1x02: Deep Throat

Before we start, I've been thinking about the pilot episode entirely too much this week.  Specifically, who exactly was doing these abductions and experiments on these Oregon teens?  We know that the government/Syndicate had been conducting their own experiments and would often stage them as classic alien abductions in order to discredit those who experienced them.  In fact, like, 90%+ of the abductions we see happen could just as easily be human-on-human probing as they could be aliens.  I am hard pressed to recall one abduction (before the death of the Syndicate at the end of season 5) that is conclusively, totally aliens... except for Jose Chung's From Outer Space.  No wonder Scully doesn't believe in aliens, when even we as the omnicient audience can't be sure.

Anyway.

We continue our journey today with 1x02: Deep Throat, one of those episodes where the title references (both to the porn and the scandal) went completely over my head for, like, a decade, because I was born too late for either to have really made an impact on the cultural reference lobe of my brain.

Just a little warning before we start: I've seen this series multiple times, so I'll be referencing characters and plots and events that haven't yet occurred. There will be spoilers.  If you're seeing this series for the first time and reading this reviews, consider this fair warning.

As we go forward with these reviews, I'm going to keep the following themes in mind:

1. The show is as much about Scully's journey toward becoming a believer as it is about the paranormal events she and Mulder encounter.

2. Scully is only a skeptic when viewing things from a clinical distance; when the shit hits the fan, she acts on Mulder's crazy beliefs because she knows it will keep her alive.

3. Mulder isn't right nearly as often as he thinks.

4. The evolution of the Mulder/Scully relationship - not just the romantic involvement that eventually occurs, but their dynamics of trust and distrust, the changing ways they view each other, and the friendship that grows over time.

5. Assault on a federal officer never seems to lead to jail time.

6. Mulder is kind of a dick.

7. Hotel managers must be crazy to rent to FBI agents.

8. The enormous top-secret government conspiracy actually really sucks at keeping things quiet.

9.  There are some serious homoerotic undertones in this show.

This list will keep expanding (heck, #8-9 are new for this episode!) so we'll leave that count open-ended for now.

Our episode opens on this idyllic little home in southwest Idaho being swarmed by dudes in uniform.

Some handy-dandy exposition from the guy in charge informs a scared-looking woman, identified as Mrs. Budahas, that her husband has lost his goddamn marbles and stolen a military vehicle and is probably wielding some weaponry. The gaggle of uniformed... uh, military police, I guess? ... literally ram down the door - rather than, say, ask Mrs. Budahest who is standing RIGHT THERE for her keys so as to maintain the element of surprise and not startle a possibly-armed, definitely crazy, army-trained colonel... or, y'know, get the keys from whoever is in charge because this is a home on a military base and you know they have copies of all the keys and shit.  But no, they ram down the door and spread through the house - continuing to kick down doors as they go, of course - before finally finding their guy like this:

And then we hear the glorious strains of the opening credits sequence for the very first time. It's... so... beautiful...

Also, I never thought about this before, but those ID photos are way too nice for an actual government ID.  Why aren't they just standing in front of a white screen, eyes forward, awkward smile, the way every single ID photo has ever been done? No, Mulder and Scully get to have nice, 3/4 shots with perfect hair and no awkward facial expressions, and signatures that will not match any other signature we see throughout the rest of the series.

It's no wonder they keep the same IDs in the credits for 7 years. If my driver's license looked half this good, I'd never give it up.

After a strangely long establishing shot of Washington, DC, we cut to Scully, in a bar, wearing this outfit:

Oh Dana, was that lapel pin really necessary? I swear the wardrobe department spent the first couple seasons dressing Scully like an 80-year-old transvestite because Gillian Anderson was only 25 when the show started and they were trying way too hard to make her look like an actual adult.

Mulder shows up, stands way too close, offers to buy her a drink at 2 in the afternoon, and then says he has something he'd like to show her.  Oh Mulder, you charmer, you.

As they go to grab a nice cozy table, we see this guy paying way too much attention to them and then some creepy music plays, so you know right away he's important:

Mulder whips out a file on the creepy burned man from the teaser, identifying him as Colonel Budahas who was a military test pilot up until a psychotic break 4 months previously. Scully asks for a diagnosis, but Mulder tells her that the military will not comment at all on anything about it. I just love Scully's "intriqued face":

And as much as I harp on her wardrobe, her hair is always fab-u-lous.

Mulder explains that Mrs. Budahas (scared teaser woman) hasn't seen or heard from her husband since the incident and recently called the FBI to report it as a kidnapping - thus giving Mulder some flimsy excuse to investigate, since kidnapping is technically a bureau matter.  Mulder knows that 6 other pilots have disappeared from the same air force base, and Scully informs him of rumors that they were shot down while "routinely penetrating" Russian air space. She sure knows how to talk dirty to her partner.

But Mulder is convinced something spooky is afoot, because the case was deprioritized last week for sudden and unknown reasons.  Like the Oregon case from the pilot. You'd think a top-level conspiracy trying to operate unnoticed would be the least bit subtle about things like this so as not to arouse suspicion, and you would be wrong. #8

Scully finds it odd that a case with no apparent paranormal element would pique Mulder's interest, and he dodges the question for no good reason, teasing her about "paranormal bouquets" and whatever.  Like, I know he's not supposed to trust her yet, but since he's going to be dragging Scully along on this investigation, it might be better for her safety and your own if you tell her maybe the tiniest bit about this massively dangerous conspiracy you suspect is operating here. But no, Mulder likes to keep all this potentitally life-saving info to himself, because he's like 4 years old and taunting her with the old, "I know something you don't know" routine. #6.

And poor Scully just sighs in resignation.

[
Mulder heads to the bathroom and demonstrates a shocking lack of awareness in a government-trained investigator by allowing weird-music-guy to creep on him while he's washing his face.



This guy doesn't get dubbed Deep Throat for a while yet, but Weird Music Guy doesn't have the same ring to it so I'm just gonna go with his official title from here on out.

Deep Throat warns Mulder to stay away from this Budahas case, and says he may be of help in the future and has taken an interest in Mulder's work.  He's also locked the bathroom door.  Mulder, you are not nearly freaked out enough by this. Guy locks you in a men's room in a bar and starts delivering cryptic, obtuse messages about how he's noticed you and taken an interest in you?  Then something about positions and exposing and... Well... People always said this show had homoerotic undertones but I really didn't notice it until now. We're putting this on as #9.

Deep Throat leaves (though he doesn't unlock the door, it's just magically open) and Mulder tries to chase after him but is delayed by a conveniently large man trying very rudely to rush into the just-vacated men's room.



By the time Mulder makes it into the bar proper, Deep Throat is gone. Scully notices Mulder acting even more bizarre than normal and asks him if he's okay.

Cut to Scully using what appears to be an actual microfiche reader at the FBI headquarters. (Or at least I think it is. I've never actually encountered one in real life Those things were already pretty obsolete by 1993, weren't they?)  She's scanning articles about the air force base, which is apparently like Area 51 except easier to recreate in Vancouver because there's no deserts to fake.



We also get treated to slow camera pans of the article, with words like "military experimenting" and "stealth weaponry."

Mulder is cooking bachelor chow in what is totally not the same kitchen he has later, when Scully calls him.  She starts to harp on him about failing to tell her about the base's UFO rumors, and he freaks out when he hears some really loud clicking sounds that I guess are what you hear when someone is tapping your phone. There's also some guy in one of those so-nondescript-it's-even-more-suspicious vans parked right outside his apartment.

He's either here to spy on Mulder or kidnap small children.

Seriously, conspiracy guys, you literally have access to advanced alien technology and some of the most brilliant scientific minds on the planet. You couldn't come up with a slightly less obvious way of keeping tabs on Mulder? You've also clearly employed people to do this grunt work of tapping and van-sitting, because the Smoking Man is way too important to this stuff on his own - how big is your payroll, anyway? Adding this to the list as #8: the conspiracy sucks at its job.  It's no wonder Mulder believes Kritschgau when he says that the conspiracy has been manipulating him this whole time; in retrospect, these types of surveillance seem like blatant attempts to bolster his paranoia.

Mulder won't talk to Scully on this unsecure, obviously tapped line, and says they can continue this conversation on the flight out.

Apparently whatever that conversation was, it was enough to convince Scully to come along on this crazy train, because suddenly their plane is touching down and our intrepid agents show up at the Ellens Base and knock on Mrs. Budahas's door. They hear some weird quasi-plane noises but before they can go chasing after them with no preparation whatsoever, Mrs. B opens the door. Mulder flashes his badge and they get invited inside, where Mrs. B starts telling them about her husband's descent into military guinea pig.  She says about 2 years ago he started getting a rash, and then his personality changed, and he started using fish food as a seasoning. She tried to talk to him about it, but he'd start yelling and shake like he was having a seizure. She also says that another guy on the base "went kinda crazy"... but at least that guy came home.

Mulder and Scully immediately head to the McLennen house to see this other guy, who is plucking out strands of his hair one by one and using them to make fishing lures.  Yup, I'd feel totally safe welcoming this guy back into my house. Nothing weird going on here.



Mrs. McLennen says she considers herself lucky to have him back alive, and that his condition was probably just caused by stress.  She hasn't been brainwashed by the government in any way, obviously, and the military just takes such gosh darn good care of them. And she seems really pissed at Mrs. B for bringing the FBI into all of this. Is it just me, or is this Air Force Base like some deeply creepy cult?



Mrs. B gives Scully a list of numbers which she herself has tried "a thousand times," because of course an unknown and unwelcome FBI agent is going to have more luck than an actual military wife. As Scully and Mulder walks away, she diagnoses Mr. McLennen with "stereotypy", which she says is a condition brought on by extreme stress that occurs in POWs (and animals in shitty zoos) and but which Wikipedia describes as the repetitive motions and rituals of autism has nothing to do with stress whatsoever.

Mulder finds it unlikely that a test pilot, who is supposed to thrive under pressure, instead folds under it.  Scully mentions the Aurora project (which will come up again the Dreamland episodes, awesome!), a secret subortibal spy plane project, and suggests that maybe these pilots have been flying those planes and are the washouts.  Mulder counters that, based on all the photos and commendations hanging on the Budahas's wall, the colonel never washed out of anything in his life. This you noticed, Mulder, but not Deep Throat locking you in the bathroom for some awkward posturing?

Back at the hotel, they've apparently been trying that list of numbers Mrs. B gave them and having about as much luck as you'd expect. The best Scully got was a guy named Kissel who will meet with them "a week from Friday" which I guess is military speak for "the twelfth of never." Mulder picks up a phone book - oh wow, remember when those were things people used? -



to look up Kissel's address and they head over to bother him at home. This doesn't seem like proper investigative procedure - ignoring official channels and instead ambushing military personnel in their own homes - but we're just gonna go with it, here. Kissel speed-walks away from them, calling this an invasion of his privacy (he's right), and demanding they leave his property (because this is basically trespassing) as Mulder bombards him with questions about Budahas. Kissel slams the door in their faces.

Scully snidely remarks that it's a good thing they kept their appointment, and suddenly a random guy in glasses shows up to talk to them.  He's Paul Mossinger and he works on the local paper; he'd heard from Mrs. McLennen that they were up here looking into the "Budahas thing."  Mulder brushes him off like an overly enthusiastic sales associate at Macy's, saying their just looking around.  Mossinger says that a lot of people come here just to look around, mostly UFO nuts, and they hear another weird quasi-airplane pass overhead.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a secret government aircraft constructed using technology from crashed UFOs!

Mossinger asks about Budahas again and Mulder keeps rudely dodging the questions.  Is it because this guy is the press? Because I think that means he would actually know more.  This is, like, the only person in town you've met who actually wants to talk to you about THE THING YOU'RE HERE TO FIGURE OUT, and you're being a total dick to him, Mulder. #6.

Mulder does ask if Mossinger knows where they could find one of "those UFO nuts," and so they wind up here:



Remember when I said Ellen's was like Area 51 but easier to tuck into the Canadian landscape than a desert base? This totally proves it. I bet the original script for the episode called for them to go to Area 51 and the base nearby (which is Nellis, by the way, very similar to the fictional Ellens) and find the UFO nuts at the Little A'le'inn. But the production team was like, "Guys, we're in freaking Vanvouer, we can't simulate the Nevada desert here," so they changed it to Idaho and saved the Area 51 idea for season 6.

Mulder and Scully enjoy their diner food while talking to the waitress (who seems to also be an owner or manager or something) about her amateur UFO photos hanging by the bar. Scully thinks this is all bullshit, especially since this woman wants to sell prints for $20 a pop and of course Mulder has to buy one. Scully leans in and calls him a sucker.



You're too cute, Scully.

Mulder asks the waitress where he could see a UFO, and it's just too much for Scully who jumps out of her chair before Mulder's obsession spreads to her like some contagious disease.  She's outside reading a map because it's 1993 and they don't have smartphones yet



and when Mulder comes out she informs him that Ellens Air Base isn't even on the map.  Mulder of course knew this already, but it's cool because the waitress gave him directions to a UFO-sighting spot.  This must be why Mulder insists on driving everywhere - he just likes to keep Scully in the dark. #6.

The park next to a fence lined with barbed wire and Mulder grabs some binoculars from the trunk (where they sit in the same alien emergency kit as his orange spray paint). Scully accuses him of using this whole case as an excuse to look for UFOs, and she's totally right. He doesn't give a shit about Mrs. Budahas and her missing husband, or about what the hell happened to Mr. McLellen.  All he wants is evidence that there's actually a conspiracy and/or proof of UFOs. Remember in the pilot when he told Scully he didn't care about anything but exposing government secrets? This is that sentiment in action, folks. #6.

I guess Scully is super mad at him, because she sulks in the car so long that it gets dark and she falls asleep; she wakes up when some weird vibrations shatter the back window and Mulder shows up to drag her up the hill to see these crazy dancing lights. He says they've been dancing like this for almost half an hour. So why didn't you go get her then, Mulder? I mean, I know you're fascinated and all, but you've spent so much time trying to convince her that your crackpot theories are correct, I think you'd jump at the opportunity so show her some concrete proof.



Scully is trying to find a mundane explanation when another light appears, moving towards them rapidly - and oh shit, this one's a helicopter, and it's chasing them. Bet you wish you'd gotten Scully up here earlier, don't you, Mulder? Maybe then she'd have had more than 5 seconds to see the lights and be convinced it wasn't lasers or something. But nooooo, you had to #6, and now Scully's going to think the first lights were helicopters or some other ordinary thing, too.

Two startled stoners pop out of the bushes as the copter approaches, and Mulder and Scully decide to chase them, too. They even pull out their guns (for the first time), even though chasing two teenagers in the dark over uneven terrain does not seem like the optimal time to have your firearm in your hand.

Our agents catch up to them and hey look, it's Seth Green!



But before Scully can bond with him over their shared ginger heritage, the chase copter shows up and reminds everyone that they're trespassing on government property and should probably get out of there.

The group heads to a diner of some kind - because remember, every town must have one open at all times for these kinds of things - and Scully asks what exactly they were doing out there. Seth Green - so 90s that he's wearing a thermal shirt under a freaking purple-flannel-lined jacket - says they were essentially tripping balls while listening to music and watching the lights. He also says there's a "yellow base" where all the weird stuff gets stored, and Mulder seems to totally buy this story even though this kid is about a million miles from being a reliable witness.

Look at this outfit. Just screams "my information is trustworthy and accurate," doesn't it?

Then some creeper in a sedan rolls up outside and radios in that he's "got a 20" (which actually is military speak for knowing someone/something's location). Whoever's on the end calls him Redbird.



Seth Green uses his burger to demonstrate the lights' maneuvering capabilities, which makes Mulder giggle, which makes Scully giggle, and I can't believe how enjoyable this scene is. Mulder holds up the picture he bought at the Little A'le'inn Flying Saucer and asks if the ships look anything like that. Seth Green says no... they look exactly like that. Dang, Seth, you totally got 'em with that one.



The next morning, our agents drop off the two stoners and their sweet scooter at what is presumably their house... and Mulder actually says "Later, duuude," and tries to do the surfer hang ten sign thing. Mulder, you're in Idaho. Don't be an idiot.

I guess the kid gave him a demo tape, because Mulder sticks it in the car's tape player and starts jamming to it... and Scully shuts it off immediately.  It's like watching my parents on a road trip or something. Dad would put on some bitchin' classic rock and Mom would switch it to some generic Michael Bolton light rock crap.  I'm filing this under #4, because they're establishing a rhythm of interaction akin to that of an old married couple.  This little exchange didn't need to be in there at all - they could have included 6 more seconds of dancing lights in the previous scene - but instead they chose to showcase the developing dynamic between these two.  Also Mulder's "jamming" face:



Scully asks if Mulder believes everything those kids said, and Mulder actually says, "Why wouldn't I?"

Scully: Mulder, did you see their eyes? If I were that stoned...

Mulder: [wiggles eyebrows] Oooo! If you were that stoned, what?

Scully: Mulder, you could have shown that kid a picture of a flying hamburger and he would have said that's exactly what he saw.

Mulder busts out a photo of the UFO that crashed in Roswell in 1947, which looks exactly like the one in the diner photos. He tells Scully he knows she doesn't believe in this stuff, but just hear him out: the mysterious Ellens base, which doesn't appear on the map, is supposedly one of the sites where parts of the wreckage were shipped. Scully uses her catchphrase for the first time ("Mulder, are you suggesting/saying/telling me") to ask if he thinks the government is flying UFOs and Mulder's all, "Of course not, don't be silly!... Just planes built using UFO technology."



It's either laugh or punch him in the face. I'm not sure I would have made the same decision.

Scully, ever the rational scientist, questions the reliability of this evidence: two blurry photos, one nearly 50 years old and the other purchased at a roadside UFO-themed diner. Mulder insists there's a remarkable resemblance, and Scully insists there's no proof they're genuine. He pulls the whole, "What about what you saw!?" line that he'll use again and again, and she says, "Just because I can't explain it, doesn't mean they were UFOs."

Actually, Scully, that's kind of exactly what UFO means. UFO has become almost completely synonymous with "alien spaceship" but really it means Unidentified Flying Object.  Literally, a flying thing that can't be readily identified or explained. So yeah, because you can't explain it, it actually means they were UFOs. And Mulder points this out to her, so points for Mulder.

Still, Scully points out, none of this explains what happened to Colonel Budahas - y'know, the whole flimsy pretense you put together to come out here, Mulder? Remember that guy, and his terrified wife, and the military who won't tell her anything?

Back at the hotel, Scully gets a message at the front desk and runs to inform Mulder that Colonel Budahas has come home. They head over to the Budahas house and find Mrs. B in tears, scared to death of the man claiming to be her husband. She insists that it's just not him, that they've done something to him.

Mulder asks the guy claiming to be Mr. Budahas if he knows where he's been the last 4 months, to which the guy replies he's been in the hospital. He seems to know everything the real Budahas would know - his birth date, his kids' names, even some stats regarding the Green Bay Packers (whose sweatshirt he's wearing) - but Mrs. B repeats that it's just. not. him. Then Mulder asks him about some random piloting maneuver, and Budahas can't answer. He can't remember.

They leave the house and Mulder starts saying how he thinks "they" selectively erased his memories, and Scully tells him that the science necessary to do something like that simply doesn't exist. "Neither does the technologyto fly the aircraft we saw last night," he counters.

Go put some ice on that burn, Scully. We'll be waiting.



Back in the car, Scully asks why anyone would even want to erase these memories, and Mulder says it's all about information control, and that Budahas could have been a security risk. Scully think the memory loss may be selective amnesia related to his nervous breakdown (which really does sound pretty reasonable).  She laughs when he mentions UFO technology again, like a mom who knows her son has a crazy imagination and isn't it cute and jeez when will he grow out of it?

Then there's a pair of bland sedans converging on them, nearly running them off the road, and about a dozen suspicious individuals in dark glasses hop out.



They order our heroes out of the car and promptly start patting them down, going through the files in their car, taking or destroying all their evidence. At least this time they didn't burn down some innocent bystander's hotel. When Mulder asks what this is all about, he gets a punch in the kidney and some excuse about "national security." Also, doesn't the guy on the right here sort of look like Dan Akroyd?



Where does the Conspiracy group find these lackeys? What the hell kind of recruiting do they do to find people willing to be this dodgey and go around roughing up and robbing federal agents? Did they all have to go to Men's Warehouse together and get matching suits? Is there some dealership around here that specializes in nondescript grampa cars? How the hell can the Syndicate maintain any form of information control when they have so many damned underlings?

The Bland Sedan Brigade says they'll escort the agents back to their hotel, and we cut to Scully trying to track down this mysterious figures via their license plates and having absolutely zero luck. Mulder comes to the conclusion that those choppers last night were after them, not the two stoners, that the military knew they were coming before they even arrived, and that Colonel Budahas was returned as a decoy. He tells her about Deep Throat trying to keep him away from the case, and about the phone tap. Scully is understandably upset:



Like seriously, Mulder, that was a shitty thing to keep from your partner. What if the Bland Sedan Brigade had decided it was easier to murder you than to let you go, and telling Scully all this conspiracy stuff earlier could have prevented it? It's one thing for your paranoia and stupidity to endanger your own life, but putting Scully in danger is a total dick move. #6.  It takes a helluva long time for this message to sink in for Mulder, basically until Scully's abduction in season 2 and again with her cancer in season 4.  It's weird to look back at these early episodes and see how totally blase Mulder is about possibly endangering Scully's life, when later he will go to such extremes to protect her. #4.

Mulder's convinced there's an actual UFO here, and that the military is so concerned with keeping it a secret that it will sacrifice the lives and minds of its pilots.

Scully: If, if that were true, it would be a national scandal.

Mulder: No no, you're not thinking big enough, if it were true, it would be confirmation of the existence of extra terrestrial life.

Scully: Did you ever stop to think that what we saw was simply an experimental plane. Like the stealth bomber or, this Aurora Project. Doesn't the government have a right and a responsibility, to protect it's secrets?

Mulder: Yes, but at what cost, when does the human cost become too high for the building of a better machine?

Scully: Look, these are questions we have no business asking. Our kidnap victim is no longer outstanding. Let's get out of here Mulder, while you still have a job.

You go, Scully. Way to be the bigger person here and try to protect you partner, despite the fact that he felt no similar obligation towards you.

Mulder tells Scully he's going to shower and pack so they can leave, and Scully doesn't appear even the least bit suspicious at what is obviously a line of complete bullshit.  She hasn't developed her Mul-dar yet, but she'll start calling him on this crap someday, just you wait. It's not until she literally hears the car start up that she thinks maybe he's not going to proceed in a sane and rational manner about all this.



Way to ditch your partner, Mulder.  Way to completely ignore her feelings and her completely rational concerns FOR YOU, and run off on your own ill-conceived adventure. #6.  This also means that, once again, Scully is conveniently out of the way when the actual paranormal shit goes down.

The stoner kids lead Mulder to the hole in the fence and give him directions to their UFO-watching spot. Mulder asks where the "yellow base" is, and Seth Green tells him it's like 10 miles and he definitely shouldn't go there and of course Mulder completely ignores him.



Mulder crouches down in the middle of nowhere, waiting for dark to solo storm the high-security, high-secrecy military base. Then we get these iconic shots



as a UFO passes right over his head.  Now the show has enough material for, like, a million promos. Which is good, because this scene cost them a huge chunk of their special effects budget.

As the UFO flies away, a pair of military vehicles with flashing lights show up to chase Mulder; guys in fatigues jump out, wrestle him onto a gurney, and carry him away. Then they hold him down and inject him with stuff. See what happens when you ditch Scully???

Bad things, Mulder. BAD THINGS happen when you ditch Scully.

Scully, meanwhile, is trying to get a line to Washington but can't.  She leaves her gun behind as she goes to the hotel desk to try again, totally not noticing one of the Bland Sedan Bridage roll into the parking lot. The desk phone doesn't work either, which the clerk blames on the military.



Meanwhile, Mulder gets unloaded back at the base, where he blearily makes out the outline of a UFO-shaped something-or-other through sheets of translucent plastic and layers of military-grade seditives. Then he passes out. You're such a reliable witness, Mulder.



Back at the hotel, Scully heads to her room only to see Mossinger (the reporter from earlier) coming out of it. Instantly suspicious, she reaches for her gun only to realize she left it behind. Real professional, Scully. This whole gun-forgetting thing happens WAY less often in later seasons because of shit like this. Mulder and Scully learn pretty quick that they have to always be prepared to shoot things.

The radio in his car starts saying shit like "base to RedBird" - it's the same call sign we heard from that sedan outside the diner! Scully immediatley knows something is up, and I had to make a freaking gif of this (which takes forever) because wow, is it a great reaction.

Polite polite polite WOOOSH! Catlike reflexes on this chick.

She jumps straight into Mossinger's car and locks the door, and finds a gun and airbase security ID badge while searching for his keys. It's nice to know Scully isn't the only one who leaves her gun behind in inopportune moments.



Now THAT is what you'd expect from a government-issued ID photo. Mossinger smashes out the window with a fire exintguisher and they struggle briefly before Scully scratches him in the eye. #5. He goes around to the driver's side to get her and she shoves his own gun in his face and forces him against the car, demanding to know who he is. He calls her "Dr. Scully" and says no one wants this to come to violence when she's so far from home, which is way threatening.  Then the stoners pull up on their scooter and tell Scully that Mulder's gone running off like an idiot and didn't come. Scully orders Mossinger to get on his radio and find out where Mulder is, or she's totes gonna call in the media and expose the "experimental aircraft."

Mulder, meanwhile, gets treated to some ridiculously bright lights and random medical procedures.



Cut to Scully holding a gun on Mossinger as he takes her out to the base.  One of the guards radios that "the package is arriving," and Scully tries to maintain her veneer of authority despite knowing that she has basically no control over what happens next. A Jeep shows up and Mulder stumbles out of it, looking less than well. Scully orders Mossinger out of the car, Mulder gets in, and they drive away.  He's pretty out of it and confused; he can't remember how he got there or what's happened to him.



They head back to the Budahas residence and Mrs. B says everything's fine and her husband's getting better and she is in no way afraid of him at all when he calls from the next room to find out who's at the door.  Mulder tires to tell Scully that "they" got to her, but she won't hear him.  She says they don't know anything, nothing more than when they got here, and that's what's going in her field report. So there.

We cut to Scully doing just that - writing a field report stating that nothing could be conclusively determined and that, barring further authorized investigation, case #DF101364 (10-13 is the birthdate of both Chris Carter and Mulder), is closed.



Cut again to Mulder working off some tension by running around a track. When he stops to catch his breath, Deep Throat approaches from nowhere to be all cryptic at him again. He says their lives may be indanger because of the things they've seen, and they have to be discrete - which has never been Mulder's strong suite, so good luck with that.  When Deep Throat turns to leave, Mulder calls after him, "They're here, aren't they?" And Deep throat replies, "Mr. Mulder, they've been here for a long, long time."

Okay, so, I'm not too big a fan of this episode. It's one of those weird early mytharc stories written before they'd really sat down to work out the mytharc itself, so everything is kept even more vague than usual.  Mulder is just such a dick in this episode that I find it hard to side with him, and Scully's explanations are all actually pretty sound. There's zero evidence that there's anything alien-ish going on here, nor is there any conclusive evidence that it's all man-made stuff. So nobody wins, nothing gets solved, no one can remember seeing anything conclusive, and all the evidence disappears.  The highlight of this episode was definitely Seth Green playing with his UFO burger.


Firsts: opening titles, Deep Throat, people on foot being chased by helicopters, "Mulder, are you suggesting..?", human/UFO technology hybrids, random 90s star appearance, 1013