I watched this episode the day it was first shown on Sci-Fi, and boy was I disappointed! I miss the days of SG-1, Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galatica, back-to-back on Fridays. It was working! Great ratings, great revenue! Why did they change? Anyway, back to this show...The acting is some of the worst I have ever seen in a show with this much hype. (I will grant that the smaller bit characters were far better than the leads...but the leads just tanked!) There were so many glaring inconsistencies (her age in flash backs, the falling sequences are the most notable, but other things kept nagging at me as well) and problematic dialogue, that I almost forgot about the wretched acting and blamed the whole mess on the writers. Eventually producers, directors and casting are going to realize that hotness does not equal goodness when it comes to women. I wanted to like this show, I really did.

I enjoyed the first episode that featured Sarah Silverman, and thought it was the funniest of that season, and this one is probably going to be the funniest of this season! Especially liked the monogrammed wipes ("doesn't that defeat the purpose?") I have a love/hate relationship with Sarah S. in general. Sometimes I think she is one of the funniest female comediennes, and other times (during the ruder, cruder humor) I think she is painfully unfunny. Since Monk keeps her clean, I think she is amazing in this setting. I want to make a comment about someone else's review. They noticed that it was easy to tell who did it in this episode. Interestingly, I think that is true of most of the episodes. 70-80% of the shows pretty much come right out and tell you who did it in the first few minutes of the show "He's the guy"... It is about the process and the humor, not usually about suspense and mystery. I do like the ones that keep me guessing up to the end as well, but it doesn't matter to me.

While I enjoyed the subplot that furthered the abduction subplot involving Scully, I found myself wanting to skip through the chasing-hiding-behind-corners-tense-music-leading-nowhere scenes with Maulder. I admit that I prefer the stand alone episodes that are more like the Outer Limits and Twilight Zone, where they visit a specific x-file. (Though I could do without the inevitable "But Maulder, that's crazy!",... I mean, seriously what does it take to get this woman on board!?!) I have never particullarly enjoyed the alien/covert government stories. I find it hard to believe that in the light of Maulder and Scully's actions in these episodes that feature their lack of compliance to the FBI and government agencies, that they would be allowed to continue working as agents, let alone being fully reinstated time after time. Give me more like Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose and Ice.

When I viewed this episode, it was one of seven or so that I watched over a single day. Each episode was becoming increasingly frustrating and difficult to watch. I nearly didn't watch it (especially with the clunky sounding title). Luckily, I noticed that Peter Boyle was in it, as I have been a fan of his since Young Frankenstein. So I gave it a shot. It was a breath of fresh air. Interesting, intriguing (why is the homicidal maniac seeing the future and why is he going after fortunetellers and why is he so connected to Clyde, and is Scully immortal?). Peter Boyle is a joy to watch in this episode. I was not surprised to learn that he earned an Emmy for this episode. I even thought that David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were more "present" and focused in this episode. Their acting is above par in this episode too. This is the type of episode that typifies what I like about the Horror/SF genre.