No, Jorge, don’t touch that red button. Noho on the Roho.
Synopsis: The closure of The X-Files has left Mulder without
direction, until a friend reaches out to him with some significant intelligence.
The first episode of the second season hooked millions of
new fans to The X-Files, compare Little Green Men with its spoon feed treats,
silky camera work and exotic locations to the pilot episode. In many ways they
are similar but at the same time they are truly worlds apart.
The opening to this episode is as intriguing as it is
clever. The introductory monologue tells the story of the voyager program and
hints towards its successful contact with alien life from the far reaches of
our solar system. If the promise of
contact is intriguing how about actually making contact? I remember the sight
of the slender E.T as pure sensory overload, for avid fans and new comers
alike, a great piece of television.
So our aliens finally have a face, well outline to the body
anyway. As part of a semi-reinvention to The X-Files universe they are no
longer seen as the atypical invisible scavenger like creatures depicted in
Fallen Angel but the more traditional slim big head big eyed aliens from so
many documented accounts of close encounters.
Both the dream sequence of Samantha’s abduction and the
contact Mulder experiences at the observatory are hair-raisingly to say the
least but for a good old jump out your skin moment look no further then Jorge
in the bathroom it got me 18 years ago
and it still gets me today. Poor Jorge left looked inside the observatory for
some inexplicable reason, his inclusion in the story an inspired one, how long
had he been there? How many times had he been abducted? For a grown man to be
scared to death it would take something callous.
The mythology arch of this episode was a true indictment of
how far The X-Files had come in its short tenure and what direction it would
take, a brief peak at an alien was enough to get us salivating at the mouth and
we wanted more. So did Mulder
The unkempt Mulder stuck on an endless wiretapping detail
seen earlier on in the episode was a depressed shadow of his former self. He
allowed himself to question his own beliefs; his paranoia raged uncontrollably
and seemed a man devoid of all-purpose. Without The X-Files Mulder felt
worthless, although hope remained in the guise or Senator Matheson. His apology
to Mulder about not being able to secure The X-Files future tells of his vested
interest in the cases and that he was most probably Mulder’s friend in Capitol that
he refers to in Pilot and to whom Skinners referred to in Tooms.
Mulder heeds Matheson intelligence and travelled without hesitation
to the satellite observatory in Puerto Rico with complete disregard for his assignment
with the Bureau. Telling in that his prerogative to a regular pay check pales in
significance to his search for the truth. I find Mulders use of the Dictaphone brilliant
as not only was it a good way of explaining to the viewers what the partner-less
agent is seeing but also his reactions to what he was seeing, it was
interesting to hear him doubt himself without Scully’s faithful ear to bend and
in hindsight and a view to subsequent seasons it is especially interesting to hear
him cast doubts
over the events of Samantha abduction.
Mulder made sure Scully had her work cut out in Little Green
Men. Her shoulder to cry on was all that was keeping Mulder in anyway sane, she
believed in him even if he didn’t. With Mulders fantastical imagination and hostility
towards authority figures it is easy to forget that Scully is three years his
junior and that a year prior to Little Green Men Scully was heading for a
perfectly amicable career in the FBI. She takes it upon herself to follow him blindly
and back him at all conceivable cost. Lying to her peers she evaded the watchful
eye of the bureau surveillance team and heads all the way to Puerto Rico, the
airport scene is reminiscent of the airport scene for E.B.E and typical of the
sort of covert methods taken by Mulder. Without this level of devotion and sacrifice
Mulder and Scully would never have worked. Scully’s eleventh hour appearance is
all that saves Mulder from the shoot to kill U.F.O crash site recovery
operation team. This was not the first time Scully had saved Mulder’s life and
it won’t be the last, debunking the theory of Mulder constantly saved the
damsel in distress; Scully. Well actually he does but what I am saying is that
it was not all one way traffic.
The cherry on the top of the icing on top of the cake for this
episode and one of my all-time favourite moments from the second series is the
final scene that not only authenticates Mulders paranoia to his being watched
but also creates one of these; that awkward moment when Skinner yells ‘get out
of my office’ and you think his taking to Mulder but his really talking to me! Ha
love it and its significance to the development of Skinners character, he is no
puppet but whether he likes it or not he cannot sit on the fence forever.
Consider attention grabbed Chris Carter there is nothing to dislike
about this strong episode, its imagination and constant of thrills sees to
that.
Musings:
- It seems Mulders has been ‘hounding’ a lady for a date, I doubt that very much given his demeanour at the time and I am guessing that message was from an admirer of which I assume Mulder had many.
- The big bucks second season means a proper Hoover building, the guts of which now look authentic and is a series main stay.
- Mulders dream sequence of Samantha abduction differs from his recollection of the event via hypnotic regression. C.C explains the phenomena as possible inaccuracies in hypnotic regression. Want to know the real reason? Morgan and Wrong had never seen Conduit!
- The alias George Hale is in reference to the mentally ill scientist that Mulder compares himself to during the covert meeting with Scully in the car park. If you have time Google him for a fascinating read.
- Voyager 1 is currently the furthest man-made object from Earth, it is still in our solar system but scientists predict the craft to reach interstellar space within 3 years. I hope it doesn’t attract any unwanted attention!
Just Googled the Voyager and learned that as of June 2012 it is getting very close to interstellar space. I love the tie-in to this actual program in LGM, adds credibility to the paranoia.
ReplyDeleteGreat review - I like your description of Scully and how far she's come. She is seemingly following him now without much thought to her own career!