"The Truth Is Out There" Re-watch: "Little Green Men" & "The Host"

 The X-Files

The second season of the X-Files premiered on September 16, 1994 and became a bonafide hit. It rose in the ratings every week and in total viewership. It climbed overall from 111 to 63 out of all shows on television at the time. That is not too shabby for a series that aired on Friday nights.

The second season also solidified a formula that would be relatively successful for the series moving forward. Mulder and Scully confront an unexplainable problem. They encounter roadblocks, sometimes thrown in their way by the very government they serve. The problem either resolves itself on it's own or with some help from the titular agents. Rinse. Repeat. This may seem like a critique, but it's really not, especially in these early seasons. Each episode, even at it's most ridiculous, is suspenseful. If there was one thing that holds this season back a little bit, it's that, aside from one or two episodes, humor is largely missing from these 25 episodes. The inclusion of that humor and sort of wink at the audience is what makes season 3 the best of the series. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Without further adieu, let's begin our journey back through season two.

"Little Green Men"

Mulder: "I was sent here by one of those people. Deep Throat said: "Trust no one." And that's hard, Scully... suspecting everyone, everything. It wears you down. You even begin to doubt what you know is the truth. Before I could only trust myself. Now I can only trust you... and they've taken away from you away from me. My life up to this point has been about the need to see her again... to see them, but what would I do if they really came?"

Notable Guest Star: Raymond J Barry as Richard Matheson

Mythology or Monster of the Week: Mythology

X-File of the Week: It turns out the US government has always been interested in the existence of extraterrestrials and subsequently covering that up. On August 20 and September 5, 1977 they sent up two spacecraft called Voyager, filled with images, music, art from Earth in case they were intercepted by an intelligent extraterrestrial civilization. Thirteen years later, they left our solar system and were forgotten about. On October 12, 1992, NASA initiated the High Resolution Microwave Survey in Arecibo, Puerto Rico to again search for extraterrestrial life. It was mean to last ten years, but was shut down less than a year later, through an amendment championed by a one term senator, Richard Bryan. Recently, the equipment fired up and started playing the sounds from the Voyagers.

Mulder just his parents having sex.

This is a pretty tight season premiere. It presents a much more confident show. They know what they are about and it shows. You could tell it was evolving and getting stronger in the finale and this premiere is definitely a continuation of that. 

This episode could be "Mulder has a 45 minute long crisis of faith." The closure of the X-Files and the dissolution of his partnership with Scully has really hit our believer pretty hard. He's doing worthless wire tap surveillance while Scully is teaching classes at Quantico. He's not in a great headspace. Refusing to talk to Scully in public, and getting upset with her when she uses their signal to meet as a chance to check in with him. Even though mentally, he's probably never been worse, he's never looked better. I mean, seriously, the disheveled hair, the five o'clock shadow? Damn.

This episode also gives us our first look at the abduction of Mulder's sister, Samantha. It's a neat sequence. The child acting is pretty horrendous, but the actual abduction sequence is pretty affecting. Each time I see Samantha floating through the air, out the window, it gets me. It's great to meet one of Mulder's patrons, Senator Richard Matheson. If you've ever wondered how Mulder is able to keep flaunting FBI policy, here's an idea. Matheson is the one who sets Mulder on his journey from Doubting Thomas back to believer. He tells him of the equipment in Arecibo coming back on and that Mulder needs to get there before the government squad sent to eradicate the data.

The rest of the episode is basically Mulder reclaiming his beliefs in extraterrestrial life. David Duchovny is so charismatic and he carries this episode. There are so many scenes of Mulder basically on his own. Monologuing to a tape recorder in place of Scully. Trying to communicate with a man named Jorge he finds in a bathroom who has maybe seen an alien. Even the sequence where the aliens (?) show up, which should not work because it's cheesy af, but it does and that's all because of Duchovny. 

There are some minor gripes with the episode. Scully is basically sidelined due to Gillian Anderson's pregnancy, hello oversized trench coats, and apparently, Scully has pregnancy brain too. Why would she not think that Mulder's place was under surveillance especially when she talked to Skinner about him taking off. The agents pursuing Scully at the airport are hilariously inept as is the Blue Beret hit squad that comes after the agents at the end of the episode. No one is surprised that none of the evidence Mulder finds is viable, but all that matters is that Mulder is back, baby!

Grade: B+

"The Host"

Walter Skinner: "The Justice Department has asked the suspect be transferred to an institution for a full psychiatric evaluation."

Fox Mulder: "This is not a man, it's a monster! You can't put it in an institution!" 

Walter Skinner: "What do you do with it, Agent Mulder? Put it in a zoo? It killed two people!"

Notable Guest Star: Darin Morgan as the Flukeman

Mythology or Monster of the Week: MotW

X-File of the Week: On a Russian submarine, a man is pulled into a septic tank and drowned by a mysterious force. In Newark, New Jersey, special Agent Fox Mulder is sent to investigate a dead body found in a sewer. Mulder initially believes that this assignment is a joke, but as bodies begin to pile up and Mulder starts getting phone calls from a potential replacement for Deep Throat, Mulder begins to see that this case might be the key to the re-opening of the X-Files.

Tapeworm? I don't remember eating tapeworms.

The premiere of season two showed audiences that the mythology episodes have leveled up and now it is time to show that the "Monster of the Week" episodes have also moved to a completely different level. 

Toilet stuff immediately grosses me out. I'm sure I'm not alone, but like, I can't do poop. It's one of the many reasons I won't have a dog or a child. The idea of a "blow out" makes me want to dry heave. This episode immediately had toilet stuff. The submarine's latrines are over flowing with gross brown water in the cold open. When the poor sub workers open the giant tank that I guess is the sub's septic system and he makes that "wow that stinks" face and like, I can always feel it through the TV. I've seen this episode a million times and I know what is coming and still my stomach lurches and turns right in these opening minutes. That's how you know you're in for a good ride for the next 45 minutes.

This episode introduces one of "The X-Files" most enduring and memorable monsters: The Flukeman, which is basically a humanoid tapeworm. It is terrifying and disgusting and it is done with all practical effects. It is very impressive. The Flukeman is played by Darin Morgan, who would become very famous behind the scenes of the show. He would go on to write some of the most memorable episodes of the show like "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" and "Jose Chung's From Outer Space." If you've watched those episodes (and you should have) then it should come as no surprise that Morgan made his debut on the show playing the Flukeman. 

I give Chris Carter a lot of shit about his writing and a lot of it is totally deserved but he can nail it from time to time and he definitely does it in this one. As I mentioned, it starts right from the cold open. There is tension and humor and body horror. It's basically all the hallmarks of a great MotW episode. Each moment is a classic. Scully finding the fluke in the dead body. The huge flatworm bite mark on the back of the sanitation worker. The Flukeman coming up through the port a potty. That is the reason I don't use port a potty's. No lie. There isn't as much Scully as I'd like, but again, pregnancy, yada, yada. But, we do get a classic Scully and Mulder back and forth when he initially posits that the fluke could be the killer. 

We are also introduced to Mulder's new informant who is right now just a mysterious voice that is telling Mulder things like the reinstatement of the X-Files depends on how this case turns out. That's not ominous at all. The episode even has classic end stinger with the Flukeman being revealed to be alive after being cut in half by a sewer grate. I have zero complaints about this episode. It's as near to perfect as an "X-Files" episode can get.

Grade: A

Next up, electronic devices are telling people to kill and we meet Mulder's new partner.

Do you think season two is off to a strong start? Was anyone else deeply impacted by the Flukeman? Let me hear about it in the comments.