"Amor Fati"
Airdate: November 14, 1999

This will no doubt come back to haunt me in the form of reader mail, but for now I'll just come out and say it: David Duchovny is the best thing ever to happen to late-season X-Files.

I'm not talking David Duchovny the actor, whose level of performance has often reached the same level of tedium in the last few seasons as has the series itself. And I'm not referring to Diva Duchovny, the arrogant starchild responsible for the LA move, Wedding Band Mulder, and countless complaints about the series that provides him his paycheck (complaints, which, in hindsight, appear to be justified.) No, I'm talking Writer Duchovny, the man who last year gave us the sweet, clever fable "The Unnatural" and now, with "Amor Fati", has miraculously returned continuity, character development and an honest to God plot to the struggling series.

Or at least he tried.

Duchovny is a talented writer, and his ability to compose smart dialogue has given his performance as Mulder a newfound energy and life. You can tell the guy was just aching for some decent lines, and you can't blame him for wanting to take a more behind-the-scenes approach in the portrayal of his character. (If you had to kiss Victoria Jackson -- without a muzzle -- you'd suddenly have some screenwriting incentive too.) Unfortunately, unlike Mulder, Duchovny works far better alone.

"Amor Fati", which was co-written by Duchovny and Chris Carter, is a welcome step forward for The X-Files' incoherent mythology. While still a far cry from the series' glory days, it contains some interesting ideas and finally retraces old, forgotten but seminal storylines, such as the question of Cancerman's paternity or what happened to Samantha. Is anything resolved? Not remotely. But in terms of overall direction, the series just might be getting back on track. And not just because Diana Fowley finally died, either.

It speaks volumes of The X-Files' recent quality that this episode would have made an apt follow-up to "Talitha Cumi/Herrenvolk", a myth arc two-parter that aired three years before. Duchovny had a storyline credit to "Talitha Cumi", and many of the same themes appear in "Amor Fati" -- the Christ symbolism, the Dostoyevskian allusions, the hero quest. It boggles my mind that I am writing a post-fourth season X-Files review with the word Dostoyevskian in it, but Duchovny has lured me in. "Amor Fati" is messy and unbalanced but it remains thoughtful, and it is a relief to see the reemergence of story ideas abandoned since Duchovny's fourth-season contribution.

Unfortunately, he appears to have taken all the good dialogue for himself. While the parts of the episode that revolve around Mulder are interesting if a bit overdone, Scully once again has nothing to do, and brain-dead dialogue to prove it. (Makes you wish Gillian Anderson would follow her co-star's lead and write herself a few lines worthy of her talent.) The episode is also notable for its inability yet again to properly utilize Nic Lea and Mitch Pileggi, both of whom appear in boring cameo roles. However, William B. Davis as Darth Vader has a more entertaining if hokey part, and Jerry Hardin's return as Deep Throat (in a dream sequence) was also welcome.

The greatest strength of "Amor Fati" was that it channeled the plot through the characters, instead of forcing the actors to wade through the boring and insipid mystical/scientific babble that has defined the series' latter-day mytharc. The episode's greatest flaw is that the same detailed attention given to Mulder's psychological state couldn't be applied to Agent Scully as well. "Amor Fati" also contained as many nonsensical pretensions as it did genuine character insight, and the fact that it had three years of botched mythology to fix explains why. Still, this was one of the better episodes of the last few seasons, and if Duchovny continues to dominate behind the scenes there may just be hope for the series yet.

-- Sarah Kendzior

The X-Files airs at 9pm EST, Sundays on Fox.

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