Destination: Washington, D.C.
Doggett: “What don’t I know.”
Rohrer: “Three words.”
Census data is always portrayed as kind of boring. What could a low level government employee working with census statistics possibly know that would get him killed? Only on The X-Files could statistics become lethal. The whole idea that your own government could track you for nefarious purposes is chilling and doing so to aid and abet an alien invasion is even more so. Of course, this all ties into the ongoing mythology of the series except now we have alien replacements I think. Even Rohrer has weird bumps on his neck. To tell the truth even though I've watched all the episodes more than once I still get lost in the convoluted mythology of this show. It really doesn't matter because this episode is really about the return of Mulder and what that means for the future of the X-Files.
Mulder has been through a traumatic experience and is none too pleased to find himself replaced by Agent Doggett. Mulder is jealous and acting out, he really doesn't give Doggett a chance. Doggett stands his ground but continues to tries to connect with Mulder. Scully is just on the sidelines of this pissing contest. She tries to reason with Mulder but he isn't listening. Even with all this, and his struggle with the idea of aliens, Doggett continues to be a stand-up guy and a good agent. He puts the pieces together and goes to save Mulder. I grew to like Doggett even more in this episode. One might think that this was the plan as Duchovny was moving out of his role and the show was set to focus on Doggett and eventually Reyes. The problem is that as soon as Mulder/Duchovny was back, it was obvious who (along with Scully/Anderson) was the heart of this show. I commend Robert Patrick for giving it all he's got but Doggett was definitely in Mulder's shadow.
At least we get to keep the Lone Gunmen who often make an episode for me. They are on their game in the census bureau, cutting wires, hacking computers and surveillance systems and ultimately saving Mulder and Doggett. They really care about Mulder and are as happy as anyone else to see him alive. I enjoyed the way they half-heartedly tried to support Scully in her bid to keep Mulder safe.
Other thoughts
Shooting the door to get Mulder's attention was pretty kick-ass. Mulder was being a jerk.
Howard Salt got quite close to the White House. I don't think that would happen these days.
Somehow the military trucks that came to capture Mulder didn't even notice Scully in her car.
After months and months of some of them being dead, Mulder noticed that one of his mollies was missing.
One of the things I enjoy about rewatching The X-Files is following the development of tech. The hard drive in the computer at the census bureau was completely full, all 10GBs.
Quotes
You can tell that Mulder was back. He had most of the good lines.
Mulder: “For a guy who was in a coffin not too long ago I think I’m doing pretty damn good.”
Doctor: “How do you feel, Agent Mulder?”
Mulder: “Like Austin Powers.”
Mulder: “I don’t mean to be cold and ungrateful. I just... I have no idea where I fit in.”
Mulder: “Truth is this is a bullet that was fired about eight years ago. It’s a magic bullet that’s been going round and round, and right now it seems poised to hit me right in the back of the head.”
Mulder: “When I was dead I was hoping that maybe they changed the rules.”
Frohike: “You know, it’s really not fair. You’ve been dead for six months and you still look better than me. But not by much.”
I really wanted the three words to be something more interesting. Two out of four deadly discs of information.
Well, the three words were definitely not "I love you." I really disliked Mulder's actions after he got back. Joking that her baby was with the pizza guy...that really shocked me. Maybe Mulder wasn't going to come back like nothing happened to him in between, but I never thought that he was going to be so cold towards Scully.
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