The Blessing Way (2)

Season 3, Episode 1, Aired
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Episode Summary

Scully finds her career with the FBI in jeopardy as Mulder is still missing and The Cigarette Smoking Man is pursuing the stolen files. The Navajo elders find Mulder's body in a cave and perform an ancient ceremony to call the spirit back to the empty vessel.moreless
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Fan Episode Reviews (13)

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  • My favorite cliffhanger in X-Files history

    10
    "Perfect"
    By MattMTRUSTNO1, Aug 12, 2011 Report Abuse
    "Blessing Way" is about loss and sacrifice. Scully loses her partner and her job; Mulder loses his father and nearly loses his life. Both of them are stripped down to the bedrock of commitment: who do you believe? Who do you trust? Who do you believe in? Surrounded by hostility and deception, Scully turns as cold and hard as ice. Even a precious scene with Frohike cannot soften her to human warmth again. Fear and isolation are turning her into a female counterpart of Mr. X: suspicious, jumpy, and unhappy. We see relatively little of Mulder in "Blessing Way", as the middle act does for Scully what the first act did for him: depriving her of all support, to hang alone and defenseless in the howling dark.
    I could have done without the over narration by Albert Hosteen though. His dialogue, along with that of Bill Mulder and Deep Throat in the dream sequence, borders on the pretentious. The image of the white buffalo calf was wasted. Its importance as a symbol and its relevance to either plot or subtext was never brought out. An image is effective because it speaks beyond its surface meaning to an unconscious recognition we can never precisely explain.
    Also, failing to explain Mulder's escape from the boxcar in part one of this story-arc is almost unforgivable. While I can speculate on tunnels, secret compartments, or teleportation, there comes a point where some questions simply must be answered.
    That being said, I absolutely loved the ending to this episode. It is my favorite cliffhanger in X-Files history. Scully and Skinner pointing their guns at one another. I still remember the first time I saw it. It's so well exectued that it makes up for almost any flaw in the storyarc. Of which there are few.moreless

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  • Season 3 picks up exactly where Season 2 left off

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By JaCkKbAuEr2424, Dec 07, 2010 Report Abuse
    I think it'd be a mistake for people to actually believe that Mulder would die here. There's no way that the main character of a show would be killed off two seasons into a show. That being said, the way we're slowly brought back into the show is superb and the way the conspiracy continues to unravel shows a writing team that knows what they're doing.

    We immediately jump back into the action of things, following Scully as she is fired by the FBI for her insubordination while Skinner struggles to do the right thing and help her while trying to avoid the wrath and the power of the Cigarette Smoking Men. Meanwhile, while everyone thinks Mulder is dead, he's actually alive, saved by the Anasazi, and after seeing his father and Deep Throat in a dream, he decides to figure out what his father was hiding from everyone.

    This is only the second part of a trilogy, so there's clearly even more story to tell, but the way the episode ends is completely on a cliffhanger. It appears that Skinner is going to try to help and that he may even know more than he lets on. Meanwhile, the Cigarette Smoking Man proves to be an adversary with a huge network of friends who can help bring down Mulder and Scully.moreless

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  • And you thought Mulder was dead...

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By OnePerCentClub, Jan 03, 2010 Report Abuse
    Not! But obviously we knew he wasn't.

    Scully loses her job for protecting Mulder, however, I never saw any hint or sign of sorrow in her. Maybe what they said was true, she was the Ice Queen.

    Pretty shocking news, Scully having an implant embedded in her neck, I think this subplot created some of the best episodes of the series.

    It was really sad to see Melissa get shot because I was hoping that her character could be developed and see her interact more with Scully, being the two of them so different could've brought great moments.

    Poor Scully, she faced a big dilemma not knowing who was coming after her, who to trust, believing Mulder was alive and then told he was dead, but I now think it was to much for her to process to waste time crying for him.moreless

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  • The second part of what I consider the best X-Files trilogy!

    10
    "Perfect"
    By red_cheeks, Jun 15, 2009 Report Abuse
    After the excellent second season's finale, The Blessing Way is the ideal continuation to the series and the best way to start the third season. This episode may not be as action packed as Anasazi or Paper Clip are but what it lacks in action it pays it back in atmosphere and character development. The introduction of the Syndicate and Scully's discovery of the implant in the base of her neck set for an amazing continuation to the mythology and raise the bar for the future episodes. I also liked how they included the Native American myths and Navajo's story in the shows mythology and I loved Scully and Skinner's interaction. Their scenes were very powerful and Mitch Pileggi and Gillian Anderson did a fantastic job. Among my favorite parts are also the conversation between Scully and Well Manicured Man, Frohike's visit to Scully, Scully's visit to her mother, Deep Throat's appearance and the final scene with Scully and Skinner at the standoff.moreless

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  • 2nd of the 3 parter classic

    10
    "Perfect"
    By shahkirimeme, Apr 12, 2009 Report Abuse
    The Blessing Way is the continuation of season two's finale Anasazi where Fox Mulder was supposedly killed by an explosion in a buried rail car. Anasazi was at such a high level of drama and excitement, it would be hard to follow it up with as much intensity. The Blessing Way is a great episode but falls a little short of Anasazi. A lot of the episode deals with Mulder's recovery through a Native American ritual called 'the blessing way'. For me, that's where the episode loses a lot of its tension. Mulder lying on a bed being talked about by a Native American and being talked to by deceased persons doesn't do it for me. The other half of the story has to do with Scully dealing with Skinner, a member of the Consortium, and finding an implant in your neck. The Scully side of the story has a lot of good drama and intensity. That's why I gave this episode an 8. The end of the episode is worth the wait, and takes us into the third part of this story, Paper Clip.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

    ADD TRIVIA
    • Principal Settings: Two Grey Hills, New Mexico and Washington, D.C. Edit
    • The graze on Scully's forehead from the bullet in "Anasazi" is completely gone in this episode. Scully sure heals fast. Edit

  • Notes

    ADD NOTES
    • This episode had the highest rating of all season 3 episodes. Edit
    • This episode marks the first appearance of John Neville playing the Well-Manicured Man. Edit
    • In this episode Krycek shoots Melissa Scully. At the time Nicholas Lea (Krycek) and Melinda McGraw (Melissa) were dating. Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • Albert Holsteen: You must be careful now to end the ceremoney properly. If you leave, you must not do any work, change clothes or bathe for four days. Mulder: This'll really gonna cut into my social life. Edit
    • Albert Hosteen: There's an ancient indian saying that something lives only as long as the last person who remembers it. My people have come to trust memory over history. Memory, like fire, is radiant and immutable while history only serves those who seek to control it. Those who would douse the flame of memory in order to put out the dangerous fire of truth. Beware these men, for they are dangerous themselves ... and unwise. Their false history is written in the blood of those who might remember it and of those who seek the truth. Edit
    • Albert Hosteen: When the FBI man Mulder was cured by the holy people, we were reminded of the story of the gila monster, who symbolises the healing powers of the medicine man, In this myth the gila monster restores a man by taking all his parts and putting them back together. His blood is gathered by the ants, his eyes and ears by the sun, his mind by talking god and pollen boy. Then lightning and thunder bring the man back to life. Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • Deep Throat: Awaken the sleep of reason and fight the monsters within and without. This is an allusion to a painting by Francisco Goya, entitled "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" which was a series of prints he made from 1796 - 1798. One in a series called 'Los Caprichos' (The Caprices), Goya hoped that with this series, he could show the Spanish People of his day the error of their ways by showing them the things Goya and his circle friends though to be monstrous in their culture. "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" shows that when Reason sleeps, "the dark creatures of the night (owls, bats, and a cat) are let loose." Edit
    • Episode Title: The Blessing Way The Blessing Way is not just the name of a Native American chant; "The Blessing Way" (1970) is the title of a novel by Tony Hillerman. Interestingly enough, the novel deals with the story of a Native American who collaborates with an Anglo investigator, very much like Mulder in this episode. Edit

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