I've been thinking about this episode since Monday. I think it's thematically very interesting but the execution isn't totally there. That's okay, though; I can think of no other show that would dream of throwing terrorism and a hallucinatory line dance sequence in a blender.
The drug trip was fun if a bit too long. The doppelgangers didn't really add much. But there's some fascinating threads here that I think will reward repeat viewings. I love the idea of hard reality (for a TV drama) smashing headlong into pure silliness but can see how people found it offensive. At the same time, is it any more offensive than the terrorism dramas that mine the same stereotypical material for cheap thrills?
It's a great big mess of an episode but a spirited one. Chris Carter has about a million ideas here and only a handful of them coalesce. The logic of the case is nonexistent (how exactly did Mulder end up communicating with the bomber?) but I found it more emotionally resonant than all of those tearful Scully scenes from last week. It's a really odd duck, and I don't know if I'll ever completely wrap my head around it.
This has been a notably ambitious batch of episodes, and while I think Darin Morgan's is the only truly great one, they have all exhibited that spark of creativity and madness that was missing from the show when it originally went off the air. The writers seem excited about coming up with new X-Files and that enthusiasm shows in the final product. It's as weird, audacious, and maddeningly uneven as ever.