Mulder (David Duchovny) is back!

At least in flashbacks he is, as Doggett (Robert Patrick), Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) continue their search for the missing agent, and a case he was working on before his disappearance.

Frank Spotnitz pens The Gift, which first aired on 4 February, 2001.

While Scully continues to deal with personal issues, and the revelation that Mulder was increasingly sick because of his interaction with the artifact that did something to his brain, Doggett and Skinner become involved in an odd case, that Scully signed off on, despite the fact that she wasn’t involved in it, that sees the agents looking into a strange encounter with a creature from Native American legend.

It seems the town has this creature to thank for its good fortune, as they keep it prisoner to feed off their ills, physical and otherwise, something Skinner and Doggett learn by checking in with The Lone Gunmen (who at this point are gearing up for the launch of their short-lived spinoff).

Doggett begins to realize that Mulder came to this mountain town in the hopes of being cured by the creature. But when he saw the pain the creature was in, he couldn’t do it, and attempted to free it; by killing it. But what Mulder didn’t know is that he can’t kill it, it seems bound to the town, held by it, and being used.

So is the town really going to let Doggett leave with it, in an attempt to free it? And will Doggett start keeping secrets now to protect the names of Mulder and Scully?

Medusa was also written by Spotnitz and debuted on 11 February, 2021. It also features some very recognizable guest stars, you may not recognize the names, but it’s very much a ‘hey! that’s so and so from…”, like Penny Johnson Jerald, Vyto Ruginis, and Ken Jenkins.

Scully and Doggett arrive in Boston to investigate a brutal and unusual murder that took place on the subway. Is it a contagion? Something else? It’s a curious episode, that shows Scully going up not just against a mysterious case, but the politics of keeping a city’s overstrained transit system running.

Doggett is in the tunnels exploring, while Scully deals with all the issues that Deputy Chief Karras (Jenkins) clashes with her over. Doggett is joined by a member of the CDC (Jerald) and a local cop (Ruginis), and may find more than the city runners wanted them to find.

A strange infection that eats through the dermis, but if it’s only killed the ‘dregs’ of society, what does it matter to the rest of the city? There’s a lot going on in this episode, and speaks to cover-ups, lack of trust and control, and the lies that are told to keep people ignorant, and ‘safe.’

The hunt for Mudler and explorations of the unknown continue Thursday, because the truth is out there…