This episode was very good but it really should not have been a season 1 episode. This is the type of story you save for later. We start with almost a cold open. This is the first time in the whole series that the first 10 mins are not setting up the premise of what we are about to see. It almost felt like they filmed about an extra 10 mins and had to cut to fit it in the time they were given. It would have been much better served later on with a lead in from a prior episode or at least some back story that let us as the viewers understand what we were about to see.
Now for the episode... we start with Mulder infiltrating a supposed UFO crash site. He was able to dodge security for long enough to take picture but then gets caught and his film exposed to sunlight and ruined. The colonel rants about live ammo and how to shoot first and ask questions later yet Mulder is thrown in a cage? Ok.
We have an alien being that cannot be seen yet burns everything it comes into contact with like some sort of nuclear exposure. Why would they just not vaporize the area to eliminate and why would a military leader continue to send their men to die?
Then we have Max the UFO enthusiast. He has all the tropes that these wackos have in the 90s era: a loner, has access to espionage technology that would likely get him thrown in Leavenworth, and just so happens to be in the right place at the right time. Max ends up revealed as a abducted and "disappears".
All of this is fine and probably gets a 9 because it's a solid story until we hit the end. We spend the whole episode of Scully trying to talk Mulder off the ledge and to save his career only for him to not face any consequences. What? I get Deep Throat intervening but it all seemed like nonsense.
Now for the episode... we start with Mulder infiltrating a supposed UFO crash site. He was able to dodge security for long enough to take picture but then gets caught and his film exposed to sunlight and ruined. The colonel rants about live ammo and how to shoot first and ask questions later yet Mulder is thrown in a cage? Ok.
We have an alien being that cannot be seen yet burns everything it comes into contact with like some sort of nuclear exposure. Why would they just not vaporize the area to eliminate and why would a military leader continue to send their men to die?
Then we have Max the UFO enthusiast. He has all the tropes that these wackos have in the 90s era: a loner, has access to espionage technology that would likely get him thrown in Leavenworth, and just so happens to be in the right place at the right time. Max ends up revealed as a abducted and "disappears".
All of this is fine and probably gets a 9 because it's a solid story until we hit the end. We spend the whole episode of Scully trying to talk Mulder off the ledge and to save his career only for him to not face any consequences. What? I get Deep Throat intervening but it all seemed like nonsense.