Within takes on the task of launching a controversial season 8. A season that finds a considerable lack of Agent Mulder. Robert Patrick is brought in under much skepticism from Mulder fans as being a replacement in Agent Doggett. I thought that Robert Patrick took his role like a man. I enjoyed watching him become a part of the show and although I was among the skeptics in the beginning, I have grown to thoroughly enjoy his character. I thought also that this episode and its second part did a great job in making Doggett out to be a bad guy at first as well. He tricks Scully into thinking Mulder didn't trust her and manipulates her emotions in hopes of getting a better interrogation from her. She however does not give into this trick in the end and does what many of us fans wanted to do to Doggett in the beginning too. She throws a cup of water in his face. She yells at him and calls him names. By the end of the episode we are on Scully's side in full. The episode deals with an FBI manhunt for Agent Mulder which leads to the Arizona desert where boy mind reader Gibson Praise has been hiding. Skinner and Scully go there in hopes of finding the UFO on which Mulder has been abducted and Doggett and his team go there on a tip from the mysterious folder under the door trick. Throughout the episode as well we are led to question just where Mulder is actually. He is spotted at Scully's apartment and his security card was used at the FBI one night of the investigation. We also learn that Mulder was having his headstone prepared and that he was dying of some neurological disease. The Mulder that is running about however turns out not to be Mulder but none other than Alien Bounty Hunter disguised as Mulder. The episode ends on a cliffhanger literally. Alien Mulder grabbing Gibson in a standoff with Doggett. The episode is entertaining enough to validate watching the conclusion. 8 out of 10.
