The X-Files (TV Series) Demons (1997) User Reviews

I need that, like I need a hole in the head

[Muldernscully · 9/10 · 22 September 2006]

Season four sprinkles single mythology-related episodes all throughout; more so than any other season. It becomes a bit overwhelming at times, but I like it. Demons is another such episode. This episode delves into Mulder's memories regarding his sister's abduction. The story is tense and exciting from start to finish as Mulder and Scully work to find out how Mulder was involved in the deaths of two strangers and why he can't remember anything about the last two days. Mulder experiences all of these flashbacks from his childhood involving his family and the cigarette smoking man. He then goes and confronts his mom about an affair between her and the cigarette smoking man. I found it interesting that Mulder won't look his mother in the eye until he is alone in the room with her. I don't know why. The one cheesy part of the episode is when Mulder and Scully find Mulder's car and it has "thick" dust on it from two days of non-use. No way a car is going to have that much dust on it from just two days. Unnecessary scene. They went with Chris Owens as the younger cigarette smoking man, as he had played that role in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man". However, they got a different actor to play the young Fox Mulder, one that has more similarities to Chris Owens, perhaps to suggest ambiguity to Mulder's paternity. One of the final scenes mirrors a scene from "Zero Sum" where Skinner fired shots right past the smoking man's head. It's a very tense scene. But, as Scully says, Mulder was given a powerful hallucinogen, and we don't know how accurate his memories are that we see during this episode. So, once again, Demons leaves us with the classic x-files doubt of what really is the truth.

One of my favorite episodes of the Season

[SleepTight666 · 9/10 · 20 December 2008]

Another excellent episode of Season 4. It might not be for everyone, as it's merely a character-centric, slow and emotional episode. But for the people that love the characters and want to see them explored better, then this episode is for you.

Demons starts off with Mulder in a hotel room, unknowing where he has been and with blood on his shirt. Throughout the episode, he has flashes of his past, including Samantha's abduction and the affair of his mom with Cancer Man. It even leads him to believe that CSM might be his father (which will be a recurring theme next Season). One of my favorite parts of this episode were the flashbacks, I loved the gritty and beautiful look they had.

Another aspect that I loved was that Mulder believed that he could have killed those people at first, but Scully was skeptical (as always) and supportive.

One thing that I didn't fully get was the old doctor's motives. He was never portrayed as a villain, so why did he put those people in danger?

FOUR stars for this episode, it may have been a little slow in places but it's one of my favorite episodes of the Season nevertheless.

"I want to remember."

[classicsoncall · 8/10 · 29 June 2017]

Just when you think you might have a firm grip on what's going on with Mulder and his obsession with extraterrestrials and the kidnapping of his sister, enter another story line that totally obfuscates what we've come to learn before. With Mulder waking up in a Providence, Rhode Island motel room with blood on his clothes and no memory of what happened, it becomes Scully's mission to clear her partner of a murder charge and slowly walk him back to reality.

You know, when Mulder made that remark to Scully about Orenthal James Simpson, I made a note to myself to research what that was all about until it dawned on me after the episode was over that he was referring to O.J. Palm strike to the head on that one. With Simpson recently granted parole on one of the charges against him as I write this, he still faces extended prison time for using a gun in a robbery. I wonder if he'll continue the search for the real killer if he ever gets out of jail.

Anyway, Mulder's memories of what occurred on the night his sister was abducted gets additional play in this story. It had been established earlier that it was Mulder's father that made the decision of which child of his would be taken by the Cigarette Smoking Man to insure his compliance and secrecy regarding the project central to the X-Files mythology arc.

Now we see that the situation was a little more complicated. Or was it? Mulder's treatment with a hallucinogenic drug by an unethical doctor may have contributed to false memories or even worse. Someone should have warned Mulder that he needed those ketamine shots like another hole in the head.

He said he was going to exorcise his demons.

[Sanpaco13 · 10/10 · 24 December 2007]

Another great episode! Yes, I sure enjoy this one. We start with a Mulder flashback in which he sees his sister and his parents fighting over what we know is about sending one of their children to the aliens. After the flashback Mulder wakes up in a hotel room covered in blood and does not know where he is or how he got there. The first half of the episode ensues with Mulder and Scully trying to piece together the events that Mulder does not remember. It looks quite glum for Mulder as all the evidence is pointing to him as the murderer of an elderly couple. He is arrested for a while until Scully pieces together enough of the facts to point to a doctor who does unconventional treatments to help with repressed memories. He especially has worked with alien abductees to try and help them remember what happened to them. Turns out Mulder under went treatment as well as the couple who was shot. However, the doctor uses a hallucinogen to stimulate these memories which Scully believes are causing false memories. In true X-File fashion it looks more like the memories are true as they fit so well into the story however it is never confirmed so there is no real proof. When Mulder finds out why he went to the doctor in the first place he decides to go again to try and recall the memory of what happened. When he does this Scully finds him and there is a very tense moment in which Mulder points his gun at Scully thinking her to be the cigarette man in his memory. We then go outside the house and hear gun shots and are led to believe that Mulder has shot Scully however we return inside and find that Mulder has faced his Demon by letting go and shooting away from Scully. There is a lot to be learned in this episode about the mythology and I also think it is interesting that Mulder later on ends up having a neurological ailment which seems to link to this episode and his seizures. There may or may not be a link here. We also learn a little about Mulder's mother and the Cigarette Man's relationship and Mulder asks the question that is still debated today "who is my real father." His mother denies that she had an affair with him however we know that this is a lie and that she has been prone to hold back information and lie before but that doesn't necessarily directly point to Fox being Cigarette Man's son although I still subscribe to this theory due to other facts that come forth throughout the series up to and including Jeffrey Spender calling Mulder his half brother. Whether this means that they share the same father or the same mother is another discussion for another thread/episode discussion. Anyway, I like the episode. 10/10.

Your demons lead to your truth.

[devonbrown-90649 · 8/10 · 20 June 2023]

This was a mulder centric episode as he explores his memories via a ketamine fueled procedure bough on by a crazy psychiatrist. He remembers so much that he demands his mother validate his memories at she is apart of all the trauma his family face with his sister and CSM.

Mulder does scream to his mother "who's my real father" it wasn't clear whether he saw something that triggered that in his flashbacks. Nevertheless this was a risky decision taken by mulder as he witness multiple people kill themselves under this drug. Thank god scully prevented him from doing so himself.

It seems eveytine Mulder gets closer to the truth he's presented with more obstacles and questions.

An episode that is the cornerstone for the next 5-years, it ends up with David Lynch Syndrome

[Kittylogue · 7/10 · 30 March 2015]

We are at the mercy of screen-writers and directors.

Viewers are presented with Mulder having a memory or dream then calling Scully about having blood on him he could not explain. This episode was no more than two plots running simultaneously. In other words it is one plot story bloated into confusion. Or, an episode with David Lynch Syndrome.

Where does this go wrong?

One plot is an LSD type flashback with his sister making a cameo. The second was as if Our Uncle Buck grabbed our nose. Mulder had blood on him, and with every possible turn, he is looking like a psychotic murder if not a victim. The Viewer triages putting the second plot to keep Mulder out of prison over the LSD flashback. Well,.. the episode implies resolving the first plot will answer the second.

Oops, 18-year SPOILER ALERT: they both are independent of the other.

While we are looking for our nose, Mulder has a couple more flashbacks.

Some 45-minutes later, Scully waves her hand saying test absolve Mulder. Sure, people are dead, Mulder has blood on him, he was likely there, but pssh! don't worry. During the misdirection, we learn the memories have serious implication with some vague relationship to the dead. Again, Mulder had blood on him, people were dead, Mulder is off the hook but.. wait, huh?

In short, viewers are given a short plot, expanded beyond reason (a la David Lynch) and are misdirected by a second plot to nowhere. Moreover, the next episode on the DVR does not pick up explaining why Mulder was there and bloody. That's another spoiler.

A pretty good watch.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 19 August 2022]

Mulder calls for Scully's help, when he's implicated in the death of a woman, located in a place he holidayed as a child.

I'm not too surprised to see so many glowing reviews, it does have a certain charm, but for me, compared to some of the more recent episodes, I was a little more cool with my opinion here.

It is a good episode, it perhaps doesn't really go anywhere, you don't see many signs of that growing relationship between the two detectives, and I thought the solution offered up that the memories could have been someone else's, was a bit of a kop out.

I did like the scenes between Mulder and his mother, a good bit of conflict always grabs the attention.

Those days where ketamine was actually used in veterinary medicine.

Solid, 7/10.

Scully: You are taking a big risk, Mulder. I feel strongly about this. Mulder: I know you do, but it's my risk.

[bombersflyup · 4/10 · 5 December 2021]

In Demons Mulder wakes up covered in blood and suffering from amnesia.

Not the most enjoyable episode, I particularly dislike the cinematography of the flashbacks. A hallucinogenic drug and false memories, a mess. A little annoying that Scully needed to report the bodies before they did some investigation as well, I'm sure Mulder appreciated being unnecessarily locked up.

Not one of my favorites

[carolhendry-25126 · 5/10 · 7 January 2024]

Overall, I am not a fan of the protracted "missing sister" storyline with all of the twists and turns and this episode is one of my least favorites of that arc. I found the flashback sequences to be repetitive, annoying, and headache inducing, especially the psychedelic flashes. I also found the pacing of the episode to be overall draggy and slow. The story line wandered all over the place from Mulder being a possible murder suspect to him being a willing subject to an experimental psychiatric treatment that left him agitated and paranoid. The only positive I see coming out of the episode is more evidence of Scully's feelings and concern for Mulder.