The X-Files 1.10 - Fallen Angel
In terms of the ongoing story arc, there is not much that's new here compared with the early episodes of the season..Something odd is found in the woods. Mulder becomes obsessed with it and believes it's UFO related. Scully is sceptical to the point of stupidity. The military covers everything up. All this plus Deep Throat says something cryptic. So far, so "Conduit". But it's the first time we've truly seen Mulder willing to throw his entire career away in the pursuit of what he perceives to be "the truth" - and moreover challenge those with authority to stop him, especially as they seem to be looking for any opportunity to shut the X-Files down.
It's also revealed that Mulder isn't just an obsessive FBI agent investigating odd cases - he has a whole other side to him as a member of the UFO / paranormal fraternity, writing articles for fringe magazines and so on. He clearly sees a large part of himself in Max Fenig - it's an alternative path that Mulder could have gone down and he genuinely seems to care about the guy and what he is going through. I'm still slightly unclear as to why the alien needed Max or what was so important about him that it needed to haul him off to god knows where, but it certainly made for a surprising and affecting conclusion. Nice effect as he was raised up into the air as well.
The end of the episode call's Deep Throat's true motivations into question, which adds a nice new wrinkle to things. It's possible that Mulder and Scully are going to have to contend with adversaries on multiple fronts and I am looking forward to seeing how this plays out over the rest of the season.
The final interesting thing is with the title of this episode as I can see that it potentially has multiple meanings. Sure there is the obvious fact that an alien craft has fallen from the sky and its occupant is wandering the backwoods blasting anyone who gets in it's way with a heat ray, like some kind of invisible H.G. Wells Martian invader. But the moniker could also be applied to poor old Max , the innocent yet tragic UFO enthusiast who didn't ask for any of this to happen to him and who has been suffering for years with seizures and visions at the expense of any kind of normal life. Finally I think it could also be applied to Mulder himself - one of the FBI's best and brightest who had the chance to go onto big things, but finds that his personal obsessions made him an outcast.
Intriguing stuff...
Other thoughts and facts:
- There have been quite a few real-world U.S. Air Force investigations into UFOs over the years, particularly between 1948 and 1970 under the headings of "Project Sign", "Project Grudge" and "Project Blue Book". Whereas "Sign" was quite open about the possibility of extraterrestrial life, "Grudge" was blatantly hostile. "No matter what you see or hear, don't believe it" was the mantra. There's a lot more about all this (both real and fictional) included in the excelleny "Secret History of Twin Peaks" book that came out a short while ago. It's fascinating stuff if you have time to dig into the reams of archive material.
- A laser grid to protect the alien crash site? Really? Do you have any idea the amout of energy that would be needed to power one of those?
- If the government wants to keep this alien thing secret, why bring down dozens of men and trucks? Somehow, somewhere, it's going to leak out.
- Naming the doctor who attends to the aliens victims "Oppenheimer" is hardly subtle, especially when they have been poisoned by a form of atomic radiation...
- Did Mulder just happen bring those exact files about the abductees with a scar behind their ears with him to the motel room? That was convenient...
No comments:
Post a Comment