With some supportive comments from the main casts and creators, a few critics of the now acclaimed series said that the show stumble during the first half of season one. I strongly disagree. I think that the entire cast and crew hit the ground running and never looked back. Because of this basic fact, it was difficult to select just one favorite of the 23 shows. Therefore in most cases I need force myself to select just one show per season and they are:
Season 1:
Season 1, Episode 19: Darkness Falls
Original Air Date: 15 April 1994
I love the atmosphere of this episode, Olympic National Forest of Washington State. The plot is believable although not. It is one of the first times in the shows early career that the audience really feared that something fatal could happen to one or both of our FBI heroes. Also, as mentioned in a previous blog, Titus Welliver makes a TV appearance a decade before his re-occurring role in Deadwood.
Season 2:
The season that introduced us to Duane Barry, David’s g/f, at the time, Perrey Reeves in “3", a sewer-mutant, Scully eating live bugs in “Humbug” and Nicholas Lea in his re-occuring, and one of the best adversaries of the show, Alex Krycek (more so than the Smoking man and The Syndicate). Again, because of the great writing and vision for the X-Files, it was extremely difficult to select just one favorite. Honestly, half of the season ties for first place. However, the ultimate winner is:
Season 2, Episode 19: Død Kalm
Original Air Date: 10 March 1995
The “aging” ship that could be physical proof of yet another government conspiracy; the Philadelphia Experiments. Once again, the audience is drawn in to the possible peril of our brave crusaders and once again, Mulder comes so close of real evidence of a government-sanctioned ill-conceived project. Also, fans can picture our two heroes as no more than two grandparents slowing rocking on their wrap-around porch set near the ocean or on acres of prairie as they continue to look at each other in the same caring way as when they first became aware of their feelings for each other.
Season 3
The series is cooking now. David has a real girlfriend, Gillian as a baby and everyone seems to have settled into their award-winning roles. The writers, Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, Howard Gordon, Darin Morgan, Vince Gilligan, Glen Morgan and John Shiban, have those creative juices flowing and practically every script written turns to insist gold. Given this, it was beyond impossible to narrow my selection to one favorite episode for season 3. Therefore, with a sense of defeat, I have selected two for completely different reasons.
Season 3, Episode 8: Oubliette
Original Air Date: 17 November 1995
Oubliette: a secret dungeon with an opening only in the ceiling, as in certain old castles.
Watching this episode is like a mini-show of Kiss the Girls. It is creepy. It is a real thriller. It involves mainstream FBI work with that X-File hitch. It illustrated both Mulder’s intelligence in profiling serial killers and compassion for those who struggle with inner-demons just like Mulder does. This show fosters a kinship bordering on love of Mulder for Lucy. You can see it in his eyes when he realizes that she is dead. Moreover, that her life-long pain is now gone.
Season 3, Episode 16: Apocrypha
Original Air Date: 16 February 1996
The episode has everything and everybody. There are plots within plots and mythology arc of this series. The lost digital tape is brought back into it, Skinner has been shot and now hospitalized, Krycek makes another classical appearance, the Syndicate just adds to the ‘craziest’ and tracking down the salvaged UFO all happen in 42:30 minutes of air time. It just kicks ass.
Season 4
Half-way through this world-wide phenomenon of aliens, secret governments within governments which in turns becomes the all-purpose bad guy (the government), there are 24 great shows to select my favorite from season 4. Although they were all awesome, there has been one that has always stuck out for me. It had a great plot that weaves in and out of Mulder’s life.
Season 4, Episode 10: Paper Hearts
Original Air Date: 15 December 1996
This is an original show, (which is saying a lot since Chris Carter has all but said that very little about the X-files is 100% original since “everything has been written - everything has been done”). It is, again, a thriller that involves Mulder both personally and professionally. It demonstrates how far he is willing to go to find out the truth of his sister’s disappearance and pushes Scully as far away as possible - not so much for her safety but for his own greedy, personal crusade to continue without her interference.
Additionally, any plot that deals with the killing of children is personally emotional for me, as I am sure it is for many. Tom Noonan, who was absolutely perfect as the serial killer, takes heart-shaped fabric from each of his young girl victims' clothing and hides in a place that Mulder is able to figure out because Mulder basically got “inside” this freak’s head. Creepy, awesome, don’t want it to end show. I am sure if Chris had thought about it, they could have turned this into a two-parter to drag on the suspense but hinder-sight is always 20/20.
This is arguably the best non-mythology episode of the nine-year series.
P.S. Later when the audience/fans learn of Samantha’s death as a child, it was never made clear as to who or how along she was taken at the age of 8 and died around the age of 14 so more than likely it was not at the hand of John Lee Roche.
Sidebar: About Fox Mulder
Full Name: Fox William Mulder
Date of Birth: 13th of October 1961
Birthplace: Chilmark, Massachusetts
Address: 2630 Hegal Place, Apartment No. 42, Alexandria, Virginia 23242
Badge No.: JTT047101111
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