Written by Ryan Demarco
Home Again PLot Summary:
Agent Mulder travels to Philadelphia to investigate the brutal murder of a city official from a supernatural being, meanwhile Agent Scully receives tragic news when someone close to her ends up in the hospital.
Coming off of last week’s meta heavy episode, “Home Again” takes a more serious tone involving an unstoppable supernatural force known as the Trash Man, who is summoned to and from a garbage truck once he is done ripping limbs from his victims’ bodies. This one ranks up there with some of the most gruesome stories to date.
This episode certainly pertains to those who were perhaps turned off from last week, those meat and potatoes kind of viewers. I’m a big fan of its theme of discarding your creation, which ties into Scully’s situation later on.
Speaking of Scully, what a great job by Gillian Anderson. She crushes it again, handling the majority of an emotional/character arc, when her mother has a heart attack and falls into a coma. It’s also great to see her and Mulder get more moments together once their son William is mentioned. At this point in the revival, it’s pretty safe to assume that the William story is the main thread of the season, with more glimpses offered in each episode, which is fine by me.
Writer/director Glen Morgan, another X-Files alum, who actually handled the more brutal episodes of the series, returns to great form here with an episode that holds up a little better than “Founder’s Mutation.” The episode is, not surprisingly, split into two different directions, one being gloomy and creepy and the other being more of a personal journey between our agents. It mostly works until the two themes are blended together at the end. A little of it feels ham-fisted, but you can go with it.
Still, not a bad episode, actually just the opposite. It contains plenty of spooks and gore to satisfy the blood lusted fans of the series (I found myself rewinding a few moments a number of times), a cool monster of the week, as well as some nice, tender moments between Duchovny and Anderson.
Rating: 8.5/10
