8x17 Empedocles
Synopsis
Agent Reyes enlists Mulder's help investigating a killer's connection to the unsolved murder of Doggett's son. They investigate but find no connection, Reyes continues to believe that a thread of evil is linking all the murders together.
Writer/s: Greg Walker
Director: Barry K Thomas
Originally aired: 22nd April 2001 (in the US) - 31st May 2001 (in Australia)
Quotes
Pizza Delivery Man: Yeah, it's $29.08.
Mulder: $29.08? What'd you get on it, a tank of gas?
Doggett: "You never believed in any of this stuff. This paranormal or whatever you call it. So, what changed your mind?"
Scully: "I realised it was me, that I was afraid. Afraid to believe.
Agent Reyes: "What if this is a thread of evil... connecting through time, through men, through opportunity, connecting back to you. In India, in Africa, in Iran, in the Middle East, in the Far East, most of the world, they take it as a given. They see evil in death the way other people see god in a rose."
Mulder: "I saw Elvis in a potato chip once."
Links
Episodes: Fanpop and SideReel.
Transcripts: Episode transcript.
Screen captures at: The X Files Screen Grab Archive
Episode related fanfic: Page 1
Season 8 Gag Reels: Part 1 and Part 2
Mods thoughts and discussion attempts
I kind of like this episode and I kind of don’t.
I like the story, at least the idea of the story, I don’t like the connection to Doggett. The stuff with his son and Reyes always feels forced to me, like they’re trying hard to make us feel sympathy for him. Also like they’re trying really hard to give him a connection to Reyes so when she comes into S9 they have an established relationship. Yawn.
So the thread of evil I like, the other stuff not so much. I also get kind of disturbed when Doggett goes to Scully’s hospital room and just … stares.
Lets talk about *those* Mulder and Scully scenes.
I personally do not like the first and last scenes. They feel so … awkward? I don’t know, like maybe DD and GA were having a hard time playing M&S in a more cutesy domestic kind of way. Or maybe they were having trouble getting into the grove again after David’s break. I don’t know, but I just am not overly keen on them. What I do love is the BellyTouching™ scene. That feels more like the M&S I know and love - to me anyway. They’re personal but they’re also talking work, I don’t know why that feels more like *them* than pizza man teasing and present giving but it does.
Extra
Title - "Empedocles" is the name of a Greek scientist-philosopher-poet circa 450 BC. He was known for his belief in the "four-element" theory -- that all things are composed of four "primal" elements: earth, air, fire, and water. He believed that opposing forces (love and hate) acted upon these elements to combine and separate them into their varied forms (hate separates them, love combines them). He also formulated a primitive theory of evolution in which he claimed that humans and animals evolved from antecedent forms.