The Gift (The X-Files)
"The Gift" is the eleventh episode of the eighth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files.
Overall, the episode received largely mixed reviews from television critics; while many appreciated the focus on Fox Mulder's (David Duchovny) absence, others felt that the plot revelations were unnaturally forced into the show.
In this episode, Doggett traces Mulder's movements shortly before his abduction, learning of his attempts to seek a cure for his terminal brain disease.
Gillian Anderson does not appear in the episode, save for stock footage, due to an agreement to allow her to spend more time with her daughter.
FBI special agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is currently missing, having been abducted by aliens in the seventh season finale, "Requiem."
His partner Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) has been working with Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick) in order to locate him.
Apparently, in the spring of 2000, Mulder visited the town searching for something to cure his terminal brain disease that he received via exposure to an alien artifact.
Doggett is informed by the local sheriff (Michael McGrady) that Mulder was investigating a case involving Marie Hangemuhl (Natalie Radford).
However, Doggett is killed after the sheriff and his men, who refuse to relinquish the soul eater or even regard it as more than a thing, arrive and shoot him in the back.
Doggett protests that Scully had no knowledge of the events, but Skinner reminds him that it would take months to clear her name, and that it is enough that the two of them know the truth about what happened.
[15][16][17] The series rationalized this revelation with the fact that, due to Mulder's exposure to the black oil in the fourth season episodes "Tunguska" and "Terma" and his forced brain operation by The Smoking Man (William B. Davis) in the seventh-season episode "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati", his brain developed an incurable disease that was slowly killing him.
[14][18][19][20] In fact, Mulder's "one-week recovery" from his brain surgery was a point of criticism when "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati" initially aired in 1999.
[25][26][27] The filming location had previously been used for the earlier eight season episode "Patience", for scenes taking place at the undertaker's residence.
The soul eater was a combination of actor Jordan Marder in make-up, and a silicone dummy that had an extendable mouth and movable teeth.
[34] As The X-Files entered into its eighth season, "human resurrection and salvation" as well as "disease, suffering, and healing" became an increasingly central focus of the show.
The stone usage has been "mired in controversy", but most Native American scholars agree that it represents the "synthesis and wholeness, including concepts of renewal and rebirth".
[36] Amy Donaldson, in her book We Want to Believe contrasted the soul eater from "The Gift" to Leonard Betts, a "Monster-of-the-Week" character from the fourth season episode of the same name.
[37] Donaldson reasons that Betts' condition, in which he is "riddled with cancer" but can "see the sickness within people", is a metaphor for someone who "has let sin or evil become the regular course of life".
[38] Donaldson argues that the soul eater is the polar opposite of Betts because it takes an illness in order to help a person, even though it hurts itself in the process.
"[42] He argued that the episode was "so effective" because it "isn't just the inversion of the monster/normal personal dichotomy; the show has pulled that trick before, and while it tries to play coy about the true nature of the soul eater at first, it's not hard to recognize who the real villain is.
"[42] Handlen also wrote that the episode both "forces the audience to identify more strongly with Doggett" and made good use of Anderson's absence.
"[43] Television Without Pity writer Jessica Morgan rated the episode a "B+" and applauded the return of Duchovny, writing, "welcome back, [...] you magnificent bastard.
[22] Furthermore, they negatively wrote about the revelation that Mulder was suffering from a terminal brain disease, calling it a "monumental story" curve that did not bother "to connect all the dots behind" it.
[22] Robert Shearman, in his book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode two stars out of five.
[45] In addition, he criticized the decision to have Skinner and Doggett suppress the truth in the end, arguing that this plot point goes against the spirit of the series.
