The X Files: Mulder's Quest for the Truth

 

I guess I return to "Little Green Men" from time to time not just out of nostalgia, but because this era of the show always reminds me of what drew me to The X Files in the first place...Mulder's pursuit of not just "little green men" but of what happened to his sister, Samantha. When I was a teenager, this show--which is why it is my second favorite series next to "The Twilight Zone"--tapped into that curiosity stirred by science fiction in the 1980s. Sure, I followed "Star Trek: The Next Generation" passionately, watched the likes of "War of the Worlds", "Lost in Space", "Star Trek: The Original Series", and even "Alien Nation", but it was "The X Files" that really encouraged this particular interest in extra terrestrial life and how humans either work to find the truth of them or keep that information secret. While I don't think X Files fans normally throw up "Little Green Men" in Top 10s of their favorite episodes, or even perhaps mention it a lot. It is just an important episode to me personally. I remember being excited when The X Files would get VHS releases (yes, I'm that old) in the 90s. I collected them back then. Chris Carter would give us little anecdotes before the episode would start. "Little Green Men" was one of those VHS purchases. Seeing the experience played back in a flashback nightmare inside Mulder's tortured psyche as he awakens afterward, we as viewers understood his torment, that emotional wallop that won't allow him to have peace. Seeing Fox and Sam fighting over what to watch on the television before the power goes out and the bright lights of what could have been an alien spacecraft, with Samantha lifted off her feet, levitating in a horizontal fashion, before she's "taken"; this has probably played over and over in Mulder's mind, in his dreams. Just when Mulder is stuck in mundane surveillance, listening to white collar criminals discussing their activities, he's once again brought by car to a senator's (Raymond J Barry) home...he's told of a printout from Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico (since abandoned after an amendment from a congressman shut it down) that proves of contact (the famous Voyager sent out with global information meant to be discovered by alien life elsewhere seems to have worked). Mulder, who later tells Skinner he had plenty of surveillance evidence to arrest those he's investigating, flees his job for that Observatory, encounters a local named Jorge (later found dead from fright, having seen alien life already, so he was on edge) inside the restroom, who tries to tell him in his native language what he saw. That drawing of the alien head is such a great visual to kick off the second season. Just when Mulder's faith is collapsing and tested, even as the ending once again leads to disappointment (his experience in the Observatory didn't have much proof inside the building but as a storm rages outside, bright light and great noise indicates a visitation), with taken tapes that recorded what he thought was evidence of his experience blanked perhaps by an electrical interference, the series would once again inspire him to not lose hope, to not give up.

I liked that The X Files was further proving that Dana Scully believed in Mulder. She's the one who actually encourages him not to give up. She even follows him to Puerto Rico, eventually finding him at the Observatory (he used George E Hale's name on the manifest, an astronomer and major figure in creation of telescopes, so she was able to pinpoint where exactly he went), the morning after the storm. Of course, as is usual with The X Files, some government unit is sent to the Observatory (The Blue Beret UFO Retrieval Team, quite an ominous military unit title), ruining Mulder's chance to recover a lot of his findings. He must rush off with Scully's persistent urgency, in order to safely escape any harm. She's right there, patting him on the hand, when Mulder is left once again let down. The dangers of the pursuit, along with the "oh so close, but not close enough" failure to secure any evidence leaves Mulder without that satisfaction he so desperately wants to find. His password of TrustNo1 Scully cleverly uses to get into his computer to pull up the printout, evading FBI agents assigned to Mulder's apartment, and Mulder admitting to Scully that she is the only one he trusts...each audio recording on tape for her later listen at the Observatory proved that Mulder and Scully are a combo, more in harmony than ever before. She believed in him, even if the evidence he seeks as proof (he tells her that her skepticism influenced him) remains so elusive.