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Revisiting The X Files Episode 4 · Death by Multimedia

0:21
None. Good day everyone and welcome
0:50
back for episode 4 of Revisiting The X-Files where each episode I
0:56
will be working my way through the 11 series, 2 movies, and
1:00
several books that make up The X-Files.
1:04
For those of you returning for this next episode, thanks for
1:07
being here once again. And if you're a first time
1:10
listener, well, I hope this is not only enjoyable for you to
1:12
listen to, but perhaps piques your interest once again in a
1:17
great TV show. The format here is that I'll be
1:20
working my way through the entire show and several other
1:23
media as we go. And for the most part, we'll
1:26
cover 5 episodes of the series in each podcast episode.
1:30
But first, I'm going to go through the feedback on the last
1:33
episode, which is becoming less voluminous, but that's OK.
1:39
We have Jeff from Florida again, Doomy, Mcdoombat on X and the
1:44
Blue Sky, who again has given his own appraisals of the last
1:48
episode and he says here we go. My quick thoughts on each
1:53
episode before I listen. So I'm not swayed by your
1:56
opinion. Now why would anyone be swayed
1:58
by my opinion you may ask? And that's quite true.
2:01
Fallen Angel The first appearance of one of my favorite
2:04
bit characters, Max Fenig. I love the law being built and
2:08
this episode is 1 to show people who've never seen the show
2:11
before. 5 out of five Eve Hello, creepy episode.
2:16
This is another one of the ones that got the show's hooks deep
2:19
in me. Although not part of the
2:21
mainline story, this does tendentiously, tangently
2:26
tendentionally. Oh, you know what?
2:28
I can't even try bump against it. 5 out of five My speaking in
2:34
English is not great anymore. Fire Amanda pays steals this
2:39
episode. I don't know if they've got a
2:41
bigger budget for this episode, but it feels like it.
2:44
More stunts. Not the greatest, but enjoyable
2:46
pay makes it a four out of five. Beyond the sea.
2:50
I didn't know TV could be this good.
2:53
Yes, the reversal of roles from Mueller and Scully was a neat
2:56
trick. Brad Giriff as Boggs is perfect.
2:59
I can't say enough good about this episode. 5 out of Five and
3:04
Gender Bender I was worried this wouldn't age well and was
3:07
pleasantly surprised it did. The ending is a little What the
3:11
F and it leaves a lot of loose ends for a monster of the week
3:15
episode, but I don't remember having these issues with it when
3:19
it aired. 3.5 out of Five so all that's pretty close to what I
3:24
thought too, I must say. Michael from Melbourne who also
3:28
comes from Blue Sky and writes on Blue Sky. 5 out of Five for
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Beyond the Seas. Correct, Bill.
3:34
Thank goodness I've got that right, Michael.
3:37
Also, I agree that Gender Bender is a weaker Rep.
3:39
Yeah, I still think that's probably the case.
3:42
The next batch of EPS, lookout for EBE.
3:45
Thanks for the latest installment, Bill.
3:47
Well, yes, Michael, you will find out about EBE very shortly.
3:52
Once again, thanks for all the great feedback.
3:54
It is greatly appreciated. And if you want to get involved,
3:57
I'll give you all the contacts at the end of the episode.
4:01
So enough of this banter, let's crash right into this week's
4:05
episode. So here we go with Season 1,
4:13
episode 15 titled Lazarus. And this is directed by David
4:17
Nutter, again, his third episode after Ice and Beyond the Sea and
4:22
written by Alex Ganza and Howard Gordon for their 4th episode
4:25
together. So this is another monster of
4:28
the week episode. And the setup is Scully.
4:31
He's helping out another agent, FBI Agent Jack Willis, who has
4:34
been pursuing a pair of violent bank robbers over some years and
4:38
he has finally set a trap to arrest them.
4:41
Warren Dupree has been driven to the bank by his wife and Co
4:45
robber Lula. Dupree enters the bank alone,
4:48
starts the robbery and things go awry.
4:51
And in the shootout, both Agent Willis and Dupree are shot at
4:55
the scene, both are taken to hospital, and both basically die
4:59
at the same time. Scully insists on continuing to
5:03
try and revive Willis, and after 13 minutes of being in cardiac
5:07
arrest, we find that Willis is brought back to life.
5:11
Or at least his body is. And here is where the episode
5:15
truly begins, as Dupree wakes up and finds himself in Willis's
5:20
body. So it's a real Freaky Friday
5:24
situation occurring, except that there's only one who's playing
5:28
because the other is dead. So here's where we wind our way
5:32
through the episode Dupree, as Willis leaves the hospital
5:35
unnoticed to try and find Lula, his wife.
5:38
And along the way he calls in on Lula's brother Tommy, who he
5:42
kills as you think he set them up at the bank with the FBI.
5:46
He then pretends to be Willis in order to get back to that scene,
5:49
but also to use their help to help find Lula.
5:53
Through all of this, Mulda and Scully again have different
5:56
theories as to why Willis is acting a little off.
6:00
Mulda has discovered that he believes what he believes are
6:03
two heartbeats on the cardiogram taken from when they try to
6:07
revive Willis on the operating table.
6:09
And Mulda basically says, what does it look like to you Scully?
6:14
And she says it looks like 2 heartbeats.
6:17
So there are two people who died.
6:19
One was brought back, but which one was it?
6:22
And did they exchange bodies? Well, of course we try to find
6:26
that out, don't we? Or at least Mulder does when he
6:29
first suggests his theory that perhaps Willis is no longer who
6:32
he seems. Scully, of course, rejects his
6:35
hypothesis. And here's where we learned some
6:38
background on Scully's character.
6:40
It's the fact that she dated Jack Willis for almost a year
6:44
and that he was her instructor at the Academy.
6:47
Naughty naughty. She also reveals that he is
6:50
right-handed and shares the same birthday as her.
6:55
Yeah, why would anyone bring that up during the episode?
6:58
Well, Mulder of course uses this information to lay a trap and
7:02
has Willis sign a birthday card for Scully.
7:05
And this leads to more irrefutable proof for Mulder.
7:08
Willis doesn't remember Scully's birthday.
7:11
He signs with his left hand and the signature looks nothing like
7:14
Jack's and the evidence taken from Tommy's room.
7:18
A fingerprint of the culprit has surprisingly disappeared and
7:22
Jack was in charge of getting that evidence back to the
7:24
station. So there we go.
7:27
Obviously Mulder is right, everything lines up, no?
7:34
Happy birthday, Scully. You're two months early.
7:40
It's from Willis. I thought you 2 had the same
7:42
birthday we do. Well that's news to him.
7:47
I asked him to sign it and he signed it with his left hand.
7:50
You mean you tested him? Yeah, after I found out that the
7:53
evidence from the Phillips murder is missing.
7:55
What evidence? The print we lifted, our best
7:58
lead is gone. Someone stole it before the lab
8:01
had a chance to take a look at it.
8:04
And you think Willis is responsible?
8:07
I'm not sure Willis is Willis. Can you at least accept the
8:13
possibility that during his near death experience some kind of
8:16
psychic transference occurred? Can't you accept the possibility
8:19
that this isn't an X file? Aside from the expected level of
8:23
post trauma stress, Jack passed both of his evaluations,
8:26
physical and psychological. Anyway.
8:29
Just because someone forgets a birthday doesn't mean that he's
8:32
been possessed. When I was studying for my
8:35
medical boards, I forgot my birthday too.
8:37
Did you forget how to sign your name?
8:40
This is a copy of the automobile requisition form Willis filed
8:43
the day before he was shot. Compare the signatures.
8:51
Like I said, molder stress, right?
8:54
We both know it can significantly affect someone's
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cursive standard. I'm afraid this doesn't prove a
8:59
thing. Scully goes with the old he's
9:05
been through a traumatic Experience thesis and instead
9:08
goes off with Willis as he has a tip as to where Lula is, and it
9:13
isn't long before Scully wishes that she had listened to her
9:17
partner Jack or Warren and Scully find where Lula is
9:22
staying. Scully puts her cuffs on her,
9:24
and then Deprez tells Scully to cuff herself instead and
9:29
convinces Lula that he is who he says he is on the inside, at
9:33
least now, a hostage. Scully believes that this still
9:37
is all caused by trauma and tries to talk the prey down
9:41
instead. They call the FBI and demand
9:44
money for her release. But the problem with being a
9:46
person in another person's body is, yeah, you don't know the
9:50
medical side. And because Willis was diabetic,
9:53
when Duprey keeps drinking sodas, it sends him into a
9:56
diabetic shutdown, which he needs insulin for.
10:00
And it's at this point that we discover that Tommy had not
10:03
being the informant, Ed was in fact Lula, who had rattered to
10:07
pray out and scarpered with the money.
10:10
She destroys the insulin, of course, and leaves him to his
10:13
fate. The FBI close in on their
10:16
location and Dupree gets flashes of Willis's memories with
10:19
Scully, which leads to him fooling Lula, stealing her gun
10:23
and shooting up before he dies of the effects of the diabetic
10:26
attack. So everything's all wrapped up
10:30
very nicely. So I'm sure we've all seen a
10:33
version of Freaky Friday. There's about 100 of them out
10:36
there. And this plays off that idea
10:38
more to the point of two souls in the ether.
10:41
And one grabbed the chance to dive back into debris, as
10:46
described by Scully, just into the other body because he
10:50
couldn't leave Lula. He came back for her.
10:53
It's an interesting concept. And one thing we do see here,
10:57
perhaps for the first time, is the level of care between Mulder
11:01
and Scully. Mulder speaks to Scully when the
11:03
kidnapping is confirmed. And you can tell there's some
11:06
true concern here because he calls her Dana twice.
11:10
Not Scully. He says, how are you, Dana?
11:13
Are you OK, Dana? And this is, I think, for the
11:17
first time that we really see the true concern from Mulder for
11:21
Scully because he uses her first name, which neither of them do
11:25
for the most part. So it's a really important part
11:28
of the series that portrays that there is a true concern from one
11:31
to the other. So now for the PSA test we have
11:36
the problem, which we see as an audience comes from the
11:39
beginning, that a body swap between a criminal and a federal
11:43
agent has taken place along with one criminal still on the run.
11:48
The solution is that we find out at the end that the swap is
11:51
true, unless you are Scully, who still has not believed.
11:55
And the true betrayal of the episode eventually sees both
11:58
bank robbers dead. And the answer list comes in the
12:02
formal scene where Scully is packing up Willis's effects and
12:05
Mulder gives her his watch, which he has retrieved from the
12:08
body and has inscribed in the back.
12:10
With love on your 35th birthday, With Love from Dee, which
12:14
obviously stands for Dana. And Scully is openly questioning
12:18
what has happened and what is the truth of this.
12:21
And she discovers that the watch is not working and that it
12:24
stopped at 6:47 PM, which was the moment that Willis had died
12:29
on the table after the bank shooting.
12:32
Scully says, what do I make of this?
12:34
And Mulder is about to tell her. And then he just says you can
12:38
make of this what you want. So for me, this is a reasonable
12:43
episode. It's it's a three out of five
12:45
out of five, 3.5 out of five for me.
12:47
Get it straight, Bill. It's fairly straightforward.
12:50
It's not anything out of the ordinary apart from the body
12:53
swap. The story itself travels along
12:56
like a normal murder mystery apart from that.
12:59
So to be honest, 3.5 it's not a poor episode, but it's not an
13:04
exceptional one either. Right now, let's move ahead with
13:13
Season 1 Episode 16 entitled Young at Heart, directed by
13:19
Michael Lang and written by Chris Carter and Scott Kaufer.
13:23
Now Scott Kaufer actually was a freelance writer and an
13:26
acquaintance of Chris Carter and he wrote the script which Carter
13:30
then rewrote to suit the series as well as adding a couple of
13:34
plot points. So here we have another Monster
13:37
of the Week episode. So the setup at the start of the
13:39
episode is 4 years earlier in 1989, and we see what looks to
13:43
be a failed operation in a jail hospital.
13:47
Though even though the doctor pronounces the to the inmate who
13:50
sees this that the patient is dead, he sees his eyes blink,
13:54
suggesting that's not actually the case.
13:58
So back to the present day, and Mulder has been called in by his
14:01
former FBI supervisor Reggie Perdue because a note left at
14:08
the scene mirrors one that a perp left for Mulder on his
14:11
first case out of the Academy. However, it couldn't be the same
14:16
guy because he died in prison four years earlier after Mulder
14:19
had given evidence to ensure that he was incarcerated.
14:23
The note is forensically examined and it is the same
14:26
person from four years ago. That man was John Barnett and it
14:31
appears as though he is back for vengeance.
14:34
Or is it a copycat as Scully surmises?
14:38
Of course, to Mulda it has to be Barnett.
14:42
So the investigation takes place.
14:44
Mulda finds another note and photos stalking him in his car
14:48
proclaiming that his friends will die and then he will.
14:52
Scully is shown footage by Pedot of the original botched arrest
14:56
of Barnett. Where Mulda followed protocol
14:59
not to shoot when a hostage is nearby, which costs the hostage
15:03
and another age of their lives before Mulder finally takes
15:07
Barnett down. Scully then tracks down
15:10
Barnett's death certificate, which lists heart attack even
15:13
though he'd been sent to the Infirmary over his bad hand.
15:17
Further investigation finds the doctor involved, Doctor Ridley,
15:21
had his medical license revoked for performing illegal medical
15:24
trials on children with progeria, which is a disease
15:27
where children age very quickly and who usually die at about the
15:31
age of 9 or 10 from old age. This revelation suggests the
15:36
molder that Ridley had succeeded in his experiments and had found
15:39
a way to reverse aging, and believes this may be how Barnett
15:43
is back. The fountain of youth.
15:46
No, that couldn't possibly be troubling at all.
15:50
Meanwhile, Barnett is calling Mulder and threatening him and
15:53
those around him. Mulder tells him he needs proof
15:56
that he's alive, to which he hangs up and promptly heads over
15:59
to Reggie's place and strangles him with his fully grown
16:02
replacement salamander hand. Proof enough for you, Fox.
16:08
So now Doctor Ridley shows up on Scully's doorstep and offers
16:11
some further insight. All of his subjects in De Aging
16:16
are dead and that he himself will be within the month.
16:20
All as a result of his experiments.
16:23
Except for Barnett, who seems to be thriving and has also stolen
16:28
all of Ridley's research and is selling it to the highest
16:31
bidder, which a visit from Deep Throat confirms one of them is
16:36
the US government. More importantly, a younger,
16:40
virile Barnett is going to kill off everyone around Mulder and
16:43
then Mulder himself. So he and Scully set up a sting
16:46
operation, which goes about as well as you would expect.
16:50
Barnett is unrecognizable because of his youth.
16:53
He guns down Scully, who survives because of the
16:55
bulletproof vest that she's wearing.
16:57
And Barnett takes a hostage, taunting Mulder about trying to
17:00
take him alive because everyone will want to know where he is
17:03
hidden. This research the past
17:06
dissolves, Mulder takes out Barnett who then dies on the
17:09
operating table as government flunkies try to save him and or
17:13
get the information they want from him, but he dies taking it
17:17
to the grave with him. So for me there are some little
17:21
things about this episode that highlight themselves.
17:24
Firstly we have Mulder himself, who is in obvious danger of
17:27
being targeted by madman. The same madman who is trying to
17:30
sell stolen research to the shadowy portion of the
17:33
government. And yet, Deep Throat doesn't
17:37
appear until Mulder contacts him about it, and he says to Mulder
17:42
that he isn't happy about the way the negotiations are taking
17:45
place, but that they need that research.
17:48
But if he is indeed on Mulder's side, surely he would have
17:52
warned him about the impending danger to his self.
17:56
I mean, they aren't supposed to be clueless, are they?
17:58
They're supposed to know about everything.
18:01
Anyway, Deep Throat fails here, deliberately written that way or
18:06
not, and I like the way a calmness falls over Malta as he
18:10
faces off with Barnett at the end, that despite the taunting,
18:14
he knows what he has to do, and he takes his shot and puts
18:18
Barnett down. And there's also the way that
18:21
this episode is written as a homage to the movie In The Line
18:25
of Fire, though it's not stated anywhere, but it is obvious.
18:29
For those of you who watched the movie with Clint Eastwood and
18:32
John Malkovich, you'll be familiar with the way the phone
18:35
conversations between their two characters takes place in the
18:38
film, with Clint wandering around the room and Malkovich in
18:42
the shadows so we can't see what he actually looks like.
18:45
And the conversations between Mulder and Barnett are filmed
18:48
the same way, so we cannot see what Barnett's younger form
18:51
actually looks like until the scene where it becomes
18:55
necessary. And then the scene where Barnett
18:58
guns down Scully is so very familiar to the same scene in
19:01
the movie where Malkovich tries to kill the president at the
19:04
fundraiser. So these were obviously very
19:08
deliberate, even though the film was only released about 8 months
19:11
before this episode. And if you haven't seen In the
19:15
Line of Fire, then go and do it now.
19:17
It is one of the great films of the 1990s.
19:23
Mulder. Barnett, your new friend Ridley.
19:38
Don't grow too fond of him. He's going to die soon like the
19:47
rest of your friends. The rest of my friends, 1 by 1.
19:56
You're not that smart. Tell me you're not going to make
20:02
me prove it to you again, are you?
20:06
Oh, well, no matter. It'll be your turn soon enough.
20:13
But you won't get that chance. Oh no.
20:20
Who's going to stop me, huh? Man, this is.
20:24
This is the land of the free. I'm just checking in.
20:33
Bye. And finally, we see the return
20:44
of William B Davis as one of the government operatives
20:49
frantically trying to get Barnett to talk on the operating
20:52
table to tell him where he has hidden the stolen research.
20:56
Now it's suggested by Mulder that he is CIA in this scene,
20:59
but surely, given how Davis and his main character in the show
21:03
becomes so important, this character could have been retcon
21:07
to be the Cigarette Smoking Man. I mean, that is how I always see
21:11
it anyway when I watch this episode.
21:14
And it's interesting that although now dead, Reggie Perdue
21:18
is actually referenced down the track in two episodes in future
21:21
series. So be ready for that.
21:25
So here we go with the PSA test. The problem at the start is that
21:28
someone's taking a potshot at Mulder and it seems like the MO
21:31
of someone who he put in way in jail but also died in jail.
21:35
So how could this be? Our solution is that this person
21:39
has undergone reverse aging and not died at all, and yet it is
21:44
Mulder and Scully who again come out on top and foil his plans.
21:49
And the answerless probably comes from the final shot of the
21:52
episode, with the stolen research now missing forever.
21:56
And then in the last scene we see the camera pinned to a
21:59
random locker in a random train station, implying that the
22:02
secrets are contained within and that one day they will be
22:06
discovered. So this is another one of those
22:09
episodes, I think that is certainly above average, but in
22:14
the long run, does it really hold your interest all the way
22:17
through as a monster of the week episode?
22:19
Because it plays out as just a normal murder cop chase episode
22:24
again, with only the additional supernatural part of it
22:27
occurring that does, sorry, add interest to the episode.
22:32
And while it's an interesting enough episode in the long run,
22:35
we get to the end and nothing much has really been sold except
22:39
that once again, Mulder and Scully have come out on top and
22:42
gotten the bad guy. So for me, this is another 3.5
22:46
out of five episode. It's a great, solid episode.
22:50
It's nothing outstanding, but it is certainly fun enough to
22:53
watch. It is no in the line of fire.
23:02
All righty. So here we go for you Michael.
23:05
Season 1 episode 17 titled EBE. And this episode is directed by
23:12
William Graham and written by, Yep, you guessed it, Glen Morgan
23:17
and James Wong, their 5th writing episode partnership.
23:22
So we're back with the overarching alien mythology in
23:25
this episode, with the start of the episode showing a UFO being
23:29
downed by an Iraqi fighter over Turkey.
23:32
And the next thing we see is a truck being assaulted by another
23:35
UFO driving back in the US. And of course, Mulder and Scully
23:40
have been called in to check it out.
23:42
And in trying to explain the unnatural events that appear to
23:46
have occurred, Scully comes up with some interesting
23:50
rationalizations. Who says that this could have
23:53
been caused by anything? Like it could have been a
23:56
Mountain Lion that caused the driver to freak out.
23:59
Yes, a Mountain Lion is what she's saying.
24:02
She's saying that the lights could have been swamp gas.
24:05
Yes. And the fact that the truck lost
24:07
power was due to perhaps a lightning strike.
24:11
All of which, of course, Fox takes with a grain of salt and
24:14
replies each time. Feasibly so.
24:17
Malda and Scully tried to interview the driver, but he is
24:20
escorted away quickly by someone who has gotten to the sheriff.
24:25
Instead, what we do see is the introduction and the first ever
24:28
sighting of the Lone Gunman, the radical group who becomes so
24:33
important in this series and of course eventually in their own
24:36
series, which is very exciting down the track.
24:41
The Lone Gunman is made-up of Byers Fro, Hickey and Langley,
24:44
played by Bruce Harwood, Tom Braidwood and Dean Hagglund.
24:49
Braidwood had been an assistant director on the series from the
24:52
beginning and had snared this role when he began casting for
24:56
this episode. So the first scene that we see
24:59
these three alongside Mulder and Scully is interesting mainly in
25:02
retrospect that you can see that the characters are definitely
25:06
not fully fleshed out yet. The scene showcases each
25:10
individual's quirks and their specific interests and skills,
25:14
but it's frantic. Whereas later on everything
25:17
comes together much easier. Now apparently of course they
25:22
were only going to appear in this one episode, but because of
25:25
the popularity this engendered in the fandom after the
25:28
episode's release, they were written into further episodes
25:31
and became far more important than they would ever have
25:34
believed when it came to this episode.
25:39
Check it out, Mulder. I had breakfast with the guy who
25:41
shot John F Kennedy. Because that's so.
25:44
Old dude now, but yeah, says he was dressed as a cop on the
25:47
grassy Knoll. Hey, Mulder, listen to this
25:50
Vladimir Jaronowski, leader of the Russian Social Democrats.
25:53
He's being put into power by the most heinous and evil force of
25:56
the 20th century, Barney the CIA.
26:02
Is this your skeptical partner? She's hot.
26:09
You don't believe that the CIA, threatened by a loss of power
26:12
and funding because of the collapse of the Cold War,
26:14
wouldn't dream of having the old enemy back?
26:16
I think you'd give the government too much credit.
26:20
I mean, the government can control a deficit or manage
26:23
crime. What makes you think they can
26:25
plan and execute such an elaborate conspiracy?
26:29
She is hot. Settle down bro Hickey.
26:31
We're not talking about a bunch of idiots up on the Hill trying
26:33
to bone the Capitol pages. We're talking about a dark
26:37
network, a government within a government controlling our every
26:39
move. How can they do that?
26:41
How I'll show you how you got a $20 bill I'll.
26:46
Check MM Hmm. Uh huh.
26:57
Hey. That's just one method.
27:06
They use this magnetic strip to track you whenever you go
27:09
through a metal detector at an airport.
27:11
They know exactly how much you're carrying and where you're
27:12
carrying it. It buyers it is a federal crime
27:15
to deface money the. Strip is an anti counterfeiting.
27:17
Measure how come it's on the inside.
27:20
Other countries put that strip on the outside.
27:22
Are they high? OK, all right.
27:23
What do you know about the Gulf War Syndrome?
27:26
Agent Orange of the 90s. Artillery shells coated with
27:28
depleted uranium. Have you heard of any classified
27:31
planes being flown during the Persian Gulf War?
27:34
Why would you need to expose a secret plane to an Air Force
27:36
that runs to Iran whenever you take to the air?
27:38
What about UFO activity during that period?
27:41
Yeah. UFOs caused the Gulf War
27:43
syndrome. That's a good one, that's why.
27:45
We like Humeldt here. Your ideas are weirder than
27:47
ours. The other major player in the
27:53
episode of course, is Deep Throat, but it is a very
27:56
different perspective that we are offered and one that shows
27:59
that Deep Throat himself is not as glowing as Mulder thought.
28:04
So we've seen four times during the episode.
28:07
The first time is when Mulder contacts him to ask him what am
28:10
I onto here with this truck with supposed UFO tendings
28:15
tendencies, to which he gets nothing except the atypical
28:21
yellow envelope. Then the envelope contains the
28:24
transcript from the Iraqi pilot who shot down the UFO in the 1st
28:28
place. And not long after and without
28:30
being asked, we find that Deep Throat is waiting for Mulder in
28:34
his apartment and he gives him another yellow envelope and this
28:38
one has a purported photo of a UFO hovering over an army
28:42
vehicle, which of course Mulder is extremely excited about.
28:46
And this leads to another series and relationship forming
28:49
conversation between Mulder and Scully.
28:52
When Scully says that the photo is a fake, their relationship is
28:56
again once again tested. Because Mulder's hardcore
29:00
beliefs when it comes to these UFO mythology has him trying to
29:04
uncover the conspiracy and at times he is blinded by that.
29:07
Whereas Scully is trying very hard to say to Mulder, I
29:11
understand what you believe and how you are committed to that,
29:15
but you have to understand that everybody else knows that you
29:18
are this committed to it as well and that they're going to try
29:20
and use that against you. And again, it does test their
29:25
basic relationship. Now of course, Milda finds out
29:28
himself that the photo is a fake and comes back and admits this
29:31
to Scully and does apologise. But then he also says that
29:35
they've been given the incorrect information and that they,
29:39
meaning the government, are trying to throw them off the set
29:42
and that This is why that they need to chase this truck that is
29:46
still driving across the country.
29:49
So this again solidifies their partnership once again, a little
29:52
stronger, having gone through their emotional stress.
29:57
So then we come to Deep Throat again for the third time this
30:00
episode as Mulder confronts him with the fact that he's lied to
30:04
him. And when he doesn't disagree
30:07
with that, Mulder says, well, at least you didn't try to say that
30:10
you didn't lie. And Detroit uses as his excuse.
30:14
There are some things that need to say secret.
30:18
Now, you can see he's under a pressure in this episode and
30:21
that he's in a bind. And you can see that Mulder is
30:23
losing faith in him as well. So moving on to the episode.
30:27
And Mulder and Scully have managed to escape the tailing
30:30
government agents who have been chasing them and bugging them.
30:33
And they track down the truck and its cargo and discover an
30:37
empty medical unit in the back of it, just big enough to house
30:41
an alien life. Performed, perhaps.
30:44
They then discover a secret warehouse nearby, and with the
30:47
help of Langley, they get fake IDs printed.
30:51
And this is great, because Mulder's identity is to be Tom
30:55
Braidwood, which is the name of the actor who plays Frohickey.
30:59
Well played, everyone. So they get inside, but they're
31:02
quickly discovered and Mulder makes a break for it and he's
31:05
cornered, but he's rescued by Deep Throat, who just happens to
31:10
be there. And this is the fourth time we
31:12
see him. And now as he says that the UFO
31:16
pilot is dead and then he's no longer there, he explains the
31:19
mother that he was in the CIA in Vietnam and that he is one of
31:23
only three people who have ever had the privilege of killing an
31:27
extraterrestrial biological entity, which is what EBE stands
31:32
for and of course, is the title of this episode.
31:36
And Detroit says that he hopes that through Mulder he can find
31:40
a way to forgive himself and find peace with himself because
31:43
of what he's done in his past. So Mulder's line as they walk
31:47
out together is perfect because he just says, I'm trying to work
31:51
out which lie to believe, to which Detroit just walks off
31:55
into the mist. So it's a really interesting
31:58
episode because although we have this episode that purports to be
32:02
about a damned alien pilot, much like in the episode Fallen
32:06
Angel, and again Mulder trying desperately to see this pilot to
32:10
see an extraterrestrial, it becomes very secondary in
32:16
regards to the episode. For me, the story is the further
32:20
unboxing of the professional relationship between Mulder and
32:23
Scully and the relationship between Mulder and Deep Throat.
32:27
We can see that Deep Throat is under enormous pressure in this
32:29
episode that he wants to help Mulder to discover the truth,
32:32
but only certain parts of the truth.
32:35
And we see the tension between Mulder and Scully because Mulder
32:38
is obviously obsessed with chasing down the conspiracy and
32:41
the need to see the alien life form or proof of the life form.
32:46
While Scully is still trying to keep her level head and she's
32:51
only concerned about Mulder and how he may be being played.
32:55
Whereas Mulder is only concerned about the conspiracy in the same
32:58
way as we've seen in previously in Fallen Angel.
33:03
And the other thing about this episode is we finally saw Mulder
33:06
and his sunflower seeds again, which is the first time in I
33:11
don't know how long it was that we last saw him sitting there
33:13
eating these seeds. I know that's just a little bit
33:16
off track, but early on this was part of Mulder's character and
33:20
it didn't get shown enough for my liking.
33:24
So all of this makes for a terrific episode because of the
33:27
actual interaction between Mulder and Deep Throat and
33:30
Scullion Mulder, and it really makes this episode kick.
33:34
The introduction of the lone government too is significant,
33:37
even though their initial appearance in the show is
33:40
overall less than satisfying. So now we have the PSA test for
33:44
this episode. We have the problem, which is
33:48
what is purported to being an alien being being transported
33:51
across the country, and of course Mulder and Scally are
33:54
going to try and find it and expose it.
33:57
The solution is that the alien does disappear, even though
34:01
Mulder comes to realize that they're trying to make it look
34:04
like it's a UFO encounter when in fact it's not, and that
34:07
they're trying to play on him for his obvious attraction to
34:10
that. And the answerless is probably
34:14
twofold. Is Deep Throat on Mulder's side
34:17
or not? And also, where did that alien
34:20
go and was it still alive? Because Death Throat says that
34:24
the alien has been executed, but who's to say that he hasn't been
34:27
lying again and that the alien has now gone away and is being
34:31
tested or operated on. So for me, this is up to five
34:36
out of five episode because we get to see these relationships
34:40
really tested and I love that fact.
34:43
And here you can see that whereas Mulder has held up Deep
34:46
Throat to be a person of absolute integrity and honesty
34:50
and who has been helping him in this episode, he now has doubts
34:54
about that because of what has occurred.
34:56
And that will be very important going forward.
35:06
Season 1 Episode 18 is next on our agenda and it's titled
35:10
Miracle Man and it's directed by Michael Lang and is written by
35:15
Howard Gordon, but not with his usual partner in Alex Ganza.
35:19
On this occasion, Gordon is helped out by the esteemed Chris
35:24
Carter. And the big question for me here
35:27
is how does this actually qualify to be an X File or an
35:32
X-Files episode? Because apart from the fact that
35:36
purportedly this young boy has been able to bring a person back
35:39
from the dead and that purportedly he is able to cure
35:43
sick people, there is nothing else in this episode apart from
35:47
what ends up being a murder mystery that could have happened
35:51
in any police show from America or the UK or Australia over the
35:55
past 40 years. So after the open, where we see
36:01
Samuel as a child apparently bringing a man whose name we
36:04
learned is Leonard, back from the dead despite severe burns
36:07
all over his body. 10 years later, Scully and Mulder are
36:11
drawn to the travelling ministry that Samuel's father, the
36:14
Reverend Hartley runs as a parishioner has died as Samuel
36:18
has tried to heal them. What they finally, when they
36:22
finally, sorry, tracked down Samuel.
36:24
Samuel believes he's suffering from penance from God, that his
36:27
powers are beginning to fail him.
36:30
And when Scully doubts his claims, he says, do you doubt
36:35
the power of God? And Scully says no, but I doubt
36:38
the veracity of your claims. Samuel then speaks to Mulder of
36:43
his pain when he says, if you'd come earlier, I could have cured
36:47
you. My power in God is gone.
36:51
And Mulder, of course, begins to believe that he has some sort of
36:54
power because he speaks of his brother or sister that he has
36:58
lost and that he's in pain because of it.
37:00
And Mulda from this point starts having visions of his sister
37:04
Samantha, but his sister Samantha at the age that she was
37:07
taken, not the age that she would be now.
37:13
Samuel Amazing. Mulder, this is Aidan Skelly
37:17
from the FBI. Looks like he took quite a.
37:21
Beat in there penance, Mr. Mulder.
37:24
Some might call it a plain old bar brawl.
37:27
You know what they say, he giveth, then he taketh away.
37:34
Man gets too proud sometimes it doesn't good to get the crap
37:39
kicked out of him. Saves God the trouble.
37:42
The trouble of what? I'm blinging the guilty Sinner.
37:47
Guilty of murder? Yes, Sir.
37:53
How'd you do it, Samuel? Apparently my pride and weakness
37:58
were an invitation to the devil. I muddied the river of my own
38:01
faith. Now my gift has been corrupted.
38:05
So you're saying that you killed those people with a touch?
38:08
I've laid my hands on the ill, given them health, I've healed
38:12
the sick, I've even touched the dying and given them life.
38:19
God has given me a special gift. Did he buy you all that jewelry
38:23
too? I think there's something
38:25
missing in your story, Samuel. Do you doubt the power of God,
38:28
ma'am? No.
38:30
But I doubt the veracity of your claims.
38:33
I've looked on the infirm and seen their sickness, their
38:36
cancer, just as I can see the pain on this man right here.
38:45
Really. What pain is that?
38:52
The pain you have regarding a brother or a sister, it's an old
39:00
pain. It's never been healed.
39:03
Is this some kind of a trick? No trick, man.
39:10
I think we should get. The shirt.
39:11
I want to hear more about this pain.
39:14
Tell me. I can see it plain as day.
39:18
Was her sister? You lost sister quite young.
39:24
Someone took her away. What else do you say?
39:27
Strangers. Bright light, Sheriff.
39:32
You should have come here earlier.
39:34
Chance I could have healed your pain all?
39:35
Right, let's get this over with. Hey, I need another minute with
39:37
her. I can't help you, not anymore.
39:41
My gift is gone. Copy.
39:49
So the real problem with this whole episode is that eventually
39:52
we work out that the parishioners who are coming to
39:54
the tent who have died have actually been poisoned by the
39:58
man that Samuel brought back to life 10 years earlier, Leonard,
40:02
who has been grossly burnt, and that Samuel had somehow been
40:05
able to rise from the dead. So of course, he's got scars
40:09
around his body. And in the long run, he's the
40:11
one who's poisoning these people, which in turn leads to
40:14
Samuel. Doubting his abilities, Leonard
40:17
had also orchestrated the swarm of grasshoppers in the courtroom
40:21
at Samuel's sentences hearing, and once Scully discovers that
40:24
the victims have been poisoned by cyanide, Mulder understands
40:28
that Samuel's being set up, and he tries to convince him of
40:31
this. All too late, of course, as
40:34
always, because that evening Samuel is bashed to death in his
40:37
cell by two new inmates who have just suddenly turned up to be
40:41
brought in to do that job. The agents tracked the cyanide
40:46
to Leonard, but of course, surprisingly too late as he has
40:50
seen a vision of Samuel and has drank his own cyanide and
40:53
finished himself off. And with Leonard implicated and
40:58
Samuel proven innocent in death, Sheriff Daniels realizes his
41:03
mistake as he's been going through the whole episode, and
41:06
he is taken into custody for orchestrating the death of
41:08
Samuel in his cell. So it's just a really average
41:14
episode without anything particularly ex files Y about
41:18
it. But first, before we go through,
41:21
let's just take a look at the PSA.
41:22
So we have the problem that someone has been killed and an
41:25
evangelical faith healer's tent and Muller and Scully have gone
41:30
out to investigate. We have the solution.
41:33
The people who have died have actually suffered from cyanide
41:37
poisoning and that it's his long term employee who had risen from
41:41
the dead who had perpetrated this.
41:44
The Angeles part is the rest of the rest of the episode.
41:47
It's left in the Bay. It's now.
41:49
Do you believe that Samuel brought Leonard back to life at
41:52
the start of the episode or did he just come back to life of his
41:55
own accord? Has Samuel been helping people
41:57
for the last 10 years or is it just like it as it is with so
42:00
many of these ministries that these people believe they've
42:04
been held? And of course, at the end, we
42:08
say, well, we had that the the body of Samuel has disappeared.
42:12
So did he actually just get up and walk out himself, as many
42:16
people have seen? Or has the body just disappeared
42:19
in a different way? In the end of the episode, has
42:23
Samuel's body having disappeared from the morgue with several
42:25
witnesses who claim that he just got up and walked off himself.
42:30
So in the long run, for me, there's nothing particularly
42:36
outstanding about the episode. The episode has no tension.
42:39
It has no excitement. It was fine to watch as a story,
42:43
but when you get to the end of it, you honestly are left
42:45
thinking that this should not have been an X file and this is
42:49
not what The X-Files are designed for.
42:51
A story where everything could actually be explained away.
42:56
It was more or less an episode where Scully could have
42:58
explained away everything in her scientific, logical way.
43:02
And you could say at the end, actually, that's probably fair
43:05
enough. In this case, apart from the
43:08
body disappearing from the morgue, there is pretty much an
43:11
explanation for everything else if you really wanted to look
43:14
that way. So there we go.
43:17
For me, this is a 2 out of five episode.
43:20
Look, it's OK, I didn't mind watching it again.
43:24
Perhaps the most troubling thing about the whole episode is the
43:27
person who played Samuel Hartley, Scott Bairstow, who was
43:32
excellent in the role. Don't get me wrong, that was
43:35
eventually done for sexual assault of a minor a few years
43:37
later and hasn't been cited on the screen since.
43:41
Maybe that's the real X-Files radio.
43:50
So we move into episode 19 of season 1 and this is called
43:56
Shapes. This was directed again by the
43:59
excellent David Nutter and was written by Marilyn Osborne, her
44:03
first writing credit on The X-Files.
44:06
Now, this is an episode that probably shouldn't work because
44:10
it's dealing with an urban legend that we all know and
44:13
we've all known from childhood, which is basically about
44:17
werewolves. But this has done so well that
44:20
you cannot help but like it. So Scalia Mulder called up to
44:24
Montana to investigate the killing of a Native American
44:27
man, Joseph Gooden snake, by the local rancher, Jim Parker, who
44:32
when he and his son were trying to find out who was killing the
44:35
cattle, were attacked by an animal.
44:37
And in fact, Jim's son Lyle is actually attacked and has
44:41
scarring from this animal. And yet, when they shoot the
44:45
animal, all they find is not an animal at all, but in fact the
44:48
local man, Joseph Gooden Snake. So of course, Scully and Mulda
44:54
had their differing ideas. As always, they go up to the
44:58
reservation and the population are very wary of the FBI.
45:02
They don't like the authority being in town.
45:05
And Mulder and Scully, of course, are trying to work out
45:07
what is happening while meeting obstacles at every intersection.
45:12
They want to do an autopsy, but they're unable to do so because
45:15
of the beliefs of the Native American Indians who want to
45:18
have a traditional ceremony to cremate the body.
45:22
And that should be the end of it.
45:24
So we're basically halfway through the episode, and there's
45:27
been very little achieved. In fact, it could almost be the
45:31
end of the story. But of course, Jim Parker, who's
45:35
now sitting on his veranda, and he's probably thinking the same
45:37
thing, that everything's now been settled.
45:40
And then he gets attacked by a wild animal and he's killed,
45:44
torn apart, in fact. Now, Mulder, of course, has his
45:48
suspicions because he's already spoken to Scully about the first
45:52
X File case that was investigated and ever actually
45:56
put into The X-Files by none other than J Edgar Hoover.
46:00
And it spoke about killings that had been happening in this
46:02
particular area over a long period of time.
46:05
And he shares with Scully that he believes that these culprits
46:08
in both cases are actually werewolves.
46:11
And Scully, of course, dismisses this immediately and believes
46:14
that it's actually people who believe they can turn into
46:17
wolves, not people who actually can turn into wolves.
46:23
So Mulder goes back to the reservation and speaks to one of
46:25
the elders, Ish, who now that he understands that Mulder is
46:29
different from most FBI agents, talks to him about the legend of
46:32
the Manitou, a shapeshifter who can pass to a new host through
46:36
bite or upon death of the original host.
46:39
That's. Only ish?
46:43
What did you say? Watkins have been attacked by an
46:51
animal when he was alone in the woods.
46:57
His scars healed, he was forgotten.
47:00
Then the murders began. The tray goes, we realized that
47:08
Watkins have been attacked by what the Algonquins call a
47:12
Manitou, an evil spirit capable of changing a man into a beast.
47:22
To be attacked by a manitou causes the victim to become one.
47:28
They healed scars on Joe goodness thanks body.
47:32
A manitou overtake some man by night, not by full moon, but
47:37
when it's blood lust builds to uncontrollable level.
47:41
The man changes to a sickening creature.
47:45
It kills, releasing the savage energy.
47:50
The man returns to his true self, unaware of what has
47:55
happened. The cycle begins anew the next
48:00
day. This continues until death.
48:06
One night when I was 16 years old, I was coming back from
48:12
fishing at the Cutbank Creek. I knew a shortcut behind Watkins
48:16
House towards that. A groan.
48:23
Not animal, but not human. I looked into his window.
48:31
He was covered in sweat and blood.
48:36
He was in a grave great pain. His arm.
48:45
The skin ripped. He tore up and fell to the
48:49
floor. Claw sprang from his
48:53
fingernails. He turned, screaming, and he saw
48:59
me. His eyes.
49:04
His eyes were still human. They begged me to kill him, and
49:10
if I had been hunting at my gun, I'd have done it without a
49:13
second thought. But being a boy and scared to
49:19
death, I ran away. Shortly after, the police killed
49:26
him. But the manic 2 rose again.
49:30
Eight years later, but with Watkins dead, how could there
49:35
have been an attack by Manitou? Watkins had his son.
49:42
He could be passed along bloodlines.
49:46
And so they believe that this affliction can be passed on
49:49
through the bloodlines as well. And outside listening to this is
49:53
Guten Snake's sister Gwyn, who the three men believe now may be
49:59
the Manitou because of this revelation.
50:02
However, they captured Gwyn and she explains that she'd actually
50:06
gone down to the Parker homestead the night before and
50:09
she had seen Jim Parker being attacked and killed by an animal
50:13
that she could not explain. So what do we do now?
50:19
In all of this, Scully had found Lyle naked in the field and had
50:22
taken him to the hospital to get checked out, and she's now in
50:25
the process of bringing him back home.
50:28
And Mulder has called the medical examiner who says that
50:31
Jim Parker's blood type was found in Lyle's stomach and that
50:35
could only happen through ingestion.
50:38
So the realization builds that it is in fact Lyle who is now a
50:41
man or two, and everybody converges on the home.
50:45
At around about the same time as Lyle goes through his change in
50:48
the bathroom, we have a confrontation and a similar
50:52
thing occurs. The creature is eventually
50:54
killed, and when they turn the light on, it's actually Lyle's
50:58
dead body in front of them. Scully, who is still not
51:02
believing, says that she thought they were being attacked by a
51:05
cougar that she'd seen earlier in a cage outside.
51:08
But the sheriff confirms that it is still outside in its cage.
51:12
The episode concludes with Gwynne having left town that
51:15
morning, with the sheriff commenting that perhaps she's
51:18
seen things that she's not ready to believe or understand.
51:22
And Scully says maybe she does, as this then remains of course
51:28
the same as her. And Mulder is leaving.
51:32
And Ish says to him, hey FBI, see you in about 8 years, as
51:37
Mulder says, oh, I hope not. So this episode itself could
51:44
have been really simple and much like the previous episode,
51:48
slightly uninteresting. But this is a real slow burn.
51:52
And as I said, the first half of the episode is taken up with the
51:56
initial attack, the death of Gooden Snake, and then the
51:59
interaction with the population of the reservation.
52:02
So 20 odd minutes in and the episode has just been a slow
52:06
pace. Nothing's happened, it's just
52:08
been building and then everything really starts to kick
52:11
into gear after that and starts to pick up speed.
52:14
And this has done so well. Unlike Miracle Man, the previous
52:19
episode, where it's a simple story and it just didn't seem to
52:22
go anywhere apart from being little more than that murder
52:25
mystery that I was Speaking of, this is really engaging.
52:29
This has a lovely feel about the writing and the acting in it as
52:32
well, which I thought was absolutely excellent from
52:35
everyone involved. And having it set with the North
52:38
American Native Indians reservation is terrific because
52:41
we're bringing their culture into the show with their own
52:44
beliefs being tested, their natural distrust of government
52:48
officials, and all of this plays into the storyline really
52:51
wonderfully well. Otherwise, it could have just
52:55
been a normal, everyday werewolf sort of story.
52:58
And it's not that. It's far more than that.
53:01
There's tension in the final scene that takes place in the
53:04
Homestead. It is magnificently directed by
53:06
David Nutter. It is first class.
53:09
The way he films this and allows the tension to grow and without
53:12
compromising the whole show. The way he shot that scene, the
53:17
differing angles in the lighting is just fantastic.
53:21
And I mean don't get me wrong, the directing and acting through
53:24
the whole of this show has been just magnificent.
53:27
But in this final scene, you can see exactly how good a director
53:30
David Nutter is. So for me, what could have been
53:34
just a really simple episode turns out to be a really
53:39
fabulous episode that utilizing, as I said, the Native Americans,
53:44
this story of the legend of the Manitou as a shapeshifter rather
53:49
than just your normal everyday werewolf as such.
53:52
And of course, it's mentioned that the Manitou comes out at
53:55
night, not just when it's the full moon.
53:57
It just comes out at night when it has a bloodlust.
54:00
And I think all of that is done terrifically well.
54:05
So let's have a look at the PSA. So of course we have the problem
54:08
in that there's been a killing where it looks like the rancher
54:11
has just killed a Native American Indian, but thought
54:14
that they were being attacked by a wild animal.
54:17
And of course, we have the solution where we work out that
54:20
this is a Manitou situation, a shapeshifter, where the infected
54:24
turn into wild animals at night with blood loss.
54:27
And of course, it's supposed to stop with the death, but it can
54:31
also be passed on through the bloodline.
54:34
The answer, less in the long run, is the fact that Gwen, his
54:37
sister, takes off even though she knows she's a part of the
54:41
bloodline. She may well have this problem,
54:43
but she's gone. And perhaps she's out there
54:46
waiting for another eight years when this cycle is supposed to
54:49
come around and start again. So it's a monster of the week
54:54
episode. And I mean, as I've said before,
54:56
the story of the werewolf has been done so many times, so much
55:00
over the last 100 years in film and literature and that kind of
55:03
thing. But this is a really, really
55:07
well done example of that. And it's very impressively
55:11
written, very impressively acted and very impressively directed.
55:17
So for me, this is a very, very good four out of five.
55:22
I probably could have given it more, probably up to a 4.5.
55:26
And I think it's absolutely well worth watching just for the way
55:30
the slow burn of the episode builds beautifully throughout.
55:41
So that's all from me this episode #4 done and just five
55:44
episodes left of Susan, one to talk about.
55:47
So I hope you've enjoyed reliving these episodes with me
55:50
once again, of one of the great science fiction TV series.
55:54
And as I will continue to say through the series of the
55:57
podcast episodes, not every episode is a great one.
56:01
There's a fair share of turkeys out there.
56:04
Just like the truth, it's also out there.
56:08
So thanks for listening and being a part of this.
56:10
And if you'd like to get involved and give your thoughts
56:12
on this episode or offer anything you'd like about how
56:16
this episode went, there's a number of ways you can do it.
56:19
You can find me on X as Metal Bill with the handle at Real
56:22
Metal Kevin. I'm on blue sky as metal Bill
56:25
under at metal Kevin dot B sky dot social.
56:30
You can leave a comment on the episode page on Spotify if
56:33
you're listening to this podcast through that streaming service.
56:36
Or if you want, you can check out my Patreon page where you
56:39
can find me at the creation of me a lifetime retrospective.
56:43
And then go to the podcast section, which is revisiting The
56:46
X-Files. And you can leave a comment on
56:48
the page for this episode. And if you know anybody out
56:51
there who may be interested in going along on this journey with
56:54
us, please pass on the episode to them and let's get them on
56:57
board. Righty.
56:59
Oh, that's enough for me. I apologize for my speaking this
57:04
episode. I've had the flu for about the
57:05
last four or five days, and I've waited as long as I could before
57:09
I recorded this episode to get it out on time.
57:12
So a little bit stuffed up. And I promise I won't do that
57:15
for the next episode. And as it turns out, I can't
57:19
wait for the next episode to relieve those last episodes of
57:22
Season 1 and get to the final conclusion of where we're
57:26
heading with revisiting The X-Files, where the truth is out
57:32
there. Cheers.