Provenance revisits the themes first introduced in season six's 'Biogenesis', with the alien artifact which is actually a piece of an alien spacecraft. It is nice to get away from the lame Super Soldier storyline, and it helps this episode to be a bit better. The mythology is still struggling at this point in the series, with the whole "William=Christ child" theme, which isn't much better than the Super Soldiers. Back to the episode.
To start out, the teaser is a bit unbelievable. The motorcycle would not explode upon impact after that jump and crash. It might get smashed up and later catch on fire, but not upon impact.
When Scully introduces Doggett to the rubbings of the spacecraft, she surprisingly insults him by saying, "A spacecraft. Agent Doggett, if you can wrap your brain around that." I thought those two had progressed beyond petty insults like that.
Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, the writers of the episode, must have figured that Skinner has been on the agents' side for too long, so they put him back on the fence, which is a good position for him, struggling between his position and doing what's right.
You can tell that Doggett is fully inducted into the x-files now. He breaks into Skinner's desk to get the file on Agent Comer and the rubbings; a very Mulderesque thing to do.
Here is a potential plot hole for the episode: The X-Files generally goes along with real time, with the episodes taking place about the same month that they air. Two months ago, Doggett sees Mulder in Trust No 1 at a distance. In Provenance, Doggett discovers that Agent Comer went undercover six months ago. He sent a communication that Agent Mulder was already dead, that they were trying to confirm. So unless that communication happened less than two months ago, they know that Mulder was alive in 'Trust No 1'.
Once again, as in 'Hellbound', Scully has to get a babysitter in the middle of the night, for an issue that can wait until morning. Doggett and Reyes have to be more considerate of Scully and her situation.
Gillian Anderson does some superb acting in this episode. But why isn't the cut on Scully's head healed when she grabs the artifact? It healed Agent Comer.
I feel bad that they stick the Lone Gunmen in at the end of the episode just so that they can lose William. That's pitiful. It makes them look like complete doofuses being overcome by one woman with a gun. They deserve better than that.
Provenance follows in the footsteps of past mythology episodes with fine drama and exciting action. The storyline isn't up to par with past season mythology episodes, leaving it a little short of perfection.
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