"Darkness Falls"
Written by Chris Carter
Directed by Joe Napolitano


In which Mulder and Scully investigate the disappearance of a logging crew, and find themselves caught in the wilderness with a swarm of killer bugs...

Synopsis - Analysis - Memorable Quotes - Observations


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"Ooooooh...pretty!"


Synopsis

As the episode begins, in Olympic National Forest, Washington, a large group of loggers stand around two men as they argue about how to react to something that is preying on them. The leader of the group, Perkins, argues that they should send one man to attempt hiking out to get help. The other man, Dyer, suggests taking a run for it. The men all decide to follow Dyer, and Perkins reluctantly tags along. As the sun goes down, one man breaks his ankle, and Perkins stops to help him. But it’s too late, as a strange swarm of tiny green bugs descend from the trees.

Sometime later, in the basement office, Mulder informs Scully that 30 loggers were declared missing by the Federal Forest Service. He also tells her about a couple of militant environmentalists named Doug Spinney and Steven Teague, who have been engaging in a spree of sabotage recently. The logging company requested an investigation, but the FFS officers never returned from the forest. Spinney and Teague are the main suspects, and the FBI has been asked to get involved. Mulder requested the case, based on a similar odd mass disappearance of loggers occurred in the same area in 1934.

Mulder and Scully arrive at the ranger station closest to the logging site, and meet with Ranger Larry Moore of the FFS. As they load their gear into Moore’s truck, Mulder notices a bullet hole in the windshield. Moore explains that FFS officers are favorite targets of the more violent ecoterrorists. Also arriving is Steve Humphreys, the head of security for the logging company.

During the four hour drive to the logging site, Humphreys explains to Mulder and Scully that the logging company is forced by regulations to cut trees in specific areas well out of the way…and the terrorists make even that much work difficult. Sure enough, moments later, the truck gets two flats, thanks to homemade tire spikes left in the access road by the activists. They are forced to hike the rest of the way.

After a long walk, they make it to the loggers’ cabin, where they find it abandoned and all of the vehicles completely sabotaged. Food is still on the table in the cabin, as well as most of the personal items of the missing men. The terrorists also destroyed the radio and the generator. Mulder notices an odd oily residue on everything. With the sun going down, Humphreys starts repairing the generator while the others conduct a quick search.

As they comb through one of the cut areas of the forest, Mulder notices a huge cocoon of some kind hanging horizontally in the high branches of an uncut tree. They send Scully up in a hoist to check it out, and very quickly, she notices rotting fingers protruding out of the side of the cocoon. After cutting it down, they pull open the cocoon and find a half-rotten, desiccated corpse of a man. All the fluids have been removed from the body.

Back at the cabin, Humphreys is still working on the generator when he hears a noise from inside. He confronts the visitor, who is ravenously eating food, and recognizes him as Doug Spinney. It’s very clear that Spinney isn’t sure about what happened to the loggers, but he could guess. As the others arrive, Humphreys accuses Spinney of being a murderer, but Spinney simply denies it and advises them to get the generator working. “Darkness is our enemy”, he says.

Spinney explains, when pressed, that something comes out of the trees when it’s dark and devours men alive. He’s seen it, though he won’t explain further. Humphreys doesn’t believe a word of it, but then the others tell him what they found in the forest. As Spinney eats some food, Mulder demands an explanation. Spinney tells them that his camp, a couple valleys over, drew straws to determine who would come to steal a battery for their jeep. He came to the loggers’ camp because his friend Teague was devoured while trying to hike out of the forest.

When Mulder asks what Spinney’s group was doing in the forest, Humphreys accuses the man of being a felon. Spinney doesn’t deny it, but he points out that the loggers have been cutting protected trees. This gets Moore’s interest, since that is also illegal. Humphreys denies the charge, and gets angry when the others don’t believe him. He is about to storm out of the cabin when Spinney reminds him of what’s out there. Humphreys wonders why the things don’t come into the cabin for them, and Spinney figures it has something to do with the light. Disbelieving, Humphreys walks outside and dares whatever it is to get him. Of course, it doesn’t…but the bug zapper is working furiously, and there are millions of little glowing green bugs on all the trees, carefully staying in shadow.

The next morning, Spinney takes the group out to the cut area, and shows them a huge tree that Moore believes is more than 500 years old. It’s clearly marked as protected. But Mulder notes that one of the oldest tree rings on the cut stump has an odd greenish layer. Moore takes a sample, as Humphreys gets impatient. When Mulder and Scully inform him that they think Spinney is innocent, Humphreys decides to do his own investigation, and sets off for Moore’s truck. He intends to call his own brand of help.

Back at the cabin, Moore analyzes the sample and finds thousands of tiny bugs scampering about in the wood. It’s not normal for a parasite to be eating dead wood at the center of a tree, but Scully notes that the bugs appear to be hatching out of the wood, and that cutting the tree might have tapped a larger nest. Spinney also notes that the deaths began just after that particular tree was cut down.

Meanwhile, Humphreys makes it to Moore’s truck, but then remembers that he doesn’t have the keys. He spends several hours trying to jumpstart the car, but night falls first. The green insects descend as he tries to drive away, but he winds up trapping himself in the truck as they stream through the air vents.

Back at the cabin, the others recognize that Humphreys should have made it back by then. Scully also notices that the bugs in the sample appear to be dead. Spinney notes that they seem to avoid the light. Mulder notices the oily residue again, and asks Scully what she knows about insects. He believes that the insects in the tree might have been a result of climatically driven mutation following an old volcanic eruption. Scully is skeptical, but Spinney considers it poetic justice.

The next morning, Mulder discovers Spinney attempting to leave quietly with the remaining gas and a battery from one of the sabotaged vehicles. Spinney explains that his friends only had enough gas for a dozen or so hours, and they’ll die if he doesn’t go back. He promises Mulder that he’ll drive back to help them. Mulder lets him go on his word.

Later, Mulder fixes the radio transmitter, and tries to send out a mayday. But his transmission is cut off when Moore shuts down the generator. Mulder and Scully go outside to find out what happened, and Moore tells them they need to conserve gas. Unfortunately, Spinney took the entire reserve gas with him, so they can’t waste any of what remains…which will maybe last the night. Scully’s not at all happy with Mulder’s unilateral decisions, but she and Moore help him attempt to seal the cabin from the insects.

That night, the generator runs poorly, but more or less consistently. Their one light bulb flickers now and then, but it’s bright enough to keep them comfortable. Then Scully sees thousands of the mites crawling into the cabin under the wall, and then all over her body. She flips out, nearly breaking the light bulb in the process, until Mulder explains that the mites are everywhere. The oily residue comes from them, and the light simply keeps them from swarming.

As Mulder and Scully discuss their options, the generator runs out of gas…just as the sun rises. Mulder and Moore patch one of the tires from the sabotaged vehicles and they all prepare to make a run for Moore’s truck. By the time they get there, the day is half gone, and they find Humphreys dead inside the truck. Just then, Spinney arrives with his jeep, and they all pile in and run for it. As night falls, it looks like they might make it, until the jeep hits more tire spikes. Spinney goes outside to check on the damage, and is quickly attacked. Mulder, Scully, and Moore are attacked soon after.

The next morning, a biological containment team arrives and finds that Mulder, Scully, and Moore are still alive, if barely. They are taken to a facility in Winthrop, Washington. Mulder is the first to recover, but he looks extremely dehydrated and his skin is enflamed. Scully is still touch-and-go and unconscious, looking even worse than Mulder. Mulder asks the man in charge of their recovery how they intend to contain the swarm, and the man makes it clear that failure is not an option.


Analysis

This episode is that Chris Carter episode that works despite itself. The premise is derivative at best, taking some of the most basic themes from “Ice” and its influences and watering them down just a bit. Then there are the logical gaps in the episode that leave the entire basis for the investigation in question. Add to that some oddly polarized political and social commentary, and it’s a wonder that this is actually one of the best episodes of the first season.

Granted, this episode has the virtue of leaving the source of the problem largely unresolved. Unlike “Ice”, the only solution to this bottle episode is finding a way to escape during a very small window of opportunity. It’s a nice change to have the leads actually lose that battle, and end up surviving only through sheer stroke of luck. The odds were stacked heavily against them in the final act.

If anything, that final act gives us an interesting look at Mulder’s personality. For someone who is so paranoid all the time, or so we’re told, it’s rather unsettling that he would trust Spinney to keep his word more than he trusts Scully to make that decision with him. This is far from the first time Mulder would make a decision that affects other people without hesitation, but here we see his hubris shining through.

Unfortunately, Mulder’s interest in the case doesn’t quite make sense. His explanation for taking the case is an unexplained disappearance of a logging crew in 1934. However, if the insects in this episode are meant to be the cause of that earlier disappearance, then one has to wonder why that swarm never managed to migrate, or why there were no subsequent disappearances and/or deaths in the immediate area.

It’s just a little hard to believe that the government and science was advanced enough in those areas to sufficiently identify and eliminate millions of those insects. If the area is remote in early 1994, then it’s certainly remote in 1934! Once released, there doesn’t seem to be a compelling or even offered reason for the insects to die off without reproduction.

While it’s possible that the insects from 1934 might have remained undiscovered until the new crew arrived sixty years later, there should have been victims among the FFS, logging crew, and eco-terrorists as soon as they arrived in that location. And if there were some food shortage in 1934 for the swarm, then they should have just moved on. That’s usually how it works.

It can be interesting when the series takes on an issue and uses the paranormal to reflect on the real world, but in this case, it’s just a little overwrought. It’s hard to believe that Chris Carter didn’t intend to make a statement about conservation and the evils of cutting down trees, because the evil of this episode is unleashed because of cutting down the wrong tree…one that was supposed to be saved!

That might have still worked, except that the head of security for the logging company is portrayed like some kind of lunatic, and the admitted eco-terrorist is little more than fatalistic. It’s true that Spinney dies largely because of the methods employed by his own movement, but Humphreys dies because he’s an idiot.

In fact, the situation in this episode can only happen if the characters make certain stupid decisions along the way. If Moore knows that there are tire spikes on the access roads, why only bring one spare? Why not take extra gas for a generator, if you know that you might have to spend at least one night in the loggers’ cabin (logical from the distance between the truck and the cabin)? Why let Spinney take the gas, when as soon as he gets the battery to his jeep, they won’t need gas for a generator because they’ll be leaving? And while it might not be the best of ideas, why not at least try to build a contained area of fire on an access road or the cabin to survive overnight and attract attention? Why was the radio the only means of declaring an emergency?

But despite all of those issues with the writing, the episode manages to work. There’s a palpable sense of horror when Scully realizes that she’s already covered with the mites. If the writing had been better, then this episode could have been a classic on par with “Ice”. Instead, it falls a little short of that greatness.


Memorable Quotes

MULDER: “Take a good look, Scully.”
SCULLY: “What am I looking at?”
MULDER: “Thirty loggers working a clear-cutting contract in Washington State. Rugged, manly men in the full bloom of their manhood.”
SCULLY: “Right, but what am I looking for?”
MULDER: “Anything strange, unexplainable, unlikely…boyfriend…”

MULDER: “There’s actually this lake where they’ve discovered a kind of amoebae that can literally suck a man’s brains out.”
SCULLY: “Oh…a brain-sucking amoebae…”

MULDER: “Look, Scully, what would you have done?”
SCULLY: “You mean, would I have made a decision by myself that would have affected the whole group?”
MULDER: “Oh, will you cut the sanctimonious crap?”


Observations

- Very effective teaser…drops you right in the middle of the action from the get-go!

- Funny that Chris Carter swears that this episode doesn’t advocate eco-terrorism, yet it completely casts Spinney as being on the “right side”…

- What was the point of having the loggers keep a stash of pot in the cabin?

- It didn’t look like the men in the teaser had been in the middle of a meal…and if they knew what was coming, why would it have been a surprise?

- Oh, sure, let’s send the woman up to inspect the big honkin’ insect nest!

- Why doesn’t Spinney just come out and tell them what he’s seen? He’s damned circumspect for someone with a shotgun pointed at his face…

- Great scene: Humphreys railing into the forest, with millions of those mites just waiting in the shadow of the nearest tree!

- Unless I missed something, they never explained why insects trapped in the trees for hundreds of years would still be alive…

- Why didn’t anyone think of using the fog lights and interior overhead lights in the truck or jeep to keep the insects away?

- Unless “Aqua Mala” counts, I don’t remember them ever doing the “brain-sucking amoebae” episode!

- Did Mulder really think that a few boards and nails would keep out the microscopic buggies?

- How come the mites were visible in the dark later in the episode, but not before?

- Why would Mulder have expected Moore’s truck to still be there? After all, Humphreys told them he was taking it to find some people who would take care of Spinney!

- I wonder how long it was supposed to take Mulder and Scully to completely recover from exposure to the insects…

Overall, this episode is very entertaining, despite some of the gaps in the logic of the story. The story also suffers from a supposedly unintentional “moral” to the story, which should have been handled a bit more evenly. Still, this is a classic episode from the first season.

I give it an 8/10.


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