Empedocles was an ancient Greek scientist and philosopher he developed the four elements theory that all things are made up of the elements earth, air, wind, and fire. He further believed that emotions in combination could either attract or repel these elements depending upon whether the emotions complimented or conflicted with one another. As far as relating to this episode, there are two associations. One, ordinary people become infected with pure evil which results in a compulsion to perform heinous acts. Two, the increasingly crowded cast of characters are wavering between conflict and cohesion.The premise is that a unexplained entity of pure evil invades random people once its current host has died. Jeb Dukes, a guy who was recently fired, happens to be near the scene of a car accident involving Bob Harvey, the current host of the entity. It passes on to dukes, who decides to murder his former boss out of revenge at the entity’s urging. A local detective requests Reyes’ help because he suspects satanic involvement solely because Dukes had a Marilyn Manson CD in his former desk. Reyes dismisses demonic involvement until she experiences a vision of one of the corpses turning to ashes. The last time she had that vision was when she investigated the murder of Luke Doggett. She assumes there is a connection between the murders.
Reyes does not want to tell Doggett yet. Since Scully has been hospitalized for unknown complications due to her pregnancy, she contacts Mulder for help. To his credit, he thinks the same thing the audience is--these incidents are too random and far apart to be connected. Nevertheless, Reyes keeps pushing it under the belief there really is a floating invisible cloud of pure evil possessing people.
Somehow, Doggett discovers Mulder has been looking into Luke’s file and angrily confronts him over it. Reyes breaks up the conflict by confessing she arranged for it all. The three of them step on each other’s toes searching for dukes. They finally discover him living at his sister’s house right after he has murdered a random woman who has been stranded with a flat tire. Reyes shoots him to break up a hostage situation. He dies later in the hospital. The entity passes on to his sister, who tries to kill Reyes, but is prevented from doing so by Doggett. Presumably, this act bonds them for their ninth season partnership. Or something.
I spelled out the whole story just so you can see how contrived it all is. Reyes, who happened to be the FBI agent investigating Luke Doggett’s murder in New York in 1993, happens to be called to New Orleans right after Bob Harvey, a suspect in Luke’s murder who was cleared, but was possessed by the evil entity and really did kill luke, passes the entity on to Dukes and kills his boss. Reyes had a vision of Luke’s body turning to ashes. Now she has seen the boss’ body turn to ashes, too.
She thinks the case is an x-File, but Scully, the only other person she knows, is conveniently out of the picture with pregnancy complications, so she enlists mulder. Because the writers have to give David Duchovny something to do. He is under contract. So we have an excuse for more friction between him and Doggett. Odd, because there is no way Doggett could know what reyes and Mulder are up to, yet somehow he discovers it. For the sake of drama, one assumes.
While the set up is ridiculously contrived, the intent is earnest. This is the first time we see anything significant about Reyes. Her introduction earlier was brief, and she subsequently fell off the radar. She is crusading type who tries to do what is right, but is highly impulsive in both blunt and dangerous ways. Reopening Doggett’s old wounds in order to find the truth is one thing. Deciding to shoot a hostage taker holding a little girl rather than negotiating like Doggett wanted is something else. I noted in her introduction she is a raw version of young Mulder. She is actually far worse. Her heart is on her sleeve way too prominently.
I appreciate that we get closure regarding Luke. I recall back in the day fearing another Samantha like story arc that might drag on. It does feel small there was not more dramatic build up to the reveal of Luke’s murderer. We only got mentions in two previous episodes. As I have already said, the contrivances take are a detriment, too. But there are two saving graces. One, Doggett experienced the vision of Luke turning to ashes, too, but denies it because if there is a paranormal aspect to Luke’s murder, it is beyond his control and he failed to do everything possible to save his son. That is the origin of his adamant skepticism regarding the paranormal. Two, he spends a lot of time by Scully’s bedside. Unlike the previous episode in which she dumped him like a hot potato, she is appreciative of his friendship and concern. I suspect he feels empathy out of fear she may lose her baby.
While on the subject of better relationships than the previous episode, Mulder and Scully are back on sweeter terms. He is warm and caring towards her again rather than absent-mindedly dragging her along on his obsessive crusade like last time. Their humorous banter is back, too. It is fascinating to think greg Walker, who is not a regular writer for the show, has a better grasp of the positive aspects of their relationship than did Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz in the last.
There is much potential for “Empedocles” to be a highly emotional classic episode considering the subject matter, but it falls short. It is not a bad episode, but it is disappointing. The resolution of Luke’s fate feels far more rushed than it should have at the expense of establishing new relationship status for the main characters. Naybe a case less charged than the murder of Doggett’s son should have been utilized instead.
Rating: *** (out of 5)