That's Mrs. Mulder to you.
Also, am I the only one who noticed that this was the first episode where we learned Mulder's mother's first name? I guess I never caught it in the credits before then, but I remember watching this and being all tensed up during the final scene, and when Scully shouts out that "your mother…

I think the problem with both this episode and Orison (and sequels in general) is when the writers try to "up the ante" by adding a new character (the sister in Kitsunegari, the superfluous preacher who may or may not have been Scully's creepy childhood neighbor, or something) who, rather than upping any ante, just…

Scully's Mom
I've always thought Sheila Larken's performances on this show were seriously underrated. She's just really great. That's all.

Mister…you gotta work on your closing.

Girly Moment
On the subject of "adorably dorky," can I just say that I found the Mulder-crying-over-old-science-symposium tapes to be genuinely touching? Usually I cringe inside whenever Duchovny has to emote, but this time he really sold the crying, and with the tapes, it really did feel like he was on a continued…

On the other hand, I remember the first "Mulder's Dead" cliffhanger, at the end of Season 2, being pretty effectively cliffhangery. I was on tenterhooks all summer long, waiting to find out if Mulder would make it out of that burning boxcar or not. Because, at that point, what the hell - he wasn't *David Duchovny*…

When XF aired originally, they lost me at season 7, not so much because of the nonsense, but because I graduated college, moved to NYC, couldn't afford cable, and could only sporadically get Fox to come in on those Sundays when I wasn't working. Going back and watching the later seasons recently, I was struck by how…

Word. It's one of the few redeeming scenes in the second movie when Xzibit's all "we can't help you, Dr. Scully," and she's all "well then let me speak to somebody with some balls who can," and then they cut to Skinner.

Not unless you've got some particular affinity for Natasha McElhone, no.

I just watched Californication tonight. You know what it's like? It's like you've got this cool uncle, and he's just divorced your favorite aunt. And then you run into him out at a bar, picking up girls. Girls you went to high school with. And you're sort of nauseated, but then he gives you this hangdog…

Similarly, I always enjoy the way Duchovny says "Burwood?!"

I thought Mark Hamill was in this episode - didn't he have a brief (and uncredite) cameo as the leaf-blowing neighbor? I seem to remember some internet chatter on this at the time, but I could be completely mis-remembering.

It's not my favorite, but I'd have to say Humbug's in my top ten, fer sure.

These past two episodes have been so boring…
I was just wondering, why isn't anybody at AV Club reviewing Californication? Because it would get old to keep writing "and then Duchovny fucks some more chicks," or because as a general rule anything named after a Red Hot Chili Peppers song is unworthy of further study?

And it doesn't help that it follows Kaddish, the second most boring episode of the season. Max Fenig couldn't come back fast enough.

Leonard Betts…
Is the only episode of The X-Files that I cannot watch while I'm eating. Yes, I know it's all special effects, models, people on foley stages squishing grapefruits, etc. Nevertheless. I've never had a tv show make me come that close to actually vomiting.

Stuff that bothers me about Tunguska/Terma
I know Russia's supposed to be all corrupt and that a Russian gulag is supposed to be ultra-corrupt, even in the Bill Clinton 90s, but how did Mulder and Krycek end up in a fucking Russian gulag, anyway? I mean, they're Americans, supposedly traveling with some kind of…

Not only that, but he wrote a pretty damn good late-series episode (Bill Davis, I mean, not Scrappy Doo.) En Ami, at the end of S7. It's kind of a stand-alone-mytharc, refreshing at a time when the show's wheels were beginning to wobble, right before they fell off entirely.

I hated this episode.

Bloody hell!
Why didn't somebody tell me the X-Files reviews were still going on?