Written by Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon
Directed by Larry Shaw
In trying to entangle what would
eventually become the morass that was the mythology, one has the hardest amount
of trying to figure out what episodes in the first season meet this criteria.
The majority of the websites seem to consider it as much, but so much of what
happens in this episode runs counterintuitive to what we will consider the
show's baseline (a line that moves almost at the will of the writers) that it
doesn't fit easily into either a
standalone or mythos. It doesn't help matters that Gordon, in his four year
tenure with the show, wrote very few mythology episodes. Given how well this
episode works, that may have been a major failing on the writers part.
Because say what you will about
this episode--- at least it doesn't screw around. It takes the ambiguity that
has been slowly building up ever since Deep Throat, and shines a searchlight on
it. There are aliens out there--- we may never get a clear shot at them, but
that doesn't change the fact that there is a UFO, the pilot gets out and starts killing people (extremely
painfully, by the looks of it), and the government is absolute determined to
cover it up, no matter how flimsy their excuses are. One of my favorite moments
in the first season occurs when a female radar observer, having been dismissed
twice by her superiors suggesting that the blips on her screen are meteors has
the great pleasure of telling her boss that "the 'meteor' appears to be
hovering over a small town in Wisconsin." What makes it all the better is
the smug smile she gets as her superior has no choice but to just walk away.
There are hearts and minds that are being won --- we see a couple of them in
this episodes, for starters---- and it makes you realize that Mulder's quest
for the truth, however quixotic it may seem to the outside world does have a
purpose.
Mulder could be a little less
defiant about it. He follows a tip from Deep Throat to try and chase down a
lead on an alien craft (more on this later), he sneaks on to a top secret
military base, he gets caught and thrown in lockup, and when Scully tells him
that the X-Files are in danger of being closed down (not an idle threat, btw),
he spends the majority of the episode chasing down more evidence. In time,
Scully will come to accept this outright giving the finger to those higher ups,
but right now we're a little like her, wondering why Mulder proceeds with so
little regard for his career or wellbeing.
Admittedly, like all the mythology
episodes, there doesn't seem to be much going on that we can rely on. The alien
seems more of a reject from Predator then
anything that we will see on the show, and the military response bears little
involvement of any of the figures we will come to associate with the shows
conspirators. But for once that doesn't seem like a drawback, because the
episode has another, more interesting story than the alien running rampant in
Townsend. It's Max Fenig, the first of
what would appear to be Mulder's groupies, and in some ways a precursor for the Internet followers that
will be created by this show. Gordon and Gansa have a much clearer idea of what
Max is, and it's pretty clear he is what Mulder might well become if he didn't
have the FBI. And it becomes clear that Max has been drawn to the same field as
Mulder for not completely unrelated reasons.
Scott Bellis has a very endearing presence that makes Max one of the
more beloved characters in the X-Files pantheon, and it actually creates a
character beside Mulder that we're worried about when the climax comes along.
Mulder may not care much for his welfare, but he damn well cares about the
wellbeing of others, and this episode is the first to demonstrate that this has
a more general affect on him.
For the first time, we see Mulder
publicly raked over the coals by the FBI, and for the first time, Duchovny seems to tapping into the righteous
indignation. We're right there with him; a dozen people have died, and the FBI
seems more concerned with matters of protocol than human lives. How would you
feel to find out to see what Mulder
must have seen in the climax at the waterfront, and then be told that Max was
just another victim. (This is, in fact, one of the first lies that the show
will disprove--- though not until the fourth season.)
The biggest shock is saved 'til the
end, though, when Section Chief McGrath is utterly bewildered by his superiors
decision not to cashier Mulder---- and the superior is revealed to be Deep
Throat. We will never know for certain whether the reasons he states for
keeping him in the FBI are his actual reasons for helping Mulder, or whether
this is just the party line that the series will use as the main reasons for
not firing/killing him off. Jerry Hardin himself doesn't seem that sure either,
maybe because the writer's never gave him much of a hint as to what his
character was supposed to be doing. The avuncular nature of Hardin makes it
hard to tell. All we know is that no one on his side ever makes as bold a move
to keep Mulder where he is.
Fallen Angel is perhaps the best
script that Gordon and Gansa wrote for The
X-Files (admittedly, the competition is pretty slim here.) It has an energy
and confidence that most of their scripts--- or, for that matter, a fair amount
of the mythology--- does not. It's this potential energy that gives us some
hope that this series and this conspiracy may be going somewhere. Considering
how utterly confused the conspiracy would become, one might still view this
episode better as a standalone. Either way, it's worth the time.
My score: 4 stars
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