“I would never lie. I willfully participated in a campaign of misinformation.” – Fox Mulder.
SHADOWS [Standalone] Aired October 22, 1993
Episode: 1×05 / 6 Overall
Director: Micheal Katleman • Writer: James Morgan & Glen Wong
Mulder and Scully investigate the deaths of two men believed to have been killed by a powerful psychokinetic force.
Popular writing duo Morgan and Wong return for their second offering this season and deliver a very different style of episode to their comparably superior debut Squeeze. Shadows is arguably the writing duo’s weakest effort as it suffers from poor pacing issues and lacklustre performances by the bulk of the supporting cast. The premise this week, while certainly unoriginal is nonetheless a proven science fiction tale, that of poltergeists, in essence it’s a good old fashioned ghost story. The first of several ghost stories to be explored throughout the series, this episode however functions almost more as a love story in the vein of the 1990 film Ghost.
A rather humorous scene involves Mulder showing a still from the ATM footage to Kyte, the blurred figure visible behind her, and asking “Have you seen this person before?”, how anyone could obtain even the essence of an identity from such an obscure image is curious to say the least. Essentially the episode revolves around Gordon’s spirit protecting Kyte from a terrorist group who are attempting to cover up illegal business dealings they had with the company Kyte works for. Scully is of course conveniently ten steps behind Mulder for every opportunity at witnessing a paranormal event though as we will see later in the series even when she does witness something her logical brain is quick to dismiss or explain it away with a scientific justification. Of course this is what makes the dynamic between the duo so interesting, were Scully and Mulder always in sync with each other it would arguably produce a fair less compelling relationship. Scully’s shock at Mulder proclaiming that her theory may be correct, “You think I’m right?” is a nice touch, she clearly feels that their viewpoints are vastly different, which at this point in the series is arguably true.
The pacing issues mentioned earlier occur due to the fact that we as the audience spend most of the time waiting for Mulder and Scully to catch up with us, to discover what we already know. While not explicitly mentioned, it becomes clear very early that Howard’s spirit is causing the bizarre psychokinetic activity due to his protectiveness of Kyte. The pair obviously have a deep connection and fondness for one another as evidenced early in the episode from Kyte’s reaction to clearing his office. The audience is then left waiting for the plot to advance or evolve, which it essentially does not. Instead we watch Mulder and Scully, feeling somewhat disconnected from them as they gradually begin to unravel the mystery. The issue here is that Morgan and Wong have given the audience to much information and Mulder and Scully not enough. Coupled with some odd choices that belie plausibility, even within the verisimilitude of the story.
As mentioned, the guest actors for this episode deliver rather shallow performances, though this is certainly not helped by Morgan and Wong’s uncharacteristically dull script writing. The guest characters for this week are given very little to work with, their personalities almost non-existent, and as such are largely forgettable. Waltz herself is hit and miss and close examination of her performance indicates that her weakness is likely drawn from the script and direction rather than her inability to perform well.
The X-Files certainly had hits and misses over the years and while there are undoubtedly more flaws and imperfections in this episode than many others it’s still worth noting that it’s certainly not ‘bad TV’. The numerous accomplishments, and overall quality of the series as a whole simply means that while an episode like Shadows is enjoyable enough in it’s own right it can’t help but pale in comparison to the great entries in the series. When a television show is so expertly constructed, the majority of the time, it inevitably draws a harsher critic to nitpick and draw out the occasional blemish in its otherwise flawless craftsmanship.
★★☆☆☆
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