Box set containing the entire fourth season of the popular
American sci-fi series. In 'Herrenvolk', Mulder attempts to save
his dying mother with the assistance of an extraterrestrial
healer. 'Unruhe' sees Mulder and Scully on the trail of a killer
using psychic photographs. In 'Home', the agents investigate the
death of a deformed infant. 'Teliko' sees Mulder and Scully
attempting to trace a killer who drains the skin pigmentation
from his black victims. In 'The Field Where I Died', Mulder
experiences a past life regression while investigating a
religious cult. 'Sanguinarium' sees Mulder and Scully on the
trail of a murderous plastic surgeon, while in 'Musings of a
Smoking Man', the history of Mulder and Scully's
nemesis is traced back to involvement in JFK's assassination and
Area 51. In 'Paper Hearts', Mulder attempts to track down the
intended victims of a serial killer after several precognisant
dreams. 'Tunguska' sees the discovery of a deadly virus contained
within a rock. In 'Terma', Mulder joins his old foe Alex Krycek
in attempting to gain proof regarding the rock organism. 'El
Mundo Gira' sees Mulder and Scully attempting to track down a
mythical blood-sucking creature called 'El Chupacabra'. In
'Haddish', they discover a murder which has aparently been
committed by a dead man, while 'Never Again' sees Scully
indulging in a dangerous affair with a tattooed stranger. In
'Leonard Betts', the body of a decapitated paramedic seemingly
comes back to life, while 'Momento Mori' sees Scully attempting
to come to terms with the fact that she has inoperable cancer. In
'Unrequited', Mulder and Scully find themselves unable to trace a
former Vietnam vet turned murderer who has the ability to become
invisible. 'Tempes Fugit' sees the agents making a startling
discovery at the bottom of a lake while investigating an airline,
and in 'Max', they attempt to prove that the passengers were
sacrificed by the government in order to obtain alien technology.
'Synchrony' sees the duo trying to deal with a time travelling
killer from the future, while in 'Small Potatoes', a spate of
babies born with tails puts Mulder and Scully on the trail of a
man with chameleonic abilities. In 'Zero Sum', Skinner helps the
-smoking man destroy evidence in order to save Scully's
life, only to find himself accused of murder. 'Elegy' sees
ghostly images of female murder victims appearing as harbingers
of doom, while in 'Demons', a blood-covered Mulder attempts to
recall the events of the last few days when he is overcome by
amnesia. Finally, in 'Gethsemane', Mulder attempts to prove that
a discovery in the Canadian ains is evidence of alien life.
From .co.uk
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In Season 4 of The X-Files, Scully is a bit upset by her on-off
terminal cancer and Mulder is supposed to shoot himself in the
season finale (did anyone believe that?), but in episode after
episode the characters still plod dutifully around atrocity sites
tossing off wry witticisms in that bland investigative demeanour
out of fashion among TV cops since Dragnet. Perhaps the best
achievement of this season is "Home", the most unpleasant horror
story ever presented on prime-time US TV. It's not a comfortable
show--confronted with this ghastly parade of incest, inbreeding,
infanticide and mutilation, you'd think M & S would drop the
jokes for once--but shows a willingness to expand the envelope.
By contrast, ventures into golem, reincarnation, witchcraft and
Invisible Man territory throw up run-of-the-mill body counts,
spotlighting another recurrent problem. For heroes, M & S rarely
do anything positive: they work out what is happening after all
the killer's intended victims have been snuffed ("Kaddish"), let
the monster get away ("Sanguinarium") and cause tragedies ("The
Field Where I Died"). No wonder they're stuck in the FBI basement
where they can do the least damage.
The series has settled enough to play variations on earlier
hits: following the liver vampire, we have a melanin vampire
("Teliko") and a cancer vampire ("Leonard Betts"), and return
engagements for the oily contact lens aliens and the weasely
ex-Agent Krycek ("Tunguska"/"Terma"). Occasional detours into
send-up or post-modernism are indulged, yielding both the
season's best episode ("Small Potatoes") and its most
disappointing ("Musings of a -Smoking Man"). "Small
Potatoes", with the mimic mutant who tries out Mulder's life and
realises what a loser he is (how many other pin-up series heroes
get answerphone messages from their favourite phone-sex lines?),
works as a genuine sci-fi mystery--for once featuring a mutant
who doesn't have to kill people to live--and as character
in. --Kim Newman