The Cave's X-Files Episode Commentary:  Pilot

When we turn on The X-Files, we enter a world in which, as Special Agent Fox Mulder will proclaim to his new partner Dana Scully, the laws of physics just don't seem to apply. What sort of an alternative universe is this, and how on earth did a beautiful brainy woman like Dana Scully get herself mixed up with the likes of Fox Mulder anyway? The Pilot episode attempts to answer those questions and it does so, by showing us this world through the eyes of a scientist.

We are introduced to Fox Mulder through the words of Special Agent Dana Scully, who has been newly assigned to assist him in the X-Files investigations. When questioned by Section Chief Blevins regarding her prior knowledge of her new colleague, Dana tells us what she does know. Since she has been called to this meeting "at short notice," she can only repeat what she has heard. He went to Oxford University, he is a psychologist, he wrote a "monograph on serial killers and the occult that helped to catch Monty Props." Oh, and he has this funny nick-name, "Spooky." She smiles  when she says that, but no one smiles back. They know what the nickname means.

Scully looks discomfited by the notion that she is being sent to "debunk the X-Files." As she is a team player, she dutifully heads down to the basement, where she meets the Spookster himself. She looks around at the cluttered office with its clippings of Bigfoot sightings and the poster of the flying saucer emblazoned with Mulder's personal credo. She decides to give him the benefit of the doubt, extends her hand in greeting and tells him that she has been looking forward to working with him.

Mulder doesn't pull any punches, though. After accusing her of being sent to spy on him , he proceeds to belittle her senior thesis, and then starts up the slide show. Dana Scully when she is intellectually engaged is a beautiful sight.  She peers intently at the chemical structure on the screen and tries her best to make it fit into her conventional and orderly  world. The exchange at the end of this scene beautifully sets the stage for this most important of the show's conventions: the conflict between the rational skepticism of Dana Scully and the free-form theorizing of Fox Mulder.

"When convention and science offer us no answers, might we finally turn to the fantastic as a plausibility? " Mulder asks his new partner.

To which, she replies " What I find fantastic is any notion that there are answers beyond the realm of science. The answers are there. You just have to know where to look." This is the challenge that she willingly undertakes. Just like Mulder, she wants to know The Truth.

Their subsequent  investigation into the unexplained death in Oregon goes very badly. Most of their evidence is destroyed by what is almost certainly an act of arson, the body they had exhumed was stolen, another young person dies of unknown causes.  During the final scene in Bellefleur, Mulder is given a reprieve of a sort. The young man, Billy Miles, whom he had suspected of being the killer, doesn't take his final victim, Theresa Nemmens. Instead, in a flash of intense blinding light, both Theresa and Billy are are freed by whatever force had been holding them. Even the two marks on Billy's back disappear. What seems truly miraculous, is that his ability to speak returns and he is able to testify, under hypnosis, at FBI headquarters.

Scully watches Billy Miles answer the questions in a stilted monotone. Billy and Dr. Heitz Werber and Mulder are all behind a pane of one-way glass. Mulder stares through the glass directly at Scully as if to say, I challenge you to give me a scientific rationale for his story, Scully. I dare you to dismiss his testimony, and the misshapen alien corpse we found in Ray Soames' grave, and the unknown compound found in those marks on the backs of the victims, the arson fire that destroyed our evidence, the nine minutes we lost on the highway, and Teresa Nemmen's fear that she too would die. She asked us to save her, Scully. She needs our help. They all do.

Blevins next challenges her to justify the Oregon investigation if she can."There were, of course, crimes committed" she states in a quietly defiant tone that confirms what we already know. Dana Scully is pissed off, at Fox Mulder for making himself so vulnerable to their derision, at Blevins for putting her in a position to have to deal with this crap in the first place, and at herself for caring what happens. She knows she can't walk away from any of it. She has seen things, things that she can not yet explain. There are problems that must be solved, mysteries to uncover. The metallic implant, the only piece of evidence that she saved from the fire, that needs further investigation, obviously. And just who is that Smoking Man, skulking around? 

Mulder is a passionate and driven man, but the very experience that shaped him, that haunts his dreams will be his undoing if she can not help him.  Section Chief Blevins and the rest of the FBI brass are determined to shut down The X-Files, using her reports as ammunition. Well, that is just too bad. When Mulder calls her later that night, she is in bed but she isn't asleep. His words to her in the motel back in Oregon are keeping her awake: "Nothing else matters to me, and this is as close as I've ever gotten to it!" For all of his brilliance, and his determination, he had failed at finding the truth about his sister, and his single-minded pursuit of this personal truth seems likely to derail his entire career. Perhaps, with her help, The X-Files can become a true investigative unit, solve crimes, and uncover The Truth. She will give it her best, and hope it will be enough.

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