The X-Files (TV Series) Detour (1997) User Reviews

One of the highlights of the Fifth Season

[SleepTight666 · 9/10 · 5 July 2009]

This is a very humorous yet creepy episode. My favorite kind, basically. It even scores highly on the cute department.

It is a bit similar to the previous episodes that mostly occur somewhere in the woods. Like 'Darkness Falls' and 'Quagmire'. But it is the best of the three, it has the right creepy atmosphere of the first and the charming humor of the second. it combines everything nicely.

One of my favorite scenes is when Mulder asks Scully to sing for him and she chooses Jeremiah was a Bullfrog. Perfect timing.

A slightly creepy scene is when Mulder and Scully are in that hole with one of the Moth men. I am slightly claustrophobic and scenes like that get me a little bit excited.

Overall, it was a great episode and one of the highlights of the Fifth Season.

FOUR stars.

Jeremiah was a bullfrog...

[Muldernscully · 9/10 · 11 October 2006]

Detour continues with the strong start that season five has. Mulder & Scully hit the deep woods again, searching for "invisible" creatures. Frank Spotnitz wrote this stand-alone episode by himself. He usually sticks to mythology episodes or writes stand-alones in a threesome. He borrows the concept of the story from the movie "Predator", but the story is still exciting and engaging. Frank Spotnitz is excellent with dialogue, and Mulder and Scully deliver some classic lines. He really has the Mulder/Scully chemistry down pat. In this episode, the boy is watching "The Invisible Man". You can always bet that any TV show or movie being watched in the x-files is related to the theme of the show somehow. They're not just random shows. The special effects of the chameleon-like moth men is very good. The only flaw in the episode hearkens back to the teaser when the two surveyors each see the moth men in the ground. It's a nice special effect of their faces in the ground, but if they are evolved humans like Mulder says, then they wouldn't be part of the ground, like it shows, but just blend in with it. And, the moth man just laid there, allowing the surveyor to stick a stake in him? If the teaser had been consistent with the rest of the episode, I would give Detour full marks. But, as it is, Detour still is an excellent episode, with wonderful Mulder/Scully moments.

A classic.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 21 August 2022]

Whilst on their way to a conference, Mulder and Scully get drawn into a bizarre case, several people have vanished in a Florida forest.

It's bad of me, but I keep on expecting there to be a dip in quality, the recent run has been quite exceptional, it's been one quality episode after another, Detour follows the trend.

It feels like the first independent episode for some time, no glimpse of a story arc, no prior knowledge was needed here, it's just a cracking, one off story.

Favourite scene was perhaps the opening moments, where Mulder and Scully bantered with the two officers, it was very funny.

Did you, as I did perhaps get Predator vibes, there were glimpses, that whole invisible figure was a chilling adversary, those red eyes also upped the horror vibe.

9/10.

Jeremiah was a mothman?

[Sanpaco13 · 10/10 · 19 July 2007]

Great great great episode. I love the scene at the beginning with Mulder and Scully in the car with the other two agents going off to some kind of marriage counseling partner communication seminar thing and Mulder is less than enthusiastic about it.

KINSLEY: I couldn't believe how hard it was not to use the word "but." MULDER: (In hell) I'm having that same problem right now.

Haha! I love it. I also really like the idea they use of the mothmen being chameleon like where you can't see them at all. I did think it a little interesting that they used mothmen to explain these creatures however because it didn't seem to fit with anything that I have ever heard about Mothmen at all. I haven't read a lot but what I have read or seen matches closer to what is shown in the movie "The Mothman Prophecies". Great movie by the way. But I still enjoyed this episode despite that fact. It is also one of those that you can share with your friends who are maybe easily grossed out. This is actually the episode that I used to get my father to check out more of the series. I give it a 10/10 for sure.

Perfect Monster Episode

[i-73992 · 10/10 · 1 December 2020]

This is one of the most genuinely scary episodes of The X-files, but that also balances out with humorous interactions between Mulder and Scully. Top tier episode.

Great classic

[PeterWanderingSoul · 10/10 · 27 August 2022]

One of the best episodes in the entire show, sets the bar really high for one of the best seasons of the series. 25 years later this is still a classic, every time I walk in a forest that's the first thing I think about. This episode is one of the reasons why xfiles is a great show.

Gillian Anderson singing joy to the world is a bonus.

I wish there had been a follow up episode, or this was made into a movie.

I don't know what else to write but imdb wants a 600 words review. So this is me ad libbing to reach the word count. Jeremiah was a bullfrog, he was a good friend of mine. Honestly imdb reduce the mandatory word count to 300 please. Sometimes a few words make for a great review.

Mulder and Scully are trapped in the wilderness bad-ass horror episode in the fifth season

[NightmareOnElmStreetFan · 10/10 · 25 June 2019]

Detour feels like a rather conventional and old-fashioned episode, with Mulder and Scully encountering something strange in a rural setting, getting trapped in the wilderness, and encountering a monster threatened by the expansion of civilisation. One of my favorite episodes in the woods in which Mulder and Scully are trapped in the wilderness in Apalachicola National Forest in Leon County, Florida two invisible monsters are hunting and eating people who cross their paths in the woods. Really creepy and spooky episode.

Detour is the kind of story that The X-Files has always done very well. Sending Mulder and Scully off into a remote location with a cast of expendable supporting characters can be counted on to deliver all the requisite X-Files ingredients.

On the way to an FBI convention in Florida, Mulder and Scully stop to help in the investigation of the mysterious disappearance of three people in the woods, where a pair of invisible humanoids lurk.

Detour was broadcast between Unusual Suspects and The Post-Modern Prometheus. This episode is a really good example of the different characterization of Mulder and Scully by different writers. I love Detour to death.

Amazingly dull and stupid.

[artisthunger · 6/10 · 4 March 2023]

It's like the awful movie Predator - a bunch of people chasing an invisible homicidal creature in the woods, falling one after the other. Its capabilities and motives are unknown.

Why did Mulder joined this investigation? What clue did he get that made him think there's an X file here? How come no one could shoot it at first from point-blank range, including Scully and "my father is an excellent shooter" guy, and Scully just did it in the cave? Why did it enter that woman's home? Fot what purpose? And why did it hunt them from the first place? I didn't buy this real estate crap. It's a huge forest.

Oh, and how exactly did Ponce de león become a tree? Evolution takes a lot more than 450 years. Try 450,000,000. And like others said - why didn't they study the body from the cave?

Poorly written, bad visual effects. I gave it 6 and not 5 only because of Scully's song, which was one if the geatest moments in the series so far.

Somethings Are Better Left Unsullied...Forests and Hoyt Axton Songs.

[AudioFileZ · 8/10 · 24 June 2013]

Another great opening segment for The X-Files with the episode "Detour" as it graphically asks the question what if an indigenous forest simply protected itself against man's encroachment? Mulder and Scully en route to a team-building communication uber-seminar along with two other agents get stopped by a road-block

The road-block is due to the mysterious disappearances of three people in the Appalachicola Forest. Seems 100,000 acres is being sub-divided for future urban sprawl and the forest is none too happy. The forest is striking back?

Using picturesque wilderness as yet another paranormal draw Mulder and Scully hang back to help the lead investigator. Shortly, the investigator too disappears in the woods. Mulder, Scully, and a FLIR wielding local try to find their way out, but are lost. Next the FLIR dude is taken and Mulder escapes narrowly. Scenic to be sure, but mysteriously deadly, this forest does take prisoners as well as lives.

After an uneasy night in the woods Scully stumbles upon an underground labyrinth of tunnels...As well as the forest's secret: This forest does defend itself at whatever cost it must and has done so for over 400-years. A nice slightly left-turn from the usual alien fare "Detour" is more than a title. It's an entertaining yarn of man not always being his own master. Things do get better as Mulder and Scully enable a rescue of several of the last "victims".

A good chance taken by the writers to explore a non-alien paranormal occurrence "Detour" works more often than not. Great visuals, sarcastic snappy dialog, and a creative story-line all blend here to create a dark tale. A good alternate paranormal outing that is recommended and left, largely, unrequited as to what comes next with Mulder and Scully gladly agreeing "let's get out of here"!

Silly Idea Saved by Good Writing

[injury-65447 · 8/10 · 30 May 2020]

The premise of the episode, that of camouflaged human animal hybrid Evolved "mothmen" Running around the woods is pretty goofy. At times the monster looks silly too, with its little red eyes peeking out.

But! The episode is still very enjoyable due to a good script and because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Mulder & Scully are supposed to be going on an FBI team building retreat & Mulder's attitude towards this is hilarious. It's great to see M&S contrasted with the super lame agents - we get to see M&S as the cool kids rolling their eyes at the establishment.

I was pretty creeped out by the lair.

Come for the Mothmen, but stay for the jokes.

review

[angusmadner · 10/10 · 4 November 2019]

One of the best episodes ever and definitely the scariest so far makes "Home" look like a kids show. much like another one of my other less popular favourite episodes war of the cophophages, it just seems exceptionally goofy and fun, i wouldnt be suprised if they were the same writer, ill check

"People get looking around, next thing they know, something eats them."

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 10 July 2017]

The X-Files quite often borrows themes from other movies and TV programs, and this one has it's share. The most obvious one however can't be attributed to "The Mothman Prophecies" since that film came out five years after this episode aired. However the forest dwelling creatures so completely camouflaged as if to seem invisible, brings to mind "Predator" from 1987, and Mulder actually calls them predators at one point to Agent Stonecypher (J.C. Wendel). But there's also that Rambo-like quality that the creatures have whenever we see their eyes appearing out of a moss encrusted tree trunk. I loved it the first time I saw Sylvester Stallone using that gimmick in "First Blood".

So it appears the forest, or something living there, is fighting back against encroaching development attempting to turn the area into a commercial enterprise. Never wasting an opportunity to plug another one of their programs, the writers cleverly insert a reference to "When Animals Attack", a number of TV movies appearing on the Fox Network around this time, later reworked into a series format.

The one thing I couldn't quite understand was why Mulder began shooting at one of the unseen entities when he, Scully, Michelle Fazekas (Colleen Flynn) and Jeff Glaser (Anthony Rapp) set out into the woods to track the creatures. At that point it could actually have been some other person out there, and here's Mulder blindly shooting away.

What no one seems to mention in these reviews, is how the writers cleverly build up the relationship between Scully and Mulder in a way that goes beyond their professional team-up. It began in Season Four when Mulder jokingly mentioned picking out China patterns with Scully in "Small Potatoes". Here he turns up the heat a bit with his innuendo about keeping warm with another body in a sleeping bag. Scully's not grabbing the bait yet, but you have to wonder what she might be thinking, ever since that scene, again in "Small Potatoes", when the shape shifting Eddie Van Blundht put the move on Scully in the guise of Mulder.

Anyway, this story ends on an ambiguous note, since the mystery of the 'mothmen'/predators is never fully accounted for. To my mind, what occurred here wouldn't have been enough to stop development of the forest area that was being investigated for the creatures, and since they were still on the loose, it seems more human disappearances would occur in the future. But I guess we're not supposed to think about that.

But the one thing I do think about - what kind of name is Stonecypher?