(Courtesy of Shane Harvey/FOX)
After the highly anticipated premiere, Fox continues The X-Files: Season 11 with the self-contained standalone Episode 2: This. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson return as the iconic FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
Time has passed for Mulder and Scully as they nap on the couch of their new residence. Their home has files stashed away, piled all over the table. A Ramones concert is playing on TV when Mulder gets a call. Richard Langly (Dean Haglund) returns from the grave, asking, “Am I dead?”
All of a sudden, Scully and Mulder find themselves under attack. Just when the duo fight back shooting, the hit-man with long white curls escapes. Commander Al (Andre Roshkov) leads the invasion to confiscate Mulder’s phone. While handcuffed together, Scully and Mulder are in need of rescue and find unexpected help from Skinner (Mitch Pileggi).
Though the three cannot trust each other, Skinner reveals everything he knows about Purlieu Services. The investigation to the Lone Gunmen’s graves leads them to another dead ally.,Deep Throat. His memory medallion leads them to another discovery, every intelligence agency has Mulder’s previous works on file.
Mulder and Scully scan the database and find out Langly has been erased. His file has been sent to Karah Hamby (Sandrine Holt). She reveals Langly was part of a program that uploaded his consciousnesses to a simulation where he could live in after death. After her major revelation, Karah ends up getting killed by the long-haired hit-man.
After Scully shoots down the hit-man, the two end up stealing Karah’s phone and hide out at a local bar. After Mulder figures out the algorithm, Langly shows up on his cell and tells them that he’s been living in his own personal heaven. No one dies of cancer, The Ramones play every night, and the New England Patriots never win. This is why Langley begs Mulder and Scully to destroy him.
Seeing how Langley has become a digital slave, Mulder and Scully break their way into Titanpointe. While Svully fights her way through, Mulder meets with Erika Price (Barbara Hershey), who offers to make a deal with him. Scully ends up breaking into the computer room and turns the switches off.
Scully and Mulder return to the crime scene with reinforcement but all traces of Purlieu Services have been erased. Back at their home, Langly shows up one more time on Mulder’s phone, telling them the backup still exists.
In a shocking twist of the afterlife, Langly has been sent to Hell and will be tortured nonstop as a digital ghost.
Season 11 of The X-Files continues Wednesdays at 8pm on Fox.
– By Jorge Solis