"The X Files" Alone (2001)

Director:

Frank Spotnitz

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator)
Frank Spotnitz (written by)

TV Series:

"The X Files" (1993)

Original Air Date:

6 May 2001 (Season 8, Episode 19)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

A bizarre reptilian creature captures Doggett and his new Mulder-obsessed partner underground and only a X-Files deposed Mulder can help them. |

Plot Keywords:

Liver Eating Mutant | Reference To Oprah Winfrey | Title Spoken By Character | FBI | FBI Agent

Cast

David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
Robert Patrick	...	John Doggett
Mitch Pileggi	...	Walter Skinner
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jay Caputo	...	Salamander Man
Zach Grenier	...	Dr. Herman Stites
Jolie Jenkins	...	FBI Agent Leyla Harrison
Lisa Kaseman	...	Pathology Assistant
Tony Ketcham	...	Gary Sacks
James Otis	...	Arlen Sacks

Runtime:

Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

Argentina:13

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Trivia:

Scully can be seen handling the two coins fused together from episode #6.4, "Dreamland" and the dog tag from episode #3.22 "Quagmire". She also gives Doggett the Apollo 11 medallion from Max. Agent Leyla Harrison mentions that their suspect may be "a liver eating mutant", saying that Mulder and Scully have killed one. This is a reference to episodes #1.2, "Squeeze" and #1.20, "Tooms".

Quotes:

FBI Agent Leyla Harrison: Can I ask you something?
Mulder: Sure.
FBI Agent Leyla Harrison: When you went to Antartica to save Agent Scully from being taken by that spaceship, and you ran out of gas in your Snow-Cat, how did you get back?
Scully: Um, well first of all it was never actually proven that it was a spaceship.
Mulder: It wasn't?
Scully: Well no what...
Mulder: Proven?
Scully: No what happened was that we fell off of something...
Mulder: Something?
Scully: ...that rose out of the ice
[...]

Movie Connections:

References The X Files (1998)

How does a Sno-cat run when it's out of gas?

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

With Mulder kicked out of the FBI, and Agent Scully going on maternity leave, Doggett is left alone to manage the x-files, or so he thinks. Shortly after Scully leaves, Agent Leyla Harrison shows up to tell Doggett that she is her new partner.

Frank Spotnitz wrote and directed this episode. On the audio commentary for the episode, Spotnitz reveals that he wanted this episode to be more about the characters than the monster. He said this was because it was Duchovny's final Monster of the Week episode and he wanted to do a tribute to Mulder and Scully. So he intentionally wrote a very basic monster so that the focus wouldn't be on it.

Spotnitz accomplished his goal well. Scully reminisces over some mementos from previous cases. She even gives her Apollo 11 medallion from Mulder to Doggett to thank him. Agent Harrison is used as a character to represent the X-Files fans. She herself is a fan of Mulder and Scully, working on all their travel expenses in accounting. Spotnitz also said that we wanted to include Danny in the episode, but couldn't because of time restraints.

As always, Mulder shows great concern for Scully. We even get to see Mulder eating sunflower seeds for one last time.

I still can't believe that Mulder would tell Doggett to fire at the sound of this voice AND that Doggett would actually fire at the sound of Mulder's voice. Luckily, Doggett hits his target half-blind.

As Spotnitz himself admits, Alone doesn't have a great story or monster. It's all about the characters, and that's why I like it. Mulder is even nice to Doggett. Alone is a fine tribute to Mulder and Scully and all the x-philes who have watched the show over the years.