With summer quickly approaching, pretty much every show worth watching is coming to an end. That makes the summer the perfect time to binge watch what you missed along with some old classics. That’s where the Multiversity Summer TV Binge comes from. One of my personal favorite shows ever is The X-Files, and it is my mission in life to make everyone ever watch it. This summer, I’ll be looking back at season one. This week we look at “Conduit,” a heavy Mulder episode that gets into some of his own personal demons.
1.The Premise
It’s the return of sad teens and alien abductions! Hurray! Okay, not really. After spending so much time dealing with alien abductions and conspiracies behind them, we got a break with “Squeeze.” That break was not long as “Conduit” goes right back to that as Scully and Mulder go to Iowa to investigate the disappearance of a teenager named Ruby. She was camping with her brother and mother when a bright light appears, shakes up their RV and she is taken. Mulder comes across the case thanks to the tabloids and because the name Darlene Morris is repeated, he petitions the F.B.I. to allow him to investigate. Scully is able to persuade Blevins to say yes and off they go. “Conduit” is by no means a bad episode but it doesn’t have the kind of punch that “Squeeze” had. It is there to give Mulder a reason to be sad and that is…
2. Mulder’s Sister
Mulder’s sister Samantha went missing when he was 12 in what Mulder believes to be an alien abduction. “Conduit” brings all that to the forefront because the disappearance of Ruby goes down very similarly to what happened to his sister. Mulder inserts himself into this too much and it becomes personal and gets him into trouble. Mulder is a good investigator but what really makes him a great character is how much he cares and how flawed he is. This gets very personal for him and it makes him selfish. He doesn’t think what his action will mean for Scully or even this family. It’s where this episode really comes together despite where it’s placed in the season.
3. Scully Is Still One Of Them
In “Squeeze” we saw Scully stand up for Mulder but in the end, Scully is still really tied to her duty to the F.B.I. She hasn’t reached a point where she’s going to follow Mulder blindingly or even allow him to break laws, as he does when he digs up a grave. Scully even lets the NSA in on this when they come after Mulder when Kevin ends up having some sensitive data. Scully is here to pull Mulder in but in these early days, that rope is much shorter. She’s still beholden to her original goal of working with him to discover the validity of his work. She’s still his watcher despite the respect that’s building between the two of them. It’s really something when you think of where the show ends up.
4. Small Towns, Unique People
One of my favorite things about The X-Files is that it takes place in so many locations. Because of this, we often get to meet the strangest, most unique people. In “Conduit” we gets lots of that from the bikers, the bartender and even the focal family of this case. A lot of attention is paid to making them as unique as possible for the small town that they live in. America is a huge country with lots of different flavors and The X-Files gives us plenty of that with moments like the ones we get in “Conduit.”
5. I Want To Believe
This episode ends with a really poignant moment as Scully is seen listening to the hypno therapy tapes of Mulder as he recounts what happened to his sister. It’s a sign that Scully is beginning to understand Mulder more as she can see and feel the force behind his beliefs. These tapes will come up later but Scully listening to them is a big turning point for what comes down the line.
What do you think of “Conduit?” Let me know in the comments below!
