Season 1, Episode 24
Director: R.W. Goodwin
Writer: Chris Carter

And so we close the first season of The X-Files with “The Erlenmeyer Flask,” a mythology-heavy episode that tantalizingly teases both Mulder and Scully with “the truth.” I would have loved it if series creator Chris Carter had titled the episode “The One Where Scully Finds Out” since, of all the major events that happen in this Season One finale, Scully coming face to face with “the truth” provides the biggest geek-gasm of the hour. It was a strong way to close the uneven first season, and it established strong risks and consequences for the series moving forward.

“Flask” opens with a stunt-heavy car chase as someone attempts to evade police interference before becoming cornered near shipping docs. A man jumps from the car and tries to climb a fence, and four policemen try to subdue him, unsuccessfully. Comically, the cops attack him first with clubs and a stun gun (he pulls the nodes off his body harmlessly) before one guy finally pulls a gun. The perp takes a few bullets before plunging into the water below, alive. His body is not immediately seen. Enter Mulder and Scully who, through their investigation, uncover immediate evidence of a cover up thanks to the continued assistance of Deep Throat. The trail leads to Dr. Terrance Berube who appears to be experimenting on some very irate primates. Berube is later killed in his office but the crime is staged to look like a suicide, and, during the ensuing investigation, Mulder finds the titular flask which is labelled “Purity Control.”

Here, Mulder and Scully split: Scully investigating the contents of the flask, and Mulder breaking into the home of Berube. There, Mulder answers a phone call from the man on the run, Secare, seen in the prologue, which is recorded by someone watching outside. Unable to find Secare, Mulder takes a set of keys for a storage facility from Berube’s residence and eventually uncovers a room full of live humans stored in liquid. Secare appears to have been one of these individuals as he was able to hold his breath under water for several days. Scully, on the other hand, takes the vial to Georgetown for analysis, and the contents are deemed to be of alien origin – the DNA strand contains extra nucleotides that don’t exist on Earth. After sharing the information with Mulder, she returns to discover that the researcher who assisted the investigation is now dead. Additionally, Mulder tries to show Scully the room full of people, but the contents are now gone.

The episode closes with Secare’s murder and Mulder’s capture by the same man. Scully connects with Deep Throat who gives her top secret credentials to enter a High Containment Facility at Fort Marlene. After taking a wild guess at the passcode (“purity control”), Scully finds an alien fetus frozen within a contain of liquid nitrogen. Having taken possession of the fetus, Deep Throat has a clandestine meeting with the man who kidnapped Mulder and killed Secare and is promptly shot after exchanging the fetus. Scully sees it and tries to save Deep Throat, but he dies with “Trust no one” as his last words. The final scenes happen a few weeks later as Mulder calls Scully to tell her that the X-files have been closed, and the Smoking Man hides the alien fetus in an enormous evidence room – just as he did in the closing scene of the pilot.

Stuff like “Flask,” I suspect, is catnip for X-Files nuts. It provides explicit evidence, plot forward momentum, and enough thrills to keep audience members engaged. It also sets up a potentially disastrous turn of events for the X-files, the ultimate cliffhanger for Season Two. This is probably in my top five of Season One, partially because of the above-mentioned reasons, but also because it’s just pure, adrenaline-rushing fun – something the season was often lacking. And we cannot discount the effect of Deep Throat’s death, an event well-timed to maintain the mysterious nature of the character while avoiding making him mundane. He had clearly run the gamut of his experience on the show, and it was a smart move killing him off when they did. Can’t wait for Season Two.

Season 1, Episode 23
Director: David Nutter
Writer: Chris Ruppenthal

The X-Files twenty-third episode, “Roland,” is something of a pre-cursor to 1997’s Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting. That is, if Will Hunting were mentally challenged and a murderer. Details. At any rate, this episode is a bit flatter than recent offerings largely because there really isn’t anything particularly threatening or terrifying about it. It just kind of lies there, limply. Flaccid, you might say.

“Roland” revolves around Roland Fuller (Željko Ivanek, Damages), a mentally challenged janitor who works at an aeronautics research facility. There, scientists are testing a prototype jet engine in hopes of having it push Mach 15. Easily assumed to be of low IQ and insignificant, Roland nevertheless traps one of the scientists in the wind tunnel and shreds him to bits. Later, he dunks another scientist in liquid nitrogen and shatters his face by simply throwing it on the floor. All the while, Roland completes incorrect equations and outstanding work in hopes of pushing the engine to Mach 15 himself. Make no mistake, though, that Roland’s condition is not faked. Somehow, he is able to overcome his challenges and excel at scientific research. When Mulder and Scully are brought in to investigate the deaths, they discover that Roland’s twin brother, Arthur Grable, was one of the original researchers but was killed in a freak accident. Grable’s body was then cryogenically frozen in hopes that cloning advancements would allow his eventual return. Mulder and Scully eventually hypothesize that Grable consciousness, which is somehow still sentient from within the cryogenic chamber, is controlling Roland, making him kill and complete the research from beyond the grave (can?). At the end, they are able to save the last scientist before Roland/Grable can kill again, and Roland appears free from his brother’s influence. Or is he???

This episode suffers a first-class offense for an episode of The X-Files: it is neither particularly thrilling nor it is especially supernaturally inclined enough to warrant much attention. It could easily be an episode of Castle, and, no offense to Castle, that’s not a good thing. The expensive-looking “Roland” is somewhat haphazardly plotted with a love interest introduced to amp up Roland’s erratic behavior and, most egregiously, an undefined psychic connection between Roland and Grable. It wasn’t clear if Grable faked his death, returned from the grave, or was indeed controlling Roland from the canister. Typically, The X-Files goes into a bit more detail around the supernatural element, but details are very scarce here. The focus of the episode is effectively saving Roland from Grable’s influence, not determining what type of entity Grable actually is. The plot felt confused and not particularly well defined, and it was one of the very few episodes for which I needed to read a recap. Plus, I’m not sure I felt extremely comfortable with a “monster of the week” episode focusing on a mentally challenged janitor.

Ultimately, I just didn’t find Roland or his actions all that compelling. That fact is not due to a lack of acting prowess by Ivanek who convincingly portrays Roland without falling into those Forrest Gump stereotypes with which we’re very familiar. He effectively conveys the inner struggle of a man trapped by his physicality and tormented by an unseen entity. It is easily the most effective aspect of the episode. As far as Mulder and Scully’s involvement, they’re strictly there to move the plot along. There is little advancement in their characters or in the relationship, which is incredibly disappointing given the run up to the first season finale. In that aspect, “Roland” felt most like a midseason bridge episode. As such, it’s not a bad entry by any means. It’s just not very interesting. That may be the bigger sin.

Season 1, Episode 22
Director: Jerrold Freedman=
Writer: Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon

Things I learned while watching “Born Again,” the twenty-second episode of The X-Files:

1. Kids continue to be creepy as shit. The episode centers around Michelle Bishop, a little girl seemingly on a mission to kill random adults with her telekinetic abilities. She mentally pushes one out of a high-floor window. Another is hanged, I think, by trapping his scarf in the door of a city bus that is traveling high speeds. Meanwhile, the little girl seldom cracks a smile and is always blankly staring at her prey. Turns out, she’s the reincarnation of a policeman, Charlie Morris, whose partners murdered him after he discovered they stole a large sum of money. He’s out for revenge through Michelle’s body… and her awesome telekinetic abilities. Nothing here changes my declaration that “kids be creepy as shit,” especially not when Michelle overcomes her possess and becomes a normal girl at the end of the show. Still creepy.
2.  Wearing a scarf is silly… and deadly. Undoubtedly one of the greatest deaths ever filmed on The X-Files was Leon Felder’s death. Felder, former cop by day/dandy by night, gets off a city bus and swoops his long scarf over his left shoulder. One creepy little girl uses her awesome telekinetic abilities to thread the scarf through the bus door and tie it on a handrail inside. When the bus takes off, Felder gives a “whaaaaaaaa” and begins to run alongside the bus. When the bus driver realizes the threat, Michelle uses her powers to make the bus go faster, and Felder dies from acute dandyness, his body limply hanging against the side of the bus. If we learned only one thing from The Incredibles and Edna Mode, then it’s “No capes!” Clearly, scarves qualify here as well.
3. Maggie Wheeler isn’t a very good actress without her trademark accent. One of the episodes best cameos is the brief performance of Maggie Wheeler as Detective Sharon Lazard. Who is Maggie Wheeler you may ask? Why she’s none other than Janice from Friends. You remember Janice with the ear-shattering accent and hyena laugh, right? Well, here, Wheeler employs a deeper tone, a tougher, cop-pier tone to become Detective Sharon Lazard. You can practically see the performance on her face, and it’s not a good look. She most definitely needed a wacky accent to pull it all together.
4. Origami is also creepy… Filed away under “Most bizarre display of eternal love” is Charlie Morris’s widow who maintained his collection of origami animals for nine years after his death. These are paper animals, mind you. Colored, paper animals cluttering up a dusty shelf. These are kept even after Morris’s widow married one of the men who killed her husband. And the origami collection persists. You’d think her new husband, perhaps feeling some tiny shred of guilt over murdering his wife’s first husband, would have – oh, I dunno – sneezed them into a trash can? Taken them out in a playful, spice-inducing, naked water gun fight? Used them as kindling in the fireplace? No, ever they remain like treasured family heirlooms. Paper animals, expertly folded, but paper still. Creepy girl even knocks on the door and leaves a folded giraffe on the doorstep, reminding the widow that her husband loves her still and is watching her every move. From beyond the grave. Still folding. Always folding.
5. …but not as creepy as kids. Mulder and Scully pay a visit to Michelle’s child therapist to learn details about the troubled girl. Turns out, she has another hobby. When she’s not making origami animals as gifts for her wife from another life, she’s mutilating dolls in the same manner in which Charlie Morris was murdered. That’s right kids, she gouges out the right eye and removes the arm. What do you do for a little girl who does that? Why you give her Thorazine to mellow her out, the very same drug used on Michael Myers. Ah, early 90s child psychology. Good thing Mulder and Scully were able to sort all this out and bring peace to little Michelle Bishop and her (horrors) divorced mother.

Season 1, Episode 21
Director: David Nutter
Writer: Glen Morgan, James Wong

Put Eugeme Tooms aside for a moment. The real threat within “Tooms,” the twenty-first episode of The X-Files, is the threat of a potential derailing of Mulder and Scully’s work on the X-Files thus far thanks to persistent interference from the government. Tooms may be the window dressing, but it’s change that terrifies Mulder the most.

The episode begins with Eugene Tooms, last incarcerated by Mulder and Scully in “Squeeze,” alone in a darkened cell, using his genetic mutation that allows him to stretch and contort his body in dramatic ways to attempt an escape. Whatever comes after this scene, we know that Tooms is hardly rehabilitated. That’s not what the medical profession seems to think as multiple psychiatrists and doctors evaluate Tooms and recommend his release from a Baltimore sanitarium despite Mulder’s persistent objections. Tooms receives his old animal control job back and begins to stalk new victims, nearly killing a family before Mulder intervenes. In the end, Tooms attempts to frame Mulder for attacking him (Mulder didn’t do it, of course) and kills his court-appointed therapist before going into hiding in possession of the fifth liver he needed to finish his planned 30-year hibernation. Mulder and Scully find him cocooned under a shopping mall built over his former home. When Tooms tries to attack, Mulder is able to trap him under an escalator, killing him.

But what plays like a B-side story, and will undoubtedly have repercussions for episodes to come, is the investigation of director Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) and the Smoking Man (William B. Davis) of Scully’s actions associated with Mulder and his X-files case pursuit. They question her loyalty and her support of Mulder’s unorthodox methods, and it’s clear that this chafes Scully – the extent of which is not evident until the end of the episode. The pair continue to appear through the episode, telling Mulder that his talents are wasted on his adoration of the X-files. This treatment at the hands of the authorities spawns a full rebellious streak in Scully, and she directly disobeys and lies to her superiors to support Mulder – a huge shift in the character of Dana Scully. By the end of the episode, Skinner and the Smoking Man review Mulder’s final report on the Tooms case, and the Smoking Man finally speaks for what I believe is the first time in the series. His words are his declaration of belief in Mulder’s wild statements regarding Tooms.

The episode closes rather obviously with Mulder gazing at a cocoon clinging to a tree branch and musing that change is a-comin’. It wasn’t until toward the end of the episode that I realized what the creative team was trying to do with Tooms. Clearly, there is a shift brewing for The X-Files, and they took the opportunity to bring back a fan favorite to begin to subtly introduce a change in the way the X-files cases would be viewed. I’m completely hypothesizing at this point given that I’ve never seen the series before save “Home,” but it seems like a safe bet given the way the episode closed. Eugene Tooms, in effect, becomes the Red Herring of the episode when the real threat is the government’s opinion on the X-files.

“Tooms” is a very strong episode, again thanks to Doug Hutchinson’s excellent and fully committed performance as Tooms. This time, the audience is able to see the world through his eyes as the camera takes on a black and white view with his prey popping in full color. It’s a neat trick that, along with the eerie shots of Hutchinson’s yellow eyes, illustrate the very strong cinematography the series employed early on in its first season. I also admired how the writers relied on a dual story structure to move things along in a parallel way – Tooms on the forefront and the government interference running strongly in the background.

“Tooms” is an excellent example of a series maturing into its own and showing signs at becoming the mature science-fiction show the general culture grew to love.

Season 1, Episode 20
Director: Joe Napolitano
Writer: Chris Carter

Mulder and Scully venter out into the woods of Washington state to investigate the mysterious disappearance (are there any other kind of disappearances?) of thirty loggers. Instead of witches or wolves, they encounter a new kind of parasitic firefly that envelopes its victim in a swarm of sheer numbers and wraps them in a cocoon. “Darkness Falls” has appropriate moments of tension, mostly given to the impending dread of nightfall when the creatures are most active. Yet, the resolution of “Darkness Falls” partially feels like a cheat, so that undercuts much of the good it had accomplished.

The prologue shows the collection of loggers, assembled in the woods debating what action to take to flee some mysterious force. They decide to all make a run for it in mass numbers, but in the next scene only two remain. After one trips and breaks his ankle, another stops to help him but looks up into the sky to see a swarm of insects that glow a faint green light. The insects immediately swarm down on the two men, and we close on their screams. As this is Federal land, Mulder and Scully are brought into the case to investigate as this has happened before in 1934. Upon arrival, they pair up with Park Ranger Larry Moore (Jason Beghe, the former “poster boy” for Scientology heavily featured in Going Clear) and Steve Humphreys, a corporate shill hired to take care of what he thinks is truly causing the disappearances – a small group of eco-terrorists. Arriving at the camp site via foot (their vehicles are quickly dispatched of thanks to booby traps set by the eco-terrorists), Mulder and Scully find a hastily abandoned site and evidence of massive tampering. After further exploration, they stumble upon a cocooned body that has been completely drained of all liquid. Back at the camp site, eco-terrorist Doug Spiney (Titus Welliver, Bosch) arrives and tells them the rules of this forest: stay near the light and don’t go out at night.

The next half-hour is spent with the assembled crew, Mulder and Scully included, panicking over how to survive the next few days alone in the woods without radio or enough fuel to power the generator for an extended period of time. Corporate good Humphreys attempts to escape but is overpowered by the insects. Tension rises as their generator eventually gives out at dawn, forcing Mulder, Scully, and the ranger to flee on foot. They are eventually rescued by Spiney who had attempted to reconnect with his now-dead eco-terrorist buddies. Just as they are about to escape the forest, their tires are damaged by another trap, and the swarm attacks them all. Cut to morning when the FBI backup finally arrives (Mulder was able to rebuild the radio and attempt to contact people for help) only to find Mulder, Scully, and the ranger cocooned inside the Jeep.

Now, I realize “Darkness Falls” is the 20th episode of a series that ran over 200 episodes, so clearly Mulder and Scully weren’t going to die. However, in every other instance of the insects attacks, victims are seemingly frozen in their tracks and immediately incapacitated. Look at Humphreys’ body, frozen in a scream inside the truck. But Mulder and Scully are rescued and taken to a medical facility for treatment, thus ensuring their safety. It was a nice touch having our heroes overcome by the murderous insects, but it’s a little cheat to have them survive the attack.

Still, the sense of dread enhanced by the isolation of the main characters engenders a true sense of fear. Also, the overall message of the episode – don’t cut down trees – works as a natural extension of more traditional horror tropes. As Godzilla was born out of nuclear experimentation, these insects were unleashed by loggers who were cutting down trees they shouldn’t have. And, if all anyone takes from this episode is a message of preserving the environment, then I’m ok with “Darkness Falls.”

Season 1, Episode 19
Director: David Nutter
Writer: Marilyn Osborn

Sometimes even Dana Scully’s trademark skepticism just feels completely out of place in The X-Files. “Shapes” provides such an experience. The story is extremely straight-forward and simple: Mulder and Scully are called to Montana to investigate a shooting near a Native American reservation. The prologue to the episode shows the root cause: a werewolf (here called “Manitou”) shot during a cattle on a nearby ranch mauling turns out to be a human man. There are complications, of course, as the ranch owners and the Native Americans have legal action pending over a land dispute.

As Mulder and Scully investigate (the first documented X-file was a man shape shifting into a beast), the evidence clearly points to werewolf activity. In fact, there may be two suspects, but, given the rules of werewolf lore, we all know the man scratched by the werewolf in the prologue is the killer. It’s one of the things that annoyed me most about the episode. “Shapes” pretends to have re-written werewolf lore when it so clearly subscribes to tradition while pretending that tradition doesn’t exist. By the end of the episode, Scully has taken said werewolf, Lyle – the son of the ranch owner, back home after being hospitalized for exposure when he showed up one morning laid out naked in the back yard. That would certainly make me go “HMMMM,” but I’m not in The X-Files, I suppose. Anyway, Lyle begins to feel sick as it is dark out (the one difference is the indifference of the moon – the werewolf appears at night regardless of the phases of the moon, although the show still shows a full moon because… yeah…). When Lyle transforms in the bathroom, Scully hears his cries of agony and attempts to help him. She is then attacked by a hairy arm through the door but is later rescued by Mulder and the local sheriff.

So, here’s where it gets really good. Scully says something to the effect of “Lyle was in the bathroom, and I was trying to help him until this mountain lion attacked me.” Yeah. A mountain lion. I mean, is it me or is her persistent skepticism, at least in this episode, enough to warrant turning the television off for a bit and going outside to breathe in logic? It’s just completely ridiculous to me that Scully would be so reluctant and dim-witted to not put two and two together. Clearly, the hairy arm poking out of the bathroom door belonged to the man shape-shifting inside. It’s not like odd things have never happened to her, but, here, her skepticism comes across to me as thickness.

“Shapes” seems well-intended, and it does get some points for introducing Native American lore, atmosphere, and actors. Yet, it feels undercooked at the basic script level. The pieces are there – the special effects aren’t American Werewolf memorable but they’ll do for 90s TV – but they have been undercut by a script that doesn’t really seem to have any interest in the central “monster of the week.” Perhaps there could have been an exploration of more traditional Native American myths and creatures. I know they’re out there. The werewolf bit just didn’t really cut it for me.