Martin Carr reviews the fourth episode of The X-Files season 10…
Past life trauma and theological notions of self are the focus for Mulder and Scully this week. Using theories on inspiration, creativity and the indelible idea of original thought as a jumping off point. In an episode written and directed by veteran X-Files producer and scribe Glen Morgan.
Pulling in threads from Mulder and Scully’s past relationship, Morgan draws on the old whilst intriguing a new audience. Never once dropping the ball and giving people what they want to see. Which starts as a ground level civic housing issue and balloons into supernatural shenanigans before you can say Michael Myers. Not that repeatedly resurrected universal Bogeyman has any place here.
What we get instead is a tale which moves along at quite a rate. Contains more than a little gore and equal amounts of quizzical looks between out dynamic duo. Even if Scully spends most of that time separated from Mulder. What remains important here as with all the best X-Files episodes is what remains unsaid.
In the eyes of the writers people are clearly disposable. A social inconvenience standing in the way of progression. What Morgan strives to do with ‘Home Again’ is point out that you reap what you sow. A lack of jobs, disparity between wages and the cost of living continues to create casualties. Not in the hyper real sense of an X-Files but outside your front door. And what governments and local councils fail to see with their urban renewal programs is the disruption they cause.
Now there would be those who say people make their own luck. And to a certain extent there is truth in that. However there are those who had no options to begin with. Who make a life for themselves within the confines of opportunities afforded them. What Morgan and company are saying in a non to veiled way is that this has to stop. We all need to take responsibility for what we create. Whether it’s a piece of writing, work of art or human being.
What ‘Home Again’ does then is draw on all these threads without forcing the issue. Mulder and Scully represent the cynic and believer in all of us. Taking on face value the supernatural and humane elements of this story without judgement. Drawing both ends of the spectrum together into a unifying message which underpins and concludes this story without cliché. For me this X-Files incarnation draws strength from the fact that there are still unexplained things in this world. Even if a majority of them are man-made and most often controlled by the governments who protect our interests.
Martin Carr – Follow me on Twitter
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https://youtu.be/b7Ozs5mj5ao?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng
Originally published February 17, 2016. Updated November 29, 2022.
