One thing that stands out among the multitude of things to like about The X-Files are the monologues in the cold opens. Eloquently written and delivered with similar fortitude, they capture a glimpse the X-Files--what it represents and why it is important.
Mulder outlines NASA'a Voyager program and messages containing Earth culture. Then he describes the High Resolution Microwave Survey, a program to scan radio frequencies in space. Nothing came up and it was closed within a year... until now.
And with that, we go into "Little Green Men," the season two premiere, occurring after the X-files has been closed. Mulder has all but given up hope, even questioning everything he believes. No longer is he certain of alien existence, despite everything he's seen. Without concrete proof, as he tells Scully, it's meaningless. The one tenet he has staked his life, his future on is no longer certain. Mulder has been broken and those shadowy forces have prevailed.
So we have Mulder at the end of the line, ready to give up--and out of the blue comes a glimmer of hope. Senator Matheson points Mulder in the right direction and quickly he is at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico where the station has received transmissions from space.
At the same time, Scully sets off to find Mulder and tracks him back to Arecibo where she finds him sprawled on the ground after the aliens. The use, specifically, of "blue berets" to describe the paramilitary forces hunting them is another expansion of the conspiracy. Blue berets would indicate some kind of UN involvement and a global cabal not contained to the US.
The episode ends in the same place at the beginning, with Mulder listening in to useless wiretaps. But he had a taste of the possibilities, a fleeting moment when he believed the evidence was right there. And that taste is all he needs. Once more he is willing to put that extra step forward, biding his time until the next opportunity.
Skinner, who has been the bad guy up until now, becomes much more complex in the episode, pushing back against CSM, but also putting Mulder in his place. This puts him in a much more difficult position than before. Clearly he's not a pliant boy to be ordered around, but he has a job and controlling Mulder is part of it.
I'll try to review two more episodes tonight, so I can jump into the incredible three episode arc, interrupted only by Gillian Anderson's pregnancy.
Score: 9.1/10
