"The Truth Is Still Out There" Re-Watch: "Eve" & "Fire"

 The X-Files

We are back to standalone episodes with this posts episodes. They also feature some pretty great character actors that I'm sure you will remember from other shows. Let's dive right into the action.

"Eve"

Mulder: "One girl was just abducted."

Scully: "Kidnapped."

Mulder: "Po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe."

Notable Guest Star: Harriet Sansom Harris as the various adult Eves

Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW

X-File of the Week: Two murders occur at the exact same time, one in Connecticut and one in California. Fathers who are found by their daughters. Causes of death for both is exsanguination through two puncture wounds in the neck. This fits multiple X-files that feature cows dying this way usually corresponding with UFO activity. The agents investigate and things get even weirder when the agents learn that both daughters are identical and one is kidnapped.

She's beauty, she's grace...

The first season of "The X-Files" is basically filled with standalone episodes and that is not a problem when they are as good as this one. It features a great cold open featuring a creepy little girl. Honestly, you can never go wrong with a creepy little girl. 

There are a lot of great misdirects in this and a solid buildup that builds tension and leads to a great pay off. Mulder bringing up UFOs and alien abduction is pretty on brand. When Mulder chats with the first girl who found her dead dad, Tina Simmons, she corroborates Mulder's story, affirming everything that Mulder says, maybe a little too quickly. This is one of the times that I was right there with her rolling her eyes Mulder's continued insistence that it is UFO's. It isn't until they learn of the other murder and they find the identical girl, this time named Cindy Reardon, that Mulder kind of gives it up.

The reveal that Cindy Reardon and Tina Simmons are identical twins is the first big surprise in the episode. The revelation leads the agents to a reproductive clinic where both mothers received IVF treatments. It turns out one of the doctors there, Sally Kendrick, was a little too interested in eugenics experiments and got the boot, but not before she was one of the doctors on both cases. Mulder gets a call that leads to a meet up with Deep Throat. We are then treated to a patented season one Deep Throat info dump scene. As I've said before, this is kind of a lazy way to get exposition across, but Jerry Hardin and David Duchovny have a really easy, natural rapport, so I'll forgive it. It also keeps Deep Throat in the mix due to the lack of mythology of episodes in this season.

Thanks to Deep Throat, the agents learn of the Litchfield Experiment, a super soldier program developed during the Cold War that produced male and female agents that were identical. The boys were called Adams and the girls Eves. The agents meet one of the Eves, Eve 6, at a mental institution and she looks just like Sally Kendrick. The adult Eves are played by Harriet Sansom Harris. You may have seen her on "Frasier" as the conniving agent Bebe or maybe on "Desperate Housewives." She's fantastic as the unhinged Eve 6 and the more collected Eve 7. 

It's not a huge shock that the girls somehow coordinated the murders of their fathers. Eve 7 wants to help them curb their crazy but the girls aren't interested and poison her. These girls are perfect. Most child actors aren't great and that's true of the girls who play the younger Eves. But in this case, their dead eyed flat line readings really add to things, not detract from things. The conclusion feels a bit rushed but has some great moments like the girls using their youth to their advantage in the truck stop parking lot. They end up in an asylum as well with Eve 8 coming to see them. I really wish the show picked up on this in the future, but alas, this was a one and done.

Grade: A-

"Fire"

Mulder: "I was extending her a professional courtesy."

Scully: "Oh is that what you were extending?"

Notable Guest Star: Mark Sheppard as Bob/Cecil L'Ively

Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW

X-File of the Week: Mulder is contacted by his ex-paramour, Phoebe Green, who is now an Inspector for the Metropolitan Police in London. It turns out someone is burning prominent members of the British aristocracy alive and leaving no clues behind. The only reason they know the crimes are connected is because love letters are left for all of the victims wives. The newest target is Sir Malcolm Marsden who has come to Cape Code with his family, hoping for protection after escaping the murderer once.

Crazy eyes.

This episode, on the other hand, is not a great representation of how great standalone episodes are. 

I feel like I spend a lot of time ragging on creator Chris Carter and you know? I probably do. I'm not sure how many episodes of television Carter had written prior to "The X-Files" beginning, but it definitely feels like he's learning on the job and a lot of the things from his early attempts at solo writing are painfully cliché.

Take the character of Phoebe Green, for example. She's positioned from the start to be sort of the anti-Scully. She is introduced by playing a prank of on the agents, making them think that the car they are in is going to explode. See, she's edgy. She's dangerous. She doesn't play by the rules! She's a "mind player extraordinaire," getting Mulder involved in this case even though she knows he's deathly afraid of fire. Phoebe is clearly some sort of stand-in for a woman who wronged Chris Carter sometime in his life. She was supposed to be a recurring character and let's all be thankful she wasn't.

Can we chat for a minute about Mulder's fear of fire. Apparently, when he was a kid, his best friend's house burned down and Mulder had to SLEEP IN THE REMNANTS to keep looters away. What?! How is this a real thing that someone would do? Oh, here child, sleep in this burned out house. And what was there to steal? I just can't with this. Sort of tangentially related to this, have you ever noticed how experts on shows like this seem like they are one bad decision away from being a criminal themselves? Like the pyrotechnics expert in this episode, it feels like he could be the arsonist.

There is just a lot of wonkiness in this episode, lots of weird decisions that sort of fall apart when you look at them closely. Why would Cecil burn down that bar? He left witnesses. It's seems like a big risk little reward situation. The same with him trying to force the kids to smoke when the parents are like yards away. I feel like Carter thinks this makes him "edgy" and "dangerous" when it kind of just makes him look kind of stupid. The whole third act of this episode feels pretty rushed. Cecil is a hero! He saved the kids after putting them in danger. Just kidding! He's actually the killer who can set himself on fire. Whaaattt???

I've shit talked this episode a lot, but really it's entertaining enough. It's not as bad as Chris Carter's last episode, "Space," so that's good. The fire visuals in this episode are really cool, specifically when Cecil sets his whole arm on fire in the bar and the sconces exploding into fire in the hallway. You could watch worse episodes but you could definitely watch better ones.

Grade: C

Next up, we say hello and good-bye to Scully's dad and meet a sex changing killer.

What do you all think? Do you wish the Eves would have made a return appearance? Is "Fire" pretty bad? Let me know in the comments.