1X02 DEEP THROAT

"He's on deep background. I call him Deep Throat."
Harold Simons from All the President's Men

SYNOPSIS

Mulder is informed by a mysterious man to stay away from a case regarding a test pilot's kidnaping. But, Mulder goes anyway and discovers an Air Force Base with planes using reverse technology engineered from UFOs.

SCULLYVISION

In this second episode of the series, we again see Scully first, sitting at the bar of a local tavern. No, she's not having a 'liquid lunch', she's waiting for a meeting with Mulder.

There's quite a difference between this Scully and the Scully we met in the Pilot, so we can assume a certain amount of time has passed. There is no time stamp on this episode. The opening teaser probably took place before the Pilot, and this scene starts four months later, or after the Pilot.

Scully again does most of the investigation in this episode. Mulder's solution for getting info, break into a high security government facility.

We hear a 'girlie scream' from her when the back window of the car breaks. She shows impatience at Mulder for his reaching for the 'fantastic'.

There's a lot of retained information that she's armed with as Mulder and Scully go to Maryland to investigate. She comes up with the symptoms that Budahas is suffering from, she knows it's scientifically impossible to 'selectively mind wipe' a person's brain.

She isn't as smiley here as she was in the Pilot. Most of her smiles are while looking at Mulder after he's gone off on his tangents, and reminds him to look for the scientific reasons for the events, not the easy answers. But, she has retained her sense of humor, evidenced by her calling Mulder a sucker for buying that overpriced photo of an alleged UFO. But, is rightly ticked and GA conveys her agitation perfectly when Mulder ditches her.

She's still clinging to her beliefs as she does tell Mrs. Budahas, "the government is not above the law, they can't withhold information." She'll soon learn.

She's tough in two situations:

1. With Paul. She's onto him pretty quick, jumping into and locking the car doors behind her that's surprising and thrilling for the audience. You gotta love how she took care of the situation, gaining and maintaining control of him.

2. When Mulder comes stumbling out of the airbase after the mind wipe, Scully is genuinely concerned. Their bond is formed. She's concerned but in total control. "Get in the car!" she yells at a dazed Mulder. She doesn't want the X Files closed down, or Mulder to lose his job. Protection mode Scully is starting to emerge.

OH COME ON!

In the opening teaser when the agents force their way into the Budahas house as if to say, "No, no, don't get up, we'll let ourselves in." Mrs. Budahas arrived at her house before they bust in, breaking the door. Couldn't they have just asked for her house key? And where was she that the army had to bring her home?

If you run a diner and have put up photographs, and are willing to sell them, wouldn't you at least make sure they're taped up straight?

When the back windshield broke waking Scully up, why didn't the rest of the windows break?

Why did Mulder and Scully pull out their guns while chasing the teens?

They couldn't get a stunt woman who looked even remotely like Scully? Looked to me like it was a man in a too-long wig portraying our Ms. Scully when they were stopped by the G-men.

Also, a prop blunder! A G-man pulls Scully's chip from her gun after they stopped their car and there is only ONE bullet in it. Shouldn't she have reloaded the thing? Why would an FBI agent have only one bullet in the chamber? I'd hate to think that it's a Barney Fife situation, give her one bullet and hope she doesn't hurt herself out there.

Shouldn't Mulder and Scully be suspicious of a 'reporter', Paul, finding them so quickly?

How did that moped fit in the trunk?

Even though none of the phones work in the motel, the pay phone across the street does!

Mulder must have stopped by the hotel to blow dry his hair after being released from the base and before seeing Mrs. Budahas.

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

Tetramel D is the scientific name for fish food. Military wives know that off the top of her head, why didn't I?

If you hear clicks on the phone, hang up! It's being tapped.

Never trust a reporter in jeans holding a notebook as soon as you see him.

Fly airplanes using UFO technology and you're going to end up a shell pulling your hair out to make fishing tackle.

Don't ask Scully to call you crazy. She just might do it.

Don't mouth off to a G-man or he'll introduce you to the concept of a kidney punch.

If you're posing as a reporter, turn off your real job's radio in the car, and keep your real ID on your person, not in the cubbyhole in case an intelligent FBI agent locks herself in your car and starts searching, or that very same FBI agent will steal your car, with you driving at gunpoint.

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.

DEEP THROAT

This is the first meeting between Mulder and his first informant.

Groundwork is laid for suspicion of Roswell, Ellen's Air Force base.

There are regular folks who are believers.

SFX

The scene in Ellen's Air Force base was really cool and moody, sterile and mysterious.

The window breaking was surprising and well done, except all the windows should have shattered.

Pretty hokey FX for the flying UFOs Mulder and Scully were watching go back and forth in the night sky.

The spaceship sequence when it was flying over Mulder on the landing strip was really nicely done. The sound was fitting.

RECURRING CHARACTERS

Deep Throat

WRITER
Chris Carter

He evened out Mulder and Scully's flirty relationship in the Pilot to make it more professional. Scully doesn't actually laugh in Mulder's face, she just smiles and lets her look linger on him to see if he's really real, could really be having those thoughts.

The work relationship is almost solid. They respect and rely on each other.

CC makes Mulder do for the first time something that annoys Scully throughout the series, ditches her.

DIRECTOR
Daniel Sackheim

Nice segues from scene to scene. One I liked the most was when the workers at Ellen's dropped solution into Mulder's eyes, the Sackheim cuts right to Paul wiping his eye as Scully's making him drive them to the base to fetch Mulder.

Nice space ship sequence with Mulder, where we see his awe and is confirmed in his belief that they exist. But not of the two flying ones at a distance that Scully also witnessed.

RUNNING TALLIES
Flashlights - Both once
Guns - Both to the teens, Scully to Paul
Mulder Breaks a Law - Trespasses onto Ellen's
Scully wears glasses
Scully types out a report
11:21 - Budahas' birthday
1013 - Part of number of Scully's report

Side note: Recurring quote to look for in a future episode: "You just keep telling yourself that." Do you know in what other episode that line was said, and by whom?

SCORE CARD FOR SAVING EACH OTHER'S ASS

Scully - 1 Mulder - 0
Who knows what they'd have done with Mulder if Scully didn't show up

POINT/COUNTERPOINT

Scully comes home to see an envelop on the floor, having been slipped under her door:

Scully,

What I have to tell you shouldn't go over the FBI email system, and you weren't home. I have to get this off my chest. Try as I might, I just cannot seem to recall what I saw at Ellen's. I know it's there, buried in my memory banks along with memories of my sister. I will remember them. Deep Throat confirmed that we are not alone Scully. I can see the smirk on your face!

We should never have abandoned this case. It's still open and unsolved in my book. We can't be scared off every time the government bullies us. If we are, then we become one of them. If we accept the lie, we become liars. I know you don't want that, Scully.

I saw the look on your face when you picked me up at the base. You were worried. Let me say this now, Scully, your job isn't to worry about me. The truth is bigger than we are. If I have to be sacrificed in order to get to the truth, then so be it. I won't be the first sacrificial lamb, not even the first in my own family.

Mulder

She decided to play his secretive game, and wrote her reply to Mulder, instead of waiting until she saw him in the morning, she delivered her own letter to his apartment that night:

Mulder,

What happened to Dana?

I know you went to that base for a very personal reason. That's mostly why your going upset me so much. I'm sorry about your sister's disappearance, and I respect your need to find her, but you can't go rushing in thinking you're going to get anywhere doing it.

The reason I was adamant about leaving the case behind was because we didn't have any proof, God only knows what they did to you, and so you would still have access to the FBI email system. Mulder, you still have your job, which will be your tool to find your sister. I believe there are answers out there, but to sacrifice you would be counterproductive.

I would like to meet this Deep Throat for myself to form an opinion on the man. Do you know anything about him? I just can't help but wonder why you're putting so much faith in him, and blindly rush into things, because he tells you what you want to hear. Did you ever stop to think that the man who pointed us to that case would have an ulterior motive? That he is one of them?

Scully

ATHENAEUM

Mulder stepped out to the hallway of his apartment building to retrieve his morning paper, and an old parchment fell out and fluttered to the floor. It was a note directing him to an old building on the north side of town, and that there would be crucial information about his contact, Deep Throat.

He entered the old warehouse and let his flashlight guide him down the stairs, and into a darkly lit grand room. Mulder guessed that it was a library by all the shelves of old, dusty books. Behind him, he heard a man clear his throat. He turned to see a man sitting behind a tall counter that stood right where he had just walked.

Mulder's question of, "Excuse me?", echoed through the wide, tall room. When the man looked up, Fox was startled to see the man had an eerie resemblance to Richard Nixon. Poor guy, he thought.

In a deep baritone, the man asked, "May I help you?"

Mulder couldn't help but think he was looking at Richard Milhaus Nixon himself, and the irony did not escape Mulder. To play along with what had to be a good of some kind, he flippantly said, "I was sent here for information. The name's Mulder."

"Of course, of course," the man with beady dark eyes nodded and tossed him a file that he had been reading. "Here you go. You may sit over there to read it," he said, indicating an overstuffed chair with a lamp next to it, which Mulder was positive hadn't been there just seconds before.

Mulder sat and began to read. The file contained some information that he already knew, information about Deep Throat's namesake, Deep Throat from the Nixon era. While president, Nixon conspired with former FBI agent G. Gordon Liddy and two allegedly retired CIA agents James McCord and E. Howard Hunt to wiretap the offices of Nixon's opposition in the Democratic National Committee.

Deep Throat, a mysterious and well informed source, emerged to give information to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein that enabled them to expose Nixon and his cronies. To this day, the identity of Deep Throat is unknown, but is believed to have been very highly placed in the Executive Branch of government and had access to a tremendous amount of top secret information.

The most-cited Deep Throat suspects include Nixon administration members Henry Kissinger and Alexander Haig; CIA officials Cord Meyer and William E. Colby; and FBI officials L. Patrick Gray, W. Mark Felt, Charles W. Bates and Robert Kunkel.

Mulder read the part that he had always suspected but never had proof. Deep Throat, according to this report, kept his friends close and his enemies even closer. Woodward and Bernstein were his enemies. He was not helping them, he was diverting them. The Washington Post had begun to uncover information about the wire tap when Deep Throat emerged to guide them in the direction of President Nixon. The wiretaps didn't give Nixon the desired information about what his enemies were planning to do to him. Instead, it revealed an exclusive call girl agency that served Presidents, Congressmen, FBI and CIA brass and more. A call girl agency with lots and lots of top secret, as well as, incriminating information. A call girl agency run by the CIA or some higher consortium. Deep Throat's activities led to uncovering of one of the greatest government conspiracies in history and led to the resignation of a president. In dramatic fashion, Deep Throat managed to divert the attention of the entire world away from the deeper truth. Deep Throat was not what he appeared to be.

Mulder looked at Nixon's look alike, listening to headphones attached to a Walkman, and returned the file to his desk. He pulled the headphones away to hear Clinton's deposition of the Lewinsky matter and said, "Call girls, huh?"

Nixon shrugged, then asked, "How did you like the file?"

"Didn't tell me much."

"It was to point something out to you," he mysteriously said.

Methos smiled, and asked, "So, who's Deep Throat? The guy who ruined you? If you're really him."

"There was no Deep Throat," he spouted. "Those little pricks just made stuff up."

Mulder laughed, "Well, what they 'made up' booted you out of office. Are you telling me that my Deep Throat is just making stuff up?"

"I'm telling you that you can't trust anyone," the Curator in Nixon disguise moaned, not liking that he had to draw pictures for his guests to understand.

QUOTES

MULDER Can I buy you a drink?
SCULLY It's two in the afternoon, Agent Mulder.
MULDER It's not stopping the rest of these people.

MULDER Let's just say, this case has a distinct smell to it, a certain paranormal bouquet.

DEEP THROAT Leave this case alone, Agent Mulder.

SCULLY This isn't some UFO goose chase, you're leading me on, is it?

MULDER So what did you make of Uncle Fester down the block?

MULDER What would the chance of someone like me seeing a UFO?

SCULLY Sucker.

MULDER We got our own map, sucker.

SCULLY Oh my God.

MULDER Later, Dude.

Loud heavy metal music plays. Scully turns it off.
MULDER Kids today, huh?
SCULLY You believe it all, don't you?
MULDER Why wouldn't I?
SCULLY Mulder, did you see their eyes? If I were that stoned I...
MULDER Ho-hoo. If you were that stoned, what.
SCULLY Mulder, you could have shown that kid a picture of a flying hamburger and he would have told you that's exactly what he saw.

SCULLY Mulder, c'mon. You've got two blurry photos, one of them taken almost fifty years ago, and another one, you purchased today in a roadside diner. You're going out on a pretty big limb.

SCULLY Just because I can't explain it, doesn't mean I'm gonna believe they were UFOs.
MULDER Unidentified Flying Objects, I think that fits the description pretty well. Tell me I'm crazy.
SCULLY Mulder... you're crazy.

MULDER You didn't come to raid my mini-bar, did you?

ANITA BUDAHAS That, is not my husband.

MULDER Bet you've flown just about everything with two wings. I got this hotshot pilot friend, who said that he could do an emmelmen at a sustained eight G's, huh, is that possible?
LT. COLONEL ROBERT BUDAHAS I, I don't... I can't... Anita, I can't remember.

MULDER I think they re-wired that man's brain.

MULDER You think if maybe we ignore him, he'll go away?

EMIL Oh man, did we tell him about the, land mines and junk? HEY!

MULDER How did I get here?

DEEP THROAT Your lives may be in danger.

DEEP THROAT As I said, I can provide you with information, but only so long as it's in my best interest to do so.

MULDER They're here, aren't they?
DEEP THROAT Mr. Mulder, they've been here for a long, long time.