Two teenage girls battle against the demonic Ghouli – but both are left with serious wounds…

Unlike quite a lot of episodes of the new X-Files, this actually felt at times as if it was part of the series that ran from 1993-2002, but given its revelations about key characters, it’s not quite the Monster of the Week tale that it first appears to be.

Spoilers follow.

One of the criticisms levelled at the series 10 stories was that one of the big loose ends from the original show – Mulder and Scully’s son William – wasn’t featured that heavily. Chris Carter and co. are certainly making up for that in this (final?) season with some, hopefully inaccurate, revelations about his parentage earlier in the run, and his appearance, along with some interesting powers, at this halfway point. James Wong’s script gives Gillian Anderson plenty to do – the scene in the morgue just about works without becoming either mawkish or overly self-indulgent – and based on this, we’re going to get to know a lot more about William in the final five episodes. I can’t say that I was that impressed by the character – he’s certainly not that sympathetic at this stage.

There are quite a few avenues that aren’t explored in this episode – the whole issue of sleep paralysis, and the potential of creepypastas to be exploited – and I suspect it will also fail the “will I want to rewatch this?” test down the line.

Verdict: Another run of the mill episode from a show that shouldn’t be producing such things in a limited series. 7/10

Paul Simpson