The X-Files Virgin’s Diary – Season 2 begins; give me back my X-files!

(Season 2, Episodes 1-4)

What a great start to the second season. In the first four episodes we’ve had an alien encounter, a true monster, psychological manipulation and now mental powers, military experimentation and ultimately a government cover up. Sounds like every facet of The X-Files was just covered.

And we got to see one of the most famous monsters ever on the series. This run also featured the first appearance of Alex Krycek as well as a greater involvement for both Assistant Director Skinner and Cancer (Cigarette-Smoking) Man. The X-files has been closed and Mulder and Scully are split. What now?

2.1 – “Little Green Men” [MythArc] – SEASON PREMIERE!
(Original Air Date: September 16, 1994) Oh my god, they actually showed us exactly how Mulder’s sister’s abduction went down. Aside from some poor acting on the part of the children, it was pretty damned impressive. I can see from that why Mulder is so obsessed with finding out what’s “out there.”

Having the scene with the alien silhouette reoccur almost identically to what Mulder saw in the beginning added to the creepy factor, but it also made me even more suspicious of true alien intervention in the original abduction. We’ve seen what the government is capable of.

I can’t get a read on Skinner, though I think that’s intentional. He almost seems to support Mulder and Scully in the work they were doing.

2.2 – “The Host”
(Original Air Date: September 23, 1994) “Mr. Mulder. I think you should know, you have a friend at the FBI.” – mysterious voice on the phone

Could the friend be Assistant Director Skinner? He seems to believe that this case should have been an X-file. Too bad his level-headed thinking wasn’t available when someone decided that an ambulance driver could transport a human-sized blood-sucking parasite by himself.

And what a nasty piece of work that thing was. Definitely one of the more disturbing looking monsters we’ve seen so far. I’ve never watched this show, but I’m familiar with this one. Even though it looks like this was his only appearance I remember toys and his face being used a lot in marketing.

As a bonus, we got to think about all the different facets of waste management and see so many of the related jobs; I half expected to see a young Mike Rowe pop into the scene at any moment. Maybe even sick up a fluke worm.

I enjoyed how the episode kept itself tied to the larger storyline of trying to get the x-files reinstated at the Bureau. The very existence of this case, and the concrete evidence to support the existence of this bizarre creature screams the need for a division to handle unexplained phenomena.

2.3 – “Blood”
(Original Air Date: September 30, 1994) As much as the blatant monsterism of the previous episode was a lot of fun to watch, this far subtler threat was even more fun. I’ve been warning people about the murderous tendencies of machines for years. It looks like The X-Files had my back on this one.

And while we didn’t get any direct connections to the ongoing saga to get the X-files division reinstated, we did get to see a return of The Lone Gunmen, who are fun but I still don’t see why FOX would think they could carry their own show. I don’t know, maybe they get more compelling as we go along.

Loved that the X-file was a chemical simply intensifying existing phobias and that the rest was orchestrated by someone or someones. It also means that either Mulder has no phobias it could fuel, or it wasn’t the LSDM chemical.

Particularly creepy and well placed was the farewell message to Mulder received on the display of his cell phone. Sometimes it seems the human scum on this show are worse than the aberrations. The flukeman just wanted to go home.

2.4 – “Sleepless”
(Original Air Date: October 7, 1994) The truth is still out there, but it’s never been more dangerous.” — Mulder’s “Deep Throat” replacement

Krycek is one of those names I heard when friends I had would talk about The X-Files. Of course, he’s too good to be true as a partner who finally supports all of Mulder’s wild theories. Of course, a good cynic helps keep those thoughts sharp.

Man, four episodes in and we still don’t have the X-files reopened, and we’re still only getting Scully over the phone or over a dead body. I figured they’d get things re-established right away in the first episode, but I’m kind of glad they didn’t.

Candyman was perfectly creepy as Augustus Cole the “master” mind behind the deaths in this episode. Sleep elimination is one of those concepts that you just know the military would be all over, so this was perfectly plausible, as was the government burying all the evidence.

So far, and I’m not even sure what it is, this second season is off to a better start than the first season. It just feels like a much more tighter and interconnected show than the scatter-shot approach to the first season.

Previously on The X-Files Virgin’s Diary

Now you can just click the show title under TV Shows over there on the right for all our previous installments. Handy, isn’t it?

Clacked by Jason Hughes
on Jul 10, 2009 @ 09:00 EST5EDT