The X-Files - S01E02 - "Deep Throat"

Seth Green: totally tubular, man.

Original air date: September 17, 1993

Oh hey, we have theme music, now. And Seth Green!

Some good lines, already.

I mentioned before that the Pilot gave us a lot of the series' functions, all at the same time: the conspiracy, the weirdness, the skepticism, the drama.

Now we're introduced to someone who's clearly in on the conspiracy, but there's something more odd: this is a character rather than just a rando suit.

Oh hey, THEMES.

I can imagine the gradual wearing down of trust in the government is going to be one of those things that pops up a lot.

Big laugh for me, no lie.

This show is the most 90s. Desert Storm, baby.

I've seen the memes at people being annoyed at Scully for being a skeptic as a plot function despite the things she's seen and the things that've happened.

I'm starting to understand that. Even after episode 1, Dana???

Might end up using these screencaps outside of this thread, tbh.

Love Scully's look here. Again, CHEMISTRY was there early.

So that's two episodes in a row that we've had our evidence destroyed mid-episode. You gotta start being better about that, my dude.

Fox's brain: "The audacity of this bitch."

I feel like this could be a screencap I include to sum up all my writing/thinking pursuits.

As I said before in the previous episode, I love how unambiguous the show is: yeah, aliens are real here.

I just love this screencap because of how fucking unhinged Scully is.

This is a pretty cool sequence because of how separate Scully/Mulder were in the last half of the episode. As the audience, we get to see both sides.

Scully knows there's something sketchy going on, but besides the lights, saw nothing.

Mulder got to see behind the curtain (and so did we!) but that knowledge is taken away from him. Seeing him glazed over like this is unsettling to the viewer and demonstates the conspiracy's power.

I think that there's a really important theme here: "The good guys aren't going to put away the bad guys at the end of every episode."

Ultimately, our team didn't do anything to solve the mystery of the Air Force pilots. The conspiracy got to the family. The conspiracy can dismiss the kooks in town. Even the "journalist" is in on it.

As an audience, we get an idea of just how big the mountain is to climb, even if it is at all.

Sometimes you just gotta leave.

But alas, there's hope.

Maybe hope isn't the right word.

But it isn't Mulder, alone. Scully ends the episode scared, exasparated, and "Let's just go", but she's present.

That "The Government is not above the law" statement of hers from earlier has been shattered.

Curious to see where this guy goes, because again, the confirmation: it isn't just alien tech and government spooks. Aliens are here. For a reason.