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 “E.B.E,” a major mythology episode that acts as a primer to what’s to come, more so than the series premiere. Let’s jump into this.
1. The Premise
The premise of “E.B.E” is a very different one from many of the episodes we’ve looked at this season. To open the episode, we’re shown a pilot over the skies of Iraq coming into contact with a UFO. He is stricken by a bright light but still shoots down the object. Then there is a second incident in Turkey that gets much messier than this one. The incident the episode is mostly concerned with is the one that happens in Tennessee. A power outage occurs and a truck driver comes out of his vehicle to look around a bit. He emerges with a shotgun because whatever is in the truck is fighting back. Mulder and Scully interrogate him and realize that something else entirely is happening here but what that is is much bigger than they ever could have imagined.
“E.B.E.” begins this way but it turns into a much bigger episode about extraterrestrial biological entities (an E.B.E.) and what role the government plays in dealing with them. This is an episode that starts to put Mulder and Scully right into the thick of things and it’s really the first episode of the big mythology that will take up many seasons of this show. The pilot touched upon this but for my money, this is the real start of the mythos.
2. Hello, Lone Gunmen
One of the biggest parts of “E.B.E.” is the introduction of The Lone Gunmen. Byers, Langly and Frohike are a group of hardcore conspiracy theorists that Mulder is friendly with. They put out a newspaper/magazine and are Mulder times infinity. Mulder believes in aliens but these guys believe in the deepest government conspiracies you can imagine. In “E.B.E.” we get to see how deep their paranoia is in just the small amount of time we spend with them. Their first interaction with Scully is pretty tense because she’s really not into them. They argue over their differences in a really funny scene and we get a good glimpse of their vastly different personalities. The thing about The Lone Gunmen is that they are good in doses. In their first appearance, their characterizations aren’t entirely there just yet but they serve a purpose. They are ultimately sweet boys who just let their paranoia get to them and despite their first frosty and weird encounter, Scully will learn to love them too.
3. Deep Throat Shows His True Colors?
Deep Throat is a trust worthy informant for Mulder – at least he likes to believe this. In fact, Deep Throat holds all the power and in this episode, we see him use some of that power. Mulder goes to him for information but Deep Throat gives him a photo as evidence that turns out to be fake. As this is happening, Scully and Mulder realize they are being watched and listened to. This is a big turning point for the show but it takes a while for it to pay off to anything. Mulder is getting closer to the answers he’s always wanted and he’s doing it on his own and this is what alarms someone like Deep Throat. Mulder can’t get there and we already know that he’s been trying to guide Mulder away from things. Mulder now realizes that this is going on and it’s a big change in the show that comes in early on. Mulder’s ability to trust people is always questionable because he has so much faith in his beliefs but for the first time, we’re really seeing how dangerous that is.
Continued below4. Sneaking Around
After putting everything together, Mulder and Scully get moving and want to find this truck that may be carrying an E.B.E.. However, they are being tracked so they have to do some careful maneuvering and it’s a pretty fun montage of them being very sneaky to avoid anyone seeing them. I live for the moments in this show when these two get to do things like this because even though the story is tense, there’s something fun about it. I like to see Mulder and Scully be smart in ways that don’t have to do with anything supernatural or unexplained. They also end up needing help from the Lone Gunmen so they can get fake credentials to get into the building the truck was headed towards. When Scully and Mulder become determined, they can’t be stopped and this is a great example of that.
5. With Great Power, Comes Great Responsibility??
“E.B.E.” confirms the existence of aliens and that’s a big deal for the series going forward. Yes, we, the viewers and Mulder and Scully have seen some things. However, there is a difference in that and the entire narrative of the show saying that these things are real in this universe. Deep Throat is a government operative who has major security clearances and confirms this when he tells Mulder that the world’s governments have an agreement about what to do with aliens who crash here. The agreement is that when one lands, that country has the power and obligation to eliminate it as soon as they can. Why? That’s not totally clear just yet but Mulder knows this now and it is a big game changer for him and his beliefs.
