'The X-Files' Season 11, Episode 4: 'The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat'

After the massive success of "Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster", it was pretty much a given that Darin Morgan would be brought back to write another episode.

True to form, he gives us an episode that stands out from the rest of the pack.  It's goofy, but also incredibly well-written.  The dialogue and banter between the characters deliver just as much laughs as the cheap Twilight Zone knock-off and the montage of events where Reggie, an on-the-run conspiracy theorist who thinks he's been mind-wiped and is seeking the agents' aid, is supposedly shoe-horned into the show's past history.

It's a good thing too, because this episode is mostly dialogue driven.  A majority of it is just Mulder, Scully, and Reggie in a parking lot talking about a potential plot to gaslight the populace for some potentially nefarious end.

As a result, we get a trippy discussion that incorporates faulty memories, subjective news sources, and a possible overlap of parallel realities.  Oh, and there's a mysterious scientist who is actually named "Dr. They", thus answering the question of "who is they?" that inevitably arises whenever conspiracy theories are brought up.

It all culminates with Mulder and Scully (supposedly) meeting an alien who declares that humans are to stay put, that the rest of the universe wants nothing to do with them, and has decided to build a "wall" around our solar system to keep us from "infecting" it.

Granted, the scenario is so goofy (not to mention heavy handed, but I'll get to that) that you can't take it seriously, but it still felt like a pretty valid "the reason you suck" speech.  Even just presented as a hypothetical, that's a heavy revelation. 

Of course, it's somewhat undercut by the fact that the whole thing is written with sledge-hammer style metaphor.  The alien refers to the "wall" as "big and beautiful" and that we're all rapists and drug dealers.  Morgan is usually a sharper writer, but these kinds of not so subtle allusions to the president are more eye-roll inducing at this point.  Even IGN noted that it robs the episode of any potential timelessness and the AVClub (which would normally eat that sort of thing up with a spoon) calls out the lack of subtlety.   

Despite its flaws, this was still a strong entry in a season that seems to be shaping up rather well.  As noted, the script was strong for a vast majority of it, the cast seemed to be enjoying themselves, and it had a rather trippy mind-screw vibe that made you tilt your head, but also remain captivated by what was being discussed.  It's weaker than "Were-Monster' in my view, but still, this was an entertaining chapter.

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