This episode continued the last episode’s theme, I think, in the sense that humans might not be on the top of the food chain, after all. The professor in this episode even said, “humans are and will always continue to be on the top of the food chain, barring the arrival of some advanced, alien civilization.” What does this have to do with the last episode?

The voice in Mulder’s head.

I think that bit about him hearing a voice in his head as his sister is being taken, saying “everything will be allright, no harm will come to her,” was implying that the aliens were communicating with Mulder. But if it was the voice of God, and not the aliens themselves, it’s possible that the alien abduction just could have been an advanced form of life, one all around us all the time, but just like ants have no idea we are around unless we step on their ant hill, so too might we not realize there is something else “one step above us on the food chain.” Unless, of course, they go stepping on our hill.

Follow?

Anyway, this episode was about…

The discovery of a cannibalised human body in New Jersey State Park sends Mulder and Scully to Atlantic City. Despite obvious police cover ups, Mulder continues his investigation of what may be a missing link in human evolution. Meanwhile, Scully attends her godson’s birthday party, which leads to some reflection on her future social plans.

Once again, loving Mulder’s dead pan sense of humor because (I like to think) it’s so much like my own, as he throws the keys across the roof of the car to Scully who can’t believe he just threw a pair of keys across a car roof and maybe scratched the paint.

I liked the take on the Jersey Devil just being a family that has grown up in the wilderness surrounding New Jersey, outside of civilization. A perfectly reasonable, though completely unlikely, scientific explanation.

Scully also had some good scenes in this episode, particularly with her trying to date. Throughout the episode there were many conversations about human evolution and how certain social behaviors come to be, so the last scene when Scully ditches her date and decides to go with Mulder to the Smithsonian after chiding him about not having a life was really… cute.

Mulder: “Who was that on the phone?”
Scully: “A guy.”
Mulder: “A guy. Same guy as the guy you had dinner with the other night?”
Scully: “Same guy.”
Mulder: “You going to have dinner with him again?”
Scully: “I don’t think so.”
Mulder: “No interest?”
Scully: “Not at this time.”
Mulder: [walking to the door] “What are you doing?”
Scully: “Going with you to the Smithsonian.”
Mulder: “Don’t you have a life Scully?”
Scully: “Keep it up Mulder and I’ll hurt you like that beast woman.”
Mulder: “Eight million years out of Africa…”
Scully: [holding door open for him] “And look who’s holding the door.”

A woman who claims to have seen a UFO as a child has her teenage daughter disappear while on a camping trip. The signs seem to indicate alien involvement. But the key to solving the mystery may be the woman’s young son instead of the missing daughter.

The theme of this episode, to me, was how even though a person may not have been taken away by aliens (or whatever it is), they might be just as effected by the whole experience.

Case in point, Mulder being who he is and believing what he does because of his missing sister, who was abducted right out of their room as children.

Or, this episode, where a little boy develops the ability to see certain transmissions in his television’s static after his sister’s abduction. He does nothing but scribble binary code, 1s and 0s, all day, some of which draws the attention of the NSA because it’s top secret satellite stuff. Other stuff ends up being an image of his missing sister.

I really hope the whole gimmick of alien abductions is further explained as the series goes on. So far (though I admit, this is only the 4th episode in) the explanation has been neatly avoided by the victim either not remembering or not wanting to talk about it. Are all these abductions related?

However, this show is beginning to develop the characters a lot more, which I’m pumped about. Back when it was on and I didn’t watch it, I got the impression that Scully and Mulder were just two stone faced FBI agents, but how wrong my little 10 year old self was! I’m loving Mulder’s dead pan sense of humor.

This episode also had a pretty powerful ending. Mulder is sitting in a church after the abducted girl gets returned, and crying over a picture of his lost sister. And Scully is listening to Mulder’s tapes when he underwent hypnotic therepy to remember what happened the night his sister was taken:

Dr Werber: “Are you afraid?”
Mulder: “I know I should be afraid, but I’m not.”
Dr Werber: “Do you know why?”
Mulder: “Because of the voice… The voice in my head.”
Dr Werber: “What’s it telling you?”
Mulder: “Not to be afraid. It’s telling me that no harm will come to her and that one day she’ll return.”
Dr Werber: “Do you believe the voice?”
Mulder: “I want to believe.”

When he says, “the voice in my head,” that’s when they cut to him sitting alone in the church, and they pan out and play this one musical note that made me wonder if the voice in his head might be God.

Then the Doctor asks him, “do you believe?”

I thought he would say, “yes,” but I got chills when he paused, and said, “I want to believe.”

Because that’s pretty much how I feel about things — both God, and aliens.

(AND, that’s the name of the movie coming out in July.)

Not as good as the previous episode that dealt with alien technology, but still pretty interesting anyway, this episode was about a man who contracted some kind of genetic mutation that allowed him to stretch his body Mr. Fantastic-style and slide through air vents. He also needed human livers to survive during his 25 year hibernation cycles, which meant he has been around a very, very long time killing people for their livers.

This bit of dialog made me smile (on the inside, tho):

Agent Colton: “So Mulder, what do you think? Does this look like the work of little green men?”
Mulder: “Grey.”
Agent Colton: “Excuse me?”
Mulder: “Grey. You said green men. A Reticulan’s skin tone is actually grey. They’re notorious for their extraction of terrestrial human livers. Due to iron depletion in the Reticulan galaxy.”
Agent Colton: “You can’t be serious.”
Mulder: “Do you have any idea what liver and onions go for on Reticula?”

Reticulans or, more specifically, Zeti Reticulans, is of course the accepted name among alien buffs for the Grey aliens with the big eyes that scare me to death.

Anyway, this episode reminded me a bit of Smallville with their whole “monster of the week” gimmick. Tooms (the stretchy guy) could have easily been classified as a “meteor freak.”

But his stretching ability really made me wonder about what it would be like if something like that was real. Imagine going to a crime scene where someone died, and all the doors and windows were locked from the inside. So, you’d think it was probably suicide, right? Until you see that the person’s liver has been ripped out of their body with a pair of bare hands. Logically, one might assume that the killer is still somewhere in the room. That was not the case, as it is X-Files and the killer stretched his way out through air vents, but still — creepy.

The new X-Files movie coming out on July 25th, 2008, made me realize that there is no good reason why I never got into the show. I watched it a few times and got bored, but I don’t think I was in the right mindset. Government cover-ups, experiments, conspiracies, and aliens… what’s not for me to like? I find it hard to believe I never got in to it. It must have been a cover-up.

I’ve made it a personal goal to get as far into the series as I can by July 25th. That gives me three months to watch as much, if not all, of the nine seasons the show ran. That’s 216 hours. I’d have to watch 2.5 shows a day to watch the series in it’s entirety by the time the movie comes out, and that’s unlikely. (But then again, who says I have to see it opening day?)

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to talk a little about each episode as I watch it.

So, yesterday I watched the first episode of the X-Files series, the aptly named “Pilot Episode.” We are introduced to Mulder and Scully for the first time, when Scully gets assigned to work with Mulder on FBI cases deemed too strange or paranormal to solve, otherwise known as the “X-Files.” Their office is in what is essentially a basement closet, and Mulder is looked down upon and laughed at, earning the nickname “Spooky,” which is not meant as a term of endearment.

The first case the agents dive into is a report of teenagers mysteriously dying out someplace in Oregon. What catches Mulder’s eye is that they all have a strange marking on their lower torso, and all seem to describe something that fits the description of alien abduction.

I like how Scully is the skeptic and Mulder wants to believe. Scully’s real-world answers are just as plausible, if not more so than Mulder’s, and I like how even though they removed some unknown piece of technology from the teenagers’ heads, it was never explicitly stated that it was aliens behind the whole thing.

I was left wondering something that could effect my enjoyment of the entire series, though, and that is: why does the X-Files even exist? If the government/FBI is going to be following their tracks and covering everything up, why even assign Mulder and Scully to the files in the first place? If they needed to “stick” the agents someplace where they would keep quiet, why not just fire them, or give them a paper-pushing job?  In other words, I’m not sure I like the idea of a government agent exposing the government’s own lies.  I hope this is answered as the series goes on, otherwise as of right now I’m going to have to list it as a plot hole.

Unless you’re a perv, the name of the episode might clue you in on something that happens: an official, somewhere, gives Mulder and Scully some inside information.

This episode creeped me out to the point that I had to turn the lights on.

Basically, it’s about a case that says the US Military might be reverse engineering alien aircraft at a secret air force base. There are test pilots who come back to their families with their memories wiped and one, in particular, with a strange rash all over his body that looks something like radiation burns.

Stuff like that creeps me out, but the imagery in this episode sent it over the top. At one point, Mulder sneaks into the air base and witnesses two lights doing aerial maneuvers in the sky. The way the lights moved was just so unnatural and to think that there were human test pilots in the crafts and that they had been built by humans using recovered alien technology that they might not even fully understand gave me chills.

So, too, did Mulder getting captured and having his memory wiped about what he saw. And, this particular bit of dialogue from the end of the episode:

Mulder: They’re here, aren’t they?
Deep Throat: Mr. Mulder, they’ve been here for a very long time.

They have?? How long?? Wait, who are they?? Do they know we’re using their technology??

Aaaaaaand so, the lights were turned on.