Thoughts in a File Marked X

' Herrenvolk ' translates as ' Master Race '. Isn't it interesting that after so long pretending that Canada was the United States, in this episode, they go out of their way to make it clear that this is Canada? Even the license plate of the repair man's van tells us we are in Alberta. Surely no American kid would so disdainfully nudge a dying man with his foot the way those barbaric Canadian kids do? We now know that the great conspiracy is about 'colonisation' and that the time is set. How they must have wanted to film this episode in Mexico! Think about it, the States is paranoid about alien invasion, which isn't likely to happen from north of the border. And, in the Great Democracy, how do you discuss the Master Race? There is no choice but to situate the events of this episode outside the States. And, as they're filming in Canada, well, problem solved. One reason why the X Files is such a great show is it's ability to make us question...

No episode of the X Files is a surface text; each, in its own right, contains multiple meanings. What a particular viewer takes away from any given episode largely depends on what that viewer brings to the text. It is possible, for instance, that there is a viewer out there somewhere who actually enjoyed ' Teso dos Bichos ' - maybe an Ecuadorean-American who enjoyed the great Imperialist having to give in to the voice of the indigenous people and return the Amaru, or a common-or-garden new ager who likes the idea of the Shaman overcoming the modern world's lack of belief in a spirit world. So, ' Die hand die verletzt ' can be read as a text dealing with the scandal of repressed memories and Satanic Ritual Abuse - and, as the Devil makes a personal appearance, in the form of Ms. Paddock, there's probably at least a couple of conclusions that can be come to depending on the viewer's opinions of SRA. It is with this aspect of the show that I have dealt with ...

My title is spoken by Jeremiah Smith, a name of such import. Jeremiah was, of course, one of the Old Testament prophets, who lived to witness the fall of Jerusalem, despite his call to return to the God who would save. Wherein lies our quandary. We resist God because He imposes strictures upon our behaviour and way of life. Our mad dash for freedom prohibits our subservience to a power that might tell us we are wrong. The surname, Smith, shows him to be but an ordinary man, but one skilled in the use of his hands - what is a smith but one who works with his hands, shaping utility into the shapeless? Jeremiah Smith demonstrates both these aspects of his name. He heals in the manner of Jesus, by laying on his hands, (cf. ' Talitha Cumi ) which shapes the shooter into a new person, one who now believes when, before, he was without hope. Unfortunately, Jeremiah Smith proves himself a damp squib. How many times does he tell Mulder that he can explain everything - which he obviously ...

It is hard to maintain belief. Even the firmest of beliefs will be subject to doubt. One could almost say a belief without doubt is not true belief. To go even further, fundamentalism doesn't grow out of belief, it grows out of doubt. There is never need to prove true faith, indeed, there is nothing one can do to prove faith. Actions taken in the name of faith are really actions taken to prove one's faith to others. Is love really love if it is necessary to continually prove one's love? It isn't love one must prove, for how is that possible? It is commitment that requires proof. It is difficult because we are hard-wired to believe what we see. After all they have been through, despite a trust in one another most of us would envy, Scully cannot but believe Mulder's betrayal upon seeing him sitting in that car with the CSM. (cf. Wetwired ) Herein lies the paradox. Though we place such faith in the eye-witness there is little reason for it. We see what we want...

Isn't it strange that a politician, in these days when we are so conservationally conscious and aware of the huge impacts even small changes to an eco-system can have, be elected to " drain the swamp "? In a rare example of consistency, pulling out of the Paris Agreement was at least in line with this oft quoted campaign message. Bulldozers and chainsaws, though handy tools for clearing the environment to make way for golf clubs and hotels, tend to have a less than positive effect upon the natural order of things. While we humans don't entirely appreciate the beauty of a natural order, it would seem an essential quality of nature. As Mulder explains: Food chain. If you alter one life form in an ecosystem, the rest is necessarily affected, either by an increase or decrease. So if an aquatic dinosaur's diet consisted primarily of frogs, then if those frogs suddenly became scarce, it would have to search for an alternative food source. It matters not whet...

What wouldn't you do for a boss like Walter Skinner? He's read the book and can quote it chapter and verse and still be there to catch your back when you need him. He's an army man who lives by the rules of which Mulder is blissfully unaware. When Skinner acts he does so knowing full well what it is that he is doing. Skinner is strong and a man, he takes on X in a lift in the belief that they are equals. And they are. He just hasn't lost his humanity enough to win that particular battle. This is the thing about Skinner, he is human. It stands out in a show about aliens. "If you can keep your head when all about you / Are losing theirs…". Kipling 's poem could have been written about Skinner. Skinner has been drawn into a world he doesn't understand and, truth be known, doesn't really want to understand. Unfortunately for him, it is the world in which he exists and must deal with. He deals with it according to his values, his own sense of what...

Mulder is the great crusader after truth. But what is this truth for which he has sacrificed the life of a normal human being? What is this crusade into which he has enticed Scully, at the cost of her reputation, career and family? What is it they seek when they go running after the 'truth'? Truth, by definition, is abstract. Like ' love '. Well, not really. There is a fundamental difference between 'love' and 'truth'. It may be just as difficult to 'define' love as it is truth. The difference between the two is that we 'feel' love, it has physiological effects upon us, it is something worth dying for. Truth is something always beyond our reach, love is something we cling to with all our being. Truth is worth other people's lives, love is worth our own. Is the truth for which Mulder and Scully search really worth Melissa Scully's life? Is it worth the lives of Robert Vallee or Jack Schaffer? Scully's sister ...

In my belief, death is nothing to be feared. It's merely a stage of transition but life without hope-- now, that's living hell. So, hope was my gift to these men. (SCULLY sighs angrily) I don't expect you to understand. Once again, the X Files makes the existential-esque character a dealer in death! There is cause to argue with an assessment of the 'Hard-faced Man' as existentialist. Primarily because his victims are so fatalistic. Hsin definitely displays fear when his sigil is called. He even contemplates running away. He goes to the table because he has to, not as an accepted consequence of a choice he made. So, yes, hope is offered, but it's hope gift-wrapped in fear. A true existentialist must accept the choices made in life and live with the consequences gladly, knowing that s/he has only her/himself to hold responsible for how things turn out. Hsin is not existentialist. He does what he thinks he must do if he is to have any chance of saving his...

‘ Teso dos Bichos ’ is truly a terrible episode of the X Files and should be avoided at all costs - unless you have strong feelings about either cultural appropriation or cats. While either one of these will give you a reason to keep watching neither improves the quality of the show.  The title of the episode refers to the archaeological dig being conducted in the Ecuadorian Highlands, lead by Dr. Roosevelt, we must notice. According to Wikipedia, it translates as, “Burial Ground of Small Animals”, as appropriate a place to locate this episode as any. Upon finding an ‘Amaru’ or burial jar, containing the remains of a female shaman, Roosevelt is warned that the locals, the Sekona Indians, won’t let them take it. Roosevelt, of course, isn’t about to let “these people” stop him. Roosevelt has the good graces not to pretend to be working for the benefit of the locals. His claim to be ‘saving’ rather than ‘disturbing’ her, has some merit, taking into account PetroEcuador’s plans t...

I once knew a guy who supplied drugs to much of the North West of England. He was arrested because he had 'form' and because the police had received a tip-off that a shipment was coming in. (Every time I watch the French Connection I think of this guy. Remember the scene when they pull in the car and take it to bits?) The cops had been tipped off that this guy was bringing in drugs hidden in a car. Unlike the French Connection , they didn't find what they were looking for because someone tipped him off that the cops had been tipped off. We had an understanding that what was said in class went no further. It was Psychology. How could I get these guys to talk if every time they said something incriminating I told the authorities? It was a moral decision I had to make but, having just come out of seminary and as a Catholic, the seal of the Confessional was not a difficult choice. The point being that a 'pusher' is someone who supplies drugs. ' Pusher ' i...

Scully and Mulder have already had their near death experiences - Scully in ' One Breath ' and Mulder in ' The Blessing Way '. In ' Apocrypha ', AD Skinner gets his. The ' dynamic duo ' are now a Trinity - Skinner as Father, Mulder as Son and Scully as the Holy Spirit. Skinner is the authority that seeks to impose order and justice; he says as much in this episode. "A woman was murdered. I mistakenly thought that we could bring the man who committed that crime to justice." He tries to deflect the deeper meanings Mulder would apply to his actions, "I think you're perceiving from a mistaken impression, what I did, I did it because it's my job." But we know Skinner well by now and are not fooled. We know that by doing what he did, he has chosen sides, accepted his role in the great drama being played out. The X Files would have us believe that the 'truth' is out there, while all the time obfuscating that truth, pe...

We English are constantly told there exists a ' special relationship ' between the United States and the Untied Kingdom. It's a concept that puzzles and confounds for no one really knows what it means. As someone born a mere seventeen years after the Second World War , I have a healthy awareness of the aid that the United States supplied and acknowledge, without hesitation, that if it wasn't for that aid, Britain had little chance of defeating Germany. I also, occasionally, paid attention in History class and so was aware that, but for the help of the French, Britain would likely have won the War of Independence, as it is known by the winners. Damn! Do I have to admit that Dan Brown was right? Wars come and go and make great movies, despite Hollywood's propensity to fictionalise so their hero doesn't have to be gay. So, watching ' Piper Maru ', I wondered about the depiction of the French. I'll admit to having the thought that, if I was A...

' Grotesque ', the fourteenth episode of Season Three, poses a puzzle. It's a puzzle that is worked out through the plot. John Mostow attends art class yet, rather than attempting a realist depiction of the model before him, he reproduces - endlessly, as it turns out - an image of the demon that drives him to kill. Hot on his trail is Agent Bill Patterson. Patterson was or is the head of Behavioural Sciences at the FBI - a less amiable John Douglas and a less literate Robert Ressler . Needless to say, the authoritarian Patterson had no way of handling the upstart who did things differently. Authority requires innovation to avoid stagnation but rarely recognises it when it comes along. To his credit, he has Mulder brought into this case because it has reached a point he cannot handle  - if only managers watched the X Files! Because he is authoritarian, Patterson cannot understand the nuances of the human creature. He's caught his man but he has no understanding of...

"I was hoping you could help me solve the mystery of the horny beast." Without doubt, Fox Mulder gets some classic lines. Not that Scully doesn't; one of my favourites being, "Only five?" in 'The List'. According to the scheme I presented earlier, 'Syzygy' is the episode in which the developing rift in their relationship manifests blatantly. They are at odds throughout the episode, even until the very end:. MULDER: You just…. ran a stop sign back there, Scully. SCULLY: Shut up, Mulder. MULDER: Sure, fine, whatever. The horny beast is definitely raising his fully engorged head, if you'll pardon my crude allusion. The pun, Mulder's, not mine, works because the agents are called in to help with the unfortunate death of Ryan Reynolds - or, at least, his character, Jay de Boom. Boom, as he's known, is wearing his team's jacket when he dies - that American thing you see in so many movies and TV episodes. And, wouldn't ...

The X Files presents us with a view of the world in which aliens exist and supernatural phenomena occur. Scully's application of standard scientific method as an attempt to explain the often strange events they encounter, while occasionally sufficient, ultimately falls short of full explanatory power. Not necessarily so, however. Science is a voluntarily narrow-minded view of the world in which we live. Science deliberately restricts itself to explaining not what ‘humanly' is, rather only what ‘materially’ is. With its sense of divine right, Science bestows upon itself the authority to decide the ‘material’ trumps the ‘human'. What is material will be studied, what is not will be ridiculed as 'radical outliers', hence the loquacious Richard Dawkins famously denounced the X Files for its promotion of pseudoscience.  This is not to deride Science. It is, after all, one of the pinnacles of human achievement. There is a sense, however, that Science falls short o...

Mulder and Scully have a relationship. A very close relationship. No two people could spend so much time, in such intense situations, and not develop a relationship. It is a staple of the detective genre that the relationship between partners is almost sacred. In ' The Maltese Falcon ’ (1941), Sam Spade, though in love with Brigid O'Shaughnessy, still 'sends her over' because "When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something. It makes no difference what you thought of him. He was your partner, and you're supposed to do something about it…" In Season Three, the relationship between Mulder and Scully hits a troubled patch. They'd already gone through a forced separation in Season Two, and found they couldn't live without each other. Playing to gender stereotypes, Mulder finds solace in the arms of Kristen Kilar ; Scully stays chaste throughout. Their's is a difficult relationship. They have such differing views on how...