The X Files - Shadows
Crossing off the checklist was the paranormal for The X
Files, tackled in the episode, Shadows.
I can’t really say I felt it was anything all that significant but it does have
a really good performance from Lisa Waltz and some wild paranormal activity.
Mulder and Scully are requested to help agents (looking into terrorist ties to
a parts company) discover the reason behind the murders of two Isfahan
terrorists (named after a place in Iran) who had attempted to bum rush a secretary,
Lauren Kyte (Waltz) while she was at an ATM machine (Mulder surveys the alley
where the bodies were found and noticed the ATM which inspired him to take a
look at the camera, soon seeing this blurry image of something behind Kyte and
the Isfahan thugs). The bodies had signs of “electrostatic shock” and when
Mulder and Scully interview Kyte (who feigns any knowledge of how the thugs
were killed or why she was targeted) their car just mysteriously drives into
another vehicle with the headlight filaments still lit. Mulder presents his theory
that either Kyte has some type of psychokinetic power or a poltergeist is
involved (of course, Scully mocks this with the “they’re herrrrreeeee”).
Whatever the case, Lauren has information she is secretly concealing which could be the key to finding specific evidence tying her company (she is quitting due to the death of her boss, Howard Graves) to terrorism. The current boss (and Graves’ partner), Dorlund (Barry Primus), sees Lauren as a threat and issues a warning (and sends more thugs to kill her) to her…but she’s under protection by the spirit of Graves. Graves was deeply troubled—we later learn from Lauren when she spills the beans to Mulder and Scully—with his company selling parts used by Isfahan to kill sailors in Florida. Graves was later found dead, supposedly of suicide in a bathtub, but Lauren is shown by him in her tub that is was actually a murder. While taking some photos of Lauren, Mulder and Scully see Howard behind her. Scully thinks he is still alive but Mulder suspects it his protective spirit, looking out for her. When hired killers have their throats crushed while attempting to “quiet” Lauren, Mulder is quite certain his theory is correct. And Scully’s belief that Howard is alive is dismissed when organs donated reveal his DNA. So what else could the evidence point towards? The ending has Dorlund confronting Lauren and Mulder in his office as papers and such are strewn all over the place with a pen levitating and sticking into the wall to reveal a disk…Dorlund is also incapacitated so he can’t disrupt the efforts to tie him to Isfahan. As was often the case, Mulder sees the paranormal activity while Scully arrives too late, continuing the trend of him seeing the extraordinary and her just missing out. In this episode, Mulder arrives to Lauren’s house as one of the hired killer’s is levitated off the ground as his throat is being crushed, soon dropped to ground in a heap of mangled body. In this scene, you get the door latch locking on its own and a chair going across the room to keep the killers from barging in (but they eventually do get in).
I liked the ending with Mulder talking about the Liberty Bell and Scully humoring him…it is just a little, brief exchange that further emphasizes their growing bond/friendship. Lauren getting to start over finally is a nice relief for her considering what happens to her throughout the episode. And Mulder has an amusing joke about “dancing around the graves of bosses” when he and Scully follow Lauren to the cemetery where she provides flowers to Graves’ grave. I honestly don’t have any problems with these “average season fillers”, and Mulder and Scully are allowed to flex their intuitive and investigative muscles, approached by others with cases that require a certain “set of skills”. And I think you gradually see the actors settling into their characters and laying down roots, with the long-term health of the show dependent on their talents. And what episode about the paranormal could go without a bit of "spirit photography" as evident when Howard's face is realized during the investigation into Graves and Lauren? The episode treads familiar ground, but Mulder and Scully being involved helps freshen the material.
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I did forget to mention a detail that returned to mind today. When wrought with turmoil over Graves and Dorlund's corruption, embattled Lauren is faced with thoughts of concern for her mentor's current state as well as her own. Just needing someone to believe her, Scully appeals to her setting Graves free by telling her and Mulder the truth, as if she considered Lauren's testimony on a poltergeist as legit. Scully later tells Mulder she was just humoring Lauren, but it is a moment I think that gives us insight into her teetering ever so slightly towards spiritual belief even as her staunch scientific personality would study such under a microscope for evidentiary purposes.
Whatever the case, Lauren has information she is secretly concealing which could be the key to finding specific evidence tying her company (she is quitting due to the death of her boss, Howard Graves) to terrorism. The current boss (and Graves’ partner), Dorlund (Barry Primus), sees Lauren as a threat and issues a warning (and sends more thugs to kill her) to her…but she’s under protection by the spirit of Graves. Graves was deeply troubled—we later learn from Lauren when she spills the beans to Mulder and Scully—with his company selling parts used by Isfahan to kill sailors in Florida. Graves was later found dead, supposedly of suicide in a bathtub, but Lauren is shown by him in her tub that is was actually a murder. While taking some photos of Lauren, Mulder and Scully see Howard behind her. Scully thinks he is still alive but Mulder suspects it his protective spirit, looking out for her. When hired killers have their throats crushed while attempting to “quiet” Lauren, Mulder is quite certain his theory is correct. And Scully’s belief that Howard is alive is dismissed when organs donated reveal his DNA. So what else could the evidence point towards? The ending has Dorlund confronting Lauren and Mulder in his office as papers and such are strewn all over the place with a pen levitating and sticking into the wall to reveal a disk…Dorlund is also incapacitated so he can’t disrupt the efforts to tie him to Isfahan. As was often the case, Mulder sees the paranormal activity while Scully arrives too late, continuing the trend of him seeing the extraordinary and her just missing out. In this episode, Mulder arrives to Lauren’s house as one of the hired killer’s is levitated off the ground as his throat is being crushed, soon dropped to ground in a heap of mangled body. In this scene, you get the door latch locking on its own and a chair going across the room to keep the killers from barging in (but they eventually do get in).
I liked the ending with Mulder talking about the Liberty Bell and Scully humoring him…it is just a little, brief exchange that further emphasizes their growing bond/friendship. Lauren getting to start over finally is a nice relief for her considering what happens to her throughout the episode. And Mulder has an amusing joke about “dancing around the graves of bosses” when he and Scully follow Lauren to the cemetery where she provides flowers to Graves’ grave. I honestly don’t have any problems with these “average season fillers”, and Mulder and Scully are allowed to flex their intuitive and investigative muscles, approached by others with cases that require a certain “set of skills”. And I think you gradually see the actors settling into their characters and laying down roots, with the long-term health of the show dependent on their talents. And what episode about the paranormal could go without a bit of "spirit photography" as evident when Howard's face is realized during the investigation into Graves and Lauren? The episode treads familiar ground, but Mulder and Scully being involved helps freshen the material.
---------
I did forget to mention a detail that returned to mind today. When wrought with turmoil over Graves and Dorlund's corruption, embattled Lauren is faced with thoughts of concern for her mentor's current state as well as her own. Just needing someone to believe her, Scully appeals to her setting Graves free by telling her and Mulder the truth, as if she considered Lauren's testimony on a poltergeist as legit. Scully later tells Mulder she was just humoring Lauren, but it is a moment I think that gives us insight into her teetering ever so slightly towards spiritual belief even as her staunch scientific personality would study such under a microscope for evidentiary purposes.
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