One of the most interesting aspects of The X-Files is that when there are multiple monster of the week episodes in a row, there usually ends up being one terrific episode and one stinker, however watchable it may be. Season 4 of the series was no different. After Mulder returned from Russia and before Leonard Betts regrew his own head, Mulder and Scully investigated two X-Files that were drastically different in tone and reception from the audience. Paper Hearts and El Mundo Gira are always exactly how I remember them when I rewatch them, as if time didn’t bother to change my opinions on them after I grew up.
Paper Hearts
This episode is truly one of the highlights of season 4, if not the entire series. Series writer Vince Gilligan took the long running storyline of Samantha’s disappearance and flipped the script on it. Literally and figuratively. He wrote an episode that explored the idea that Samantha was not abducted by aliens but by a serial killer who liked to kill little girls. In a memorable performance, actor Tom Noonan portrayed John Lee Roche, the killer who leads Mulder and Scully on a wild goose chase to find additional victims. His sole motivation for this seems to be that he wants his trophies back – the little hearts he cut out of his victim’s clothing before he buried them. What is interesting about this is that these were not known to investigators until they were found in the killer’s old vehicle after he was convicted. He was convicted of thirteen murders, but there are sixteen hearts. Scully does an autopsy on the first body they find and dates it to 1975, much earlier than the other known victims.
What connects Samantha to this is that Mulder dreams of the night Samantha is abducted, only this time his dream shows her being abducted by Roche instead of aliens. Mulder sees this as a sign and asks Roche where he was the night Samantha was kidnapped. Roche claims to have been in Martha’s Vinyard and sold his mother a vacuum which, of course Mulder finds in her house. This sends Mulder into obsessive territory and when an autopsy on a second body found turns out to not be Samantha, Mulder demands to know the truth. Roche takes him to a house once owned by his father, but it is a house they bought after Samantha disappeared. Mulder is no longer a believer in Roche’s story, so they stay in a hotel before returning to prison. Mulder inadvertently falls asleep and when he wakes, Roches is gone with his gun and FBI badge.
When Mulder finally catches up with Roche, and he had kidnapped another girl. Mulder wants to shoot Roche, but the girl is in the way, and Mulder knows he will never know the truth about Samantha if he kills Roche. He ends up shooting him anyway when Roche tries to hurt the girl. The episode ends with Mulder sitting in his office with the last remaining heart. He eventually puts it away, not knowing what really happened to Samantha. Another tragic end to his search for his sister. It mirrors the end of a season 1 episode that ends in a church with Mulder looking at Samantha’s photo. Her disappearance will forever haunt him.
El Mundo Gira
The follow up to one of the best episodes of the season was one of the worst. It started as inspiration from seeing migrant workers waiting for jobs in Los Angelos when writer John Shiban decided to mix with a deadly fungus (it was The X-Files, after all). What starts as an investigation into El Chupracabra by our favorite agents quickly devolves into a soap opera love triangle mingled with people dying of fungal infestation affecting illegal immigrants. The title of the episode translates into The World Turns. Feeling soapy yet?
When Scully has the fungus examined, it turns out to be an excessively fast grown form of Athlete’s Foot caused by an unidentifiable enzyme. Scully believes that Eladio, an immigrant who had come into contact with victims, was an unwitting carrier for the fungus and was unintentionally spreading it to people. Eladio tries to flee to Mexico, but not before the fungus begins deforming him physically and his friends end up dead.
This episode really adds nothing new to the series though it does have some pretty cool effects with the fungus. I’m reminded of the season 1 episode in the volcano where spores were killing people because both episodes are equally bad but also memorable for their guest stars. The volcano episode had scream queen Shawnee Smith and this episode had Ruben Blades whose career in horror and sci-fi began with Predator 2 and continued though Fear the Walking Dead where he had a lead role throughout the series. He was definitely one of the few bright spots in this episode.
Speaking of fungus, I can see how The Last of Us got its inspiration. Episodes like the two I just mentioned where a fungus can spread through the air as well as feed off of human flesh is a truly scary proposition. A horrific way to die, or worse yet, exist mindlessly after the fungus takes over your brain and turns you into a zombie. Unfortunately for this X-File, the fungus wasn’t the main character.
The point this episode tries to make about how dangerous it is for illegal immigrants in border towns falls far short of what is intended. Perhaps spending so much time on the personal lives of the characters instead of the investigation was the true fungal infection here. Whenever I watch episodes chronologically, I cringe when I finish the gem that is Paper Hearts because I know this dinger is next. Le sigh.
On the upside, next week I’ll be discussing Leonard Betts and the three episode arc that is Dana Scully’s reaction to finding out she has cancer. I hope you’ll join me.
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 
One of the most interesting aspects of The X-Files is that when there are multiple monster of the week episodes in a row, there usually ends up being one terrific episode and one stinker, however watchable it may be. Season 4 of the series was no different. After Mulder returned from Russia and before Leonard Betts regrew his own head, Mulder and Scully investigated two X-Files that were drastically different in tone and reception from the audience. Paper Hearts and El Mundo Gira are always exactly how I remember them when I rewatch them, as if time didn’t bother to change my opinions on them after I grew up.
Paper Hearts
This episode is truly one of the highlights of season 4, if not the entire series. Series writer Vince Gilligan took the long running storyline of Samantha’s disappearance and flipped the script on it. Literally and figuratively. He wrote an episode that explored the idea that Samantha was not abducted by aliens but by a serial killer who liked to kill little girls. In a memorable performance, actor Tom Noonan portrayed John Lee Roche, the killer who leads Mulder and Scully on a wild goose chase to find additional victims. His sole motivation for this seems to be that he wants his trophies back – the little hearts he cut out of his victim’s clothing before he buried them. What is interesting about this is that these were not known to investigators until they were found in the killer’s old vehicle after he was convicted. He was convicted of thirteen murders, but there are sixteen hearts. Scully does an autopsy on the first body they find and dates it to 1975, much earlier than the other known victims.
What connects Samantha to this is that Mulder dreams of the night Samantha is abducted, only this time his dream shows her being abducted by Roche instead of aliens. Mulder sees this as a sign and asks Roche where he was the night Samantha was kidnapped. Roche claims to have been in Martha’s Vinyard and sold his mother a vacuum which, of course Mulder finds in her house. This sends Mulder into obsessive territory and when an autopsy on a second body found turns out to not be Samantha, Mulder demands to know the truth. Roche takes him to a house once owned by his father, but it is a house they bought after Samantha disappeared. Mulder is no longer a believer in Roche’s story, so they stay in a hotel before returning to prison. Mulder inadvertently falls asleep and when he wakes, Roches is gone with his gun and FBI badge.
When Mulder finally catches up with Roche, and he had kidnapped another girl. Mulder wants to shoot Roche, but the girl is in the way, and Mulder knows he will never know the truth about Samantha if he kills Roche. He ends up shooting him anyway when Roche tries to hurt the girl. The episode ends with Mulder sitting in his office with the last remaining heart. He eventually puts it away, not knowing what really happened to Samantha. Another tragic end to his search for his sister. It mirrors the end of a season 1 episode that ends in a church with Mulder looking at Samantha’s photo. Her disappearance will forever haunt him.
El Mundo Gira
The follow up to one of the best episodes of the season was one of the worst. It started as inspiration from seeing migrant workers waiting for jobs in Los Angelos when writer John Shiban decided to mix with a deadly fungus (it was The X-Files, after all). What starts as an investigation into El Chupracabra by our favorite agents quickly devolves into a soap opera love triangle mingled with people dying of fungal infestation affecting illegal immigrants. The title of the episode translates into The World Turns. Feeling soapy yet?
When Scully has the fungus examined, it turns out to be an excessively fast grown form of Athlete’s Foot caused by an unidentifiable enzyme. Scully believes that Eladio, an immigrant who had come into contact with victims, was an unwitting carrier for the fungus and was unintentionally spreading it to people. Eladio tries to flee to Mexico, but not before the fungus begins deforming him physically and his friends end up dead.
This episode really adds nothing new to the series though it does have some pretty cool effects with the fungus. I’m reminded of the season 1 episode in the volcano where spores were killing people because both episodes are equally bad but also memorable for their guest stars. The volcano episode had scream queen Shawnee Smith and this episode had Ruben Blades whose career in horror and sci-fi began with Predator 2 and continued though Fear the Walking Dead where he had a lead role throughout the series. He was definitely one of the few bright spots in this episode.
Speaking of fungus, I can see how The Last of Us got its inspiration. Episodes like the two I just mentioned where a fungus can spread through the air as well as feed off of human flesh is a truly scary proposition. A horrific way to die, or worse yet, exist mindlessly after the fungus takes over your brain and turns you into a zombie. Unfortunately for this X-File, the fungus wasn’t the main character.
The point this episode tries to make about how dangerous it is for illegal immigrants in border towns falls far short of what is intended. Perhaps spending so much time on the personal lives of the characters instead of the investigation was the true fungal infection here. Whenever I watch episodes chronologically, I cringe when I finish the gem that is Paper Hearts because I know this dinger is next. Le sigh.
On the upside, next week I’ll be discussing Leonard Betts and the three episode arc that is Dana Scully’s reaction to finding out she has cancer. I hope you’ll join me.
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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