"I go on what I know of course, but I try to stay, you know, open." ~ Reyes

Before  get going full swing, just let me say that I hate our new character, Monica Reyes. Can anyone say "Diana Fowley part 2"? Not that she and Mulder have/will have a thing, just that she's a convenient plot contrivance.

Now, what did I think about this one? Honestly, not much. It was all muddled and juvenile besides boring and pointless. After it ended last night I found myself saying "we waited six months for THAT?" And now we have to wait another month for the exciting conclusion... gee, I wonder if Mulder will live...

I know he will, its just a matter of how, not that I'm too wrapped up in figuring that out either. I had heard from the mailing list that TINH ended with a "nasty" cliffhanger that would leave us desperate for any sort of spoilers that would attempt to shed some light on "DeadAlive" (I think that's the name of part 2) and/or the third installment. But somehow I really don't care about it that much. I guess maybe I'm just tired of getting my hopes up for something like a conclusion and then being told to wait until November, then told to wait until February, then told to wait until April, then told to wait until May, then told to wait God knows how long until the next movie or (God forbid) another season without Mulder...

And besides, as many times as Richie and Scully said "this is not happening", I wondering if any of this really happened and its just a big red herring to whet our appetites or boost ratings or whatever.

Now for some technical things: I don't understand why Doggett is so skeptical of the UFO theory. In the beginning, he seemed all gung-ho about getting Scully to work in a hurry, having Skinner give her the news, flying all the way out to Montana, and then he decides maybe believing in UFOs and alien implants doesn't quite fit his idiom and refuses to give Scully's (and Richie's and Skinner's) theory a chance. Also, if Scully has a drawer full of UFO sightings that begin just like this one, why hasn't she investigated those? Does this mean that she really has been looking for Mulder off screen as some Philes have theorized? If these aliens (or bounty hunters) were experimenting on Teresa Hosey, is this a new wave of experiments without the use of implants? Billy Miles had one... by the way, just where the Hell is Billy Miles or Teresa's husband or everyone else that was abducted with Mulder? Are CC & Spotzy expecting us to pick up on something with Reyes smoking Morley Lights? Can Annabeth Gish act at all or did Manners tell her just to read the teleprompter? What was the deal with the broken dialog between Scully and Reyes in their first scene together? What were they trying to say? Are all of the people at Absolom's compound abductees that Jeremiah Smith healed? Is that where Smith has been all these years?

All of these things are nitpicky, I know, but the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm still analyzing (I've on watched it three times so far) but I'm not holding out too much hope that this is all going to be resolved in parts 2 and 3.

Oh, and according to the TV Guide, there was supposed to be a big revelation in this episode (CC said this) "one we thing which cannot be happening, but it is"... did I miss something?

I think that this one would've been better if we would've seen all this from Scully's point of view. The few scenes we get of her dealing with this are absolute gems, like the autopsy scene. Why can't we have more of those?

Rating: 1 lounge chair out of 5

See y'all in April...

"Enjoy your new company."