How does one write a blog post about an episode of a science fiction television show that completely deconstructs the entire premise of the series?
'Jose Chung's "From Outer Space"', another Darin Morgan penned episode, is framed in quite possibly the most interesting way of any episode up to this point, and while it does focus on aliens and generally similar mythology to the long arc episodes, it doesn't appear to actually be connected to them.
Apart from being an outstanding episode, this one also happens to be fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, and for all we know, the entire plot of the episode could have just been what Scully was reading at the end. We can't even really be sure she was relating the story as she knew it, or as Jose Chung retold it in his book.
Especially with all the bleeps. Because why wouldn't there be bleeps? In a book. Of course.
So I'm just not even going to bother trying to figure out what may or may not have actually happened, since that's not the point of the episode. Mulder's point about the credibility of reports of alien encounters is well taken by me (and probably most viewers), at least, if not by Jose Chung, himself. But it's not only about alien investigations, is it?
Mulder's comment could be applied to all kinds of marginalisation in fiction. If any group of people that has been fighting for recognition and validation is depicted in fiction with exaggerated stereotypes, people will be less likely to take them seriously in real life. Alien abductees (or 'experiencers') aren't necessarily the best example, but I think this makes a good case for doing a better job of portraying minority characters in fiction, too. And the people who do believe in alien encounters work well within the framework of The X-Files.
This is clearly a theme Darin Morgan likes to explore, because he did an outstanding job of it in 'Humbug', as well. In a way, I feel like all his previous episodes have been leading up to this one. 'Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose' set up the idea of fate and truth, but also the repeated catchphrase, "How the hell should I know?" which was used multiple times in that episode, minus the 'hell' part. 'War of the Coprophages' then went on to set up the idea that people see either what they want to see or what they have been led to believe they should see.
And it all comes together here in a story told by three layers of unreliable narrators, and the outer layer is possibly the most unreliable, because that's Jose Chung's book, which we're explicitly told is fiction. Or at least a fictionalised account of the story Scully told him. And it works, because even Scully isn't entirely sure about what happened, so even if Chung wrote her story verbatim, he could still call it fiction and almost no one would be the wiser.
There were a ton of small details I liked in this episode, like Darin Morgan's others, that I can't possibly enumerate. I haven't really touched that much on the story within the story, because where would I even start? The hypnosis? The fact that the X-Files theme music appears within the episode, meaning that the fictional Jose Chung, and not the real Darin Morgan, actually wrote most of the episode, or that the story Scully is relating to the author is, itself an X-Files episode?
I think in this case, it's just better to leave it at, "This was another brilliant episode," and go on to the next one.
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