The X-Files Season 2, Episode 4: Sleepless

OK, this is getting seriously good. We have in 'Sleepless', for the first time, an episode that deals with government conspiracy but not aliens.

And we finally meet X, the mysterious man on the telephone who has been slipping clues to Mulder and Scully the last couple of episodes.

But really, the main plot of this episode is plenty disturbing, even without the rest of the plot going on at the FBI.

As I rewatch this episode to write this post, I'm noticing how many other episodes of shows I've watched it clearly influenced. So as not to spoil too much, I'll just say I can name at least four episodes of shows and an entire other series that depend on concepts introduced here.

Though I wonder now if The X-Files borrowed it from elsewhere, as well. The Twilight Zone, perhaps? I'm not entirely familiar with that series, but it does seem like the kind of story Rod Serling would have told.

The idea of living without a need for sleep is certainly appealing to some degree, though I guess that's not entirely what happened, since the eradication of the soldiers' sleep forced them to supplement some of the lost effects of sleep with medication, and even that wasn't entirely effective.

Plus, even if that did work, it's one of those ideals that people want but never seem to think about the potential consequences of. Like say, for example, someone becoming able to influence how people see the world. Whoops!

But the real intrigue in this episode comes not even from the main plot, but in the form of Alex Krycek, who seems, at first, to just be the FBI higher-ups' way of further punishing Mulder, by assigning a young agent right out of the Academy to drag him down with pointless newbie questions.

And then he seems to be someone who accepts Mulder's theories and ideas, and Mulder is a little more open to him, even introducing him to Scully in the lab. Scully, meanwhile, seems even more now to really miss Mulder. He teased her about her skepticism, but in a friendly and knowing way, and she appeared genuinely sad when they got off the phone. This can't go on for ever, though, I'm sure they'll be working together - and not just in a "Mulder finds the body and sends it to Scully for the autopsy" way - eventually.

So then there's the reveal at the end that Krycek is working with the Smoking Man, and holy shit what are they planning for Scully, who is 'a problem'? I was not expecting this. And I don't think Mulder was, either, because he started to accept the idea of working with Krycek, an apparent believer. He didn't seem to make the connection between Krycek's presence and the immediate theft of the file from his car. (Though to be fair, I didn't either until I rewatched the episode, probably because this time, I knew ahead of time that Krycek was working with/for the Smoking Man.)

The real enemy is whatever faction of the U.S. Government is trying to bury the X-Files. Well, not just bury the X-Files, because that's already been shut down, but do potentially awful things to Mulder and Scully.

(As a footnote, though, I have to say there's a little less suspense for me since I know the series goes on for 7 more seasons and two feature films, all involving Mulder and Scully, so it's not like I'm really that concerned for their lives.)