This delightful and at moments fairly eerie episode advances the plot to the big finale of season 2 and is also a terrific spoof of The X-Files. It's about Bob being joined by two agents of the "CGI", Fax Modom and Data Nully, as they hunt for the foul web creature that had previously infected and merged the viruses of Mainframe and is now lurking in the shadows and abducting binomes and sprites and feeding off their energy in order to survive and grow stronger. The sassy assassin Mouse is also on the prowl and operating under her own mysterious orders... So it's a good parody of that other classic show, it even has a little spooky prologue like an episode of it. Al really can't hear squat to save his life! I'm impressed by how they were able to give even the bizarre blocky forms of binomes a design that was unmistakably Mulder and Scully. Gillian Anderson was a fan of the show and she was so awesome for lending her rich voice which works very well for this kind of thing, and it's just too bad they weren't able to also get Duchovney but apparently he wasn't interested. In the long run it was your sore loss Dave! They guy they got to fill his role does a great job of it anyway. His sleepy voice is so bloody depressing and hilarious as he overdoes Mulder's more paranoid tendencies to a ridiculous degree! "Fax" rather foolishly believes Mouse to be responsible for the disappearances, but the reason she is around is actually much worse. She has strict orders to eliminate the creature no matter the cost before it can spread to the web, including destroying Mainframe itself with what must be a very powerful bomb, and which Bob is prepared to sacrifice himself to prevent by hurling it into the system's atmosphere where it detonates and opens a huge tear in the fabric of the web, which the creature rapidly escapes through as the episode ends and turns it into a portal which leaves Mainframe very vulnerable to attack by more hostile wild cyber-lifeforms, I don't know! It sure is great stuff though. Bob gravely tells Phong to prepare for war and it ends. Something character-wise that I like about this one is seeing Dot and Mouse starting to become friends instead of Dot just being jealous of her because she flirts around Bob. And I found the creature itself when it was fully revealed to be a little on the dumb side, I thought it was way more creepy as a small spider-like thing instead of a big-eyed toothy monster, which I thought looked silly. Very good episode, but the next one is excellent and has a profound impact on the series as a whole. Later!
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
