The X-Files (TV Series) Monday (1999) User Reviews

Groundhog Monday

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 30 March 2012]

Star Trek: The Next Generation had an Episode where The Enterprise-D got stuck in a Temporal Causality Loop and got blown up- Over and over and over and over. They get out of this conundrum by sending themselves a message to the next loop: "Do something different."

Maybe whoever wrote this ep saw that Trek 'sode before writing this. Good Idea actually.

This is therefore, the X-Files version of a Temporal Causality Loop. Monday after Monday after Monday, Mulder wakes up to the worst day of his life - And has to live it over and over, until he finally figures it out and sends himself a message.

This episode is literally Stolen by Carrie Hamilton (Carol Burnett's Daughter - RIP 2002) - Who is the only person who is remembering each Monday as it passes.

Carrie gives us the image of a broken insane woman, living this thing over and over again, nothing she tries ever changes the outcome. She tries to interact with every member of The X-Files, Skinner, Mulder, and eventually Skully, nothing she does can keep them from entering the bank that her boyfriend "Bernard" (Darren Burrows) has gone into, with a roll of dynamite sticks around his waist which he intends to rob.

Hamilton created a character "Pam," a woman completely at wit's end, who from the start exudes fear - Even before she interacts in the first scene where she is involved, you now she's part of this.

During Each Perturbation of events, Mulder expounds on "Deja Vu" and different theories on what it means, one of those theories being that you are getting a "Second Chance" to make right an event that you got wrong the first time... And the second, and the 3rd, 4th, 5th, nth time.

I've seen this scenario in several different movies and TV shows, but this one here, is the most unusual treatment of the old "Roll Back the Clock/Erase the Slate and start again" thing. I had to look up the actress who played "Pam" - Surprised that she was Carol Burnett's Daughter and sad that she passed away in 2002.

Character and fate

[quark18 · 10/10 · 7 December 2018]

My favorite X-Files episode, often watched on repeat.

"Monday" engages us by following a SF convention-the time loop-and by breaking a big tv show convention, by killing off our two main characters, our heroes Mulder and Scully. Not just once, but repeatedly.

Mulder's leaking water bed provides a nice touch of comedy that sets off a chain of bad-luck events. We've all had days like this, as has Scully, and can sympathize. We hear some fun dialogue between Mulder and Scully-M: "I've been having the weirdest sense of deja vu all morning. I woke up soaking wet . . ."/. S: "Did you do a lot of drinking in college?"-and a discussion on character and destiny-S: "I think we're free to be who we are-good, bad, or indifferent."

Pam seems to fall into the "indifferent" category. She says that she tried everything to stop her boyfriend Bernard from bombing the bank-drugging his coffee, hiding his car keys, even calling the police on him herself. But it did not occur to her to do the one thing that both Mulder and Scully never hesitate to do, and that is to confront Bernard directly, in the bank.

And that is finally what works, when Mulder and Scully bring Pam into the bank to confront Bernard. Then Pam does take bold, decisive action to save Mulder's life. It makes sense that Pam is the one who needed to die for the time loop to end, because she's the only one who remembered each day and was living in hell.

This episode rewards repeat viewings because of these reflections on character and fate. It is in Mulder's character to run toward trouble and it is Scully's instinct to try to save people's lives. But aren't the mass of us more like Pam, trying a lot of different small, indirect, passive gestures while hoping we can stay away from trouble?

Mulder telling Bernard that "You can change your fate" doesn't stop Bernard from trying to rob the bank because that is precisely what he is trying to do-escape from a life of hopeless drudgery with no future. He is trying to change his fate. And he does, but in the wrong way, by killing the one person he cares about. Maybe that's why we are so timid, for fear of making things worse.

And this is why we admire heroes like Mulder and Scully, who run toward trouble instead of away from it, and risk their own lives to save others. The best SF encourages us to reflect on our human behavior.

One small critique: It's hard to believe that, in 1999, Mulder still needed to deposit paper paychecks at a bank in person, instead of having them direct-deposited electronically.

Wow

[koalablue_1993 · 10/10 · 9 August 2008]

This is one of the greats. I love the way it was filmed, excellent for a TV show back in the 90's. The deja-vu sequences were awesome. This is the X-Files take on the concept of the Bill Murray film "Groundhog day", which is a very good movie everyone should watch. Gillian Anderson's acting is as good as always and the guest stars where great too. This is between my top ten episodes ever. It is simply great television. I have had my own deja-vu experiences and they're really creepy and make you feel uneasy and unreal. A very nice paranormal theme played out to perfection.

See you Monday...

Fascinating variation on "Groundhog Day"

[wtdk123 · 1 April 2006]

Clearly inspired by the film "Groundhog Day" this fine episode of "The X-Files" takes its usual twists and turns taking the material that inspired it and making it truly unique for the show. While this isn't one of the best episodes of the show it's still a quality episode well written and performed with a nice twist to the end that most fans will probably figure out before the third act.

The episode begins with an unusual opening for "The X-Files" (and that is saying something); Mulder and Scully are dead. The entire episode revolves around showing us what happened and why. Mulder's clearly having a bad day--he wakes up to a water filled floor and discovers that the water bed he's not supposed to have (purchased in the episode "Dreamland")has sprung a leak. More importantly the water has leaked down to his apartment manager's room. Bad news for the cash strapped G-man. He's also late for a departmental meeting with Skinner (the leak shorted out his cellphone and the electricity in his apartment). He drags himself in only only to realize he needs to get to the bank and make a deposit before the check he just wrote his manager bounces. He's there when a robbery occurs. He's at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Anymore information would completely spoil the episode but some nice performances and twists save this from being a merely derivative episode. Like "Drive" it might fall just short of the standard established for the show's best seasons (you pick--3, 4 or 5)but it's still better written and performed than most shows out there today.

Leaky Waterbeds

[Muldernscully · 8/10 · 23 February 2007]

If you're not familiar with the film Groundhog Day, you should be. Watch it. It's great. This is the X-Files version of Groundhog Day. It's well done and different enough so you don't think that they are just copying Groundhog Day. This has to be one of the most shocking teasers ever, when you see Mulder and Scully get blown up by a bomb in a bank. What the heck? How are they going to get out of this one. But soon, you see that the same day just keeps repeating. Pam, the bank robber's girlfriend is the only one aware that they stuck on the same day, Monday, over and over again. Unlike Groundhog Day, where the character do the exact same thing unless Phil changes things, Mulder and Scully vary their routine and dialogue a little bit each day regardless of their interaction with Pam. She believes that Mulder is the key to escaping this time loop. This episode has a good mixture of humor in it, mainly focusing on Mulder's waterbed springing a leak. The funniest part is Scully's reaction to discovering that Mulder has a waterbed, a reference to the earlier episode "Dreamland II". And to show homage to Groundhog Day, writers Vince Gilligan and John Shiban stick two references to the movie in the episode. The first is with the title "Monday", getting the word "day" in there. The second reference is showing an old-fashioned clock in Bernard & Pam's house change from 7:16 to 7:17 just like you saw Phil's clock in Groundhog Day flip from 5:59 to 6:00. The guest actors are great. I like the touch of the boring meeting in Skinner's office. I've sat through plenty of those. But I've got to dock it a couple of points for lack of originality. If you liked Groundhog Day, you should like Monday and the always interesting concept of being stuck in the same day over and over again.

Lola déjà-vu

[suchenwi · 9/10 · 26 July 2008]

Disclaimer first: this is my first day of watching X Files (intense, though - watching six episodes from season 6). I started with Field Trip and decided to continue this trip while supplies last.

That said, I'm very impressed by the artful production, as well as by the variety of styles. In a way it reminded me of the broad scale of Hitchcock movies, which range from comedy to thriller to horror.

"Monday" brings in déjà-vu experiences, and I had one: Run Lola Run (1998). Sure, the time loop theme has often been done (as Wikipedia documents), and Groundhog Day is a memorable precedent, but the repeated time in a dramatic/tragic light (bank/grocery store robberies, one or more protagonists dying) still made me wonder whether 1998's Lola (which was shown in the US, even getting an Oscar nomination) also had some influence on 1999's "Monday"...

Love this episode trope!

[hollyleaf-11627 · 9/10 · 25 August 2018]

I always love seeing the Groundhog Day trope as an episode in a TV series

A great stand-alone

[MulderManiac · 8/10 · 20 August 2009]

Monday was a great, well-done episode. Yeah, yeah everyone knows they spoofed Groundhog Day and that episode of the Twilight Zone--but it still managed to be an enjoyable, light-hearted episode with a heart-stopping opening sequence for first time viewers.

This episode was interesting to watch just because of Mulder's reaction to doing basically the same thing every day. Watching his impatience grow is something to smile about because everyone can relate to reliving the same Monday over and over again. "Monday" managed to hold your attention by never repeating EXACTLY the same day but throwing in some minor changes that kept your interest.

Great storyline, great acting, lots of fun. 8/10

Manic Monday

[reachtitan · 9/10 · 14 October 2013]

A true X-files episode for a believer.

'Monday' consummately merges two scientific/philosophical concepts namely butterfly effect and time-loop and delivers the final product in spectacular fashion. However, the idea can scarcely be called original. Studied hitherto in films like 'Blind Chance'(by Kieslowski) and more recently in 'Run Lola Run', this phenomenon primarily deals with metaphysics and also with the millennia old battle between fate and free-will (Having said that, I liked 'X-Files''s execution of it better than that of Lola), and the nexus of this unexplained phenomenon here is a locality of Washington D.C. near the FBI headquarters where Agents Mulder and Scully work.

It all starts with Mulder getting up on a Monday morning and finding to his dismay that his alarm and cellphone are impaired, one of his checks invalid and he late for a FBI meeting, all courtesy a water-bed leak. He somehow gets to his office and from there to a nearby bank where he is followed by Scully and where a robbery attempt goes wrong, the aftermath of which is everyone at the bank dies, including the two FBI agents.

This incident gets repeated as in a cycle with some variations attributed to the butterfly effect. What is more interesting to learn that a woman, the bank-robber's girlfriend is cursed to live this particular day over and over again. She warns both Mulder and Scully to put a stop to this Kafkasque circle, but to no avail. Finally, it ends with the woman herself getting killed; as she says to Mulder in the end, "This never happened before".

What I loved about this episode that it juxtaposes choice and fate, two seemingly opposing ideas, to attain the desired dramatic effect. At one junction, Mulder says to Scully, "I won't tempt fate", then eventually he intervenes, i.e., he exerts his free will to put an end to the infernal loop.

Now this episode(and the two other movies) raise some grave issues regarding human existence, which I won't go into in details as the space won't suffice (or maybe my own intellect). But it made me wonder what if the time-loop really did exist, and we are doomed to repeat ourselves, as history does? Well, I don't know about others but I frequently have those deja vus, which Mulder came in for in here, in my daily life. And does God or any such power REALLY give us a second chance to make things right? Then what is the nature of time and our lives?

Hmmm, some questions.

I give this one a 9 out of 10.

Great stuff

[derangedxzombie · 9/10 · 24 July 2021]

A take on the butterfly effect phenomenon, where the smallest of decisions can change a multitude of events. It's well written and hard to guess what exactly will happen next.

"He's got a bomb...he's got a bomb...he's got a bomb..."

[zkonedog · 10/10 · 3 February 2022]

There's no doubt that "Monday" is a "Groundhog Day" redux. Knowing The X-Files writers and their imaginative, sci-fi bend, it was almost certainly also inspired by that Star Trek: Next Generation episode where the Enterprise D blows up time and time again. But instead of feeling like a retread, "Monday" adds enough X-Files touches to turn the oft-used concept into a tremendous episode.

For a very basic overview, this installment sees a robbery taking place inside of a bank. Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) are trapped inside with perpetrator Bernard (Darren E. Burrows) as his girlfriend Pam (Carrie Hamilton) watches the events like they've happened a thousand times. The situation goes sidewise, Bernard detonates an explosive--and everyone wakes up that same morning to relive the same day. Ad nauseam.

Like the Bill Murray film or the TNG episode, "Monday" uses the repeating-day premise to perfection. Little details may change, but the overall gist of the events always plays out the same. The mystery? What the key will be to bring things back to normal. Is it Mulder--or maybe Pam? In typical X-Files fashion, nothing is fully explained yet the viewer isn't left frustrated or lacking. A perfect balance of plot-building and paranormal.

On top of the intriguing plot there is of course the Mulder-Scully banter that by this time in the series is like second nature. Particularly memorable here are the scenes in which Mulder awakens over and over to a soggy, sprung waterbed, and Scully has to cover for his late arrival to the most boring FBI meeting of all-time. This is the kind of material that adds color/spice to the repeating-plot trope.

While some X-Files fans decry the 6th Season as "when things started to go downhill", I always beg to differ and use episodes like this as the proof in the pudding. Though a far cry from the gritty, dark feel of earlier seasons, the creative plots, strong writing, and incredible acting chemistry make efforts like this some of my favorites in the show's entire run. Seeing Vince Gilligan ( pre-Breaking Bad) credited as a writer here is no surprise, as "Monday" has his quirky touches all over it.

Pretty awesome this one.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 10/10 · 17 September 2022]

Mulder wakes up, to a busted waterbed, and a routine day is disturbed by a young woman, who warns him not to go into The Bank.

After the slightly comical start, the episode takes quite a serious turn, it becomes one of the most memorable, and in truth, one of the best I've seen so far.

As has been mentioned in other reviews, it definitely has a Groundbreaking Day vibe to it, but if course it's given an X Files twist. What I really enjoyed, was the fact that events aren't explained or explored, they just are, the situation is intriguing, it's a nice change up.

I think we're all aware of where that waterbed came from, there is no way that Mulder would have treated himself to one of those, they're great though.

10/10.

Its coming through down there?

[Sanpaco13 · 7/10 · 9 July 2007]

Monday was an enjoyable episode to a certain point. I don't know exactly what parts specifically bothered me so I will focus on what I liked after I say one thing: the girl that was stuck in the day was annoying.

So things I liked about this episode. I liked that each repeat of the day was not exactly the same. This made it so that rather than just showing the same scenes over and over again we actually got to see the actors do multiple takes of the same. I thought it was funny that on the third day Mulder seemed a little more impatient than previously like "ya ya we already did this lets get it done right this time." And frankly who hasn't had a Monday like this? Today being Monday I can say that if I was stuck in a recurring loop where every day was Monday I would probably kill myself. This was an enjoyable episode to watch simply because of David Duchovny. I give it 7/10.

I love the X-files but this isn't it

[jjcaron-27278 · 3/10 · 25 November 2021]

This episode feels like a fever dream, it is a 40 min nightmare of terrible repetition of a bad plot, over and over again is the same story with a slightly different part to it. I came on here to see If anyone else got a headache from watching it but I was shocked to find that most users liked it. It was somewhat unbearable to watch and it will forever be in my nightmares.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday and Monday and Monday and Monday and Monday and Monday and etc

[ptanderson1987 · 31 December 2007]

Another amazing episode of the X Files. No scratch that, a spectacular episode of the X Files. Possibly the best. Along with my other top ten which I will quickly list after this comment. This comment contains spoilers. In this episode, Mulder is having the worst day of his life. His waterbed springs a leak, causing his alarm clock to short out and his cellphone to die. Also, in his apartment he is not supposed to have a waterbed anyway, so that makes him late for a very special FBI meeting and ya, he is having the baddest day ever. Anyway, he has to make a trip to the bank where a suicidal and/or homicidal bank robber maniac so in the end the bank blows up with Mulder, Scully and the bank robber inside, killing them all, then the day starts over again and yeah, it goes on like that. For no reason, I am presenting to you my top ten X Files episodes. 1: Field Trip 2: Monday 3: Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose 4: Impropable 5: Bad Blood 6: X Cops 7: Closure 8: The Truth 9: Release 10: Tithonus

Since when do you have a water bed?

[sini-200 · 9/10 · 3 April 2022]

I absolutely loved the Groundhog day time loop concept in this episode, even if it wasnt completely explained. It was done well even time loops have been done before. It was very X-Files type of episode. The butterfly effect was done interesting, and how small things changed every time Mulder was in the Monday was in a loop. Loved the comedy and humor with Mulder's water bed, and how he even got tired of it as he kept having deja vus, or remembering the Mondays he lived over and over again. Glad he got rid off that bed 😄

X-Files "Monday" vs Star Trek "Cause and Effect"

[sonotme-658-700834 · 8/10 · 4 October 2014]

A good episode, but is this a mirror of Star Trek: Next Generation, "Cause and Effect" [1992], Season 5, Episode 18, where the Enterprise is caught in a time loop? The main Trek characters start each segment playing cards and each segment ends with the Enterprise blowing up while trying to eject the core following a collision with another Federation vessel coming through a temporal distortion. I know people compare this episode to the Movie "Groundhog Day" [1993], but the Trek episode was released a year before the Bill Murray movie. The concept of 'reliving the same day over and over" goes farther back to a 1985 episode of "The Twilight Zone" in which one man kills another to be with his wife, but the next day is a remake of the previous except the roles are now reversed for the two men - hardly a continuing time loop. I noticed the similarities between this episode of X-Files and the Next Generation episode almost from the start of the show...

"Don't you see? We're all in hell."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 27 July 2017]

Almost every reviewer for this episode makes some reference to "Groundhog Day" so why should I be any different? Following right after the prior week's 'Agua Mala' episode, for me this turned out to be the weakest one-two punch in the series so far. But what the heck, it's in it's sixth season and there haven't been too many clunkers. I guess my main problem with the story is the repetitious nature of the time loop thing. Even though the writers varied some of the situations and dialog with each new Monday, I was still chomping at the bit to find out how things were going to get resolved.

But the bigger problem for me was the inherent lack of logic in Scully and Mulder reliving each day attempting to prevent the robbery and blowing up of the bank. At this point, one could reasonably ask where the inherent logic of any of these episodes were, but for me that's missing the point. The monster of the week episodes along with those dealing with the mythology arc were generally built with a good premise and the writing followed through to a conclusion, even if Scully and Mulder failed to solve the case. Here, one has to accept that groundhog day can happen over and over again with no advance of a time line. The idea is creative and unique the first time you see it, but for everyone on this board, it's pretty obvious that first time occurred with something else.

So given all that, I'm satisfied well enough that Mulder figured things out with the help of Pam (Carrie Hamilton) being a persistent bystander. Until that final scene of course. It's too bad she had to be sacrificed for the sake of the story, but that big boom would have killed a lot of people otherwise. And it would have been THE END for Scully and Mulder.

Frustrating

[Kaiketi · 31 May 2016]

SPOILERS AHEAD !!!

This episode was frustrating to no end. I can't believe the high ratings and that others didn't notice the horrible plot hole.

The problem is that trained FBI agents don't shoot the bad guy when they have the chance, well, they do once but not killing the robber. Instead, again and again and again they allow the robber to flick the detonation switch, which the robber does in plain sight and rather slowly. It's super clear that the bomb/robber doesn't have a "dead man switch", so there's no reason not to shoot him. Stupid. This annoyed the first time it happened.. and then it repeats again and again. By the end of it, I was so pi.. irritated that I cherished that the episode ended.

I love Groundhog Day, it's great, the movie and the concept. This could have been amazing but no, they had to mess it up.

2/10 stars.

Worst episode ever

[kdgmk-597-849394 · 23 May 2017]

The ridiculous take on Groundhog Day is an insult to the loyal cadre of followers of the show since its inception. The mythology of this show, aliens and the supernatural, is what makes it interesting. This episode rates right next to the mutant-incest show and the one where Mulder exchanges bodies with another agent...