Thoughts on Season 9

[ThyneAlone]

Hi all,
I hope to be able to post a few reviews of S9 soon. I honestly don't think I've done ANY of it, though I have watched devotedly. I'll start with one or two favourites and take it from there, though it may be a bit irregular as I'm back at work next week. As I pored over ep summaries and reviews already done to prepare myself for this task I began to pick out a great many that I'd liked and remembered well. Which was strange, because S9 overall had not impressed me hugely.

I'll tell you why I think this anomaly has occurred....I'm not an 'arc' person. I like to enjoy episodes as standalones. I started to lose interest in the X-files when huge arcs began to overshadow it, and even my best Buffy eps are individual ones. In S9 so much has been going on that I've lost track, and I have a perpetual feeling of having missed something important. First of all Pelant had to be disposed of in the most cursory and uninteresting way possible, and since I loathed his arc the previous season I wasn't too attentive to those episodes. Then this ghost killer crops up mysteriously and I honestly can't recall a first reference to her (maybe I missed something at the end of S8?), and Brennan gets obsessed with her to the point where it's interfering with my enjoyment of the rest of the stuff that's going on. Then she too gets disposed of in short order and now this has blended near-seamlessly into a government conspiracy which, I'll admit, I can't actually follow. Prize for anyone who can intimate what I missed out on. Cos I am confused.

Right. Return to viewing. I'll be back in the next day or so.

[MariaDiaper]

The ghost killer is part of a powerful family called the McNamara's. The FBI has been covering and protecting them to enable one member of the family to keep on killing. The conspiracy then spreads much deeper than the McNamara's, leaving us at the season finale of season 9. Hope this is clearer for you

[ThyneAlone]

Oh I got the McNamaras bit. Though I still don't recall the first time this individual was called the Ghost Killer and I really can't see a reason why they called her that. Obviously it wouldn't be a conspiracy if I knew why it was happening, so I am not going to ask about that! But it is the 'deepening' of the conspiracy that I really don't understand; or particularly why it all ended up in the big action in the finale, which was exciting but not entirely convincing.

[skftex]

The Ghost Killer was first mentioned by Pelant, Pelant told Brennan that there was a serial killer out there that they'd never catch without his help, and to look at certain cases because they were all killed by the same person. I guess "ghost" because she was getting away with being a serial killer and no one noticed until Pelant said something?

[ThyneAlone]

Ah, then this is definitely to do with my unwillingness to watch with any attention anything with Pelant in it. I do recall the nightmare Brennan had , that was spectacularly well done; but the whole concept was well established by then.

The leaving of clues, the fingernail issue and so on, do leave the impression of a typical serial killer; but what I find untypical is the desire to remain anonymous. Most serial killers are so arrogant about their MO that they leave clues specifically so that the killings can be linked, whether the victims are random or have something in common.

I'll be interested to see exactly how these murders are linked,given the way the intrigue is developing.