2.09 - Firewalker
Written by: Howard Gordon
Directed by: David Nutter
Aired on: November 18, 1994
Cold Open: 2:07
Visuals: Rough dialogue but fun visuals, with a stinger that leans into the classic mystery structure by having a character believably ask, "What's going on up there?"
The "there" could be anywhere but in this episode it's a freakin' volcano!
Bradley Whitford as Daniel Trepkos is the episode's shining star and we get a tease of that in the cold open. Leland Orser shows up as the episode gets going (you'll know him from SE7EN most likely). He plays Jason Ludwig and is the gravitational binary to ol' Whitford. Orser was born nervous as hell, jittery as a mouse on an entire pack of Smarties, so he can play it as well as anyone and the 90s were thrilled to ask him to do so over and over.
"We're not exactly proper channels," Mulder says, when the volcano scientist tells him he's worried about going through those sorts of channels, which does make you wonder why he called the FBI in the first place and how exactly anyone decided to hand it off to Spooky and Science Queen.
In a total surprise and break with the series' standard operating procedure, Skully's ordeal (seeming alien abduction, followed by mysterious return to Earth and near-death experience) is actually referenced at the beginning and toward the middle despite this not being a mytharc episode. The first time it’s brought up gives Gillian Anderson a chance to showcase her great acting when Mulder says maybe she should take some time off.
"I've already lost too much time," she says. And it's good enough that you forget the plot line it emerged from is so stupid, if only for a moment, as Scully bares her pain for us.
Dr. Adam Pierce is the weakest part of this episode, actor Tuck Milligan having to excrete several info dumps and then wander off (yes, the actor's name is Tuck Milligan) because they had to separate him from the rest of the crew somehow so he can get killed.
Shawnee Smith (Saw fans will recognize her) gives a great performance as Jessie O'Neil, slightly childlike due to her pure terror. She also looks almost exactly like Natalie Portman in Leon thanks to her haircut and flannels. Hiro Kanagawa as Peter Tanaka is also pretty great, right up until "some kind of a fungus" grows out of his throat.
It's disgusting and awesome. This is basically another take on The Thing so it's easily compared to 1.08 - Ice, but yet again, it's done well enough to be watchable, here largely a result of the actors.
"How many times do you have to kill him?" Mulder asks Trepkos, who just killed someone with a flare gun, then pours gasoline on the body.
"It's not him I'm trying to kill," Trepkos says. And because it's Bradley Whitford, it's exactly as badass as you want it to be.
The height of the horror and suspense comes when Jessie is about to erupt with her own throat-fungus-antenna and handcuffs herself to Scully. It's not really clear why the hell she cuffs herself to her, but it does lead to a great scene of Scully trying to hammer the cuffs off of her wrist.
It all ends with a Mulder voiceover that I do love hearing, though it's almost always a sign of a script that came in light on third-act resolutions (but not always-always!). During the voiceover there is a glimpse of a mysterious patch on a biohazard soldier's arm, which I am almost positive is never brought up again, despite the thrilling cymbal crescendo alerting you to something. being. afoot.
Handcuff yourself to me one time or on a recurring basis over on the Donate page.
-Austin
