I rarely write reviews, but I signed in to review this.
If you are not delighted and amused by this light hearted feather dusting of some of the great themes of literature in this episode, then maybe you missed out on what mankind has been thinking about for more or less a million years.
1. Are our lives more or less predictable from the moment, location and circumstance of our births?
2. If there is a God, and he is benevolent, then why does he leave evil running amuck so often?
3. If God is amongst us and making delicate and nuanced modifications to our activities here and there, exactly what would this look like?
The episode takes a shot at showing interference in the activities of a serial killer by a checkers playing, game of chance purveyor who seems to know evil when he sees it, but apparently is not allowed by some unwritten rule to directly interfere. Our lighthearted, other-worldly character actually challenges the serial killer at one point (just before an act of violence) by saying "why don't you just walk out the front door into the sunshine, take a breath of fresh air, go ahead, surprise me".
All the elements of the primary themes are right here in this single line of dialogue. It gets better as our intrepid agents run directly into our checkers playing friend pursuing the serial killer. Our friend says that he "is here to play a game of checkers with a guy.". To me, this appears to be a reference to good and evil being a nearly nim like game which routinely ends up being a tie.
It is hilarious as Sculley tells Reynolds to "stay right here" and Reynolds replies "I am hard to get rid of"
The evil is well represented as a killer who seems to quickly and violently end the lives of women with no understandable motive. The only thing that the women have in common is that they are alone and beautiful.
Free will does show up, and maybe ,just maybe, the interference of the odd character (played perfectly, looped or not, by Burt Reynolds) does aid in some way, and contribute to the end of the killing spree. This is not really a spoiler, as by now the audience knows that the killer is just about to be stopped (fated?)
If you like the X-Files, especially when they drift away from monsters and conspiracies, and tackle timeless spiritual questions, you will love this episode.
If you are not delighted and amused by this light hearted feather dusting of some of the great themes of literature in this episode, then maybe you missed out on what mankind has been thinking about for more or less a million years.
1. Are our lives more or less predictable from the moment, location and circumstance of our births?
2. If there is a God, and he is benevolent, then why does he leave evil running amuck so often?
3. If God is amongst us and making delicate and nuanced modifications to our activities here and there, exactly what would this look like?
The episode takes a shot at showing interference in the activities of a serial killer by a checkers playing, game of chance purveyor who seems to know evil when he sees it, but apparently is not allowed by some unwritten rule to directly interfere. Our lighthearted, other-worldly character actually challenges the serial killer at one point (just before an act of violence) by saying "why don't you just walk out the front door into the sunshine, take a breath of fresh air, go ahead, surprise me".
All the elements of the primary themes are right here in this single line of dialogue. It gets better as our intrepid agents run directly into our checkers playing friend pursuing the serial killer. Our friend says that he "is here to play a game of checkers with a guy.". To me, this appears to be a reference to good and evil being a nearly nim like game which routinely ends up being a tie.
It is hilarious as Sculley tells Reynolds to "stay right here" and Reynolds replies "I am hard to get rid of"
The evil is well represented as a killer who seems to quickly and violently end the lives of women with no understandable motive. The only thing that the women have in common is that they are alone and beautiful.
Free will does show up, and maybe ,just maybe, the interference of the odd character (played perfectly, looped or not, by Burt Reynolds) does aid in some way, and contribute to the end of the killing spree. This is not really a spoiler, as by now the audience knows that the killer is just about to be stopped (fated?)
If you like the X-Files, especially when they drift away from monsters and conspiracies, and tackle timeless spiritual questions, you will love this episode.