Salvage

Somehow I was able to tell fairly quickly that this was a Jeffrey Bell episode. Bell's relatively shallow scripts, hackneyed plots, and unfortunate tendency to fall into what has been coined the "cool idea trap" that plagued Chris Carter in his early episodes "Space" and "Fire" all resonate right from the teaser. Last season's "The Goldberg Variation" was the exception that proved the rule.

If you view "Salvage" purely as an homage to the Terminator franchise, perhaps you will see greater value here. Even so, I spent most of these forty-something minutes thinking about how much I'd rather be watching Terminator than this. At least character breadth was to be found there.

Wade Anthony Williams is a talented actor, and I enjoyed his run as Captain Bellick on Prison Break, but his central character here is, quite literally, lifeless. It's hard to sympathize with a character who rarely has any non-tacit responses and murders innocent people. Like "Surekill" before it, this episode allots too much time for the monster-of-the-week and precious little for Scully and Doggett, whose relationship had been the driving force between the first third of this season. Furthermore, Scully's breakneck inclination to jump to paranormal explanations lacks any believability and, even at this point in the series, undermines her scientific sensibilities.

It is also unclear who is really to blame for the metal-man's predicament. If his co-workers can truly be exonerated it is rather silly that one would be so trigger-happy upon his arrival at the salvage yard. His final line doesn't help.

There are enough decent special effects and subtle in-jokes regarding Robert Patrick's role in Terminator 2 that make this worth a view. Like the previous episode, however, there's too much filler and not nearly enough killer to make it worth a second.

Let me guess. If you push it on a wall you get a very dirty stain; one might assume this is the same result as replacing Mulder by Dodgett or whatever his name is here. Real interesting episodes contents storylines found in the first seasons but no longer now and anybody still watching this letter equality s2b just to be obsessed by the whole series which of course makes sense if you think that people are are perverts with a television sets and that is the real question here what is our relationship with our television set??? Some nice answers following if I might add.

...plot holes are more difficult to discern. Because nothing in the X-World is ever lit from above.

So we walk by night through poorly-illuminated salvage yards (not that our own offices are lit any better), wearing regular business suits, with no personal protection equipment whatsoever, and, completely unsupervised by personnel who might have some idea what sort of possibly hazardous materials might be involved, we kick over suspicious-looking storage drums...

Oh, and we address each other by title and surname as frequently as possible in every conversation, in a completely unironic and non-sarcastic manner. Because that's how serious people converse.

So remember, viewers, when trying to conceal something from the authorities, be sure to answer or evade their questions in as hostile and snide a tone as you can muster, so as to throw them off the scent.

Man, that's what I call good writing and directing! If only the show runners had hit upon using the jerky, constantly-moving camera effect that made contemporaneous cop shows so edgy...

So, right from the start, you notice this is a Bell episode. I think another comment talked about this. With the happy exception of "Goldberg Variation", all of his episodes are bellow average or just average (Rain King). Scully is a good example: she has very bizarre lines and behaviour. I think it makes total sense that she became open minded not only because of all she saw, but because this is what makes the possibility of Mulder being alive a very real one. So I buy that. But how she goes about it is just... odd. It feels almost silly. I didn't mind much the T2 reference, this metal going nuts can belong in the X-files universe, if done well. But I fear RP's character here is made less likeable than necessary, his emotional range goes from angry to concerned to angry again during a good chunk of the season. Also, I notice that most episodes that turn out on the crappy side are episodes with bad guest stars; not that they are bad actors and actresses, but bad characters. You don't feel anything, you don't care, which is terrible. Do they live? Get arrested? Die? I can barely remember five seconds after this episode is done. It suffices to compare it with the great "Redrum", where you are with Martin till the end, hoping he didn't kill his wife (although the moral lesson was unnecessary). Lastly, there isn't much here to advance anything in terms of plot or personal relationship between Scully and Doggett. One of the weakest episodes of the show so far.

Believed to have died suffering from gulf war syndrome, Ray Pearce is back, and has several scores to settle.

I can't really give a hugely dissimilar review to the previous episode Surekill, as I feel very similar here to this one. I thought the opening screens were actually pretty rather great, and asked several really interesting questions. I thought what followed was a lot less interesting.

There are definitely some good aspects, and some imaginative story elements, I really wanted to learn about Ray's grudge, and why he wanted revenge.

Some of it felt like it was lifted from the previous episode, and remixed with Terminator 2.

The visuals were tremendous once again, some amazing makeup, I think that was perhaps the best element.

Overall, not bad, in a way I can't really explain, I just didn't care for it a great deal, 6/10.