User Reviews

Much better than I remembered, and much better than most Season openers. I feel like almost all of the Season openers only provide set-up, while this episode also provides set-up. and it also continues the story of what happened in 'Anasazi' and is a very good episode on it's own.

I loved the voice-overs, they were very well written and the scenes of the dying Mulder were well done. I love the scene where he sees Deep Throat and his father.

Besides that, this episode also developed Scully's story more. She found out about the chip at the back of her neck, which leads her to have cancer. And she also loses her sister.

I'm giving this episode FOUR stars, it's a little slow like most of the Mythology episodes. but that's a good thing in this case.

The Blessing Way the Limerick:

Mulder thought dead is healing

Scully when dreaming is feeling

"Mulder's not dead,

its all in my head!"

While Skinner, the tape is concealing.

The Blessing Way is the second episode of a three parter which ends season 2 and begins season 3. I really like this episode because of the focus given to the Indian culture and healing process. In the previous episode Mulder was in a boxcar full of alien corpses when CSM torched it leaving us believing that Mulder was dead. We now find that Mulder is not dead and the Navajo nurture him back to life. Meanwhile Scully is dealing with matters back home. Her badge and weapon are taken from her but this does not keep her from trying to help find Mulder. While she believes him dead in the beginning he appears to her in a dream leading her to believe that he is going to be found alive. She tells Mrs. Mulder this at Mr. Mulder's funeral where she has a run in with Well Manicured Man who warns her that someone she trusts will try to kill her. She suspects Skinner because he apparently has an alternate agenda and lies to her about being at her apartment. This leads to the end of the episode with Scully and Skinner in a stand off which gets even better in the next episode as this is where this one cuts off. Probably one of the better scenes in the whole series. This is probably my favorite three parter and I enjoy this episode. 9 out of 10.

"We predict the future. And the best way to predict it, is to invent it. " – The Well-Manicured Man.

Season 3 premiere, 'The Blessing Way', original air date September 22nd, 1995. Written by Chris Carter, directed by R.W. Goodwin. Mythology episode count, 14. The third season begins with an episode that blends thoughtful sentimentality and mysticism with tense drama. In contrast to the previous season's closer, Scully pulls focus and drives much of the plot forward, while Mulder takes a back seat. A choice that Duchovny felt resulted in a wasted opportunity for himself as an actor, but rather Carter disagreed and felt, rightfully so in my opinion, that the dramatic weight had to be shifted from Mulder to Scully. This episode introduces us to one of my favorite syndicate members, The Well-Manicured Man, played by John Neville. Though this moniker is only used to credit the character in the cast list, thankfully it's never used on the show as it is pretty silly as far as names go. While 'Anasazi' saw the murder of Bill Mulder by Alex Krycek, this time around same trigger man dispatches Scully's sister, Melissa, albeit by accident with Scully being the intended victim. Both agents have now lost someone close to them, paid the heavy price for their insubordination, their stubborn pursuit of the truth despite the deadly consequences. Deep Throat's final words, "Trust no one", have never been more pertinent as Scully questions Skinner's allegiances and realises that Mulder may be her only true friend at the F.B.I.

The previous season's looming question is answered within the first scene of this episode as Albert Hosteen discovers the unconscious body of Mulder, hidden beneath rock near the burnt our train car. The Navajo Indians perform the 'Blessing Way' ritual on him and after a spiritual journey through the after life in which he is spoken to by both Deep Throat and his Father, urging him to return to earthly plains, he regains consciousness and slowly recovers over several days. Meanwhile, Scully, who only half believes that Mulder is truly dead is reprimanded for her defiance of F.B.I protocols and place on leave without pay. She attempts to provide Skinner with some evidence that may exonerate Mulder though he refuses to oblige her. Cancer Man is seen uncharacteristically unhinged in one particular scene as he desperately tries retrieve the DAT tape with the stolen government files. Scully is approached by the Well-Manicured Man at Mulder's funeral and warned that she is in danger even from those whom she may believe to be a friend.

For a mythology episode, this one is fairly straightforward. It doesn't succumb to convoluted subplots but rather functions simply as a way to bring Mulder back in to the game and give Scully more stake in the X-Files. It does this in two ways, one is the death of her sister and the other is the discovery of a computer chip embedded in her neck. The chip is hard evidence of her abduction and something which she cannot deny. As Melissa says to her, she is shut off to any other possibilities than her 'rigid scientific view' and part of this episode is about Scully finally starting to accept that there are events occurring which defy logic, though she'll still have a ways to go. Some viewers were critical of the mystical elements presented through the Navajo spiritual rituals used to effectively bring Mulder back to life. I, however felt this added a nice tonal shift between the two stories being told in this episode. The scenes with Mulder in New Mexico, once again the red paint covered Vancouver quarry, were slow moving but had his reemergence been rushed it would have felt cheap. Maybe it's because I find the spirituality of the traditional Native American culture fascinating but I enjoyed these scenes. It was a far more interesting both visually and thematically to have him brought back in this fashion than to spend half an episode with him lying in a hospital bed.

The final scene is a highlight of the episode. Scully, fearing that Skinner has been sent to kill her, holds a gun to his head and demands answers. A figure approaches the door to Mulder's apartment, where they are currently situated and Skinner takes this opportunity to draw his own gun. It's a great moment because so far in the series Skinner's loyalty to the agents has been called in to question on more than one occasion. His motives are unclear and though he appears to want to aid in the X-Files investigations we haven't seen enough evidence to be certain one way or the other. Therefore when he reassures Scully he is on her side and then proceeds to draw his gun, with everything we've seen so far it feels like it could go in either direction. This is the first time we see the Syndicate, or as they're called in this episode, the Consortium. It's a brief glimpse in to Cancer Man's world that has been only hinted at up until this point. We get the impression that this group of men wields a great deal of power, something the agents are all to aware of as Scully remarks to the Assistant Director of the F.B.I, "I think you overestimate your position in the chain of command." A strong opening for season 3.

With Mulder presumed dead in the finale episode of the Second Season, a new character called the Well-Manicured Man (John Neville) shows up at William Mulder's (Peter Donat) funeral to warn Scully that her life is in danger as well. I get the biggest kick out of the way the series came up with descriptive names for some of their most notorious characters, like Deep Throat, Smoking Man, the Alien Bounty Hunter and so on. I don't know if 'Well-Manicured Man' was the best the writers could have come up with for this one, who we'll come to learn is the leader of the Consortium that held a top secret project under wraps for the past half century.

It's never really made clear how Mulder could have survived the torching of the boxcar he was hiding in during that Second Season cliffhanger, so the viewer has to come to some conclusion on your own. My interpretation is that there was a tunnel of some sort underneath the buried boxcar that gave him enough clearance to avoid suffocating or burning up. The Navajo ritual ceremony performed on Mulder while he remained unconscious for three days gives rise to the episode's title, 'The Blessing Way'. During that time, Mulder has a dream vision in which both his dead father and Deep Throat convince him to hang on and survive in order to keep the memory of the truth alive, that truth being the circumstances that led him to obtain a fifty year old secret government file on the existence of UFO's and extraterrestrials.

One thing I noticed that's still bugging me and I can't figure it out - check out the scene in which Scully observes Skinner returning to his car after he came back from her apartment and she wasn't there. He gets in the car from the street side, and the steering wheel of his car is on the wrong side! It's as if he was driving in England with the steering wheel on the right side of the car instead of the left. Anyone on that?

The other irritant to my mind was why Mulder would have kept the digital tape file from The Thinker in a desk drawer of his FBI office. It would be one of the first places for someone like Skinner to look. This bothered me about as much as Mulder leaving the door to his apartment unlocked in the prior episode so anyone could simply walk in, which Scully did, and took a grazing bullet to the forehead for her effort.

Well, even with those asides, this was a compelling episode, which ended in a deadlock between Scully and Skinner, guns drawn and ready to take each other out with the slightest wrong move. One thing I think the story didn't take advantage of, and it would have provided some interesting comic relief, was Mulder returning to Washington following the Navajo Blessing Way ceremony, and requiring him to refrain from bathing and changing his clothes for four more days. Can you just imagine that one, he would have been a ripe verbal target for the Lone Gunmen.

Really enjoyed this episode.

Cancer man is has really pulled off all the stops this episode. His special interest group seems to be growing weary of his antics.

Was great to see mulder recovery from the explosion and the desert conditions. The story and annotation but he Indian man was excellent. Also the holy people who came to see him gave some excellent speeches to motivate mulder to come back. His dad mentioned that if he were to die the truth will die. He's going to stumble on something big.

Scully has found some sort of chip inside her. Who put that there? And what for? We can only speculate. I wish she went further with the regression therapy. Likely all too much for her.

What's Skinners angle? Sometimes he seems on mulders side other times he's not. I think there more to be revealed in the next episode when mulder returns home ;)

The Blessing Way continues on from "Anasazi." It's good, but is a bit of a comedown, as is the third part proceeding it.

A drama-filled episode, some of it unexciting. Mulder's on his deathbed, but it's Scully who's put through the ringer. Scully has a microchip removed from her back and her sister's killed in her stead, Scully as yet unaware. Skinner walking a fine line, but certainly on their side. Scully not to be messed with, ready to blow Skinner's head off with any sudden movement.