The X-Files
Creator of "The X-Files," Chris Carter, knew you couldn't live on mythology episodes alone. So, to fill out the season the writers would do "Monster of the Week" episodes, basically one offs that could go multiple directions. Some were serious. Some were funny. Some were both. Sometimes they had inbred hillbilly "Deliverance" types... wait... I'm getting ahead of myself. These next two episodes are the first "MotW" episodes of the shows run and they make a great argument for why they are necessary and why a lot of sci-fi shows have used this same formula.
"Squeeze"
Mulder: "Is there anyway I can get it off my fingers without betraying my cool exterior?" [shakes hand wildly]
Scully: "Is this what it takes to climb the ladder, Colton?"
Agent Tom Colton: "All the way to the top."
Scully: "Then I can't wait 'till you fall off and land on your ass."
Notable Guest Star: Donal Logue as Agent Tom Colton
Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW
X-File of the Week: Scully's old academy buddy, Tom Colton, brings her in on a strange murder case. A man was brutally murdered, his liver ripped out, seemingly with someone's bare hands, but there is no known point of entry. This piques Mulder's interest as it mirrors an X-File with the same MO. It seems there are 5 murders every 30 years, all in the Baltimore area. All with the livers being extracted and no known point of entry. The most recent murders were in the town of Powhattan Mill in 1963. Mulder believes this could go back as far as 1903.
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| Got your foot |
"Squeeze" is notable for not only being the first MotW episode of the show, but it is also the first episode to be written by Glen Morgan and James Wong. Morgan and Wong would go on to be pretty prolific "X-Files" writers, penning some classic episodes. The duo left the show after season two to create "Space: Above and Beyond" but stayed in the family. They took over as show runners on Chris Carter's "X-Files" adjacent show, "Millennium" and worked on "The Lone Gunmen," an X-Files spin-off.
"Squeeze" is just a great episode. It brings in another stellar guest star with Donal Logue playing colossal douchebag, Tom Colton. He's a dick right from the start, shit talking Mulder and the X-files project, not realizing that he is basically denigrating Scully, too. Logue is just so good at playing these smarmy assholes and the scenes with he and David Duchovny are amazing and hilarious. The whole Reticulan exchange is some of the best dialogue of the series.
Everything works together to create this supremely creepy mood in this episode. The music is top notch. That high plucked guitar that sounds kind of sped up whenever they are alluding to Tooms or he is on screen is amazing. The practical effects of Tooms squeezing through stuff makes your skin crawl. That shot of him going down the chimney? I love it. Doug Hutchinson imbues the character of Eugene Victor Tooms with this bone deep creepiness. Even if he was a totally normal non murderer, you would cross the street if you saw this guy heading your way. Hutchinson really excels at playing these characters, maybe because he's a creepy perv in real life. This is the same guy who married 16-year-old Courtney Stodden when he was 51, but I digress.
The character work in this episode is great as we get to see firsthand other FBI agents disdain for "Spooky" Mulder and by proxy, how Scully is treated because she is working with him. Scully is clearly a good agent. She is a medical doctor, recruited out of medical school. She should be climbing the ladder just like Colton is, so it's understandable that he would want to help her. But this is not the kind of help that Scully wants and it's awesome seeing her stand up for herself and for Mulder. Scully and Mulder have already built up this rapport and while Scully remains skeptical of Mulder's out there theories, she supports him when there is evidence that backs him up. She gives him the benefit of the doubt when she can. Scully isn't a damsel in distress, either. When Tooms attacks her in her apartment, Scully is on it. Kicking ass with her gun out when Mulder shows up to help a hand.
Another thing I wanted to point out was how the show handles its more exposition heavy scenes. There are a lot of times during the show where they are telling you things that have happened rather than showing, which can get pretty monotonous, but they handle it well by employing character actors who make those scenes compelling. They do it without titties shaking in the background which was the method early seasons of "Game of Thrones" used when it had to do the same thing. They should have done what "The X-Files" did, trust their writers and actors.
A fabulous MotW episode and I have a feeeeellliiiiiing we haven't seen the last of Eugene Victor Tooms.
Grade: A
"Conduit"
Mulder: "This is the essence of science: you ask an impertinent question and you're on your way to a pertinent answer."
[last lines]
Mulder: "I want to believe..."
Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW
X-File of the Week: In 1967, there were four UFO sightings near Lake Okoboji, IA. They were spotted by a Girl Scout troop with four of them giving similar reports. The government claims what they saw was a weather balloon, though the National Weather Service claimed there were no weather balloons in the area at the time. A teenage girl, Ruby Morris, vanished without a trace from Lake Okoboji while camping with her mother, Darlene and little brother, Kevin. Darlene Morris has reported this to the FBI. Darlene Morris is also one of the Girl Scouts who saw the UFO in 1967.
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| OK. O. BO. JI. |
I have to get this off my chest right away. I love that there is an episode set in my home state of Iowa, even though Iowa looks a lot like Canada. It's great. But, it is Lake OKOBOJI, not OKOBOGEE. Jesus, Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, the episode's writers. I know you didn't have Google back then, but you couldn't have grabbed a Rand McNally, for Christ's sake. This is one of those little minuscule pop culture things that really grinds my gears and I will not apologize for it! Whew. Now that I've said that, we can move on.
This episode is really just a chance for us to learn more about the possible abduction of Mulder's sister, Samantha, that he was present for. This case is very similar to Samantha's and everyone knows that is why Mulder is so interested in it. Even Blevins calls Scully to his office to be all, "hey, you know this is wack right and a waste of resources" to which Scully is all, "yeah, you right," but Blevins approves the 302 anyways because if he didn't we wouldn't have an episode.
This episode spends a lot of time spinning its wheels. The disappearance of Ruby isn't super compelling to begin with. Darlene of course believes that Ruby was abducted but Ruby is a bad seed so everyone thinks that she ran off with her also missing boyfriend who may have knocked her up. This little bit of information turns the show into an actual "Law & Order" procedural when the agents find some white wolves sniffing around the shallow grave of Greg, Ruby's ne'er do well boyfriend. Turns out Ruby wasn't preggers but her frenemy Tessa was, she who tipped the agents off in the first place. We get this weird good cop/bad cop routine where Tessa confesses everything but won't confess to murdering Ruby. It's kind of weird and almost like we are in a different show. RIP Greg. We didn't know you at all, but thanks to you we did get a few good moments with your biker bar boss who claims he got his ear burned off by a UFO at Lake Okobogee Okoboji.
The titular conduit is Ruby's brother, Kevin, who is hearing messages from the TV and writing them down in binary code. Seriously, did this family never watch "Poltergeist?" He's the male Carol Anne. Mulder and Scully fax over the pages Kevin wrote and it contains snippets of classical music, Da Vinci paintings, a DNA double helix, oh and transmissions from a top secret DoD satellite which brings the NSA in to ransack the Morris home and haul Kevin away. Dick move reporting a kid Scully. This seems a tad melodramatic and ridiculous for the NSA to think this kid would actually be a threat to national security which means it is probably true to life.
Eventually, Kevin's alien transmissions lead everyone back to the lake where he and Mulder are almost mowed down by bikers and Ruby is found. Even though everyone sans Scully is sure that Ruby was abducted, she is showing signs of prolonged weightlessness, Darlene wants it dropped, since she wasn't believed and she'd rather have people believe her daughter was the town bicycle then abducted by UFOs.
This isn't a terrible episode but the total sum of all this is a big who cares. There is some good stuff. The visual of Kevin putting all the binary code pages together to form a picture of Ruby is cool. Duchovny is great playing off kids. The ending moments with Scully listening to tapes of Mulder's regression hypnotherapy are haunting. But I'm left thinking there must have been a better way to integrate the information regarding Samantha into the show then this just OK episode.
Grade: C+
Next up, Scully goes on a date and the agents face off against an evil computer.
Who else loves "Squeeze?" Are there any other Iowans infuriated about the lack of respect shown to Lake Okoboji? Am I being too hard on "Conduit?" Let me know in the comments.
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