Invocation: Off the Top of My Head (SPOILERS) There is a comment, but no spoiler, for next week's ep in the "Etc." section. INVOCATION: In a nutshell: An OK MOTW ruined by an asinine (and that's being kind) plot twist. What I liked: - Scully seems to have gotten something of a backbone back, arguing back with Doggett like the Scully I know and love. - I was pissed when Doggett went to talk to Billy -- he has neither a psychology background nor a medical background to be dealing with traumatized children. I was happy to see Scully call him on it. Turns out he has some experience with it in his law enforcement history. I was willing to buy his reasoning, and glad that I wasn't going to be pissed at him again. - That Josh did *not* get stabbed. I was afraid that the plot would go the obvious route, and it didn't. Hooray! - Scully's speech at the end. (Aside from the fact that she and Doggett never should have been having that conversation within earshot of the grieving parents.) She made some very valid points about how Doggett could consider the case to be a success, and Doggett seemed to take it to heart. This is the kind of character interaction and development that I'm happy to see. Even when they disagreed, they were working toward a common goal. Gee, that sounds familiar... What I didn't like: - Stereotypes. Bad guys are unshaven, have crappy cars, and live in a trailer out by the oil wells. Their women hang around inside waiting to get laid. Is it my imagination, or have we seen more bad stereotypes since the show moved to L.A.? - Do I need to say this? The photo, and the suggestion that Doggett has lost a boy in his life. You know, when he pulled out that photo I looked at it really hard: "That's not Billy, is it? It must be. Doggett can't possibly be carrying around the picture of some other missing child." And my worst fear was realized in the scene with the psychic. WHAT THE HELL IS 1013 DOING?! How can they *possibly* introduce a plot thread that so obviously parallels Mulder's loss of Samantha? ::sputtering:: I can *not* believe this. Oh, and wasn't it so convenient that Scully didn't question him about it, so that we don't know what's going on? This is not happening, this is not happening, this is not happening... What's got me puzzled: - Why Billy? And why then Billy's brother 10 years later? How did Ronnie get Billy out of that crowded playground with no one seeing him, especially since in the teaser we see Ronnie just standing there, dropping the backpack? Why didn't the original investigation find Ronnie's fingerprints on the backpack? Did Cal really go 10 years without trying to kill another child? Why did Billy's ghost terrorize his own family and lead his brother into danger? Why, why, why? So much of this ep made no sense. It could have been a much better MOTW had there been some explanation provided, no matter how bizarre, for these questions. Without it, the ep is just *there.* Etc.: - Is it me, or in the "10 years ago" portions did it look like the mom was holding onto that pregnant belly like it was gonna fall off? - I'm too pissed about the photo thing to think of anything else to say about this ep. I thought Scully putting Mulder's nameplate in the drawer was bad. I thought the slug thing was bad. 1013 has now raised (or is it lowered?) the bar on badness. Grrr. - Next week's ep: This one looks like it could actually be intriguing. But given how disappointed I've been in the first 3 MOTW's, I'm thinking I'd better set my expectations lower.