2X01 “Little Green Men”

Back in my rewatch of “Deep Throat” in season 1, I mentioned how the alien mythology arc seemed much slower in season 2. That’s not entirely correct. It’s just this episode that feels weird.

As far as I know, the writers didn’t know if the show would be renewed for a second season when the finale of season 1 was written. It wasn’t conceived as a two parter. As a result, season 1 has an explosive ending, and season 2 opens with the pieces of the plot significantly altered.

We get a sequence with Mulder’s sister being abducted. We get to see an alien - sort of - and loads of “evidence” that ultimately comes to nothing.

Senator Matheson is a new character, who could become a new informant, following the finale of the previous season. But he barely shows up again.

Over the years, Mulder and Scully say “after all we’ve seen” a bit too much. My reaction to this episode: After all we’ve seen in season 1, you’re putting us back to square one?

Ultimately I found this to be a frustrating watch.

2X04 “Sleepless”

While the story itself is OK, the real draw for me is the introduction of two major new characters. Alex Krycek, Mulder’s supposed new partner (yeah right), and “X”, the new informant. X spoke to Mulder on the phone in the previous episode, but this is the first time seeing him properly.

It seemed odd to find out that Krycek is a bad guy in his debut episode. They could have left that out, and his actions in the upcoming episodes could have been given context later on.

The ending is very ominous, and foreshadows the next episode.

2X05 “Duane Barry”

A hostage situation that turns into something else, and ends on a cliffhanger - with our first “to be continued” of the show.

A fantastic episode, I’ve watched this one several times and enjoy it every time. The character of Duane Barry is well realised, and the hostage situation is tense.

When you think it’s all over, the episode keeps going. The revelations elevate an already excellent episode into something else.

I particularly like the sequence where Scully scans the implant at the supermarket.

2X06 “Ascension”

Continuing from the previous episode, Duane Barry kidnaps Scully in an attempt to get her abducted by the aliens who keep abducting Barry.

It’s a race against time, and Krycek does his best to get in Mulder’s way.

There’s some good dialogue between Mulder and Skinner, and more from the Smoking Man. Senator Matheson from “Little Green Men” gets a mention, but “X” steers Mulder away. That’s pretty much it for Matheson until a much later appearance in season 6. It seems like they didn’t know what to do with his character.

A fast-paced episode and it’s a fun watch.

2X08 “One Breath”

Scully’s back, but she’s in a bad way.

This is a crazy episode for Mulder, who is looking for someone to blame for Scully’s abduction. He shouts at doctors, he has an angry altercation with X, and he threatens to kill the Smoking Man.

Meanwhile, we have a series of dream sequences with Scully, while the Lone Gunmen check out Scully’s blood (it’s a bit more interesting than it sounds).

Skinner really shines in this episode, showing where his loyalties lie. His character is expanded and he proves to be a good ally to Mulder and Scully, both her and in the future.

However, while it’s an important episode, I found it to be quite slow.

2X09 “Firewalker”

The first episode following Scully’s abduction, this episode feels a lot like “Ice” from season 1 (but with fire).

Critics didn’t seem to like this episode that much. I think it’s a “good enough” episode that moves away from the previous three-part story and returns the show to a more regular story. I guess it’s ok.

Next time

We’ll be continuing season 2. See you next time.

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1X11 “Fire”

A fun episode, “Fire” stars a young Mark Sheppard as the antagonist who can start fires (hence the episode title).

There’s a series of set pieces: the man who catches fire, the bar scene, the party and the kids, and the final scenes at the house. As a backdrop to all this, there’s also the slow burn (haha) of the driver drinking the cough syrup.

Mulder meets an old flame - Phoebe Green, whose name sounds a lot like the writers took inspiration from Friends. Scully’s eyeroll when she sees the two of them kiss is amusing. Apparently, the character was meant to return, but never did.

As a result of the Phoebe Green character, it sometimes felt like Scully was taking a back seat in the episode.

Overall a pretty good episode.

1X12 “Beyond the Sea”

A well-regarded episode, and for good reason. It’s a great episode where Scully takes centre stage - dealing with the death of her father, and for the first time, switches to being the believer while Mulder becomes the sceptic.

I liked the vague-but-accurate comments from Boggs about the whereabouts of a kidnapped couple. The possibly psychic abilities of Boggs unfold in an interesting way: the episode is expertly paced, revealing just enough information but also throwing curveballs to show Boggs isn’t 100% reliable or trustworthy.

It’s a good, solid mystery and a real high point of Season 1.

1X16 “E.B.E.”

Mulder and Scully go on a wild goose chase to find the titular E.B.E., or Extra-terrestrial Biological Entity.

We were never going to get particularly close to the truth at such an early point in the series. And I don’t recall the term E.B.E. coming up much after this episode: they just say “alien”. But it’s a good introduction to a few staples of the show.

Mulder and Scully discovering that people are listening into their conversations feeds the “trust no-one” part of the show.

The introduction of The Lone Gunmen is good. The characters recur throughout the series, and they’re fun to watch.

Deep Throat informing, but also misleading, adds a new dimension to the character. The series starts to feel a bit more risky, especially with the surveillance earlier in the story.

A solid episode, it just doesn’t progress the mythology plot very much. We come away knowing about as much as we did at the start - certainly in terms of evidence. Actually that’s ok - but it gets a bit tiresome later.

1X19 “Darkness Falls”

This is a great episode. The mystery unfolds gradually, and it’s an episode where you really wonder how they’re going to get out of it. The tension remains high throughout.

The ending is quite ominous. While we don’t always get a nice tidy conclusion and explanation, this is an unusual example.

It’s not the last time we’ll be taking a trip to the woods (“Detour” in season 5 is another good example).

1X20 “Tooms”

A great follow-up to “Squeeze”; it’s mostly a series of set pieces, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless.

This is also Assistant Director Skinner’s first episode. Skinner is a great character throughout the series, and is a welcome addition to the FBI, beyond the silly characters who refer to Mulder as “spooky” and do little else.

The Smoking Man is back, and has his first line - and only line in season 1. His lack of dialogue at this point in the show adds to the mystery behind the character. I’m undecided about him here, though. We know so little about him, so it’s hard to think he’s up to no good. He’s just there.

Still, we’ve got to start somewhere, right?

1X23 “The Erlenmeyer Flask”

A fast-paced finale to season 1, this episode throws in several new elements and ratchets up the threat level, particularly for Mulder.

There are a lot of puzzle pieces thrown in here, not all of which are explained at this point. Deep Throat initially leaves the tiniest breadcrumbs, before finally revealing a lot more.

The stakes are high throughout, with Deep Throat ultimately helping too much, which is his downfall.

I found it interesting to watch this episode again having already seen the rest of the series. There are also hints to a later plot point that most people would probably miss on the first watch.

It’s a fantastic episode, an explosive finale, and leaves you wanting more. It doesn’t say too much, and the repercussions extend well into season 2 - which we’ll get to next.

Next time

So yes - we’ll get to season 2 next, unless I write about something else first. I’m already enjoying this rewatch. See you next time.

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I discovered it towards the end of Season 2, when it was airing in the UK. I went back and bought Season 2 on VHS, but it took me a few years to find Season 1 - back then the boxsets were limited edition. I watched most of Season 3 when it was airing - same with Seasons 4 and 5. I lost interest in Season 6, but went back later and caught up on the entire show as the VHS boxsets came out one by one. Eventually I replaced those with DVDs.

Recently, I’ve started a rewatch of the show on Disney+. I’ve seen most episodes a couple of times, particularly in the first five seasons. I’m not rewatching every episode, but picking out some of the best / important episodes and watching them roughly in order.

Here’s my quick summary of Season 1.

1X79 “Pilot”

So for this show, I’m going to refer to episodes using the classic season - X - episode format, which I’m pretty sure The X Files popularised before Netflix started “S1E01” (which is clearer to be honest). The pilot episode, aptly named “Pilot” (or perhaps it doesn’t really have a name), used an unusual number that is sometimes replaced with 1X00. These are the production codes.

But anyway, that’s not especially important when it comes to the plot.

“Pilot” does a lot well. Scully’s introduction to the actual X-Files is to back Mulder’s work with scientific reasoning - and rein him in a bit (well, a lot). Mulder isn’t seen in the most positive light, something of a law unto himself.

We could ask why they allowed the X-Files to stay open at all. A bit later on in season 2, there’s a line that says if Mulder was killed, you risk “turning one man’s quest into a crusade” (probably not the exact line, but you get the point). Keeping the X-Files within the FBI, but limiting how much is allowed to be discovered, solves that problem. For now.

Of course, we get the first meeting of Mulder and Scully, with Scully open-minded about the future, and Mulder sceptical about Scully. Which is the opposite of how these characters view the paranormal.

Besides Mulder and Scully, and the characters just around for this story, the possibly-recurring characters are lacking. Blevins has the job of introducing Scully to the X-Files, yet his character barely lasts beyond one more episode, and a stray mention (though he returns later). The Smoking Man is seen here, but has no dialogue, though he hardly features in season 1 and only has a line in one episode (“Tooms”). We haven’t got to Skinner yet.

The story is a little slow, but it sets up an interesting mystery about kids / young adults being abducted in the woods. There are fragments of future stories here: time loss, nose bleeds. However, it’s very inconclusive. Still, it’s a solid intro to the show.

1X01 “Deep Throat”

The first proper episode focuses on military test pilots who fly unusual aircraft, disappear, then return with horrible burns or have their memories wiped.

We are introduced to the first informant - the titular Deep Throat, who speaks to Mulder into a bathroom and advises him to “leave this case alone”. Obviously Mulder ignores that advice.

Having started watching the show in season 2, when revealing the alien mythology arc was frustratingly slow, I’m always surprised by how much is actually shown in season 1. The lights in the sky, and how far Mulder gets when breaking into the base, felt like giving us a lot early on. Maybe after the success of season 1 led to another season being commissioned, creator Chris Carter realised he needed to slow down a bit or the show would be over pretty quickly.

It’s an early example of having some pretty big plot points dangled in front of the viewer (and Mulder), only to find it’s all gone when Mulder’s memory is wiped. Much like the aforementioned test pilots.

Also, credit to Scully for getting Mulder out of the base. While it’s hard to imagine true peril for the two leads of a show so early on - the show would not exist without them - I did wonder what would have happened to Mulder had Scully not intervened. His memory was wiped - so would they have returned him even without Scully’s involvement?

Aside from the risqué name (!), Deep Throat is a great character - and the reveal at the end is, once again, more than I expected to hear so early in the show. A good episode.

1X02 “Squeeze”

The original monster-of-the-week episode, “Squeeze” showed that the X-Files was not only about the alien mythology.

The plot: Eugene Victor Tooms is hungry for human liver, basically.

He can squeeze into small spaces, so the crime scenes have no obvious method of entry or exit. Puzzling.

We have the first example of a villain targeting Scully. This became rather repetitive across a few stories, but it’s new here.

Anyway, Tooms is a great villain!

We also continue with not always having nice neat endings, with Tooms being locked up but seeing a narrow letterbox that he could squeeze through.

1X06 “Ghost in the Machine”

We jump a few episodes (“Conduit” is probably worth going back to) and come to this. It’s not the best episode, but it has its moments.

The computer voice is probably my least favourite aspect. It’s not especially dramatic for a character to be killed and for the computer to say “File deleted”.

Mulder’s former partner, Jerry, features in the episode - but doesn’t make it out alive.

What I did find interesting is when Deep Throat appears and talks about AI - noting that this episode aired in 1993.

1X07 “Ice”

A great episode, this is a “base under siege” setup where a creature is infecting people. Lots of moments where you’re not sure who to trust. Not much else to say really.

1X09 “Fallen Angel”

We’re back to the alien mythology. Mulder is trying to reach a UFO crash site before it gets cleaned up.

We get an introduction to Max Fenig, who shares many of Mulder’s beliefs and has been following his work. Max is a great character, and I heard that the Lone Gunmen (who are introduced a bit later in the season) were partly thought up as a result of Max.

There’s an invisible alien that causes horrific burns on several people in the episode. This is a bit inconsistent with alien encounters later in the series. But it works fine for this episode.

Something to call out: season 1 is entirely single episodes - there are no two-parters (ignoring “Squeeze” / “Tooms”, which is really a sequel). Because of this, episodes such as “Fallen Angel” are quite fast-paced. While I don’t think a lot of the later two-parters should have been shorter, pretty much every two-parter was tied to the mythology. They can feel a bit long. These shorter, single episodes progress the story but also don’t outstay their welcome.

The ending is interesting. We have Section Chief McGrath, who doesn’t appear in any other episodes, threatening to shut down the X-Files and fire Mulder. However, he meets with Deep Throat who vetoes these actions. I think it’s the first time we’re seeing Deep Throat in a scene without Mulder.

Next time

This post has got quite long, so I’ll be commenting on the other episodes I watched from Season 1 in a future post:

• 1X11 “Fire”

• 1X12 “Beyond the Sea”

• 1X16 “E.B.E.”

• 1X19 “Darkness Falls”

• 1X20 “Tooms”

• 1X23 “The Erlenmeyer Flask”

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