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The Gift (The X-Files)

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"The Gift"
The X-Files episode
A naked man lying on the floor
Fox Mulder meets the legendary soul eater. David Duchovny appeared in the episode via flashbacks that took place a year before the events of the episode.
 
Episode no.
Season 8
 Episode 11
Directed by
Kim Manners
Written by
Frank Spotnitz
Production code
8ABX11[1]
Original air date
February 4, 2001
Running time
44 minutes[2]
Guest actors

Tom Braidwood as Melvin Frohike
Dean Haglund as Richard Langly
Bruce Harwood as John Fitzgerald Byers
Caroline Lagerfelt as Rustic Woman
Michael McGrady as Sheriff Kurt Frey
Jordan Marder as Soul Eater
Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner
Natalie Radford as Marie Hangemuhl
Justin Williams as Paul Hangemuhl[3]
 
Episode chronology

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List of The X-Files episodes
"The Gift" is the eleventh episode of the eighth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network in the United States on February 4, 2001. The episode was written by Frank Spotnitz and directed by Kim Manners. "The Gift" has elements of both a "Monster-of-the-Week" episode, as well as an entry in the series' mythology. The episode received a Nielsen rating of 8.8 and was viewed by 14.6 million viewers. Overall, the episode received largely mixed reviews from television critics; while many appreciated the return focus on Fox Mulder's (David Duchovny) absence, others felt that the plot revelations were unnaturally forced into the show.
The season centers on FBI special agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and her new partner John Doggett (Robert Patrick)—following the alien abduction of her former partner, Mulder—who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Doggett comes upon an old case about a professed "soul-eater" that he hopes will ultimately prove the truth behind Mulder’s abduction. In a series of flashbacks, it is revealed that, after his exposure to an alien artifact, Mulder was slowly dying of a brain disease. In an attempt to heal himself, he tracked down the soul eater a year before the events of the episode, but felt pity for the creature. In the present, Doggett is shot and killed by the local sheriff, but the soul eater consumes his death and is finally allowed to die, resurrecting Doggett in the process.
"The Gift" featured a substantial appearance of Duchovny who had elected not to return to the show as a full-time main character following the ending of season seven. The episode was written by Spotnitz to be deliberately based in supernatural folklore of the soul eater. Gillian Anderson, who did not appear in the episode, save for a few cameos, later revealed that she was grateful for the "Doggett-centric" episodes because they allowed her to spend more time with her daughter. The episode has been analyzed for its themes of death and resurrection, its use of a medicine wheel as a motif, and both its similarity and contrasting nature to the fourth season episode "Leonard Betts".

Contents
  [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Background
1.2 Events
2 Production 2.1 Background and writing
2.2 Filming
3 Themes
4 Reception 4.1 Ratings
4.2 Reviews
5 Notes
6 References 6.1 Citations
6.2 Bibliography
7 External links
Plot[edit]
Background[edit]
Main article: Mythology of The X-Files
FBI special agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is currently missing, having been abducted by aliens in the seventh season finale, "Requiem." His partner Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) has been working with Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick) in order to locate him. After a false lead in the Arizona desert early in the year, Doggett has been assigned to the X-Files division, but he has continued his search for Mulder, despite a lack of definite leads.[4][5]
Events[edit]
A man drives up to and enters a house, which has an ominous symbol drawn in blood on the door. When he's inside, a creature that looks somewhat human-like approaches the woman but the mysterious man shoots the creature three times. As he returns to his car his identity is finally revealed: Agent Mulder.
Agent Doggett investigates a possible lead into Mulder's disappearance in Squamash, Pennsylvania. Apparently, in the spring of 2000, Mulder visited the small town searching for something to cure his terminal brain disease that he received via exposure to an alien artifact. Doggett is informed by the local sheriff (Michael McGrady) that Mulder was there investigating a case involving Marie Hangemuhl (Natalie Radford). In a flashback, it is revealed that Mulder believed Hangemuhl was told by her sister about a Native American legend of some sort of creature that lives in the woods. While interrogating the Hangemuhls in the present, Doggett learns that Hangemuhl is suffering from terminal renal failure. As he is leaving, he also notices plastered over gun shot holes in their wall. Later, at Mulder's apartment, Doggett finds a gun Mulder kept hidden under his sink. Meanwhile, in Squamash, a backhoe digs at a stone circle located in the town cemetery. Later that night, the citizens of Squamash show up at a cabin in the woods, demanding to a rustic woman (Caroline Lagerfelt) living there that "it" be sent out. A creature attempts to escape, but it is captured.
Doggett and Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) return to Squamash, and the two ask the sheriff about the murder of an unidentified transient. Doggett believes that the transient was murdered by Mulder. Doggett and Skinner travel to the cemetery and discover that the grave dug up by the backhoe earlier is that of the transient. The two find the casket empty, but Doggett notices that the transient tunneled out of his own coffin. The sheriff arrives with the creature—revealed to be a soul eater, a creature that subsists off of human disease—at the Hangemuhl home, where the symbol in blood is on the door again. The hideous creature opens its jaws wide and bites Hangemuhl. Doggett suggests to Skinner that Mulder shot someone to protect Hangemuhl from the man who was supposed to be in that grave. Meanwhile, deep underground, the creature vomits what appears to be the visceral remains of Marie into a person-shaped mold in the soil.
Doggett goes off alone to see the woman who guarded the creature in the woods. The woman implies that Mulder, feeling sorry for the creature, was trying to euthanize the creature, not save Hangemuhl. Doggett hears a noise and finds a trap door leading into the tunnels. Underground, he finds Hangemuhl and takes her to the hospital. Skinner checks in with Doggett who reports that Hangemuhl's kidneys have healed spontaneously. Doggett returns to the woman in the woods who watches over the creature; after recoiling at its ugliness, the women explains that it looks the way it does because it takes the sickness of others into itself, while healing them in the process. Doggett decides to take the creature away from the society, which only uses it. However, Doggett is shot and killed in a scuffle with the sheriff and is promptly buried. Later, Doggett awakens in the tunnels. In the dark corner of the cavern, the woman kneels beside the dead soul eater. She weeps over it, revealing that, by eating Doggett's death, it has finally been allowed to die.[6]
Back at FBI Headquarters, Doggett is struggling to write his report. When Skinner checks in on him, he encourages Doggett to not submit a report, as it would contradict Mulder's earlier report and damage his, Scully's, and Doggett's reputation. Doggett protests that Scully had no knowledge of the events, but Skinner reminds him that it would take months to clear her name, and that it is enough that the two of them know the truth about what happened.
Production[edit]
Background and writing[edit]

 

 "The Gift" was written by executive producer Frank Spotnitz.
"The Gift" featured the first substantial appearance from Duchovny as Mulder since the season openers "Within" and "Without".[7][8] After settling his contract dispute with Fox, Duchovny quit full-time participation in the show after the seventh season.[9] In order to explain Mulder's absence, Duchovny's character was abducted by aliens in the seventh season finale, "Requiem". After several rounds of contractual discussions, Duchovny agreed to return for a total of 11 season eight episodes.[10] Series creator Chris Carter later argued that Mulder's absences from the series did not affect the characterization, noting that "there are characters who can be powerful as absent centers, as Mulder was through the eighth and ninth seasons."[11]
The episode was written by executive producer Frank Spotnitz and was intended as a morality tale. Due to the fact that the episode is steeped in folklore surrounding the mythical soul eater, Spotnitz noted that, "If you're going to depart from literal reality as most of us know—if you're going to go into supernatural—as a writer you have to ask yourself 'Why? What's the purpose? What's the reason?' And if you don't really have a point or reason, your story's probably not going to be very good."[11] Spotnitz later noted that he had "a thing for vomiting", thus the presence of the soul eater—or as Spotnitz referred to it, the "sin eater"—who consumed his victims' bodies, absorbed their illnesses, and then vomited their remains into a mold that brought them back to life.[12]
The episode touches upon and explores Mulder's brain disease, a plot device that was introduced in the season opener "Within".[13] This was largely a retcon placed in the series after the fact.[14][15][16] The series rationalized this revelation with the fact that, due to Mulder's exposure to the black oil in the fourth season episodes "Tunguska" and "Terma" and his forced brain operation by The Smoking Man (William B. Davis) in the seventh season episode "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati", his brain developed an incurable disease that was slowly killing him.[13][17][18][19] In fact, Mulder's "one-week recovery" from his brain surgery was a point of criticism when "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati" initially aired in 1999.[10] The episode contains characteristics of both a "Monster-of-the-Week" episode, as well as a mytharc episode. The Complete X-Files book, released in 2008, considers the episode part of the overall myth arc, however, it was not included on the 2005 DVD release The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers.[20][21]
Filming[edit]
"The Gift" was directed by Kim Manners, and marked his third directing credit for the season, after the opening two-parter "Within" and "Without".[1] Although the episode was the eighth entry aired during the 2000–01 season, it was actually the eleventh filmed, as evidenced by its production number.[1][22] This was largely due to Duchovny's availability.[23] Due to Duchovny's limited availability, Mulder's appearances were limited to flashbacks.[24] This technique had previously been used during the filming of the episode "Per Manum", which—although it was aired after "The Gift"—was filmed before this episode.[1][25] "The Gift" was the first episode that make-up artist Matthew W. Mungle's company worked on for The X-Files. The soul eater was a combination of actor Jordan Marder in make-up, and a silicon dummy whose mouth would distend and the teeth would move forward.[26]
The majority of the episode—like the rest of seasons six, seven, eight and nine—was filmed in and around the Los Angeles, California area.[27] The scenes taking place at the soul eater's residence were filmed on Ventura Farms, a California horse establishment and filming location near the town of Thousand Oaks.[22][28][29] The filming location had previously been used for the earlier eight season episode "Patience", for scenes taking place at the undertaker's residence.[30][31] The scene featuring The Lone Gunmen talking to Doggett via webcams was actually filmed on the set of their spin-off series, the eponymous The Lone Gunmen.[32] Although the bulk of the episode was filmed by director Manners, the snippet of the Gunmen was directed by Bryan Spicer, who directed several of The Lone Gunmen episodes, as well as the Gunmen-centric sixth season entry "Three of a Kind".[32][33][34]
The episode was written to not require Gillian Anderson at all. As a result, the finished episode only features stock footage of Scully from "Within", and Anderson was not required to film any new scenes.[15][35] Anderson later revealed that she was extremely grateful for the "Doggett-centric" episodes, because it allowed time for her to spend time with her daughter, Piper Maru. Due to the fact that her daughter was attending school in Canada, Anderson had "a very strict schedule with" her. Anderson was determined that the show would understand this and plan accordingly. She explained, "I was determined that they respect that I would work for three weeks and then have two or three weeks off to go and be with her. So they agreed to that, and that was important to me. I'd never had that before on the show."[11]
Themes[edit]

  
The episode makes prominent use of a medicine wheel (left), which has stylistically been compared to the program symbol for The X-Files (right).
 
As The X-Files entered into its eighth season, "human resurrection and salvation" as well as "disease, suffering, and healing" became an increasingly central focus of the show.[36] "The Gift", along with various other episodes during the eighth season of the show, would be the first to explore themes of death and resurrection. These sub-themes emerged in the season premiere "Within" when Scully is shown Mulder's tombstone. In "The Gift", the theme is explored further; not only is Doggett mortally wounded and then resurrected, the story behind Mulder's inoperable brain tumor is also explored. In "Deadalive", the theme reappears in full-force: Billy Miles is found dead but resurrects, Mulder is buried for three months, and later, is brought back to life. This sub-theme would continue well into the ninth season, in entries such as "Audrey Pauley".[36]
The episode makes heavy use of a medicine wheel. Doggett first discovers this symbol on the unknown grave that he digs up. The wheel is a Native American symbol common in folklore that is considered sacred; although the size and shape varies, it usually consists of a central stone or cairn, concentric circles of stones, and at least two lines coming from the center of the middle stone. The stone usage has been "mired in controversy", but most Native American scholars agree that it represents the "synthesis and wholeness, including concepts of renewal and rebirth".[37] In the episode, the symbol is similar to the "X" that is "identical to The X-Files program symbol".[37]
Amy Donaldson, in her book We Want to Believe contrasted the soul eater from "The Gift" to Leonard Betts, a "Monster-of-the-Week" character from the fourth season episode of the same name. In the episode, Mulder and Scully investigate the supposed death and regeneration of an emergency medical technician (EMT) named Leonard Betts, a mutant who subsists on and can detect cancer in others, as well as regenerate severed body parts.[38] Donaldson reasons that Betts' condition, in which he is "riddled with cancer" but can "see the sickness within people", is a metaphor for someone who "has let sin or evil become the regular course of life".[39] Although Betts can detect and consume the illness, his motives are derived from "his own self appetite".[39] Donaldson argues that the soul eater is the polar opposite of Betts because it takes an illness in order to help a person. This is in contrast to Betts, who takes an illness—and harms his victim in the process—in order to keep himself alive.[40]
Reception[edit]
Ratings[edit]

 

Fox heavily promoted the episode due to the return of David Duchovny as Fox Mulder.
"The Gift" first premiered on Fox in the United States on February 4, 2001.[1] The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.8, meaning that it was seen by 8.8% of the nation's estimated households.[41] The episode was viewed by 8.87 million households[41][nb 1] and 14.6 million viewers overall.[42] The episode ranked as the 35th most-watched episode for the week ending February 4.[41] The episode subsequently debuted in the United Kingdom on the BBC Two on May 19, 2002.[1] Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "What was he hiding?"[43] Furthermore, because this was Duchovny's first episode since the season opener, Fox heavily promoted the promo spots on television; in the clip the announcer noted that "David Duchovny returns to The X-Files" in the episode.[44] In part, the episode was heavily promoted because it occurred during the February Sweeps, a time in which Nielsen processes approximately 2 million paper diaries from households across the country to collect viewing information.[25] On November 4, 2003, the episode was released as part of the eighth season DVD box set.[45]
Reviews[edit]
Critical reception to the episode was largely mixed. Television Without Pity writer Jessica Morgan rated the episode a "B+" and applauded the return of Duchovny, writing, "welcome back, [...] you magnificent bastard."[15] Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations wrote a mixed review of the episode. On one hand, he praised the feel of the episode, writing, "in many ways, this was an episode that brought back the intensity, magic, and the power of The X-Files that I have been missing throughout this most mundane of seasons."[46] In this manner, Kessenich felt that Doggett became "part of The X-Files for the first time."[46] However, Kessenich also felt that the plot involving Mulder's terminal brain disease was a mis-step, noting that Mulder would have never kept something so serious and personal from Scully. He wrote, "a year ago, Mulder was not dying [but] what we once knew as truth has suddenly been replaced with a lie."[16]
George Avalos and Michael Liedtke of the Contra Costa Times called the entry "one of the season's more engaging episodes" and wrote positively of the "intriguing possibilities" that it set up for the final part of the season.[24] They were also positive about the manner in which Doggett and Mulder were able to connect in "some mystical way".[24] However, Avalos and Liedtke were critical of the episode's placement, noting that it would have worked better had it been the "fourth or fifth episode of the season", as opposed to the eighth.[24] Furthermore, they negatively wrote about the revelation that Mulder was suffering from a terminal brain disease, calling it a "monumental story" curve that did not bother "to connect all the dots behind" it.[24] Meghan Deans of Tor.com felt that, while "the tale of the soul eater may have been a little rushed and a little sloppy", the episode itself "has a spark to it [which is the] spark of the absent, the drive of the missing. The feeling that we’re all here for a reason, and that the show wants to live."[47]
Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode two stars out of five. Despite calling the episode "different", the two wrote that the story involving Mulder was "not very satisfying".[48] In addition, the two called the finale "problematic" because it featured Skinner and Doggett suppressing the truth, a thematic choice that goes against the spirit of the series.[48] Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a negative review and awarded it one-and-a-half stars out of four.[35] Vitaris criticized Doggett's role, noting that "you would think after this even he would become a raging believer, but no, he's not changed one bit."[35] Marisa Guthrie of the Boston Herald derided the fact that Duchovny was given such little amounts of screen time. Furthermore, she was critical that Doggett remained a skeptic at the end of the episode.[25]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ At the time of airing, the estimated number of households was 100.8 million.[41] Thus, 8.8 percent of 100.8 million is 8.87 million households.
References[edit]
Citations[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Kim Manners, et al (booklet). The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (Liner notes). Fox.
2.Jump up ^ "The X-Files, Season 8". iTunes Store. Apple. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
3.Jump up ^ "The X-Files – 'The Gift'". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on 2 February 2002. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
4.Jump up ^ "Within". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved 1 October 2009.
5.Jump up ^ Janulewicz, Tom. "The X-Files – 'Without'". Space.com. TechMediaNetwork. Archived from the original on 2001-11-11. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
6.Jump up ^ "The Gift". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
7.Jump up ^ Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter (writer) (5 November 2001). "Within". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 1. Fox.
8.Jump up ^ Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter (writer) (12 November 2001). "Without". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 2. Fox.
9.Jump up ^ "Duchovny Quits X-Files". BBC News (BBC). 18 May 2001. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Elber, Lynn (18 May 2000). "Fox Mulder 'Ready to Get Back to Work'". Space.com. TechMediaNetwork. Archived from the original on 24 September 2004. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
11.^ Jump up to: a b c Hurwitz and Knowles (2008), p. 189
12.Jump up ^ Spotnitz, Frank (2011). "The X-Files – Season 9 – Episode 3 – Daemonicus". Big Light Productions. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
13.^ Jump up to: a b "The X-Files – 'Within'". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on 2 February 2002. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
14.Jump up ^ Kessenich, Tom (July 22, 2001). "What's Next? Fox Drama 'The X-Files' Will Try to Recover From a Disappointing Season". Wisconsin State Journal (Lee Enterprises). Retrieved December 26, 2012. (subscription required)
15.^ Jump up to: a b c Morgan, Jessica (21 February 2001). "The Gift". Television Without Pity. NBCUniversal. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
16.^ Jump up to: a b Kessenich (2002), p. 154
17.Jump up ^ Meisler (1998), pp. 95–101
18.Jump up ^ Edwards (1996), pp. 200–201
19.Jump up ^ Shapiro (2000), pp. 19–28
20.Jump up ^ Hurwitz and Knowles (2008), p. 239
21.Jump up ^ Kim Manners, et al. The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers (DVD). Fox.
22.^ Jump up to: a b Fraga (2010), p. 198
23.Jump up ^ Kessenich (2002), pp. 144–147
24.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Avalos, George; Liedtke, Michael (8 February 2001). "X-Cursions: This 'Gift' is Better Late Than Never". Contra Costa Times (MediaNews Group). Retrieved 25 November 2012. (subscription required)
25.^ Jump up to: a b c Guthrie, Marisa (16 February 2001). "The Truth Has Left the Building: The Air Has Gone Out of 'The X-Files'". The Boston Herald (Herald Media Inc.). Retrieved 26 November 2012. (subscription required)
26.Jump up ^ Mungle, Matthew. "Exhibit – The X-Files". MatthewwMungle.com. W.M. Creations Inc. Archived from the original on August 21, 2011. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
27.Jump up ^ Fraga (2010), passim
28.Jump up ^ "About Us". VenturaFarms.com. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
29.Jump up ^ "Filming". VenturaFarms.com. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
30.Jump up ^ Fraga (2010), p. 185
31.Jump up ^ Flaherty, Mike (22 September 2000). "'The X-Files': Fighting the Future". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
32.^ Jump up to: a b Spotnitz, Frank (2011). "The X-Files – Season 8 – Episode 11 – The Gift". Big Light Productions. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
33.Jump up ^ Kim Manners, et al (booklet). The X-Files: The Complete Sixth Season (Liner notes). Fox.
34.Jump up ^ Rob Bowman, et al (booklet). The Lone Gunmen: The Complete Series (Liner notes). Fox.
35.^ Jump up to: a b c Vitaris, Paula (April 2002). "The X-Files Season Eight Episode Guide". Cinefantastique 34 (2): 42–49.
36.^ Jump up to: a b Kellner (2003), p. 155.
37.^ Jump up to: a b McIlwain (2005), p. 147
38.Jump up ^ Meisler (1998), pp. 144–150
39.^ Jump up to: a b Donaldson (2011), p. 215
40.Jump up ^ Donaldson (2011), p. 214
41.^ Jump up to: a b c d Associated Press (7 February 2001). "Last Week's Top TV Shows". Associated Press Archives.
42.Jump up ^ "'Outback' in Business". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. 16 February 2001. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
43.Jump up ^ The Gift (Promotional Flyer). Los Angeles, California: Fox Broadcasting Company. 2001.
44.Jump up ^ Promo Spots – 8X11 The Gift – 20 secs (DVD). The X-Files: The Complete Eight Season: Fox Home Entertainment. 2001.
45.Jump up ^ Kim Manners, et al (2006). The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (DVD). 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
46.^ Jump up to: a b Kessenich (2002), p. 153
47.Jump up ^ Deans, Meghan (April 4, 2013). "The X-Files: 'The Gift'". Tor.com. Tor Books. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
48.^ Jump up to: a b Shearman and Pearson (2009), p. 238
Bibliography[edit]
Donaldson, Amy (2011). We Want to Believe. Cascade Books. ISBN 9781606083611.
Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 9780316218085.
Fraga, Erica (2010). LAX-Files: Behind the Scenes with the Los Angeles Cast and Crew. CreateSpace. ISBN 9781451503418.
Hurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1933784806.
Kellner, Douglas (2003). Media Spectacle. Routledge. ISBN 9780415268288.
Kessenich, Tom (2002). Examinations: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 9781553698128.
McIlwain, Charlton (2005). When Death Goes Pop: Death, Media & the Remaking of Community. Peter Lang. ISBN 9780820470641.
Meisler, Andy (1998), I Want to Believe (The Official Guide to the X-Files, Vol. 3), Perennial Currents, ISBN 9780061053863
Shapiro, Marc (2000). All Things: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 6. Harper Prism. ISBN 9780061076114.
Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 9780975944691.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: TXF Season 8
"The Gift" at the Internet Movie Database
"The Gift" at TV.com

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The X-Files episodes

 
­Seasons: 1·
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Season 8
­"Within"·
 ­"Without"·
 ­"Patience"·
 ­"Roadrunners"·
 ­"Invocation"·
 ­"Redrum"·
 ­"Via Negativa"·
 ­"Surekill"·
 ­"Salvage"·
 ­"Badlaa"·
 ­"The Gift"·
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 ­"Per Manum"·
 ­"This Is Not Happening"·
 ­"Deadalive"·
 ­"Three Words"·
 ­"Empedocles"·
 ­"Vienen"·
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 ­"Essence"·
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Categories: 2001 television episodes
The X-Files (season 8) episodes



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Medusa (The X-Files)

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"Medusa"
The X-Files episode
A man lies dead on the floor. Half his face and arm is burnt, as if by acid. His bones are grotesquely exposed
Officer Philbrick's body, after being exposed to the medusas.
 
Episode no.
Season 8
 Episode 12
Directed by
Richard Compton
Written by
Frank Spotnitz
Production code
8ABX13
Original air date
February 11, 2001
Running time
44 minutes
Guest actors

Ken Jenkins as Deputy Chief Karras
Penny Johnson as Dr. Hellura Lyle
Adam Lieberman as Officer Philbrick
Vyto Ruginis as Lt. Bianco
Judith Scott as Dr. Kai Bowe
Brent Sexton as Steven Melnick
Bill Jacobson as Thug
Mary Kathleen Gordon as Woman
Christopher Graves as Kid
Kevin Graves as Kid[1]
 
Episode chronology

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 "The Gift" Next →
 "Per Manum"

List of The X-Files episodes
"Medusa" is the twelfth episode of the eighth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on February 11, 2001. The episode was written by Frank Spotnitz and directed by Richard Compton. "Medusa" is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. The episode received a Nielsen rating of 8.2 and was viewed by 13.8 million viewers. Overall, the episode received mixed reviews from critics.
The series centers on FBI special agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and her new partner John Doggett (Robert Patrick)—following the alien abduction of her former partner, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny)—who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, a string of bizarre deaths in the tunnels of the Boston subway system sees Doggett join a team of professionals underground to investigate. Meanwhile, Scully has to defy the train authorities above land, who are determined to get the trains up and running within hours.
"Medusa" was allotted a "huge budget", due mostly to the fact that a replica of the Boston subway had to be recreated. Robert Patrick later called the eventual set "the biggest damned thing I'd seen in my life." Cheri Montesanto-Medcalf and Matthew Mungle, the show's make-up effect producers, used several unorthodox ingredients to create the effect of melted flesh; in addition to the use of normal prosthetic make-up, the two also used a combination of figs and Fruit Roll-Ups.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Plot
2 Production
3 Broadcast and Reception
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
Plot[edit]
In Boston, an undercover cop sits on the subway, waiting for a robber to appear. Eventually, they both get onto a train and the police officer draws his gun as the man starts to walk towards him from behind. Suddenly, the subway comes to a screeching halt, flashes of light are seen, and the train loses power. Later, when the train is back up and running, a batch of commuters enter the subway car and find the undercover cop with the flesh on half his face and his left arm stripped down to the bone.
Agents Scully and Doggett arrive at the operations center to investigate. However, they are rudely greeted by Deputy Chief Karras and Lieutenant Bianco of the transit police; the two eagerly want the FBI to get the job done fast in order that subways can be reopened in five hours, and Karras is also irritated that Scully performed an autopsy on the body. Even after an autopsy, Scully has no idea what killed the man, and the CDC is unable to find any biological or chemical agents in the subway.
Doggett and Scully are soon introduced to a strike-force that will be going into the subway to investigate. The group includes Steven Melnick, a structural engineer and Dr. Hellura Lyle, CDC employee specializing in pathogens. Scully, however, decides the plan will work better if Doggett acts as her eyes and ears while she analyzes the situation from up in the CDC. Using cameras and microphones, she will watch and hear what is happening. After the plans are made. Doggett leads the team into the dark tunnel.
While in the tunnels, Melnick gets a burn on the back of his neck suggesting a chemical leak. However, the test of the nearby puddle shows nothing dangerous: It is just salt water. Melnick mentions that the tunnels run along the harbor in some places and that they get sea water leakages from time to time. Moving ahead, the team finds an abandoned section of the subway tunnels. Out of the tunnel bursts a man with his rib cage and teeth exposed who knocks Doggett down: he is the suspected robber, eaten away like the other man. His condition proves that he did not kill the man and that there may, in fact, might be a contagion. While looking around, the teams discover three bodies with the same gruesome injuries, wrapped in plastic. It soon becomes clear that someone is covering up the problem in the subway.
Lyle spots an unknown person running away from them in the subway and the team follows. When the group approaches the spot where the train lost power, Melnick starts crying out in pain. Visible electrical flashes start destroying the skin on his left arm. Scully tells Doggett to pour water on it, which stops the flashes. Lyle takes badly injured Melnick to the surface and Doggett continues onward with Bianco. When Melnick returns to the surface he seems to be getting worse but Lyle appears healthy. Scully then sees the three bodies being taken away by non-CDC hazmat people. When Scully confronts Karras about this he says that he is organizing it. Scully tells Karras that she has already organized the CDC to collect the bodies and accuses Karras of attempting a cover-up. Although Karras tries to deny his involvement, he eventually allows her to send the bodies to the actual CDC.
Back in the tunnels, Doggett notices a green glow on Bianco in a dimly lit former subway station. As such, he refuses to allow the lieutenant to leave. Bianco runs away, forcing Doggett to give chase. He learns from Scully that Karras has gone ahead of plan and allowed the passengers onto the platforms and the subway will start back up, despite the danger. After analyzing various water samples found at the scene, Scully meets with Dr. Kai Bowe, a marine biologist, who explains that the sample contains a unique microscopic sea creature called a medusa which are made out of calcium and are bioluminescent. However, Bowe does not know why the electrical reaction happens. When Doggett finds the wounded Bianco, he finds that his condition has gotten worse. Doggett then carries Bianco on his back and helps him continue through the tunnels. They soon encounter a boy with no signs of the luminous green substance on him. Scully realizes that sweat is causing the chemical electrical reaction since it is conductive to calcium ions. The boy does not have well developed sweat glands yet so the medusas are not affecting him. Doggett follows the boy to a major leak from the bay with the green glow on all the walls. Suddenly, an oncoming subway approaches the group - Karras has allowed the subway to resume schedule. Doggett uses Bianco’s gun to connect the third rail with the water and kill the medusas, preventing further exposure.
Later, Scully comes to see Doggett in the hospital. Scully informs him that Bianco and Melnick are with plastic surgeons, the boy is with social services, and no criminal charges will be pressed against Karras since the electrical charge of the third rail destroyed the proof of the medusas in the tunnel.[2]
Production[edit]

 

 A replica of a Boston subway track, similar to that show here at Broadway station, was created on a soundstage specifically for this episode.
"Medusa" was written by executive producer Frank Spotnitz and directed by Richard Compton.[3] Reportedly, because of the scope of the episode, a "huge budget" was allotted for the entry.[4] Because the episode was written to take place in a subway system, a set meeting the requirements of the script had to be created.[4] The eventual set was designed to mirror the actual Boston subway, a system that serves more than 700,000 people a day.[5] According to star Robert Patrick, "They got us in there, and we did it, and they built a huge subway tunnel set on a soundstage."[4] Patrick later described the set as "the biggest damned thing I'd ever seen in my life."[4] In real life, the Boston subway system is "fondly" called the T, short for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. In "Medusa", the "T", was changed to an "M" "for fictional purposes".[5]
Cheri Montesanto-Medcalf and Matthew Mungle, the show's make-up effect producers, used several unorthodox ingredients to create the effect of melted flesh; in addition to the use of normal prosthetic make-up, the two also used a combination of figs and Fruit Roll-Ups.[6] Several of the characters in the episode were named after real-life individuals. The characters of Hellura Lyle and Kai Bowe were named after two Writers Guild members on The X-Files staff who served during the first part of the eighth season. Furthermore, the character Steven Melnick is named after the Vice President of Media Relations for 20th Century Fox Television. Melnick had formerly served as the publicist for the series.[5]
Broadcast and Reception[edit]
"Medusa" first aired on Fox on February 11, 2001.[3] The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.2, meaning that it was seen by 8.2% of the nation's estimated households.[7] The episode was viewed by 8.27 million households,[7][nb 1] and 13.8 million viewers.[8] The episode ranked as the 41st most-watched episode for the week ending February 11.[7] The episode subsequently debuted in the United Kingdom on the BBC Two on May 26, 2002.[3] Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "Underneat the street lies the ultimate in terror."[9]
Critical reception to the episode was mostly mixed. Television Without Pity writer Jessica Morgan rated the episode a B.[10] Despite the moderate praise, however, Morgan did make a jest at the portrayal of the subway in the show, noting that the it was not realistic; she wrote that the set was the "cleanest, emptiest subway station in world […] No urine. No trash. It's nicer than my apartment, really."[10] Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen gave the episode a mixed review and rated it two-and-a-half stars out of five. Despite writing that "on paper ['Medusa' is] the right episode at the right time", the two criticized the episode, noting that "the teaser never really makes sense in light of the relations offered, the appearance of the mute boy is a messy contrivance, and the ending is too abrupt."[11] John Keegan from Critical Myth gave the episode a largely positive review and awarded it a 7 out of 10. He wrote "Overall, while the theory behind the episode was completely off the mark, I loved the way that Doggett interacted with Scully, and Scully's powerful confidence and take-charge attitude."[12] Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a slightly negative review and awarded it one-and-a-half stars out of four.[13] Despite noting "After episodes about butt-crawling and vomiting, it's a relief to have one in which people die when their skin and muscles are fried away by microscopic sea creatures called medusas", Vitaris was critical of the plot, likening it to "cliche[d]" 1970's movies that featured the "obstreperous official insisting the plane must fly or the skyscraper is fire-proof, even when the potential for catastrophe is staring him in the face."[13] Spotnitz later admitted during a Reddit IAmA that the episode was his least-favorite that he had written because "the concept just wasn't clear or compelling enough to sustain the hour."[14]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ At the time of airing, the estimated number of households was 100.8 million.[7] Thus, 8.2 percent of 100.8 million is 8.27 million households.
References[edit]
Footnotes
1.Jump up ^ "The X-Files – "Medusa"". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on 7 February 2002. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
2.Jump up ^ "Medusa". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c Kim Manners, et al (booklet). The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (Liner notes). Fox.
4.^ Jump up to: a b c d Hurwitz and Knowles, p. 189
5.^ Jump up to: a b c "The X-Files – "Medusa" – Research". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on 18 December 2001. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
6.Jump up ^ Ray, Roxie (April 2002). "Disfigured Corpses and Moldy FBI Agents Lead Team to Emmy Award". Cinefantastique 34 (2): 46–47.
7.^ Jump up to: a b c d Associated Press (13 February 2001). "Prime-Time Nielsen Ratings". Associated Press Archives.
8.Jump up ^ Canton, Maj. "The X-Files – Series – Episode List – Season 8". TV Tango. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
9.Jump up ^ Medusa (Promotional Flyer). Los Angeles, California: Fox Broadcasting Company. 2001.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Morgan, Jessica (11 February 2001). "Medusa". Television Without Pity. NBCUniversal. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
11.Jump up ^ Shearman and Pearson, p. 238-239
12.Jump up ^ Keegan, John. "Medusa". Critical Myth. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
13.^ Jump up to: a b Vitaris, Paula (April 2002). "The X-Files Season Eight Episode Guide". Cinefantastique 34 (2): 42–49.
14.Jump up ^ Spotnitz, Frank (October 23, 2012). "I Am Frank Spotnitz". Reddit. Retrieved November 18, 2012.
BibliographyHurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1933784806.
Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 097594469X.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: TXF Season 8
"Medusa" at the Internet Movie Database
"Medusa" at TV.com

[hide]
­v·
 ­t·
 ­e
 
The X-Files episodes

 
­Seasons: 1·
 ­2·
 ­3·
 ­4·
 ­5·
 ­6·
 ­7·
 ­8·
 ­9
 
 
Season 8
­"Within"·
 ­"Without"·
 ­"Patience"·
 ­"Roadrunners"·
 ­"Invocation"·
 ­"Redrum"·
 ­"Via Negativa"·
 ­"Surekill"·
 ­"Salvage"·
 ­"Badlaa"·
 ­"The Gift"·
 ­"Medusa"·
 ­"Per Manum"·
 ­"This Is Not Happening"·
 ­"Deadalive"·
 ­"Three Words"·
 ­"Empedocles"·
 ­"Vienen"·
 ­"Alone"·
 ­"Essence"·
 ­"Existence"
 

 

Categories: 2001 television episodes
The X-Files (season 8) episodes



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Per Manum

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"Per Manum"
The X-Files episode
A man stands, consoling a woman.
Fox Mulder consoles Dana Scully in a flashback. The episode marked a substantial appearance of David Duchovny, who had departed following season seven.
 
Episode no.
Season 8
 Episode 13
Directed by
Kim Manners
Written by
Chris Carter
Frank Spotnitz
Production code
8ABX08
Original air date
February 18, 2001
Running time
44 minutes
Guest actors

Jay Acovone as Duffy Haskell
Steven Anderson as Dr. James Parenti
Adam Baldwin as Knowle Rohrer
Diana Castle as Delivery Nurse
Elizabeth Cheap as Second Nurse
Megan Follows as Kath McCready
Victoria Gallegos as Receptionist
Jennifer Griffin as Dr. Miryum
Alexandra Margulies as Second Associate
David Purham as Dr. Lev
Mark Snow as Doctor
Christopher Stanley as Agent Joe Farah
Saxon Trainor as Mary Hendershot
Karl T. Wright as First Associate[1]
 
Episode chronology

← Previous
 "Medusa" Next →
 "This Is Not Happening"

List of The X-Files episodes
"Per Manum" is the thirteenth episode of the eighth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on February 18, 2001. Written by Frank Spotnitz and series creator Chris Carter, and directed by Kim Manners, the episode helps to explore the series' overarching mythology. "Per Manum" received a Nielsen rating of 9.4 and was watched by 9.61 million households. Overall, the episode received mostly positive reviews from critics.
The series centers on FBI special agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and her new partner John Doggett (Robert Patrick)—following the alien abduction of her former partner, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny)—who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Scully and Doggett investigate several women who had no way of naturally conceiving but who claim to have been abducted and impregnated with alien babies. Soon, Scully begins to worry about the future of her pregnancy.
"Per Manum" featured a substantial appearance of Fox Mulder who had elected not to return to the show as a full-time main character following the ending of season seven. In addition, the episode marks the first appearance of Knowle Rohrer, played by Adam Baldwin, who would become Doggett's informant and later betrayer.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Plot
2 Production
3 Broadcast and reception
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
Plot[edit]
Pregnant Kathy McCready is undergoing an emergency caesarian. As her husband prepares, the ward is locked down, and the child delivered is seen to be an alien.
FBI special agents John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) meet Duffy Haskell (Jay Acovone), who tells them about his wife—a multiple-abductee who he believes was killed by her doctors upon giving birth to an alien child. He also describes how his wife's cancer was both caused and cured by her abductors. Duffy refers the agents to Zeus Genetics, and shows them an ultrasound scan that seems to vindicate his story. As the agents leave, Doggett notes similarities between the case and Scully's history, although he does not yet know that Scully is pregnant. Scully investigates a Zeus Genetics clinic, overhearing a pregnant woman, Mary Hendershot (Saxon Trainor), telling her doctor that she does not want to be under his care any more. Scully hides in a storeroom, finding it full of preserved fetuses that resemble the alien child seen earlier.
In a flashback, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) tells Scully that her abduction (in the second season episodes "Ascension and "One Breath") has rendered her infertile, as her ova were harvested for genetic experiments. Mulder later found them in a secret facility (in fourth season's "Memento Mori"), but they were not viable. Scully seeks a second opinion from her doctor, Dr. Parenti, and is told that her ova might be viable with a sperm donor. Mulder volunteers for the role.
Back in the present, Scully phones Parenti, who is dissecting an alien fetus. She asks him to compare her ultrasound scan with the one given to her earlier. When she visits later, she is assured her scans are in order, but she sees Parenti speaking with Dr. Lev, the doctor she overheard at Zeus Genetics. Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) and Doggett confront Duffy about threatening letters he has been sending to both Mulder and Dr. Lev. However, when the agents leave, Duffy makes a phone call to Lev, warning him that they are being investigated.
Scully is warned by Hendershot, the woman from Zeus Genetics, that their unborn children are in danger. Scully meets Doggett and Skinner, having requested a leave of absence from the FBI. After Doggett leaves, Skinner tries to convince Scully to reveal her pregnancy to Doggett. Scully and Hendershot visit an army research hospital to have an ultrasound performed on Hendershot. The scan appears normal, but Scully realises the monitor they are watching is simply a video of another woman's scan.
Doggett has Duffy's fingerprints examined, and finds that they belong to a man who died thirty years previously. Doggett contacts an old military partner, Knowle Rohrer (Adam Baldwin) to find Duffy's real identity. Although Rohrer assures Doggett he will investigate, the agent is not convinced, believing that Duffy is a CIA agent. He confides this to Skinner, who tells him to aid Scully at the military hospital. As Scully and Hendershot sneak out of the building, they are found by Rohrer and several marines, claiming Doggett has sent them to rescue her. Scully and Hendershot are driven away, but Hendershot enters labour. The women are separated, and Scully is drugged. When she wakens, Doggett informs her that Hendershot's baby was delivered and is normal. However, Scully is convinced something is amiss, but nothing more can be done about it. In another flashback, Scully tells Mulder that her attempt at in vitro fertilization has failed, but he simply tells her to keep trying.[2]
Production[edit]

 

 The episode featured the first appearance of Knowle Rohrer, played by Adam Baldwin.
"Per Manum" featured the appearance of David Duchovny as Fox Mulder in various flashbacks. After settling his contract dispute with Fox, Duchovny quit full-time participation in the show after the seventh season.[3] In order to explain Mulder's absence, Duchovny's character was abducted by aliens in the seventh season finale, "Requiem". After several rounds of contractual discussions, Duchovny agreed to return for a total of 11 season eight episodes.[4] "Per Manum" marked the fourth appearance of Duchovny in the eighth season; he had previously appeared in opening episodes of the season, "Within" and "Without" as well as the eleventh episode "The Gift".[5][6][7] Series creator Chris Carter later argued that Mulder's absences from the series did not affect the characterization, noting that "there are characters who can be powerful as absent centers, as Mulder was through the eight and ninth seasons."[8]
A deleted scene from early on within the episode, in which Scully questions her doctor about her ultrasound scans, was cut from the final broadcast as writer Frank Spotnitz felt it was too "confusing" for the viewers to place doubt on the actions of the doctor so early. Fellow series writer John Shiban said that the scene was not "subtle" enough to convey the right level of suspicion.[9] Spotnitz has described "Per Manum" as being "a real paranoia episode", concerning "the way you perceive connections between people, what are they saying, and is it suspicious or not".[9]
Adam Baldwin, who makes his first appearance as recurring character Knowle Rohrer, originally auditioned for the part of John Dogget, losing out to Robert Patrick. However, the crew remembered Baldwin's audition later when casting "Per Manum", and asked him to play the role.[10] Jay Acovone, who portrays Duffy Haskel in this episode, returned in the same role in the season's penultimate episode "Essence";[11] and had also previously appeared in the fourth season episode "Demons".[11] "Per Manum" also featured a guest appearance by Mark Snow as an unnamed doctor. Snow had been the series' composer since the first season.[12]
Broadcast and reception[edit]
"Per Manum" premiered on the Fox network on February 18, 2001 and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on June 9, 2002.[13] The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 9.4, meaning that it was seen by 9.4% of the nation's estimated households.[14] It was viewed by 9.61 million households[14][nb 1] and 16 million viewers, making it, at the time, the highest-rated episode of The X-Files to air during the season.[15] "Per Manum" ranked as the 30th most-watched episode for the week ending February 18.[14] Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "How did Scully get pregnant?"[16] The episode was later included on The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers, a DVD collection that contains episodes involved with the alien super soldiers arc.[17]
"Per Manum" received mostly positive reviews from critics, with one detractor. Writing for Television Without Pity, Jessica Morgan rated the episode a B+, deriding some of the episode's plot points, such as the hospital's locking doors, and questioning the villainy of the antagonistic doctors.[18] Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6-9 of 'The X-Files', noted that the episode typifyes the basic themes of the series—"dark, foreboding terror, overriding sense of paranoia" and "the fear of the unknown" among others.[19] Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode five stars out of five, calling it a "return to form" for the series. Shearman and Pearson also felt that the episode gave the character of John Doggett a chance to be accepted by the series' other characters; and praised the "subtle" writing of the episode's emotional dialogue.[20] Writing for The Vindicator, Eric Mink felt that the episode was "intense, unsettling, sometimes gross, and suspenseful to the point of nerve-racking [sic]", feeling that its plot would "resonate instantly and ominously with viewers".[21] Meghan Deans of Tor.com felt that, while the episode did unfortunately reduce Scully down to a traditional idea of feminine identity for part of its run, it was "one of the most emotional Scully-centric episodes the show has ever given us."[22] Furthermore, Deans reasoned that the episode was an example of "what The X-Files would have been, had Scully been the believer: a woman being told that she is hysterical, a woman being told that she imagined it all [and] a woman being told that the evidence of her own body is invalid", a direction that would have been "startling ".[22]
Not all reviews were positive. Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a scathing review and awarded it no stars out of four.[23] She heavily derided the plot, noting that Haskell's role as an "undercover operative" was not convincing. Furthermore, she reasoned that because the plot twists were so expected, Scully came off as "a moron".[23] Vitaris also criticized the use of flashbacks, noting that they were "the only way The X-Files writers could figure out to use David Duchovny".[23]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ At the time of airing, the estimated number of households was 102.2 million.[14] Thus, 9.4 percent of 102.2 million is 9.61 million households.
References[edit]
Footnotes
1.Jump up ^ "The X-Files - "Per Manum"". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on 7 October 2002. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
2.Jump up ^ "Per Manum". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
3.Jump up ^ "Duchovny quits X-Files". BBC News. May 18, 2001. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
4.Jump up ^ Elber, Lynn (May 18, 2000). "Fox Mulder 'Ready to Get Back to Work'". Space.com. TechMediaNetwork. Archived from the original on September 24, 2004. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
5.Jump up ^ Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter (writer) (November 5, 2000). "Within". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 1. Fox.
6.Jump up ^ Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter (writer) (November 12, 2000). "Without". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 2. Fox.
7.Jump up ^ Kim Manners (director); Frank Spotnitz (writer) (February 4, 2001). "The Gift". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 11. Fox.
8.Jump up ^ Hurwitz and Knowles, p. 189
9.^ Jump up to: a b John Shiban & Frank Spotnitz (narrators). "Deleted Scenes: Per Manum". The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (featurette) (The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season: Fox). Unknown parameter |titleyear= ignored (help)
10.Jump up ^ Heisler, Steve (February 2, 2009). "Adam Baldwin | TV | Random Roles". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved February 17, 2012.
11.^ Jump up to: a b Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter (writer) (May 13, 2001). "Essence". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 20. Fox.
12.Jump up ^ Mark Snow, et al. The Truth About Season One (DVD). The X-Files: The Complete First Season: Fox.
13.Jump up ^ Kim Manners, et al (booklet). The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (Liner notes). Fox.
14.^ Jump up to: a b c d Associated Press (February 22, 2001). "Last Weeks' Top Programs". Press-Telegram (MediaNews Group).
15.Jump up ^ Petrozzello, Donna (20 February 2001). "Blaine Dangles a Preview". Daily News (Daily News, L.P.). Retrieved 29 November 2012. (subscription required)
16.Jump up ^ Per Manum (Promotional Flyer). Los Angeles, California: Fox Broadcasting Company. 2001.
17.Jump up ^ Kim Manners, et al. The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers (DVD). Fox.
18.Jump up ^ Morgan, Jessica (February 21, 2001). "Per Manum". Television Without Pity. NBCUniversal. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
19.Jump up ^ Kessenich, p.156.
20.Jump up ^ Shearman and Pearson, pp. 239–240
21.Jump up ^ Mink, Eric (February 17, 2001). "Once again, 'The X-Files' offers little more than a Mulder sighting". The Vindicator (The Vindicator Printing Co.). p. B11. Retrieved March 22, 2012.
22.^ Jump up to: a b Deans, Meghan (April 11, 2013). "Reopening The X-Files: 'Per Manum'". Tor.com. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
23.^ Jump up to: a b c Vitaris, Paula (April 2002). "The X-Files Season Eight Episode Guide". Cinefantastique 34 (2): 42–49.
BibliographyHurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1-933784-80-6.
Kessenich, Tom (2002). Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 1-55369-812-6.
Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 0-9759446-9-X.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: TXF Season 8
"Per Manum" at the Internet Movie Database
"Per Manum" at TV.com

[hide]
­v·
 ­t·
 ­e
 
The X-Files episodes

 
­Seasons: 1·
 ­2·
 ­3·
 ­4·
 ­5·
 ­6·
 ­7·
 ­8·
 ­9
 
 
Season 8
­"Within"·
 ­"Without"·
 ­"Patience"·
 ­"Roadrunners"·
 ­"Invocation"·
 ­"Redrum"·
 ­"Via Negativa"·
 ­"Surekill"·
 ­"Salvage"·
 ­"Badlaa"·
 ­"The Gift"·
 ­"Medusa"·
 ­"Per Manum"·
 ­"This Is Not Happening"·
 ­"Deadalive"·
 ­"Three Words"·
 ­"Empedocles"·
 ­"Vienen"·
 ­"Alone"·
 ­"Essence"·
 ­"Existence"
 

 

Categories: 2001 television episodes
The X-Files (season 8) episodes




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This page was last modified on 16 October 2013 at 15:47.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
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This Is Not Happening

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Jump to: navigation, search

This is a good article. Click here for more information.

"This Is Not Happening"
The X-Files episode
MulderDead TINH.jpg
Fox Mulder is returned to Earth, deceased. The episode, featuring the return of David Duchovny, was praised by critics.
 
Episode no.
Season 8
 Episode 14
Directed by
Kim Manners
Written by
Chris Carter
Frank Spotnitz
Production code
8ABX14
Original air date
February 25, 2001
Running time
44 minutes
Guest actors

Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner
Annabeth Gish as Monica Reyes
Sarah Koskoff as Theresa Hoese
John McGonegle as Uniformed Officer
Arlene Pileggi as Skinner's Assistant
Randy Ross as Nike Man
Judson Scott as Absalom
Roy Thinnes as Jeremiah Smith
Eddie Kaye Thomas as Gary Cory
Judd Trichter as Richie Szalay
Bernard White as Dr. Desai
Roz Witt as Night Nurse[1]
 
Episode chronology

← Previous
 "Per Manum" Next →
 "Deadalive"

List of The X-Files episodes
"This Is Not Happening" is the fourteenth episode of the eighth season and the 175th episode overall of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States on February 25, 2001 on the Fox Network, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom. It was written by executive producers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Kim Manners. The episode received a Nielsen household rating of 9.7 and was watched by 16.9 million viewers, making it the highest-rated episode of the season. "This Is Not Happening" was received positively by television critics.
The series centers on FBI special agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and her new partner John Doggett (Robert Patrick)—following the alien abduction of her former partner, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny)—who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Scully, Doggett, and Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) discover several returned alien abductees. Doggett calls on another agent, Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), to assist the case. Scully’s fears about finding Mulder come to a head with the sudden recovery of one of the abductees seized at the same time.
"This Is Not Happening" was a story milestone for the season, returning Mulder from his alien abduction which started with "Requiem". In addition, the episode introduced the character Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), who would become a main character in season nine. Gish's character was introduced as a possible replacement for Anderson, who was considering leaving the series after the end of the season.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Plot
2 Production 2.1 Background and effects
2.2 Casting
3 Reception
4 Notes
5 References 5.1 Footnotes
5.2 Bibliography
6 External links
Plot[edit]
Richie Szalay is chasing a spaceship in Helena, Montana. As the spaceship stops, it dumps a naked female and cloaks itself. The woman is later revealed to be Theresa Hoese, who was abducted the same time as Fox Mulder (David Duchovny). Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) visit Hoese in the hospital to get information about Mulder's whereabouts.
Later in a motel, they interrogate Szalay, whose friend Gary had been abducted just before Mulder; Szalay was investigating the UFO reports in Montana in an attempt to find him. Doggett reports that fresh footprints from Nike shoes were noted in the area Hoese was found, making Doggett skeptical about Szalay's claims to alien sightings. Meanwhile, Jeremiah Smith has assumed the form of a doctor and arranges for Hoese to be transferred. Having learned of Hoese's disappearance, Doggett calls Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish). Reyes assists in the investigation, believing that Mulder may have joined a UFO cult. In a derelict compound, Smith cures Hoese of her injuries, as observed by a man called Absalom.
Reyes' car stalls just before she sees a UFO. Stopping, she sees Smith and Absalom taking a body. She also finds Gary's body. Reyes is able to retrieve the license plate number on the truck used to kidnap the abductee. It is later revealed that it belongs to Travis Clayton Moberly, better known as Absalom, the leader of a doomsday cult. The FBI storms the cult's compound, and arrests Absalom, but Smith is not found. Absalom tells Scully and Doggett that he has been saving abductees that had been left for dead by the aliens. Examining video of the compound raid, Scully, Reyes and Doggett watch Smith step through a doorway and transform into Agent Doggett. Doggett is stunned, and the agents realize that Smith is still in the compound.
Scully runs into the cult compound and, identifying Smith by his Nike shoes, tells him she knows who he is and what he's doing. She is distracted when Skinner tells her they've found Mulder's body in the woods. Scully sees Mulder's body and races back to the compound hoping that Smith can heal him, but a UFO directs a beam of light into the room where he is being held; when she enters the room, he is gone.[2]
Production[edit]

 

 "This Is Not Happening," featured the return of David Duchovny as Fox Mulder.
Background and effects[edit]
"This Is Not Happening" marked the return of David Duchovny as Fox Mulder.[3] After settling his contract dispute with Fox, Duchovny had quit full-time participation in the show after the seventh season.[4] In order to explain Mulder's absence, Duchovny's character was abducted by aliens in the seventh season finale, "Requiem." After several rounds of contractual discussions, Duchovny agreed to return for a total of 11 season eight episodes.[5] "This Is Not Happening" marked the fourth appearance of Duchovny in the eighth season: his character had appeared in cameos in "Within" and "Without", as well as in flashbacks in "The Gift" and "Per Manum."[6][7][8][9]
The opening scene required the crew of The X-Files to create a UFO chase. In order to do this, the scene was filmed entirely in a mountainous area that was lit up to give the shot a more alien-like feel. The UFO that seen flying at the opening of the scene was actually a helicopter, disguised using various techniques. A so-called "cloaking-effect", created on a computer and consisting mostly of digital fog and "wiggled lights", was used to make the "spaceship" appear and then suddenly disappear.[10]
Casting[edit]
This episode marked the first appearance of Monica Reyes, played by Annabeth Gish, who would become a main character in season nine. The character was developed and introduced due to Gillian Anderson's possible departure at the end of the eighth season. Although Anderson would remain on until the end, Gish later became a series regular. When creating the character, series creator Chris Carter wanted to give the character a personality who had much in common with both Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. At the same time, however, Carter wanted the character to be different from Scully's character in a way that Doggett was different from Mulder, saying, "as much as Robert Patrick was unlike Mulder, we needed someone who was equally unlike Scully."[11] Gish later noted that, "Chris really wanted Monica to be a sunny force, which is hard to play sometimes. But it's a natural instinct for me; I can find happiness in the midst of darkness."[11]
The casting process for Monica Reyes was unconventional. Gish received a call from her agent, who informed her that The X-Files were looking for a new female character. Gish applied for the part, but instead of having to a do a reading, she only had to meet with Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz.[11] After receiving the part, Gish's first shot was scheduled four in the morning; her first scene in the episode was to run down a hill to discover a former abductee.[12]
Reception[edit]
"This Is Not Happening" premiered on February 25, 2001 on American television on Fox.[13][14] The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 9.7, meaning that it was seen by 9.7% of the nation's estimated households.[15] It was watched by 9.91 million households[15][nb 1] and 16.9 million viewers, making it the highest-rated episode of the season,[16] as well as the highest-rated episode of the series since the seventh season episode "The Sixth Extinction".[17] Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "Tonight, the search for Mulder ends."[18] The episode was nominated for an Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series.[19] The episode was later included on The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers, a DVD collection that contains episodes involved with the alien super soldiers arc.[20]
Critical reception to "This Is Not Happening" was mostly positive. A review by John Keegan from Critical Myth gave the episode a 10 out of 10 and stated that, "There are some stories that simply entertain, or help you pass the time. And there are stories that maybe let us laugh a little, cry a little, or both. And then there are the stories that for whatever reason, be it personal circumstance or the power of its craft, that take you and grab you in a way that is impossible to describe."[21] Keegan compared the episode to the series finale of Babylon 5, calling both endings memorable, and also stated that "This Is Not Happening" was the "biggest" mythology episode since "Requiem", and "arguably the best since the movie."[21] Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode five stars out of five.[22] The two noted, and praised, that the true tragedy of the episode is the fact that, despite her increased role as the reluctant believer, the way Scully deals with Absalom and Jeremiah Smith "in a strictly scientific way", instead of taking the "leap of faith", prevents her from finding and saving Mulder in time.[22]
Not all reviews were positive. Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a negative review and awarded it one-and-a-half stars out of four.[23] She called the episode "unexciting" and concluded that the final scene was "anti-climactic".[23] In addition, Vitaris noted that the introduction of Monica Reyes was not satisfactorily explained.[23]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ At the time of airing, the estimated number of households was 102.2 million.[15] Thus, 9.7 percent of 102.2 million is 9.91 million households.
References[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "The X-Files – "This Is Not Happening"". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on 20 February 2002. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
2.Jump up ^ "This Is Not Happening". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
3.Jump up ^ McAlister, Nancy (28 February 2001). "'X – Files' viewers wait for resolution". The Florida Times-Union (Morris Communications). pp. C2.
4.Jump up ^ "Duchovny quits X-Files". BBC News. BBC. 18 May 2001. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
5.Jump up ^ Elber, Lynn (18 May 2000). "Fox Mulder 'Ready to Get Back to Work'". Space.com. TechMediaNetwork. Archived from the original on 24 September 2004. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
6.Jump up ^ Kim Manners (director); Frank Spotnitz (writer) (February 4, 2001). "The Gift". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 11. Fox.
7.Jump up ^ Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz (writers) (February 18, 2001). "Per Manum". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 13. Fox.
8.Jump up ^ Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter (writer) (November 5, 2001). "Within". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 1. Fox.
9.Jump up ^ Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter (writer) (November 12, 2001). "Without". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 2. Fox.
10.Jump up ^ Rabwin, Paul (2002). Special Effects with Narration by Paul Rabwin (DVD). The X-Files: The Complete Eight Season: Fox Home Entertainment.
11.^ Jump up to: a b c Hurwitz and Knowles, p. 190
12.Jump up ^ Carter, Chris, Patrick, Robert, Spotnitz, Frank and Gish, Annabeth (2002). The Truth Behind Season 8 (DVD). The X-Files: The Complete Eight Season: Fox Home Entertainment.
13.Jump up ^ Hurwitz and Knowles, p. 239
14.Jump up ^ Kim Manners, et al (booklet). The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (Liner notes). Fox.
15.^ Jump up to: a b c "Prime-time Nielsen ratings". Associated Press Archive. February 2001.
16.Jump up ^ Sepinwall, Alan; Seitz, Zoller (1 March 2001). "Blame it on Cable". The Star-Ledger (Advance Publications). Retrieved 19 September 2012. (subscription required)
17.Jump up ^ Shapiro, p. 281
18.Jump up ^ This Is Not Happening (Promotional Flyer). Los Angeles, California: Fox Broadcasting Company. 2001.
19.Jump up ^ "Primetime Emmy Award Database – The X-Files". Emmys.com. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
20.Jump up ^ Kim Manners, et al. The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers (DVD). Fox.
21.^ Jump up to: a b Keegan, John. "This is Not Happening". Critical Myth. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
22.^ Jump up to: a b Shearman and Pearson, p. 241
23.^ Jump up to: a b c Vitaris, Paula (April 2002). "The X-Files Season Eight Episode Guide". Cinefantastique 34 (2): 42–49.
Bibliography[edit]
Hurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1-933784-80-6.
Shapiro, Marc (2000). All Things: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 6. Harper Prism. ISBN 0-06-107611-2.
Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 0-9759446-9-X.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: TXF Season 8
"This Is Not Happening" at the Internet Movie Database
"This Is Not Happening" at TV.com

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The X-Files episodes

 
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Season 8
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Categories: The X-Files (season 8) episodes
2001 television episodes



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Deadalive

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For the 1992 movie named "Dead Alive", see Braindead (film).
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"Deadalive"
The X-Files episode
In a darkened room, a deceased man is lying in a coffin. His face is cracked and weathered; the effects of being buried for three months.
The exhumed three-month-old body of Fox Mulder. The scene featured a double wearing a mask of David Duchovny's head.
 
Episode no.
Season 8
 Episode 15
Directed by
Tony Wharmby
Written by
Chris Carter
Frank Spotnitz
Production code
8ABX15[1]
Original air date
April 1, 2001
Running time
44 minutes[2]
Guest actors

Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner
James Pickens, Jr. as Alvin Kersh
Arlene Pileggi as Skinner's Assistant
Zachary Ansley as Billy Miles
Sheila Larken as Margaret Scully
Nicholas Lea as Alex Krycek
Tom Braidwood as Melvin Frohike
Dean Haglund as Richard Langly
Bruce Harwood as John Fitzgerald Byers
Richard McGonagle as Dr. Francis Orovetz
Nelson Mashita as Dr. Lim
Larry Rippenkroeger as First Deckhand
Judson Scott as Absalom[3]
 
Episode chronology

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 "Three Words"

List of The X-Files episodes
"Deadalive" (or "DeadAlive") is the fifteenth episode of the eighth season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It was written by executive producers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, and was directed by Tony Wharmby. "Deadalive" explores the series' alien mythology story arc. Following its North American premiere on April 1, 2001, it received a Nielsen household rating of 7.3 and was watched by 12.4 million viewers. "Deadalive" garnered mixed to positive reviews from television critics; while most were happy with the return of actor David Duchovny, some criticized the episode's plot holes. It later won the show's last Emmy Award, for Outstanding Makeup.
The season centers on Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) special agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and her new partner John Doggett (Robert Patrick)—following the alien abduction and death of her former partner, Fox Mulder (Duchovny)—who work on cases linked to the paranormal, known as X-Files. In this episode, agent Mulder is buried. After the body of alien abductee Billy Miles (Zachary Ansley) revives before an autopsy, assistant director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) orders Mulder's body to be exhumed. When Mulder's body is uncovered, weak vital signs are discovered. Meanwhile, rogue FBI agent Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) uses a nanobot infection in Skinner's blood as leverage to make him kill Scully's unborn child. Eventually, Mulder is revived and reunites with Scully.
"Deadalive" was a story milestone for the series, re-introducing Duchovny after his abduction by aliens planning to colonize Earth in the seventh-season finale "Requiem". Spotnitz wrote and structured the episode to shock viewers and make them think that Duchovny had actually been written out of the series for good. "Deadalive" featured several elaborate-make-up scenes, which head make-up effects artist Matthew Mungle was given only six days to complete. The episode has been analyzed for its themes of disease, suffering, healing, salvation and resurrection; Mulder seemingly rising from the dead has been seen as a metaphor for the resurrection of Jesus.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Plot 1.1 Background
1.2 Events
2 Production 2.1 Writing
2.2 Filming and effects
3 Themes
4 Reception 4.1 Ratings and release
4.2 Reviews
5 References 5.1 Footnotes
5.2 Work cited
6 External links
Plot[edit]
Background[edit]
Main article: Mythology of The X-Files
In the seventh-season finale "Requiem", FBI special agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) was abducted by aliens.[4] In the eighth-season premiere "Within", John Doggett (Robert Patrick) took his place on the X-Files, and worked with Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) to find Mulder.[5] In "This Is Not Happening", Scully, Doggett and FBI assistant director Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) discovered several returned abductees. Although nearly all were in critical condition, a UFO cult, led by the mysterious Absalom (Judson Scott), was using Jeremiah Smith's (Roy Thinnes) healing powers to treat the abductees. Scully headed to their compound, only to discover Mulder's deceased body in the woods.[6]
Events[edit]
Three months after Mulder's funeral, Doggett is offered a transfer from the X-Files. He realizes that if he leaves, the office will be closed, as Scully will soon be on maternity leave. Meanwhile, a fishing trawler finds the decomposing body of Billy Miles (Zachary Ansley)—an alien abductee who had been taken the same time as Mulder. When Miles revives on the autopsy table, Skinner orders that Mulder's body be exhumed and brought to a hospital, fearing that he may have been buried alive. When the casket is opened, a decomposing Mulder, contrary to all scientific expectations, shows weak vital signs.
Meanwhile, Scully notices that Miles (now on life support) has two heartbeats. At the FBI, Kersh unsuccessfully tries to convince Skinner to stop investigating Mulder's apparent death. When Skinner leaves Kersh's office, rogue agent Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) activates nanobots that he had placed in Skinner's bloodstream as blackmail. Skinner stumbles in pain, and in an elevator, Krycek reveals himself to Skinner and explains that he has a vaccine which could save Mulder's life. However, he will only give it if Skinner can ensure that Scully does not give birth to her baby for reasons that he does not disclose. Later, alone in his hospital bed, Miles regains consciousness and goes to take a shower. While doing so, his decaying flesh falls away, revealing a healthy body beneath. He tries to persuade Scully and Doggett that the aliens who abducted him are trying to save humanity. Scully, however, gets a lab report which reveals that Miles's DNA has substantially changed; he is now a new being. Skinner later tells Scully that there is a cure for Mulder's disease, but does not explain Krycek's demands.
From her medical findings, Scully discovers that an alien virus is keeping the abductees alive long enough to cause a radical transformation to take place, similar to the one that Miles experienced. After Scully tells Dogget about the genetic transformation, he visits Absalom, who believes that the abductees are being resurrected into aliens who will eventually conquer Earth. Skinner—torn by his decision—decides to euthanize Mulder by pulling him off of life-support so that Krycek does not get his way. Doggett, however, catches Skinner attempting to remove the support. Skinner explains Krycek's demands, but Doggett argues that both options are unreasonable because either Scully's child will die, or Mulder will succumb to the virus. Doggett tries to locate Krycek in the parking lot of the FBI building, but Krycek nearly runs him down with a car, and purposely smashes the vaccine on the ground as Doggett races to save it. Dejected, Doggett returns to the hospital. He finds Scully preparing Mulder for the now-destroyed vaccine; both fear that without it, Mulder will either die or become a resurrected alien. While the two talk outside Mulder's room, Skinner—torn between his desire to save Mulder and the requirement to kill Scully's baby—begrudgingly pulls Mulder off of life-support. However Mulder's condition strangely begins to improve. Scully rushes into the room in a panic, but soon realizes that the life-support equipment was actually incubating the virus. With this knowledge, she is able to use a combination of antiviral drugs to kill the alien virus.
Later, Scully is sitting by Mulder's bedside when he regains consciousness. He stares blankly at Scully, and asks "Who are you?" At first, Scully thinks that Mulder does not remember her. However, she quickly realizes that he is actually playing a practical joke. They laugh, and Mulder asks, "Did anybody miss me?" Scully responds with tears. Later at the FBI, Kersh expresses his disappointment that Doggett did not take his advice to abandon Mulder's case and rescinds his offer to promote him. He indicates that he will continue to work on The X-Files with Scully and Mulder.[7]
Production[edit]
Writing[edit]

The image is of two men sitting at a table signing items. The one on the left is wearing a golden shirt and has brown hair an a mustache. The one on the right is looking up and has white hair.

Executive producer Frank Spotnitz (left) and series creator Chris Carter (right) co-wrote the episode.
At the beginning of season seven, several cast and crew members felt it would be the show's last.[8] Desiring closure if the show was cancelled, X-Files creator Chris Carter brought back several characters from the series' pilot for the season finale "Requiem"; this included most notably Billy Miles, played by Zachary Ansley. After an eighth season of the show was confirmed, the mythology of the ongoing alien story arc for the series changed for both practical and artistic reasons.[9] Former series lead David Duchovny left full-time participation in the series after a lengthy lawsuit during the previous season.[10] To replace him, the show's producers hired Robert Patrick, although Duchovny eventually agreed to return for half of season eight's episodes. As such, "Deadalive" was one of the first episodes that Duchovny participated in full-time.[11] Further, Frank Spotnitz, executive producer and co-writer of "Deadalive", noted that the original mythology of the show had been wrapped up much earlier in "One Son" and "Closure".[12] To create a "new chapter" in the mythology, and to work around Duchovny's absence, the storyline for the eighth season focused largely on the search for Mulder in the first half and the introduction of Super Soldiers in the second.[9][13] Due to the change in style and actors, Carter felt that the eighth season of The X-Files was the end of the "Mulder-Scully era".[9]
Spotnitz wanted "Deadalive" to open in a way that would shock viewers and make them watch the entire episode. He concluded that the best way to do this was to show Mulder's funeral. He felt that "the death of the hero [of the series] was shocking enough", but that no one expected "Deadalive" to blatantly open with a funeral.[14] He elaborated, "But here we are actually burying the man ... just pushing something as far as you possibly can because the audience can't quite believe you're doing it."[15] The funeral was expensive to film; several actors, such as Sheila Larken, who played Scully's mother, needed to be flown in specifically for the scene. Spotnitz later said, "It's a lot of money to spend but, you know, you just couldn't really do Mulder's funeral without having them there, so we did all that."[16] Despite the fact that the show was filmed in California and under "huge financial pressure", real snow was used for foreground shots[17] and the background was painted white in post-production.[18] Spotnitz later called the sequence "a fun scene to write and stage" and "a great tease".[19][20]
On Duchovny's request, Spotnitz and Carter wrote a larger role for Skinner than usual,[21] giving him the moral dilemma of whether or not to kill Scully's unborn child or Mulder.[22] In the end, Spotnitz called the effects of his actions, particularly the aftermath of taking Mulder off life support, a "nice sort of unexpected turn".[23] Scully's role in "Deadalive" was partly based on the 1954 film Magnificent Obsession, in which a young man accidentally blinds a woman and subsequently becomes a doctor to cure her. Spotnitz noted, "that movie was on my mind and not in a good way when we were imagining Scully in this operating room where Mulder was being worked on."[24]
Filming and effects[edit]
"Deadalive" was the second episode directed by Tony Wharmby, after the Spotnitz-penned "Via Negativa". Spotnitz later praised the directing of "Deadalive" as "fantastic".[25] The majority of the episode—like others from seasons six to nine—was filmed in and around the Los Angeles area.[26] Spotnitz managed to secure sufficient funds to enable the fishing trawler scene to be filmed off the Los Angeles coast, a situation with which he was "very pleased".[27] He also said that after the series' move from Vancouver following the fifth season, the J. Edgar Hoover Building set became more important to the show than before. For this reason, the scene in which Skinner collapses was filmed almost entirely on an FBI hallway set. This sequence recalls the sixth season episode "S.R. 819", which featured Skinner being poisoned with nanobots by Krycek.[28]

The image is of red strawberry jelly.

 Strawberry jam, among other things, was used to create the effect of shedding flesh.
Make-up effects artist Matthew Mungle was responsible for portraying the decomposition of Mulder's and Miles's bodies. Spotnitz was particularly impressed with Miles's autopsy scene, calling it "something new to do [in the] late stage of the game".[29] Since human bodies which have decomposed in water become grotesquely deformed, Miles's body was "a toned-down version of what the reality would be."[30] To create the scene, plaster bandages were used to create a cast of the front and back of Ansley's body; these, in turn, were used to create a fiberglass cast. This was sculpted over with water clay to create the appearance of a bloated body. Afterwards, a mold of the clay was made and a body suit created with latex. As the project proceeded, Mungle sent photos to Carter, who gave final approval.[31] In Miles's shower scene, a mix of "red goo", which included strawberry jam, was placed on Ansley's skin. Fake skin, created from thin pieces of urethane, was then placed on top of this mixture and warm water was pumped through to create the illusion of shedding flesh.[9] Mungle reportedly had only six days to complete the prosthetics for the episode.[31][32] Mungle later noted that after being told what the scene would entail he asked, "if we can figure something out, could we show it on TV?"[31] While the studio approved the footage, Spotnitz later called the sequence "awfully graphic"; he was surprised the sequence got past censors since it would be difficult to show in a PG-rated film.[31][33]
Due to Duchovny's contract, he was only available for shooting on certain days. Spotnitz commented on the irony of "paying all this money to get [Duchovny's] services for a limited time" only to have him spend most of the episode "in a hospital bed, semi-dead".[34] He later lamented the limited access to Duchovny as it prevented the "most satisfying use of the actor or character".[35] Some scenes featuring Mulder were filmed using different people. For instance, the scene of Mulder's exhumation was filmed with a double who wore a Duchovny mask. Head make-up artist Cheri Montesanto-Medcalf later said "It was brilliant, because nobody knew that."[36] For the shots of the stunt double as well as Duchovny later in the episode, she used egg whites and a facial mask to give Mulder's skin a "really cool, old, dried-up cracked skin effect."[31]
Themes[edit]

The image is a painting of the resurrection of Jesus.

 Mulder's revival has been compared to Jesus Christ's resurrection.
"Deadalive", along with other eighth-season episodes, explores the themes of "human resurrection and salvation ... disease, suffering, and healing".[37] These emerged in the season's premiere, "Within", when Scully is shown Mulder's tombstone. The arc would continue in "The Gift", with Mulder's inoperable brain tumor and the resurrection of a temporarily deceased John Doggett. In "Deadalive", the theme of resurrection reappears in full force. Billy Miles is found dead but revives; similarly Mulder is buried for three months, but is brought back to life. This sub-theme would continue into the ninth season in episodes such as "Audrey Pauley".[37]
The episode is one of many to feature Mulder as a Christlike figure. In We Want to Believe, Amy Donaldson writes that the episode is the most dramatic of Mulder's "multiple resurrections".[38] She compares his resurrection to Jesus's, who Mulder outdoes "by staying in the grave for three months instead of simply three days."[38] During Mulder's funeral the minister reads John 11:25–26: "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die".[39] According to scripture, Jesus spoke these words when he raised Lazarus of Bethany from the dead; biblical scholars note that the verse also foreshadows his resurrection. The verse was also used by a necromancer in the seventh-season's "Millennium", but for the wrong reason. The necromancer wants to raise the dead by reciting the verse, but only their bodies return as zombies. In "Deadalive", Mulder returns from the dead in both mind and body.[39]
Donaldson also draws parallels between the eighth season of the show and the Gospels, and between the ninth season and the Acts of the Apostles. In the Gospels, Jesus is brought back to life but then leaves his followers, allowing them to spread his message; this is recorded in Acts, the fifth book of the New Testament. In The X-Files, Mulder follows a similar course. After returning to life in "Deadalive", he investigates several cases that season, but disappears at the beginning of season nine in "Nothing Important Happened Today". During the final season, his quest is continued by Scully, Doggett and Monica Reyes.[39]
Reception[edit]
Ratings and release[edit]
"Deadalive" premiered on American television on April 1, 2001.[1] The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.3 with an 11-percent share, meaning it was viewed by 7.3 percent of all television-equipped households, and 11 percent of those watching television.[40] It was watched by 12.4 million viewers overall.[41] It won for Outstanding Makeup For a Series at the 53rd Primetime Emmy Awards in 2001;[42][43] it would be the last Emmy win for The X-Files.[43] "Deadalive" was first released as a single-episode DVD in the United Kingdom on August 6, 2001 for Region 2.[44] On November 4, 2003 the episode was released as part of the eighth season DVD box set.[45] The episode was later included on The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers, a DVD collection of episodes in the Super Soldiers story arc.[46]
Reviews[edit]

A man with dark brown hair is smirking and looking near the camera.

 Many critics were happy with the return of David Duchovny as Fox Mulder.
The episode received mixed to positive reviews; many critics praised the return of Fox Mulder, although others felt that the episode had various plot holes and was overly complicated. Jessica Morgan from Television Without Pity gave the episode an A− and wrote, "Never go away again, David! I take back everything bad I ever said about you! I love you as much as ever!"[7] Likewise George Avalos and Michael Liedtke of the Contra Costa Times praised the on-screen return of characters such as Mulder and Krycek. They felt so many eighth-season episodes worked well because "Chris Carter seems to be taking an even more active role in the series that is most closely identified with him."[47] Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, gave "Deadalive" a full five stars and called its humor and simplistic plot the "icing on the cake."[48] They praised its stylistic difference from the preceding episode, "This Is Not Happening", which they described as "atmospheric and doom-laden".[48] The two called "Deadalive" a "slice of sci-fi hokum, with action scenes, bits of grisly horror [and] a reexamination of the show's mythology".[48]
Not all reviews were positive. Paula Vitaris from CFQ gave the episode one-and-a-half stars out of four. She criticized its storyline, noting a number of plot holes—such as Mulder's survival for three months without food or water—and the fact that his body was neither autopsied nor embalmed.[49] Tom Kessenich, in Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files, called the plot "wooden and convoluted" and felt that it "set the stage for ... the countdown toward the end of Fox Mulder's time on The X-Files".[50] However, he complimented Anderson on her "effective" performance.[50]
SFX magazine ranked the episode as the sixth "Top 10 Resurrections", reasoning that it allowed Mulder to be around for the series finale a year later. However, the magazine felt his return made "poor Robert Patrick’s Agent Doggett a bit superfluous", and that the plot was rather complicated.[51] In a list comparing Fringe episodes with those of the X-Files, UGO Networks writer Alex Zalben named "Deadalive" as the best resurrection story, beating out Fringe's "Unearthed".[52] Zalben cited the "emotional reunion at the end" as the deciding factor, though "both [episodes] kind of suck".[52]
References[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (Media notes). Fox Broadcasting Corporation. 2000–01.
2.Jump up ^ "The X-Files, Season 8". iTunes Store. Apple. Retrieved August 28, 2012.
3.Jump up ^ "The X-Files – 'DeadAlive'". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on December 2, 2002. Retrieved April 27, 2012.
4.Jump up ^ Shapiro (2000), pp. 266–277.
5.Jump up ^ "Within". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved October 1, 2009.
6.Jump up ^ "This Is Not Happening". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved March 2, 2012.
7.^ Jump up to: a b Morgan, Jessica. "Our Long National Nightmare is Over!". Television Without Pity. NBCUniversal. Retrieved December 29, 2011.
8.Jump up ^ Pergament, Alan (January 18, 1999). Chris Carter Feels 'X-Files' Will End By Spring of 2000. The Buffalo News (Berkshire Hathaway). Retrieved August 6, 2009.
9.^ Jump up to: a b c d Carter, Chris, et al (2001). The Truth Behind Season 8 (DVD). The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season: Fox Broadcasting Company.
10.Jump up ^ Kessenich (2002), p. 80.
11.Jump up ^ Kessenich (2002), p. 145.
12.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 33:36–34:02.
13.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 8:42–10:47.
14.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 0:27–0:47.
15.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 0:47–0:55.
16.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 1:21–1:40.
17.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 0:59–1:09.
18.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 1:09–1:16.
19.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 0:20–026.
20.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 1:50–1:54.
21.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 36:03–36:11.
22.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 30:57–31:08.
23.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 39:33–39:43.
24.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 38:45–39:19.
25.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 7:06–7:08.
26.Jump up ^ Fraga (2010), pp. 1–239
27.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 6:43–6:45.
28.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 18:27–19:02.
29.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 7:38–7:45.
30.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 8:17–8:19.
31.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Ray, Roxie (April 2002). "Disfigured Corpses and Moldy FBI Agents Lead Team to Emmy Award". CFQ 34 (2): 46–47.
32.Jump up ^ Soldan, Penny (April 18, 2003). "Atoka Makeup Artist Puts Face on Hollywood". TV Editor. Retrieved September 16, 2012. (subscription required)
33.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 22:24–22:26.
34.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 2:24–2:30.
35.Jump up ^ Spotnitz (2005), 2:38–2:42.
36.Jump up ^ Hurwitz and Knowles (2008), p. 192.
37.^ Jump up to: a b Kellner (2003), p. 155.
38.^ Jump up to: a b Donaldson (2011), p. 11.
39.^ Jump up to: a b c Donaldson (2011), pp. 210–211.
40.Jump up ^ Ray, Kenneth (April 9, 2001). "Broadcast Watch". Broadcasting & Cable. p. 26.
41.Jump up ^ "The List". Business to Business Magazine (Crain Communications). April 30, 2001. Retrieved November 26, 2012. (subscription required)
42.Jump up ^ "The X-Files". Emmys.com. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
43.^ Jump up to: a b Hurwitz and Knowles (2008), p. 241.
44.Jump up ^ Wharmby, Tony (2001). The X Files: Deadalive (DVD). 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
45.Jump up ^ Manners, Kim, et al (2006). The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (DVD). 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
46.Jump up ^ Manners, Kim, et al (2005). The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers (DVD). 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
47.Jump up ^ Avalos, George; Michael Liedtke (April 6, 2001). "X-Cursions: Mulder's Alive, and so, Finally, is 'The X-Files'". Contra Costa Times (MediaNews Group). Retrieved December 29, 2011.
48.^ Jump up to: a b c Shearman and Pearson (2010), p. 243.
49.Jump up ^ Vitaris, Paula (April 2002). "The X-Files Season Eight Episode Guide". CFQ 34 (2): 42–49.
50.^ Jump up to: a b Kessenich (2002), pp. 163, 165.
51.Jump up ^ "Top 10 Resurrections – The X-Files – Agent Mulder". SFX (Future Publishing). May 24, 2011. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
52.^ Jump up to: a b Zalben, Alex (April 5, 2010). "Fringe vs. The X-Files: Which Does Weird Science Better?". UGO Networks. IGN Entertainment. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
Work cited[edit]
Donaldson, Amy (2011). We Want to Believe. Cascade Books. ISBN 9781606083611.
Fraga, Erica (2010). LAX-Files: Behind the Scenes with the Los Angeles Cast and Crew. CreateSpace. ISBN 9781451503418.
Hurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 9781933784809.
Kellner, Douglas (2003). Media Spectacle. Routledge. ISBN 9780415268288.
Kessenich, Tom (2002). Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 9781553698128.
Shapiro, Marc (2000). All Things: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 6. Harper Prism. ISBN 9780061076114.
Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 9780975944691.
Spotnitz, Frank (2005), "Deadalive": Commentary, The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Deadalive
"Deadalive" at the Internet Movie Database
"Deadalive" at TV.com

[hide]
­v·
 ­t·
 ­e
 
The X-Files episodes

 
­Seasons: 1·
 ­2·
 ­3·
 ­4·
 ­5·
 ­6·
 ­7·
 ­8·
 ­9
 
 
Season 8
­"Within"·
 ­"Without"·
 ­"Patience"·
 ­"Roadrunners"·
 ­"Invocation"·
 ­"Redrum"·
 ­"Via Negativa"·
 ­"Surekill"·
 ­"Salvage"·
 ­"Badlaa"·
 ­"The Gift"·
 ­"Medusa"·
 ­"Per Manum"·
 ­"This Is Not Happening"·
 ­"Deadalive"·
 ­"Three Words"·
 ­"Empedocles"·
 ­"Vienen"·
 ­"Alone"·
 ­"Essence"·
 ­"Existence"
 

 

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The X-Files (season 8) episodes



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Three Words (The X-Files)

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"Three Words"
The X-Files episode
A hand is holding a DVD that has the words "Fight Future" written on it.
The titular "Three Words": Fight the Future. The phrase is an important recurring motif in The X-Files universe and was the subtitle for the 1998 film.
 
Episode no.
Season 8
 Episode 16
Directed by
Tony Wharmby
Written by
Chris Carter
Frank Spotnitz
Production code
8ABX18
Original air date
April 8, 2001
Running time
44 minutes
Guest actors

Adam Baldwin as Knowle Rohrer
Joe Basile as Lead White House Guard
Tom Braidwood as Melvin Frohike
Gary Bristow as Howard Salt
Dean Haglund as Richard Langly
Bruce Harwood as John Fitzgerald Byers
Dwight Hicks as Armed Prison Guard
Nelson Mashita as Dr. Lim
JC Murad as FBI Guard On Intercom
James Pickens, Jr. as Deputy Director Alvin Kersh
Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Walter Skinner
Ric Sarabia as Marion
Judson Scott as Absalom[1]
 
Episode chronology

← Previous
 "Deadalive" Next →
 "Empedocles"

List of The X-Files episodes
"Three Words" is the sixteenth episode of the eighth season (and the 177th episode overall) of the science fiction television series The X-Files and first aired in the United States and Canada on April 8, 2001, on Fox. It was written by executive producers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Tony Wharmby. The episode explores the series' overarching mythology and earned a Nielsen rating of 7.6 and was viewed by 7.77 million households, receiving mixed to positive reviews from television critics.
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Mulder secretly conducts his own investigation after a man is gunned down on the White House lawn attempting to inform the President of a planned alien invasion. However, he is soon in over his head as he tries to expose further evidence of colonization.
The episode was written as a way to signal Mulder's exit from the FBI. The producers and writers felt that, if Mulder's character was given a clean exit, the show could more easily focus on the characters of John Doggett and Monica Reyes in the following season. Former series star and recurring actor David Duchovny later declared that he had been happy to see his character depart in this manner.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Plot
2 Production
3 Broadcast and reception
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
Plot[edit]
Under the cover of darkness an unidentified man jumps over the fence to the White House and is intercepted by Secret Service personnel. As he struggles with them, he pulls a gun and accidentally shoots himself. Bleeding on the ground, the man hands over a computer disk, begging them to give it to the president. Three words are written on the disk: "FIGHT THE FUTURE".
Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) remembers his experiences on the alien ship as he touches the scars on his face and chest. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) enters with Dr. Lim and they give him surprisingly good news: The neurological condition that was killing him, before his disappearance, is gone and he is in perfect health. Mulder returns to his apartment with Scully and he congratulates her on the pregnancy she had sought for a long time. Meanwhile, in prison, an inmate librarian gives Absalom—the former leader of a doomsday UFO "group" last seen in "DeadAlive"—a book about the apocalypse. Hidden inside is a newspaper article about the man who jumped the fence. Absalom later escapes from his prison by attacking a guard with a board with a nail in it.
At FBI headquarters, Deputy Director Alvin Kersh calls John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) into his office. He informs them that Mulder has applied for reinstatement to the X-Files. He intends to deny the request, claiming a higher percentage of success with Doggett. Kersh ignores Doggett and Skinner's defenses of Mulder, perceiving him to be a crusader unfit for proper Bureau work.
Agent Doggett returns home after work and finds Absalom waiting for him with a gun. Absalom demands Doggett show the back of his neck to confirm that Doggett is still himself. He tells Doggett that the man killed at the White House, Howard Salt, died for what he knew about an alien invasion. Absalom duct tapes his gun to Doggett’s back in a plan to get Salt's information with Doggett used as a hostage. The two attempt to sneak into the census bureau's database; Absalom claims that the census bureau had data which showed the aliens were already here. Unfortunately, the plan fails because of an X-Ray scanner detecting the gun. Security shoots Absalom through the head despite his use of Doggett as a body shield.
While debriefing with Skinner, Mulder enters Skinner's office and accuses Doggett of deliberately attempting to cover up the truth by setting up Absalom to be killed, an accusation to which Doggett takes great offense. Doggett later meets with his liaison, Knowle Rohrer, who reveals the password to the statistics bureau is "Fight the Future."
Scully, on Doggett's request, tells Mulder that the disk was labeled “Fight the Future.” Mulder realizes that this is the password for the network and attempts to break into the census bureau. Mulder slips into the Center with the help of The Lone Gunmen and begins searching the data on the computers. Doggett soon arrives, realizing that the password leak was a trap. After a bitter argument (and upon both Scully and the Gunmen revealing to Mulder the arrival of black ops mercenaries on the scene), they leave before security arrives.
John Doggett confronts Rohrer about the tip he gave but Rohrer claims he was just trying to help Doggett learn the truth. As Doggett and Skinner leave, it can be seen that Rohrer has strange protrusions at the back of his neck.[2]
Production[edit]
"Three Words" was written by executive producers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, directed by Tony Wharmby[3] and saw Nelson Mashita reprise his role of Doctor Lim, having appeared in the previous episode "Deadalive".[4] Judson Scott also made his third appearance in the series as cult leader Absalom, reprising the role from both "Deadalive" and "This Is Not Happening".[5] The baseball field scene was filmed at Cheviot Hills Park, in Los Angeles, the park having previously been used in the sixth season episode "The Unnatural" and would be later re-used in the ninth season episode "Lord of the Flies".[6]
In the episode, Mulder prepares to submit his application to be re-assigned to X-Files division. Meanwhile, Mulder's boss, D.A. Kersh, informs Doggett that he intends to deny the request.[3] As season eight was nearly over, the producers and writers decided to refuse Mulder re-admittance into the FBI as a way to segue John Doggett and Monica Reyes into the series as the new main stars of season nine. David Duchovny agreed with this method, noting, "I completely thought it was correct that they should be trying to focus elsewhere, and that, since I was going to come back for the second half of season eight, if you were to refocus on whatever Mulder's up to, you'd be in the same lousy situation at the beginning of season nine."[7]
Broadcast and reception[edit]
The episode first aired on Fox on April 8, 2001,[8] earning a Nielsen household rating of 7.6, meaning that it was seen by 7.6% of the nation's estimated households.[9] "Three Words" was viewed by 7.77 million households and ranked as the 32nd most-watched episode for the week ending April 8.[9][nb 1] Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "Who will control the X-Files?"[10] The episode was later included on The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers, a DVD collection that contains episodes involved with the alien super soldiers arc.[11]
"Three Words" received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Writing for Television Without Pity, Jessica Morgan rated the episode a B, although she felt that by this stage the series' mythology was moving "in concentric circles of pain and confusion".[12] John Keegan from Critical Myth gave the episode a largely positive review and awarded it a 9 out of 10. He wrote positively of the premise, but slightly critiqued David Duchovny's acting, noting "Overall, I think that this was a very good episode, but frankly, [Duchovny] still seems to be phoning in his performances. Or, as an alternative, Doggett has simply grown on me to the point where Mulder's usual deadpan ways are simply inadequate."[13] Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode five stars out of five, calling it "extremely well-performed by all concerned." Shearman and Pearson felt that the episode was similar to the earlier "Per Manum" and was somewhat formulaic; however, they noted that this was a necessary and positive step towards redefining the series after the changes made in its last two seasons explaining "the point of all this is only to emphasise how different The X-Files universe now feels, the familiarity of the ingredients only making us more aware that the mix is never going to be the same again".[14]
Not all reviews were positive; Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, gave the episode a mixed review, writing, "This was an episode that had tremendous promise and Carter and Spotnitz almost got it right. Sadly, they failed to invest themselves fully and intelligently into Mulder's return."[15] Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a largely negative review and awarded it one-and-a-half stars out of four.[16] Vitaris wrote that, despite opening "with tremendously affecting acting from [David] Duchovny", the episode lapses into "a lost opportunity to explore the psyche of a person who has suffered torture".[16]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ At the time of airing, the estimated number of households was 102.2 million.[9] Thus, 7.6 percent of 102.2 million is 7.77 million households.
References[edit]
Footnotes
1.Jump up ^ "The X-Files - "Three Words"". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on 7 October 2001. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
2.Jump up ^ "Three Words". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Tony Wharmby (director); Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz (writers) (April 8, 2001). "Three Words". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 16. Fox.
4.Jump up ^ Tony Wharmby (director); Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz (writers) (April 1, 2001). "Deadalive". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 15. Fox.
5.Jump up ^ Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz (writers) (February 25, 2001). "This Is Not Happening". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 14. Fox.
6.Jump up ^ Fraga, p. 82
7.Jump up ^ Hurwitz and Knowles, p. 193
8.Jump up ^ Kim Manners, et al (booklet). The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (Liner notes). Fox.
9.^ Jump up to: a b c Associated Press (April 2000). "Prime-Time Nielsen ratings". Associated Press Archives.
10.Jump up ^ Three Words (Promotional Flyer). Los Angeles, California: Fox Broadcasting Company. 2001.
11.Jump up ^ Kim Manners, et al. The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers (DVD). Fox.
12.Jump up ^ Morgan, Jessica (April 13, 2001). "Three Words". Television Without Pity. NBCUniversal. Retrieved January 5, 2012.
13.Jump up ^ Keegan, John. "Three Words". Critical Myth. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
14.Jump up ^ Shearman and Pearson, pp. 243–244
15.Jump up ^ Kessenich, p. 169
16.^ Jump up to: a b Vitaris, Paula (April 2002). "The X-Files Season Eight Episode Guide". Cinefantastique 34 (2): 42–49.
BibliographyFraga, Erica (2010). LAX-Files: Behind the Scenes with the Los Angeles Cast and Crew. CreateSpace. ISBN 9781451503418.
Hurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1-933784-80-6.
Kessenich, Tom (2002). Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 1-55369-812-6.
Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 0-9759446-9-X.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: TXF Season 8
"Three Words" at the Internet Movie Database
"Three Words" at TV.com

[hide]
­v·
 ­t·
 ­e
 
The X-Files episodes

 
­Seasons: 1·
 ­2·
 ­3·
 ­4·
 ­5·
 ­6·
 ­7·
 ­8·
 ­9
 
 
Season 8
­"Within"·
 ­"Without"·
 ­"Patience"·
 ­"Roadrunners"·
 ­"Invocation"·
 ­"Redrum"·
 ­"Via Negativa"·
 ­"Surekill"·
 ­"Salvage"·
 ­"Badlaa"·
 ­"The Gift"·
 ­"Medusa"·
 ­"Per Manum"·
 ­"This Is Not Happening"·
 ­"Deadalive"·
 ­"Three Words"·
 ­"Empedocles"·
 ­"Vienen"·
 ­"Alone"·
 ­"Essence"·
 ­"Existence"
 

 

Categories: 2001 television episodes
The X-Files (season 8) episodes


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Empedocles (The X-Files)

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Jump to: navigation, search

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"Empedocles"
The X-Files episode
A man feels the flesh off of his face to reveal fire underneath.
Jeb Dukes hallucinates that fire is beneath his skin. The elaborate effect was created via green screen technology.
 
Episode no.
Season 8
 Episode 17
Directed by
Barry K. Thomas
Written by
Greg Walker
Production code
8ABX17
Original air date
April 22, 2001
Running time
44 minutes
Guest actors

Dayna Beilenson as Roberta Toews
Veronica Brown as Payphone Woman
Ron Canada as Franklin Potter
Denise Crosby as Dr. Mary Speake
Devlin Elliott as Pizza Delivery Man
Amanda Fein & Caitlin Fein as Mia Dukes
Jake Fritz as Luke John Doggett
Wendy Gazelle as Katha Dukes
Annabeth Gish as Monica Reyes
Jennifer Hammon as Nurse
Cheryl Francis Harrington as Nurse
Louise Melilli as Distraught Woman
Jay Underwood as Jeb Larold Dukes
Bruce Wright as Gary Garber[1]
 
Episode chronology

← Previous
 "Three Words" Next →
 "Vienen"

List of The X-Files episodes
"Empedocles" is the seventeenth episode of the eighth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on April 22, 2001. The episode was written by Greg Walker and directed by Barry K. Thomas. "Empedocles" is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. The episode received a Nielsen rating of 7.3 and was viewed by 7.46 million households and over 12.46 million viewers. Overall, the episode received mixed reviews from critics.
The show centers on FBI special agents John Doggett (Robert Patrick), Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) enlists Mulder’s help investigating a killer’s connection to the unsolved murder of Doggett’s son, but Mulder soon finds himself clashing with Doggett.
"Empedocles" was named after the famed Greek pre-Socratic philosopher of the same name. The episode marked the return of Special Agent Monica Reyes, who was first introduced in the earlier season eight episode "This is Not Happening". Reyes would later become Doggett's partner, in the show's ninth season. The episode included an elaborate special effects sequence wherein actor Jay Underwood rips off his face to reveal fire underneath his skin, which was created via green screen technology.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Plot
2 Production 2.1 Writing
2.2 Special effects
3 Reception
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
Plot[edit]
In New Orleans, Jeb Larold Dukes is fired from his job. After he leaves the office, Jeb witnesses a car chase which ends in a fiery crash. A burning man that only Jeb can see emerges from the wreck and seems to merge with him. Jeb, now possessed by the being, returns to his office to fatally shoot his boss and co-workers.
Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) arrives at the crime scene and meets NOPD detective Franklin Potter, who has called her in out of his belief that the murders are related to satanism. Reyes merely answers the detective that it was not devil worship, and that the killer probably was under stress. As she is leaving, she witnesses one of the bodies carbonize into a charred corpse in front of her, only to have it revert to normal.
Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) takes a pregnant Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) to the hospital when she doubles over in pain. There, Reyes phones him to ask about the case, but Mulder cedes to the authority of John Doggett (Robert Patrick), who is formally running the X-Files. However, Reyes says she can't call Doggett since it's about him. Meanwhile, Jeb is in a hotel room in Georgia trying to shoot himself in the head. Suddenly, he notices something wrong with his face; he claws at his face, peeling away the skin to reveal burning embers beneath the skin.
Mulder and Reyes meet in an FBI records room, where she divulges the story about the death of Doggett’s son, Luke: years ago, when Doggett’s son disappeared, the FBI were called in to investigate. Reyes was one of the agents on the case. They never found the killer, and when they discovered Luke’s body, both Reyes and Doggett saw it transform into ashes instantly. Reyes says that Doggett has spent the last few years convincing himself he did not see it. Reyes believes it was a psychic clue, and now with the other crime scene, she has seen it again.
Doggett soon attacks Mulder for looking into his son's case, but Reyes explains why they are investigating. She reveals that Bob Harvey, a suspect in Luke's murder, died in the car crash in New Orleans. Reyes stresses her vision's importance, but Doggett dismisses it. Reyes goes to visit Jeb's sister, Katha, and learns he did not know Bob Harvey. While Reyes is there, Katha receives a call from Jeb, but tells him to call later. As Jeb leaves the phone booth, he kills a female motorist. Meanwhile, Doggett learns from Scully that she has suffered a placental abruption. He asks her what made her start to believe in the paranormal. She says she realized she was “afraid to believe.” Scully later visits with Mulder and tells him to keep trying to help Doggett.
As Doggett approaches the body of Jeb's latest victim, he has a flashback of when he found Luke's body. Doggett storms off, but Reyes refuses to let it go, finally revealing her theory: she believes that the boy's murder was part of a “thread of evil,” an interconnected series of terrible events. Meanwhile, Katha returns home with her daughter and finds Jeb there. He insists that it wasn't him who committed the murder, and pleads to his sister for help. Katha calls the agents and tries to let her daughter escape, but Jeb realizes what she is planning and uses his niece as a hostage. Before Jeb can shoot Doggett, Reyes incapacitates him with a round to the throat.
Doggett finally embraces the memory of his vision. Mulder tells him that they could not understand the monsters they saw there, and began to think of evil like a disease that infected people. Some lack immunity to this disease of evil because of some tragedy in their lives. Jeb dies while Reyes and Katha are in the room. After the doctors leave, Katha’s eyes glow, much like Jeb's. She hits Reyes over the head with an oxygen tank and takes her gun. Before she can execute Reyes for killing her brother, Doggett appears and wrestles her to the ground.[2]
Production[edit]

 

 The episode was named after the famed philosopher Empedocles.
Writing[edit]
The episode was written by Greg Walker and directed by Barry K. Thomas, marking his directoral debut.[3] The episode takes its title from the famed Greek pre-Socratic philosopher of the same name. Empedocles believed that out of the four classic elements—earth, wind, fire, and air—fire was the most superior. According to legend, in order to become a god, Empedocles threw himself into a volcano in Mount Etna. As such, Empedocles is often associated with fire.[4]
The episode marked the return of Special Agent Monica Reyes, who was first introduced in the earlier season eight episode "This is Not Happening".[5] Although Reyes would later become Doggett's partner, the series attempted to differentiate the Doggett/Reyes relationship from the Mulder/Scully relationship. Robert Patrick later noted, "We're not going to try to duplicate [the Mulder and Scully relationship], we're not going to try to regenerate the magic chemistry."[6]
Special effects[edit]
In order to create the "Lava Face" effect, actor Jay Underwood's face was painted green. A mask with pre-cut slits was then placed over the skin. Underwood then tore the mask off of his own face, revealing streaks of the green coloring. A matte of the scene was then cut and various fire effects were placed into Underwood's face via green screen technology. In order to make the "cracks" appear, digital technology was created to "smooth over" the skin and then slowly reveal the pre-cut slits. Producer Paul Rabwin later joked that Underwood "had fire for brains".[7]
Reception[edit]
"Empedocles" first aired on Fox on April 22, 2001.[8] The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.3, meaning that it was seen by 7.3% of the nation's estimated households.[9] The episode was viewed by 7.46 million households[9][nb 1] and over 12.46 million viewers.[10] The episode ranked as the 40th most-watched episode for the week ending April 22.[9] The episode subsequently aired in the United Kingdom on the BBC Two on July 28, 2002.[8] Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "The murder of Doggett's son is about to become an X-file."[11]
Critical reception to the episode was mostly mixed. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode three-and-a-half stars out of five. The two noted that the "X-File in itself is an interesting concept, but left frustratingly vague." Shearman and Pearson, however, did positively write that the episode is "a character study which gives its new leads some background and depth and, better yet, somewhere new to develop."[12] Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a negative review and awarded it one-and-a-half stars out of four.[13] She criticized several of the plot points in the episode, most notably how a "big-city" New Orleans detective could mistake Marilyn Manson CDs as signs of blatant satanic imagery. Vitaris further criticized the "sidelined" behavior of Scully and the "shoehorned" characterization of Reyes.[13] Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, wrote a largely negative review of the episode. He criticized the down-sized role Mulder and Scully played in the episode, noting that they had been "reduced to mere footnotes".[14] Furthermore, Kessenich reasoned that, by trying to "prep for [a] future" of just Doggett and Reyes and "[connect] to the past" with Mulder and Scully, the episode ultimately "served to remind us how Doggett and Reyes pale in comparison to the magic of Mulder and Scully."[15]
Not all reviews were negative. Television Without Pity writer Jessica Morgan rated the episode a B−.[16] Sarah Stegall awarded the episode five stars out of five and noted "Being dead has done wonders for Fox Mulder."[17] John Keegan from Critical Myth gave the episode a largely positive review and awarded it a 9 out of 10. He wrote positively of the premise, noting "Overall, if this is the kind of material and interaction we can expect in season 9, I am not only there, but I am reinvested even more than I was at the beginning of this season."[18] Stegall concluded that the episode "is one of the best episodes of the new era. Mulder and Scully get one last chance to remind us why we will miss them, and Doggett and Reyes get a chance to earn their stripes. [...] If this is the season where the torch gets passed, it's good to see that it's got one last flare in it."[17]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ At the time of airing, the estimated number of households was 102.2 million.[9] Thus, 7.3 percent of 102.2 million is 7.46 million households.
References[edit]
Footnotes
1.Jump up ^ "The X-Files - "Empedocles"". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on 2 February 2002. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
2.Jump up ^ "Empedocles". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved 16 January 2012.
3.Jump up ^ Hurwitz and Knowles, pp. 236–240
4.Jump up ^ "The X-Files - "Empedocles" - Research". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on 2 February 2002. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
5.Jump up ^ Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz (writers) (February 25, 2001). "This is Not Happening". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 14. Fox.
6.Jump up ^ Hurwitz and Knowles, p. 193
7.Jump up ^ Paul Rabwin (2001). Special Effects with Paul Rabwin: Lava Face (DVD). The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season: Fox Home Entertainment.
8.^ Jump up to: a b The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (Media notes). Fox. 2000–01.
9.^ Jump up to: a b c d Associated Press (24 April 2001). "Prime-time Nielsen ratings". Associated Press Archives.
10.Jump up ^ "TV Ratings Report". The Dallas Morning News (A. H. Belo Corporation). 26 April 2001. pp. 8C.
11.Jump up ^ Empedocles (Promotional Flyer). Los Angeles, California: Fox Broadcasting Company. 2001.
12.Jump up ^ Shearman and Pearson, p. 245
13.^ Jump up to: a b Vitaris, Paula (April 2002). "The X-Files Season Eight Episode Guide". Cinefantastique 34 (2): 42–49.
14.Jump up ^ Kessenich, p. 169
15.Jump up ^ Kessenich, p. 172
16.Jump up ^ Morgan, Jessica (24 April 2001). "Empedocles". Television Without Pity. NBCUniversal. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
17.^ Jump up to: a b Stegall, Sarah (11 May 2001). "The X-Files, v. 2.0". The Munchkyn Zone. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
18.Jump up ^ Keegan, John. "Empedocles". Critical Myth. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
BibliographyHurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1933784806.
Kessenich, Tom (2002). Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 1553698126.
Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 097594469X.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: TXF Season 8
"Empedocles" at the Internet Movie Database
"Empedocles" at TV.com

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Vienen

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"Vienen"
The X-Files episode
A man with a mustache spewing black oil from its eyes and mouth.
A black oil infected host infecting another personnel on the oil platform. "Vienen" marked the last appearance of the substance.
 
Episode no.
Season 8
 Episode 18
Directed by
Rod Hardy
Written by
Steven Maeda
Production code
8ABX16[1]
Original air date
April 29, 2001
Running time
44 minutes[2]
Guest actors

Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner
James Pickens, Jr. as Alvin Kersh
Casey Biggs as Mr. Saksa
Gregory Norman Cruz as Diego Garza
M. C. Gainey as Bo Taylor
Kevin C. Loomis as Chef
Rich Marotta as Hockey Announcer
Lee Reherman as Yuri Volkov
Miguel Sandoval as Martin Ortega
Luis Villalta as Simon de la Cruz
Steve Wilcox as Ed Dell[3]
 
Episode chronology

← Previous
 "Empedocles" Next →
 "Alone"

List of The X-Files episodes
"Vienen" is the eighteenth episode of the eighth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, and is the 179th episode overall. The episode first aired in the United States and Canada on April 29, 2001, on the Fox Network, and in the United Kingdom on June 7. It was written by staff member Steven Maeda, was directed by Rod Hardy, and forms part of the series' overarching mythology. The episode received a Nielsen household rating of 7.4 and was viewed by 11.8 million viewers. "Vienen" received mixed to positive reviews from critics, many of whom appreciated its hearkening-back to the older mythology of The X-Files.
The season centers on FBI special agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), her new partner John Doggett (Robert Patrick), and Scully's former partner Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), who work on X-Files—cases linked to the paranormal. In this episode, Mulder disobeys orders to stay away from the X-Files and finds himself stranded on a quarantined oil platform with Doggett. They soon discover that the crew has been infected with the black oil, an alien virus that Mulder and Scully have encountered many times before. Despite their dislike for each other, Mulder and Doggett team up and escape before the infected crew members are able to capture and kill them.
The episode was a series milestone, and features the last appearance of the alien black oil before the series finale, where it appeared via flashback—a plot device that plays a significant role in the series and in the 1998 X-Files movie. The oil effects were created using chocolate syrup and molasses. Principal filming for "Vienen" was carried out at three locations: an oil platform, an oil refinery, and on a specially-created set. The episode's title is a Spanish word meaning "they come" or "they are coming", and has been interpreted as foreshadowing the show's Super Soldier narrative arc. Elements of the plot have been compared to the ancient Greek religious and mythological figure Orpheus.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Plot
2 Production 2.1 Writing and filming
2.2 Casting and effects
3 Themes
4 Reception 4.1 Ratings and release
4.2 Reviews
5 References 5.1 Footnotes
5.2 Work cited
6 External links
Plot[edit]
Simon de la Cruz, a worker on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, fatally stabs fellow crew member Ed Dell. Simon starts destroying the platform's radio equipment but is confronted by Bo Taylor, whose body begins to glow.
At FBI headquarters, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) tells John Doggett (Robert Patrick) about the murder and explains that ninety percent of de la Cruz's body was covered with apparent radiation burns. Galpex Petroleum, the platform's owner, officially attributes the burns to an explosion but Mulder suspects the involvement of black oil. Mulder and Doggett meet Galpex's vice-president Martin Ortega (Miguel Sandoval), who tells them that the company has discovered a large oil reserve in the Gulf. Alvin Kersh (James Pickens, Jr.) sends Doggett to the Gulf to investigate, but Mulder is already present when Doggett arrives. The agents meet Taylor, who claims de la Cruz tried to blow up the platform. Meanwhile, Dana Scully finds black oil in de la Cruz's skull during an autopsy—the oil is dead and seems to have been irradiated. She concludes that he may have had some immunity to the black oil because of his Native American heritage.
Doggett and Mulder find proof of black oil on the platform and quarantine it, but de la Cruz's friend Diego Garza is missing. Ortega threatens to bring back the crew unless the agents can provide proof of an infection. Doggett and Mulder search for Garza who, like de la Cruz, is a Huecha Indian, or an indigenous Mexican national. Mulder and Doggett later discover that somebody has set fire to the communications room. As the agents tackle the fire, Garza attacks Doggett and renders him unconscious. When he recovers consciousness, Doggett finds Garza cutting his arm to check for the presence of black oil.
Meanwhile, Kersh tells Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) that he is lifting the quarantine of the oil platform. Scully opposes the idea but she has no choice other than to obey. Scully then realizes that de la Cruz is immune to the black oil, and because of it, he suffered from radiation burns instead of infection. After he proves to de la Cruz that he is not infected, Doggett leaves to find Mulder but is attacked by Taylor. Mulder arrives and overpowers Taylor, and Mulder and Doggett barricade themselves in the communication room, and try to relay a message while the platform's crew surround them.
Scully receives Doggett and Mulder's message, and tells them that Kersh has broken the quarantine. Mulder destroys the platform's radio so that its black oil-infected crew cannot communicate with the aliens. Suddenly, the platform workers stop their attack and go outside. Doggett and Mulder go to the surface of the oil platform and jump off when they realize that the crew are going to destroy it. Mulder and Doggett are rescued by the helicopters Kersh has sent to break the quarantine. At the FBI, Mulder tells Doggett that he has been dismissed from the bureau.[4][5]
Production[edit]
Writing and filming[edit]

An oil platform in the Atlantic Ocean.

 Several scenes were filmed on an oil platform in the Santa Barbara coast.
"Vienen" was written by Steven Maeda as a vehicle for Mulder to pass on the X-Files legacy to Doggett. Patrick compared Mulder to a Greek chorus and said that the episode was a "way to have Mulder give Doggett his blessing and pass him The X-Files baton."[6] He later said that this move by the writers was an example of "how clever those guys are" because they "are aware of what's going on in the audience's head".[6] The title, "Vienen," is Spanish; it is the third-person plural present indicative form of venir, which means "they come" or "they are coming".[7]
The episode was directed by Rod Hardy, who directed the earlier season eight episodes "Roadrunners" and "Salvage".[1][8] Hardy was offered the role after an unknown individual working on The X-Files saw his TBS remake of the film High Noon.[9] Of the three episodes of the season, Hardy enjoyed directing this episode most due to its adherence to the series' mythology; he later described the episode as "classic X-Files."[10][11] The eighth season was filmed out of order; "Vienen" was the sixteenth episode produced but the eighteenth aired, largely due to Duchovny's availability.[12] Each episode of The X-Files usually took about eighteen days to film, including seven days for pre-production, nine for main unit shooting, and two for second unit filming. "Vienen" was produced in eleven days because the crew worked thirteen- to fourteen-hour shifts.[13]
"Vienen" was shot in three locations, a studio in Los Angeles, a closed down CENCO oil refinery in Santa Fe Springs, and an offshore oil platform in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Santa Barbara.[14] During the show's previous seasons, location manager Ilt Jones was required to scout for locations after scripts were submitted. Starting with the eighth season, he was allowed to undertake several "two-week scouting roadshow[s]" so that new and interesting locations could be written into the scripts before they were submitted.[15] Jones discovered the oil platform and the refinery during his first scouting trip. Jones later said the oil platform was "his favorite example" of what the scouting trips were able to discover.[15] Because the platform and refinery were scouted in advance, Jones was given six weeks to prepare the shoot—a "far cry" from the usual two.[15] This also saved the series a considerable amount of money.[15] Filming on the oil platform occurred between sunrise and sunset in one day.[15][16] The film crew used Steadicams for filming on the oil platform because Rod Hardy noted that the floors were slick with oil and that the cameras "sort of fit and blend in quite well" on the platform.[17]
Casting and effects[edit]

Ice cream balls covered in chocolate syrup.

 Chocolate syrup and molasses were used for the black oil visual effect.
Miguel Sandoval was cast as Martin Ortega.[18] Luis Villalta, who played Simon de la Cruz, had few lines in the finished cut but "was able to show the fear and terror in his face".[19] The episode's casting and plot proved controversial when in early 2001, Hispanic activists complained about the often negative portrayal of Latinos on television, particularly in the Law & Order episode "Sunday in the Park with Jorge". In turn, the major broadcasters signed agreements that created a head of diversity at each network. When the episode's title and synopsis, which would involve a pair of "roughnecks from Mexico", were announced, some activists braced themselves for the episode, worrying that it would further propagate negative stereotypes.[20]
The series' leading actors were required to film in three separate locations. Anderson's scenes were filmed solely on the show's sets in Los Angeles.[21] Since her character did not accompany Mulder and Doggett, Anderson had no scenes with Patrick and Duchovny, except for the opening sequence that takes place in Kersh's office, which was also the first scene filmed for the episode.[21][22] Most of Patrick and Duchovny's scenes were filmed on the oil platform and at the refinery, although several key scenes, including the destruction of the oil platform, were filmed on the show's set in Los Angeles. Patrick and Duchovny were flown between the three locations.[22]
The episode featured the penultimate appearance of the alien black oil, which appeared via flashback—a plot device that played a large role in The X-Files—in the series' finale.[23][24] Visual effects for the black oil were created with molasses, chocolate syrup, and computer-generated imagery.[25] A scene showing black oil coming out of an oil worker's eyes, ears, and mouth was mostly filmed on a visual effects stage.[26] Nine takes were needed to get the syrupy mixture to spill onto the correct places due to the uncontrollable nature of the substance.[27]
While some scenes were filmed on location, others were recreated in the studio. Production designer Corey Kaplan was tasked with recreating the oil platform's control room, mess hall, and some operational sections.[15] According to Jones, Kaplan either "magnified or amended what was there to make it photogenic."[15] Kaplan said that creating the sets required "a brilliant piece of synergy between all [of the series'] departments".[15] The scene in which the oil platform bursts into flame was created in the studio on the mock-rig set. The art department was tasked with creating the illusion of fire burning steel because the set was made of wood.[28] The scene where Mulder and Doggett agree to jump from the oil platform on the count of two was designed to be a homage to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.[29][30] Patrick and Duchvony were filmed jumping against a green screen.[31] Digital footage of the platform exploding was created, and the scenes were combined. Several of the effects in the sequence were actually filmed on the platform on the last night of shooting; scenes of its destruction were created in post-production via CGI.[32]
Themes[edit]

Statue of Orpheus playing his harp.

 The plot of the episode has been compared to the mythology surrounding Orpheus.
Michelle Bush, in her book Myth-X wrote that the oil platform is named "Galpex-Orpheux", a reference to the ancient Greek religious and mythological figure Orpheus, who was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet. According to the myth, Orpheus's wife Eurydice was killed by a serpent. Hades, the god of the underworld—after hearing Orpheus' moving music—allowed Orpheus to retrieve his wife as long as he does not look back at her until they are safety out of the underworld. Orpheus fails, and his wife's soul slips back into the underworld. Bush compared Orpheus's otherworldly singing to the "broadband signal which is the catalyst for the events on the rig".[33] In the episode, Mulder, Doggett, and the two Huecha Indians "wreck havoc" because of their fear, and the "black oil slips back to the underworld".[33]
The episode's title attracted attention. Bush argues that while the Spanish word vienen means "they come", the episode does not explain who "they" are.[33] She wrote that the verb could refer to either "the aliens" who are planning on colonizing the Earth or to "the humans that are disturbing the black oil".[33] Douglas Kellner, in his book Media Spectacle, wrote that the episode features the second major hinting after "This is Not Happening" towards the series' "Super Soldiers" story arc, which is explored near the end of the eighth season and throughout the ninth; he argues that the title refers to the inevitable onslaught of the superior Super Soldier.[34]
Reception[edit]
Ratings and release[edit]
Fox promoted Vienen with the tagline: "Nowhere to hide. No place to run", and the episode premiered on American television on April 29, 2001.[1][35] It received a Nielsen household rating of 7.4, meaning that it was seen by and estimated 7.4% of US households and was viewed by 11.8 million viewers overall.[36] The episode debuted in Ireland and the United Kingdom on June 7 on Sky 1, and was the channel's sixth-most watched program for that week with 0.52 million viewers.[37] On November 4, 2003, the episode was released as part of the eighth season DVD box set.[38] Vienen was later included on The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers, a DVD collection including episodes involving the alien super soldiers arc.[39]
Reviews[edit]
Michael Liedtke and George Avalos of the Contra Costa Times were pleased with the episode and wrote, "The latest episode also contained many of the elements of a classic mythology episode. The stakes were huge and the heroes faced the greatest of hazards. The use of the oil rig created a sense of isolation for Mulder and Doggett, and the paranoia levels were sky-high. We still can't figure out why we haven't seen more episodes along the lines of " Vienen " during the past three seasons."[30] Jessica Morgan from Television Without Pity awarded the episode a "B–".[4] Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, gave Vienen a positive review, and wrote, "after watching 'Vienen', I can honestly say that for once of the few times this season, it felt good to be an X-Files fan again".[40] Kessenich praised the significant development in Mulder and Scully's relationship and the return of the "fourth season version" of the black oil; the 1998 movie had dramatically altered the nature of the substance—infected hosts gestate aliens inside their bodies rather than merely being taken over.[40]
Todd VanDerWerff from The A.V. Club named the episode one of the "10 must-see episodes" of The X-Files, and wrote that it "abruptly makes the series’ alien-conspiracy storyline relevant again." His review concludes, "[i]t's a fine example of a show past its glory days, nevertheless finding a way to make itself relevant again."[41]
Not all reviews were positive. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode two stars out of five and wrote that the installment's return to the black oil mythos seemed "out of date".[24] They also wrote that Mulder and Doggett are "good at running away, which doesn't give either of them much dignity."[24] Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a negative review and awarded it one-and-a-half stars out of four.[42] She wrote, "as action-adventure, 'Veinen' is so-so. Except for the big 'money shot' explosion at the end, it doesn't exploit the possibilities of the physical location."[42] Meghan Deans of Tor.com ultimately concluded that "while 'Vienen' works hard to hit its marks—a classic villain, a battle of dudes—it can’t measure up to all that’s come before it."[43] She surmised that "the transfer [from Mulder to Doggett] is functional, but the transfer is hollow."[43] She did, however, applauded the return of the black oil, noting that she was "happy to have it back."[43]
References[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c Kim Manners, et al (booklet). The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (Liner notes). Fox.
2.Jump up ^ "The X-Files, Season 8". iTunes Store. Apple. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
3.Jump up ^ "The X-Files – "Vienen"". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on October 31, 2001. Retrieved April 27, 2012.
4.^ Jump up to: a b Morgan, Jessica. "Fired!". Television Without Pity. NBCUniversal. Retrieved January 15, 2012.
5.Jump up ^ "Vienen". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved January 16, 2012.
6.^ Jump up to: a b Hurwitz and Knowles (2008), p. 192.
7.Jump up ^ "Venir – Model Irregular Verb Conjugation". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved January 25, 2012.
8.Jump up ^ Hardy, 4:30–4:35.
9.Jump up ^ Hardy, 9:40–9:55.
10.Jump up ^ Hardy, 1:22–1:30.
11.Jump up ^ Hardy, 4:07.
12.Jump up ^ Hardy, 4:25–5:40.
13.Jump up ^ Hardy, 21:58–22:58.
14.Jump up ^ Hardy, 0:33–1:11.
15.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Sperling, Nicole (August 1, 2001). "On Location". The Hollywood Reporter (Prometheus Global Media). p. 9. Retrieved July 30, 2012.
16.Jump up ^ Hardy, 10:49–10:59.
17.Jump up ^ Hardy, 14:57–15:15:16.
18.Jump up ^ Hardy, 8:06–8:15.
19.Jump up ^ Hardy, 3:50–4:05.
20.Jump up ^ Calvo, Dana (January 31, 2001). "When Casting for Diversity, Is a Little Bit Better Than Nada?". Los Angeles Times (Tribune Company). Retrieved January 16, 2012.
21.^ Jump up to: a b Hardy, 12:50–13:05.
22.^ Jump up to: a b Hardy, 8:35–8:43.
23.Jump up ^ Kim Manners (director); Chris Carter (writer). "The Truth". The X-Files. Season 9. Episode 19 & 20. Fox.
24.^ Jump up to: a b c Shearman and Pearson (2009), p. 245.
25.Jump up ^ Hardy, 18:39–18:45.
26.Jump up ^ Hardy, 18:50.
27.Jump up ^ Hardy, 19:00–19:06.
28.Jump up ^ Hardy, 29:52–30:15.
29.Jump up ^ Hardy, 41:41.
30.^ Jump up to: a b Liedtke, Michael; George Avalos (May 2001). "X-Cursions: Fox Mulder's New Role – Family Man". Contra Costa Times (MediaNews Group): D04. (subscription required)
31.Jump up ^ Hardy, 41:18–41:26.
32.Jump up ^ Hardy, 41:45–41:59.
33.^ Jump up to: a b c d Bush (2008), p. 155.
34.Jump up ^ Kellner (2003), p. 154.
35.Jump up ^ Vienen (Promotional Flyer). Los Angeles, California: Fox Broadcasting Company. 2001.
36.Jump up ^ Canton, Maj. "The X-Files – Series – Episode List – Season 8". TV Tango. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
37.Jump up ^ "BARB's multichannel top 10 programmes". barb.co.uk. Retrieved January 1, 2012. Note: Information is in the section titled "w/e June 4–10, 2001", listed under Sky 1
38.Jump up ^ Kim Manners, et al (2006). The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (DVD). 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
39.Jump up ^ Kim Manners, et al. The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers (DVD). FOX.
40.^ Jump up to: a b Kessenich (2003), p. 173.
41.Jump up ^ VanDerWerff, Todd (July 20, 2012). "10 Must-See Episodes of The X-Files". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
42.^ Jump up to: a b Vitaris, Paula (April 2002). "The X-Files Season Eight Episode Guide". Cinefantastique 34 (2): 42–49.
43.^ Jump up to: a b c Deans, Meghan (May 9, 2013). "The X-Files: 'Vienen'". Tor.com. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
Work cited[edit]
Bush, Michelle (2008). Myth-X. Lulu. ISBN 9781435746886.
Hardy, Rod (2005), "Vienen": Commentary, The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Hurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 9781933784724.
Kellner, Douglas (2003). Media Spectacle. Routledge. ISBN 9780415268288.
Kessenich, Tom (2002). Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 9781553698128.
Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 9780975944691.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: TXF Season 8
"Vienen" at TheXFiles.com
"Vienen" at the Internet Movie Database
"Vienen" at TV.com

[hide]
­v·
 ­t·
 ­e
 
The X-Files episodes

 
­Seasons: 1·
 ­2·
 ­3·
 ­4·
 ­5·
 ­6·
 ­7·
 ­8·
 ­9
 
 
Season 8
­"Within"·
 ­"Without"·
 ­"Patience"·
 ­"Roadrunners"·
 ­"Invocation"·
 ­"Redrum"·
 ­"Via Negativa"·
 ­"Surekill"·
 ­"Salvage"·
 ­"Badlaa"·
 ­"The Gift"·
 ­"Medusa"·
 ­"Per Manum"·
 ­"This Is Not Happening"·
 ­"Deadalive"·
 ­"Three Words"·
 ­"Empedocles"·
 ­"Vienen"·
 ­"Alone"·
 ­"Essence"·
 ­"Existence"
 

 

Categories: 2001 television episodes
The X-Files (season 8) episodes




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Alone (The X-Files)

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"Alone"
The X-Files episode
Episode no.
Season 8
 Episode 19
Directed by
Frank Spotnitz
Written by
Frank Spotnitz
Production code
8ABX19
Original air date
May 6, 2001
Running time
44 minutes
Guest actors

Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner
Jay Caputo as Salamander Man
Zach Grenier as Herman Stites
Jolie Jenkins as Leyla Harrison
Lisa Kaseman as Pathology Assistant
Tony Ketcham as Gary Sacks
James Otis as Arlen Sacks[1]
 
Episode chronology

← Previous
 "Vienen" Next →
 "Essence"

List of The X-Files episodes
"Alone" is the nineteenth episode of the eight season and the 180th episode overall of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States on May 6, 2001 on Fox, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom on Sky1 on June 14, 2001. It was written and directed by executive producer Frank Spotnitz. "Alone" earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.5 and was viewed by 12.7 million viewers. It received mixed to positive reviews from television critics.
The show centers on FBI special agents John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson)—as well as ex-FBI agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny)—who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Doggett is paired with an enthusiastic young agent named Leyla Harrison who knows everything about the X-Files, when Scully goes on maternity leave. Harrison's apotheosis of Mulder and Scully leads to him learning a thing or two. But when Harrison and Doggett disappear, Mulder defies orders in an attempt to find them.
"Alone" marked the directorial debut of Spotnitz, who had been a writer on the show for several years. In addition, the episode would be the last Monster-of-the-Week episode to feature an appearance by David Duchovny as Fox Mulder. The character of Leyla Harrison was named after an X-Files fan who died of cancer in 2001.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Plot
2 Production 2.1 Writing and directing
2.2 Casting
3 Reception
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
Plot[edit]
In Ellicott, New York, Arlen Sacks is killed by an unknown creature that sprays venom on its victims, and his son Gary goes missing. In the meantime, at the FBI headquarters, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), preparing for maternity leave, packs up her belongings at the X-Files office. Scully finds a medallion commemorating the Apollo 11 space flight that was given to her for her birthday by Fox Mulder (David Duchovny). Scully gives John Doggett (Robert Patrick) the medallion, explaining that it symbolizes teamwork. After Scully leaves, Special Agent Leyla Harrison arrives and tells Doggett that she is his new partner. The two are soon assigned to investigate Sacks bizarre murder.
At the crime scene, Doggett and Harrison search for clues. Doggett finds evidence of the venom, which is sent to an FBI lab for analysis. Harrison explains to Doggett that, in her previous job, she processed Mulder and Scully's travel expenses during their time on the X-Files, and has thusly gained an encyclopedic knowledge of their investigations. Following a wooded trail from the crime scene, Doggett and Harrison stumble upon an upscale mansion makes his way inside. The strange creature, clinging to the wall, observes their every move in secret. Doggett pulls out his gun, sensing that something is amiss, and instructs Harrison to position herself outside and try and flush the creature out. However, she accidentally falls through a trap door just as Doggett runs to the front lawn.
During an autopsy, Scully correctly deduces that Arlen was blinded by reptile venom. Meanwhile, Doggett and Harrison, having fallen into catacombs below the mansion grounds, encounter the creature and are sprayed with venom, temporarily blinding them. The two find Gary Sacks, in dire need of medical attention, nearby. Noting Doggett's and Harrison's absence, Mulder searches the area around the mansion for clues and encounters the owner, Herman Stites - who identifies himself as a biologist. Mulder soon leaves the area and Stites notices Doggett about to escape the catacombs but knocks him back in. Mulder waits in his car in Stites' driveway until dark, telling Scully that he found the Apollo medallion near Stites' estate and is convinced Doggett is somewhere nearby. He spots the creature and chases it to the mansion where it climbs up to a second floor. Mulder follows the creature into the house and down into the catacombs, where he encounters Harrison and Doggett. With the creature approaching, Mulder tells the still-blinded Doggett to open fire at him on his command. The blinded Doggett then shoots the creature as it leaps at Mulder; the deceased creature then turns into Stites.
Later, Scully and Mulder meet Doggett, who has now fully recovered, at the hospital. He tells them that Harrison will make a full recovery as well, but that she is transferring herself off of the X-Files. Mulder attempts to give Doggett the Apollo medallion, but Doggett insists that it be given to Harrison instead. Mulder and Scully then present it to Harrison together, who accepts it in awe.[2]
Production[edit]

 

 "Alone" was written and directed by executive producer Frank Spotnitz.
Writing and directing[edit]
The episode was written by executive producer Frank Spotnitz, and marked his directorial debut. Because of his position as both the writer of the episode and the director, Spotnitz later noted that it was hard to achieve perfection when filming the episode. However, he did note that, as both the writer and director, he had more creative control than usual. Originally Spotnitz did not have plans to direct the episode but was encouraged to do so by David Duchovny; Duchovny reminded Spotnitz that it would be the last Monster-of-the-Week (stand alone) episode to feature his character, Fox Mulder. After production and shooting was finalized, the rough cut of "Alone" was nine minutes over time and in order to compensate for the time, various sections were cut during final editing.[3] Robert Patrick was very pleased with Spotnitz's work, stating, "You're talking about some incredibly intelligent individuals, and they were very willing to let you, as an artist, discover what they were trying to do with the role. That's a wonderful environment to work in."[4]
For the episode, Gillian Anderson's character Dana Scully was written off as a member of The X-Files office, since the next season would mark the creation of the "new" X-Files with Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish taking over for Duchovny and Anderson. Because of this change, Spotnitz called "Alone" the last of the "old" X-Files stand-alone episodes. As with many other episodes, Duchovny did not want his character to have all the answers, giving the reason that it looked too easy for him. Duchovny and Spotnitz later had a long discussion on how to remove the scenes or tweak them. Unfortunately, because the episode was the last stand-alone episode to feature the character of Fox Mulder, Duchovny did not care as much as "usual" about creating a "mystery" for the episode.[3]
Casting[edit]
Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) appeared only because Spotnitz did not want to miss the opportunity to direct an episode of The X-Files without him. However, because the episode was over time, Spotnitz ended up edited a large majority of his more "prominent" scenes out. In addition, another section that was scripted but ultimately cut was a scene between Anderson and Duchovny. Jolie Jenkins' character, Leyla Harrison, was created and named in memory of a The X-Files internet fan and prolific writer of fan fiction of the same name, who died of cancer on February 10, 2001. Jenkins' characterization, according to Spotnitz, brought out the "Clint [Eastwood]" of Robert Patrick's character John Doggett and her performance was called "near perfection" by Spotnitz during the audio commentary for this episode.[3]
Due to Harrison's extensive knowledge of the X-Files, the episode contains several references to previous episodes.[5][6] While looking through her desk drawer, Scully finds the merged coin from the sixth season entry "Dreamland"; the Apollo 11 space flight, which was given to her by Mulder in the fourth season episode "Tempus Fugit"; and her dog Queequeg's name tag, which she was given in the third season episode "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose".[7] While investigating, Harrison mentions a liver-eating mutant that produced bile and died under an escalator, a reference to Eugene Victor Tooms, who appeared in the first season episodes "Squeeze" and "Tooms"; aliens that shed their skin and leave behind a residue similar to mucus, a reference to the alien from "The Beginning"; and subterranean men in Florida who took people underground, as featured in "Detour".[8] While searching through Stites' house, Doggett finds a book entitled The Sixth Extinction, a potential reference to the seventh season episode of the same name.[7] In the episode's final scene, Harrison asks Mulder how he and Scully managed to return to America after escaping from a spaceship in Antarctica, a reference to an event that took place at the end of the 1998 X-Files feature film.[5][8]
Reception[edit]
"Alone" debuted on Fox on May 6, 2001 in the United States.[9] The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.5, meaning that it was seen by 7.5% of the nation's estimated households.[10] The episode was viewed by 7.56 million households,[10][nb 1] and 12.7 million viewers.[11] The episode ranked as the 35th most-watched episode for the week ending May 6.[10] On June 14, 2001, the episode premiered in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sky1 and received 480,000 viewers making it the sixth most watched episode that week, behind Star Trek: Voyager and The Simpsons.[12] Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "Don't watch alone."[13]
The episode was met with mixed to positive reviews. Television Without Pity gave the episode an B– rating but slightly criticised the way Fox was using Duchovny, sardonically writing, "I don't know if you're aware of this, but David Duchovny stars in The X-Files. Did you know that? Because they've really been keeping it under wraps at Fox."[7] John Keegan from Critical Myth gave the episode a 7 out of 10 rating. Keegan called the episode a "homage to fandom" and described the tone as "warm [and] fuzzy." Because of this, he concluded that "[o]verall, this was an episode that dealt with the emotional needs of the audience in a way that was less effective than it might have been."[14] Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode three and a half five stars out of five and called the it "an exercise in nostalgia".[5] The two called the episode "touching" and noted that many of the in-jokes in the script, such as Harrison asking the agents how they got back from Antarctica, were "very funny".[5] Shearman and Pearson, however, did slightly critique the way the X-Files were presented noting that the case was comparatively a "rather low-key humdrum affair".[5] Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, gave the episode a positive review, writing, "The future of The X-Files is unsettled, but 'Alone' served as a pleasant reminder of what has come before and why the journey to this point has, for the most part, been so wonderful."[15]
Not all reviews were positive. Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a largely negative review and awarded it one star out of four.[16] She derided the plot, writing "Why? Who knows? Who cares?" Vitaris further criticized the episode incorporation of the fandom and suggested that some of the questions asked by Harrison were meant to be "making fun" of "fannish questions".[16]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ At the time of airing, the estimated number of households was 100.8 million.[10] Thus, 7.5 percent of 100.8 million is 7.56 million households.
References[edit]
Footnotes
1.Jump up ^ "The X-Files - "Alone"". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on 31 October 2001. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
2.Jump up ^ "Alone". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c Spotnitz, Frank (2008). Audio Commentary for "Alone" (DVD). The X-Files: The Complete Eight Season: Fox Home Entertainment.
4.Jump up ^ Hurwitz and Knowles, p. 197
5.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Shearman and Pearson, p. 246
6.Jump up ^ Shearman and Pearson, p. 272
7.^ Jump up to: a b c "Alone Again, Naturally". Television Without Pity. NBCUniversal. 6 May 2001. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
8.^ Jump up to: a b Frank Spotnitz (writer & director) (May 6, 2001). "Alone". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 19. Fox.
9.Jump up ^ The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (Media notes). Fox. 2000–01.
10.^ Jump up to: a b c d Associated Press (8 May 2001). "Prime-Time Nielsen Ratings". Associated Press Archives.
11.Jump up ^ Canton, Maj. "The X-Files – Series – Episode List – Season 8". TV Tango. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
12.Jump up ^ "BARB's multichannel top 10 programmes". barb.co.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2012. Note: Information is in the section titled "w/e June 18–24, 2001", listed under Sky 1
13.Jump up ^ Alone (Promotional Flyer). Los Angeles, California: Fox Broadcasting Company. 2001.
14.Jump up ^ Keegan, John. "Alone". Critical Myth. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
15.Jump up ^ Kessenich, p. 179
16.^ Jump up to: a b Vitaris, Paula (April 2002). "The X-Files Season Eight Episode Guide". Cinefantastique 34 (2): 42–49.
BibliographyHurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1933784806.
Kessenich, Tom (2002). Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 1553698126.
Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 097594469X.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: TXF Season 8
"Alone" at the Internet Movie Database
"Alone" at TV.com

[hide]
­v·
 ­t·
 ­e
 
The X-Files episodes

 
­Seasons: 1·
 ­2·
 ­3·
 ­4·
 ­5·
 ­6·
 ­7·
 ­8·
 ­9
 
 
Season 8
­"Within"·
 ­"Without"·
 ­"Patience"·
 ­"Roadrunners"·
 ­"Invocation"·
 ­"Redrum"·
 ­"Via Negativa"·
 ­"Surekill"·
 ­"Salvage"·
 ­"Badlaa"·
 ­"The Gift"·
 ­"Medusa"·
 ­"Per Manum"·
 ­"This Is Not Happening"·
 ­"Deadalive"·
 ­"Three Words"·
 ­"Empedocles"·
 ­"Vienen"·
 ­"Alone"·
 ­"Essence"·
 ­"Existence"
 

 

Categories: The X-Files (season 8) episodes
2001 television episodes


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Essence (The X-Files)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Jump to: navigation, search

"Essence"
The X-Files episode
A man sits in the dark, ominously staring at the camera.
"Essence" re-introduces the character of Alex Krycek. Krycek effectively switches sides in the episode and helps Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
 
Episode no.
Season 8
 Episode 20
Directed by
Kim Manners
Written by
Chris Carter
Production code
8ABX20
Original air date
May 13, 2001
Running time
44 minutes
Guest actors

Jay Acovone as Duffy Haskell
Steven Anderson as Dr. James Parenti
Zachary Ansley as Billy Miles
Denise Crosby as Dr. Mary Speake
Frances Fisher as Lizzy Gill
Karon Kearney as 2nd Woman Party-Goer
Annabeth Gish as FBI Special Agent Monica Reyes
Sheila Larken as Margaret Scully
Nicholas Lea as Alex Krycek
David Purdham as Dr. Lev
Arlene Pileggi as 1st Woman Party-Goer
Kirk B.R. Woller as Agent Gene Crane[1]
 
Episode chronology

← Previous
 "Alone" Next →
 "Existence"

List of The X-Files episodes
"Essence" is the twentieth and penultimate episode of the eighth season and the 181st episode overall of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States on May 20, 2001 on Fox, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom. It was written by executive producer Chris Carter and directed by Kim Manners. "Essence" earned Nielsen rating of 7.7 and was viewed by 12.8 million viewers. The episode received largely positive reviews from critics.
The show centers on FBI special agents John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson)—as well as ex-FBI agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny)—who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, Mulder, Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), and Doggett come up against the horrible consequences of the Syndicate’s pact with the aliens, as Billy Miles (Zachary Ansley)—reprogrammed as a soldier—attempts to erase all evidence of the tests—including Scully's soon-to-be-born baby. The men call on Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) to help them.
"Essence" is a story milestone for the series. It was one of the later season eight episodes, starting with "Per Manum", that introduced the story arc about super-soldiers, which would continue throughout the ninth season. The series was the first part of two, and concluded with the season finale "Existence". In addition, Nicholas Lea reprises his role as Alex Krycek, who temporarily switches sides and aides Mulder and Scully.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Plot
2 Production
3 Broadcast and reception
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
Plot[edit]
While preparing for Dana Scully's (Gillian Anderson) baby shower, her mother, Margaret, invites a woman named Lizzy Gill to help Scully around her apartment. Unbeknownst to Scully, Gill tampers with her pregnancy medications. Meanwhile, Billy Miles, satisfied with the research conducted at Zeus Genetics, kills a scientist (Dr. Lev) and burns the laboratory. All of the evidence at Zeus Genetics is destroyed, including the viable hybrid fetus.
Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) informs John Doggett (Robert Patrick) of the fire at Zeus Genetics, and asks to go along to survey the crime scene. Mulder reveals that Dr. Lev is connected to Scully's obstetrician, Dr. Parenti. While searching Dr. Parenti's office, the agents find another storage room containing hybrid fetuses. They confront Dr. Parenti, who denies everything.
Back at Scully's apartment, Gill leaves for the day. She gets into a car driven by an Duffy Haskill, and tells him she thinks Scully trusts her.
At the lab, Agent Crane derides Doggett for dealing with Mulder. Mulder and Doggett leave the office, during which time Miles appears and decapitates Dr. Parenti. The agents confront Miles, Doggett shoots him several times with no apparent effect. While Mulder and Doggett are distracted, Miles escapes.
The two go to Scully's house to regroup. Scully catches Gill in the act of tampering with her medications, which turns out that she's giving her vitamin supplements. Later, Gill confesses that she has been monitoring Scully's child as part of the Syndicate's plan. However, she tells the agents that Scully's baby is a perfect human child with no human weaknesses.
Miles goes after Scully, just as she and Mulder escape. As Miles is about to catch Mulder and Scully, Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) runs him over and takes them to Doggett and Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), just before Miles gets back up. Krychek confesses that the aliens are trying to wipe out humanity's ability to survive the invasion.
Miles shows up at the J. Edgar Hoover Building, and Scully sneaks out of the building with the help of Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish). Mulder and Doggett, meanwhile, lead Miles to the roof, where Mulder pushes him off into a waiting garbage truck, which then compacts him. Scully and Reyes pull away. The episode ends with Agent Crane pointing them to safety, then turning around, revealing to the camera the scales on his spine.[2]
Production[edit]
"Essence" was written by series creator Chris Carter.[3] The episode, which was the first part of two and concluded with the season finale "Existence", was written during a time of uncertainty for the series. Near the end of season eight, it was unclear whether or not the show would continue onto a ninth season. Carter had maintained for sometime that he would not continue the show without lead actor David Duchovny. However, Duchovny announced that after the end of the eighth season, he would leave the show for good.[4] In addition, lead actress Gillian Anderson's contract also expired at the end of the eighth season.[4] Anderson had expressed her growing disinterest in the series ever since the beginning of the eighth season, saying "For a lot of people, if you don't like your job, you can quit your job, I don't necessarily have that option."[5] Anderson cited the fact that "eight years is a long time" as a contributing factor to her indifference.[5] However, Carter soon changed his position and announced he would remain on the show and continue only if Anderson agreed to do another season. Eventually, Fox offered Anderson a "generous" incentive to stay, resulting in the retention of Carter and Anderson and a final season of the show.[4]
The episode marks the return of Nicholas Lea as Alex Krycek.[3] In previous episodes, Krycek was one of the series' main antagonists. However, in "Essence", he temporarily switches sides. As such, portraying actor Lea explains the character's motivation: "Toward the end, he realizes that it's possible that the world could completely go down the tubes—then he's got a stake in trying to keep that from happening. That's when he starts giving the information to Mulder so that he can use it."[4]
Broadcast and reception[edit]
"Essence" first aired on Fox on May 13, 2001.[6] The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.7, meaning that it was seen by 7.7% of the nation's estimated households.[7] The episode was viewed by 7.87 million households,[7][nb 1] and 12.8 million viewers.[8] The episode ranked as the 41st most-watched episode for the week ending April 8.[7] In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the episode made its first televised appearance on June 28, 2001 on Sky1 and was the third most watched program that week, receiving 0.65 million viewers.[9] Fox promoted the episode with a poster parodying the 1968 horror movie Rosemary's Baby. The episode's tagline was "Scully's baby is born."[10][11] The episode was later included on The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers, a DVD collection that contains episodes involved with the alien super soldiers arc.[12]
The episode received largely positive reviews from critics. Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, gave the episode a largely positive review. Praising the storyline, he noted that "Thanks to 'Essence', I've become a believer again."[13] Jessica Morgan from Television Without Pity awarded the episode an A–, but criticized Fox's decision to advertise the birth of Dana Scully's child with the Rosemary's Baby-esque tagline, calling it a "giant fat rip-off".[11] John Keegan from Critical Myth gave the episode a 9 out of 10 rating and wrote, "Overall, this was a wonderful episode that served to prepare us for the final installment of the alien mythology (presumably) and managed to keep us in our seats the entire way."[14] George Avalos and Michael Liedtke from the Contra Costa Times praised the episode and wrote, "Where have nifty episodes like ['Existence'] been the last two years?"[15]
Not all reviews were so positive, however. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, gave the episode a more mixed two stars out of five.[16] The two cited dense dialogue and bizarre characterization—most notably the fact that "there's usually one FBI agent so angry that he interrupts [...] only to be stopped by a calmer counterpart"—as detractors. Shearman and Pearson, however, did praise the final ten minutes, noting that the final act was "so good [...] that it almost makes up for the episode which sadly returns to the style of the traditional mytharc exposition".[16] Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a scathing review and awarded it no stars out of four.[17] She heavily derided the plot, noting that the episode turned Scully into a "passive, mostly silent Virgin Mary who is about to give birth to… Jesus Christ."[17] She concluded that the episode "raise[ed] the [misogyny] to a whole new level".[17]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ At the time of airing, the estimated number of households was 102.2 million.[7] Thus, 7.7 percent of 102.2 million is 7.87 million households.
References[edit]
Footnotes
1.Jump up ^ "The X-Files - "Essence"". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on 31 October 2001. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
2.Jump up ^ "Essence". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Chris Carter (writer); Kim Manners (director) (May 6, 2001). "Essence". The X-Files. Season 8. Episode 20. Fox.
4.^ Jump up to: a b c d Hurwitz and Knowles, p. 197
5.^ Jump up to: a b "'X-Files' Appeal Waning for Co-Star Anderson". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Block Communications). 12 May 2001. pp. B–9. Retrieved 22 March 2012. (subscription required)
6.Jump up ^ The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (Media notes). Fox. 2000–2001.
7.^ Jump up to: a b c d Associated Press (16 May 2001). "Last Week's Top TV Shows". Press-Telegram (MediaNews Group). Retrieved 8 March 2012. (subscription required)
8.Jump up ^ Canton, Maj. "The X-Files – Series – Episode List – Season 8". TV Tango. Retrieved February 24, 2013.
9.Jump up ^ "BARB's multichannel top 10 programmes". barb.co.uk. Retrieved 6 March 2012. Note: Information is in the section titled "w/e June 25-July 1, 2001", listed under Sky 1
10.Jump up ^ Essence (Promotional Flyer). Los Angeles, California: Fox Broadcasting Company. 2001.
11.^ Jump up to: a b Morgan, Jessica (13 May 2001). "Baby, It's You". Television Without Pity. NBCUniversal. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
12.Jump up ^ Kim Manners, et al. The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers (DVD). Fox.
13.Jump up ^ Kessenich, pp. 179–183
14.Jump up ^ Keegan, John. "Essence". Critical Myth. Retrieved 22 March 2012.
15.Jump up ^ Liedtke, Michael; George Avalos (19 May 2001). "Scully's Baby: Could it be an Alien Proof Savior?". Contra Costa Times (MediaNews Group). p. D03. Retrieved 25 January 2012. (subscription required)
16.^ Jump up to: a b Shearman and Pearson, p. 247
17.^ Jump up to: a b c Vitaris, Paula (April 2002). "The X-Files Season Eight Episode Guide". Cinefantastique 34 (2): 42–49.
BibliographyHurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1933784806.
Kessenich, Tom (2002). Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 1553698126.
Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 097594469X.
External links[edit]
"Essence" at the Internet Movie Database
"Essence" at TV.com

[hide]
­v·
 ­t·
 ­e
 
The X-Files episodes

 
­Seasons: 1·
 ­2·
 ­3·
 ­4·
 ­5·
 ­6·
 ­7·
 ­8·
 ­9
 
 
Season 8
­"Within"·
 ­"Without"·
 ­"Patience"·
 ­"Roadrunners"·
 ­"Invocation"·
 ­"Redrum"·
 ­"Via Negativa"·
 ­"Surekill"·
 ­"Salvage"·
 ­"Badlaa"·
 ­"The Gift"·
 ­"Medusa"·
 ­"Per Manum"·
 ­"This Is Not Happening"·
 ­"Deadalive"·
 ­"Three Words"·
 ­"Empedocles"·
 ­"Vienen"·
 ­"Alone"·
 ­"Essence"·
 ­"Existence"
 
 
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2001 television episodes



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Existence (The X-Files)

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"Existence"
The X-Files episode
TXF Existence.jpg
Dana Scully giving birth to William, with Monica Reyes helping. The birth of William was intended to allude to the birth of Jesus Christ.
 
Episode no.
Season 8
 Episode 21
Directed by
Kim Manners
Written by
Chris Carter
Production code
8ABX21
Original air date
May 20, 2001
Running time
44 minutes
Guest actors

Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner
Annabeth Gish as Monica Reyes
Nicholas Lea as Alex Krycek
Zachary Ansley as Billy Miles
Adam Baldwin as Knowle Rohrer
Tom Braidwood as Melvin Frohike
Dale Dickey as Game Warden
Dean Haglund as Richard Langly
Bruce Harwood as John Fitzgerald Byers
Shelley Mack as Rebecca
Tom Martin as Pathology Assistant
James Pickens, Jr. as Alvin Kersh
Cynthia Shadix as Alien/Human Hybrid
Jerry Shiban as Scully's Baby
Austin Tichenor as James Langenhahn
Kirk B. R. Woller as Gene Crane[1]
 
Episode chronology

← Previous
 "Essence" Next →
 "Nothing Important Happened Today"

List of The X-Files episodes
"Existence" is the twenty-first episode and eighth season finale of the science fiction television series The X-Files and 182nd episode overall. The episode first premiered on Fox in the United States on May 20, 2001, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2001 on Sky1. It was written by executive producer Chris Carter and directed by Kim Manners. "Existence" earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.4 and was watched by 8.58 million households and 14 million viewers, overall. The episode received largely positive reviews from television critics.
The show centers on FBI special agents John Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson)—as well as ex-FBI agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny)—who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files. In this episode, continuing from the previous episode, "Essence", a new type of alien, called a Super Soldier programmed to destroy any traces of alien involvement on Earth, is introduced. Mulder, Doggett, Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), and Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) help Scully escape from Billy Miles with Special Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) to a remote town. Shortly after, Skinner kills Krycek and Scully delivers an apparently normal baby with the alien Super Soldiers surrounding her. Without explanation, the aliens leave the area as Mulder arrives.
"Existence" is a story milestone for the series. It, along with previous season eight episodes starting with "Per Manum", helped to introduce the story arc featuring the super-soldiers which continued throughout the ninth season. The episode was the last to feature Fox Mulder's character until the series finale more than a year later. As such, the last scene with Doggett and Reyes in Kersh's office was intended to show the "New X-Files" without David Duchovny.

Contents
  [hide] 1 Plot
2 Production 2.1 Writing and casting
2.2 Effects and filming
3 Reception
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
Plot[edit]
The episode begins with a metal box brought in containing the remains of Billy Miles. The coroner examines it and notices a small piece of metal. After he leaves the room, the metal begins to spin, growing into what looks like the beginnings of a spine. Meanwhile, Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Monica Reyes arrive at the abandoned town where Special Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick) was born.
Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) is seated in a chair in Assistant Director Walter Skinner's office, where he is shown a video from the morgue. Skinner tells him that Miles is somehow alive and still out to get Scully and her unborn child. Suddenly, Agent Gene Crane comes to Doggett and tells him that there is a person – Knowle Rohrer – who wants to see him, about issues concerning Miles and Scully. This leaves Fox Mulder and Skinner to interrogate Krycek. Rohrer fabricates a story to Doggett that Miles is part of a Military Project to create a super soldier and that Scully had a chip put in the back of her neck during her abduction to make her pregnant with the first organic version of a super soldier.
Krycek gets up from his chair in Skinner's office and starts running out the doorway. Skinner chases after him, then turns around and sees Miles behind him. Skinner just manages to escape with Krycek, but Miles' hand breaks through the elevator, injuring Skinner. At the hospital, Mulder distrusts what Doggett has been told by Knowle Rohrer, so the two set out to find out how trustworthy Rohrer really is. Meanwhile, at Doggett's abandoned hometown where Reyes and Scully are hiding out, Reyes sees someone running off and follows whoever it is. A car pulls up and she meets a trooper who agrees to help with the birth. As Mulder and Doggett pull into the garage, they find Krycek with a passenger, who happens to be Rohrer. Mulder believes that Rohrer and Krycek are colluding together. Doggett covertly pursues Rohrer and learns that Rohrer has an accomplice: Agent Crane.
Mulder's own problems arise when his cell phone rings and Krycek disappears from his car. Mulder, after learning what Doggett has witnessed, believes that Crane gave Krycek access to the FBI. Suddenly, Krycek smashes through the car window with his prosthetic hand and destroys the cell phone. Krycek aims his gun at Mulder and tells him to get out. Krycek is about to pull the trigger when a bullet administered by Skinner pierces his arm. Krycek tries to pick his gun up again, but Skinner shoots his hand. Krycek pushes his gun over and tells Skinner to shoot Mulder. Instead, Skinner raises his gun and shoots Krycek in the head. Doggett attempts to apprehend Rohrer and Crane but ends up being chased by the two. The pursuit ends up in the FBI garage and ends violently with Crane being run over and Rohrer crashing his car into the garage wall. Both men are presumed dead.
Shortly after Skinner kills Krycek, Scully delivers an apparently normal baby with Reyes and the alien Super Soldiers surrounding her. Without explanation, the aliens leave the area as Mulder arrives. While Doggett and Reyes report to the FBI Headquarters Doggett places an investigation into Kersh, after a late night meeting between him and Rohrer. Mulder takes Scully and her newborn baby back to her apartment. After marveling over the baby and discussing recent events, the two agents share a long, passionate kiss.[2]
Production[edit]

 

 The birth of William was supposed to allude to the birth of Jesus Christ.
Writing and casting[edit]
"Existence" was written during filming, which led to Kim Manners—the director of the episode—helping with the script. Because of this, several of the action scenes, such as the fight at the FBI headquarters, were Manners' ideas.[3] The last scene with Doggett and Reyes in Kersh's office is the birth of the "New X-Files" without David Duchovny.[3] From here on, Monica Reyes became a main character on the show.[3] The episode features the last appearance of Nicholas Lea, sans the series finale. Reportedly, Lea had become tired of the role and was growing weary of the ambiguous nature of the character. When Lea learned that his character was to be killed off in "Existence", he reportedly welcomed the news. The night the episode aired, Lea wrote on his personal website: "I felt that [Krycek] wasn't getting a fair shake anyway. [...] I wanted more in-depth ideas about the character and it never came to pass. It kind of stopped being fun to play."[4]
The final scene of the episode featuring Mulder and Scully kissing almost was not filmed. Initially, the script called for Mulder to kiss Scully's forehead. Both Duchovny and Manners argued that the scene was "mundane" and that they had "been teasing and doing that bull for so long" that they wanted "a real kiss at this point".[5] During the birth of Scully's child, several allusions to the story of the birth of Jesus are made, including Mulder following a star to find Scully and The Lone Gunmen bringing gifts for the baby, much like the Three Wise Men.[3] Scully's child was portrayed by Jerry Shiban, who is the son of John Shiban, a producer who worked on The X-Files as well as The Lone Gunmen.[3] He was the first of seven babies to represent the character and the only one to play Baby William for a single episode.[3]
Effects and filming[edit]

 

 Chris Carter included a scene with whale calls after listening to a Paul Winter album.
The episode featured several elaborate CGI scenes. The first scene with the vertebrae was entirely computer generated by visual effects head John Wash.[3] Alex Krycek was killed by a CGI bullet straight through the head, which again was Manners' idea.[3] Extra money was budgeted for Krycek's death.[6] Mitch Pileggi was very happy when he was told he would be killing Krycek; he explained, "when they came to me and told me that I was the one that was going to kill Krycek, I was elated. Not because I wanted Nick to go away or anything, it was just from a character stand-point; Skinner just wanted to kill Krycek so bad."[6] Manners later called it one of his "favorite scenes [he'd] ever directed" and one of the "best scenes [he's] seen in a long time on television."[3]
The car scene with Gillian Anderson and Annabeth Gish was shot at Keynan Road, Malibu. Anderson and Gish sat in what is known as an insert car, while the crew sat in a pickup car in front of them.[3] The birth scene was filmed at the old Paramount Movie Ranch.[3] According to director Kim Manners, the most difficult scene to shoot was in the elevator with Mitch Pileggi and Nicholas Lea.[3] Gish had never worked much with guns before joining The X-Files cast, so the producers got a retired LAPD officer to teach her more about firearms.[3] She did some shooting practices before returning to the set.[3] The FBI garage scenes were shot in Century City and took a total of four days to finish.[3]
The episode also contains a scene wherein Reyes serenades Scully with "karaoke renditions" of whale calls.[6] Gish later noted that "[Series creator Chris Carter] gave me a tape of whale songs, which was hysterical to be playing in my trailer."[6] Carter was inspired to write the scene after a friend gave him a Paul Winter album that incorporated whale sounds into the music.[7] Carter later explained that, "I just thought it was kind of much like [Reyes'] character to appreciate that."[7]
Reception[edit]
"Existence" premiered on May 20, 2001 in the United States on Fox.[8] The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.4, meaning that it was seen by 8.4% of the nation's estimated households.[9] The episode was watched by 8.58 million households[9][nb 1] and by 14 million viewers, overall.[10] In the United Kingdom, "Existence" premiered on June 28, 2001 and received 0.65 million viewers, placing The X-Files number three in the top ten broadcasts for Sky1 that week behind Star Trek: Voyager and The Simpsons.[11] Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "Will the beginning be the end?"[12] The episode was later included on The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers, a DVD collection that contains episodes involved with the alien super soldiers arc.[13]
Critical reception to the episode was mostly positive. Contra Costa Times columnists George Avalos and Michael Liedtke were pleased with the episode noting that the last scene was "beautifully written".[14] Avalos and Liedtke also reacted positively to the death of Alex Krycek at the hands of Skinner, saying it was the best scene in the episode.[14] Despite their praise, however, they stressed that "Existence" was not as exciting as the previous episode, "Essence," or the 1998 The X-Files feature film.[14] John Keegan from Critical Myth gave the episode 7 out of 10, and said that he experienced a "little disappointment" with the episode when compared to the previous episodes.[15] Jessica Morgan from Television Without Pity gave the episode an A- rating, noting that "season eight's finale goes out with a big fat juicy kiss between Mulder and Scully, at long last. Other stuff happens, but it's hard to remember what, exactly."[16]
Not all reviews were positive. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, gave the episode a more mixed two-and-a-half stars out of five.[17] Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a scathing review and awarded it no stars out of four.[18] She heavily derided the plot, and wrote, "Thus endeth the Mulder-and-Scully era of The X-Files, and what a load of sanctimonious crap it turned out to be!"[18]
Notes[edit]
1.Jump up ^ At the time of airing, the estimated number of households was 102.2 million.[9] Thus, 8.4 percent of 102.2 million is 8.58 million households.
References[edit]
Footnotes
1.Jump up ^ "The X-Files - "Existence"". TheXFiles.com. Fox Broadcasting Company. February 2002. Archived from the original on 31 October 2001. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
2.Jump up ^ "Existence". BBC Cult. BBC. Retrieved October 1, 2009.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Manners, Kim (2002). Audio commentary for "Existence". The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.
4.Jump up ^ Kessenich, p. 146
5.Jump up ^ Kessenich, Tom (July 22, 2001). "What's Next? Fox Drama 'The X-Files' Will Try to Recover From a Disappointing Season". Wisconsin State Journal (Lee Enterprises). Retrieved December 26, 2012. (subscription required)
6.^ Jump up to: a b c d Hurwitz and Knowles, p. 197
7.^ Jump up to: a b Carter, Chris, et al (2000). The Truth Behind Season 8 (DVD). The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season: Fox Home Entertainment.
8.Jump up ^ The X-Files: The Complete Eighth Season (Media notes). Fox. 2000–01.
9.^ Jump up to: a b c "TV Ratings". St. Petersburg Times (Times Publishing Company). April 2001. pp. 7D.
10.Jump up ^ Associated Press (May 2001). "Season finales lift NBC to No. 1". The Cincinnati Post (E. W. Scripps Company). pp. 3C.
11.Jump up ^ "BARB's multichannel top 10 programmes". barb.co.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2012. Note: Information is in the section titled "w/e June 25 – July 1, 2001", listed under Sky 1
12.Jump up ^ Existence (Promotional Flyer). Los Angeles, California: Fox Broadcasting Company. 2001.
13.Jump up ^ Kim Manners, et al. The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers (DVD). Fox.
14.^ Jump up to: a b c Liedtke, Michael; George Avalos (May 24, 2001). "Season finale consummates fans' emotional journey with The Kiss.". Contra Costa Times (MediaNews Group). Retrieved November 25, 2009. (subscription required)
15.Jump up ^ Keegan, John. "Existence". Critical Myth. Retrieved November 25, 2009.
16.Jump up ^ Morgan, Jessica. "X-Files". Television Without Pity. NBCUniversal. Retrieved 15 January 2012.
17.Jump up ^ Shearman and Pearson, pp. 247–248
18.^ Jump up to: a b Vitaris, Paula (April 2002). "The X-Files Season Eight Episode Guide". Cinefantastique 34 (2): 42–49.
BibliographyHurwitz, Matt; Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files. Insight Editions. ISBN 1-933784-80-6.
Kessenich, Tom (2002). Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 1-55369-812-6.
Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 0-9759446-9-X.
External links[edit]
 Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: TXF Season 8
"Existence" at the Internet Movie Database
"Existence" at TV.com

[hide]
­v·
 ­t·
 ­e
 
The X-Files episodes

 
­Seasons: 1·
 ­2·
 ­3·
 ­4·
 ­5·
 ­6·
 ­7·
 ­8·
 ­9
 
 
Season 8
­"Within"·
 ­"Without"·
 ­"Patience"·
 ­"Roadrunners"·
 ­"Invocation"·
 ­"Redrum"·
 ­"Via Negativa"·
 ­"Surekill"·
 ­"Salvage"·
 ­"Badlaa"·
 ­"The Gift"·
 ­"Medusa"·
 ­"Per Manum"·
 ­"This Is Not Happening"·
 ­"Deadalive"·
 ­"Three Words"·
 ­"Empedocles"·
 ­"Vienen"·
 ­"Alone"·
 ­"Essence"·
 ­"Existence"
 

 

Categories: The X-Files (season 8) episodes
2001 television episodes



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