The X-Files (TV Series) Essence (2001) User Reviews

Nice way to wind down the series

[bpvalentine · 8/10 · 7 December 2010]

This was a very strong episode with Doggett coming into his own and us Mulder fans finding some pay offs for sticking around. Mostly I mean to respond to another review on here who insinuates the show is being inconsistent with character behavior. Doggett still feels like a guest and he's letting Mulder, in a sense, show him what it takes to run the X Files. I don't know that Doggett would be a huge NASCAR fan. I have a feeling that was a shorthand way of emphasizing the difference between Doggett and Mulder. I didn't find the Super Soldier thing particularly confusing. It's just part of the usual X Files deal that is always drawn out, a bit to the show's detriment, in my opinion. But I am very surprised that how strong the show remained long after I stopped watching back in the day.

I feel the X Files is difficult to stick with on a one episode per week regimen, 22 eps per season. That's a hell of a lot to ask of a viewer. I am uniquely available to watch these days. It is a wonderful show. I don't need to tell anybody reading, I'm sure.

Essence transforming into Existence

[Muldernscully · 8/10 · 22 October 2007]

Mulder's time with the x-files is drawing to a close. It all comes to a head as Scully nears her time to give birth. Mulder still has questions about her pregnancy, so he recruits Doggett to go along with him to look for the answers.

In the teaser, we get the titles for the two-parter episodes from Mulder's voice-over, "Essence transforming into Existence". I never noticed that before.

When Mulder arrives at Doggett's house, Doggett is watching NASCAR. I never pegged him for a NASCAR fan. What drives Doggett to go along with Mulder in this episode? He knows that Mulder is trouble with a capital 'T'. Yet he breaks into a private establishment with Mulder and helps him to harass a doctor. With how skeptical he is, I find it very interesting that Doggett continues to go along with Mulder. He must suspect that Mulder is right to a degree. Or maybe it's because Kersh is such a jerk to everyone, that Doggett feels like ticking him off too.

What woman would agree to a medical procedure on a Saturday in an empty office alone with her doctor? Nowadays, I can't imagine any woman doing that.

Billy Miles is now an unstoppable, Terminator-like killing machine. He even gets cheesy Terminator lines to say.

It surprises me that Skinner would order Krycek to stay at the FBI. Why would he allow someone like Krycek to be all alone in FBI headquarters? It doesn't seem like a smart or safe move.

Essence is very exciting with some good action sequences. What brings it down is the new Super Soldier element. It is so confusing. Now Agent Crane is a Super Soldier? When did that happen? If Billy Miles is supposedly trying to kill Scully, why does Agent Crane help them to escape? Aren't these Super Soldiers on the same page? The questions remain unanswered, and so the quality of the episode is diminished. Essence is still a very fun episode to watch and leads us to an equally exciting season finale.

A real thrill ride.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 9/10 · 30 September 2022]

Scully's pregnancy is fast approaching, and it soon transpires that different groups, with different agendas, want the child. Mulder vows to keep Scully safe.

This penultimate episode of Series 8 plays out as a stylish, energetic thriller, and as anyone who's watched anything from this series would have expected, the subject is Scully's unborn child.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, pretty much played out as I expected it to, series ending stories tend to play to a narrative, and the raft of familiar faces appear. Definitely more than a few T2 vibes throughout, particularly at the end.

Lots of interesting new questions arose from this one, what exactly is Billy Miles, where do Krycek's loyalties really lay, and is smoking Man going to put in an appearance?

I was really expecting series 8 to be something of a disappointing, for my money it's been way better than series 7. This is yet another great episode.

Hard to fault once again, 9/10.

"The child she is carrying is very special."

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 22 August 2017]

I see other reviewers using the term 'super soldier' quite freely but the term hasn't been mentioned yet in any of the Season Eight programs. When I was watching the X-Files back in the day, I stopped with the end of Season Seven because of the controversy around David Duchovny having a limited presence, or possibly none at all. Actually, he turned up in almost all of the shows in the latter half of the season, even if his tenure as Mulder with the FBI was on a revolving door headed out.

So we knew something wasn't quite right with Billy Miles (Zachary Ansley), he of the gross skin shedding scene in 'Deadalive', and now one of those lethal 'super soldiers'. He's turned into a type of alien, a human replacement with a one track mind to eliminate Scully's baby before it's born. Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) shows up as an unlikely ally, switching loyalties much like he did with The Syndicate after the Smoking Man tried to put him away. All of this stuff will be moot once I finish watching the series, because who can remember all the switcheroos that took place along the way?

This one ends with another nod to The Terminator series of films when Mulder pushes Billy off a roof top into a trash compactor about to do the old crunch on him. Not to worry though, there's another replicant on hand with FBI Agent Crane (Kirk B.R. Roller). But wait, he's not trying to harm Scully or her baby, instead he helps her make a getaway. See what I mean? Even if you have a scorecard, it's pretty hard to keep track of the players and what they're doing.

Everybody wants Scully's baby

[Sanpaco13 · 5/10 · 11 October 2009]

The traditional view of human nature is that essence leads to existence, as Mulder says in the his voice over in the teaser. Specifically, he is talking about Scully's baby. The baby was essence before it was existence. What does this mean? It means before there was a baby, somebody had to have the idea of creating the baby. However, in Scully's case, it appears that just about everybody in the world had the essence of the baby and the big question is whose essence led to the baby's existence. And the most important question of all is who CARES ANYMORE!? I'm sorry but watching these episodes is just painful for me. Zeus genetics and company are sneaking around doing terrible evil things like... giving Scully vitamin supplements? Couldn't she just have said, "hey these are good for you, have some." Every three minutes from here until they finally get rid of the kid someone is trying to get at Scully's baby and after all the trouble they go through he always ends up "just fine". It only gets worse from here into season 9 when he begins exploding space ships and killing cults by being special alien Jesus or whatever. Anyway, as far as the episode goes, if there were no Scully's baby junk and no super soldier crap I would probably actually enjoy it. There is some good action including Bllly Miles getting run over by Krycek, and a pretty intense escape from the parking garage scene (which earns a little sequel in the next episode). But there is just too much that either doesn't make sense or is just too uninteresting to even try and make sense out of it. I give the episode a 5 out of 10.