Season 3 of the X-Files
is really where the show found its feet and put together its excellent
formula. Basically, this is the
season where the show finally decided to start adding in a greater amount of
subtext and purpose to its monster of the week stories. There are still plenty of fun one-off
episodes and light hearted romps through the ridiculous weirdness of the X-Files mythos but there are just as
many about neglected veterans, the plight of immigrants, or the cruel
miscarriages of the American justice system. So, let me guide you through The X-Files season 3.
S3E3 D.P.O.
‘D.P.O.’ is one of the most prophetic X-Files episodes there is, to say nothing of setting a major
precedent going forward on how they’d craft stories. The story is that of Darin Peter Oswald, an Oklahoma high
school dropout with the power to control lightning and a creepy obsession with
one of his female teachers. Oswald
is creepily predictive of the modern trope of the ‘nice guy,’ someone who
thinks you women are like vending machines where you put in good gestures in
exchange for sex. Oswald’s played
by Giovanni Ribisi of Entourage and Avatar who does a superb job. He always comes off kind of eerily
moronic, someone who’s just dumb enough to not realize how deadly and powerful
he is. Like a lot of great X-Files this one is marked predominately
by Ribisi’s performance and how well realized he is as a villain.
S3E4 Clyde
Buckman’s Final Repose
This is one of the show’s funnier episodes and a pretty
delightful one at that. Among a
lot of great elements this is the episode that introduced reoccurring series
gag the Stupendous Yap, a TV psychic spoofing ‘90s spoon bender Uri
Geller. Yap isn’t the focus so
much as he’s just flavor around the real focus, an psychics insurance salesman
who can see the moment of someone’s death. Peter Boyle is the one playing Clyde Buckman and he does a
great job, perfect blend of schlubby everyman and someone who’s honestly
exhausted over all this psychic mumbo jumbo he’s got going on. This is also the episode that
introduced Queequeg, Scully’s dog, as well as the birthplace of the fan theory
Scully is immortal. This is a fun
episode and very much worth checking out if you want some nice comedy
weirdness.
S3E5 The
List
This is a bit of a strange one but if you can tune your
brain to your wavelength it’s a great watch. Taking place after the execution of a man for the crime of
getaway driving, a bunch of prisoners and administers at the Florida prison
where he was executed start showing up dead. The weird thing about the episode is that no single
character is the focus, rather the ghost story of a prisoner’s return from
death takes center stage. In that
respect it’s a lot more like a 45 minute campfire ghost story but if you can
meet it on those terms there’s a lot to like here and it has several creepy
moments. There’s also a lot of
great subtext about the inescapable cruelty of the “justice” system that still
rings chillingly true today.
S3E7 The
Walk
Another great villain episode blended with greater depth and
some very harsh elements. The
episode revolves around a handful of army officers who’ve been plagued by a
phantom soldier who kills their loved ones while refusing to allow them to
commit suicide. It’s a creepy
concept and the visual effects on the Phantom Soldier are incredibly well
done. Additionally, the episode
really doesn’t hold back on the murders, including a child death so just
consider that before watching. The
real key to this episode is Ian Tracey as “Rappo,” an quadruple amputee from
the Gulf War who’s behind the attacks.
He’s one of the most violent and loathsome villains the show has ever
featured, less a man than a seething mound of flesh animated by vengeful hatred
and seething cruelty. The episode does
a good job making sure we get “Rappo” is an anomaly not a standard person, that
the war and his injuries didn’t make him a monster; they just made it more
obvious.
S3E12 War
of the Coprophages
From a very dark episode to probably the funniest episode
the show ever produced. War of the
Coprophages is a Mulder solo episode, something the show started doing more
often as a way to fit more filming into their schedule. At the same time though, the writing
uses the removal of Scully as a kind of symbolic removal of reason or
logic. This is an episode where
we’re completely dropped into a world devoid of skepticism or critical
thinking, everything is a crazy theory, nothing makes sense, every one is
spooky and it’s great. The actual
plot is one of the few one-offs that has to do with aliens and conspiracies but
don’t let that throw you off, this alien stuff is pretty much completely
removed from the greater alien mythos and is really just for fun. There’s kooky professor, killer
cockroaches from outer space, crazy geek girls, and a shocking number of Planet of the Apes references, what’s
not to love?
S3E14 Grotesque
Another strange one, mainly over the serious ambiguity
around what’s really happening but this is still a very strong episode. The story revolves around one of
Mulder’s old senior officers when he was working violent crime, and sense he’s
an old friend of a main character you should probably guess where this is
going. Old Friend has been chasing
a violent serial killer who claims to have been possessed by a gargoyle. As the episode goes on it becomes
increasingly unclear whether the guy is just crazy or there really is an evil
spirit at work that may have switched hosts now that it’s previous body has
come under scrutiny. It’s a really
dark and gothic episode that digs deep into the historical mythos of gargoyles
and manages to get under your skin in a very creepy way. Nothing is really explained by the end
but if you can accept this as just sort of an opaque mystery to be accepted rather
than solved there’s a lot toe enjoy.
S3E17 Pusher
Pusher is my all time favorite X-Files episode because it’s easily the most disturbing. The plot centers around a criminal who
has the ability to push people into doing things, forcing his will on them in a
creepy and unexplained manner.
It’s a thoroughly disturbing episode thanks to how often he forces
people into acts of violent self harm and how much the Pusher views other
people as objects to be used for his own sinister ends. What’s more this is a great cat &
mouse game episode as Pusher is actively seeking out Mulder, fixating on trying
to destroy him for no real reason beyond wanting to matter. It’s a chilling episode marked by a
great performance and tons of haunting imagery.
S3E19 Hell
Money
This one is a bit more ambiguous as to the actual
supernatural elements but still really great. It revolves around a secret high stakes lottery type game
being played by the Chinese immigrant community in San Francisco. Most of the plot revolves around lurid
and trashy Chinatown criminal conspiracy stuff; the rich and successful feeding
off the poor, illegal organ harvesting, and corrupt cops with bleeding
consciences forced to protect the game.
It’s actually a really riveting story with a rock solid performance by
BD Wong as the San Francisco cop caught between covering up the game and
wanting to end it. There are some
elements that play into the supernatural theme, mainly revolving around the
Chinese festival of the hungry ghosts but it’s never really explained or
resolved. This was more or less
the X-Files stab at a straight crime
drama with the added focus of making the crime kind of ludicrous and crazy,
like something Batman might encounter, basically making this a really great Gotham Central story.
S3E20 Jose
Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’
Meet the second funniest X-Files
episode. Charles Nelson Reilly
stars as Jose Chung, an in-universe author with a long and popular history of
great books. His latest subject is
a book about alien invasion stories, non-fiction science fiction. This essentially leads him into the
middle of Mulder and Scully’s investigations as he interviews a plethora of
unreliable narrators and local weirdos trying to find some measure of truth
within the layers of lies, conspiracies, and cover-ups. It’s a hilarious episode, helped by the
writing and a great central performance from Reilly. In a lot of ways this episode is a great look at what the
world of Mulder and Scully might look like from the outside, especially for
non-fans of the series. Everything
is a conspiracy, aliens are everywhere, no one is trustworthy, and there are no
answers to be found. For an
episode that’s essentially the show roasting its own premise this is an
absolute hoot that even manages to find a degree of poignancy under all the
layers of parody and Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura camoes.
S3E22 Quagmire
Quagmire is one of the strangest yet most rewarding X-Files
episodes. The plot is so perfect
for the show I'm shocked it took 3 seasons to get here: the agents go looking
for a lake monster. I’m not even
sure how to classify the episode beyond that; there are notes of sadness,
hilarious moments, wonderfully honest and shockingly intimate dialogue between
the agents, and one of the most weirdly satisfying endings. The whole thing is a lot more character
driven than the show ever got before and not in the way season 1 tried to
be. It’s not an episode full of
parents or old friends, just two people speaking honestly about themselves and
their lives where the backdrop happens to be hunting for sea monsters. I really can’t recommend this episode
enough; it’s brimming with all the little moments that’ve always made the X-Files such a great show.
S3E23 Wetwired
This one is a quasi-mythology episode, in that the overall
scheme of the week is linked to the government conspiracy but not in anyway
that pays off later on. This
episode is actually a lot like a follow-up to the season 2 episode ‘Blood’ in
that they both revolve around government mind control. ‘Wetwired’ is the superior episode
though mainly thanks t how creepy and complete the mind control is. Partially it’s that the mind control is
so subtle no one realizes it, playing off your worst fear responses, but the
main creepiness is how it’s carried in TV signals. This episode doesn’t really have a point to make about
television or manipulation but it’s steeped in the visual artifice exploring
how we consume television, especially people with an unhealthy obsession with
the medium. Seriously, if you’ve
ever though the home shopping network was a creepy opiate of the masses or the
24 hour news was non-stop fear mongering this episode is a terrifying extension
of those concepts.
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