X-Files: Shapes

The X-Files, Season 1, Episode 18 – Shapes

I suppose one might critique the way that indigenous tradition and mythology is utilized for the spooky storytelling of the series, but the episode certainly makes an effort to portray Native Americans with empathy and nuance.   Significantly, we get a mention of the conflict at Wounded Knee in 1973, when armed Native American activists faced off against U.S. Marshals and F.B.I. agents.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_incident)

A Native American man at the bar growls, “What I learned fighting the F.B.I. is… you don’t believe in us, and we don’t believe in you.”  It’s a poignant framing of a history of conflict and oppression that goes back centuries.  Mulder has a rather sweet reply: “I want to believe.”  It’s his trademark line of course, normally indicative of his quest for the supernatural.  Yet, here, it’s a sign of good faith and respect.  The exchange seems to suggest that the brutality and tragedy of settler colonialism can be somehow transcended or mitigated by openness and communication.  “I want to believe.”  It’s not quite belief – it’s a hope and a yearning.  It’s a place to start.

Yet some are not so optimistic.  Joe Goodensnake – evidently a werewolf of some kind – was shot by a local ranchman.  Joe’s sister, Gwen, is hostile towards Mulder and Scully: “I hate suits who are always here when they want something from us, but when we need help, they’re nowhere to be found.”  Later, the son of Goodensnake’s killer shows up at the funeral.  “I just want to show my respects,” he insists.  “I don’t want your respects,” Gwen replies.  “I want your heart to grow cold.  I want you to feel what I’m feeling!”  She spits at the ground in front of him.

In God is Red, Vine Deloria, Jr. writes, “Until the occupation of Wounded Knee, American Indians were stereotyped in literature and by the media.  They were either a villainous warlike group… or the calm, wise, dignified elder sitting on the mesa dispensing his wisdom in poetic aphorisms.”  Even if Native American mythology is here appropriated for mere television entertainment, at least it pushes the viewer beyond the most blatant stereotypes and encourages them to think more about a history that many have forgotten.

Eventually, Mulder gets the full story from Ish, though the Indian still calls him “F.B.I.”  The problem is a Manitou – an evil spirit that can change people into dangerous animals.  Curiously, there is speculation that the creature can be inherited.  There’s something intriguing about an evil spirit passed down through bloodlines, for it mixes the tangible and the ephemeral, the physical and the abstract.

The cinematography is stunning, particularly during the funeral preparations.  Bodies seem to melt into the mist like ghosts.  The close-up shots of the taxidermy specimens feel a bit forced at the beginning of the show, but they really pay off by the end as Mulder panics and shoots a bear’s stuffed head in the claustrophobic house, a place now filled with teeth and shadows.

This is a case where the simple title really adds something to the episode.  Shapes.  Obviously, it’s a reference to the shape-shifter werewolf.  Yet the word invites us to think more broadly about form and transformation.  Tooth and claw and gun.  Corpse and flame and mist.  Human and beast.  The shapes of the world.

Image: Kano Tomokazu (Getty Open Content)

X-Files: Fire

The X-Files, Season 1, Episode 11 – Fire

It’s something of a delight to discover a classic X-Files episode that you don’t remember – and may never have seen.  Fire has some wonderful moments.  There’s Mulder’s quip right at the start:  “That’s one of the luxuries to hunting down aliens and genetic mutants… you rarely get to press charges.”

I realized something important about The X-Files while watching this episode – while nominally about “super” qualities – as in supernatural – it’s just as often and more profoundly a show about vulnerabilities.  Here we learn of Mulder’s fear of fire, spawned from yet another childhood trauma.  And we discover his “old flame,” Phoebe Greene of Scotland Yard.  Mulder has spent years getting over her – and she’s still eager to mess with his head.  Yet Scully is on to her.  Dana’s cheerfully contemptuous “hello” is priceless.

And who can resist a Sherlock Holmes reference?  Not me.

Scully: “Three pipe problem?”

Mulder: “That’s from Sherlock Holmes.  It’s a private joke.”

Scully, with droll perkiness in her voice: “How private?”

It’s not really – or only? – that Scully is romantically interested in Mulder and therefore jealous.  She’s bemused by his naiveté and probably concerned that his emotions will interfere with his work.  And, most importantly, she cares about his welfare.

Scully: “So she shows up knowing the power she has over you and then she makes you walk through fire, is that it?”

The episode has moments of elegance, both in dialogue and imagery.  There are several evocative close-ups of flame.  Obsessive desire and fire are interwoven throughout the narrative.  And – in one of those moments where the show just bleeds intellectual enthusiasm – the FBI’s arson expert observes, “Fire’s got a certain genius, you know, a certain demon poetry.”

But, in the end, it’s all about Mulder and Scully, as they dance their dance of doubt and humor, of coy intimacies and supernatural adventures.

“Mulder, you keep unfolding like a flower.”

Image (altered): “Fire in London,” by Thomas Rowlandson and/or A. C. Pugin.  British Library Flickr page.

X-Files: Darkness Falls

The X-Files, Season 1, Episode 19 – Darkness Falls

In many ways, the forest is the antagonist in this episode – yet it is also a victim.  The scenes in the deforested area are stunning.  They really provide a vision of environmental destruction, while retaining a sense of eerie beauty.  Scully’s off-the-ground confrontation with a desiccated corpse in a web is particularly memorable.  Later, a giant felled tree becomes a broken document of history – with 500 years woven into its fiber-flesh.

The “cabin in the woods” motif is done well.  That single light bulb creates a wonderfully fragile illumination, a tiny refuge amid the vast and monstrous darkness beyond.  Yet the creature that poses the danger is not some giant Wendigo, but rather very small.

“What do you know about insects, Scully?”

“… That they’re the foundation of our ecosystem.  That there are lots of them, something like 200 million per person on this planet.”

There’s a great discussion about the mystery bugs – a moment of science in the shadows, of speculation under the weight of omnipresent menace.  The X-Files so often managed to make intelligent conversations into tense and dramatic scenes.

The bugs themselves are really not that scary – more like evil pixie dust – but Scully’s panicked reaction when they appear on her skin sells the danger pretty well.  After Scully calms down, there’s a tender moment with Mulder where she notes, “They’re oxidizing enzymes… just like fireflies.”  The fear is still present in her face, voice, posture – but now she can appreciate the beauty of the organisms, and seek refuge in the structure of rational science.

The true scope of the menace only emerges with the appearance of the biohazard personnel at the conclusion.  The “monster” is an almost-invisible multitude, something requiring quarantine procedures and emergency measures.  And so the “nature” that the ecological activists were so eager to preserve is also the source of something that must be desperately fought with fire and poison – at least now that humans have disturbed its equilibrium.

Mulder hovers beside the wounded, unconscious Scully.
“I told her it was going to be a nice trip to the forest.”

Image: Getty Open Content (Robert Hooke and Caspar David Friedrich)

X-Files: Space

X-Files Season 1, Episode 8 – Space

This episode is really about Mulder, I think.  He’s like a little kid when he arrives at NASA.  He tells the ex-astronaut, Col. Belt, “I stayed up all night when I was fourteen to watch your space walk.”  Afterwards, Scully asks him “Didn’t you want to get his autograph?”  Of course, Mulder’s boyishness is a big part of the series.  After all, his obsession with the unexplained began with a childhood incident, the abduction of his sister.

In some ways, Mulder’s idealization of Belt and the space program will be challenged by this adventure.  Belt is a rather jaded figure: “You make the front page today only if you screw up.”  He lies to the press.  And, of course, he’s possessed by a space ghost – the fate of so many brave astronauts, one presumes.

The ghost is almost a cliché – a white smudge, like something out of Victorian-era fiction.  But isn’t that the essence of ghostliness? … the blurring of humanity, the inversion of a shadow, the uncertain hint of life or consciousness.  The specter is actually quite intriguing set against the high-tech world of NASA.

The episode really makes good use of architecture and décor.  In a way, it’s the fabric of the series… government installations, file cabinets and data banks, consoles, cubicles.  Such things represent the vague menace of institutional existence, the overabundance of data that clouds the truth, the labyrinth of conspiracy and bureaucracy that Mulder and Scully will have to navigate.

A lot of shows might end with the triumphant return of the space shuttle.  But the X-Files wraps up this episode with a (second) official lie and an astronaut suicide.   Then, at last, there is the close-up of the stars on the coffin – because outer space is woven into the very essence of the American flag.  That hint of hopefulness, of dream, of possibility amid the terrible realities – that’s what makes the X-Files so powerful.

Image: National Air and Space Museum Suit + Hubble Image of Mars

X-Files: The Jersey Devil

X-Files, Season 1, Episode 4: The Jersey Devil

It's telling that this episode begins with a scene from 1947.  So much of this series is about the importance of history, the ways that the past shapes the present and continues to resonate like seismic activity beneath the surface of life.  Mulder is, in many ways, not just a detective but also a historian – the guardian of personal and social memory.

This episode toys with notions of human ancestry and evolution.  We are presented with scenes from modern life that evoke our animal heritage.  Most notably, the children at a party seem savage and wild.  Scully observes, “I was just thinking about my godson’s birthday party.  Eight little six year old boys running around… talk about primitive behavior.”  The scene is quickly juxtaposed with a homeless camp – perhaps a place more closely connected to “the truth” than the suburban madhouse that Scully is visiting.  The opening shot on the street suggests this poverty is “backward” and “primitive” yet Mulder finds a homeless man who is far more honest and helpful than the local police.  Later we see Scully all dressed up on a date but perhaps uneasy with the situation – not least because the cannibal case she’s involved with makes the meat on the plate less appetizing.

Mulder want to extend the human family further back into its roots, to empathize with the “beast people” who have been mistaken for the Jersey Devil.  Scully, of course, is skeptical: “Mulder, listen to yourself, you’re already ascribing it a motive and an alibi.  This thing chewed somebody’s arm off, it’s not exactly a defensive posture.”  As with most good science fiction, the mythic/alien “other” becomes an opportunity to meditate on the human condition.  Reflecting on modern life, Mulder notes,  “Maybe we’re just beasts with big brains.”

We have strong teasers about a possible relationship between the protagonists.  I had forgotten how early in the series this began:

“What about that guy you work with?”

“Mulder?”

“Yeah, I thought you said he was cute.”

“He’s a jerk.  He’s not a jerk.  He’s obsessed with his work.”

I have to note Gillian Anderson’s consistently marvelous performances.  Watch Scully’s face as she tells Mulder, “I have a date.”  It’s a subtle mixture of pride and… embarrassment?

Mulder, stuffing his face, simply replies, “Can you cancel?”  “Unlike you, Mulder, I would like to have a life.”  Mulder, earnestly, but still unshaven from his night in the drunk tank, counters, “I have a life.”

Later, when Scully passes on another date, Mulder asks, “Don’t you have a life, Scully?”  Her reply:  “Keep that up, Mulder, and I’ll hurt you like that beast-woman.”  And she delivers it in perfect deadpan!  So cool…

Image: American Museum of Natural History

X-Files: Deep Throat

X-Files Season 1, Episode 1: Deep Throat

This episode really establishes the conspiracy theme of the series.  We have an Air Force pilot with a mysterious affliction, a top-secret base, brutal government agents wearing shades, and a great UFO scene with Mulder under the lights.

Just as importantly, we see major character development for Mulder and Scully.  We begin to realize just how far Mulder is willing to go in pursuit of his obsession, putting himself in extreme danger for the sake of the truth.  We see Scully get to practice her trademark looks of indignation, vexation, and annoyance.  And we see how tough and relentless she can be when she goes to rescue Mulder…

Security Man: There are other ways to go about this.

Scully, holding a gun to his head: Yeah, I’ve already seen where you get with tears and a sad story.

It makes you wonder why Scully’s Funko Pop! figure is holding a flashlight while Mulder’s gets the gun. (#feminism)

The show reveals its willingness to make moral reflections on society and ethics, as when Mulder asks, “When does the human cost become too high for the building of a better machine?”  Finally, we have that wonderful scene between Fox and Deep Throat on the athletic field.  I vividly remember the lines from my old cd of the score (which had dialogue mixed in!).  That delightfully evasive exchange…

Deep Throat: Mr. Mulder, why are those like yourself who believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life on this Earth not dissuaded by all the evidence to the contrary?

Mulder: Because all the evidence to the contrary is not entirely dissuasive.

Deep Throat: Precisely.

The pilot episode was okay, but this one really demonstrated the show's potential: resplendent conspiratorial fugues, brilliant chemistry between the leads, and evocative cinematography.

Delving into the X-Files

With an X-Files revival in the works, I thought I would comment on some classic episodes.  At over 20 years old, I guess the show counts as retro!  I don't know how many episodes I'll cover, but I'm planning to just focus on my favorites in  the first few seasons.  Here's a teaser photo to get you in the mood.  And don't forget to follow me on Twitter, too: https://twitter.com/sjankiew