THE HOST Episode 2 Season 2

I wouldn’t like to meet the Russian that had to pass this tapeworm!

Synopsis: After being given a disgusting assignment, Mulder begins to believe that his position at the Bureau is becoming untenable yet there is a lot more to the case than first meets the eye.

Time to turn the repulse-meter to maximum and I mean maximum. This mutated tape worm is without doubt the most disgusting creature ever conceived by Chris Carter and The X-Files team and this memorable creature holds a special place in many X-Philes hearts, she has even been affectionately named Flukey among The X-Philes faithful. It has been said that Gillian Anderson herself named The Host as the most disgusting X-Files episode she ever had the privilege to work on.

Flukey, happy to lie in wait in human excrement, has a face only a mother could love which is most probably why she is the proud owner of an asexual reproductive system and her method of incubating her parasitic offspring is tantamount to rape. I label Flukey as being feminine and reframe from using the name flukeman because she has to be one or the other and she reminds me of my mother-in-law. I will never forget the first sight of Flukey trapped in the transparent pipe at the sewage plant; excuse me if you think I am being too sympathetic here but she looked scared and confused as if she was trying to figure out who these people were and who she was.  We can assume that as a genetic mutation by radiation that Flukey is the only one of her kind and that her own existence is just as baffling to her as it is to anyone else, just like my mother-in-law.

This episode could have easily relied upon Flukey to make it a big hit and that would have been fine by me yet Chris Carter’s spices things up with some added ingredients. Mulder is back from his close encounter, back to his surveillance detail and thus back to his morbid disposition, threatening to leave The F.B.I in hope that he can pursue his investigations into the paranormal along a different path. He draws this conclusion after being what he considers to be ‘jerked around’ by Skinner and the F.B.I by his sewage based assignment. So it is funny that it is this assignment that gives Mulder hope of a continuation of The X-Files or at least investigating the paranormal, a notion vindicated both by Skinners admittance that The X-Files was shut down somewhat prematurely and also by the emergence of a mysterious ‘friend’ at the F.B.I. The ‘friend’ we later find out to be informant Mr X or simply just X. I can only draw the conclusion that Mr X had a hand in Skinner presenting Mulder with the case in an effort to re-establish the importance of The X-Files.

What gives this episode its piece of individuality is that Flukey is caught very early on, not only that, she represents hard evidence of the paranormal and proves Mulders doubters that he isn’t away with the fairies, in-fact this giant mutated Fluke worm is worthy of a Noble prize! So it seems strange that the reaction it receives seem so downplayed and I can’t help but smile at the idea that Flukey is to be treated at a psychiatric hospital, no wonder she looks so confused.

This popular MoW is utterly disgusting and brilliant in equal measures and made famous by the evasive Fluke worm.

Musings:

• Mulder and Scully appear more relaxed with one another after their exploits in Little Green Men, as if the relationship is settling from the adjustments of being partners to being friends.
• The heavy Fluke suite took so long to put on and remove that future X-Files writer Darin Morgan apparently wore it for 20hrs straight. Chris Carter joked that the wearing of the suite should be a rite of passage for any budding X-Files writer.
• Flukey got cut in half and she survived, sure she is a worm after all but don’t forget about its offspring from the sewage worker that escaped down the shower waste. New Jersey certainly did have a problem on its hands. I wonder if the sewage workers felt comfortable with re-entering the sewers.
• Who would I least like to find coming out my toilet, Tooms or Flukey? Errr……Flukey! 

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LITTLE GREEN MEN Episode 1 Season 2 of The X-Files

No, Jorge, don’t touch that red button. Noho on the Roho.

Synopsis: The closure of The X-Files has left Mulder without direction, until a friend reaches out to him with some significant intelligence.

It’s season two of The X-Files, it’s time to get serious. A lot of Season one’s charm comes from its innocent misgivings, season two did not have the same luxury and had to mature. Season two needed to wow from the start. With time and money vested in growing its popularity Chris Carter and Co needed to grab the attention of the shows newcomers whilst staying faithful to The X-Files philosophy. With Little Green Men, Morgan and Wong nailed it using the right blend of emotion, conspiracy, scares oh and the first sight of an extra-terrestrial!

The first episode of the second season hooked millions of new fans to The X-Files, compare Little Green Men with its spoon feed treats, silky camera work and exotic locations to the pilot episode. In many ways they are similar but at the same time they are truly worlds apart.

The opening to this episode is as intriguing as it is clever. The introductory monologue tells the story of the voyager program and hints towards its successful contact with alien life from the far reaches of our solar system.  If the promise of contact is intriguing how about actually making contact? I remember the sight of the slender E.T as pure sensory overload, for avid fans and new comers alike, a great piece of television.

So our aliens finally have a face, well outline to the body anyway. As part of a semi-reinvention to The X-Files universe they are no longer seen as the atypical invisible scavenger like creatures depicted in Fallen Angel but the more traditional slim big head big eyed aliens from so many documented accounts of close encounters.

Both the dream sequence of Samantha’s abduction and the contact Mulder experiences at the observatory are hair-raisingly to say the least but for a good old jump out your skin moment look no further then Jorge in the bathroom  it got me 18 years ago and it still gets me today. Poor Jorge left looked inside the observatory for some inexplicable reason, his inclusion in the story an inspired one, how long had he been there? How many times had he been abducted? For a grown man to be scared to death it would take something callous.

The mythology arch of this episode was a true indictment of how far The X-Files had come in its short tenure and what direction it would take, a brief peak at an alien was enough to get us salivating at the mouth and we wanted more. So did Mulder

The unkempt Mulder stuck on an endless wiretapping detail seen earlier on in the episode was a depressed shadow of his former self. He allowed himself to question his own beliefs; his paranoia raged uncontrollably and seemed a man devoid of all-purpose. Without The X-Files Mulder felt worthless, although hope remained in the guise or Senator Matheson. His apology to Mulder about not being able to secure The X-Files future tells of his vested interest in the cases and that he was most probably Mulder’s friend in Capitol that he refers to in Pilot and to whom Skinners referred to in Tooms.

Mulder heeds Matheson intelligence and travelled without hesitation to the satellite observatory in Puerto Rico with complete disregard for his assignment with the Bureau. Telling in that his prerogative to a regular pay check pales in significance to his search for the truth. I find Mulders use of the Dictaphone brilliant as not only was it a good way of explaining to the viewers what the partner-less agent is seeing but also his reactions to what he was seeing, it was interesting to hear him doubt himself without Scully’s faithful ear to bend and in hindsight and a view to subsequent seasons it is especially interesting to hear him cast doubts 

over the events of Samantha abduction.

Mulder made sure Scully had her work cut out in Little Green Men. Her shoulder to cry on was all that was keeping Mulder in anyway sane, she believed in him even if he didn’t. With Mulders fantastical imagination and hostility towards authority figures it is easy to forget that Scully is three years his junior and that a year prior to Little Green Men Scully was heading for a perfectly amicable career in the FBI. She takes it upon herself to follow him blindly and back him at all conceivable cost. Lying to her peers she evaded the watchful eye of the bureau surveillance team and heads all the way to Puerto Rico, the airport scene is reminiscent of the airport scene for E.B.E and typical of the sort of covert methods taken by Mulder. Without this level of devotion and sacrifice Mulder and Scully would never have worked. Scully’s eleventh hour appearance is all that saves Mulder from the shoot to kill U.F.O crash site recovery operation team. This was not the first time Scully had saved Mulder’s life and it won’t be the last, debunking the theory of Mulder constantly saved the damsel in distress; Scully. Well actually he does but what I am saying is that it was not all one way traffic.

The cherry on the top of the icing on top of the cake for this episode and one of my all-time favourite moments from the second series is the final scene that not only authenticates Mulders paranoia to his being watched but also creates one of these; that awkward moment when Skinner yells ‘get out of my office’ and you think his taking to Mulder but his really talking to me! Ha love it and its significance to the development of Skinners character, he is no puppet but whether he likes it or not he cannot sit on the fence forever.

Consider attention grabbed Chris Carter there is nothing to dislike about this strong episode, its imagination and constant of thrills sees to that.

Musings:

• It seems Mulders has been ‘hounding’ a lady for a date, I doubt that very much given his demeanour at the time and I am guessing that message was from an admirer of which I assume Mulder had many.
• The big bucks second season means a proper Hoover building, the guts of which now look authentic and is a series main stay.
• Mulders dream sequence of Samantha abduction differs from his recollection of the event via hypnotic regression. C.C explains the phenomena as possible inaccuracies in hypnotic regression. Want to know the real reason? Morgan and Wrong had never seen Conduit!
• The alias George Hale is in reference to the mentally ill scientist that Mulder compares himself to during the covert meeting with Scully in the car park. If you have time Google him for a fascinating read.
• Voyager 1 is currently the furthest man-made object from Earth, it is still in our solar system but scientists predict the craft to reach interstellar space within 3 years. I hope it doesn’t attract any unwanted attention!

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The Six Best Monsters From The X-Files Season 1

Developing a premiere season is a tough task for any producer but what made Chris Carter and Co. jobs that much harder was the originality of The X-Files, it was experimental broadcasting  with no guide rope they just had their creativity, instincts and penchant for anything spooky, oh and they also had the notorious FOX Network executives to deal with.

The first season of The X-Files was rich in Monster of the Week episodes, in-fact it boasted nineteen in total the highest amount of stand-alones in any of the nine seasons.  Not all were classics mind and some were definitely dud but there was many diamonds amongst the rough.

Some of these monsters make the cut because they are just plain scary especially for the John Doe of 19 years ago some however make us smile and others make us sad.

With so many MoW’s to choose from narrowing them down to a list of six was not easy but here it is, the definitive list of the six best monsters from MoW episodes:

6. Cecil L’Ively, Fire

Possibly a controversial choice, Cecil’s general exclusion from these types of lists can only be merited to the overshadowing hate for Phoebe Green a women equally annoying and fugly. Cecil just makes the cut based on the fact that he should not be underestimated. The highly intelligent psychopaths’ dedication to his killings is unrivalled and his anti-establishment views make him an ideal candidate for world domination. His each and every sanctimonious move derived from pure evil. A wicked black heart gets this pyro-kinetic monster a top six spot.
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5. Roland, Roland

The hapless autistic Roland was an early example of the variety of emotional avenues Chris Carter would be granted to travel down over the course of the next 8 seasons. This X-Files MoW week didn’t scare anybody it may have got a few laughs but in truth they only feeling we were left with was that of sorrow, loneliness and possibly empathy for the most innocent and ill-fated young man. Perhaps that is fear.
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4. The bugs, Darkness Falls

These carnivorous nocturnal bugs cocoon and slowly digested their prey, eating them alive. What makes their fear factor worse is that they are undetectable in daylight. They could be gathering around your bed waiting for darkness to fall. If The X-Files ever gave us a reason to sleep with the lights on this was it.
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3. The Eves, Eve

Creepy test tube twins Cindy Reardon and Teena Simmons both killed the respective adoptive fathers through means of exsanguination at the tender years of eight. These highly intelligent blood thirsty sentence finishers are destined to drive themselves to psychotic madness in later life, just ask their big sis, eye ball biter Eve 6.
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2. Luther Lee Boggs, Beyond the Sea

On death row and desperate for a pardon, Boggs claims he can use psychic channelling to help locate a killer before he kills his kidnap victims. His claims seem to hold up against adverse facts to the matter. Is he to be believed and even if he is; is this a chance for redemption and should his sins be forgiven? A most memorable character responsible for bringing passion to The X-Files, his importance to the show should not be undervalued.
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1.  Eugene Victor Tooms, Squeeze/Tooms

We became acquainted with this bile spewing stretchy odd ball over two episodes that allowed us to get a real insight into his peculiar existence. Tooms appearance was also the first MoW appearance in The X-Files history. We learned early on that behind his jaundice liver hungry eyes laid the brains to challenge Mulder and Scully, he is good at what he does after all he has been doing it over a matter of centuries. His ability to stretch out and squeeze through the tightest of spaces meant that no one was safe from his appetite, his prey seldom escape. He was disgusting, the sneer on his face was unpleasant, his method of sticking his nest together was sickening and his methods of entry repugnant (the sewer especially). It was fitting that Tooms suffered such a gruesome demise at the hands of Mulder and an escalator, an unforgettably brilliant end that he earned and it was no less than he deserved.
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There you have it my definitive list of The X-Files first season best monsters from MoW episodes. Let me know your lists, who would of you include?

THE ERLENMEYER FLASK Episode 24 Season 1 of The X-Files

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YOUNG AT HEART Episode 16 Season 1

YOUNG AT HEART Episode 16 Season 1

Redemption 9/10

Synopsis: A murderer who dies whilst serving life imprisonment returns for revenge against the man that sent him there.

I was taught by my English teacher that a story must comprise of a beginning a middle and an end. What Chris Carter taught me was a story must be rich in depth and meaning, that you must have a protagonist with strong unwavering ideologies and indomitable methods and yet the mortality to question his own actions and the ability to redeem those actions and grow before our eyes. His antagonist’s motives must be comprehensible and yet his methods must remain unpredictable. The reader or in this case watcher must care about the people they meet along the way and revel in the alluring mystery as it unravels before them.

Mulder’s back story grows deeper in Young at Heart and as a result the character flourishes. We meet Agent Reggie Purdue whom Mulder considers a friend and one of the only people within the Bureau he finds worthy of trust. The pair appeared to share a warm relationship. They met whilst working in the violent crime division. Mulder playfully toys with Reggie chanting his name when they meet at the jewellery store crime scene, the first place of which a clue is left to signify John Barnett’s involvement to the surprise of agent Mulder who believed him to be dead.

Barnett, the man whom we discover has left Mulder fighting inner demons. Mulder blames himself for the death of a fellow FBI agent shot during a stand-off with Barnett. The empathy he shows towards the family of the dead agent clearly present when he notes that the man’s child is now an all-star football player, Mulder must have been watching over them due to what he perceives as his accountability. Mulder will later go on to blame himself for Purdues death claiming he should have shot Barnett when he had the chance.

Mulder appears to have met his match in the figure of Barnett. A man who knows how to enter Mulders head and push all the right buttons. The two spa throughout the episode, not in the conventional manner but via a deadly game of cat and mouse. Barnett calculated supply of clues lures Mulder closer. It would seem inevitable that the two should be draw together into a similar situation they found themselves in before, with Barnett taking a hostage and Mulder forced to make a decision with his weapon drawn. Mulder seeks for redemption, it is this incentive that drove him to Barnett and drove him to pulling the trigger. With a clean shot he puts his man down.

Barnett’s rejuvenate abilities were down to the experimental Dr Joe Ridley. Ridley had no compassion and saw his progaria patients as little more than lab rats and a great opportunity on which to perform his experiments. He was an outcast in the medical profession compounded by the loss of his medical licence for illegally performing experiments on live human test subjects. This is when the government employed Ridley to continue his work, allowing him to use prisoners as live test subjects. He confess all to Mulder and Scully, he is terminally ill and seeking his own forgiveness.

The government had known of Barnett’s existence and that he was the only successful candidate of Ripley’s treatment. Mulder meets with Deep Throat for answers. Deep Throat explains to Mulder that the government has been bargaining with Barnett for Dr Ripley’s stolen research. He tells Mulder that they need Barnett alive as his information could change the course of mankind, another interesting angle in a plot with more than just a middle, beginning and end.

Scully play her part to. Seamlessly gathering information and acting upon it. She ascertains that the account of Barnett’s death was suspicious and looking further into it discover of Dr Ridley and his work. She also finds a finger print belonging to Barnett on her answering machine that leads the agents to the theatre where he would shoot agent Scully and in turn be shoot by agent Mulder.

Young at Heart is a strong episode that draws parallels with the entire series and Chris Carters involvement in the script is ever-present. Now that’s good story telling 9/10

Musings;

Mulder shoots and kills his man in the end. He was driven to it and not offered much choice. Killing is not something Mulder takes lightly.

I never realised the man that tries to gather information from the dying Barnett was the Cigarette Smoking Man. I caught the name William B. Davis in the end credits, his first appearance since the pilot. I love discovering new information on re-watches.

Mulder seems to have the admiration of the bureaus handwriting specialist known to us only as Anderson.

Barnett is not the only one to use Fox Mulders name as a pun to describe a hunt. Fast forward to season 5 episode ‘Kitsunegari’, which means Fox hunt in Japanese.

GENDER BENDER Episode 14 Season 1 of The X-Files

GENDER BENDER Episode 14 Season 1 of The X-Files

Remember Gender Bender? 5/10

Synopsis: Several deaths that occur after sexual intercourse lead Mulder and Scully to investigate an Amish like community known as the Kindred.

I have a strange affiliation to Gender Bender and no it is not what you’re thinking. 18 years ago I remember sitting round my Grandma’s house watching GB with my dad, mum, Nan and sister. I remember where I was sat where they were sat, I remember it like I remember yesterday. The reason I remember that night so vividly is because we sat and enjoyed the show together, The X-Files brought us all together. It was a show we all could enjoy watching.

One thing that drew me to GB when I was younger was the Amish influence. I had no idea that there were groups that had wilfully detached themselves from modern society for hundreds of years. I could remember thinking to myself that I would not be able to live without my Super Nintendo or Power Rangers for one week let alone a lifetime.

You must realise I was eight years old but even so, many adults of the time knew next to little about these sects. Today it’s a different story; we have films, documentaries and even reality television show based on their way of living. They no longer seem alien to us.

1994 however was a different time; their existence was alien to the general population. Here the writers play on that but maybe missed a trick. I found the back story missing and in place it found sex scenes, they may have tied into the story but really were unnecessary. Don’t get me wrong I like a sex scene as much as the next red blooded male but if the producers ideas of sexing up the show where having a women that was really a man or vice-versa, changing sexes right after the doing wild thing then they are clearly mistaken. Unless it is me who is mistaken?

If only they substituted the sex story line parts of this episode with more mystery surrounding the ‘Kindred’ and the farm on which they lived. The farm was a marvellously atmospheric setting and could have played host to a real spooky episode.

I see that maybe the writers were looking to show the contrast between the two different worlds but it was hardly done in an imaginative or thought provoking way.

All we were left with were horny transsexual chick and dude magnet aliens that for some reason travelled across time and space just to settle down into an Amish way of life and ban themselves from the fruits of the forbidden tree without any explanation what so ever. Somehow I don’t think this is the ‘truth’ Mulder had been expecting to find.

I do like to draw some of my own conclusions from each episode but come on not all of them!

Other noteworthy episode points include:

Scully’s disbelief that a person would have sex with perfect stranger, such a prude. Scully’s Profile of the killer: indeterminate height, weight, sex, unarmed but extremely attractive. A funny prude no less.

Enter player Nicholas Lea. Before his appearance in the next season as Alex Krycek he had a role in this episode having, sex with brother Martin.

The pathetic attempt at a crop circle at the end. They didn't have to call in experts but jeez guys that was rubbish!

When questioned on the possibility that the show might be met with disapproval from Amish communities Chris Carter simply stated that he was not worried as the Amish do not watch television. Hahaha

This episode is flawed and feels incomplete but it is a fun ride and bring back fond memories for me, I could never say I dislike it or skip it during a Season watching marathon. 5/10 for me.