“Mr. Mulder, they’ve been here for a long, long time.” – Deep Throat.
DEEP THROAT [Mythology] Aired September 17, 1993
Episode: 1×01 / 2 Overall
Director: Daniel Sackheim • Writer: Chris Carter
Mulder and Scully investigate the mysterious case of a military test pilot who disappeared after experiencing strange psychotic behaviour.
Unlike the pilot, this episode employs the cold open technique before the title sequence, this is common for many television series and is a regular feature of the X-Files from this point on. A cold open refers to the technique of launching directly in to the action of the episode before the opening credits and is often used as a teaser for the show’s plot line. Seth Green guest stars in this episode as the first of many celebrities who will make an appearance in the series during the early days of their careers. The guess actors for this episode all do a fine job at conveying credibility in the face of extreme situations and throughout the series we see many more fine examples of this from the supporting cast, with the odd exception here and there.
The episodes title is in reference to the introduction of Mulder’s first government informant, played by Jerry Hardin, although the character is subsequently referred to as Deep Throat, the name is not actually spoken by anyone at this point in series. Deep Throat warns Mulder that pursuing this case could be detrimental to his career, which of course only fuels Mulder’s desire. Both government conspiracies, and their subsequent cover ups, and military connection with alien technology will play a central role to the mythology of the series and this episode not only introduces the audience to this theme but Mulder gets his first glimpse behind the curtain in the first of many near misses at discovering the truth. Throughout the series Mulder often finds himself on the verge of exposing governmental secrets only to be thwarted at the last moment. We saw this plot device in the pilot where the lab containing the evidence of the exhumed corpse is burned to the ground. Once again Mulder is willing to go out on a limb, trusting his instincts and displaying a complete disregard to FBI protocol while Scully is left on the sidelines, frustrated by what she sees as his misguided doggedness. Scully and Mulder are still on starkly opposing sides at this point. Scully is wholly unwilling to even entertain the notion of alien life forms or UFO encounters. Despite witnessing the dancing lights in the sky which Mulder heavily implies are UFOs, she remains undeterred in her regularly held belief that the simplest explanation is most often the correct one. While she remains skeptical throughout the series she does eventually warm to Mulder’s viewpoint over time and their relationship develops in to not so much a converging of mindsets but of a mutual respect for one another’s perspective. We see Mulder and Scully meet in a bar to discuss the case, this neutral meeting place implies that the two are still on somewhat opposing sides. The basement office is still officially Mulder’s territory at this point and Scully has not yet accepted her position in the X-Files unit. She is still treating these cases as a temporary assignment and affording them little respect.
Having had his memory wiped of any crucial information he may have discovered throughout the course of the episode, Mulder is back at square one. He is confronted once more by Deep Throat at the conclusion of this episode. We see him running along a race track which gives us our first glimpse at Mulder’s restlessness, here is a man who cannot stand still, always moving forwards towards a goal. The final lines between the pair has Mulder remark, “They’re here aren’t they?”, to which Deep Throat replies, “Mr. Mulder, they’ve been here a long time.” Is he referring to Alien life on earth? Or does ‘they’ refer to the nameless men in black we see accosting the agents earlier in the episode, confiscating and destroying their evidence. This cryptic information will become clearer much later in the series. At this point though, Deep Throat’s messages are vague but offer just enough to spur Mulder on, as the audience we are equally intrigued by the implication of these words.
★★★☆☆
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