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I think this episode could very well fit ill-advised to a tee. Just not up to the standards of a show I hold in such high regard. Granted the later seasons aren't emotionally resonating with me as I began to abandon the series as Mulder's absence was just too difficult to overcome, today I'm much more lenient and "open-minded" (to use an oft-referred to possibility for Scully as Doggett can't disregard his skepticism). But Badlaa isn't a good starting point for giving the 8th and 9th a chance. A cold viewing for this episode doesn't stain me against these later seasons, but it is one of the worst I've come across. There have been questionably low quality episodes of the past, though. Briefly mention the gist of the plot: no-legged beggar in India, wheeling around on a squeaky cart, "hitches a ride" inside a big business capitalist through his anus (!!!), later revealed to be a Siddhi mystic out for revenge after indigenous people were impacted by a chemical factory disaster.
Arriving to DC inside the overweight host, stowawayed beggar assumes the identity of a janitor and even takes brief residence in a bullied boy's father, scalpeled open during unauthorized autopsy by Scully. Yes, the beggar can "convince" others that he's not there or is someone else. Soon the bully of the dead father's kid is trying to avoid the beggar which kills his mom during a Chase through suburbia. Preposterous as the plot continues to be, hampered significantly by an especially ill-concieved method of travel in and out of victims with an ending that makes no sense...Scully shot him yet he is shown alive and well in India later.
Scully having to cautiously assume Mulder's role as a surrogate investigator with a willingness to approach cases without such a shield of cynicism while Doggett won't adhere to the strange and supernatural at all. That a dead capitalist could travel from India to DC with the beggar inside him as guide is a bit much for much of anyone to digest. Even Scully tries to approach Doggett with this carefully, understanding how ridiculous it sounds. Eventually Scully gets a call from the school principal about the curious appearance of the janitor, sees the apologetic bully warned by his victim that he's actually the mystic, froze with gun pulled because, unlike Mulder, she still doesn't have his strong willingness to believe.
Mulder not here and Scully clearly struggling in his absence, can't seem to adjust to Doggett who operates as she once did. Irony and all that comes home to roost. Scully admitting she can't acclimate herself to this role like she hopes, shaken by what her eyes didn't see--the beggar--is a nice piece of acting for Anderson who offers an agent rattled by the inability to open her mind to the same possibilities as Mulder. It belongs, this scene, in a better episode. Best scene might just be, if you love your gore, Scully contending with the mystic, first inside a victim's belly, protruding bulbously, then outside after the scalpel cut.
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