Salatoimikud Medusa (1993– ) Online

Frank Spotnitz goes from writing a great mystery in "The Gift" to a floundering, plot hole-filled story with "Medusa".

Medusa has a beginning reminiscent of 'Ice', where the agents are introduced to a team of varied "experts" who will go down with them into the empty subway tunnels to find a killer. As is the case quite often, the local authorities are less than helpful toward Scully and Doggett, even being downright mean to them, threatening to start the subway again while they are in the tunnel.

I know that this subway guy has a job to do, but he is just way over the top in this episode, willing to put the lives of thousands of people at risk just so they can ride on the subway. If there was a strong possibility of a contagion infecting the population through the subway, there's no way he would be this casual with their lives.

The biggest problem with this episode is the inconsistencies of this green organism that is eating away people's flesh. Scully figures out that sweating causes the chemical-electrical reaction. Doggett and

three others are down in these tunnels where the ventilation has been turned off. It is very hot and Doggett never sweats and gets his flesh eaten the entire time? You actually can see sweat on Doggett's face early on in the episode, though nothing happens to him. Of course the big guy is going to sweat first and cause the reaction, but as long as Doggett was down there, surely he would have sweated. Also, if nothing happens to you if you're covered with this green organism unless you sweat, like the boy, then why does the transit cop in the teaser die? If he was attacked by the fare-jumper and the fare-jumper spread the organism to him, when did he sweat? The fare-jumper apparently knocked him out. The cop wouldn't sweat while he is unconscious.

As soon as Melnick had his flesh eaten away, all of the them should have left and the subway should have been quarantined. But Doggett insists on staying, saying he has a man to find. This is very irrational on Doggett's part.

At the end, Doggett destroys the organism by conducting an electrical current into the pool of water containing the organism. If the electrical current killed the organism, how did it kill the organism on Doggett without electrocuting him? Because, after it is destroyed, it shows that Doggett no longer has the green organism on him. Also, Scully tells Doggett that Karras, the subway chief, is not in trouble, even though he resumed subway operations with Doggett and Bianco still in the tunnels. That's just not realistic.

Medusa has a great set and a good, creepy atmosphere. However, all of the inconsistencies of this green flesh-eating organism detract from the viewing experience and sour the taste of an x-file that had good potential.

Medusa has always been one of my favorite season 9 episodes. I like it because I think it is the perfect summary for the relationship between Scully and Doggett throughout the season. Scully is the "expert is equivocal deaths" and Doggett is "just a good shot". I think this was one of the key performances by actor Robert Patrick that turned me into a Doggett person. Dealing with an annoying officer who keeps jabbing him with the pride issue at taking orders from a woman, Doggett is able to keep his head and see the guy for what he is and not listen to the bull he is trying to feed him. Even after the officer knocks him unconscious and leaves him for dead, he still goes after him and helps him escape with his life in true superhero fashion. I am having visions of Batman beating the crap out of The Joker and kicking him over a ledge only to risk his own life to grab his hand and pull him to safety. Thats the kind of superhero persona that Doggett takes on in this episode. The premise of the story is not altogether interesting other than the fact that the effects of the flesh burning away with electric shocks is pretty cool. It is very easy to hate the bad guys in this episode which is a credit to their acting. I give Medusa a 9 out of 10.

The best part was the atmosphere and the performances. I like the tension between the actors and I think Scully and Doggett really shine in their team work. The music was a bit overdone especially in the beginning. I like the atmosphere to creep up on me and not knock me over the head with a soundtrack basically telling me how I should feel.

Now on to the glaring plot problems: (1) the two men in the beginning seem like they are there just to throw us off and our questions never really get answered about them (perhaps it was just a thug and a security officer doing their thing which had nothing to do with the parasitic agent), (2) so this thing dies from tap water, electricity and/or alcohol?, (3) where did the young boy come from and why didn't he speak...was he mute?, (4) would someone really risk infecting a population just so the commuters could get home on time from work?

I loved the set up but hated the numerous distractions that amounted to nothing and the ending seemed a bit abrupt for some reason.

Don't you just love characters like Deputy Chief Karras (Ken Jenkins)? So consumed with getting the trains back running he's willing to risk infecting the entire population of Boston that rides the subway system. You have to know there are idiots like that running things in major cities, and probably a lot smaller ones as well. Personally, with his attitude, he probably should run for Congress.

What surprised me most about this episode is the way Agent Doggett deferred to Scully as his superior in the story. He called her the boss when defending Scully's decision making while he and a team of experts made their way into the tunnels to investigate a killer that turned out to be a deadly organism. All the while I'm thinking of 'Medusa' as being the mythological woman with snakes for hair, it turns out the organism that's causing the flesh eating outbreak resembles a shrimp with medusa-like appendages.

Rather incredibly, I thought Doggett put himself at risk beyond the call of duty here, what with a police detective going rogue on him and an unknown entity with the potential to wipe them all out. The resolution to defeating the poisonous organism with an electrical shock seemed more like a stroke of luck to me than a well defined strategy, making this case seem more like a 'let's get it over with' situation than most other X-Files. Sure would have liked to see someone take a poke at Chief Karras before it was all over though, he was just plain annoying.

Without giving anything away, Dana Scully's feckless ineptitude in this episode strains credulity. Rather that calling in resources at her beck and call she's allows a caricature of a public official to expose the public to a potentially lethal contagion.

The passivity and helplessness of Scully and unwillingness to do what was necessary to protect the public was out of character and was little more than a device to keep the story going. Frankly, lazy script writing.

The supporting characters also were also pretty weakly portrayed.

I really like the X-Files but I barely made it through this one.

Now I am watching the next episode, Per Manum, and Scully apparently has no memories of the last eight years and all the evidence she came across of doctors using women as guinea pigs.