The X-Files Season 1, Episode 17: E.B.E.

Apparently this episode is part of the 'alien mythology arc'. And to some extent, I don't even care. This was a damn good episode, either way.



I was thinking before watching this that it didn't much matter to me that there even was a series long alien mythology arc, because I assumed there'd be continuity even without it, and that the other episodes would involve a greater variety of unusual things.

And so far, that's been true. While I enjoyed the 'Pilot', 'Deep Throat', and 'Fallen Angel', I know they're all going to the same place eventually. But the rest of the episodes share only Mulder and Scully as their continuity, solving (or sometimes not solving) different bizarre cases every week. Well, every episode. I'm obviously watching them faster than that because I'd like to be done some time before the end of the decade.

I said earlier that 'E.B.E.' was a damn good episode, but I'm not entirely sure what to make of the events in it. I don't know whether Deep Throat was really ever telling Mulder the truth - especially about his encounter with an E.B.E. - or if he was just leading him on a wild goose chase to keep him away from other truths that would be far more dangerous if exposed to the public than simply the existence of extraterrestrial life.

I do suspect that all of these plots we've seen so far will converge somehow and the truth will be discovered. Or part of it, anyway. I much prefer the show as a mystery than as one where aliens are definitely real and the plots involve interacting with them rather than trying to uncover government conspiracies. So if it's confirmed, I kind of hope it doesn't happen until near the end. (Though obviously it's been more or less confirmed to the viewers, assuming we're not simply shown people's hallucinations and are actually seeing what is actually in the sky.)

One of the things that amused me in this episode, as it has in the past, is how Scully is conveniently elsewhere when Mulder's suspicions are 'confirmed'. She's often in a different room or looking away when the truth that would instantly disprove her own skepticism is shown.

Though I have to say I do like how Scully, despite her unwillingness to believe, helped mislead anyone who might have been following them by buying plane tickets to different destinations in cash vs on trackable credit cards. She's still an investigator, and even if she doesn't necessarily believe there are aliens or a massive government cover-up, she still feels she has to follow up on leads, because something was going on that shouldn't have been, whether it really involved aliens or not.

And I also have no idea how Mulder is allowed to keep his job at the FBI. I guess it's the same way Peter Bishop was able to get a clearance. A wizard did it, right?