Sunday Mornings with Mulder and Scully – Detour

Fun X-Files fact: The average episode of the show took seven or eight days to shoot. The show was famously shot in Vancouver through season five even though many of the episodes took place in distinctly American locations like the New Mexico desert or the woodland areas in Florida. In the era of binge watching, it becomes obvious that the forests featured throughout the series are the same woodland areas around Vancouver. Much like Seattle, its close American cousin, the Vancouver area is known for its rain which caused many episodes to have delays in filming of many of the outdoor episodes. Season five episode Detour was no exception. It took nineteen days to film due to heavy rain in the area.

Executive Producer Frank Spotniz wanted to do an episode inspired by the film Deliverence, which was how this episode came into being. Fortunately for us the episode doesn’t go full hillbilly Deliverence. The inspiration from the film was in the fear that comes being in a hostile outdoor environment. This episode does give us a jaunt into the woods that turns into a creature feature and that is the episode’s strength. That, and the much needed humor injected into it after the heaviness of the two part premiere that season.

The episode begins with Agents Mulder and Scully are riding in a car with two other agents on their way to a training conference. Their fellow agents, Agent Stonecypher and Agent Kinsley, obviously haven’t been through the paranormal mythology Mulder and Scully have and their bright outlook on everything causes Mulder and Scully to give each other knowing looks in the car before they hit a blockade. When the agents get out of the car while they wait for the police to allow cars through, they are pulled into a local investigation where police are searching for a missing man who was evidently taken by some kind of animal into the woods.

Mulder and Scully leave Stonecypher and Kinsley behind and venture into the woods because the two simply cannot help themselves when an X-file might be unfolding. One by one, the agents and two police officers are slowly hunted by an unknown assailant – one they cannot see. They can hear it moving through bushes but have no idea what it is. We know, however, that the creature is human shaped but covered in what seems to be a mossy bark-like skin. And it can apparently turn itself invisible much like the creature in the Predator films. While Spotniz wanted a Deliverence type episode, the parallels to Predator are far greater with the camouflaged assailant hunting its prey in the woods. This particular villain’s eyes glow red giving it a menacing feel. The viewer knowing what the killer is before the agents adds a bit of tension to the episode.

Scully and Mulder fall into an underground cave which happens to hold the bodies of the previous victims, all still barely alive and in need a medical attention. Though no one knew their exact location, it is Agent Stonecypher who locates them for rescue after they had to survive the night alone in the woods with their unknown monster. Honestly, naming an agent Stonecypher is by far one of the best names in the series. It’s too bad she was only in this one episode because the character and the actress, J.C. Wendel, are memorable enough to be standouts for this season. I would have liked to see her return later in the series when Mulder had essentially been written out when Duchovny’s contract ended.

There is a scene during their sleepover in the woods where Scully tries to comfort an injured Agent Mulder and he jokingly says, “I don’t want to cuddle.” She sings Joy to the World by Three Dog Night as a way of letting Mulder know she is still awake and alert. In this fifth season of the show, this lighthearted survival scene shows the closeness of the two agents as they look out for one another. Neither is willing to leave if it means leaving the other behind. Their bond has only gotten stronger over the years.

Mulder believes that the creatures they discovered were the evolved descendants of Spanish Conquistadors who landed in Florida 450 years previously and that centuries in seclusion of the forest led to drastic adaptations to happen. He later realizes that these creatures, much like Predator, see other people entering their territory as a threat which is why they were taking the people they were taking. This leads him back to Scully’s hotel room where he forces her to leave thinking that the creature might be trying to get them after all. As the episode ends, the camera pans to the creature hiding under Scully’s bed. Biding its time. Eyes glowing red. Fade to black.

It is one of my favorite endings to an episode of the series. It, again, shows the strength of Mulder and Scully’s relationship and that they trust in each other’s instincts. While the mythology episodes of this season take the two agents in different directions mentally, one thing will remain. Their trust in each other.

I’m reminded again of the Predator films. Predator Badlands is as much about the hunt for a young Yautja (the name for the species that populates the films) as it is about grief, friendship, and found family. The parallels between Badlands as well as the first Predator film to The X-Files are carried throughout the series. The two agents have a friendship that is build on trust over time and in many ways they are there for each other as if they were family. Even in the face of mortal danger or when their own government is plotting against them, the two never falter. Watching this episode anew having just watched Badlands recently as well really opened my eyes to how much they are similar in that regard.

Until next week, the truth is out there. It might be under your bed. Right now. Sleep tight.