1X01 THE PILOT

"Well, the way they pick TV shows is, they make one show, and that show's called a pilot. And then they show that one show to the people who pick shows, and on the strength of that one show, they decide if they want to make more shows. Some get chosen and become television programs, and some don't, and become nothing."
Jules from Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino)

SYNOPSIS

MARCH 7-22, 1992
BELLFLEUR, OREGON
Four members of the high school graduation class of 1989 have mysteriously died in the Callum National Forest. Mulder and Scully, newly assigned together in the X Files Division of the FBI, investigate.

SCULLYVISION

This is a series that explores the character of Dana Katherine Scully. Yes, she has a charismatic, intelligent partner who many believe is the focus of the show, his portrayer even gets top billing. Everyone has their opinion, right? Here's ours. During the course of this series, Dana will have to explore her own character, her thoughts, beliefs, knowledge, and how it will be affected by Mulder and his quest for his sister, the syndicate, the mythology, and personal tragedies.

If you watch the first ten minutes of this episode after the teaser, it's all about Scully being assigned to and entering the world of Mulder. This is a huge step for her, as she's a medical doctor, had been a teacher at Quantico, and the powers that be assign her to work with a "Spooky" guy in the basement. At first glance, that has to be a disappointment for her. It would be interesting to know what was going through her head as she took the elevator down to the basement. Scully looks so young but she's already confident, tough and smart. When the bosses give her the assignment, she's onto them right away by saying, "You want me to debunk the X-Files? Sir?" She's no fool.

Scully and Mulder first meet, and it's clear from their easy banter that Scully's going to be in immersed in the quest with Mulder as more than just the 'debunker' for the FBI, despite Mulder's initial sarcasm. She'll keep her eye on science, but is willing to give Mulder the benefit of the doubt. She also won't back down from him. In the episode, we see all the events happen through her point of view. We meet Mulder through Scully's eyes. We see the X Files office as Scully sees it for the first time. We also see how Mulder could have gotten the moniker of "Spooky" along with Scully when he stops the car to spray paint an orange X on the highway, and doesn't explain it. Dana's confused and so are we. When he reaches for the 'fantastic', she has to laugh in his face, but then still, takes him seriously and investigates his claims.

On the flight to Oregon, Scully works, Mulder catches some shut eye. Sure, she may just be catching up on the facts of the case, but then, couldn't he have been sitting with her telling her the specifics? During the rocky turbulence, she's worried, Mulder's cool as a cucumber. Interesting. Does she have something to live for and he doesn't? She's type a type A personality, Mulder's type Z?

Scully is so much the professional that Mulder calls her "Dr. Scully" twice, although he seemed to be borderline sarcastic both times. Already in this first episode of the series, Scully and Mulder exchange glances and establish nonverbal communication that you can almost hear, and will continue to deepen over the course of the series.

Now the bumps on her back. In a gratuitous "woman in her underwear scene" for the TV audience, or TV executives, Scully trusts Mulder enough to run to his motel room in her underwear and robe. What is right about this show is that Mulder doesn't take it as a come-on. Instead, he pats her on the shoulder and asks her if she's okay. Then, he takes her act of intimacy as a chance to retaliate, to "bare his soul", by revealing his quest. The search for his little sister, Samantha, who was taken from their home while he was babysitting, and who he believes was taken by aliens, hence his motivation to continue with the X Files, is the most personal thing in his life. Scully touchingly responds to what he says, making this is the start of a wonderful relationship, that has been handled in a special way in this series.

Scully also gives intense looks at Smokey the Harbinger as he lurks silently throughout the episode. She may be onto him from the start. It is Scully who, at the end of the episode, was able to give proof of the implant to Blevins, thereby giving validity to the X Files, which she was assigned to do.

OH COME ON!

Scully didn't put her bag down when she came into the X Files office, she kept it slung over her shoulder during the entire scene. Hm. Not comfortable? Didn't think she was going to stay long? The director, Robert Mandel, didn't give Gillian Anderson that instruction? She was waiting for Mulder to mention that she could drop it anywhere? Didn't want to be forward?

Don't planes have latches on their overhead compartments? If so, why did a little turbulence make everything fall on people's heads?

When Mulder and Scully went to investigate Peggy O'Dell's death, how come no one checked their IDs upon their arrival to the crime scene?

At the cemetery in the rainstorm when they saw the pillaged graves and Mulder makes the leap that Billy Miles, coma patient, was the murderer, Scully said, "Billy Miles? The kid who's been in a coma for 4 years..." If he was part of the graduation class in 1989, and this is early 1992, Scully needs to work on her math, unless Billy was in a coma when he graduated.

After said scene, in the pouring rain at 5 am according to the time stamp, they go right to the hospital to check Billy's feet. Bright sun shine pours in from the window. In the hallway right after leaving Billy's room, they decide to go right back to the forest to check it out. Guess what? It's night again. Just how far away from the hospital is that forest that it took them that long to travel back to it. AND, how did Billy, coma patient, beat them back to the forest?

Also, in the hospital, they're wearing the same clothes as when they were in the pouring rain, and the only difference in appearance is that Scully's hair is out of that ponytail. Their clothes look like they've been freshly laundered and pressed. Their hair is perfect.

Maybe that's what they did before and after the hospital to account for the long time lapse, they went to a laundromat and then stopped by the hotel and did each other's hair.

Scully finds marks on her back and goes running in her underwear to get Dr. Mulder's diagnosis of mosquito bites. Was there by chance more on her mind, or a plot devise to get Mulder to reveal the big quest?

THINGS LEARNED
or All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From the X Files

If you're on plane experiencing turbulence, just lay back and listen to headphones, but cover your head, baggage will fall on it.

When taking pictures, don't flash in Dr. Scully's face.

If you're driving in a rainstorm, take out your compass and check the time. You never know what will happen.

If you have enough power, you can smoke anywhere.

Mosquito bites look like abduction marks, only they come in three, not two.

Nurses have a thing with vegetables.

JOHN'S SAMANTHAVISION

In the Pilot episode we learn, along with Scully, that Mulder experienced the traumatic loss of his sister years ago and yet it still has a profound impact on his life. Already we suspect that Scully will become another very significant female in Mulder's life and will be forever linked to Samantha. Curiously, Scully has written her thesis about Einstein's Twin Paradox which essentially is about two entities separating as one leaves the other to travel near the speed of light only to return to find the other entity has aged. The Mulder/Samantha implications of this are evident.

Mulder and Scully are in a very early, rather intimate, scene, alone in a motel room with Scully lying in Mulder's bed wearing her robe. It's not a carnal scene but a very intimate one. Mulder takes an uncharacteristic emotional risk at this point when he reveals the details of his sister's abduction and what it did to his family. Scully listens intently and asks compassionate questions. A strong personal bond is starting to form between the agents and the link is Samantha and her disappearance. It will be interesting to watch how the Scully / Mulder / Samantha connection will unfold over the course of the series.

What does Scully think of little Samantha at this point? Sure, it's an awful story, the poor kid. Did Scully think back to what she was doing and how she felt when she was an 8 year old girl? Scully also had big brothers, at least one. Would she have relied on Bill, Jr. to protect her or would it be unfair to her brother to be in protection mode in the midst of an outstanding situation? Did she feel for Mulder's predicament, that he wasn't able to stop it?

CARTERVISION
It's been well documented that Chris Carter had the whole idea of colonization laid out, a 'Bible', so let's see what we have so far about what he revealed:

The aliens are abducting folks and implanting metal in their bodies. Abductees have two warts on their back. There is Missing Time whenever the aliens are around, and electronics go wacky. There's that mysterious smoker that seems to have access to the Pentagon storage room. He's a superior to Blevins, who has at least one job description of assigning agents to departments. There's a 'Senior Agent' that sits alongside Blevins, have no clue as to what his purpose is.

SFX

The swirling leaves in the forest and Theresa's nosebleed were of top quality. We know right away that the Special Effects of this series will rival anything we see on the big screen.

RECURRING CHARACTERS

Blevins, the Senior Agent, CSM, Billy, Teresa.

WRITER
Chris Carter

Chris Carter, of course, is the genius behind this compelling and fascinating series. This is a fitting spooky episode to introduce Special Agent Fox Mulder and his crusade to find out what happened to his younger sister, Samantha, during one horrible night in 1973 that changed his life. That crusade is what drives both his motivations and the mythology.

He did a very good job getting us into the lives of both Scully and Mulder, introducing them in an interesting manner, and making them interesting people. The opening scene of the Sheriff finding the Swenson girl was a little too reminiscent of Twin Peaks, but that's okay.

DIRECTOR
Robert Mandel

Robert Mandel's work here is almost flawless, we saw the episode, not the tricks of a director. We also feel that he loves the characters as we're able to see Scully and Mulder in loving ways, being funny, tentative, and forceful. The handling of placing CSM in scenes was also good. We're into the scene and the camera would swing to reveal him there, like in the first scene with Scully at Blevins' office, we see CSM first and have no idea who he is. Ah, those were the days, right?

RUNNING TALLIES
Devises used a LOT in this series
Flashlights - 3 times!
Guns
Sunflower Seeds
Slide Projector
Mulder Breaks a Law - Vandalism, Trespassing
Scully uses her laptop
Scully and Mulder wear glasses
Rainstorm
Scully lights candles, but to be fair, so does Mulder during the blackout
11:21 - clock at end of the episode when Mulder calls Scully

Side note: In the DVD addition of the Pilot, we get to meet Scully's boyfriend. The last scene of the show when Scully receives Mulder's call, she was in bed with him. We're all grateful they cut him out.

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

At 10:31 pm, March 23, 1992, Fox Mulder received this email:

Fox,

We just finished my first case as part of the X Files, and frankly, I'm a little nervous here. I was assigned to the X Files to debunk your work, we both know that. But after seeing, holding, that implant and observing that strange light in the woods, and the fact that Billy Miles, who was supposed to be in a coma, clearly walked and talked, I'm drawn in.

I don't know what to think. I walked into the X Files office secure in my scientific beliefs and the knowledge that aliens do not exist. I don't know what I saw in Oregon but I'm not ready to say, "Yes, Mulder, there be aliens."

Even though someone tried to remove all evidence of the case in Oregon with the motel fire, I was able to prove something to Agent Blevins by giving him that implant. Now I'm not sure I should have left it in his possession. Maybe I should have kept it, maybe we'll see one of them again. I wonder what they did with it.

I left medicine to make my skills useful in another capacity, to use my science as an investigative tool. I'm not sure I should confess to you what I thought when I was assigned to work with "Spooky Mulder" in the basement, but now, I know there is something to what you've been working on all those years. I don't know what it is, but there is something. I will tell you what I feel about working with you now, I'm proud. You're no dummy, you aren't Spooky, and you have a personal need to find some answers. You need someone to bounce ideas off, and I am going to steer you in the right direction. I feel that, no modesty included, I can help you.

Dana

Moments later, Dana Scully received this email:

Dana,

I've got mail! There's something completely different. Seriously though, I'm glad that the X-Files have drawn you in. I started this quest a long time ago and have been alone down here ever since. Company is nice. You're right that it's a personal need. Maybe I shouldn't have unloaded all that stuff about Samantha on you, but I thought you should know.

I realize that you aren't ready to say "Yes Mulder, there be aliens," and maybe you never will. That's okay. Just as long as you never look back on us and say "Mulder, there be fools."

You have a good question about that implant. I don't know what it was or what they did with it. I'm not even sure I know who "they" are anymore. And I hope "they" aren't snooping in on this email. Am I being too suspicious, or spooky?

Scully, you don't need to see things the way I do. What would be the fun in that? I will always ask what you think and respect your credentials. You don't have to believe what I believe. Besides, I won't even say that I believe, only that I want to believe. For Samantha. I know that you'll help. I'm counting on it.

Fox

ATHENAEUM

Just after Dana returned home for the evening, there was a sudden scratching at her door. Scully thought it could have been the neighbor's dog but when she reopened the door, the only thing she found in the hallway was a manilla envelop at her feet that hadn't been there before.

After opening it, a small scroll of ancient parchment paper fell into her hands and began to crumble immediately. It was an invitation for her to go to an address, which she figured was a remote part of town. She was easy to dismiss it as a joke or something from one of Mulder's phantom friends, but it was signed by Professor Greene, her mentor and former faculty advisor at the University of Maryland.

Scully had been right in one assumption, it was a remote part of town; the address was of an abandoned warehouse. She entered it as the parchment had instructed and found a set of creaking stairs that lead down. She debated whether to descend them as she was alone and couldn't believe her old professor would be in such a place.

Turning on a flashlight that she retrieved from her bag, she trudged down the steps, down a stone hallway, that emptied into a cavernous dark space. It was a room, but the flashlight beam didn't reveal any walls. She walked further into it, and lost sight of the door. Slowly as she moved forward, gas lamps attached to the ends of library shelves illuminated half circles on the stone floor. Scully gasped at the overwhelming floor to ceiling shelves, row upon row of them, filled with dusty old tomes, some so dusty that she couldn't read their titles.

Every step she took echoed, then another heavier footstep was distinguishable from her own. She twirled to see an old man approach her. Just before he was clearly in front of her, she heard him say, "Welcome to the Athenaeum, Ms. Scully," in a familiar baritone that relaxed her hesitation. "I am the Curator."

She gawked at the man who was so familiar, "Professor Greene?"

He smiled, "At your disposal." Professor Greene, never a champion of chit chat, quickly got to the point, "I asked you here to obtain your permission to house your thesis in my library."

"My thesis," replied Scully. "Why would you want it?"

"Certain factions are becoming quite curious about time travel and they are starved for information," the old professor said.

"Factions? What is this place? I thought you retired, but had been thinking more along the line of Florida."

He ignored her small talk, "May I add your thesis to the collection?"

"Yes, of course. But why?"

"Remember this place as you go further into the X-Files," he instructed. She was surprised he knew of her current career path, but listened to what he had to say as he continued, "There are many truths among these old shelves. There are files predating a filing system, government documents thought to be destroyed, books written with quill and ink by delicate and elongated fingers, diaries from a child's hand, magical spells by transparent hands, ancient texts by hands that were really just claws, words never read... never meant to be read. There are answers here that can help you, answers to questions that were stopped from being asked long ago. So return. But only when invited."

Scully smiled at the abruptness after his far-fetched soliloquy, then realized that he was escorting her back to the hallway. Before she could ask anymore questions of him, her old professor had vanished. She shone her flashlight in the direction of where they had just come and couldn't see him or the library shelves. Scully left the room, failing to see the small glowing red dot floating in the shadows. It suddenly dropped to the floor and was snuffed out as a great exhale of breath could be heard.

A dark figure of a man emerged and entered the Athenaeum. He walked toward the library shelves and as greeted by an old woman. He asked her, "Are you the librarian?"

The gray haired woman who's hair was wrapped in a tight bun and who wore a corseted long dress sternly corrected him, "I am the Curator."

"Give me the information that I requested," he demanded, pulling out a silver lighter along with another cigarette out of his pocket.

She immediately tisked, "Don't smoke." He ignored her and flicked the lighter anyway. She stood back in the shadows from him as he flicked the lighter again, and again but it would not work.

The man looked at her as she reappeared in front of him holding a brass clasped report to her bosom. "Here is the file on Einstein's Twin Paradox, a New Interpretation."

He held out his hand to get it, but to his annoyance, she began to relate what was in the thesis to him, "When a body travels away from home near the speed of light and later returns, an unexpected surprise awaits. Its twin, having remained at home, has aged remarkably. Or," she mysteriously added, "Perhaps the twin hasn't aged at all."

"Give me the report," he demanded once again.

The old woman laughed and opened Scully's thesis for him to look at, "Oh, my sir, just look at all these formulas and equations. You have to be a genius to grasp all this!"

As the man grabbed the file from her and stalked out of the Athenaeum, she couldn't help but giggle, wondering what Mr. Einstein or Agent Scully would think of the subtle changes she had contributed to their work. She had done it out of pure amusement, just to irritate the rude smoking man who would show up, but no one had ever invited him.

QUOTES

SCULLY Well, sir, I was recruited out of medical school. My parents still think it was an act of rebellion but, I saw the FBI as a place where I could distinguish myself.

SCULLY He's an Oxford educated Psychologist, who wrote a monograph on serial killers and the occult, that helped to catch Monty Props in 1988. Generally thought of as the best analyst in the violent crimes section. He had a nickname at the academy... Spooky Mulder.

SCULLY Am I to understand that you want me to debunk the X-Files project, sir?

MULDER Sorry, nobody down here but the FBI's most unwanted.

SCULLY Agent Mulder. I'm Dana Scully. I've been assigned to work with you.
MULDER: Oh, isn't it nice to be suddenly so highly regarded. So who did you tick off to get stuck with this detail, Scully?

MULDER Einstein's Twin Paradox, A New Interpretation. Dana Scully Senior Thesis." Now that's a credential, rewriting Einstein.

MULDER It's just that in most of my work, the laws of physics rarely seems to apply.

MULDER I have plenty of theories.

SCULLY The answers are there. You just have to know where to look.
MULDER That's why they put the I in FBI.

MULDER I'm not crazy, Scully. I have the same doubts you do.

SCULLY Mulder, is that you?

Dr Nemman has just caused a scene over the exhumation.
MULDER The guy obviously needed a longer vacation.

The coffin being lifted out of the grave breaks from its harness and rolls down the hill, cracking open on impact. Mulder opens it and looks at a very small, simian-like corpse.
MULDER It's probably a safe bet Ray Sommes never made the varsity basketball team.

Mulder knocks on Scully's motel room door.
SCULLY Who is it?
MULDER Steven Spielberg.

MULDER We lost nine minutes!
SCULLY No, wait a minute. You're saying that, that time disappeared. Time can't just disappear, it's, it's, it's a universal invariant!
The car starts up and the headlights shine on them. Mulder smiles.
MULDER Not in this zip code.

MULDER I was twelve when it happened. My sister was eight. She just disappeared out of her bed one night. Just gone, vanished. No note, no phone calls, no evidence of anything.

MULDER You gotta love this place. Everyday's like Halloween.

SCULLY The vegetable?! Billy Miles, a boy who's been in a coma for the last four years, got out here and dug up these graves?

SCULLY Agent Mulder believes we are not alone.

MULDER Scully? It's me.