The directing, acting, and basic elements are here but there are quite a few plot holes and the basic situational premise is very flimsy.
I think some of the most glaring incidents of illogic:
1-Mulder recognizing and knowing that some random personal ad for "I solve problems" in some random magazine has been posted since 1994 (when the killings started, obviously)
2-When the agent self-immolates, why did he go into the building alone? They pretty much knew what this guy does from the start of the investigation...yeah.
3-The telephone-heart attack. Does his suggestion work by voice? With the judge and the FBI security, it seemed to be eye contact...now it is via telephone wires...or some mind-to-voice-to-ear manipulation which makes my brain hurt. I mean, if he can persuade through rhetoric, FINE. but what of the eye contact action? Consistency. Please. And how can Pusher will/control someone to do something that that person couldn't do to begin with? If he could cause people to have heart attacks or levitate, why not just always do that? Why not reverse the progress of his tumor? OH GOD, I think he's telling me to go on the internet and review this episode... makehimstopmakehimstopohplzohplzmakemestop.
4-Pusher says that he read in Scully's file that she shot Mulder once before, but we learned from Skinner that the only file Pusher accessed was Mulder's (if her file even had that information, they were kinda AWOL and off the record when that happened).
5-Why is Skinner immune totally from even a weak suggestion, but Mulder almost kills Scully?
I just feel like they didn't develop the supernatural idea at all before going right on to try to get at some head-to-head between Mulder and Pusher. This made everything kind of a mess from the get-go. And no amount of Ronin or Ninjas could cool their way out of it.
I really like detective and creative sci-fi/supernatural stories, and I have to admit that I like action too. Guns don't really hurt my interest either. And the x-files usually has these things down solid. And they give you some historical, forensic or humorous information along the way.
I think that if I were a little younger, the agent lighting himself on fire would have probably distracted me more, too. But unfortunately, none of that good stuff here was really clicking and the only mystery that got solved was how "Pusher" couldn't force me to care.