This felt like an unnecessary throwback to the X-Files of yore, with a race against time, characters in peril, and contrived plot twists which end up being ridiculously underwhelming. So a guy we haven't seen in years, who was pretty shadily sketched in the first place, is revealed to be evil? Okay then. Krycek, a character who became increasingly redundant and illogical years ago, is back. Okay then. Isn't this the third or fourth time his character has randomly appeared out of nowhere? It's so dramatically lazy at this point.
Before I'm accused for being crazily negative about S.R. 819, I should mention that it has a great central idea. Skinner's been poisoned and has twenty-four hours to live. Mulder and Scully have to unravel the mystery. There are some cool flashbacks as Skinner tries to remember who may have brushed past and infected him. But, in the end, it's a story that is given little resolution and little reasoning. Maybe Skinner's infection will come into play again, but it feels like similar plot strands have come and gone like this in the past.
It's an inherent problem in conspiracy episodes. While the number of them in recent memory implies that there is a story to tell, it's become so convoluted and messy that it all feels entire incidental and irrelevant. It's not helped by the various chess pieces in these episodes (Krycek, Skinner) struggling to have much of an identity anymore. Skinner has a great scene with Scully where he tells her that he has never given her and Mulder the support they deserve, but then it's quickly vetoed by the supposedly 'cliffhanger' ending. That's what these episodes have been reduced to, and it's ridiculously annoying. D+
Credits
Guest stars Mitch Pileggi (Walter Skinner); Raymond J. Barry (Senator Richard Matheson); John Towey (Dr. Kenneth Orgel); Kenneth Tigar (Dr. Plant); Jenny Gago (Dr. Katrina Cabrera)
Writer John Shiban Director Daniel Sackheim
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