The X-Files (TV Series) Empedocles (2001) User Reviews

The pizza man is not above suspicion.

[Muldernscully · 8/10 · 9 October 2007]

Empedocles is the first, full Doggett episode. Previous episodes hinted at his son's murder, but this is the first one that focuses completely on it.

The teaser is tricky because you see this car accident and the car engulfed in flames. A man then emerges from the burning car, also engulfed in flames. The burning man walks over to Jeb Dukes and into him, disappearing. All the people surrounding Jeb Dukes appear not to notice this occurrence, which is quite puzzling. Later in the episode, it is revealed that it appears that the evil soul of Bob Harvey, or something to that effect, entered him, not a real flaming body that nobody could see.

The special effect of Jeb tearing at his face is hokey because the lines are already on his face that he tears away. There is then some sort of fire underneath, probably symbolic of the evil within him. I think they could have done without it.

I like seeing Mulder's concern for Scully and her unborn child. They have a funny dialogue in her apartment about the pizza man.

Just as Mulder got upset at Doggett in the previous episode and got rough with him, Doggett returns the favor and roughs up Mulder when he discovers Mulder was looking into Doggett's son's case.

Reyes makes her second appearance on the X-Files, the writers hinting at her future regular appearance on the show. She does a fine job in this episode.

In this episode and in the previous episode "Three Words", you can notice that Gillian Anderson is sick with some sort of illness. Her voice is very raspy in both episodes. My wife pointed that out.

Empedocles is a nice, solid episode that explores more in earnest Doggett's back-story. This is the only time that you'll see all four of the agents working on a monster of the week case together, though Scully is in the hospital most of the time. So, enjoy it, because you won't see it again.

"You just keep shooting till you hit something, don't you?"

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 21 August 2017]

Some more of Agent Doggett's back story is revealed here regarding the son he lost ten years earlier, and it was Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) who worked that missing person case with Doggett while he was still with the New York City Police Department. Reyes sees a connection between the death of Luke Doggett and the recent murder of two office employees where Jeb Dukes (Jay Underwood) was terminated from. When she examines the bodies of the victims, she sees their forms turned to ash, the same way she envisioned the body of Doggett's son when he was found.

As always, when The X-Files introduces a term I'm not familiar with, I try to do a little research, and it turns out Empedocles was an ancient Greek philosopher known for his brilliant oratory and penetrating knowledge of nature. Virtually the only connection I can make regarding his name as the title of the story has to do with one of the myths concerning his death. Some scholars believe he perished in the flames of Mt. Etna.

Probably the main attraction for X-Files fans in this episode is the presence of all four agents appearing together in a manner of speaking. For the most part, Scully is confined to a hospital bed because of her pregnancy, leaving Agent Reyes to expand on a theory regarding a connection between the Luke Doggett case and the current one involving Jeb Dukes. I pretty much came away with the conclusion that not much was resolved here regarding any link between the two, particularly since so much was made of Reyes's visions of bodies turned to ash.

Great episode.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 30 September 2022]

A man is fired from his job, and after witnessing a horrendous car accident, he walks back into his former place of work, and kills the two executives that terminated his contract.

7.1? Seriously, I thought this episode was absolutely phenomenal, I loved it. There's just so much content, so much going on. For me it felt like a hugely satisfying passing on of the baton.

Is it getting to the point where Mulder and Scully are being phased out, in favour of Doggett and Reyes? That's the way it seems to be heading. On the previous episode, I stated that I was concerned that Agent Doggett was being sidelined, I was wrong, his character and story are developed, with Mulder and Scully fitting in around him.

Nobody is sidelined here, all four Agents have a part to play, plus we get to see some super sweet moments between Mulder and Scully.

I loved that while concept about evil being something out there, and who knows, why are some people just bad? There was a terrific scene where Mulder and Doggett discussed the whole concept.

Some amazing special effects, the opening sequences were awesome, totally attention grabbing sequences.

Loved it, 9/10.

Don't try to make sense of it

[shauncore808 · 4/10 · 25 August 2022]

This episode's entire plot is an absolute mess. Even if you buy into the central premise (which is ridiculous and convoluted even by X-Files standards), most of the episode has a very shaky connection to it. Characters do or say over-the-top things, just to immediately change their minds.

On the plus side this episode has some legitimately funny/witty dialogue, mostly involving Mulder. I don't know why the dialogue was sporadically great for just one episode, but it made the entire episode much more bearable than it would've been otherwise.

You got something going on with the pizza man I should know about?

[Sanpaco13 · 4/10 · 25 May 2009]

This is the one with the weird guy that gets fired and then literally gets "FIRED" (ie, possessed by some kind of weird fire demon that we later find out is some kind of thread of evil or something... more on that to come). This is one of the first episodes that uses Reyes as more than an extra and to be perfectly honest it seems to set the tone for every other crappy Reyes episode from here on out. Things are a little crowded on the show at this point with Reyes, Mulder, Doggett, AND Scully all intermingled in a giant spaghetti bowl of X-Files investigation-o-rama. Who is officially assigned to the X-Files at this point anyway? I'm pretty sure its just Doggett and Scully however, Reyes and Mulder are the two that take the case. Reyes thinks that some office shooting spree is connected to the murder of Doggett's son but she decides that the best way to handle the situation is to sneak behind Doggett's back and get a bunch of other people involved, a decision which actually royally pisses Doggett off. To Mulder's everlasting credit, he appears to hate Reyes just as much as everyone else and even makes a number of comments about how she just doesn't know when to shut the beep up. Finally, they catch the guy that did the shootings after he claws his face off revealing rivers of molten lava flowing beneath his skull and when he dies, his sister who didn't seem to care that much about him anyway attacks Reyes with a fire extinguisher (note the fire reference again?). Reyes' theory that evil apparently jumps from innocent bystander to innocent bystander turns out to be true yet she still doesn't see that coming. I think its great that we have learned from this episode that no matter what, if you are around when an evil person dies, you will become evil next. Oh well such is life. 4 out of 10.

Another Season Eight Disappointment

[geofffitchett · 2/10 · 7 October 2013]

The early seasons of the X-Files would always be hard to follow. But there were some real highlights across the years with several episodes per season demonstrating the writers' imaginations had not entirely abandoned them. Season Eight remained short on ideas though and the pace of programmes slowed to a point where even committed fans might have a hard time maintaining interest. I applaud the guy who found so much to like in his review. I found myself inwardly grumbling that the script writer wasn't even trying while the plot was so thin it barely existed. Characters had to explain themselves not because it was complicated but because it defied belief on the grounds of zero credibility. That's it guys? Evil is contagious? Wow..

Agent Reyes lifts things, and its true, the presence of Mulder, Scully and Dogget together is a bonus but Scully is 17 months pregnant, puffing her cheeks and making eyes at Mulder while the poor sop grins and spouts short lines of insight and Dogget flails about from one angry extreme to the other. Chris Carter must have been a little bit embarrassed to sign his name to this one.