The X-Files Season 4 Episode 23

Demons was a superb and entertaining episode of the X-Files and I really enjoyed watching because there was a lot of great character development. The story was pretty good and it was fun seeing Mulder wake up with blood on him and no recollection of what happened. As Scully helps him to investigate it seems there is more to the story than first suspected. Mulder had flash backs thanks to a crazy Dr. and his treatments allowing Fox to remember things about his sister along with the how and why she was taken. It was hinted that Mulder might be the son of someone else, perhaps the Cigarette Smoking Man. I liked how everything played out and look forward to watching the next episode!!!!!!!!!

Mulder wakes up in a strange motel room covered in blood, disoriented and apprehensive. Scully is convinced he has suffered some kind of stroke. Mulder, however, is more disturbed by his loss of memory and the fact that his gun has been fired. Backtracking his own movements, Mulder finds himself entangled in a double murder, involving alien abductees and a dangerous memory-recovery experiment.

His investigation can go forward only by going backward into a past Mulder does not remember. Suddenly he is besieged with images and sounds that act out his worst nightmares--that his parents voluntarily gave away his sister, or at least complied with her abduction, and that Mulder's own nemesis, the Cigarette-Smoking Man, is as close to him as his own father. While some of this episode was strained (Scully simply tells Mulder the police have put together evidence that will clear him--I'd have liked a little elaboration on that) and relied too much on coincidence (Scully just happens to be in the stationhouse when a cop--another abductee--commits suicide), the inherent suspense and the emotional weight of the tale take us past these minor problems. All the important elements are here--Mulder's memory, Samantha's abduction, the murky role of Bill Mulder and the Cigarette-Smoking Man, and best of all, the trust and loyalty between Mulder and Scully. Mulder is losing it all in this story--his career, his mind, his future and the core of his beliefs, but Scully is there like a rock for him.

Gillian Anderson brings us the best of Dana Scully once again--cool of head and warm of heart. Her allegiance to Mulder is, of course, a classic female-character trait in television. But it is her relentlessly logical pursuit of the evidence that places her apart from every other supportive-female stereotype of the genre. Increasingly, it is this well-rounded, deep characterization of a rational career woman that marks "The X-Files" apart in television. Mulder is driven by passions we cannot share (I hope), but Scully is us--an ordinary, intelligent, caring human being whose belief in her partner is fueled not by sentiment or loyalty but by a fundamental understanding of his soul. If Chris Carter and Gillian Anderson are remembered for anything, I hope it is for the creation of this strong female character. There is no one like her on television.

This episode, which brought us inside the pain and anguish of Fox Mulder, and inside the desperate faithfulness of Dana Scully, could easily have been the last episode of this season. That last image, with the broken Mulder allowing the barest touch of comfort from Scully, should have lasted us until next season. It was a powerful and effective episode.

There's been a clear-cut difference in the quality of Season 4 when you compare the first half to the second half. I thought the first half was painful in sections, a series of episodes that were meaningless and poorly written. There was the occasional episode that brought a little more to the table, but for the most part, there just wasn't anything that blew me away. However, this episode continues the second half's streak of great and entertaining episodes.





The second half seems to have suddenly remembered that Scully was abducted and that Mulder cares for nothing but Scully and finding out what happened to his sister Samantha. As a result, we've gotten a slew of episodes that revolve around Scully's illness and Mulder's quest for the truth. And just about every single one of them have been great. This episode was creative in the way we learn what happened. It's the type of episode that threatens to descend into soap-opera type melodrama about Mulder's family, but instead, we get a "Memento" type episode that finds Mulder unable to remember what happened to him after he wakes up in a motel room with blood on his shirt from somebody else.





It'd be a shame to spoil stuff, so I'll just say that Scully and Mulder try to figure out what happened to him and prove that he didn't kill anybody. Mulder's past ends up being involved, and by the time we get to the end, we're left in a pretty dark place before the finale arrives. It'll be interesting to see how Scully's illness and Mulder's recent events will tie into it.

Mulder goes into hipnotic regression and faces his deamons.





This episode is exciting from the start. Mulder wakes up from a flashback-like dream covered in blood and not remembering anything about what happened to him. Where the hell is Mulder, what is he doing, how did he get there, who's blood is it?





After a great start we slowly find out that Mulder has undergone an experimental treatment to find out what happened to his sister, unfortunately it had an unforseen effect on his mind.





Duchovny gives another great performance in this episode. He's very believable playing lost and confuzed. Great acting.





Watch this episode!!

Basically, mulder wakes up in a motel room with no knowledge of what he has been doing, why he has blood all over his shirt or why he has keys with the name 'Amy' on them. Que Scully, having been called at 5am, to come and rescue him dundunduuuuuuun! We learn a bit more about Samantha's abduction...well, not really but we hear some shouting about it and the CSM pops up, so we assume we learn more about the abduction. Mulder questions his paternity, but his mother refuses to answer. Scully gets to drive for once. I found the conclusion somewhat confusing, but in the end he points a gun at scully and you think he shoots her but doesn't because somehow she's moved behind him or he swivelled around. Mulder cries on the floor and Scully gives him some form of backhug. Sweet.

It's too bad Goodwin only wrote this single episode as it's a good one, full of mystery and twists that unfold naturally and logically as the episode chugs away. Reminded me of the film, "Memento," in some ways. Well done.





Duchovny gives a fine performance and Scully actually gets to see Mulder naked in the bathtub, haha. The two characters continue to drift apart as Mulder refuses Scully's attempts to get him some much-needed medical treatment and even points a gun at her head in the last scene.





The flashbacks sequences were very revealing and well done, although they were replayed maybe one too many times during the episode.

Summary of Demons: Mulder undergoes an experimental form of hypnotherapy to recover his memories about his sister's abduction but the treatment has side effects including psychotic behaviour and Mulder wakes up one morning in a motel room with someone else's blood all over him. Review of Demons: I dont really see the hype about this episode. Ok, we see some flashbacks into Mulders past but thats about it. The story it self got on my neverous and didnt intrest me that much. There is some good acting but thats about it.Not as bad as some episode's but not really exciting.

This was a really interesting episode, probably because it appeals to my own fascination with memory recovery. To be able to revisit forgotten memories, with such clarity and depth, is something that would be amazing if actually possible. The episode starts with such an awesome teaser - Mulder's trippy memory, and then the reveal. Where the hell is Mulder, what is he doing, and how did he get there? It's really an intriguing premise to an episode, piecing it all together from the end.





David Duchovny makes some interesting character choices in the filming of this episode. First of all, he plays the shock and the subsequent desire for the truth and his aggressive will to recover memory just as intensely as he normally does. However, I found the calm with which he faced the investigators to be an interesting choice. Mulder is so confused, and he has shown his distress to Scully, but when he is sitting on the other side of the interrogation table, the demeanor he presents is almost one you'd expect from an arrogant man who is guilty but knows the investigators cannot prove it. Or perhaps he is playing it as a willingness on Mulder's part to go to jail if they can indeed prove that he has killed those people. His willingness is sincerely distressing to Scully, but it clears up as soon as he is sure he has not killed them. The other moment I found interesting is when he confronts his mother. Strange, how Mulder - who is usually so adamant and confrontational with his mother when it comes to things like this - can't seem to meet her eyes. Why is that? I watched that scene again and I noticed that he seems to rush through the initial question and confrontation, not meeting her eyes, and then quickly adds, "And I want to speak to you privately," onto the end of that sentence. Once they are in a room alone, he meets her eyes squarely. Does this mean that it was Scully's presence that made him feel unable to meet his mother's eyes? It makes sense. Every other time he has confronted her, it has been alone. This is the first time he's interacted with his mother in front of Scully, and perhaps that makes him feel immensely uncomfortable. Perhaps it's a piece of his personal life that he's unwilling to share with Scully as of yet, or perhaps he realizes that he cannot be brusque with his mother without feeling Scully's judgment. Whatever the case, I know that it was a conscious decision on David Duchovny's mind to play it that way and I wonder what his reasons were. As Mulder actively seeks to continue the invasive memory regression treatment, the viewer wonders if he has completely gone over the edge. To abandon Scully and her rationality, he must know he's acting in an irresponsible and dangerous manner. But of course, none of that matters if the Truth is in his head. The memories, psychadelic and totally out of the usual X-Files palette, serve as abrupt and disruptive flashes of pseudo-clarity. And as always, it's nice to see Scully lose her cool. Overall, a pretty nice stand-alone episode with just tinges of mythology. It ends well too, with a tense scene between Mulder and Scully that builds on their trust and their existing relationship.

‘Demons’ was a brilliant flashback episode right before the end of this brilliant season.





The episode begins with a flashback of Mulder watching his parents argue about Samantha and then he wakes up in a room without knowing what happened or where he is, with blood all over his shirt.





Mulder’s gun has also been shot twice and he’s in shock but he wants to know if something happened, eventually they lead to a house where two people are lying dead on the ground,. The cops think that Mulder might have killed them because they were killed with his weapon and their blood are on his shirt.





Both bodies have a hole in their head and when a cop kills him he has the same thing and was link to the dead woman. Both were treated by the same psychologist that put a hole in the brain for them to remember vivid things and they all thought they were abducted by aliens.





Mulder then remembers something about Cancer man and his mom and believes they had a relationship but his mom won’t tell him anything. Mulder goes back to the doctor and makes him finish it, when he gets a hole in his head he tries to remember the rest but Scully stops him because to do that he has to kill himself and she tells him that it’s not the way to know the truth.





‘Demons’ is a very memorable episode about Mulder’s past and fight with himself and the truth about Samantha, it was a very necessary episode and a very good one just before the finale.

This is one of the darkest episodes of the darkest season and it's really interesting to watch...


Well, the plot itself isn't anything new: Mulder wakes up from a flashback-like dream covered in blood and not remembering anything about what happened to him... I got the feeling that it's been done before, but it still seemed interesting... As the minutes passed I got more and more engaged not just in the story, but in the atmosphere it created and the things it did to its characters... The best idea was that we were just as clueless about what happened as Mulder and Scully, and found out everything the same time they did... Another interesting point was that it showed Mulder as Jose Chung had seen him: "That ticking time-bomb on insanity" and it was scary to watch how he almost "went off" and destroyed everything precious around him for something elusive... This is mostly why I love this episode so much...


The monologue of Scully was a really interesting one at the end. She said things that predicted a dark future that should've been further developed in the later seasons...

(FLASHBACK)





SAM: Fox! Wake up. Fox!





MULDER: Samantha?





SAM: Shh. They'll hear you.





MRS. MULDER: No! My baby!





SAMANTHA: I'm afraid, Fox. I'm afraid.





(END OF FLASHBACK>





I mean this gives us a little bit more detail in to what the smurf happened to Samantha Mulder. This episode probably has more detail than any other episode in the whole series( well to me a nyways..)


Well this episode was very well written, to the whole David and Cassandra thing to the whole flash backs of mulder and his sister of when she got taken.


SCULLY: Mulder? Mulder, can you hear me? What happened?





MULDER: I don't know. It just hit me.





SCULLY: You fell to your knees and you grabbed your head, like you were in terrible pain. You were completely non-responsive. Do you remember any of that?





MULDER: No. I remember what I saw.





SCULLY: What do you mean, what you saw?





MULDER: I had a very vivid flashback to my childhood. Except, I was there.





SCULLY: Do you remember anything else?





MULDER: No, just that it was very real.





SCULLY: Your heart is racing.





MULDER: What do you think it was?





SCULLY: It was some kind of a seizure. Some kind of acute physiological disturbance. I couldn't tell if you lost consciousness but, it was definitely some kind of clonic event. Kind of an electrical storm in the brain.





MULDER: Brought on by what?





SCULLY: That's what a specialist is going to have to tell you, Mulder.





MULDER: I feel really good right now.





SCULLY: Mulder, you are not really good.





MULDER: I think I've been here before.





SCULLY: What, in your childhood?





MULDER: Maybe.





SCULLY: I don't think anybody's lived here in a long time.





MULDER: I'm going to check upstairs.





SCULLY: Mulder. There's a gunshot wound to her heart. This must be Amy Cassandra. And her husband.





SCULLY: They'd like to ask you some questions. I told them about your condition. You don't have to speak to them if you don't want to.





MULDER: You mean, not without my attorney present?





SCULLY: Mulder, I refuse to believe that you had any part in this.





MULDER: I had those people's blood on shirt, Scully. I was missing for two days. I have no recollection of my actions during those two days. There were two rounds discharged from my gun. I had the keys to this house, the keys to their car. Do the words "Orenthal James Simpson" mean anything to you?





oh and not only is mulder being his original self but, (by making the OJ remark)but skip to the review, this episode is one of my faves. It has what i love in the x-philes!





~~Maverick~~