"Heavenly shades of night are falling, it's twilight time."

After playing hit and mostly miss in the dark for the last 
few episodes, "Kill Switch" was indeed a heavenly return with 
all the shades of night I enjoy from the X-Files. Visiting 
Sci-Fi authors William Gibson and Tom Maddox drop in to deliver 
an interesting and exciting story filled with entertaining twists,
tension, and most importantly a creative ingenuity that made this 
story a fresh departure. Something that is not so easy in the 
show's fifth season. This was no retelling of something we'd 
seen before. No "Ghost in the Machine 2" (thank God). It had 
just the right blend of character familiarity mixed with new 
situations to make it a success. Drop in again sometime guys.

What a wonderful homecoming for Director Rob Bowman who has 
been busy preparing our summer movie. This was obviously not 
an easy episode to film as it depended heavily on special 
effects, action sequences, makeup, stunts, and the character 
interplay that makes the show special. Kudos to Bowman and
editor Heather MacDougall for pulling this all together so 
well with the able assistance of the computer effects folks. 
It isn't often we get this "big" an episode anymore that isn't 
mythology. Even the crack dealer convention teaser, which 
frankly had little to do with the rest of the episode was 
suspenseful and well done.

Kristin Lehman, looking like a casualty in a cruel mascara 
experiment in overdrive, overcomes her annoying makeup to 
play very smoothly in the world of the show. Esther 
"Invisigoth" Nairn seems to spark with all the characters. 
Be it Scully's obvious annoyance with her attitude (complete 
with her frustrated stopping of the car and snide remarks 
"Were you the bass player?"), Mulder's stuck in the middle 
attempts to communicate with both of them, or the Lone Gunmen 
love-fest, she impacts all the players. It was nice to see 
those "inspired nerds", the Lone Gunmen, playing a part 
here - and it was a perfect episode for them to do so.

Everyone was in their element. Mulder was stealing evidence 
and making those amazing leaps of his and Scully, back from 
vacation, returns to full skeptical form giving that "look" 
of hers a workout. This eventually wears down, as Esther and 
Scully connect when the conversation turns to matters of the 
heart with Esther talking about her view of the ultimate union 
between two people.

The highlight of this episode for me was that wacky Mulder AI 
dream sequence in which we get just a little too much insight 
into some of the things floating around in his head. Surrounded 
by Nurse Nancy and her "massage" therapy group Mulder begs and 
pleads (when his head isn't shoved into Nancy's bosom or being 
smothered by a pillow) for his Dr. Scully, trying to avoid the
doddering old surgeon and his host of pointy amputation tools. 
I'm not going to try to figure out what it means to have him 
wake up from his "good dream" under a glowing cross while the 
buxom Nurse Nancy (sporting both an alien head pin and a cross 
herself) calls him Fox. This from the fantasy of Mr. "I even
made my parents call me" Mulder. The one good thing about Mulder's 
little computer head game is that he certainly has a healthy 
appreciation for Scully's skills. Too bad that the biggest 
Action!Scully sequence in the show's history is merely a 
figment of Mulder's computer influenced imagination because 
it was certainly a thing to behold. That twirling, roundhouse, 
jumping high kick in heels was so impressive for a while I 
thought we were watching "Scully! Warrior Princess". All she 
was missing was the battle cry and leather outfit, but I guess 
that would've been a bit much for even Mulder's imagination.

Duchovny is quite good in this dream sequence alternating 
between confusion and terror as he discovers he has a little 
more in common with Krycek than he'd like. I loved his pitiful 
"look" as he tried to draw Ninja!Scully's attention to his stubs 
while she simply blows the hair out of her eyes and sternly 
questions him. It is only then does he realize something is very 
very wrong. Scully does eventually get to answer Mulder's cries 
for her to help for real and rescues him after a little 
sharpshooting exercise. We are then treated to that always 
amusing look at little Scully trying to drag Mulder around. 
Thank God she works out.

I said it last week, I'll say it again now. Unless there is 
something interesting to convey lose the tag on endings. The 
"Bite Me" on the screen was plenty without that wasted trip 
to North Platte Nebraska. It is not surprising or creepy when 
it becomes predictable and trite, and in continuing doing this
just for the sake of doing it that is exactly what it has become. 
Boring. Not the way one wants to end an episode. Especially one 
this good. 

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

-Retread Alert: One of the federal marshals caught in the gun 
battle last died on the X-Files in "Tempus Fugit" as Max's seat 
mate.

-Now this is odd. Scully is in DC yet she is driving a Lariat 
rent car, but even weirder still it appears to be a Canadian 
import as the speedometer is kilometer rather than miles per 
hour based.

-Good thing she did have a rent car, as even though Scully 
got to drive the entire episode (an X-File in and of itself) 
she still needs to master backing up quickly without scraping 
the hell out of the car. Hope she took the insurance option.

-That musical moment, lights throbbing to the beat as Scully & 
Mulder just looked at each other through yet another weird event 
in their lives was perfect. For these two it is almost always 
twilight time.

-Our Little Sailor: While Scully did say "You believe this 
load of crap?" I'm more interested in what she was muttering 
under her breath after being told "You wouldn't understand" 
by Esther. I don't think it was very nice.

-Fun little throwaway moment: Scully intently reading the 
latest issue of "The Lone Gunman" on infrared technologies
while the boys play in the background. Popping in long enough 
to suggest simply checking email instead of worrying about 64-bit 
encryption issues.

-Love the way Mulder just parks the car in the middle of the 
road as he looks into the fiber optic angle. That must be a 
Federal Agent parking perk.

-Could Scully be anymore annoyed with herself and the world at 
being handcuffed to that car? That cell phone conversation was 
a stitch. "Yup." "Dandy." "You are correct sir."

-Only the ever polite Scully would actually thank a suspect 
for stopping after been tasered twice following a flying tackle.

-I'm not so sure about the dates featured on the Mulder 
information readout. While the Oxford and Quantico entries 
match those of "Unusual Suspects" it made me curious what 
Mulder did before entering Violent Crimes in 1988. Most
surprising was the "90 - present" entry for the X-Files. 
He was working on those cases two years before being teamed 
with Scully? That just doesn't seem right to me. On other 
notes we find he was a summa cum laude graduate from Oxford, 
and that Quantico graduates people with honors.

-Frank's Fashion Spot: Ah Frohike, you always give me something 
to talk about. This episode we had a fur theme going. Two vests, 
one merely trimmed with fur, the other I think we've seen 
before - making him look like a sheep ready for shearing. Nice 
costuming touches included the Lone Gunmen jacket Frohike was
wearing that later Esther sports and my personal favorite - the 
fact that he has even cut the fingers out of his latex gloves. 
Oh, and thanks for letting Scully actually wake up with mussed hair.

-Speaking of that. I was personally surprised that she'd let 
down her guard in the troll den enough to actually sleep on 
their couch. We know from history that Scully can sleep almost 
anywhere, but I'd have thought the Lone Gunmen lair might make 
her a little uneasy. Not to worry though, apparently the boys
all sleep together in one little room with the lights on.

-Whose gun did Esther pull on Scully? I refuse to believe that 
Esther was able to steal Scully's piece from the small of back 
holster she uses without her waking or noticing.

Autumn
"Oh right. Death from the sky."