After doing my review of the two and a half hour version of "A Friend In Need (Director's Cut)," grappling with Lucy's guest appearance on the X-Files will be relatively easy. As with my previous reviews of shows like Lucy on The Simpsons or Just Shoot Me, I will be writing from a Xenacentric position, not so much interested in the episode per se, but rather looking at what part Lucy plays in this.

Unlike Just Shoot Me, the X-Files is a show I do watch weekly. However, I have found over the last couple of years, the plot has become so twisted and obscure that I no longer really understand what the heck is going on any more. I get the basic idea: X-Files team good, government and aliens bad. According to promos for the new season, the X-Files will undergo a shift to a lighter tone, but at the start of this season, they are still wrapping up the threads of last year and the plot is still murky at best. Scully has a baby?! Puh-leeze! And the opening credits reveal a more ensemble approach to the cast, with several recurring guest stars now full time, like Reyes and Skinner. Unfortunately, having so many more players to use in the show each week seems to be stretching the plot even thinner, if this season premiere is any indication. Gillian Anderson is made less a focal point (unfortunately), and the plots now have to include all these extra people. Once upon a time, if you followed Mulder and Scully, you knew what was up. Now, it's something to even see Scully, much less get inside her head.

It is well known by now that Lucy plays Shannon McMahon on the show. They don't mention her by name early on, but I'll still refer to her as Shannon.

Well, they don't tease us for long! After a brief opening shot of a man drinking at a bar, we are introduced to Shannon's breasts as they come within his sight. Dressed in black and with her trademarked Xena locks in place, she strides purposefully across the bar and sits down for a drink. Very warrior princess-like. Of course, the man at the bar walks up to start a conversation. Did I say Lucy looks stunning?

The man begins to go on about the water in the drinks, saying he doesn't trust water since it contains "chloramine," an additive the government has put in the water because it's "good" for you like fluoride. This guys hints he knows something different about that. When the guy says he didn't intend to bum her out like that, she suggests they "get some air."

We cut to the pair in an open convertible at night. He's driving. As casual chit chat, he mentions they've been driving quite a while. Obviously, Shannon is playing navigator, and the man thinks they are headed back to her place for more drinks. Shannon remains relatively mute and mysterious as they approach a bridge.

The bridge is a drawbridge, and the middle chunk is elevated to let a ship past. Shannon slyly begins to caress the man's right knee, and he looks kind of turned on (and with good cause). Then, without warning, she suddenly grips his knee hard and forces his foot to the floor. The car crashes through the barrier and crashes into the water below. Surely Shannon's not suicidal?

Once the car hits the bottom of the channel, the man struggles to open his seatbelt to swim to the surface. Next to him, Shannon appears to be knocked out, floating lifelessly with eyes closed. However, once the man gets free, Shannon reaches out and grabs his ankle. She holds him back while he drowns, and strangely, she appears completely unconcerned about drowning herself.

Quite an introduction to Shannon McMahon as we go to the credits.

We cut to several scenes of the various X-Files regulars starting their days. Scully calms her baby (and she has packed bags in the corner--is she going some place?). Reyes gets a call from an old boyfriend, Brad, wanting to meet, and while Doggett plays TV while getting coffee, we hear about the body dragged from the river last night. No mention of any hot looking woman with him. Turns out the guy was the deputy administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. So he does know about his water additives! With ties that close to the government, how long before the X-Files team comes into play?

Brad meets Reyes, and he turns out to be an FBI big shot as well as Reyes' ex-something. He gives her the heads up that some evidence tampering has been going on that will sabotage the case Doggett is trying to make against Deputy Director Kersh (see last season's episodes). Kersh, meanwhile, is running into Doggett in the elevator and letting his displeasure be subtly, yet surely be known. Doggett meets Reyes in the basement X-Files office, where he tells her about his frustration, and she tells him about the altered video.

Then we're in a water treatment plant, apparently near where the car went into the water. A guy is meandering by checking stuff, when who should rise up from a tank of still water but Shannon, looking for all the world like Xena rising from the waters to battle the Green Dragon! The steely look in her eyes is pure Xena (or maybe now we're finding out it's simply pure Lucy). Trouble must be in store!

The plant guy goes to make a phone call when he suddenly sees Shannon, totally naked after rising from the water, strolling off between the treatment machines. I'll bet he doesn't see that every day! He goes off chasing her, and we cut to the next scene.

Doggett corners Scully in her apartment and demands to know where Muldur is. "He's just gone," is her reply. It must've given Chris Carter a rupture to write an explanation that simple. Just another loose end to tie up someday, or not.

Suddenly, we're back at the treatment plant. The guy has lost sight of Shannon, when, yes, she suddenly appears right behind him just like Xena would do! I hate to keep comparing her to Xena, but if you watch the show, see if she doesn't seem just like Xena in contemporary clothing (and even more like Xena when naked). She pulls the guy under the water and drowns him as well. It appears she is living somehow under water in this tank. How very bizarre, but who would think to look in there? Is she a bionic being with gills, does she have some sort of hi-tech Bondian underwater breathing apparatus, or what? Knowing the X-Files, we won't get quick or definitive answers to the many questions surrounding Shannon McMahon!

Reyes is in Skinner's office when Doggett walks in. She can't find Mulder. Skinner can't find Muldur. Evidence is disappearing and people are getting killed. Skinner, showing his all-too-frequent ability to turn coward, wants Doggett to drop the case before anyone else dies. Doggett can't do that and begins to walk out. Reyes says she's with him and follows.

We see Brad in a bar, and I half way expect to have Shannon come sidling up next to him as her next target. But in walks Reyes, and the two flirt a bit, and she outlines some of the reasons she went with Doggett on the case. She feels if Doggett's case is lost or dropped, the X-Files will be scrapped. She likes working there, and doesn't want to leave D.C. Although disapproving of Doggett, Brad seems to have an interest in Reyes' well being, and it's hard to tell if he's a villain playing his cards close, or a good guy who can't appreciate the ethical leanings of Doggett.

Doggett returns to hound Scully (unsuccessfully) for more information. He wants to know why he was once her friend, and now he's the enemy? Scully also asks him to "drop it," and she claims outright that the forces against him are deep within the FBI and are "unstoppable." When Doggett persists, she coldly leads him to the door and asks him to never come back. Is it just me, or is Scully being a bit harsh here?

At this point, I'm wondering, "Where's Shannon?" Her part still seems light years removed from the main plot going on here. I have no doubt it'll all tie in eventually, but I'd like to see more of Lucy!

Here's one of those places where I just don't get it. Dogget returns to his office and picks up a picture of a bunch of army soldiers in it. He picks a name off one soldier's name tag and calls him. Before you know it, he has a list of names on a pad, and he's crossing them off one-by-one, obviously not finding the information he's looking for. What's with the picture, and how did he get the names? I have no clue where this scene came from, but he gets to the last name on the list, and guess what? It's Shannon McMahon. We see the picture again, are sure enough, Shannon is one of the camouflaged soldiers. John gets her answering machine and asks her to call back.

The next cut shows Shannon coming into the FBI office. Going by the previous scene, she might be going to meet Doggett, but that scene never materializes. So she must just be going about some business at the office, whatever that might entail. Dressed in a fabulous gray business suit, she breezes out of the elevator right past Reyes, who eyes her disdainfully, almost as if she knows her from some prior encounter.

Scully, who previously told Doggett her baby was perfectly fine, puts the kid to bed. Overhead is a mobile, completely still in the room's motionless air. Scully lies down, and in the background, we see the mobile begin to spin around. The obvious implication here is that the kid has some sort of mind-over-matter control. Scully better stop ignoring her kid. Gabrielle ignored all the evidence, and then we had Hope. Let's not see a repeat here! Then again, it might give Renee a reason to come on and do a continuing guest roll!

Reyes, working barefoot in the basement office, hears someone scruffing about in the corridor. She goes out to investigate, only to find someone has left an envelope with the obituary of the EPA guy killed in the first scene. So this will be the thread that brings them to Shannon's covert deeds.

Scully, awakened by the crying baby, notices the spinning mobile. She easily stops it with her hand, but the instant she releases it, it begins purposefully rotating again. Perhaps this is why she's being so secretive. She knows the baby has strange powers, and she doesn't want anyone to find out, possibly fearing the baby will be taken away. And if necessary, she's got her bags packed, so she's ready to run. Scully can be quite devious when it suits her purposes.

Or not! She immediately picks up the phone to call Doggett. She tells him she was wrong and the case should be pursued after all. This mobile rotating power has apparently caught her off-guard. Now she's looking for answers.

Doggett, Scully, and Reyes meet at the morgue so that Scully can do an autopsy on the EPA guy. Skinner calls on Doggett's cell phone and rags on him for taking out the body without proper authorization. Apparently, his internal investigation of Deputy Director Kersh is making him a lot of enemies who are just looking for excuses to hassle him.

The three Lone Gunmen appear at Doggett's place. In a wry tip to their short-lived series, they appear to be broke and looking for a job. When asked what happened, the blond guy says they don't want to know! Hey, that show really was bad! It seems they've been looking into the EPA guy's files for possible leads.

Back at the morgue, Scully has found the man died of drowning, not from the impact of the car crash. This leads to her and Reyes talking a bit, and Reyes lets Scully know that she understands her fear about her baby. She's been on the X-Files long enough now to know what's happening there. Scully naturally turns ice princess and clams up. But then Scully notices the grip marks on the corpse's ankle where Shannon held him down. A second person was there, but how?! Of course, we know it as the handiwork of tonight big guest star!

Like I said earlier, Brad isn't to be trusted, and now he shows up in Kersh's office, trying to get the guy stirred up over Doggett's playing fast and loose with the EPA corpse. He's just asking for Doggett to take him down! And Kersh wants Brad to clear up this whole mess and report back to him.

While Scully is out cutting up cadavers, her mother is watching the baby when the door bell rings. It turns out that it's Shannon looking for Scully. The mother won't open the door, and suddenly Shannon's gone. What?

Scully and Reyes conclude their autopsy, and as they leave, Shannon comes around the corner and begins to ominously follow the pair down the hall. Reyes senses danger for some reason, and begins to hurry Scully along. When they reach the elevator, they look back, and Shannon is gone. Like Xena, she just pops in and out. Almost a force of nature. Then the elevator doors open, and there's that Brad coming back from his meeting with Kersh. He angrily grabs Reyes, with Scully following behind, and drags her back to the autopsy room. But the corpse has vanished somehow. Brad is taken aback that his evidence has disappeared, and Reyes is smart enough to play dumb to the whole thing.

When Scully leaves, Reyes and Brad have it out. She thinks Brad sent the obituary to set up Doggett to attempt this unauthorized autopsy. Brad tells her Doggett's out of control and she needs to get out immediately. Brad seems to not know about the obituary, but something's rotten in Denmark, and Reyes can smell it.

Reyes goes over to Doggett's house to check in with him, only to find the Lone Gunmen holding down the fort. It seems the Gunmen have found out that the plant worker Shannon killed was sending some sort of encrypted messages to the first guy she killed. Doggett and Skinner have gone out to investigate the murders in Maryland.

Doggett and Skinner are inside the water plant offices and have found the guy's desk with all the files on chloramine. Since there are a lot of files on the subject, they figure that must have something to do with it. They grab the files and take off as someone approaches in the hallway.

The other group in the hall is Brad and his FBI henchmen, also coming covertly to search for clues. But Brad hears Doggett and Skinner running off into the main water reclamation area of the plant. Brad and his men pursue. Skinner's behind Doggett, and he's soon overcome by Brad. Brad says they must be after the same man, even though he's quite aware Skinner was working with Doggett. Seems Brad only wants Doggett now. It's personal!

Brad looks into one of the water tanks, and we see that Doggett has jumped in and is holding his breath in order to hide. But the main lights are off this late at night, and Brad doesn't see Doggett down there in the darkness. But you're wondering where Shannon is with all this water around. And suddenly, Shannon appears under Doggett and grabs his ankle. She's dragging him down!

To be continued.

Well, well, well. You can take the actress out of the warrior princess costume, but you can't take the warrior princess out of the actress. Every scene that Lucy was in, she was behaving just like her previous character. Imagine Shannon and Xena meeting in a hot tub some place! But still, her role here is mainly to provide a tease for her character. Just who is this strange, murderous, aquatic lady? I have a feeling that Part 2 will provide a bit more explanation of her character. She seemed to be doing evil things by drowning people, but since we don't really know who's good and who's bad, she may turn out to be some special agent taking out bad guys. Perhaps when she drags Doggett down into the vat at the end, she's going to give him a breathing device and prove to save him from Brad and his Stormtroopers.

I give Lucy strong marks for playing the most interesting character in this episode with her usual skill. She doesn't have many lines, really, but as we all know, she can speak volumes with her eyes and facial expressions. The episode itself I chalk up as a three chakram rating out of five. I found myself not really caring much for the main story concerning Mulder's disappearance and Scully's baby. That was just typical X-Files mysterious stuff. Most of the show adopted a rather dreary, ominous tone. XWP could pull that off, but they knew how to liven things up with a dollop of humor. Every time Lucy appeared tonight, the screen electrified. She just has a screen presence almost like Marilyn Monroe. And by the nature of being a two-parter, it provides virtually nil in the way of any kind of resolution, instead leaving us with as many questions as when we began. If Part 1 is any indication, let's hope Lucy is called in more this season to spice things up.

"Nothing Important Happened Today?" By the gods, Lucy Lawless was back on TV! Can't wait for Part 2.
Rick(Gabriologist since the late 20th Century)
Visit my web site at www.ricks-studio.com for Episode Reviews,
Humorous Quotes, and other Xena-themed writing!

"And this is my character here?" --Renee, looking over the X-Files script
"I told you, Renee, you're not in it!" --Lucy
"But Shannon needs a spunky blond sidekick!" --Renee