feedandseed-99210

Admittedly this is one of my least favorite episodes and in large part it is because, as many have pointed out, that we see Mulder "sleeping around" while Scully is in peril. I would however point out that there appears to be more than a little death wish tied up in Mulder's pursuit of a suspect whose vampire lover and his thrill kill cult exsanguinate anyone she has sex with. Early on Mulder admits to local police to not sleeping at all anymore which may be more than a small indication that his actions don't exactly fall in the "swinging" category. A better reason to give this episode a lower rating is that Perrey Reeves who plays the central character of Kristin Kilar was not a good enough actress to pull off the part. She somehow manages to make joining a vampire cult sound really boring. And since her belief is the lynch pin around which the whole plot operates, nothing else in the episode works.

Any fan of The X-Files should be familiar with the show's periodic and famous forays into the truly disturbing in episodes such as "Home", "Sanguinarium", and "Our Town." "Home" had a hard time getting past the censors and after it's initial airing was not rerun on network TV for many years. So nothing about "Nothing Lasts Forever" is really out of keeping with The X-Files more gruesome offerings which dabble in such subjects as cannibalism to stay young (Our Town), organ theft to prolong life (I Want to Believe), incest (Home) and parasitism (Sanguinarium). Director James Wong, who also works these days on American Horror Story clued most of us into the fact that this was going to be a bumpy, bloody ride. That may not be your cup of tea, but it is completely in character for the show. What is also keeping in character with the show is that some of the most gruesome cases also serve as a backdrop to some of the most personal discussions between the two leads. That is also the case for Nothing Lasts Forever in which we find Mulder and Scully having deeply personal conversations about Scully's faith and the future of their relationship in between the machinations of the cult of personality and internal organs. For fans, and especially shippers, who have been waiting and waiting and waiting for the show to make a definitive statement on where Mulder and Scully's relationship stands before the series' ends, this episode is an instant classic.