• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments on Cult of Whatever
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • The Muppet Christmas Carol: Michael Caine as Scrooge

      The Muppet’s Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 20, 2022
    • Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 1

      2022’s Christmas Movie Watchlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 18, 2022
    • Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio Poster

      REVIEW: GDT’s Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 14, 2022
    • Troll: Ine Marie Wilmann as Nora

      REVIEWS: TROLL and TROLL HUNTER -A giant creature double feature!

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 5, 2022
    • Harry with The Hendersons

      Harry and the Hendersons is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2022
    • Fantastic Four Poster

      The five best “rogues galleries” in superherodom! (part 3)

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 28, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Led Zeppelin 1977 Promo

      Fifty years of Led Zeppelin

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 4, 2019
      Music
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Big Sky S03e05: Kylie Bunbury, J. Anthony Pena and Katheryn Winnick as Cassie Dewell, Mo Poppernak and Jenny Hoyt

      Big Sky S03E05 Review: Flesh and Blood - Glamping!

      By Salome G
      | October 22, 2022
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Big Sky S03e10: Gang

      Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Rick And Morty: S01e03

      Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e09: Dedee Pfeiffer and Cree as Denise and Emily

      Big Sky S03E09: Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire – Stalling

      By Salome G
      | December 1, 2022
    • The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special: Dave Bautista and Pom Klementieff as Drax and Mantis

      REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S01: The Gang

      The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Big Sky S03e08: Reba McEntire as Sunny Barnes

      Big Sky S03E08 Review: Duck Hunting – I love a weirdo.

      By Salome G
      | November 19, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Splatoon 3 Screenshot

      A trio of Nintendo Switch reviews!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 28, 2022
    • Nintendo Switch Logo

      Looking ahead to the Switch 2: Predictions and Wants

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 15, 2022
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • AEW All Out 2022: Keith Lee. Anthony Bowens, Max Caster and Billy Gunn

      AEW All Out 2022 - Review and (wild) Speculation!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
      AEW
    Recent
    • WWE WrestleMania 38: Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins

      Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?

      By Matthew Martin
      | January 4, 2023
    • AEW Full Gear 2022: Young Bucks and Kenny Omega Elite Entrance

      AEW Full Gear 2022 – A needed reset at the end of a tough year

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 22, 2022
    • WWE Survivor Series 1997: Bret Hart

      The Montreal Screwjob – Twenty Five Years Later

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 8, 2022
    • AEW Grand Slam 2022: Jungle Boy and Rey Fenix

      AEW GRANDSLAM 2022 showcased the present and future of the promotion

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 25, 2022
    • AEW All Out 2022: CM Punk

      AEW All Out Fall Out: All the CM Punk drama that’s fit to print!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 5, 2022
    • AEW Dark: Ricky Starks (22/09/20)

      The future of the AEW World Championship

      By Matthew Martin
      | August 14, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • Was 2022 the wildest year in wrestling history?
    • The Muppet's Christmas Carol remains the gold standard for the book
    • 2022's Christmas Movie Watchlist!
    • REVIEW: GDT's Pinocchio is my favorite film of the year!
    • Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock - Break time...
    • Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

    The X-Files S11E05 Review: Ghouli – This episode was tonally all over the map

    By Salome G
    | February 1, 2018
    TV Blogs

    This week, we begin with a teenage girl entering the ruins of an old ferry. The ship is called “Chimera,” which…lol, no. I’ve seen enough X-Fileses and Twilight Zoneses and Fringes not to want to have anything to do with that.

    But maybe I would have as a teenager. That’s the best time to do all the spooky sleepover games like Bloody Mary and Light as a Feather. This girl and another teenage girl have been drawn to the ship because of “Ghouli,” which sounds like it might be a Slenderman-type thing, but in their eyes, looks more like a Demogorgon.

    They fight the attacking Ghouli, but of course, they’re only fighting each other. As if to hammer in the point, this week’s tagline is changed to “YOU SEE WHAT I WANT YOU TO SEE.”

    On that note, Scully is experiencing hypnagogia, which looks a lot like sleep paralysis. And because I’m nothing in not in sync with Fox Mulder, that’s his conclusion, too. But Scully wasn’t really paralyzed–she was able to get up and follow the dark figure she saw, which was leading her via snowglobe to the Chimera.

    X Files S11e05 Gillian Anderson Dana Scully David Duchovny Fox Mulder

    So they visit the ship, where the girls have already been discovered, thanks to an anonymous 911 call from a male. Mulder and Scully learn that an EMT reported that one of the girls asked if they’d found Ghouli, which leads the agents to Ghouli.net, which again, seems very Slenderman-like. At least in the homemade mythology.

    When they speak to the girls, their stories are alike and like Scully’s. They both experienced hypnagogic states that led them to the Chimera. More importantly, both girls are dating the same boy, a kid named Jackson Van de Kamp. If that surname sounds familiar, it’s the same one Spender gave as William’s adoptive family. So obviously Mulder and Scully have to visit this Jackson.

    As Scully takes a moment before they go in, they hear two gunshots. When they rush in, not only is it the same house Scully saw in her vision, but more pressingly, there’s a dead couple on the floor. They barely get a chance to process this before they hear another gunshot upstairs, where Scully finds the body of a teenage boy (Miles Robbins).

    X Files S11e05 Gillian Anderson Dana Scully

    Is it William? Well, there are certainly some clues that suggest he is Mulder and Scully’s boy. He played baseball as a young boy and his room is decorated with a planetary theme. Other details they find include a book by a pickup artist in his room. However, his hero appears to have been Malcolm X and I’m just as surprised as y’all that I’ve had a reason to mention him twice in as many X-Files reviews.

    Scully also discovers evidence that Jackson had mental health problems and that he was off his meds. The issues he had could have caused hallucinations, so could that account for all the hypnagogia? Was he inducing hallucinations in others? (Yes.)

    As Mulder questions two real suspicious men, who claim that they’re just lookie-loos, Scully attends the body. After sampling both her and the boy’s DNA, she sits down to apologize to him, telling him that she’d thought that giving him up was the hardest part, but that this is much worse. After Mulder arrives and comforts her, taking her to have the DNA tested, the boy sits up and climbs out of the body bag.

    Napping later in the hospital, Scully experiences another bout of hypnogogia. A dark figure leads her to another snowglobe, this one featuring a windmill. Then she’s awakened by the coroner asking where the body is. As she leaves to go back to the house, she literally runs into a man and the snowglobe is broken. The man is the same author on the pickup artist book, but Scully doesn’t recognize him. They have a nice chat, though.

    Anyway, it turns out those two lookie-loos were from the DOD, because Jackson had documents relating to Project Crossroads, run by a Dr. Masuo Matsumoto, on his computer. That was the program wherein they mixed human and alien DNA, the same program that created William. Because the DNA shows that he’s Scully’s boy.

    But he’s just a boy, so he goes to apologize to his girlfriends. It turns out the Ghouli thing was just a prank, bro. He thought they’d run away, not try to slay the monster. One of the girls sees him kissing the other one, so she texts the police that Jackson is at the hospital. Cue a Benny Hill chase around the hospital, if Benny Hill episodes featured a lot more gun violence and hallucinations. Jackson escapes by disguising himself as other people, including a nurse.

    X Files S11e05 Gillian Anderson Dana Scully 2

    As they’re leaving town, Scully sees a gas station with a windmill, where she prompts Mulder to stop. As he’s inside and she’s pumping gas, the pickup artist approaches her, teasing her about following him. They have another nice chat and he gives her advice, in the form of the old saw about how if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything. She tells Mulder about it when he comes outside and he attributes the quote to Malcolm X. [Note: Probably not.] As Scully’s just figured out that he’s the pickup artist, this combination strikes her and she runs into the road, but he’s gone.

    When they watch the surveillance video, it’s Jackson. Or William, really, which gives the things he told Scully earlier a deeper meaning. Things like, “You seem like a nice person. I wish I could know you better.” You could, though.

    7/10 – I don’t know, man. This episode was tonally all over the map. I really (really) liked the last moment, when Scully realized she was talking to William, but other moments that were supposed to be emotional just rang false for some reason. Like, that bodyside confession. Scully went from 0 to 60 emotionally, which just doesn’t feel like the Dana Katherine Scully I know. And I didn’t even mention the Skinner stuff, which felt stuffed into an overstuffed episode. It’s all feeling like afterthoughts, like, oh yeah, the CSM is still around. We’re halfway through this season, which may be the last season of The X-Files forever ever and if I were to be brutally honest, I can’t say I like it all that much. I know these are dire times, what with the pandemic possibly approaching, but can’t the people have some joy? Bring us another weremonster, please.

    In other news, Mulder orders his coffee under the name “Bob,” because he’s tired of explaining “Fox.” I get it, dude. Other things I get: product placement. That shot of Scully connecting to the in-vehicle wifi was cutely obvious.

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    The X-Files

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest

    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest

    0 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments

    You might also like

    • The X-Files S11E04 Review: The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat – Fake news and real memories

      By Salome G
      | January 25, 2018
    • The X-Files S11E03 Review: Plus One – Monster of the Weeeeeeeeek!

      By Salome G
      | January 19, 2018
    • The X-Files S11E02 Review: This – It’s fun to get back to the heart of The X-Files

      By Salome G
      | January 12, 2018
    • The X-Files S11E01 Review: My Struggle III – Full of mytharc madness!

      By Salome G
      | January 4, 2018

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    TV Topics

    Recommended for you

    • Big Sky S03E10 Review: A Thin Layer of Rock – Break time…

      By Salome G
      | December 11, 2022
    • Is Beth from Rick and Morty a bigger sociopath than Rick?

      By Jason Collins
      | December 7, 2022
    • REVIEW: The GOTG Holiday Special is a sweet prelude to next year’s finale

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 27, 2022
    • The Midnight Club S1 Review – A series of unfortunate events

      By Salome G
      | November 24, 2022
    • Doctor Who 2022 October Special Review: The Power of the Doctor – Lackluster

      By Jason Collins
      | October 25, 2022
    • Can the Doctor regenerate into a previous incarnation?

      By Jason Collins
      | October 23, 2022
    • Is the Tardis more sentient plant or machine?

      By Jason Collins
      | October 10, 2022
    • Star Trek Strange New Worlds – Season two wishlist!

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 14, 2022
    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Every episode ranked! (Part 5/5)

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 30, 2022
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz