The Links Are Out There: Commonalities Between Lost And The X-Files

 

 

Within weeks of Lost becoming both an enormous critical and ratings hit for ABC multiple articles began to come up comparing the series to The X-Files. This was not a logical comparison for a show that had not yet been on the air for a season but the longer Lost ran, the louder the comparisons became – and they were not favorable ones.

To compare The X-Files and Lost is like comparing aliens and polar bears.  There were no aliens or government conspiracies on Lost, no old men in rooms discussing world domination, no federal agents in suits waving flashlights in darkened forests, and there was only one monster on the show and we certainly didn’t see it every week. Nor did the comparison make sense in terms of other aspects; The X-Files spanned America and other aspects of the world; Lost was always on the island. The X-Files was a series with only two major leads for most of its run; Lost started with one of the biggest ensembles of its era and was always expanding its cast. The X-Files made clear that it was science-fiction from the start; for at least the first three seasons of Lost, the viewer wasn’t sure what genre they were watching and it didn’t fully embrace sci-fi until Season 5.

 Even the success of the shows were different: The X-Files struggled for its first season to find viewers and only achieved renewal  by the skin of its teeth and didn’t become a popular sensation until the second or third season. Lost was a ratings smash from its premiere and always maintained high viewership throughout its entire run on the air. They even treated their fandom differently; the creators of The X-Files spent their entire run ignoring the online fandom that was beginning to become one of the biggest parts of the internet. Lost from the start embraced the internet and engaged with its fans in a way almost no series had before.

But the reason the comparison was made as early as 2004 was simple: Lost was the first serialized drama to have what amount to an underlying mythology since The X-Files. Even this missed one of the major differences between the two shows. The X-Files mythology, which centered around the grander plot, was only brought to the forefront six or seven episodes of the season. This almost always involved a two-part episode, and then Mulder and Scully would go back to investigating what is now lovingly referred to as ‘Monster of the Week’. The longer The X-Files went on, the mythology would increasingly become more of a drawback to the show and the monster of the week episodes would be the one that fans looked forward to and when the series was over, genuinely thought was the more entertaining part of The X-Files.

The reason the comparison between the two was simple. The mythology of The X-Files quickly spun out of control always building up to climaxes that changed nothing and then coming back every few months and expanding. Resolution was always promised but it never truly came, but the devoted fans still clung to the idea that Chris Carter would make sense of it in the end. When the series did end in 2002, having passed its creative prime years ago and the mythology long past even the possibility of making sense, the show’s ending when it came was panned by everybody from critics to fans and the internet, everyone upset that the fans had wasted so much time trying to make sense of a mythology that was truly silly when it was explained. It was a cautionary tale of what a mythology series shouldn’t do.

That memory was fresh in genre fans minds when Lost premiered and for that reason, people viewed with a similar look of dismay. At one point Carter himself was asked to weigh in and warned creators Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof about what they were in for: “When you stumble, you fall,” he said in an interview. Of course when Lost did come to an end the finale didn’t so much disappoint as it did polarize the fan base – and its worth noting that while The X-Files reputation managed to remain fairly steady despite its finale, there are still many disappointed people who consider Lost a waste of time.

As someone who has watched both series multiple times both during their original run and in the decades since both shows left the air, I originally consider The x-Files little more than an ancestor text to Lost then any direct links between the two shows. However with the passage of time I have come to see that there are clear links between the two, some of them thematic, some of them involving the major storylines for both series. It would take volumes to explain all of them in detail, so for now I’ll try to stick to the major themes that are common to both series.

In a way the most obvious comparison between the two comes when Mulder and Scully meet for the first time. Mulder is slightly callous to Scully and manages he knows her resume which involves “Einstein’s Twin Paradox.” “Did you read it?” Scully asked. “I did,” Mulder says. “It’s just in my line of word, the rules of physics rarely apply.”

The obvious comparison is to the first memorable exchange between Jack and Locke in ‘White Rabbit’. Jack thinks he is chasing the ghost of his father through the jungle but he doesn’t tell Locke that simply saying that’s it can’t be real. Locke’s response is: “But what if it were?” Jack responds: “That would be impossible.” Locke says: “Even if it was, let’s say that it’s not.”

Now if you knew only Lost but not the X-Files (or just knew the basics) you would say that the former show was paralleling the latter’s dynamic: Scully is the Woman of Science, Mulder the Man of Faith. And there is an overall comparison throughout the first seven years of the series (I’m sticking with the original run for this essay’s purpose). Whenever they were investigating vampires or aliens or witches, Scully would say there was a scientific explanation, Mulder would go to the idea of the paranormal. Mulder would inevitably be proven right and over time, Scully gradually came around to his point of view.

You could also argue the parallel between Locke’s quest on the island and Mulder’s quest for the truth being similarly destructive and leading to the loss of many innocent lives. But there are several critical differences. The most glaring is that Locke believe that his faith was a sign of a benign and benevolent purpose. Mulder’s quest was for the truth, but he knew going in that the truth was anything but benevolent or benign. Both men’s beliefs led to become destructive, outcasts in their societies, and many people to believe them crazy. Mulder is referred to as ‘Spooky’ but even he know that’s not a compliment.

Mulder’s quest for answers is very destructive mainly because he has the blind belief that the truth is in everybody’s best interest, a theme Locke keeps coming back too. Locke’s certainty causes him to openly harm his fellow survivors, Mulder’s is unintentional. And Mulder takes the losses along the way far more brutally then Locke does, who season after season seems to shrug off the number of people who die in quest, even if he himself is the cause.

Contrast this with Mulder’s reaction after what is the most critical event in the series: Scully’s abduction by Duane Barry early in Season 2. In the aftermath of Season 1 the X-Files has been closed down and he and Scully separated. Scully is taken prisoner by Barry (we never learn how he found her) and she disappears. The X-Files are reopened but Mulder is lost in a way he wasn’t before. When Scully is returned but lies near death in One Breath, Mulder is offered a choice of revenge against the men who took her. Scully’s sister Melissa comes to him and tries to give up his revenge in order to say goodbye to his friend. He goes to her bedside and says that: “I think you know it’s not your time yet. And I know you’ve always had the courage of your beliefs.” Scully miraculously returns from the dead the next day. We never get an explanation but that day before he leaves her side she says: “Mulder. I had the strengths of your beliefs.”

The dynamic between Scully and Mulder is always phrased as skeptic-believer, which is not the same as the one that Jack and Locke have. Both men, because of their beliefs, come to disagree with whatever the other does as a result. Any fan of The X-Files will tell you that it was the disagreement and debate between the competing points of view that made it such a great show – as well as the fact that despite their vastly different points of view, neither would ever dismiss the other’s logic. Indeed, as Mulder went forward he would always admit Scully’s science was the right approach to balance his beliefs something that neither Locke nor Jack were willing to indulge with the other.

Another major contrast between the two series is the lack of curiosity the survivors of Lost often have about all of the bizarre things that are going on. As Sawyer points out at a critical point: “And you didn’t ask any follow-up questions?” is in itself a big joke. If Mulder and Scully had ended up on the island (not impossible given all the plane trips they take and Mulder’s interest in this kind of thing) they would have been infuriated as to how little anybody on the show seemed to give a damn about all the strange things they were seeing.

Any fan of The X-Files knows that at least once a season the writers would have an episode where Mulder and Scully were isolated from civilization and in the midst of a bizarre threat that might kill them. Some were an evil threat in the woods, once they were stranded on an old ship in the ocean, once they were trapped near the Arctic circle…but no matter the circumstances they knew that in order to survive they needed to assess the situation and then find a way to survive. By contrast the survivors of Oceanic 815 needed to survive on a strange island but time and again, they basically shrugged off everything they found no matter how bizarre. Mulder and Scully would have worked to get through each crisis, but after that they would have tried to figure out what each part of it meant and how the pieces fit together. On Lost no one seemed to care about what each piece of the puzzle meant.

I don’t think either Scully or Mulder would have had much patience for Jack or Locke on the island. Scully (who like Jack is also a doctor) would be incredibly frustrated at his self-righteousness towards everything that happened on the island and his utter certainty that everything made sense. Scully might not have been willing to believe that aliens abducted her, but beyond that she’d have been willing to acknowledge something abnormal was going on around the time the monster first attacked. She would be infuriated by Jack’s unwillingness to share power  and she could see all too well how poorly he handled authority once he had it. Considering what she had to deal with as early as Season 1, it’s clear she’d been dealing with Jack Shephards all her life.

But Mulder would have no patience for John Locke, mainly because his belief was in a higher power. This actually brings me to a more interesting concept; Scully was far more religious than Mulder was to the point that it was actively frustrating for her when the cases they investigated took on a religious standpoint.

 Scully, like Eko, Charlie and Desmond, was a Catholic, albeit a lapsed one. Anyone who is a fan of the show remembers the gold cross Scully wore around her neck through the entire series. In a moment that mirrors The 23^rd Psalm, when Scully is abducted Mulder finds her cross and holds on to it. When she regains consciousness in One Breath, he gives it back to her and she puts it around her neck.

But Mulder’s belief is in the truth and overall he is as agnostic. “God just reads the box scores,” he tells Scully at one point. He would have little use for Locke’s idea that everything was happening for a reason or the idea that Boone was the sacrifice the island demanded. The thing is, so would Scully. Locke’s belief is that of the fanatic and while Mulder quest for the truth can take on a similar kind of fanaticism, both he and Scully firmly believe in free will over destiny.

Free will versus destiny comes up quite a few times in multiple episodes of The X-Files. Perhaps the most famous example comes in ‘Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose’. In it Mulder and Scully are investigating the murders of fortunetellers in the twin cities and in their investigation run into Clyde Bruckman. Bruckman has the ability to see the future – but only how everyone dies.

For Bruckman, whatever happened, happened doesn’t scratch the surface; he thinks none of us have a choice in anything. In one of the most heartbreaking exchanges in the entire series Bruckman tells Mulder:

 

BRUCKMAN: “If the future hadn’t already happened, how could I foresee it?

MULDER: But if the future’s already happened, why bother doing anything?”

BRUCKMAN: “Now you’re catching on.”

 

Mulder has no patience for Bruckman while Scully is somewhat more sympathetic. She believes that it’s robbed him of all the joy of life. Locke seems more serene in his destiny but perhaps that’s because he doesn’t understand what it is until its too late to do anything about it. (Interestingly Bruckman commits suicide because he knows that he always does.)

The X-Files its worth noting treats the idea of predestination with more lightheartedness than Lost does. Most of the episodes that deal with the subject are comedies. The last word on it was the ninth season episode ‘Improbable’. In it the series actually comes face to face with God, and apparently he’s Burt Reynolds. It’s worth noting this God is far more charming and less demanding than Jacob is. He is far more loving and he loves all of his subjects – even a serial killer who doesn’t know why he’s committing the murders he does. Late in the episode he has a conversation with Scully and Monica Reyes (no relation to Hugo) and he helps them work through a major problem while they play a game of checkers. In it, he comes firmly done on the side of free will. What is interesting is that in this episode Agent Reyes is arguing that there are scientific equations that might determine everything we do (the grand unified theory) and Scully who still believes in science, refuses to except that there is a mathematical formula that explain everything. Those who have played some of the Lost interactive games know that one of the theories of the numbers was they tied into The Valenzetti Equation which was supposed to determine the fate of the world. Scully would have dismissed this as so much jargon.

Darlton argued throughout Lost that there would be nothing on the show that could not be explained by science, but that was before time travel was introduced in Season 4. Interestingly enough in a Season 4 episode Synchrony, Mulder and Scully find themselves investigating a series of murders that Mulder theorizes are being committed by a man who has time traveled from the future to, apparently, stop time travel from becoming possible. We never get a clear picture as to why, only that it creates a dystopia. The episode ends with Mulder certain that no matter what the man tried to do, he would not be able to change the future – a theory Daniel Faraday would agree with.

Similarly in the early days of the mythology the period when it was closest to being satisfying was in Season 3. During that period the series argued that there were no aliens involved in the conspiracy, only tests being done on humans dating back to the Cold War. The X-Files actually was willing to go one further than Lost was, saying that the experiments were done by Axis and Japanese scientists on American soil, that the experiments were still going on, and was even willing to go so far as to show a concentration camp in Virginia where soldiers executed hundreds, if not thousands of people. By comparison the experiments the Dharma Initiative were doing on the island look positively benign and Pierre Chang and Radzinsky look like saints in comparison.

There’s also the issue of parents. Mulder has the same kind of ‘daddy issues’ that most of the characters on Lost do, but I think  he would consider Christian Shephard or even Anthony Cooper amateurs when it comes to the baggage they leave on him. There’s still debate even years after the fact as to who Mulder’s father was, but the two options are not good ones. The Cigarette-Smoking Man  - a man so evil Ben Linus would be uncomfortable around him – has no problem repeatedly giving threats to kill the man who might very well be his son or at the very least is the son of a family friend. Bill Mulder is deeply involved in the project and arranged for his own daughter Samantha to be abducted as part of the conspiracy. Either way both men are up to their necks in a conspiracy that involves the colonization of our planet by aliens, which is a level of involvement in the mythology not even Christian was really.

 Fertility is also critical to both shows, Scully in particular. Scully develops cancer in the middle of Season 4 as a result of her abduction and lingers near death until an inexplicable recovery. (No, she doesn’t take a trip to the island.) However during the process she is rendered barren and it is not until Season 7 that she miraculously becomes pregnant. That pregnancy has multiple explanations when it comes to the writers (Chris Carter had a habit of making things up as he went along) but in the end of Season 8, Scully has to deliver her son in the midst of an isolated landscape with Monica Reyes telling her to push. (There are witnesses but they’re not as nice as Jin and Charlie.) William is  considered a ‘special’ child but not in the same way Aaron is. (Trust me, you really don’t want to know what William was capable of.)

 

And as you’d expect there are several actors who appeared in both series, though in the case of The X-Files most of them were in less important roles. Terry O’Quinn gave two guest star appearances and Michael Emerson appeared in the penultimate episode of the series. Sam Anderson played an intelligence agent in The Pine Bluff Variant. Robert Patrick played Agent Doggett in the last two seasons of The X-Files and appeared as Hibbs in the episode outlaws. Lillian Hurst (Carmen Reyes) had a role in El Mundo Gira an episode which partially dealt with the Chupacabra (Hurley asks Jin if he knows about this story over a campfire) Frederic Lane, who played Marshall Edward Mars, appears twice as a young Arthur Dales in two different episodes (and in X-Files fashion, two different Arthur Dales) Doug Hutchison, who played Horace Goodspeed on Lost played the very first ‘Monster of the Week’ Eugene Tooms, a liver eating mutant. Titus Welliver has an early role in ‘Darkness Falls’ in Season One (a guide on the series noted even then he had a reputation for playing bad guys) and Mark Pellegrino played a very un-Jacob like ex-convict in Hungry. And in the final, truly awful last season, Alan Dale played a character known as Toothpick Man who happened to be part of the alien conspiracy.

Of course the biggest comparison between X-Files and Lost was their respective mythologies. But the reason that those two shows were very different involves explaining how each were created. That will be the subject of a later article in which we get the clearest reason why The X-Files and Lost were not the same show at all.