“That’s one of the luxuries to hunting down aliens and genetic mutants. You rarely get to press charges.” – Fox Mulder.
FIRE [Standalone] Aired December 17, 1993
Episode: 1×11 / 12 Overall
Director: Larry Shaw • Writer: Chris Carter
Mulder and Scully join forces with an inspector from Scotland Yard when a man with pyrokinetic powers stalks members of the British aristocracy.
Chris Carter’s fourth episode of the season as lead writer is rather hit and miss. Featuring an entertaining performance from it’s villain as it’s highlight and it’s weakest link being actress Amanda Pays’ unlike-able performance as Mulder’s past love interest, Phoebe Green. The antagonist in this weeks MOTW generally takes a back-seat to the character study that Carter is clearly more interested in examining. ‘Fire’ is all about exploring a more vulnerable side of Mulder and hinting at a deeper connection between himself and Scully. Phoebe is presented as being irresistible to men, not only does she wield control over Mulder’s emotions, other men in the episode enjoy flirting with her and she is caught towards the episodes conclusion, romantically entangled with another married man. The episodes focus is on the relationship between the pair and a decent amount of screen time is dedicated their chemistry, or lack thereof as the case may be. ‘Fire’s main weakness as an episode stems from the fact that Green is wholly unlike-able as a character and the relationship between herself and Mulder is unconvincing. Almost as an unintended by-product of Pays’ unlike-able performance, the audience ends up rooting for Scully to win Mulder back, so to speak. It’s difficult to say whether it was premeditated or a serendipitous after thought but Fire actually serves to strengthen the burgeoning relationship between Mulder and Scully.
Scully takes control for the first time in her position in the X-Files unit in this episode. While Mulder is distracted by Phoebe’s apparent charms, Scully studies the case files and constructs a very accurate profile of the killer which they use to apprehend their suspect. Mulder has never been so vulnerable as he is in this episode. His obsession with Phoebe is crippling to his work, it’s a side of him we have not seen until now. Mulder, as a character, is generally very cool and collected, driven only by his determination to his work. Yet here he is barely able to concentrate on the case at hand. To add to this, Carter also decided to attribute one of his personal fears onto the character of Mulder, his crippling fear of fire. This is an interesting angle to take. Clearly Carter is attempting to show a more vulnerable side to this character. Up until this point it seemed that Mulder had no fear at all. We have witnessed him breaking in to top secret military bases, spending the night in the alleys of New Jersey, chasing ghosts and liver eating monsters with no hesitation at all. So it’s therefore a reasonable and intriguing concept to explore what, if anything, frightens the man. Pyrophobia is a relate-able fear, many people have a justifiable aversion to fire. However, it’s unfortunate and somewhat curious that this is the one and only time that this fear is explored or even mentioned throughout the life of the series. Never again does Mulder appear to have an issue with fire. Perhaps Carter’s intention was to have Mulder overcome his fear during the final confrontation in the burning mansion. During this scene, the Marsden’s (the worst parents ever) leave their young children inside a burning building to be saved by the one man at the scene who has a debilitating fear of fire. Not the most logical decision. Even Phoebe, who is well aware of Mulder’s phobia appears none to concerned with leaving him to re-enter the building. Nonetheless Mulder is able to save the children and perhaps we’re to believe this enables him to overcome the phobia. It’s a weak justification but it’s the only logical explanation available to us at this point.
The strongest element of the episode is definitely Shepard’s villain. The scenes exploring his characters interactions with the Marsden family are well written and enjoyable to watch. His constant shifting of accents is a nice touch and it’s a MOTW character I would have liked to see re-appear again later down the track. This may have been an intention of Carter’s as the conclusion certainly leaves open the option of returning the character. However, due to the poor audience and critical reception, due in large part to the amount of screen time wasted on the uninspired relationship between Mulder and Green, Fire was an overall unsuccessful entry in the series from the fans perspective.
★★☆☆☆
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