X-Files Case Reports (Page 2)

“Unlike you, Mulder, I would like to have a life.” As I wrote in the intro to this series, I didn’t become a regular viewer of The X-Files until the show was in its third season, so there are a lot of episodes from seasons 1, 2, and 3 that I have never seen. That’s one primary motivation for doing this series in the first place, now that we live in a time when watching old episodes of shows that we may have missed is one of the easiest things in the world to do. I remember how it wasn’tDown the rabbit hole….

“I want to believe.” At this point in the series, we’ve already seen the poster in Mulder’s office that would become one of the iconic props of The X-Files, the one with the flying saucer on it and the slogan in big letters at the top. That poster always struck me as slightly odd, in the context of Mulder’s office: it states “I want to believe”, but as is very clear from the outset of the series, Mulder already does believe. But it turns out there’s one thing that Mulder isn’t sure he believes or not, a thing which isDown the rabbit hole….

On the trail of a killer, Mulder and Scully find, in an abandoned building, a giant nest made of old newspaper scraps and bound together by some kind of fluid that Mulder reaches out and touches. SCULLY: I think it’s…bile! MULDER: Is there any way I can get it off my fingers without betraying my cool exterior? For the most part, episodes of The X-Files can be grouped into three categories. The first two episodes, the pilot and “Deep Throat”, were also the first two episodes in the “Mytharc” category. That’s short for “mythology arc”, and it is those episodesDown the rabbit hole….

“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?” “Because…all the evidence to the contrary is not entirely dissuasive.” “Precisely.” “They’re here, aren’t they?” “Mr. Mulder, they’ve been here for a long, long time.” That exchange comes at the end of “Deep Throat”, the second episode of The X-Files. Even more than the Pilot, “Deep Throat” establishes a lot of the groundwork for what is to come over the course of the series. More tropes are introduced: Government secrecy and conspiracies; governmentDown the rabbit hole….