O.K, so it's a "myth-arc" episode. This immediately catapults it to a higher status with hardcore fans, but it's somewhat slow and it reaches to be more dangerous than it comes off in being.
A downed UFO and a supposed Extraterestrial Biological Entity (the title) is brought back to the US for examination. The aliens follow presumably to retrieve their property. Mulder and Scully trek to Tennessee as a trucker experiences a sighting as his rig is totally incapacitated. As the story unfolds we're led to believe this is all to fool anyone, aliens and/or Mulder and Scully. This is kind of lame since it exactly what leads Mulder and Scully into their investigation in the first place. Their continuance in finding the cross-country long haul is hinted to be putting them in great danger of which little materializes. It is kind of much ado about nothing in many ways.
Still, in spite of the holes this episode brings some good to the table. It raises the bar on the Deep Throat/Mulder union. Mulder, heretofore, thinks Deep Throat is revealing truths that he is risking life and limb to reveal. In this episode he realizes that Deep Throat may be something other than a source of credible information he should always take as the wholesale truth. Now he must filter anything Deep Throat says through his own combination of facts, paranoia, and intuition. This makes Deep Throat much more interesting as has been hinted in a previous episode where he was clearly playing both sides to a totally unsuspecting Mulder. Also, we get the great comic relief of the uber-paranoid "Lone Gunmen" trio for the first of several recurring times. These guys are pure gold in a series that has some difficulty mixing in effective humor.
Like most regular viewers I like the alien based episodes. As has been stated elsewhere in another review on this site this is, in a way, the birth of the real myth-arc thing so even though it's slow, even cheesy, it has a place in the cannon as it exposes more light on Deep Throat and the extent of the government's complacent. Watch for these reasons and the WSM 650 radio ad/advice for Goody's headache powders as the miracle morning after cure (the aliens can even change a radio from AM to FM...They do have miraculous powers).
A downed UFO and a supposed Extraterestrial Biological Entity (the title) is brought back to the US for examination. The aliens follow presumably to retrieve their property. Mulder and Scully trek to Tennessee as a trucker experiences a sighting as his rig is totally incapacitated. As the story unfolds we're led to believe this is all to fool anyone, aliens and/or Mulder and Scully. This is kind of lame since it exactly what leads Mulder and Scully into their investigation in the first place. Their continuance in finding the cross-country long haul is hinted to be putting them in great danger of which little materializes. It is kind of much ado about nothing in many ways.
Still, in spite of the holes this episode brings some good to the table. It raises the bar on the Deep Throat/Mulder union. Mulder, heretofore, thinks Deep Throat is revealing truths that he is risking life and limb to reveal. In this episode he realizes that Deep Throat may be something other than a source of credible information he should always take as the wholesale truth. Now he must filter anything Deep Throat says through his own combination of facts, paranoia, and intuition. This makes Deep Throat much more interesting as has been hinted in a previous episode where he was clearly playing both sides to a totally unsuspecting Mulder. Also, we get the great comic relief of the uber-paranoid "Lone Gunmen" trio for the first of several recurring times. These guys are pure gold in a series that has some difficulty mixing in effective humor.
Like most regular viewers I like the alien based episodes. As has been stated elsewhere in another review on this site this is, in a way, the birth of the real myth-arc thing so even though it's slow, even cheesy, it has a place in the cannon as it exposes more light on Deep Throat and the extent of the government's complacent. Watch for these reasons and the WSM 650 radio ad/advice for Goody's headache powders as the miracle morning after cure (the aliens can even change a radio from AM to FM...They do have miraculous powers).