The X-Files - "Kitten" - Season 11 Episode 6 Review

February 7, 2018

By Kaylynn Kasandra

I liked seeing a glimpse into the of history Skinner in this episode. It was interesting to see his first exposure to what would be considered an X-file. It isn’t surprising at all to see that Skinner would once again put himself at risk because of a personal connection. I was sad to see that in all the trauma Skinner experienced during his time in Vietnam it seemed the worst was because of his best friend. What wasn’t surprising to me was to see that said friend was driven to insanity by an experimental war gas.

We have spoken before on the show about some of the conspiracies our government may be behind. One of the main themes of these conspiracies seems to be mind control. It would make sense that if the government wanted to perfect such a thing it would be best tested in a warzone. It is a little easier for them to justify experimenting on our enemies than our own citizens I’m sure. And as government property, soldiers who have been caught in the crossfire are then easily controlled.

Having been such a young age when Skinner enlisted, it was easy for him to get a sour taste in his mouth towards the government from this. And it seems that’s exactly what happened. I’m just glad that he made a vow to himself to make it right rather than letting it drive him crazy. And what better way to fix things than to infiltrate the government by working for one of its agencies? It’s quite smart. It seems that we all have our hidden motivation behind what really pushes us. It’s just a shame that Skinner’s loyalties are what are preventing him from moving up in the FBI.

I just can’t believe that Skinner’s friend had unwittingly made his hometown a target. It seemed as though his time being used as an experiment at the government mental hospital wasn’t enough. He, along with the veterans that had been at the same facility, didn’t have the best outcome to life. Perhaps being so vocal about the gas and what it had caused them to see wasn’t the best move for them. It’s easy to say that the widespread panic in the town over-seeing monsters was actually mass hysteria stemming from shared paranoia. Little did the town folk know they were actually being gassed themselves.

Skinner killed the only guy who was actually onto the gassing too. Not a great move. It’s hard for me to say if he did that on purpose or not. Part of me still doesn’t want to trust Skinner. It would be so easy to pretend to be blind to the government’s control over the town. I wouldn’t be surprised if the smoking man had something to do with that too. And as we have seen, they have been canoodling so... Like I said, it’s hard for me to fully trust Skinner. If he wants to play Mulder and Scully in the long run he would want them to trust he is their one true ally in the FBI, wouldn’t he? I mean shoot; If the smoking man has a big plan involving the demise of Mulder who better to get close enough to make it happen? It’s clear that Scully wants to trust him. And you can’t blame her, they all have a long history.

I’m just hoping I’m wrong about this and Skinner is a good guy and isn’t playing both sides. I guess I’ll have to wait to see.

Written by Kaylynn Kasandra. Awkward hippie who enjoys helping people, creating things, reading, sci-fi, fantasy, and Thor. Find more from her at http://www.youtube.com/c/tiedyesmurf

The X-Files - "Ghouli" - Season 11 Episode 5 Review

February 2, 2018

By Kaylynn Kasandra

I’d be lying to say my heart didn’t ache watching Scully in this episode. It’s obvious she is still recovering from her time in the hospital. She’s trying to cope while also trying to fully understand her new intuitive skill set. For me, it was hard to watch her spilling her heart out at the side of a presumed-to-be-dead body. Mulder seemed to feel the same way. He didn’t look too comfortable when he was comforting her after witnessing her breakdown. I can’t blame him either. It’s so hard to see Scully without her head in the game. She is so distracted by her love for William that it appeared she wasn’t seeing all the pieces in the case that they were working on. But as we saw, she was way more in tune than anyone.

I for one was not surprised to see the smoking man was right at Skinner’s side yet again. This guy controls way too much! Of course this case goes back to him and his alien hybrid nonsense. But for some reason I still wasn’t expecting Scully to be right about who William is. I was just glad see how quickly Mulder connected the dots after talking to Skinner about the hybrids. He doesn’t ever miss a thing!

I found I really liked that being a hybrid, William has the same powers as some Aliens are said to have. He too can control what is projected to others, whether that be emotions or visions. Being a teenager, regardless of his Alien biology, it makes sense William would abuse said power. It’s just sad it had to be involving two innocent girls he was dating. Yeah, I said two girls. Not a good look there, William. It’s sad to me after all this build up to reveal who William is, he’s a big douche. All this teenage drama because he couldn’t date just one girl. Let that be a lesson to all of you out there. He drew the DOD and DOJ in and caused his adoptive parents’ demise all because he wanted to play with his powers.

I think he’s proving to be a pretty selfish kid. It’s sad that even after psychically reaching out to Scully he denied her the chance to see him for who he is. Yeah, she got to talk to him when he was ‘dead’ but that’s pretty messed up. That’s a parent’s worst nightmare. I can understand that he feels he needs to be alone, but he should see his mom is playing on the right team. To have sent her all those visions has to prove he trusts her on some level. But, something tells me he doesn’t trust Mulder.

It’s pretty suspect that he only talked to her when she was alone. Once in front of the hospital, another at the place he sent her to when Mulder was inside. I really hope that changes. It’s not Mulder’s fault that he isn’t his real dad. It’s also not Mulder’s fault that his real dad is a creep. He can’t pick that either.

I feel like we have a long way to go in terms of the plot. I don’t think we will be seeing William again anytime soon. I hope I’m wrong about that though. Because as messed up as his creation story may be, I want to know more about him. And, I want to know how much he knows about himself.

Written by Kaylynn Kasandra. Awkward hippie who enjoys helping people, creating things, reading, sci-fi, fantasy, and Thor. Find more from her at http://www.youtube.com/c/tiedyesmurf

X-Files - "The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat" - Season 11 Episode 4 Review

January 25, 2018

By Kaylynn Kasandra

Once again it seems as though we have taken a detour from the season’s main plot. To be honest, I didn’t mind. I found this episode to be quite entertaining. I liked the feel of it and found it very humorous. It parodied so many conspiracy theories, the main one being the Mandela effect. And the way they pulled that off was priceless! I really enjoyed the crossover with the guy who plays Richard from People of Earth. He is the spastic one of the Alien abduction support group in that show, and that same spastic energy crossed over to the X-files. The idea that neither Mulder nor Scully remember him as their partner was too funny to me. Even his name could be a play off of the Mandela effect: Richard and Reggie are quite close. Regardless, the lighthearted way they poked fun at all the internet conspiracy theorists throughout the episode was amusing.

I have seen many similar discussions from the episode on all corners of the internet. Many of the conspiracy theorists even make the same arguments. They claim Mandela effects are caused by parallel universes, corporate and/or government mind control, alien cover ups… you know the stuff. Honestly, I could fall down that rabbit hole for hours. Once you start reading up on it all, it’s pretty hard to walk away. And there are so many people who make the same claims from all parts of the world; it’s insane. Hard to know what the true root of the phenomenon is, but I find it quite interesting regardless. It would be pretty cool if perhaps there was some truth to the parallel universe theory, as that seems to be the only benevolent answer. Or is it that the answer is so simple people don’t even want to believe it? Could it just be a simple answer of statistics? Given the large population of the world it wouldn’t be out of the realm of the possibility for large populations to share similar misinformation, thus creating doubt. Honestly, I like to take the stance of: I can’t rule anything out without proof. I can’t say one way or the other, I can however admit it’s quite strange.

I absolutely agree with Dr. They though; you don’t need some complex machine to manipulate the masses. All you need is the internet and one naysayer to help create doubt. At that point human nature will most definitely takeover. Fake news, conspiracies, silly memes, they all spread like wildfire on the internet. 99.9% of the time people won’t take the time to actually read past the headlines of things let alone dig into the research of what is being said. It’s so easy to use this to your advantage if you wish to spread a message, and that’s kind of scary. People are far too impressionable… but that’s a rant for another day.

There were so many funny moments in this episode for me. I absolutely loved the silly 50’s version of an alien. The speech said alien made at the end of the episode was a great social commentary, as was most of the episode. I can’t say if I were an alien I wouldn’t have said the same. Humans aren’t always the most compassionate or empathetic of creatures and we tend to destroy. I would ban humans from coming to my planet or universe too. Like Scully said, they just don’t like us. Scully also made a great point at the end. It’s important to sometimes just take things as they are and remember how things were. It’s so easy to get swept up in the insanity that is going on all over the internet and the world around us. I really appreciated this lighthearted approach to all of it though. It’s really fun watching them have so much fun with the revival and not make it all so serious. That’s one of the best things about David Duchovny, he is great with his delivery. I can’t wait for next week! It seems we will be getting a lot more answers about William.

Written by Kaylynn Kasandra. Awkward hippie who enjoys helping people, creating things, reading, sci-fi, fantasy, and Thor. Find more from her at http://www.youtube.com/c/tiedyesmurf