of it.
We love a MOTW episode with emotional stakes for our heroes, and this one takes Mulder to the brink. “Grotesque” has all the makings of a great standalone X-File, from a strong guest performance in Kurtwood Smith to some strikingly gross visuals (i.e. the victims encased in clay). But what really makes it stand out is the character study at the center of it, making it the Mulder-centric answer to last season’s “Irresistible.” We hear so much about his obsessive nature over the first three seasons of the show. But in practice, it’s been at best, charming, and at worst, silly and fool-hardy – until now. “Grotesque” was the first episode to make me actually fear for Mulder’s sanity. Scully fears for it too, while still standing by him as resolutely as she can.
Are we dealing with the supernatural here? Like in many episodes, it’s not certain, but we’re certainly dealing with evil in its purest form. It entices and then spreads, but imo, Mulder is simply too good to be overtaken by it, no matter how far he may push himself in pursuit of answers. That by-the-book cop who’s so resentful of his brilliance? Another story.
- Best Mulder Moment?
Sage: I maintain that killing Melissa as early in the series as they did was a mistake. Mulder and Scully are such an insular unit; we could have used another third party, who cares about them both, for them to bounce off of. Alas, she was sacrificed to the plot gods. But not before making an impact on Mulder. I wrote in the Season Two post about Melissa confronting Mulder about his avoidance when Scully was in the hospital, and I think he carries that with him, along with some responsibility for the circumstances of her death. It’s a small moment, but a meaningful one, when he brings flowers to her grave at the end of “Apocrypha.” Mulder knows a thing or two about losing sisters, and he also knows Scully’s was a good one.
On a less serious tip, while this comes to us thirdhand and originated from an unreliable source in “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space,” bingeing pie and interrogating a diner waiter about aliens sounds 100% like something Mulder would do to entertain himself some night when Scully was busy.
Kim: One of my favorite things about Fox Mulder is that he is a believer until he is not, and then he’s an even stauncher unbeliever than Scully can be. Enter The Stupendous Yappi, one of my favorite characters in the extended X-Files universe. It’s very clear from the beginning that Yappi is a fraud, and as someone who does believe in psychic ability, I have to think that Mulder is deeply offended by him and his schtick. Still, it’s a shock when Yappi “loses his vision” because someone’s negative energy is blocking him. I know it’s coming and I STILL burst out laughing when Yappi stares Scully down and then turns to Mulder and declares that he is the one blocking his psychic abilities. It’s all delightful, from Scully’s amused “I can’t take you anywhere” to the way Mulder sulks leaving the room. The best part though though is when Yappi leaves and he tells Mulder that “skeptics like him” make him sick. “Mister Yappi,” Mulder says in his signature monotone as he leans in close, narrowing his eyes. “Read this thought.” Mulder does not suffer fools, okay?
Sarah: Meeting Dr. Bambi in “War of the Coprophages” and realizing there’s another him out there while trying to play it cool.
- Best Scully Moment?
Kim: Man, I forgot what a great Scully episode “Piper Maru” is. First of all, after two-and-a-half seasons, the episode finally remembers that she’s a Navy Brat and allows her to have a point of view regarding the military. (Me during the entirety of “The Walk”: “Scully should have an opinion about this!”) We see this in the way she subtly changes her posture around Commander Johanson, very much mirroring the way she held herself in front of her father in “Beyond the Sea.” We see it in the way she sees herself and Melissa when she visits the Navy base and watches two little girls playing hopscotch. And we see it in the (very sexy) way she’s able to identify that submerged airplane on sight because of the models that her father and brothers always built. It enriches Scully as a character, and Gillian brings it to life beautifully.
All of that was going to be my Scully moment until I pulled up the episode for reference and then was reminded of this BANGING scene:
SKINNER: I don’t think there’s anything to be read into this. I think it’s a case of manpower and workload. I want you to know that I am going to appeal this decision and I am gonna go back over all the evidence again myself and make sure that nothing has been overlooked.
(Scully walks towards the door, and turns back)
SCULLY: You know, it’s strange. Men can blow up buildings, and they can be nowhere near the crime scene but we can piece together the evidence and convict them beyond a doubt. Our labs here can recreate out of the most microscopic detail the motivation and circumstance to almost any murder, right down to a killer’s attitude towards his mother and that he was a bed wetter. But in the case of a woman, my sister, who was gunned down in cold blood in a well-lit apartment building by a shooter who left the weapon at the crime scene, we can’t even put together enough to keep anybody interested.
SKINNER: I don’t think this has anything to do with interest.
SCULLY: If I may say so, sir, it has everything to do with interest. Just not yours, and not mine.
If there’s one thing I love about Scully, it’s her sense of justice and her righteous anger when that justice is denied. At the end of “Paper Clip,” Scully famously says that she’s seen the truth and what she wants now is the answers. In “Piper Maru,” she’s denied the answers she’s been seeking and she is pissed about it in the most heartbreaking way, because in her anger there is also resignation. Resignation that shit like this has happened to thousands of Melissas that aren’t important enough to the government. Resignation that working for The Man doesn’t give her any power. Resignation that no matter how hard she tries, the bad guys are gonna win this one. It’s a devastating scene and it’s one that rings just as true (if not truer) now as it did when it aired in 1996.
Sarah: The end of “Clyde Bruckman,” when Scully holds his hand after they discover his body. The tightrope walk of Scully’s character – skeptical, logical, charming, and ultimately kind – could feel like a collision of contradictions so easily. But Gillian Anderson and the writers manage to make her feel like a whole person with facets.
Sage: Scully is on fire throughout the entirety of “War of the Coprophages,” and she isn’t even technically on the case for most of it. Because of Darin Morgan’s… let’s just call it “distaste” for Mulder, I have to assume that this script giving Scully a quiet night at home is a hefty dose of favoritism. We so rarely get to see Scully at rest – probably because she’s #1 on the speed dial of known maniac Fox Mulder – but what a sight it is. Cleaning her gun, giving Queequeg a bath in the sink, doing a little light reading… we stan a productive self-care queen.
(She even indulges in a little flirting with her partner! We all know that her response to “Scully, what are you wearing?” would have been much different if Mulder could see her, because she’s still telling herself that she doesn’t want to encourage him. But look at that smile! She loves it, and she’s free to let it affect her in the privacy of her own home.)
It’s also classic Scully to be extremely chill and practical about all the roach-related deaths (“Who died now?”), only to get riled up over a perky entomologist with a porno name hitting the scene. Her tendency towards jealousy has been criticized over the years, but idk, I think it’s one of Scully’s most human traits. No one as competitive as she is can ever be free of it, plus, Scully is a master of maintaining professionalism and keeping her emotions in check, and all of that energy has to go somewhere. It makes her nuts when she perceives anyone to be taking her place in any way, and I support her rage and pettiness in the face of such situations.
- Best Shipper Moment?
Sage: The best-kept secret of The X-Files is that Mulder and Scully are both believers, it’s just a matter of the phenomenon in question. Because in “The Blessing Way,” Scully accepts the understanding that Mulder did not die in that train car without a lick of evidence beyond what she knows in her heart to be true. She’s so confident about it that she tells his mother, sounding like her son when she does it. (“I just have a very strong feeling.”) We’ve never seen her so sure of anything that hasn’t been verifiably proven before, but when it comes to Mulder, she has the capacity to open herself up to more. (I refer you to Season Two’s “I had the strength of your beliefs.”)
As Kim pointed out when we were watching the season opener, the way she finds this peace is very Rose Tyler in “Doomsday,” waking up in bed having received a message. These two have talked to each other twice now from the bridge between life and death, and if that’s not soulmate behavior, I don’t know what is.
Kim: The thing that really sends me about Mulder and Scully’s phone calls in “War of the Coprophages” is the ease with which they fall into their pattern of banter outside of the constraints of their job. It’s almost like… they do this all the time. Like it’s practically a ritual at this point, given how easily Scully does mundane little weekend tasks like cleaning her gun all while talking to Mulder. They do this all the time, you’ll never be able to convince me otherwise.
SCULLY: Mulder, where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you all day.
MULDER: Oh, my apartment complex was being fumigated so I thought I’d get away for the weekend. I came up to Massachusetts.
SCULLY: Visiting your mother?
MULDER: No, just, uh… sitting and thinking. Widespread accounts of unidentified colored lights hovering in the skies were reported last night. Look, Scully, I know it’s not your inclination but… did you ever look up into the night sky and feel certain that…not only was something up there but…it was looking down on you at that exact same moment and was just as curious about you as you are about it?
SCULLY: Mulder, I think the only thing more fortuitous than the emergence of life on this planet is that, through purely random laws of biological evolution, an intelligence as complex as ours ever emanated from it. The very idea of intelligent alien life is not only astronomically improbable but at its most basic level, downright anti-Darwinian.
MULDER: Scully… what are you wearing?
Honestly! Just thinking about the fact that Mulder and Scully calling each other on the weekends to shoot the shit and indulge themselves in deep philosophical conversations makes me want to lie down in traffic. And the FLIRTING. Her little smile and giggle after he jokingly asks what she’s wearing? It’s too much for me! Smitten Kittens, the pair of them.
Sarah: The climax of “Pusher” had me tweeting out in all caps, “HE LOVES HER.” [If you can put in the meme here of the girl yelling in the bored guy’s face at a festival, that’s the best visual representation.] How do you beat that? The trust that Mulder and Scully have in each other! The way they look at each other! How you can see Duchovny projecting obedience in his body and resistance in his face! Thank goodness I was watching alone, because I truly would have yelled in the ear of anyone watching with me. There have been plenty of cute or romantic or flirty moments in the show so far, but that? That’s when I Knew. I don’t care what else the show tells me. Mulder and Scully love each other.
Now kiss.
- Thirstiest Moment?
Kim: I don’t know about you but I became a brand new woman the moment Assistant Director Walter Skinner told CSM to pucker up and kiss his ass, launching into a magnificent diatribe detailing just exactly how fucked the Syndicate is thanks to Albert Hosteen and the ancient tradition of the Navajo. He definitely wasn’t bluffing, and I was definitely blushing.
Sage: Looking back, this is a surprisingly not-so-horny season for Mulder and Scully. (Don’t worry, the vibes, they are a-changing.) Cannot say the same for Walter Skinner, who enters his slut era – with deadly consequences – in “Avatar.” We were in a shambles watching this one. Mitch Pileggi gets to do so much in the inaugural Skinner spotlight episode, from sexily refusing to sign his divorce papers to sexily drinking alone to sexily leaning against a doorframe… He even gets a sex scene before any of our other main characters! (No, the shaving sequence in “3” does not count.) “Avatar” is unsatisfying as an X-File – the ambiguous ending doesn’t really work for me – but it falls into the category of “large man being large,” and that’s what counts.
Sarah: I’ve been reading over my live tweets to see what stuck out to me at the time and I found one that just says “GLASSES.” I remembered it being about Mulder, so I did a quick search to try to confirm which episode it was from and found this Reddit thread about why Mulder wore glasses early on in the show but not later. (Note the top comment.)
Anyway, Mulder wearing glasses for less than four seconds in “Apocrypha,” 39:46-39:50. You’re welcome.
- Grossest Moment:
Sage: Across most of the “Nisei”/”731” two-parter, the transfer of the black oil alien virus from person to person happens off-camera, and we only know it’s been completed when the new host’s eyes cloud over with the viscous substance. That makes it all the more effective when we finally see how it happens—or, at least, how the virus returns to a non-sentient vessel. And who better to put through the pain and indignity of this than Alex Krycek, our favorite morally corrupt opportunist, who’s already betraying his former employers by selling their secrets to the highest bidder? The sight of him doubled over a-top a spacecraft, screaming and groaning as the virus leaks out of his eyes, is a very X-Files translation of the maxim “fuck around and find out.”
Sarah: Rat king in a toilet (I know, I know, it’s serious).
Kim: Being a New Yorker, I have a higher tolerance for cockroaches than many people, simply because they are just a part of city life. However, the part in “War of the Coprophages” where the cockroach crawls into the methhead’s OPEN WOUND is simply too much for me. Seeing the roaches crawl around under the guy’s skin just feels like a very specific nightmare come to life and Darin Morgan is sick, sick, sick for writing it. (That’s a compliment, Darin, ILYSM, boo.)
- Funniest Moment?
Sarah: This has to be a tie between two David Duchovny moments in “Jose Chung”: his spot-on Jonathan Frakes imitation in the diner and his hard-ass Fed act intimidating Blaine. Seeing how many gears Duchovny can work in has been such a fun part of watching this show and learning more about him.
Sage: There’s bickering, then there’s whatever Mulder and Scully are doing in “Syzygy.” It’s funny because it’s so mean, and we’re now in a place where they know each other so well that they know exactly how to push each other’s buttons, even if they don’t know exactly why they’re doing it.
Kim: Maybe my sense of humor froze at age twelve, but the bleeped cursing in “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” always sends me into a fit of giggles. It’s just so well done and that first “you really bleeped up this case” really takes you by surprise, in the best way. The censoring of Detective Manners is famously an homage to series director Kim Manners’ potty mouth and honestly, I can’t think of a more loving tribute to him. Plus, Gillian Anderson’s deadpan delivery of, “That was Detective Manners. He said they just found your bleeping UFO,” is one of her best line readings of the entire series.
- Best Monster/Villain?
Sage: What if I said Teena Mulder?! What then?
I don’t even think the show truly understands just how heinous and weak Mulder’s mother is, but I do, so buckle up. It’s true that Teena didn’t have the same choices as Bill Mulder, or as much agency as he did. If she had defied her husband, the Syndicate, or CSM, they would have found a way to silence her permanently. But what is unforgivable about how she’s conducted herself in the years since Samantha’s abduction is that she emotionally abandoned Mulder. She left him to raise himself and allowed him to believe that what happened to his sister was his fault and his to rectify. Because she was and remains too cowardly to face her own child, Teena put her own comfort first, adopting a policy of silence with a kid who has only ever wanted the unvarnished truth.
And he’s still so kind to her!! David regresses Mulder so beautifully in scenes with his parents; you can see him trying to earn the affection that he was denied amid boarding schools and months at the summer house. It’s no wonder he gravitates towards Maggie, who’s everything Teena is not.
Kim: I’m giving this one to Margi and Terri from “Syzygy” because even without a once-in-a-lifetime planetary alignment fueling their actions, teenage girls are fucking terrifying. Baby Ryan Reynolds, god bless him, never even stood a chance.
Sarah: The Red-Haired Man, played by Stephen McHattie. I’ve been watching Stephen McHattie in TV since I was very young (check out the series Emily of New Moon, a slightly-too-late attempt to recapture the Anne of Green Gables magic); he’s always great. I also noticed how much he looks like Robert Patrick in “731,” and so I’ve convinced myself without knowing anything about Robert Patrick’s character that the two are connected somehow.
- Right in the Feels moment?
Sarah: When Mulder and Scully hold hands at the end of “Pusher.” That little act was more moving to me than most romance stories.
Sage: Scully is not herself in “Wetwired,” so when Mulder gets the call to identify a body that the authorities think might be hers, he has ample reason to believe it could be true. Everything about this scene hurts, from Mulder shutting his eyes against the coroner telling him that the woman in the other room was found on the side of a highway, “nude, shot in the forehead,” to his insistence on opening the blinds himself when he’s ready to do the worst job he’ll ever have to do as her partner. There’s little room for relief even when he determines that Scully’s isn’t the body laying on that table, because she’s still in danger and he could still be too late. Fortunately, “Wetwired” bookends this nightmare with something a bit more heartwarming: Scully acknowledging from her hospital bed that Mulder betraying her – and being somehow behind every terrible thing that’s happened to her since she was assigned to the X-Files – is her single worst fear. It’s a testament to how completely she trusts him, that her world would be upended if she learned that trust had been misplaced.
Kim: I love how Scully’s relationship with Clyde Bruckman goes from annoyed skepticism to begrudging endearment to genuine fondness and affection by the end of the episode. It’s interesting because as much as Darin Morgan (lovingly) loathes Mulder, he clearly adores Scully and loves to explore the softer sides of her character. We saw shades of this in the gentle way she treated Lanny in “Humbug,” but this gorgeous scene with Clyde, which is definitely aided by the natural chemistry Gillian had with Peter Boyle, is truly next level.
SCULLY: It’s something you haven’t explained. Can you see your own end?
CLYDE BRUCKMAN: I see our end. (Scully tilts her head forward a little in confusion.) We end up in bed together. (Scully tilts her head forward more in utter disbelief.) I’m, I’m, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that, I, I, I don’t mean to offend you or scare you, but, uh, not here, not this bed. I, I just mean I, I see us quite clearly in bed together. You’re holding my hand, uh… very tenderly and then… you’re looking at me with such compassion and I feel… tears are streaming down my face. I feel so grateful. It’s just a…very special moment neither of us will ever forget.
SCULLY: Mister Bruckman… there are hits and there are misses. And then there are misses.
(He just smiles.)
CLYDE BRUCKMAN: I just call ’em as I see ’em.
(She smiles.)
That conversation alone is enough to hit you right in the feels but what really punches you in the face is the way Clyde’s prediction comes true. Because of course it comes true… just not in the way Scully or the audience expects. Once the killer is caught, Mulder and Scully find Clyde back at his apartment. He’s in bed, with a plastic bag over his head. Scully sits next to him and takes his hand, finding a bottle of pills. She looks at him with compassion, tears welling in her eyes at the realization. A bead of condensation rolls down Clyde’s face like a tear. Yeah. It’s a moment I’d never forget either.
- Best “Mulder, you’re lucky you’re so cute” moment?
Kim: Season Three is rich with “Mulder, you’re lucky you’re so cute” moments, the most obvious one being his behavior throughout the entirety of “Syzygy.” I’m going to chalk that up to planetary alignment. No amount of planetary alignment can explain Mulder’s behavior in “Nisei” though. This man heard Scully begging him to stop what he was doing, that he was basically walking into a trap, and he literally jumped off a bridge to get on a moving train ANYWAY. Not to mention the fact that the fall promptly causes him to lose his cell phone. You know that moment in “Pusher” where Scully says “Mulder, no.” and Modell immediately says “Mulder, yes!”? That’s it, that’s this scene. He’s lucky he’s so cute!!
Sarah: “Arrest me? With what? Your chopsticks?” Extrajudicial kidnapping isn’t a good look on you, Mr. “I can arrest whoever I want in Hong Kong.”
Sage: Scully’s dog, who’s only there because Mulder dragged Scully out of her apartment with little notice to go sea-monster-hunting, gets eaten by said sea monster in “Quagmire,” and all he has to offer is one sentence of half-hearted condolence before he’s back on his bullshit again. (Tell me you had no childhood pets without telling me you had no childhood pets.) Queequeg may have taken a nibble of his last owner, but he still deserves better.
- Best Guest Star?
Kim: Peter Boyle’s performance as the titular character in “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” is the reason the Television Academy finally sat up and took notice of the spectacular acting that was happening on The X-Files. The performance is just so fully realized, from his hangdog posture to his dry wit to the cadence and timbre of his voice as he delivered those magnificent Darin Morgan punchlines. It’s a masterclass in guest acting and if Peter Boyle was only going to get one Emmy over the course of his storied career, I’m glad it was for this.
Sage: As I’ve already sung the praises of Peter Boyle (and he took home an Emmy for his efforts), I’ll use this section to shout out the inspired casting of a 26-year-old Jack Black as the doomed best friend of Giovanni Ribisi’s Darin Peter Oswald in “D.P.O.” So young, so fresh-faced, so undeserving of his fate.
Sarah: Did you know BD Wong already had a Tony for playing Song Liling, a Chinese opera singer, when Donny Osmond was cast as his singing voice in Mulan?
This doesn’t have anything to do with The X-Files. Much like Barney and canadiansexacts.org, I’m just trying to get the information out there.
- Favorite ‘90s fashion?
Sarah: Normally my answer would be any of Scully’s boxiest 90s suits, but looking back, they actually softened her look quite a bit this season. The winner has to be Kerry Sandomirsky, a minor actress in “2Shy,” for her unfortunate LDS hair bump.
Kim: I really appreciate Scully’s transition into more fitted suits in the back half of the season. I think it can be chalked up to fashion evolving as we move into the mid-late ’90s (1996, amirite?) but I also like to think it’s due to Gillian Anderson’s rising sex symbol status. It’s like the costume department finally realized that they have a certified BABE on their hands.
She has a great run of pinstripe suits in the last handful of episodes, but I would like to specifically point out the ivory suit that she wears the sweet hell out of in “Wetwired.” Hello, waist! It’s nice to finally see you.
Sage: I believe “Nisei” is our first instance of Mulder in a black turtleneck, a wardrobe staple that will become synonymous with him both consulting the Gunmen (as he does in this episode) and skulking around warehouses and suchlike, doing things he’s not supposed to be doing. Stealth-Mode Mulder, if you will.
Sum up your feelings about the season.
Sarah: This season is confident right away. Watching the opening two episodes, I could tell they’d hit it big by this point, because of the bigger swings they were making, and I love it. The mythology explodes, we start getting more running characters, and the whole universe of the show starts feeling larger, even in the Monster of the Week episodes. The note this season leaves me on is excitement. I have no idea what’s coming up next, but I think I’m going to enjoy it.
Sage: Season Three is more audacious, both visually and narratively, delivering on the cinematic promise of “Anasazi” in Season Two. Even as it expands to include black oil aliens and hybrids with the ability to heal, the mythology is still easy to follow and to parse (which won’t always be the case, so enjoy it). And there’s a comfort level that enables the show to reach out into new genres and forms of storytelling. “Humbug” was a toe dipped into the water, but “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” is pure comedy, setting The X-Files on a path to some delightfully goofy and lighthearted romps in the coming years. Mulder and Scully are such an established dynamic and we know them so well that something like “Syzygy” works and doesn’t just confuse us about where these two stand with each other. Recurring characters take more of a front seat, and seeds are planted that will take root in the defining (and heart-wrenching!) arc of Season Four.
This season isn’t as quirky or wide-ranging as some still to come, but The X-Files is beginning to take itself less seriously, which can only ever be a good thing with long-running television shows, imo. At the same time, it feels solid and sure – now officially a hit and sitting pretty at the network.
Kim: The X-Files became a true pop culture phenomenon and ratings juggernaut in Season Three. Never one to rest on its laurels though, this season also sees the show starting to experiment more with genre and injecting more humor into the series. I always feel like every season of The X-Files is defined by a particular writer. Season Three is the season of the great Darin Morgan, whose dark and absurdist sense of humor redefined what a Monster of the Week episode was capable of. Whenever anyone talks about the series as a whole, “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” and “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” consistently rank among the definitive episodes. Darin Morgan just leaves such an indelible mark on not only the season, but the entire series, setting the bar for every writer that came after him.
On the mythology side, we see Frank Spotnitz truly emerge as the steward of the conspiracy arc, a role that he would basically serve in for the rest of the series, come what may. All of the major behind the scenes players are now in place; as fans we now just get to watch them get better and better at what they do.
As for David and Gillian, they just get better looking and more comfortable in their roles with every passing season. What I love the most about Season Three is that we start to get glimpses of what Mulder and Scully’s dynamic is like outside of their work, from Scully showing up to comfort Teena Mulder at Bill’s funeral in “The Blessing Way” to the way Mulder knows he can find Scully at her mom’s in “Wetwired.” (Do you think Maggie Scully calls and checks in on Mulder on at minimum an every other week basis? I definitely do. They are so comfortable in their rapport with each other!) It feels like Mulder and Scully are partners in every sense of the word now and the comfort they take in each other shows. These two may be the slowest of burns, but honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
What does Season Three of The X-Files mean to you? Let us know about your favorite episodes and moments in the comments.
as a first time x-files watcher in 2022, i am *so enjoying* your blogging and commentary on your rewatch! I’m ahead of your commentary (just finished the first movie, soon to start Season 6), but all of you are great writers, and reading the blogs is a happy re-visit of the seasons i so recently experienced for the first time myself! i may be new to the fandom, but i’m happy to have found camaraderie among other fans feeling all the feels! I especially love that you highlight the different styles of all the show writers (i had no idea who any of these people were until you started name dropping), who are as important an element of the show as the beloved lead actors! Please keep up the great writing/reviewing, as i look forward to reading!
Oh this is so lovely of you!!! Thank you so much, I’m happy you are enjoying ❤️ -Kim