It is possible to enjoy "Darkness Falls" if you can look beyond its 
plot holes and cliches. Believe me, I do know that can be a difficult 
task, but I've found simply yelling at the screen "Build a friggin' 
fire you idiots" or "What? Does shutting the vents in the car take 
all the challenge out of this for you folks?" to let out all that 
negative energy at the start helps. You can then try to sit back and 
enjoy the good things the episode has to offer - and there are a few - 
hidden in this average outing.

Let's get the cliches out of the way first - even the teaser boasts 
that horror movie tried and true favorite as one of the loggers 
stumbles and hurts his leg while they all run willy nilly through 
the woods. It's pretty obvious who is going to be the first to go 
here. Then there was the annoyingly written and annoyingly acted 
part of NRA poster-boy Steve Humphreys as Tom O'Rourke chews through 
more scenery than the loggers did. Personally, I couldn't wait for 
him to die - and you knew it would have to happen to this predictable 
character.

I find the cocoon scene troubling as well. Yes, it is creepy and 
effective as, once again, Scully gets to find out why it sucks to 
be the smaller partner because it is she who gets the unenviable 
task of being hoisted up to what appears to be some sort of HUGE 
insect nest. Herein lies the problem for me. Maybe these folks just 
aren't scared of "itsy bitsy spiders", but I'd be more than a little 
nervous to be poking around in something like that in such a 
vulnerable position. Even after they discover the mass contains a 
dead body they seem to have no qualms about digging through the nest 
with bare hands. Maybe it is just me, but I'm always shocked by the 
cavalier attitude of this.

As I mentioned earlier, there were good things about this episode. 
I enjoyed Jason Beghe's performance as "freddie" Larry Moore, and 
from a production standpoint I loved the look of this episode - the 
rainy, gloomy Vancouver weather managed to really work well - painting 
the picture of a lush wet forest. What is nice about this episode is 
that, while it is definitely has a "message", this message isn't 
pounded into our skulls with quite the propensity it can be on this 
show. Maybe it helps that both sides of the environmental issues are 
explored - or maybe it is just that there are no Spanish subtitles.

"Darkness Falls" also does a good job of focusing on a basic human 
fear - that of the dark - and what beasties might come out at night. 
"You don't want to go out in the night" we are told, and in this 
case, just as it is for a child, their "night light" is their 
salvation at keeping the monsters at bay. There is a strong and 
palpable tension that runs through the episode catching the viewer 
up in the fear along with the characters. Even the normally cool
Scully freaks out from her fears when she sees the insects on her 
arm - though her staged bat of the remaining bulb was a bit much. 
Later, the hopelessness of their situation sinks in as Mulder and 
Scully sit together and Mulder weakly offers "We'll think of 
something" to her incredulous sigh. I also found it surprising 
that in the end they were actually attacked - I must admit I was 
not expecting that turn of events - though, predictably, our heroes 
miraculously survive.

And of course, as usual, I enjoyed the banter as Mulder teases 
Scully about a boyfriend, but especially their back and forth about 
bigfoot and flannel to which Scully gives Mulder a rare smile at his 
jokes. This scene is important for another reason as its 
lightheartedness really offsets the argument that they have later 
concerning Agent "Trust no one" Mulder's selfish choice to make a 
dangerous decision for the group. A guilty Mulder snaps at Scully's
protests with "Oh will you cut the sanctimonious crap" (apparently 
not yet aware, as we are, that she is indeed a saint) before they 
put their frustrations at the situation aside.

Random Musings
-------------------------

-Frank's Fashion Spot: This episode boasts a rarity - almost an 
entire episode in casual togs. I can't say much for Scully's forest 
fashion choices - she's swimming in that denim shirt so bad most 
times you can't even see her hands, and without heels on her hiking 
boots she barely comes up to Mulder's armpit.

-I know it is just to make the shot work, but when the foursome 
travel to the logging camp in the car together Mulder and Scully 
are practically sitting on top of each other in the center of the 
back seat, both as far away from the car doors as possible.

-Could Scully be less thrilled at the prospect of a hike through 
the wet cold forest? She's so tired by the time they get to the 
camp that she runs right into Mulder's backpack.

-Some "rugged manly men in the full bloom of their manhood" - judging 
from the food they left on the table these tough loggers were all 
sitting around drinking milk.

-Even more disgusting is the fact that when Humphreys walks in on 
Spinney when he is in the middle of chowing down Spinney is in the 
process of drinking that milk - which has, by this point, sat out 
on that table for a long long time. It's one thing to eat an old 
muffin, but that milk has to be downright chunky by this time.

-Anyone else think Mulder seemed to have an appreciation for the 
quality of the "party favors" he found? Maybe he was just thinking 
about getting Scully stoned.

-If you look carefully you can see that the top shot of them 
standing around the cut up cocoon doesn't match at all what the 
body looks like in the close-up shots.

-You know, I appreciate the fact that the writer has to educate 
the audience sometimes on certain topics, but cut us a little 
slack. It really is not necessary to make scientist Scully look 
stupid by having her ask the painfully obvious. Scully: "Those 
center rings are the older rings, right?". DUH!

-Those "containment" suits are a riot. All that trouble and yet 
you can see bare arms where the sleeves don't quite meet the latex 
gloves. I'm not sure how much protection that is going to offer.

-I bet Scully likes Spinney - he has that habit of hers of even 
calling people he doesn't like "sir". The polite monkey-wrencher.

-200 million bugs per person? Now that's a fun fact I didn't need 
to know. Yuck.

Autumn
"Oh, a brain sucking amoeba."