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Take Two: THE X-FILES Season 4 (Part 1)

July 28, 2023 by  

THE X-FILES Season 4 Part 1

Credit: Fox

On Friday, September 10, 1993, Fox debuted THE X-FILES. Now, ahead of the show’s 30th anniversary, Give Me My Remote is looking back at all 11 seasons (and the two feature films) in a new daily series Take Two.

If you’ve read About Last Night, this will be formatted in a similar way: Each episode will get its own subsection/reaction, though in this case there may be slight spoilers or alluding to what comes ahead in the series. In the event a major spoiler is discussed, there will be a warning to be extra safe. Each Take Two will cover approximately 5 episodes and will wrap up the Friday before the show’s 30th birthday.

(I’ll also note how I’m watching the episodes, because some of the streaming platforms have utilized syndicated cuts of this show.)

Today, we’re starting season 4!

(These were viewed on the original season 4 DVD set—released back in 2001. The episodes are also streaming for free on Freevee or with a Hulu subscription.)

“Herrenvolk”:

Somehow I liked this episode even less than the season 3 finale, which…eesh. 

Part of my issue was the extensive (boring) chase scenes. You can do effective, engaging action scenes like that. This just didn’t work for me, in part because it didn’t feel like they hooked me enough with the last episode.

The “Samantha is a worker drone” of it all worked better for me, honestly, the first few times I saw it—before the show actually wrapped up her storyline. David Duchovny is great playing Mulder’s confusion and hope at seeing a young version of his sister, but it just doesn’t mean enough in the grand scope of things.

Poor X, though. I mean, him dragging his dying body to leave a message written in his own blood is pretty badass, but I’m sure he would have rather been alive and not have the epic moment. (That shot of him dead next to the letters SRSG is just freaking iconic, though.)

(Also, forever and always: Bees should have been banned from the XF universe. IYKYK.)



“Home”:

This is an odd episode for me, because the more I watch it, I almost feel like the less I enjoy it. There is absolutely no question it’s deeply, deeply, deeply messed up. There are some darkly chilling moments, and it’s effectively disturbing.

The problem is it so quickly became overhyped—it was notoriously pulled from repeats and syndication, which made it hard to watch back in the old days. (AKA the ‘90s.) And while it’s understandable, I guess, that notorious distinction makes me always want more from the episode. Not gore, but just…more.

And maybe that’s not fair! I’m wholly acknowledging that if I had watched this when it originally aired (or if it was airing now for the first time), my feelings about the episode might be different. It’s a bizarre thing, to come into a show when an episode is already so known. 

That being said: “Wonderful! Wonderful!” is the perfect juxtaposition for a needle drop. The murder of the sheriff and his wife are the most difficult part of the episode for me to watch, because yikes.

  • “Mulder, if you had to do without a cell phone for two minutes, you’d lapse into catatonic schizophrenia.”
  • Mulder wants to settle down in the middle of nowhere. Well…
  • Scully musing about motherhood…hoo boy. My heart. And Mulder’s “I never saw you as a mother before” is so telling and also rough. For Mulder, all he sees is the work and getting answers. Scully fits in there, and her focus has been pretty aligned with his, even if they come at it from different angles. Having to think about her being a mom is acknowledging they might not be on the path together forever. (In theory.) Anyway, Scully deserved happiness as a mother.

“Teliko”:

There are two good things about this episode: 1) The always-great Carl Lumbly. 2) A non-verbal Mulder trying to alert Scully to trouble behind her with his eyes.

And…that’s all I have to say.

“Unruhe”:

Probably a controversial take, but this is my favorite, by far, of the first four episodes.

Yes, Scully is in danger again, but the writers made it feel a bit different than some of the other go-rounds because we saw her actually talking to Jerry, her captor. It was tense, obviously, because she’s a doctor and saw the extent of the damage he had done in his attempt to “help” women. But she got insight, was able to reach him (at least a little), and it wasn’t just “Mulder and the FBI ride in and save the day.” (And to be fair, when Scully had been taken in the past, normally she is in a position to physically fight back. But there normally isn’t this psychological element to it; it’s generally just hand-to-hand combat as a way to survive and escape.)

  • Mulder looking at Scully with amusement and affection when she gives him a theory about the kidnapped woman appearing to be in distress (and not the passport photo she was said to have taken) because the film is out of date and overheated is so perfect. Yeah, she may be trying to rationalize away what he believes is a supernatural-based thing, but he’s enamored with her and her brain. A perfect snapshot of them. (Just not the morbid kind of photos that appear in this episode, please and thanks.)
  • Jerry is scary, both in his lack of skills of how to properly do the very messed up lobotomy he’s trying to do, but also in how unremarkable he seems. Some scary people, you pass them on the street and you just know. (Like Donnie Pfaster reeked of creepy.) Jerry just blends into the background.
  • Okay, but given how frequently Scully is a target, why is she going to the car alone at a place they knew Jerry had been? There’s every reason to suspect he would fixate on her!! Sigh.

What did you think of these THE X-FILES episodes?

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