The X-Files season 11: Sweaty foreheads and faulty memory

Revisionist history, fake news, relevancy and getting old. All this, plus some good old-fashioned squatchin’ in this week’s The X-Files.

Despite the name, “The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat” isn’t just a ridiculous comedy episode. There’s quite a bit more to this episode than Mulder cosplaying Swamp Thing.

Don’t get me wrong. Mulder does show up in a shaggy Bigfoot hunting suit, while a Martian straight out of a 1950s B-movie stalks around. There are plenty of laughs in this episode, but they aren’t without heft. “The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat” is parts silliness and dark satire, with just an edge of sadness. That’s a pretty good accomplishment for an episode with a new character named Reggie, the man with the eponymous forehead sweat.

At the end of the episode, Reggie is revealed to be an inmate of a mental asylum. He likely never went adventuring with Mulder and Scully, at least if we choose to believe that standard narrative. Either way, Mulder asks what their last adventure as a trio was. Reggie obliges, telling him that they finally met a real, honest-to-goodness alien.

However, it’s not a cordial meeting. “Our study is complete. We no longer wish to have any contact with you” says the alien. Instead, humanity will be quarantined from all other life by a “beautiful” wall. A little on the nose, sure, but enough to make you laugh and wince at the same time.

Don’t you feel a little sad, thinking that a vast, exciting cosmos has exiled us? The aforementioned Martian abruptly tells Mulder, Scully, and Reggie that humans are awful. Instead of accepting them into a galactic society, the aliens are just going to build a wall around us, even if “some, I assume, are good people”. At least we’ll still get to visit Uranus.

Mulder can’t handle it

So, it’s easy to get why Mulder — well, Reggie’s version of Mulder — might fling himself to the ground in a dramatic tantrum. Sure, it’s all more than a little silly. For one, the dictum is delivered by a Martian Donald Trump on a Segway. Still, you can’t help but feel the sting.

Or think about that scene where two young FBI agents berate Mulder (at least they had the good sense to leave Scully alone). One looks Mulder up and down, tells him that he’s gotten fat and, even worse, that he’s now “deep state.” Mulder’s assertion that he’s “Fox freakin’ Mulder” does little to change their perception.

It’s in part about growing old, about forgetting and being forgotten. Dr. They embodies that most of all. He’s made a career out of twisting people’s memories, to such a degree that you wonder how he keeps getting work if everyone forgets him. He spends much of his appearance in this episode complaining about the changing face of reality, especially the rise of “fake news.” That’s not even to mention the rise of conspiracies so open that they can hardly be called as such.

Perhaps Scully is the wisest of the group when she declines not to eat the dubiously tasty “Goop-o A-B-C.” She knows that it’s in order to maintain a memory clouded over by recollections of her mom and the fourth of July — the actual gelatin couldn’t stand up to the childhood ideal. Also, according to one junk shop owner, the stuff is basically powdered cancer. Just as well Scully chooses to be sentimental.

THE X-FILES: L-R: Guest star Dan Zukovic and guest star Alex Diakun in the “The Lost Art Of Forehead Sweat” episode of THE X-FILES airing Wednesday, Jan. 24 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2017 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Shane Harvey/FOX

Emotional bedrock

That’s why Darin Morgan’s work stands out. It has an emotional bedrock that comes through at opportune moments. In earlier episodes of The X-Files, he’s written characters who are kind of beaten down by the world. They’re not spectacular heroes or villains. Instead, they’re just schmucks trying to make their way through a strange and often hostile world.

The fact that these one-off characters are psychic (“Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”) or may have been abducted by aliens (“Jose Chung’s From Outer Space”) only serves to underscore their fatalism. They foresee their own death and shrug a little, perhaps with a wistful look on their faces.

Few people died in this episode, thankfully, but Reggie did accept his ambulance ride back to the asylum with a similar resignation.

What about all of the political references in this episode? Unlike the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it flashes of White House denizens in “My Struggle III”, this story dove into the matter. Dr. They (professional perception and memory bender for the U.S. government) claims that he had a hand in doctoring the 2017 presidential inauguration numbers. He supposedly had to climb to the top of the Washington Monument, as it was the only available seat. Of course, he was wearing a MAGA hat at the time.

THE X-FILES: L-R: David Duchovny, guest star Brian Huskey and Gillian Anderson in the “The Lost Art Of Forehead Sweat” episode of THE X-FILES airing Wednesday, Jan. 24 (8:00-9:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2017 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Shane Harvey/FOX

Political references

Tying your story to current politics is a risky move, to say the least. On the one hand, your story could end up looking dated in just a few years. Even now, there’s a whole generation rising that will only understand Dubya jokes in the vaguest sense.

Or, you could dive a little too deep and sacrifice the story on the altar of political pontification. Think about some of the worst episodes of South Park, where Matt Stone and Trey Parker practically jump out of the screen and bludgeon you with A Very Important Message.

So, to successfully engage with current events in a story, you have to walk a fine line. Don’t be too relevant, or you might as well put polyester bell bottoms and blue cream eyeshadow on all your characters. But pull back too much, and it feels like a weak, flailing attempt at a vague sense of timeliness (looking at you, “My Struggle III”).

But it all works in “The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat”. You’d think that a phrase like “fake news” is enough to make you roll your eyes forever, but it works surprisingly well with the story. Dr. They is a fake news-maker of the highest order, you know.

Going further

There were a few bumpy spots, though I hesitate to call them more than minor issues. It might have been nice to have spent a little more time with Dr. They. He appears in one scene, complains about kids and their fake news, and then exits. Of course, maybe Dr. They works best with this mystique. That’s the tightrope again — maybe some parts of your story shouldn’t be examined too much.

Perhaps, too, this episode could have dug its teeth in even a little further. We briefly see Reggie work his way through a series of government jobs, seemingly in the same cubicle. In some very dark humor, he waterboards someone, whines when he realizes he’s bombed yet another wedding party, and eventually eavesdrops on Mulder and Scully. His nervous breakdown is convenient, but maybe we shouldn’t let Reggie off the hook so easily.

Next: The X-Files season 11 episode 4 recap and review: The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat

And maybe “The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat” could have benefited from a bigger dose of melancholy. It worked well in “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose”. Maybe that odd scene where the younger FBI agents berate Mulder could have been expanded or explored more.

Still, this is a fun episode with enough intelligence and emotional heft to make it worth rewatching. It may be too self-aware for some, but it remains a smart take on the entire idea of The X-Files.

Up next week, we’ll dive back into the William storyline with “Ghouli”, written and directed by James Wong. Somehow, a story wherein two teenage girls believe one another to be monsters will connect to Scully and Mulder’s long-absent and maybe part-alien (or part-government conspiracist) son.

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