Episode 20 – Darkness Falls
A group of loggers in Washington State mysteriously vanish from the same place that a similar incident happened 60 years earlier. The logging company believe eco-terrorists are responsible and Mulder and Scully head into the woods with a local sheriff and logging company representative. Caught by the saboteurs trap, they end up with two flat tyres and have to hike the rest of the distance. Once at the cabin, they soon find a body cocooned in the woods. Then one of the saboteurs appears saying his friends have been eaten alive by bugs that come out at night. The man from the company does not believe him and heads back to the truck to radio for help, where he is killed by the bugs. Meanwhile, the rest are stuck with only the generator to keep the place light. The next morning, Spinney, the Saboteur takes the remaining petrol and promises to return with help. After only one more night of fuel, the remaining three head back to the truck only to find the cocooned body. They are rescued just in time by Spinney but they get another puncture trying to escape. Spinney is killed by the bugs and the others are attacked. The next morning help arrives and our agents have just survived.
This is an atmospheric and creepy episode with some great action sequences. However, it is spoilt by some rather poor decision making at times by the characters. Why go back to the truck but forget to take a key, why doesn’t Mulder realise he is letting Spinney take all the remaining fuel? The end is also a bit of a cop-out where they are rescued just in time. However, there is some good tension between Mulder and Scully and some fairly gruesome scenes.
Episode 21 – Tooms
Eugene Tooms is released from psychiatric hospital despite Mulder’s best efforts. Mulder is convinced he will attack again but Scully tries to hold him back. She has been approached by Assistant Director Skinner and CSM to ensure they use more orthodox investigative methods. Mulder becomes rather obsessed by Tooms as Scully investigates past cases. Tooms fakes an assault by Mulder in order to get him off his case, and then attacks his doctor. He heads back to his ‘nest’, now a shopping centre, to hibernate. Mulder and Scully find him there and manage to kill him. Scully passes her report to Skinner, much to his disapproval. CSM believes it however. Mulder warns Scully that they are trying to close the X-Files down.
Easily one of the best episodes of the season. It is great to see Tooms again and Doug Hutchison puts in an even more terrifying performance than in ‘Squeeze’. This is also an interesting episode visually, with Tooms’ vision being displayed in black ad white, with only his potential victims illuminated in colour. There are some tender scenes between Mulder and Scully, where the ‘will they, won’t they’ debate really kicks off. It is also good to see the first scene in Skinner’s office – and get a bit more from CSM. This does feel like the beginning of the end for the X-Files!
Episode 22 – Born Again
A little girl is founding in a side street in New York. She is put in an interview room but the policeman questioning her appears t o jump from through the window, killing himself. The girl, Miichelle, describes another man as being in the room, but her description is matched to another policeman who died several years before. Mulder initially suspects Michelle of telekenisis but it turns out that she is the reincarnation (of sorts) of the dead policeman, who is getting revenge on his former colleagues after they had killed him after they had all stolen drug money. Once the truth is out, his spirit seems to leave Michelle and things seem to get back to normal.
Not really much worth commenting on in this episode other than an appearance from ‘Oh. My. God.’ Janice from Friends and a decent spooky child performance. The plot takes some predictable turns and there is little character development. After the brilliance of the last episode and the teaser at the end, we are left wanting more than this run of the mill work.
Episode 23 – Roland
A researcher working on jet engines dies after the autistic caretaker locks him in the wind tunnel. Roland, the caretaker has a low IQ, but seems to be capable of carrying out complex calculations. When another scientist is killed, Roland is the chief suspect but things do not add up. Mulder and Scully discover that Roland is the twin brother of one of the scientists, killed in a car crasjh but cryogenically frozen. His spirit seems to be inside Roland but they manage to stop him just before he kills again.
This episode boasts a fine performance from Zeljko Ivanek (recognisable from TV classics such as Oz, 24 and Damages). The story shows some promise but I can’t help thinking it would have been more interesting if they had not taken the ‘possession’ route again. The episode can however claim the best death scene of series 1 as a man’s head is shattered by process of liquid nitrogen.
Episode 24 – The Erlenmeyer Flask
A man is being pursued in a massive police chase. He shows unusual strength as he fights off a number of police, then is unaffected when shot by a taser. As he runs towards a harbour, he is shot, but he jumps in the sea and disappears. All that is left is some spots of green blood. Deepthroat contacts Mulder and tells him to watch the news report on television. Mulder is convinced that there is important information to get though Scully is more sceptical about Deepthroat’s clues. Mulder and Scully follow clues to a laboratory where a doctor is carrying out genetic experiments. The pursued man had worked at the lab. When the doctor in charge of the laboratory is killed by a mysterious agent, Mulder and Scully know there is a wider conspiracy. Mulder finds a flask in the lab marked ‘purity control’ that he asks Scully to analyse. It has unusual genetic properties and could only be of extra-terrestrial origin – the strongest evidence Scully has yet seen. The escaped doctor is found injured and picked up by paramedics. However, his wounds seem to give off a toxic gas and the man escapes again. Following more clues, Mulder finds a warehouse with 5 bodies floating in tanks. However, as he leaves the warehouse, he is pursued, but manages to escape. When he takes Scully to the warehouse, it has been emptied. They both meet Deepthroat who tells them of attempts to create alien/human hybrids using alien DNA. The escaped doctor is the results of one of those experiments. Mulder manages to find the doctor, only for the other agent t o show up and shoot him. Mulder is knocked out by the toxic gas from the wound and taken hostage. They want the evidence that Scully has. Deepthroat leads Scully to a high containment facility where she finds a alien embryo. She takes it to a meeting for exchange with Mulder, but despite the fact that Mulder is handed over, Deepthroat is shot and killed. As he recovers, Mulder contacts Scully and tells her the X-Files are being closed down. We finally see CSM as he takes the embryo and stores it in the same warehouse as we saw in the pilot.
A complex but satisfying end to the first season. There are some big steps of logic and Deepthroat’s involvement is sometimes frustrating, but this gives us some of the scenes we wanted to see – and more. The image of the bodies in the warehouse is possibly the best of the series so far, and the alien baby is stunning. It is hard to see how Scully can continue with her scepticism after the evidence she has seen this episode. Deepthroat’s death is shocking and hints that perhaps no character is safe.
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