Today, I’m watching episodes five, six, and seven from the first season of The X-Files. None of these episodes are particularly memorable, but they do serve the greater context of paranormal investigations that Mulder and Scully do throughout the series while giving us glimpses into who they are as humans. The show is known for doing several episodes of Monster-of-the-week before deep diving back into some larger conspiracies. This was especially true during the earlier seasons.
Episode 1.5 The Jersey Devil
Mulder and Scully investigate deaths just outside of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Local law enforcement are quick to warn them off of the investigation for they fear it will negatively affect local businesses. By then end of the episode, they kill a wild woman who had been eating people. After Scully informs Mulder that there is evidence that she gave birth at one point, the viewer is left with a final scene of a man hiking with his son through the wilderness and tells him of an urban legend about the Jersey Devil. A small boy comes out of hiding after they leave. The son of the woman who was killed.
This is the first episode during which Scully’s personal life comes into focus, and is the only glimpse we get until her father dies in a later episode. She leaves Mulder to investigate while she goes to a party for her nephew. We meet her sister, and Scully ends up going a date. Her date is interrupted by a phone call from Mulder and she is lured back into the field. This small interference really foreshadows how much her job will affect her life. How much it will estrange her from her family. How much she will miss out on all for the greater good. And as the viewer, we don’t get another glimpse into her personal life until many episodes later. It was one of my biggest complaints during its original run.
Episode 1.6 Shadows
Mulder and Scully investigate the mysterious violent deaths of two men believed to have been killed by a powerful psychokinetic source. With first the interference and then help of two CIA agents, they uncover a conspiracy of a company selling tech to terrorists, and the psychokinetic energy was from a man who died before he could bring this information out in the open and was protecting a woman who worked for him.
The episode was inspired by the 1982 horror film The Entity starring Barbara Hershey. The movie follows a woman who was raped by a ghost and after a therapist could not help her, she hires two college students interested in the paranormal to help her rid herself of the ghost. Later in her career, Hershey starred in two of the Insidious films about a family haunted by evil spirits hellbent on possessing them. In those films, a group of paranormal investigators are hired to help the family.
The theme of helping other people is something that The X-Files lacked up until this point. While they helped solve cases with other law enforcement or investigated Mulder’s obsession with aliens, they did not really solve their cases for average people.
This episode opened the door for producers and writers to make more episodes during which Mulder and Scully help people with their investigations. Up until this point, they were just investigating paranormal phenomena. But with this, the agents can explore cases that also give people closure and offer them answers. The performance of Lisa Waltz as Lauren Kyte, the woman the entity was protecting in the episode, is one of the more memorable guest appearances.
Episode 1.7 The Ghost in the Machine
On the first unofficial Halloween episode, Mulder and Scully investigate the death of an executive who may have been murdered by the A.I. operating a high tech building that will do anything or kill anyone to protect itself, including one of Mulder’s colleagues / friend. The loss hits him hard, and the grief is palpable.
Even after Mulder and Scully destroy the A.I., there are still those who want to use it for their own malevolent purposes. This story is not connected to any greater conspiracy within the X-Files series, but that didn’t stop the writers from using Deep Throat to help Mulder investigate the case. It is more of a way to keep the character in our minds than it is useful in any capacity. At best, in this episode, it sees Deep Throat as more of a father figure for Mulder.
The Ghost in the Machine was not the last episode to feature nefarious A.I. in it either. There are several episodes that feature tech gone rogue, and they are far better than this one so I look forward to talking about them as I get to them. It is one of my favorite themes throughout the show, even if this episode wasn’t the greatest. It does not explore A.I. as a robotic life form and just makes it the villain, able to learn but not able to discern between right and wrong. Shows like The Outer Limits had episodes that explored these themes more openly and were more successful than this particular episode. I will explore those episodes from The Outer Limits further when I get to the better X-File episodes about A.I.
These three episodes, bookended by the more memorable episodes of Conduit and Ice (next week’s episode), serve the broader purpose of letting us know who Mulder and Scully are as humans as well as FBI agents. One of the biggest complaints fans had early on was that we knew Mulder’s backstory, but hear very little of Scully’s. We meet her family and see her wanting to start her own family one day. We see how deeply Mulder grieves when he loses a colleague. At the end of the day, it is what makes them human that makes them such interesting and sustainable characters.
Until next week, the truth is out there.
Discover more from Becky Tyler Art and Photography
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Becky Tyler Art and Photography 
Today, I’m watching episodes five, six, and seven from the first season of The X-Files. None of these episodes are particularly memorable, but they do serve the greater context of paranormal investigations that Mulder and Scully do throughout the series while giving us glimpses into who they are as humans. The show is known for doing several episodes of Monster-of-the-week before deep diving back into some larger conspiracies. This was especially true during the earlier seasons.
Episode 1.5 The Jersey Devil
Mulder and Scully investigate deaths just outside of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Local law enforcement are quick to warn them off of the investigation for they fear it will negatively affect local businesses. By then end of the episode, they kill a wild woman who had been eating people. After Scully informs Mulder that there is evidence that she gave birth at one point, the viewer is left with a final scene of a man hiking with his son through the wilderness and tells him of an urban legend about the Jersey Devil. A small boy comes out of hiding after they leave. The son of the woman who was killed.
This is the first episode during which Scully’s personal life comes into focus, and is the only glimpse we get until her father dies in a later episode. She leaves Mulder to investigate while she goes to a party for her nephew. We meet her sister, and Scully ends up going a date. Her date is interrupted by a phone call from Mulder and she is lured back into the field. This small interference really foreshadows how much her job will affect her life. How much it will estrange her from her family. How much she will miss out on all for the greater good. And as the viewer, we don’t get another glimpse into her personal life until many episodes later. It was one of my biggest complaints during its original run.
Episode 1.6 Shadows
Mulder and Scully investigate the mysterious violent deaths of two men believed to have been killed by a powerful psychokinetic source. With first the interference and then help of two CIA agents, they uncover a conspiracy of a company selling tech to terrorists, and the psychokinetic energy was from a man who died before he could bring this information out in the open and was protecting a woman who worked for him.
The episode was inspired by the 1982 horror film The Entity starring Barbara Hershey. The movie follows a woman who was raped by a ghost and after a therapist could not help her, she hires two college students interested in the paranormal to help her rid herself of the ghost. Later in her career, Hershey starred in two of the Insidious films about a family haunted by evil spirits hellbent on possessing them. In those films, a group of paranormal investigators are hired to help the family.
The theme of helping other people is something that The X-Files lacked up until this point. While they helped solve cases with other law enforcement or investigated Mulder’s obsession with aliens, they did not really solve their cases for average people.
This episode opened the door for producers and writers to make more episodes during which Mulder and Scully help people with their investigations. Up until this point, they were just investigating paranormal phenomena. But with this, the agents can explore cases that also give people closure and offer them answers. The performance of Lisa Waltz as Lauren Kyte, the woman the entity was protecting in the episode, is one of the more memorable guest appearances.
Episode 1.7 The Ghost in the Machine
On the first unofficial Halloween episode, Mulder and Scully investigate the death of an executive who may have been murdered by the A.I. operating a high tech building that will do anything or kill anyone to protect itself, including one of Mulder’s colleagues / friend. The loss hits him hard, and the grief is palpable.
Even after Mulder and Scully destroy the A.I., there are still those who want to use it for their own malevolent purposes. This story is not connected to any greater conspiracy within the X-Files series, but that didn’t stop the writers from using Deep Throat to help Mulder investigate the case. It is more of a way to keep the character in our minds than it is useful in any capacity. At best, in this episode, it sees Deep Throat as more of a father figure for Mulder.
The Ghost in the Machine was not the last episode to feature nefarious A.I. in it either. There are several episodes that feature tech gone rogue, and they are far better than this one so I look forward to talking about them as I get to them. It is one of my favorite themes throughout the show, even if this episode wasn’t the greatest. It does not explore A.I. as a robotic life form and just makes it the villain, able to learn but not able to discern between right and wrong. Shows like The Outer Limits had episodes that explored these themes more openly and were more successful than this particular episode. I will explore those episodes from The Outer Limits further when I get to the better X-File episodes about A.I.
These three episodes, bookended by the more memorable episodes of Conduit and Ice (next week’s episode), serve the broader purpose of letting us know who Mulder and Scully are as humans as well as FBI agents. One of the biggest complaints fans had early on was that we knew Mulder’s backstory, but hear very little of Scully’s. We meet her family and see her wanting to start her own family one day. We see how deeply Mulder grieves when he loses a colleague. At the end of the day, it is what makes them human that makes them such interesting and sustainable characters.
Until next week, the truth is out there.
Discover more from Becky Tyler Art and Photography
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
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