EPISODE REVIEWS SEASON 2

Episode 2x01: Little Green Men

Category: UFO  ·  Rating 3 of 5

Contents Synopsis: Mulder follows a lead to Arecibo to make contact with a UFO. He is being reminded again of his sister's abduction. This is the first appearance of Senator Matheson, one of Mulder's informants. He'll appear again in 3x09 'Nisei'.

Review: The second season starts rather weak, but it has a great opening scene.

July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999

Episode 2x02: The Host

Category: single case  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Episode 2x03: Blood

Category: control  ·  Rating 4 of 5

Contents Synopsis: The agents discover a plot to test inhabitants of a small town with some kind of chemical substance that exaggerates their phobias and makes the test persons run amok.

Review: Classical X-Filean paranoia at work, with a strange sense of humor.

July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999

Episode 2x04: Sleepless

Category: single case  ·  Rating 3 of 5

Episode 2x05: Duane Barry (Pt 1)

Category: abduction  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Contents Synopsis: Mulder is called to a hostage case. A man called Duane Barry claims to be an alien abductee and seems to know that he will be abducted again. To prevent this, he wants to take a hostage that would then be abducted instead of him. Barry had been an FBI agent once, but was wounded in the head. He could be a notorious liar. Mulder talks to him. Barry is shot by a sniper and brought to a hospital. There he sees aliens, and he seems to have been given an order. Late that night he escapes and kidnappes Scully.

Episode 2x06: Ascension (Pt 2)

Category: abduction  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Contents Synopsis: Mulder and his new partner, Alex Krycek, follow Duane Barry. He's driving to Skyland Mountain. To get there in time, Mulder uses the cableway that leads to the mountain, with Krycek waiting with the operator. But Krycek turns against Mulder and knocks the operator down, tries to prevent Mulder from reaching the mountain top in time. When Mulder arrives on the top, he just finds Duane Barry - Scully is gone. Later on, Barry is killed, supposedly by Krycek, who apparently works for CSM. When Mulder and Skinner want to question him about the death of Barry, he doesn't show up. Skinner reopens the X-files.

Review: This part of the mythology, born out of Gillian Anderson's pregnancy, incites a story arc which will be the major source of conflict and motivation for the years and episodes to come. From the claustrophibic atmosphere of the travel agency office where Duane Barry holds his hostages to the vast open scenery of Skyland mountain, these episodes indeed feel like a movie.

July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999

Episode 2x07: 3

Category: single case  ·  Rating 2 of 5

Episode 2x08: One Breath (Pt 3)

Category: abduction  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Contents Synopsis: Scully is found in a mysterious way in a hospital, but she's still in coma. Someone steals her DNA, but Mulder's new informant (called 'X') kills the man. Mulder gets the address of CSM by Skinner, but then doesn't want to kill him. 'Ive watched presidents die', CSM states. X gives Mulder the opportunity to kill the men responsible for Scully's abduction, but then he prefers to be with Scully when she wakes up.

Review: Perhaps the best episode of the first two seasons, 'One Breath' is a strangely flowing piece which features the first confrontation between Mulder and CSM. Skinner now seems to be on the right side of the crusade, while his role has been dubious in the past.

July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999

Episode 2x09: Firewalker

Category: single case  ·  Rating 2 of 5

Episode 2x10: Red Museum

Category: purity control  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Contents Synopsis: While following a case, Mulder and Scully discover a plot linked to 'Purity Control' - a secret substance is given to children by a doctor. The assassin of Deep Throat shows up and is killed.

Review: This episode is remarkable as it at first sight doesn't look like a conspiracy episode at all, and with the realization of its belonging to the mythology, the horror gets another turn of the screw.

July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999

Episode 2x11: Excelsius Dei

Category: single case  ·  Rating 2 of 5

Episode 2x12: Aubrey

Category: single case  ·  Rating 2 of 5

Episode 2x13: Irresistible

Category: single case  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Episode 2x14: Die Hand Die Verletzt

Category: single case  ·  Rating 4 of 5

Episode 2x15: Fresh Bones

Category: single case  ·  Rating 3 of 5

Episode 2x16: Colony (Pt 1)

Category: colony/Samantha  ·  Rating 4 of 5

Contents Synopsis: Mulder and Scully discover a group of clones, the Gregors. They can shift at least their facial shape, have green blood and are nearly invulnerable. The only way to kill them is to pierce their neck with something that looks like a long metallic needle. If they are hurt, a gaseous substance that is toxic for humans leaves their bodies (like that of the fugitive from 1x24 'The Erlenmeyer Flask'). They have been building up a colony, but against official orders - so they are hunted by a bounty hunter, who is one of their people. Mulder is called home to find his sister Samantha. But meanwhile Scully is visited by the bounty hunter, who had changed his face into that of Mulder's - while he talks to Scully, the real Mulder calls her over the phone.

Episode 2x17: End Game (Pt 2)

Category: colony/Samantha  ·  Rating 4 of 5

Contents Synopsis: Scully has been kidnapped by the bounty hunter, his price: Samantha. So Mulder and Skinner plan an exchange, but before the sharpshooter can hit the kidnapper, the bounty hunter jumps from the bridge into the river, dragging Samantha with him; she dies. So Mulder has to inform his father that he - again - has lost his sister. But then he visits the location Samantha gave him, and he meets her again - and again: There is a group of Samantha-clones who tell him that all of this had been a plot to make him protect them. But then the bounty hunter arrives, he's knocked down, the clones are gone. X gives him the location of the hunter's submarine in the arctic. He finds him, but loses control. The bounty hunter lets him live, but leaves him on the ice, infected by some unknown disease. Scully recovers him (Skinner has to get the information about Mulder's whereabouts from X) and rescues her partner. Science allows her to do so.

Review: These two episodes tell an interesting story which also introduces the Bounty Hunter, but they somehow didn't meet my expectations. There are some great moments in them, but it dosn't have the intensity of comparable episodes.

July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999

Episode 2x18: Fearful Symmetry

Category: single case  ·  Rating 4 of 5

Episode 2x19: Dod Kalm

Category: single case  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Episode 2x20: Humbug

Category: single case  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Episode 2x21: The Calusari

Category: single case  ·  Rating 3 of 5

Episode 2x22: F. Emasculata

Category: single case  ·  Rating 3 of 5

Episode 2x23: Soft Light

Category: single case  ·  Rating 3 of 5

Episode 2x24: Our Town

Category: single case  ·  Rating 4 of 5

Episode 2x25: Anasazi (Pt 1)

Category: Grays/Elders/Gvmt/Abduction  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Contents Synopsis: Somewhere in New Mexico, the truth is revealed by an earthquake: A body that's looking quite alien appears. Meanwhile, an associate of the Lone Gunmen hacks into the Pentagon computer and retrieves some strangly coded files. He does a DAT copy and it finds its way to Mulder and Scully. While he doesn't know what to do with the code, Scully identifies it as a variant of Navajo used as code in World War II. Back in Mulder's apartment, a husband kills his wife. Mulder also seems to get crazy: He beats Skinner. He gets a phone call from his dad, but shortly after he arrives his dad is killed by Krycek. When Mulder later on tries to shoot Krycek, Scully shoots her partner in the shoulder to prevent him from murdering Krycek with the same weapon his father was killed. She brings him to New Mexico, to Albert Hosteen, a code talker. After some recovery, Mulder is lead to the place where the body was found. It's a secret train car, once hidden beyond the surface. When he enters the car, he sees a stack of bodies of the same kind, all of them seem to have had a smallpox inocculation. At this moment, CSM arrives with a helicopter and an army sweeper team. As they don't find Mulder, he orders to burn the car.

Review: The pace is increased and events culminate with the show's first cliffhanger episode. This is the climax of an overall great season, and at the same time it prepares the way for an even greater third year.

July 7th, 1998 / September 24th, 1999