Now that Mulder is no longer missing, the powers that be felt it was okay to have a more lighthearted episode. With a title like “Alone,” one has to figure it is not a laugh right, and one would be right. If nothing else, Scully’s departure on maternity leave with the prospect she will never return to the x-files now that Mulder is no longer with the FBI is a melancholy moment. But much of the episode is a love letter to old school X-Philes through the character of Leyla Harrison.
Harrison is a young, inexperienced agent who is so enthusiastic about the X-Files, she begged for the assignment. Throughout the episode, she jumps to conclusions relating any minor clue she and Doggett find to a popular episode of the series. Most prominently, she mentions Eugene Tooms, the shedding skin alien, and those critters that snatched people down in Florida. She even gets the chance to ask the big question on fans’ minds--how did Mulder and Scully get back from being stranded in Antarctica? Her enthusiasm for the paranormal and her inexperience in general is a bit much for Doggett to handle. The sweet part is that Leyla Harrison is the name of a big X-Phile who was a fan fiction writer while active in fandom in general. She tragically died of skin cancer in February 2001, just a few months prior to the airing of “Alone.”
The homage to a prominent fan who died too young is great, and so is the almost paternal manner in which Mulder and Scully, neither of whom are assigned to the X-Files at this point, fret over Doggett and Harrison’s investigation of a groundskeeper and his father who had traces of reptile venom in their eyes when their corpses were found. The two remain in a back up roll as Doggett saves himself and Harrison, but the dichotomy of Mulder/Scully not wanting to let go while Doggett/Harrison capably resolve the case themselves is a nice transition piece.
The only lackluster bit is the monster. The murders were committed by a giant lizard. Doggett and leyla are eventually dragged in the tunnels below a mansion by the lizard in order to be eaten later. Mulder searches for the two on the mansion grounds while scully does her forensics work to determine what kind of creature might have committed the murders. The lizard turns out to be the biologist who owns the mansion. He was researching lizard/human hybrids, and successfully turned himself into one. In the end, Doggett kills the lizard in order to save Mulder, Harrison, and himself. If you are thinking “Alpha” right now, you are spot on. If the powers that be had to reuse a monster’s shtick, they should have chosen a better episode.
But the biologist who is also the mythical monster repeat is only a minor gripe compared to the rest of the episode. It is highly entertaining to the point one has the briefest since of optimism Doggett and his new partner might truly make worthy successors to Mulder and Scully. It does not entirely pan out that way, but it is nice to think that it could, if only for a while there.
Rating: *** (out of 5)
Now that Mulder is no longer missing, the powers that be felt it was okay to have a more lighthearted episode. With a title like “Alone,” one has to figure it is not a laugh right, and one would be right. If nothing else, Scully’s departure on maternity leave with the prospect she will never return to the x-files now that Mulder is no longer with the FBI is a melancholy moment. But much of the episode is a love letter to old school X-Philes through the character of Leyla Harrison.
