Within (The X-Files)
The episode earned a Nielsen rating of 9.5 and was watched by 15.87 million viewers, marking a slight increase from the previous season's finale "Requiem".
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files.
In this episode—continuing from the seventh season finale "Requiem" when Mulder was abducted by aliens who are planning to colonize Earth—an FBI taskforce is organized to hunt for Mulder but Scully suspects the taskforce leader, Special Agent John Doggett (Patrick), and instead chooses to search for her lost partner with Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi).
"Within" also marked the first major change to the opening credits since the show first started, with new images and updated photos for David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, and the addition of Robert Patrick.
Scully subsequently learns that the Bureau's newly promoted deputy director, Alvin Kersh (James Pickens, Jr.), has launched a manhunt in search for Mulder.
Scully and Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) are taken to the task force's field office to be questioned, despite protests that they would be the most qualified to lead the manhunt themselves.
Skinner later finds out that someone has used Mulder's FBI pass to gain access to the X-Files, and that the Bureau task force considers him the main suspect.
By the time Doggett's task force arrives, Gibson has already escaped via a window and is leaving for a desert hill top with another person: Mulder.
[8] However, the producers found it difficult to convincingly write Duchovny's character out of the script, and explain Mulder's absence in the episodes of the upcoming season.
[8] Eventually, it was decided that Mulder's character would be abducted by aliens in "Requiem", thereby leaving it open for the actor's return in 11 episodes the following year.
In particular, Campbell, following his involvement with the sixth season episode "Terms of Endearment", was considered, but, due to a contractual obligation, could not take any work during the filming of his series Jack of All Trades.
[11] Reportedly, Patrick was cast due to his role in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), as Fox believed he would attract 18- to 35-year-old males to the show.
[14] After the conclusion of The X-Files in 2002, Patrick commented that this part of the episode had been his favorite scene in the series, and admitted that he could not think of a better way to introduce his character.
Tom Braidwood, who appears in this episode as long-running recurring character Frohike, similarly remarked that the first meeting of Doggett and Scully was one of his favorite scenes from the entire series.
[17] According to producer Paul Rabwin, an "incredible heat wave" hit the area during the shooting, resulting in terrible filming conditions.
The opening sequence then was modified to include new images, updated FBI badge photos for Duchovny and Anderson, as well as the addition of Patrick to the main cast.
The opening also contains images that allude to Scully's pregnancy and, according to Frank Spotnitz, show an "abstract" explanation for Mulder's absence, with him falling into an eye.
For the scene in which Mulder's face is restrained by hooks, make-up artist Matthew W. Mungle, who created special cheek prosthetics that were then attached to Duchovny (whom series makeup supervisor Cheri Montasanto-Medcalf later noted "sat pretty good through all that").
"[8] 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.
In "Deadalive", the theme reappears in full-force: Billy Miles is found dead but resurrects, Mulder is buried for three months, and later, is brought back to life.
These comparisons were first purposely inserted during the seventh season episode "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati", in which Mulder is placed on a cross-like table, symbolic of the wooden cross that Jesus was nailed to.
[20][21] Michelle Bush, in her book Myth-X notes that Mulder's torture scenes in "Within" bear a resemblance to the Crucifixion of Jesus.
[30] Tom Janulewicz from Space.com also reacted positively toward the episode, enjoying the idea of making the character of Skinner into a "true" believer.
"[32] Robert Shearman, in his book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode four stars out of five and wrote that it "sings when it reinvents the old and introduces the new.
Club wrote that both "Within" and "Without" form "a great way to pick up after the cliffhanger ending of the previous season" and that "the pair of episodes [...] work well as an introduction to the new narrative status quo.
"[36] He awarded both entries a "B+" and praised the characterization of Doggett, writing that "Robert Patrick brings a distinct, charismatic energy to the part.
