TV – More Tomorrow

One of the things that really struck me when I started watching this episode was how memorable nearly every episode of The X-Files is – I mean I saw the pre-credit sequence and INSTANTLY I remembered the rest of the episode. All of it.

So either The X-Files is really really memorable. Or I have an amazing memory for this kind of thing.

Possibly both.

 

Anyway, back to this episode. You can pretty much instantly tell that this episode will be another abduction story straight away – the kids out camping really gives it away but even so, it was all still very OMG all the same. I wasn’t sure about this coming again so soon – the first episode featured alien abductions as a theme – but looking back, this does further develop the relationship between Mulder and Scully and at the very least, shows us more about why Mulder is so passionate about the X-Files.

The whole thing about Scully having to report back on Mulder and his shenanigans got old pretty quickly – I was already sick of it by this point, but I suppose that if I was watching this for the first time, and not the Nth time, it would really emphasis that Mulder is really out there and his distance from the rest of his colleagues at the FBI. As usual, Scully is the sceptic here but I really liked that Mulder accepted that she disagreed with him and you can see how it makes for a better investigation. Mulder is forced to explain his theories and reasoning and set it all out logically, rather than haring off on a whim (although, yeah, later he does kind of ditch the explaining his actions part before doing them).

Yet again I am reminded just how long ago this was made because David Duchovny looks SO SO SO young. Like. REALLY young.  Gillian Anderson, on the other hand, hasn’t aged at all since this episode was made.  It also occurred to me that the kid in this episode is probably old enough to drive and vote and rent cars and all those things. It’s WEIRD. Y’know. Time passing. As it does.

It was a nice touch to have Mulder linger over the photos of the two kids on the mantelpiece – it draws us back to his sister Samantha and draws the parallel more forcefully between the two sets of siblings.

One thing that did kind of put me off was that it seemed like Darlene Morris hadn’t noticed that her son was receiving magic signals from the TV and drawing 1s and 0s non-stop. Ok, fair enough about missing the magic signals – but still – the 1s and 0s? Maybe she had too much on her plate for it. Who knows.

Another point I liked was how Mulder brought the police officer up on writing off Ruby and Darlene just because the girl got into trouble and the mother was a bit wacky. Mulder gets written off by SO MANY characters because of his “spooky” reputation and it was nice to see him defend someone else with the same kind of problem.

Back to random inexplicable things. Why does Scully wake up in her motel room BEFORE the NSA burst in? Is she just a really light sleeper? I didn’t understand that. I know it brings the fear in for the audience, but it didn’t make that much sense to me. Plus I did wonder why they didn’t just go to Mulder’s room, if that’s who they were looking for. Later on too, when Scully and Mulder are at Lake Okobogee, why does Mulder follow the wolf? Really, WHY? It’s just a wolf. Does Mulder have a psychic link with his furry friend because his first name is Fox?

The reveal that all those pages of binary drawn by Kevin made up a picture of his sister Ruby was great – when they were too close to the information it was impossible to see, but as soon as they took a step back they could see the whole picture. In some ways this is a theme that recurs a lot – Mulder and Scully are too close to certain events to see the shape of the conspiracy around them later on.

The “truth” gets touched on a lot during this episode. At the beginning you have Blevins showing Scully more of the “truth” about Mulder’s obsession with the X-Files, followed by an introduction to Darlene Morris, a woman whose story about alien abduction was probably frequently disbelieved. Later on, Tessa tries to distort the truth about who was in the woods and what happened to Greg, but slips and reveals that Ruby wasn’t there at all. Ruby is prevented from telling her story about what happened while she was missing and it seems that Mulder is more angry about the truth being suppressed than he had been about any injustice suffered by Darlene due to her own honesty about her abduction experience. Finally Scully is listening to the tapes of Mulder’s hypnotic regression – and the episode ends with the recording of Mulder saying “I want to believe” – the phrase on the poster in his office.

It seems that Scully takes Mulder’s story more seriously or at least gives more of her time to the idea of his sister’s abduction, more willing to believe herself and Mulder’s scene in the church at the end kind of highlights his own self-belief – he is still searching for his sister and keeps going with the faith in himself that eventually, with enough investigation, he could find her again. Truth and belief – basically the driving force behind a lot of Mulder and Scully’s journey.

Looking back now, it’s kind of hard to believe that an amazing episode like Squeeze was only the third episode of the first season. Who would have thought?

Into the episode then. From the start there is definitely something going on. Something scary and chilling and omg. You can tell from the music and then the shot of the eyes almost glowing in the dark only confirms it. This guy at the beginning has no chance at all. He’s basically wearing a red shirt from the off. Within a minute he’s dead.

Looking at the vent that the attacker’s come in though kind of makes me wonder if that’s how Santa Claus gets in and out. Maybe that’s not one to share with kids.

“Lucked into the World Trade Center bombing.” If this guy didn’t already come across as a bit of a ass, this would be a big warning flag.  I kind of get the idea that while it’s nice to catch up with an old Quantico buddy, he’s only having lunch with her because he wants her help or more specifically, Mulder’s help (but without actually having to ask “Spooky”).

Mulder talking to this other agents is ace though. He knows exactly what this other guy thinks of him and doesn’t hesitate in jerking him around a little.

I’d forgotten about the voice-over/report bits that used to be in the episodes – I’m kind of glad they went as I don’t think there was a real need to have them. Although in this case it segues nicely into the scene at the meeting where she’s sharing her report with the rest of the team. The rest of the team who are asses when it comes to referring to the work that Scully’s actually been assigned to.

Gotta say though, Scully and Mulder’s clothes are so 90s. So so so 90s.

The Tooms music every time he’s about to show up is a good touch. And that Tooms looks so ordinary really adds to the sinisterness of the entire episode.

I do wonder that the pauses before Tooms answers any question doesn’t bring up some kind of suspicion. Although admittedly, it’s probably just the way he and other people speak. The skeevy agent’s name is Tom, I remember now. He’s a huge ass. A really huge ass. That presumes to know what Scully wants. Which makes me dislike him even more. And makes Mulder seem super reasonable and nice in the scene immediately after the polygraph test. Even though we know he’s saying it to make Scully wonder what he’s up to next.

Back to Tooms, I also wonder why he doesn’t take his shoes off when climbing down the chimney. He can alter the shape of his body but he definitely can’t change the shape of his shoes. That’s got to be an inconvenience at least. I know that we never see the actual murders because it’d have been expensive to film and a mess and require a lot of logistical working out, but not seeing the livers getting torn out kind of helps. We can only imagine what he’s doing when he attacks these people.

Do Mulder and Scully get stuck doing a lot of boring old trawling through records later on? I’m sure they don’t. It’s nice to see them do it, but I guess later on everything gets computerised or the Lone Gunmen help or something. Makes it take less time or we just no longer see them doing it.

“Human monster” That really describes Tooms. He’s human. He’s like any one of us. He could be anyone, but he’s also a monster.

I know the whole “every 30 years” thing kind of suggests it, but how does Mulder get the idea that Tooms hibernates? I know he’s smart and that. But it’s kind of out of nowhere.

Scully’s got a really nice house. Is it a house or just an apartment? The windows and that suggest house – but the shot of the cut phone line and the vents and vague memories of later episodes suggest apartment. Is this a strange thing to wonder about as Scully is in the process of being attacked? Probably.

The last shot with the food hatch and Tooms just smiling at it is ace. It’s not over for him and he’s already thinking about how to get out. I suppose that sense of the episode not being over was intentional – I know he’s coming back later on in the season – but if I was watching this when it first aired? I would have thought he was coming back next week. I wouldn’t have expected it 17 episodes later.

Mostly for me, The X-Files is a lot about Mulder and Scully’s relationship and interactions and to a certain extent how their relationship (even if it’s mostly just a working one at this point) affects how other people treat them. Here Scully gets the short end of the stick from her peers because she’s  working with Mulder, but Tom consider’s getting Mulder’s take on things because, perhaps, he’s working with Scully now and therefore is more accessible. There’s a bit of sexism towards Scully too – I doubt that if she was a male agent working with Mulder that her choices would have been questioned so much or looked down upon by Tom and the other male agents working on the team. Neither would they have presumed to think they knew what’s best for her. There’s a lack of respect there which is highlighted even more by the respect that Scully and Mulder afford each other. Scully knows Mulder has some out-there ideas, but she respects that he wants to investigate his theories and helps him to do it properly. She’s willing to at least give him the opportunity to explore a more unusual route because she’s not letting prejudice about his “spooky” reputation affect their working relationship – it’s more that she takes into account the quality of the work he’s done before, his accomplishments academically and his profiling background. At the same time, Mulder respects Scully’s own achievements – she is a qualified medical doctor after all – and that she’s willing to help him, even if she doesn’t believe his out-there theories right away. Plus her skepticism makes him have to really prove his theories and get the evidence properly rather than just letting him get away with postulating wildly.

The title of this episode makes me giggle. I can’t help it.

This episode starts off in much the same way as the pilot. Launches straight into the freak-of-the-week item.

Scully’s hair is now proper Scully-hair. Not the quick dye-job she had for the pilot.

“I’ve got something to show you.”
“Something you couldn’t show me at work?”

After stripping down to her underwear for Mulder in the first episode? This totally gets the shipperbrain going.

And Deep Throat! He appears. He is mysterious. And how does he think that he’s a bit naive to think that Mulder will just take the random advice of a complete stranger.

The test pilot thing and the weirdness is kind of uninteresting, but this is the first 10 minutes I suppose. What’s more interesting to me is that it feels like a few months have passed between the pilot and this episode. Mulder and Scully are obviously more familiar with each other now.

Seth Green is in this episode – his first appearance in the series. He does nail the half-baked teenager in all his appearances. The scene with him, the girl and our dynamic duo in the diner is great.

The rest of the episode is kind of mediocre. The only good part really is the interaction between Mulder and Scully. And the fact that Scully is NEVER there when Mulder gets a good look at UFOs in this series.

So this is the first go with blogging while watching. Nt planned this at all and I’ll probably have to go back when I’ve finished to correct all the glaring errors obviously, but here goes.

Should probably point out that I’m a bit of an X-Phile nerd. 🙂

Feels like it starts kind of half-way through. Watching now, the opening seems incredibly dated. On the other hand, Scully sounds like a minor Mulder-fangirl. Either that or Mulder was really really notorious.

Mulder is ace. Never realised, even after knowing about his education background, that he appeared to be so intelligent right from the beginning. Nice touch taking advantage of Scully’s medical qualifications there.

The bit on the plane, with Mulder spread out over a bunch of seats?  And the turbulence? That he was totes expecting. Great moment.

The rapport is great between Mulder and Scully right from the start. The banter plus the sliiight antagonism and Mulder’s blatent not trusting Scully with everything he suspects = win.

The first autopsy is a bit Alien Autopsy – Mulder’s photo-taking mania is a bit annoying though.

Is it just me, or does it seem like Scully has the tiniest crush on Mulder at the start? Especially with her reaction to hearing him at the door of her motel room?

I’m sure watching this first episode in the cold light of early afternoon is totally draining the spookiness and suspense of the stuff in the woods. Would have been so much scarier if this was late at night I reckon. Or if I’d not already seen it. Or read the novelisation.

The time loss bit is surprisingly exciting. And Mulder is an adorable nerd.

It amuses me every time when Scully basically strips for Mulder after only knowing him for like 3 days. The tell-all about his sister and the stuff he’d been doing up until now in the hotel room? Great moment also. Really builds the relationship between Mulder and Scully – lays out his reasons for him working on the X-Files. Also ties nicely with the very end of the series, but I’ll get to that later on.

Also, who would have thought Billy Miles would come back.

Mulder has reallllly no idea. Maybe. Looks like he’s fishing. Scully’s reaction to his mad theorising is hilarious.

The last part of the episode in the forest is exciting. Exactly the right level of suspense and danger. The part that follows with Scully being debriefed is so on the ball for setting up the rest of the series – you want to know more about the X-Files for one and also want to see how Mulder and Scully get on with each other in the future.