The X Files - Deep Throat

Deep Throat is an example of the wall built up against Mulder in his pursuit of the truth. His efforts thwarted by powerful forces his FBI badge cannot halt. It isn’t for a lack of trying, though. At Ellis Air Force Base in Idaho, the military has an Airforce facility and base of operations supposedly set up to fly stealth aircraft using UFO technology perhaps secured in Roswell way back in 1947. The kind of subject matter covered by Unsolved Mysteries when I was a kid. Scully tags along with Mulder to Idaho because initially their case involved a missing fighter pilot shown at the beginning to be covered in some type of serious red rash all over his body. It seems the military has “kidnapped” Colonel Budahas (Andrew Johnston) so his wife (Gabrielle Rose) is concerned. That is what Mulder uses as an excuse to research the area for UFO technology to prove the existence of extraterrestrial life. Obviously we know that his mission will meet resistance. Scully smiles and scoffs at Mulder’s continued investigation and research of the UFO scenario, challenging him at every turn. She harkens to the Aurora project or simply military/government experimental aircraft theories, not tied to anything UFO related. A couple of teenagers (Seth Green (yes, that Seth Green) and Monica Parker) often hang out at the airbase at night to smoke dope and “listen to tunes”, giving Mulder insight into what they see in the sky as Scully remains amused at their “high” behavior. Colonel Budahas is returned to his home but his wife insists he isn’t her husband. While Scully is convinced they should leave after suits with those black shades (where you can’t see their eyes) pull her and Mulder over, warning them to get out of Idaho or else, Mulder can’t help himself. Mulder returns to the base, and on the runway looks up at an experimental aircraft clearly designed using UFO technology. But he’s seized upon, drugged, taken to a location inside the base, and given a “memory wipe” (Colonel Budahas also had it; his memory of flight procedures and the basics behind his pilot career are essentially gone); a supposed news reporter named Paul (Michael Bryan French), looking for a story, turns out to be tied to the Airforce base. Through Paul, Scully will “encourage” (with his gun, of course) a drive out to the base to retrieve Mulder.

Deep Throat (Jerry Hardin) surprises Mulder one day in a bar bathroom telling him not to investigate the case in Idaho. In an effort, he tells Mulder, it is so that his pursuit of the truth through his X files could continue…but investigating the base in Idaho would throw a monkey wrench into that pursuit, bringing unneeded attention his direction. At the end of the episode, Deep Throat and Mulder discuss whether or not UFO technology at the Idaho base was cleared from the agent’s mind…and just what Deep Throat is after as well. This sets up the first season, as Mulder indeed has a contact within the government to assist in his search for the truth that is out there. Deep Throat, though, could rather be an adversary. That is always the question when the show first started…who is Deep Throat exactly and what is his ultimate objective? Without that powerful backup, though, where would Mulder be? He has a congressman, as we soon learn, but the Hardin or Steven Williams assist certainly comes in handy. Hardin meeting Mulder right out in the open as he is jogging on a Georgetown track seems risky, though. Eyes are everywhere and all that. Particularly considering Mulder’s stunt in Idaho.

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On a strictly personal note, seeing Mulder and Scully driving around in an Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera brings back some memories. One of my first vehicles was this car. It was a piece of shit that remained a mechanic shop mainstay, but still the show does that. I see this and emotionally it reminds me of how I’m such a 90s teenager. I picked up a used Cutlass in the early 2000s (probably around 2001, I reckon) in my early 20s, remembering how the damned car went dead on me in the middle of the road. So terrified was I, let me tell you! I have similar memories of a car driven by Mulder and Scully at a later date…Chevy Cavalier, blue just like the one I owned for about 15 years. I’ll save that footnote for a review of an X Files episode in the future.