One of the things I'm realising about this show is that it's not, as I originally thought, 'a show about aliens', but instead a show about conspiracies and coverups. Yes, aliens play a large role in that (or so we're led to believe so far) but the thing that really keeps me coming back is the twisted plots within the FBI and the government in general.
I've never been a big believer in any of the circulating conspiracy theories about the U.S. government, primarily because it would take so many people to cover them up that there's no way the truth would not come to light. There are still enough honest people in Washington to prevent the dishonest ones from completely taking over.
Plus, it's also too risky. If a single conspiracy theory were proven true, the entire system would fall apart. Even if the rest of the theories were still completely false, it would throw the government, and more importantly, the citizens' trust in government, into absolute chaos. If we found out the government really was capable of orchestrating a conspiracy to assassinate a sitting President, or to fly commercial planes into buildings to justify a war*, what else would we believe they could do?
Even if we found out they really were hiding aliens in Roswell, New Mexico, we'd never be able to trust the system again.
And that's what Cancer Man alludes to in 'One Breath'. He knows things that simply cannot be revealed. He's part of the vast government conspiracy that very much exists in the world of The X-Files.
In this show, the aliens are real, and there are a number of parties, often working at cross purposes, trying alternately to cover that up and expose it to the public. Every time Mulder gets close to something, his avenues are cut off or redirected or misdirected, either by X or Cancer Man or Skinner.
Welcome to the conspiracy, right? 'They', whoever they are - the organisation Cancer Man and Krycek are affiliated with - clearly cannot kill Mulder or Scully. That would be too obvious, and they're smarter than that. Everything that happened in 'One Breath', and possibly even the entirety of 'Duane Barry' and 'Ascension', was orchestrated by that group.
Revisiting those episodes, I'm actually beginning to wonder if Duane Barry himself was planted specifically to lead Scully to the point of her abduction; to test Mulder; to feel out which side Skinner was really on; to distract Mulder by throwing him off their scent and depriving him of his friend and partner, who is very good at figuring things out. What if that entire three episode sequence was created solely to disrupt Mulder and Scully's investigations?
What if there are no aliens at all and everything we've seen so far as been planted to make Mulder and Scully think there are? It doesn't explain Mulder's sister, but so far, we haven't seen an explanation of that event anyway, outside the very faulty memory of a terrified 12-year-old boy.
And obviously something happened to Scully, and somehow she ended up in a life-threatening coma. And someone definitely attempted to steal a vial of her blood, though that's certainly a dead end - X saw to that, but it's entirely possible that was a red herring. Another person sent to make Mulder think there's a bigger conspiracy than there actually is. The same with the people sent to ransack his apartment. Were they really involved, or were they just redshirts sent to give Mulder the illusion of closure?
Part of what makes any coverup work well is creating uncertainty and doubt among those who are working to uncover it, or those observing the proceedings (such as viewers of a television show about conspiracy and coverup). It's why stories of double and triple agents are so compelling, and I think it makes Skinner a truly excellent character. We don't really know who he's working for. He's Snape. Or possibly Peter Pettigrew. Again, it could go either way at this point, but he's eventually going to have to fully betray someone. He can't play both sides for ever.
There are a lot of possibilities here, and we'll surely never get full resolution of all of them, but they'll certainly keep me watching. (Not that I needed an incentive really, even if this week's batch of episodes was a bit on the weak side after 'One Breath'.) As long as there are questions, I'll keep wanting more.
Trust No One
Deep Throat, whose allegiance was more certain, I think, told Mulder and Scully to trust no one, which means the only people we can trust as viewers are Mulder and Scully themselves.
I've got my eye on everyone else.
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*Yes, I know about The Lone Gunmen, and I do intend to watch it (and likely post about it - I'll work out the details when I get there) concurrently with the last third of season 8 of The X-Files. I'm well aware of the plot of its pilot episode, and the eerieness of that airing six months before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
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