Starting a series with a strong pilot is a difficult feat, matched only by a handful of genre series over the past few decades. But to start a series with an equally impressive episode is an even more incredible feat. Starting a series with an episode that beats a strong pilot, hands down? Even more unlikely. But the “X-Files” managed to pull it off, taking the hints of government cover-up and conspiracy from the pilot and expanding on them.
Despite the lack of specific date stamps, it would appear that some time has passed since the events of the pilot. Both Mulder and Scully look a little different, and while they are more familiar with one another, Scully speaks as though they haven’t worked on a case like this recently. Whatever the time frame, Mulder passes Scully his latest find. According to a case file originally handled by the Boise regional office, then shelved for no apparent reason, a test pilot for the military named Colonel Robert Budahas has been missing for over four months. He had been picked up by military police after suffering from what his wife described as a psychotic episode, after which she heard nothing regarding his condition. Mulder explains that there have been previous mysterious disappearances of test pilots from Ellens Air Base since 1963, and this case has a certain “paranormal” ring to it.
Leaving Scully to review the case file, Mulder visits the men’s room. While washing his hands, he notices that he is not alone. An older gentleman, who remains nameless, warns him to leave the case alone. Specifically, he mentions that the military will not tolerate an investigation by the FBI. Mulder questions the man regarding his interests, and the man simply mentions that he is highly placed in the government. That apparently affords him the ability to help Mulder in his work…but only so long as Mulder picks his battles wisely. Despite the warning, Mulder appears to be undaunted.
While Mulder prepares for the investigation, Scully reviews newspaper archives on Ellens Air Base. She learns very quickly that the base is considered to be a kind of mecca for UFO enthusiasts, and that secret stealth technology is supposedly tested there. It fits what she already knows about the test flights out of the area, but it also tells her what had drawn Mulder to the case in the first place. When she calls him to inquire, Mulder puts her off when he hears a strange clicking sound, and he realizes that his phone has been tapped.
The next day, Mulder and Scully arrive in Idaho, and speak with Mrs. Budahas. She mentions that her husband had started to show a rash about two years earlier, staring under his arms and spreading from there. Then his personality began to change, and he started having odd episodes, ending with the incident when he was removed from the house. Mrs. Budahas simply wants her husband back, one way or another. She tells the agents that another pilot went a little crazy some time ago.
They visit the other pilot’s home, and find that the man is clearly not functioning up to normal specs. He is pulling out his hair and using for flyfishing. His wife briefly mentions that the military is taking care of it quietly, and then admonishes Mrs. Budahas for bringing the FBI to her house. On the way to their car, Scully mentions that the symptoms are similar to a syndrome produced by extreme stress. She also speculates that the test pilots may be working on the so-called Aurora Project, a military program involving next generation stealth aircraft for surveillance. She wonders if these pilots are the washouts, but Mulder disagrees. Test pilots like Budahas don’t wash out.
After being put off by the military brass, Mulder decides that they should try to intercept them at home. It doesn’t go over well, but they do wind up speaking with a man named Paul Mossinger, who claims to be a reporter for the local paper. Mossinger mentions the UFO theories, and Mulder casually asks him where to go to hear the stories. They wind up in a diner, where Mulder notices several pictures of UFOs with a distinct triangular shape to them. Scully has little patience for Mulder’s interest, but he winds up buying a copy of one of the better pictures and a hand-drawn map of where the air base is located.
They wind up sitting just outside the perimeter fencing, waiting for something to happen, and by nightfall, Scully is asleep. An overhead pass by an aircraft startles Scully out of her sleep, and Mulder comes running to show her what’s happening. They see two obscure objects (lights, really) moving in impossible patterns over the base. They fly off at supersonic speed, but then a helicopter appears. When two teens emerge from a hole in the fence, Mulder and Scully make the assumption that the helicopter was chasing the teens.
They take the teens to a diner in town, and Mulder asks them about what they’ve seen as they eat quite a bit of food. It’s obvious that the teens are stoned out of their minds, but they do seem to confirm that the aircraft flown over the base look like the UFO in the picture. Scully scoffs at the apparent confirmation, but Mulder pulls out another picture in his possession. The second picture is supposed to be the UFO that crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, and it has the same triangular shape as the UFO in the picture from the diner. What’s more, pieces of the UFO from the Roswell crash were reportedly taken to six sites for study, one of which was Ellens Air Base.
Before long, they find out that Colonel Budahas has apparently returned. But when they visit to find out what happened, Mrs. Budahas is distraught. She claims that the man is not her husband. He looks just like Colonel Budahas, and remembers details about his life and family, but when Mulder questions him about flying, he can’t recall basic information. Mulder is sure that the military erased certain details from Colonel Budahas’ mind, something Scully says is impossible. But Mulder insists that the physical and psychological damage done to the affected pilots must be the result of incorporating alien technology into the new stealth aircraft.
Unexpectedly, they are pulled over by men in black sedans and suits, who go through their car, destroy their photographic evidence, and tell them to pack their things and leave immediately. Afterward at the hotel, Mulder belatedly tells Scully that he had been warned not to investigate the case by an unknown man, and that his phone had been tapped. Scully is pissed, and even more so when Mulder drives off without explanation when Scully balks at continuing their work.
Mulder contacts the teens from the night before, and with their help, he infiltrates the air base perimeter. That night, he finds himself staring up at the underside of an apparent UFO. It shines a light down on him, and then flies off into the night. Immediately, security vehicles race to Mulder’s location, and he is pulled into an ambulance, restrained, and injected with unknown chemicals. He is taken through some kind of facility where he sees the muted outline of an oddly shaped aircraft, very similar to the typical UFO design. Then he passes out.
Early the next morning, Scully finds herself unable to find Mulder or make a call out of town. She is intercepted in the hotel parking lot by Messinger, who is coming out of her hotel room. He claims to be looking for her, but a call over the radio in his car suggests otherwise. Scully rushes into his car and locks herself in, and soon discovers that he is actually working for air base security. Messinger attempts to assault her, but she manages to hold him at gunpoint. When the teens arrive to tell Scully that Mulder was on the base, Scully demands that Messinger find out where Mulder is. They arrange a trade, Messinger for Mulder. As Scully drives away from the base, it is clear that Mulder has no recollection of what happened after leaving the hotel the previous afternoon.
They visit the Budahas residence again, and they are turned away. Mulder suspects some kind of shakedown, but Scully has heard enough. She demands they return to Washington, given that the missing pilot is no longer missing. Scully’s report deems Mulder’s claims regarding UFOs and the effects of alien technology on test pilots inconclusive, though she does corroborate Mulder’s sighting of two unknown aircraft.
Mulder meets with his unknown informant after a hard run at a nearby track. The man tells Mulder that he has seen things that were not to be seen, and that he needs to exercise more care in the future. Mulder wonders what he might have seen, and the informant casually suggests that it was a military UFO. The informant asks Mulder why, given all the evidence to the contrary, are people not dissuaded from belief in extraterrestrial life? Mulder says, plainly, that it is because all the evidence to the contrary is not entirely dissuasive. The informant agrees, and Mulder asks him if “they” are here. The informant replies, with some amusement, that “they” have been here for a long, long time. He leaves Mulder to contemplate that reality.
Besides introducing the beloved character of Deep Throat, the first of many shadowy informants to be introduced over the course of the series, this episode introduces the idea that the military is actively involved in testing apparently alien technology on human subjects. More than that, it sets specific military projects out of reach of the intelligence community at large, and that will obviously come into play more and more as the conspiracy is exposed.
Interestingly, the later concept that Mulder is a protected commodity might play into the events of this episode. It would seem very clear that even though Mulder was supposedly not meant to investigate the case, he suffered very little consequence for going against the advice of his informant. Even more to the point, his informant seems only slightly put off by what happened, and casually tells him what he was supposed to have seen. It suggests that Mulder was allowed to see and experience these things, and left unscathed because of some larger purpose.
This is supported by the incredibly obvious nature of the surveillance outside of Mulder’s apartment, and the fact that despite all of the warnings and incursions by base security, Mulder was left with the pictures and general information needed to make some kind of claim regarding military use of recovered UFO technology. The tone of Scully’s report matches exactly the kind of debunking that the conspiracy wants to use as a tool for disinformation and discrediting of the X-Files.
Since we know from later episodes that Deep Throat is connected in some way to the conspiracy, it is possible that his role as Mulder’s “handler” within the FBI was exploited. Certainly Ellens Air Base is being used, like Area 51 and other military locations over the years, to test aircraft incorporating some form of advanced propulsion system. Apparently the effects on spacetime from these propulsion systems cause injuries to human physiology, and I imagine that the effects of the memory-altering treatments aren’t all that friendly either. I would expect that the base is also housing some of the hybridization, cloning, and vaccination experiments.
What is truly interesting, and astounding when looking at the massive continuity mistakes in later years, is how consistent the design of the UFOs happen to be. We find out in later years that the Roswell UFO was similar to those uncovered in East Africa and Canada, which would require it to have not only a triangular body frame design, but also the odd “dome” at the center, with several protrusions reaching out over the “dome”. The design is very clear in later episodes like “Biogenesis”, “The Sixth Extinction”, and “Providence”.
While the photographs are far too blurred to show that kind of detail, the triangular frames are clearly indicated. Also, the military aircraft that hovers over Mulder seems to retain that frame design, and upon close inspection, shows the exact same “dome” and circling protrusions that show up on the later UFOs! And since we know that those same UFOs also featured inscriptions on the metallic surface, and metal that was able to return to its original shape, it all tracks with the accounts of the recovered materials at the 1947 crash site.
Taking into consideration the later revelations about the conspiracy and the desire to find a means to defend against an imminent invasion by aliens through some kind of viral plague, there doesn’t seem to be much sense in taking alien technology and using it to create better military aircraft. However, the military was heavily involved in the ongoing eugenics programs, and we know that the military was already using the engineered “super soldiers” in 1991.
Between 1947 and 1973, the conspiracy was geared towards using advanced eugenics and cloning techniques to develop a means of resisting future alien invasion, and also to counter the similar programs being engineered by the Russians. Since the disappearance of test pilots goes back to 1963, the incorporation of alien technology would have been a part of this overall “arms race”. In the wake of the new phase of the conspiracy, when the cloning techniques shifted emphasis towards hybridization and vaccination experiments, there still would have been the ongoing genetic engineering to develop a human being able to withstand colonization, as well as the necessary technology to repel the more material aspects of the invasion.
The only real weakness of that theory is the fact that normal pilots were being used to test the advanced aircraft, rather than bio-engineered pilots with the necessary regenerative abilities. However, it might be reasoned that normal pilots were used to test the effects on human tissue of the recovered alien technology, as well as to make it easier to cover their operations in the event of a crash. Dead human beings are easier to explain than missing bodies, after all.
What it all adds up to is the next step in using Mulder and the X-Files to cover the experiments conducted by the conspiracy, by giving him the impression that he is being leaked information by an informant. The woeful ineptitude of the surveillance and security covering Mulder and Scully suggests that it was all a clever set-up, and this would certainly not be the first time that Mulder was used by an informant to achieve certain goals. It also adds up to one of the most beloved early episodes, and one that truly captures the best elements of the series.
Some other thoughts:
- I know it’s a minor detail, and makes sense if this episode takes place several months after the pilot, but Scully’s hair is completely different here. And I don’t like this style very much!
- “Paranormal bouquet”…what exactly does that smell like? Day old ectoplasm?
- The background score for this episode is absolutely classic, and sets the tone perfectly.
- Gee, those surveillance people are rather obvious, aren’t they?
- Check out the size of those cell phones!
- It’s always a good idea to bother highly-ranked military officers at home.
- “Sucker!”
- Scully has her own personal set of USGS survey maps? The way she referred to that map, that’s what it sounded like…
- That opening shot in the second act is a perfect shot of early Mulder and Scully…practically archetypical.
- Seth Green looks so damned goofy here…talk about a style not aging well!
- It’s interesting to note just how early in the series it was made clear that Mulder should never try to rock.
- “Ooooo…if you were that stoned, what?”
- “If we ignore him, do you think he’ll go away?”
- OK, Scully looks much, much better with her hair up. Much better.
- Good job, Mulder…don’t hide behind the big, tall weeds. Sit down right in front of them, in plain view!
- I just love that shot of Mulder under the UFO…another classic moment.
- Also, notice how the sound effect for the UFO at the military base is very similar to the sound effects used in “Pilot”.
Overall, this is about as strong a beginning as a series could ask for. There are some subtle points to the episode that eventually make sense in later seasons, and of course, this is the perfect introduction to Deep Throat. If they could only have retained this level of mystery over the years!
I give it a 9/10.
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