The X-Files Season 1, Episode 24: The Erlenmeyer Flask

Holy shit. I don't even know how to write about this episode. SO MUCH HAPPENED in this spectacular season finale. It can only get deeper from here. How deep does the rabbit hole go?

We finally got confirmation of both the existence of extra-terrestrial life and of a giant government cover-up. I didn't think that would happen in the first season.

Oh yeah, and Deep Throat got deep sixed. WHAT.


First of all, I should note that I had heard the title, 'The Erlenmeyer Flask', before. I guess I've absorbed at least some X-Files knowledge, even if I'm otherwise largely unspoiled.

And seriously.

I really was not expecting this so soon. Real evidence - no, not evidence, proof - of not just the existence of aliens, but their presence on earth. Deep Throat has been telling the truth the entire time. Well, maybe not entirely, because there was 'E.B.E.', but still.

I think starting at the end of the episode might be the easiest here, because it's the most straightforward. The FBI is shutting down the X-Files. Did I not say just a week ago that I was sure that wasn't going to happen? And that Scully and Mulder wouldn't just go rogue?

Hahaha. Yeah. I did say that.

Well, I still kind of stand by it. I don't think the X-Files are over at the FBI, not by a long shot. If Scully and Mulder (whoa, I almost tried to abbreviate that by writing S&M) do too much outside-the-lines investigation of the weird and creepy cases, they'll be reassigned to not being FBI agents any more, and then without the FBI's resources, where will they be? More importantly, without the FBI connection, where would the show be?

I don't think I realised this when I was first watching, but it seems rather important now - the Smoking Man was obviously part of the conspiracy against Deep Throat and the X-Files, since he ended up with the alien fetus that was used in the exchange for Mulder. Either that or he managed to intercept it later. I'm going with conspiracy in this case. Because X-Files.

"Because X-Files" is like an inverse Occam's Razor. The least plausible, least obvious explanation is probably best on this show. Conspiracies are more likely than just paranoia in this case. Or to put it another way, just because we're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get us.

But why let the agents get that close? The Smoking Man is someone I get the impression has control over pretty much everything that goes on in any government-related facility (I bet he's with the NSA). How did Scully manage to sneak in to the lab and get the alien fetus in the first place? (Also, I commented when watching it, wouldn't it be neat if it wasn't a fetus but actually a full-grown alien and they were just small?) If this person has that much knowledge and control, how could he not engineer his way out of a situation where Mulder and Scully would actually find the real truth about aliens?

Or maybe he did and this was all just a misinformation campaign? No, I doubt that, since we saw the Smoking Man at the end putting the jar into storage with other alien fetuses, so if it had just been a prop, he could have just discarded it.

Also, I did find the alien rather comically generic, though. Maybe it's just that species, and there are others with more distinctive appearances.

OK. So.

Deep Throat. I guess we'll never find out who he was. I didn't think he'd be gone after a single season. I also didn't think he'd become Captain Exposition halfway through the episode. He even made a believer out of Scully. Well, sort of.

I draw a distinction between belief and knowledge. I know that 1+1=2; I believe that The X-Files is an outstanding television series. (Though I also imagine that anyone reading this probably also believes that or accepts it as fact.) The point is, Scully doesn't now believe there are aliens. She knows there are aliens. She's seen one with her own eyes. No scientist can deny what has been concretely demonstrated. Which means there's still plenty of room for her to be skeptical of all the other non-alien stuff they have to deal with on a regular basis.

But even before she saw it, she was starting to believe. She trusted Mulder, and he trusted Deep Throat. So when he explained everything - well, not everything everything, but more than he had before - she was able to trust that he was telling the truth.

And then of course she had to watch him get shot. One of the two people she trusted, now gone. All she has left is Mulder. Though with his dying breath, Deep Throat did say, "Trust no one," not, "Trust no one, except Mulder, he's all right." Though with 8 seasons left, I don't know that there can be all that much internal conflict between her and Mulder yet. Plus, I think she has a crush on him, so she's not going to cast him to the wolves any time soon.

So what I'm guessing the government conspiracy people probably don't know is that Scully took that sample outside the government facilities and unintentionally created another believer in alien life on earth, and probably someone who, if she has further contact with Scully and/or Mulder, will accept that there's been a bit of a government cover-up about the whole thing, too. But the truth is slowly escaping into the world, and once it's known, it cannot again become unknown.

Randomly, the scene in which the Smoking Man put the Alien Fetus Jar [tm] on the shelf reminded me a lot of the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Only in this case, I think that jar will be found again.