The X Files / E.B.E. / Additional

 If you want your big dose of Deep Throat, "E.B.E." was certainly the big X Files episode. Hardin's emotional range is shown off as he explains to Mulder just why he sends him on wild goose chases and fails to let him see a dead alien, supposedly in a space craft shot down by an Iraqi plane, where the body was being taken by truck to a specific location he's hoping to find. Deep Throat tells Mulder of an experience he had "exterminating" an alien shot down above Hanoi. He was in the CIA, Deep Throat tells Mulder, representing the US among the "elite countries" gathered in agreement to kill EBEs that fall within their "jurisdiction". I have the big review on the blog, but this is one of those key episodes I point to as to why I'm such a fan of this show. I don't mind the diversions away from the alien government conspiracy episodes, the MOTW investigations/cases, but "EBE" and its ilk is my true joy when watching The X-Files. Scully has to be Mulder's grounding voice of calm, the person that can reason him into not just blindingly and passionately following wherever Deep Throat sends him with some hoax photograph "developed by the very best". Scully calms Mulder down, ultimately responsible for him researching a doctored photo of a fake duo of UFOs. With Mulder doing that, he realizes Scully is the one person he can trust. Deep Throat has helped guide Mulder towards "some truth", while Scully is always there to keep him centered. Her ballpoint pen bugged and Mulder's apartment (a wall outlet) also under surveillance, any truth they might uncover could be detrimental to governmental forces wanting them to remain in the dark. Getting to see the introduction to The Lone Gunmen and how Scully reacts to their "ravings" (Mulder is just as amused at their conspiracies and eventually has to come between Scully's skepticism towards Byers' proclamations about a 20 dollar bill and having had lunch with the gunman at the grassy knoll when JFK was assassinated) never fails to make my viewing experience worthwhile. I particularly liked how Byers and Langly have a good laugh at Mulder's expense when he proposes the idea that UFOs may have been responsible for Gulf War Syndrome...they realize why Mulder is their friend and "ally". The line about the shark needing to keep swimming in order to remain alive from Deep Throat to Mulder at an aquarium has a ton of truth to it...even if in "EBE", he lies in order to throw Mulder off a scent he eventually follows to an empty cell at a well-guarded government installation which might have contained an alien species or Extraterrestrial Biological Entity.