The Truth Is Out There: The X-Files Discussion Thread

Young at Heart 1 X 15

Mulder is forced to confront a traumatic experience from the past when he is tormented by notes and phone calls from a criminal who supposedly died in prison.

*Something tells me that Special Agent Purdue is not thrilled with the way Mulder chants ?Reggie, Reggie, Reggie,? when they meet.

*I have to say, there must be an emotional quality to these taunting notes that Barnett sends Mulder because frankly, ?Fox can?t guard the chicken coop,? is just lame. I think I would just laugh if a criminal sent me that. What a macaroon . . .

*I love the handwriting expert in this episode. She has a tremendous chemistry with Duchovny and both of their scenes together just crackle. It?s a great testament to how important even the small roles are.

*A nice moment with Mulder watching the son of an agent killed in the line of duty play football.

*Although he then disrupts that game by, after finding a note on his windshield, screaming, ?I?ll get you, you son of a bitch!? about fifty times. Dude, there are kids here . . .

*And humorously, we actually see our villain in this scene from the back and it is painfully obvious, watching the episode again, that his hand is not disfigured as it is later. And this is MAJOR plot point. Good job, guys.

*A nice flashback to Mulder?s testimony in the Barnett case. So, it wasn?t his obsession with the X-Files that started him on the ?long winded and self righteous tirade? trip he?s been on for so long, as he clearly delivers one here.

*And those phone calls where Barnett taunts Mulder, uh, well, let?s just say that someone?s seen In the Line of Fire.

*And the actor who plays Barnett, well, he?s not John Malkovich. He speaks in an annoying sort of half Shatner slur that makes me literally wonder if the actor was drunk when he looped in his dialogue. Hardly awe inspiring or frightening, I?ll say that.

*Funeral for Fox?s Friends ? then for Fox. Okay, these threatening notes are just pathetic.

*The section of the episode that deals with progeria, a disease that causes accelerated aging, resulting in children dying at obscenely early ages, is truly disturbing.

*Would someone please explain to me why the evil, villainous doctor suddenly appears at Scully?s door to hand Mulder and company the explanation? Pure deus ex machina and there?s no logic too it.

*A nice scene with Deep Throat. Not a lot happens, but Jerry Hardin is such a master that even a two minute scene with him elevates an episode a notch or two.

*You know, I?m not sure if that?s Sheila Larkin or not who leaves the message on Scully?s answering machine as her mom. Hope so.

*I have to say Barnett?s second ?threatening? phone call is even more garbled and hilarious than his first. At one point, he groans orgasmically. I?m not kidding.

*Why is it that Scully, who is supposed to be being protected, is the first one to spot Barnett coming to kill her?

*I do like the bit where Mulder just shoots Barnett in the forehead in mid-taunt: ?You don?t have the guts to sho ? BANG!?

*I had seen on the IMDB that apparently the Cigarette Smoking Man is in this episode, but I?ve never been able to recognize him in the man in black who interrogates Barnett in the operating room. But I checked the cast list and it was indeed William B. Davis. You never see his face, but kudos to Chris Carter for bringing him back, even for such a small thing.

*Though I hate the ending to this episode. One of the weakest ?what if? endings of the entire show.

*In all, an entertaining episode, that benefits from a look at Mulder?s past and suffers from a deus ex machina resolution and an annoying villain. ** out of **** stars.

 

This last episode must get a zero considering even after reading your review, I can't for the life of me remember what episode it is that you just described.

 

E.B.E. 1 X 16

Mulder and Scully investigate when UFO sightings seem to center around a mysterious semi truck as Deep Throat plays his mysterious role.

*This has an interesting opening, but, given that we see this later in flashback, I think they should have pushed the truck driver sequence up to the teaser.

*The opening Mulder and Scully conversation cracks me up: SCULLY: From the trucker?s description, the shape he fired on could conceivably have been a mountain lion. MULDER: Conceivably.
SCULLY: The National Weather Service last night reported atmospheric conditions in this area that were possibly conducive to lightning. MULDER: Possibly. SCULLY: It is feasible that the truck was struck by lightning, creating the electrical failure. MULDER: Feasible. There they are in a nutshell, folks!

*Hot damn! The introduction of the Lone Gunman!

*And it?s interesting to note that these guys are introduced in pretty well the same mode they will continue in for the remainder of the series. Byers yapping about the cold war, Langly ripping up twenty dollar bills to remove tracking strips, Frohike making rude remarks about Scully. Brilliant.

*And the punchline is great with the Gunmen reacting with amused disbelief to Mulder?s theory: ?Yeah, that?s a good one.? ?That?s why we like you, Mulder, your ideas are crazier than ours.?

*And an iconic moment for the series when Scully takes apart her pen to discover a listening device apparently implanted in the five or so seconds her pen was borrowed by the nice lady at the DMV. Paranoia takes shape!

*Best thing about this episode: the insight we get into the character of Deep Throat.

*One of the great running gags is the way in which Mulder?s informants and Scully always mistrust each other, even when they haven?t met. The way Deep Throat and Scully rag on each other in this episode is great.

*A great scene when Deep Throat delivers the photograph of the UFO to Mulder and Mulder takes a moment to thank him for all the help he?s been. Hardin?s acting here is so marvelous. After the episode runs a bit longer, you discover that Deep Throat is, for the first time, giving Mulder purposeful misinformation, a faked photograph to put him off the scent. And Hardin?s magnificent reaction to Mulder?s thank you is beautiful, a mixture of shame and embarrassment.

*The scene where Mulder gushes over the photo Deep Throat gave him and then Scully calmly and succinctly states that it?s a fake is brilliant.

*This episode is one of the finest character driven eps of the first season. It?s about Mulder and Scully and how they differ when looking for ?truth.? And Deep Throat is gravy.

*The scene where Mulder confronts Deep Throat for giving him misinformation is fantastic. So much happens in this episode. So many incredible scenes. This one, taking place in front of the shark tank at an aquarium, is one of the best.

*And yet another iconic scene, as Mulder slowly demolishes his apartment, searching for the bug that he knows is there somewhere. This would be mirrored nicely in the paranoic?s delight Wetwired from the third season.

*The scene where Mulder and Scully witness a faked UFO whisk away the cargo of the mysterious truck is stellar. Talk about an episode with twists . . . this one has them out the wazoo.

*Great scenes: Mulder calls the Lone Gunman, Langly answers: LANGLY: Lone Gunman. MULDER: Turn off the tape. LANGLY (pause, no movement): It?s off. MULDER: Turn it off! LANGLY: (pause, no movement) Okay, it?s off.

*And the great moment at the end with Deep Throat talling the story of how he assasinated an Extraterrestrial Biological Entity at the behest of a treaty in the seventies and how that has come to haunt him every day is truly stunning and it gives some powerful insight into why he helps Mulder as he does.

*And the beautiful ending of Deep Throat strolling off through the fog. Incredible. Amazing.

*One of the best episodes of the first season. **** out of **** stars.

 

EBE is indeed an awesome episode. My second favorite of the first season.

 

Miracle Man 1 X 17

Mulder and Scully investigate when a healing ministry goes awry, resulting in several deaths.

*As the series progressed, faith would come to play an increasingly big role in the series, Scully?s faith serving as a beautiful balancing force to Mulder?s belief. And, as the series would prove, they are two very different things. And in this episode, though not without missteps, the faith card comes into play for the first time.

*R.D. McCall is fabulous as the heartless Sheriff Daniels.

*Great line: Ninety-nine percent of the people in this world are fools and the rest of us are in serious danger of contagion.

*Scott Bairstow, who would later have the role of a lifetime as Thomas Hobbes on Carter?s stillborn, but brilliant, Harsh Realm, is magnificent as Samuel, the troubled healer who believes that his lack of faith is responsible for the mysterious deaths that have begun to plague his ministry.

*Great scene here as Mulder and Scully push Samuel?s buttons and find their own buttons being pushed by him. Best line: ?God has given me a gift.? ?Did he buy you all that jewelry too??

*A great moment when the courtroom is visited with a plague of locusts.

*Jessica Hahn? Now there?s a name I haven?t heard in a long time.

*And this is not the actress that they use later to play young Melissa. What?s that about?

*In another example of how pivotal even the smallest roles are, the actor who plays the father of a girl who dies under Samuel?s ministry comes close to stealing the show as he wrestles with whether or not to allow an autopsy.

*And the whispered conversation between Mulder and Scully in the hospital corridor is a landmark one for the series, as Scully reveals her Catholic background and Mulder wrestles with his own belief engine. It?s a powerful moment.

*Bairstow?s delivery of the ?You mean . . . a trick of the devil?? line is just masterful. Great moment.

*The final bits here might just lean a bit heavily on the Samuel = Jesus imagery.

*But the solution is killer: Leonard Vance, the burn victim who was brought back to life by a young Samuel in the teaser, has been poisoning people in an attempt to discredit Samuel?s ministry. Seems that he would rather have died than be brought back to live as a disfigured cripple. Man, that?s great writing.

*And Daniels, guilty of having Samuel murdered, gets a great reaction shot when he hears that Samuel has apparently been raised from the dead. Yeah, I?d be kind of nervous too, buddy.

*And the sheriff is forced to live with the fact that Samuel was a genuine healer and because he believed him to be a fake, Daniels never took his crippled wife to Samuel. That?s a heavy load to leave the man and one that looks hard to bear.

*Here?s a great example of excellent retconning. On first blush, this is a Monster of the Week episode, but on the other hand, Samuel effectively pushes Mulder?s buttons about his sister and Mulder even sees his sister a few times. So, is this a Mythology episode or not? Well, here?s the deal: Samuel can heal, something we later see Jeremiah Smith, one of the alien clones, do. As well, the fact that Samuel is seen after his death could be, not the resurrection that everyone assumes, but rather a clone sighting. Add to that the fact that the Reverend Hartly is, in fact, not Samuel?s father, but simply someone who found the boy on the street, and you?ve got a retcon: no gift from God here, just a gifted alien clone. Of course, he bleeds red, not green, so it?s all crap, but it was fun to come up with.

*All in all, it?s a bit clumsy, especially Mulder?s poorly orchestrated Melissa sightings (the final one, the reflection in the car window is particularly ill staged), but the acting is just as uniformly good as could be hoped for and the door is opened to faith and religion to come in. **1/2 out of **** stars.

 

Shapes 1 X 18

Mulder and Scully investigate when a Native American is killed by a rancher tracking a predatorial animal.

*I don?t trumpet this, but I?m Native American. Fourth blood quantum. So, expect my opinion about this episode to reflect that.

*This one has the potential to be interesting, given the tension between the Native American community and the FBI.

*The character of the sheriff is probably the best character in this episode. He doesn?t believe the traditional Native American beliefs, but he tolerates them. This nicely sets up the situational divide that really does exist in most Native American communities.

*?Look, I?m not a park ranger here to answer all your questions about Indians.? I?m sorry, I just love that line.

*So the initial physical exam of the body somehow missed the six inch fangs sticking out of Joe?s mouth? Please. The lips would not even begin to cover those monsters.

*So, J. Edgar Hoover started the very first X-File? I actually prefer the explanation given in that bizarre fifties communist episode, about there being so many Unsolved cases that the U drawer was full so they started getting filed under X.

*This is such a stupid episode. They try to make a big mystery out of the fact that Joe is dead, but the killings continue. Well, gee, he was a freaking werewolf. Check out the guy he bit before he died, stupid head.

*And even when the guy who was bit is found, wandering naked and disoriented, next to the murder site, they still act like nothing?s wrong and suspect someone totally different. Mulder, Mulder, Mulder . . .

*There?s a moderately amusing line when Ish tells Mulder that he is more open to Native American beliefs than some Native Americans, casting a pointed look at the sheriff when he does so.

*I also love how Mulder waves for Ish to stay back when Ish is carrying a freaking twelve gauge and Mulder has his little pansy nine.

*God, Scully looks like such a fool in this episode. Lyle is in the next room, literally transforming to a giant wolf and she seemingly does not hear the eardrum shattering roars of pain and agony. Is she deaf?

*Admittedly, the final act, set in the dark Parker house, as Mulder and Scully attempt to escape, is a masterpiece of suspense.

*A weak conclusion.

*All in all, probably my least favorite of the first season episodes. Lagging pacing and a poorly executed ?mystery? that is utterly transparent to even the most naïve of viewers kill this one. * out of **** stars.

 

Something That Really Annoyed Me About The X-Files

After the opening title sequence you get all the supplementary credits. Producer, writers and so on... But you also get the names of other actors in the episode aside from Duchovny and Anderson. That's not a problem most of the time, because I don't know the names... but the names I do know are:

WILLIAM B. DAVIS

MITCH PILEGGI

STEVEN WILLIAMS

NICHOLAS LEA

JERRY HARDIN

When The X-Files was still churning out new episodes, everytime I saw any of these names at the beginning of an episode (particularly Davis) some of the drama was drained away. I knew I was going to see one of the crucial episodes, or a mythology episode... and what was worse, the appearence of these cool characters was no longer a surprise. I was expecting them and triyng to second guess events.

Anyone else annoyed by this? Or is it just me?

 

I just get a combination of the feelings "Hot damn!!!" (cos those characters rock) and "Oh, brother" (cos you know it's gonna be confusing as hell, as if bumble bees, corn, black oil, and homicidal blowtorch-weilding aliens weren't already enough)

But I personally look for:

BRUCE HARWOOD

TOM BRAIDWOOD

DEAN HAGLUND

 

Well, Skinner was pretty much a regular. Otherwise I usually get excited but I have them on DVD so sometimes the screencap also gives it away.

 

In the early seasons though, you could pretty much assume Skinner's involvement meant a mythology episode.

 

It always made me get excited and really look forward to the episode.

I suppose it did ruin some surprise, but it also upped my anticipation.

 

C'mon Rouge, pick up the pace! Where's your next review?!

 

Sorry, I've been away from the computer with the review file on it. Maybe Tuesday?

 

Very well.

 

And there was the occassional hope that he might take his shirt off

 

It's been so long since I've watched the show. I need to get the DVDs.

 

Darkness Falls 1 X 19

Mulder and Scully investigate when a group of loggers disappear shortly after cutting an old growth tree.

*This teaser, of loggers rushing through the woods, literally racing the sun to reach help before dark, is one of the most iconic and memorable of the first season.

*Man, this whole episode practically is in casual togs. Hilariously, without her heels, Scully doesn?t even come up to Mulder?s chin.

*The name of the actor slips my mind, Larry Beghe, I think, but whoever he is, he?s fantastic as the Park Ranger. Very likeable, very human.

*This has a great set up. I particularly like the way Mulder keeps finding that greasy residue all over things.

*Okay, they?re reaching into that cocoon with their bare hands?!

*The premise here is good: ancient insects released when an old growth tree is cut down. I like it. Ironic but with a touch of beauty.

*Scully plays dumb for us: ?Those center rings are the older rings, right?? Gee, I wonder how else it would work.

*A grueling death scene for Steve Humphreys.

*A suspenseful sequence as Moore, Mulder and Scully wait for morning as their generator slowly runs down. This is brilliant stuff.

*Much has been made of the logical inconsistencies in this episode and, I admit, they are myriad: the bugs attack Spinney when he?s in the light of the jeep?s headlights, the bugs supposedly cover everything, but only swarm in darkness, so why aren?t they swarming on the parts of our heroes that are turned away from the light, etc.

*You know what I say? Any episode that is this suspenseful and atmospheric can play fast and loose with physics if it wants.

*And a shocking climax that finds Mulder and Scully, along with the likeable Ranger Moore, completely cocooned by the villainous insects! Wow! What a shocker!

*And, in yet another example of how pivotal even the small roles are, the government agent who shows up at the end is pitch perfect. When Mulder pushes him, it?s hilarious how he slips into a sort of robot like cadence, as though he?s calling up preprogrammed answers. Perfect!

*All in all, this is an incredibly entertaining episode. Great special effects, a real atmospheric setting and a great cast of supporting characters, plus that fabulous twist ending, make this one of the first seasons standouts. *** ½ out of **** stars.

 

1 X 20 Tooms

Mulder begins an unauthorized surveillance when Eugene Victor Tooms is released from prison.

*And our first returning villain. And maybe still the best, though Robert ?Pusher? Modell gave him a run for his money . . . Doug Hutchison, late of Squeeze, returns as the liver eating mutant who can squeeze through tiny places to find a victim, returns as Eugene Victor Tooms!

*The brief teaser at first makes you think Tooms is going to escape (hilariously enough, through the meal slot in his door, which we saw him grinning at as the previous episode ended), but the twist is actually a lot better. He?s going to be RELEASED!

*And this episode introduces AD Skinner, played to perfection by Mitch Pileggi, a character who will become an integral part of the fabulous ensemble that would emerge in Season Two.

*And the Smoking Man, fresh from his introduction in the Pilot and his brief cameo in Young At Heart, returns.

*A great scene where Mulder tries to convince a committee that Tooms should stay locked up. Of course, he shoots himself in the foot by pulling out the ten foot long fingerprint and saying Tooms killed a guy in 1903. The committee is underwhelmed.

*God, Hutchison is eerily good at this role . . . his moments of fixating on a victim are truly amazing. And when Mulder confronts him, he literally, if only for a second, bares his teeth at Mulder.

*Oh, by the way, that moment when he licks his fingers after picking up that dead rat on the side of the road is one of the most disgusting things ever featured on this series.

*And the return of Frank Briggs, understandably a little peeved. Whereas his part in the previous episode ended with him tearing out the article about Tooms being caught, his part here begins with him wadding up that scrap of paper and throwing it away. I like it.

*And the idea that Tooms hid one of the bodies because it would have given a clue to his identity is a good way to start this again.

*A great sequence with Tooms crawling through the sewer to get to his victim, complete with clogged toilet . . . utterly disgusting.

*The scene most people remember this episode for: the conversation in the car.

*A great moment when Scully calls Mulder ?Fox? and he remarks that he even made his parents call him ?Mulder.? That?ll take on extra resonance when we meet his parents.

*And from there a segue right to a great moment of drama: ?I wouldn?t put myself on the line for anyone but you.?

*And right back to comedy: ?If there?s an iced tea in that bag, it could be love.? ?Must be fate, Mulder . . . Root Beer.? It?s the shifts that show a great writing team and the writers here pull of the shifts in tone with beauty and grace.

*And the way Tooms deals with Mulder, framing him, Mulder, for beating him, Tooms, up, is incredibly bizarre. I especially like the way Tooms apparently beats himself up.

*The first Skinner scene to feature both agents really sets the template. Lots of intense underplaying, lots of veiled threats . . . ?You wouldn?t be lying to me, would you, Agent Scully?? ?Sir, I would expect you to place the same trust in me as I do in you.?

*And at the close of this scene, Skinner references Mulder?s ?friend at the capitol,? who was first mentioned in the very first episode. We won?t get to meet him until Season Two, but it?s nice to see another mention of him.

*I?m sorry but I just crack up every time the doctor walks in on Tooms tearing strips of newspaper to make himself another lair and asks nonchalantly if he?s doing paper mache.

*An interesting bit of realism when Mulder and Scully return to 66 Exeter St. only to find it torn down and a shopping mall quickly erected. Is the theme of this episode change or is it just me?

*And that great moment when the Cigarette Smoking Man, in this third appearance on the show, finally speaks: Of course I do.

*And a rather weak ending with Mulder staring at a cocoon like a moron.

*In conclusion, this is one of the finest sequel episodes of the series, bringing back on

 

Tooms was a sifficiently creepy episode. The whole scene in the escalator is very, very odd. I love it.

 

It's at this point that I changed my review format.

Why don't you people here that are reading these let me know which way you prefer and I can use the preferred format for when I start reviewing Season 2 in a few months or something.

Do you like the 'asterik/highlights' style or the 'heading/logical' style?

Born Again 1 X 21

Mulder and Scully investigate when a small girl seems strangely linked to several murders.

Teaser:

A great teaser here, with a little girl being taken into a police station after saying she?s lost. She?s then taken into a private room where a detective attempts to find out her name and where she lives. Cut to detective flying out the window and landing on a car parked a few stories below. Ouch.

Cast:

Of special note here, I think, is the actress who was so good as Janice on Friends, in a very different role. She?s fantastic as the pragmatic, but confused detective who brings Mulder and Scully into the case. Lots of fun seeing her do this kind of stuff.

And the actress who plays Charlie Morris? wife looks remarkably like Minnie Driver. That is all.

The little girl fares less well, particularly when viewed in light of Eve, which featured two terrifying little girls. She simply seems blasé, but then she is supposed to be on Thorazine.

Leads:

Mulder and Scully float through this one, fairly disinterested it seems. Mulder is given one brief moment when the little girl?s psychotherapist berates him for pushing deep regression hypnosis. ?Is it really any more harmful than pumping her full of Thorazine?? Mulder snaps. PWNED!

Plot:

The season is winding down and it shows. This is the seasons fourth episode about a vengeful entity returned from the dead (after Shadows, Lazarus and Young at Heart) and there will be one more before the season wraps up (Roland). Can?t really blame Mulder and Scully for being disinterested, can you? I was fairly disinterested myself.

Score:

Nothing of interest here.

Final Analysis

A fairly rote episode, bland and played that way. Hardly a classic. ** out of **** stars.

 

I love "Tooms." The first time I saw it was w/ a double feature of "2Shy." Great pair of creepy creature features. "2Shy" traumatized me some since I'm not exactly waiflike in appearance "Tooms" is one of my sister's least favorites since she has a great fear of getting caught up in escalators.

"Born Again" isn't exactly a hugely memorable episode, but I always enjoy watching it. I love the flashing images of the underwater guy in the fishtank and how the episode pulls together in the end. The deaths are pretty creative also. Best part about the episode is that we get to see the actress who plays OH-MY-GOD Janice from Friends w/o her annoying NY/NJ accent

 

I rather likde that way also, Rogue. Both are good.

 

Roland 1 X 22

When murders plague a group of rocket scientists, Mulder suspects that the mentally challenged janitor may hold the key to the mystery.

Teaser:

This teaser is fine, I guess. Way too long and introduces all our characters, which is too much to do in the teaser, but the punchline, when it finally comes, is good.

Cast:

You may think me crude, but Zeljko Ivanek, so good in the first season of 24 as Andre, is a bit too good and his Roland comes off as irritating and grating, as does the young lady who plays the other mentally challenged individual, Tracy. I call ?em as I see ?em. And our main villain is only really notable for looking a hell of a lot like Max Weinberg. Blinded by the Light, indeed.

Leads:

Again, there?s not a whole lot of interest here. M and S seem to be sleepwalking and who can blame them? As I mentioned last time, this is the fifth ?vengeful spirit returns from the beyond? episode of the season. I should mention that, in order to give Roland a chance at some Rain Man counting tricks, Scully wears a blouse peppered with stars, something that seems very out of character for her.

But there is one nice moment. Mulder tries to get Roland to tell him about his dreams by telling Roland about one of his own: Mulder says that he dreamed he saw his father at the bottom of a swimming pool and he tried to dive down to him, but he couldn?t see him. And then there was another man there, watching him. Wow . . . uh, nice foreshadowing, really spiffy and it tells us a lot about Mulder?s demons.

Plot:

Perhaps it was intentional, but all of the murder victims die in utterly idiotic ways. And they are all, literally, ROCKET SCIENTISTS. Cute, but also kind of dumb.

Final Analysis:

The first season blahs have set in. Are we going to be renewed? Who knows? Who cares? What?s this episode for anyway? Boring. * out of **** stars.

 

does anyone know what channel they do reruns on?

 

1 X 23 The Erlenmeyer Flask (Season Finale)

Mulder and Scully are drawn into a web of alien clones and betrayal by Deep Throat.

Teaser:

An energetic teaser as a high speed chase turns into a quick and dirty brawl and then the fugitive leaps into a bay, leaving behind blood stains of a decidedly greenish hue. Watching it now, there?s something unbearably nostalgic about it . . .the first green blood. Wow.

Cast:

Much worth mentioning here.

Jerry Hardin is back for a seventh time as the enigmatic Deep Throat and his performance here is probably only outdone by his brilliant work in E.B.E. This is a Deep Throat that is nearing the end of his tenure with the show and Hardin plays his character as if he knows that: he?s bitter, he?s hard, he?s a little angry, particularly in his last scene with Scully. A stunning performance.

And William Peterson is back for a fourth go round as the Cigarette Smoking Man. His moment here, at the conclusion of the show echoes his moment at the end of the Pilot, leaving it to him to bookend this season and he does it well.

And finally The Cleaner, a character that was sort of the Alien Bounty Hunter before we had an Alien Bounty Hunter is introduced, killing Dr. Berube and Dr. Secare with ruthless efficiency. It is for his final act in this episode, firing a shot into Deep Throat at close range and with brutal speed, that he is most remembered. He would not become an iconic figure but he does return in the second season, briefly in Red Museum, so I saw fit to give him a mention here.

Leads:

Both Anderson and Duchovny are back on top here, after a few bland episodes. Mulder is angry for much of this episode, angry with Deep Throat, angry with himself, angry with Skinner (who is not seen). His great scene with Deep Throat where Mulder castigates him for his vagueness and urges him to ?drop the Obi-Wan Kenobi crap,? is a masterpiece and when Mulder calls Scully at the end of the episode to drop the bombshell that Skinner has closed the X-Files and reassigned both of them to other departments, he nearly spits the words like acid.

Anderson as well has great moments. Her bitterness over being excluded from Deep Throat?s game is well portrayed as she attempts to sway Mulder not to listen to him. And her grief at realizing that she has caused the death of an old friend (the first of many Scully friends to die in the course of the show) is quickly but beautifully portrayed. And her final scene on the bridge with Deep Throat is a masterpiece. Determination, anger, fear and the final shock of seeing Deep Throat murdered right before her eyes, all these emotions are brilliantly portrayed. Credit to her as an actress is the reading she gives to a simple line like, ?No, sir,? when Deep Throat asks for the parcel from her. Anderson continues to absolutely own every moment she?s on screen.

Plot:

This is one of the great episodes of the season. It introduces, for all intents and purposes, the main thrust of the mythology: the alien hybrids, the green blood . . . it?s all here, for the very first time. As well, the shocking death of Deep Throat remains one of the most shocking television moments of all time. Who could ever have foreseen that? The brutal efficiency with which he dies, the quietly whispered, ?Trust . . . trust no one. . .? This is modern myth.

As well, this sees the X-Files, for the first time, shut down by the higher authorities. This was, at the time, a function of Carter?s uncertainty about whether there would be a second season or not and the episode does serve as a nice bookend to either a series or the season. As it is, luckily, we got more.

Final Analysis:

Do I have to say it? One of the tour de forces of the season. After a few weak episodes, everyone concerned rallied to end with a bang. **** out of **** stars.