The X-Files' first season set the scene: far-reaching government conspiracies, alien abductions and homicidal mutant freaks aplenty. The second year (wherein its popularity skyrocketed) saw the series rewarded with a budget it deserved, and it continued serving up more of the same with a slickness and scope that came with the extra dollars. Year three saw it add a previously ignored element - humour. The show began to parody its own mythology to great effect in shows like Jose Chung's From Outer Space and Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose.
Which brings us to the fourth season, the latest to get the DVD box set treatment. As usual, there is a mixture of freaks-of-the-week, shadowy government conspiracies, intellectual serial killers, and the ever-popular "mythology" episodes (the two-part mini-movies that deal with the extra-terrestrial threat and the search for Mulder's abducted sister). There's nothing new here - each of these twenty-four episodes are virtual remakes of earlier shows - yet that's part of the series' charm, isn't it?
Popular opinion states that it all went downhill after this season, as the show's habit of cannibalising itself over and over again became far too obvious, and its tendency of raising new questions without answering old ones became more frustrating. Whilst the ratings definitely reflect that opinion, I've remained an avid watcher, and thought that the most recent series that Australian audiences have seen (number eight) was as good as anything that had come before. Since the landmark Two Sons/ One Father mythology arc in Season 6, plot threads are finally being resolved and questions are being answered.
One possible criticism of Season 4 is that it's a throwback to the time when each mythology episode bombarded the viewer with new facets of the conspiracy - more clones, bounty hunters, shadowy governmental conspirators, and warehouses filled with alien embryos, extraterrestrial technology, and floating corpses in floatation tanks - without revealing any concrete answers. The ambiguous one-liners are beginning to get annoying - Mulder has yet to find an informant who gives him a straight answer, rather than variations of, "You're so close... the truth is here, if you look hard enough... you have no idea what you've gotten yourself into... but seriously, there's an Oliver Stone movie starting in half an hour, I'll tell you what's really going on tomorrow." Naturally, the informant is invariably stabbed/shot/strangled/decapitated minutes later.
Yet there's something undeniably addictive about watching the convoluted plot play out, and with the series coming to a conclusion at the end of Season 9 (yet to be seen on these shores), it'll be interesting to see how many of the questions raised in the fourth year actually get answered.
Season 4 boasts some fantastic stand-alone episodes, possibly some of the strongest of the entire run. There's a shortage of humour this time around, and the gore quotient seems to be higher than ever, but the strength of the scripts and the acting is undeniable. A link to an episode guide (featuring synopses and pictures) is available at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar... below, we'll look at the standout episodes.
Herrenvolk
In the conclusion to Season 3's cliffhanger, Mulder is on the run from an alien bounty hunter and runs across a young girl who bears an uncanny resemblance to his missing sister (who would now be in her twenties). A mysterious gentleman with strange healing powers, genetically altered bees and a lethal government-engineered virus also play a part in the story. Somehow. Confusing, even for X-Philes.
Home
Possibly the most disturbing hour of television ever produced (Temptation Island notwithstanding), this episode sees Mulder and Scully investigate the murder of a severely malformed newborn at the hands of a family of three inbred country yokels. This episode was originally banned in the US and the UK, but has since been shown.
Unruhe
A fine example of the serial-killer-of-the-week subgenre, this one sees Mulder racing to find a misogynistic murderer who has kidnapped Scully. His only clues are a bizarre series of photographic montages, possibly the results of the killer's ability to imprint his thoughts directly onto film...
The Field Where I Died
A personal favourite X-episode, dealing with a miltaristic religious cult (obviously based on David Koresh's group, and the siege at Waco, Texas). Mulder believes that he and one of the cult leader's wives may be reincarnated lovers from the Civil War.
Musings of a Cigarette-Smoking Man
A great, unconventional episode that traces the history of everyone's favourite X-villain, Cancer Man.
Tunguska/Terma
Another two-part mythology episode, which sees the return of Krycek (don't they all?) as Mulder flies to Russia to investigate an extraterrestrial rock that seeps a strange black oil...
Paper Hearts
Another day, another serial killer... but this one might have ties to the disappearance of Mulder's sister Samantha. An engrossing, ingeniously plotted mystery.
Leonard Betts
A darkly humourous tale of a headless corpse that won't stay dead, with a devastating twist ending for poor Agent Scully...
Never Again
A man is possessed by a sentient tattoo that sounds an awful lot like Jodie Foster (it is!). A Scully-centric episode that offers some nice glimpses into her character's off-the-job persona, but suffers from a thin plot.
Memento Mori
When Scully is diagnosed with cancer, the pair investigate a group of alleged abductees who've all suffered the same misfortune. Too bad most of them are already dead... a dark, depressing, but important episode, which has the distinction of being the first to see the Lone Gunmen emerge from their office and engage in some Bond-style espionage.
Tempest Fugit/Max
Another mythology-based two-parter, this one boasting a spectacularly staged mid-flight abduction and the highest body count in X-Files history.
Small Potatoes
This light-hearted (?) story sees the agents investigating a rash of babies being born with tails, possibly fathered by an overweight, balding, middle-aged Romeo... a comedic gem in a very dark and sombre season.
Gethsemane In the concluding cliffhanger of the season (and part one of a three part epic), Mulder takes an Arctic holiday to recover a frozen alien corpse, with possibly fatal results (SPOILER WARNING - he doesn't really die in the end).