Case 01, File 02: Deep Throat

AKA: Do Not Google Image Search the Title of This Episode

Something I realized as I watched, as I'm sure every X-Files fan eventually realized, is that the Myth Arc was not thought out in advance. For some fans, this realization is traumatic, but I took it in stride. The myth arc episodes always seemed to ask more questions than they answered and occasionally go around in circles, so I wasn't too bothered to figure out they weren't really going anywhere with it. All an episode can ask at that point is to be solid on its own merits, rather than as part of a larger whole.

The plot of this episode is pretty straightforward; Mulder and Scully get involved when a military test pilot gets disappeared by...well the military, and his wife reports him as kidnapped, despite warnings from a mysterious informant to not get involved. Which Mulder ignores. Because he's Mulder.

After witnessing the aircraft (and the pilot is returned...different) Mulder decides to break into the military base to look for some mysterious UFOs. He's quickly captured, and while searching for him, Scully takes a base security officer hostage, demanding his return. Mulder is returned, minus the memories of what he saw on the base (spoiler: It was UFOs) and they return home, where Deep Throat is waiting to be exasperated that wasn't listened to.

"I can't go to school today, I'm sick!"

Deep Throat is a really well stuffed episode. Aside from the first appearance of the titular informant, it's got UFOs, a military coverup, an undercover security guy posing as a reporter, secret aircraft projects; It's got it all. That means the episode, by necessity, moves much faster than the previous one. No meandering from scene to scene for this episode, it actually needs to go places.

That's a compliment incidentally. Meandering around is all well and good for a plot when it needs to be slowly introducing its characters and setting, but now it's nice to a good story. And it actually is a pretty good story. I mentioned in the last review that I was surprised how quickly The X-Files found its feet, and this episode is a good example.

It's got a killer cold opening (as in good...this is actually one of the few X-Files cold openings that doesn't end with someone dead), and it goes from there. It's actually a pretty lean episode; Very little in the way of scenes that feel extraneous or underused, which gives the episode a natural rhythm. Where other episodes (even really good episodes) tend to slow down at point, Deep Throat keeps itself going going fast.

"Mulder, why did you take me to a laser show?"

And then there's Deep Throat himself. He's an interesting character in a lot of way. He was only ever in the show properly for one season, and wasn't precisely overburdened with screen time during that season (only appearing in 7 episodes of season 1), but his presence caused ripples in the show that would still be spreading outwards years later, and not just because Jerry Hardin is pretty great as the character.

The series' Myth Arc will go through wild fluctuations in its 9 season run, as it adds new things, retcons others out and tries desperately to reconcile concepts and ideas that were never really intended to go together, and I'm sure I'll address them all as I get to them. But the shows insistence on continuing to reference and use Deep Throat in, either alluding to him in dialogue or showing him in flashbacks, speaks to how important he was to the way the show established itself early on.

Which is why its weird that, despite the episode being named after him, he's not particularly important to this episode. He shows up in the very beginning and tells Mulder not to get involved in this case, which Mulder ignores (as he will every time someone else warns him to stay away, both in this episode and later episodes) and then shows up at the end, partially to tell Mulder he's an ally and partially to say "Told ya so."

"Oh I screwed up pretty hard this time."

Still, the show is still establishing itself and its mythology, so there are the occasional hiccups. The amnesia ending is a particular sticking point for me, because it means that everything that happens from when Mulder gets captured and when Scully rescues him is purely for the audience, and it feels more than a little like a cop out.. It also never gets brought up again that the military/syndicate/conspiracy/aliens have this tech (or if it does, I forgot it), which is a shame because it might have come in handy.

But, that's mostly nitpicking. As far as second episodes go, this one is exceptionally solid. Good pacing, good atmosphere, good acting, it's solid all around. There are more than a few good episodes in the first season, a couple great ones too, and this is definitely one of the good ones.

Case Notes:

• I like how Mulder learned his lesson about leaving his evidence in the hotel room from the last episode, and they just it take from his car.
• The climax of this episode amounts to Scully bullying the entire Military into giving Mulder back. Have I mentioned I love Scully?
• I wish I was a car guy, so I could talk about the different cars they drive in each episode. Alas, I am not.
• Two things I was never entirely clear on are 1, when and why did Mulder start calling Deep Throat that, and 2, is Deep Throat supposed to be the same Deep Throat who gave info to Woodward and Bernstein?
• I remember a feature on one of my DVDs where they talked about how they could essentially call the episodes whatever they liked because the public would basically never see them. There are more obtuse episode titles, but this is one of the oddest.
• The special effects on this show are up and down throughout, but with the exception of the flying UFOs (which look like someone is pointing a laser pointing at the screen, ala Seinfeld) they mostly look pretty good in this episode, considering. 
• Wouldn't Mulder have regained these memories when he takes the amnesia-curing drill to the head? Doesn't he get a hole drilled in his head to regain some memories at some point? Or did I imagine that?
• If I didn't imagine it, good lord how did Mulder survive before he had Scully to tell him "No, don't do that"?

Current Celebrity Watch:

Not much in this area this week.On a minor note, did you know that Jerry Hardin, aka Deep Throat, had a minor role in Big Trouble in Little China? Incidentally, have you seen Big Trouble in Little China? If not, you should. That movie is the shit.

Future Celebrity Watch:

Bunch of them this week. The obvious one is Seth Green (who really needs no introduction at this point), as the stoner Mulder and Scully run into on the air base, but his girlfriend is also played by Lalainia Lindbjerg (do not ask me how to pronounce that), who did a lot of voice work for Ocean Studios (most notably Bulma in the Ocean dub of Dragonball Z).

Also, on a slightly more minor note here, Paul Mossinger is played by Michael Bryan French, who would go on to play Danny Pearson's father in season 3 of Orange is the New Black.

Audio Observations:

Not much here, but it does have the first appearance of the theme song. Someone with more knowledge of music than me could probably take apart what it is about the theme that makes it so great. At this point it's an incredibly iconic piece of music, even becoming audio shorthand for something being weird (even within The X-Files...something we'll address a LONG time from now when we get to the second movie).