“Provenance,” a word from the French referring to a place of origin, is the first part of a two episode story that finally deals with William’s special powers. It is a continuation of “The Sixth Extinction”, which makes one wonder why, if the powers that be want to follow up on a past story, why not choose a better one than that. “The Sixth Extinction” did introduce the new mythology, so I guess they were stuck with it, for better or for worse.
A missing FBI agent is wounded crossing the border from Canada into North Dakota while carrying a piece of a spacecraft similar to the one found in West Africa two years ago. The agent had been assigned to infiltrate a UFO cult run by former Lt. col Zeke Josepho. The agent found another spacecraft on a dig with the rest of the cult in Canada and became a true believer. The re is some connection between special babies like William and the spacecraft. Whatever the connection, the cult wants William murdered.
The FBI tries to keep all this under wraps from Scully, Doggett, and Reyes, but when the Fbi agent comes to kill William on the cult’s behalf, they are all three neck deep. Scully hands off William to the Lone Gunman--talk about desperation--in order to head off to see the cult herself with the assistance of Doggett and Reyes. The cult makes a second attempt at William, this time running over Doggett and capturing the Lone Gunman. To be continued.
“Provenance” is a lot of exposition, a lot of FBI cover up for no good reason, and a lot of Scully screeching over her baby more than Claire from Lost. If you have not seen “The Sixth Extinction,’ or blocked it from your memory for the sake of fragile sanity, this will all make even less sense than it does if the episode is fresh in memory. I pity you either way. I am not particularly hooked by anything other than the cliffhanger in which obviously William is going to have to be rescued. That is at least a point I can grasp comfortably.
Speaking of Lost again, Alan Dale makes his first appearance as Toothpick Man. He is the only actor I know of who has appeared in Lost, The X-Files, Torchwood, and Star Trek, making him the connecting factor in most of my favorite science fiction franchises. He needs to do a voice on Clone Wars so hhe can be considered part of Star Wars, too.
Rating; ** (out of 5)
“Provenance,” a word from the French referring to a place of origin, is the first part of a two episode story that finally deals with William’s special powers. It is a continuation of “The Sixth Extinction”, which makes one wonder why, if the powers that be want to follow up on a past story, why not choose a better one than that. “The Sixth Extinction” did introduce the new mythology, so I guess they were stuck with it, for better or for worse.
