X-Files S1E10: Yippee-kai-yay, Operation Falcon

Editors' Note: On the rewatch of The X-Files, Lorrie plays the part of Sestra Amateur and Paige serves as the resident "expert," aka Sestra Professional.
 
Sestra Amateur:
 
Good news, X-Philes: We’re back to aliens. Not ghost aliens like in the last episode, "Space"; this one feels properly conspiracy-ish. The episode opens with a deputy checking out a fire in the woods of Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the U.S. Space Surveillance Center in Colorado is tracking an unidentified bogey crash landing in that area.

Air Force Colonel Calvin Henderson, played by character actor Marshall Bell, tells personnel to classify it as a meteor, which it clearly isn’t. The Colonel then reports a “Fallen Angel” – now that Poison song is in my head – and mobilizes Operation Millennium Falcon. OK, it’s just Operation Falcon. Back in the woods, poor Deputy Wright gets attacked by a bright white light and there’s an invisible creature on the loose. We’ll cut right to the chase and call it Predator.

The next day, toxic spill evacuation plans are in full effect for Townsend, Wisconsin. Toxic spill … sure. Deep Throat tells Mulder he has 24 hours to look for evidence of alien involvement before Colonel Henderson clears the area. While Mulder is running through the Townsend woods, I started thinking of Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind racing to get to Devils Tower for answers. Hey Sestra Pro: Mulder is Roy! 

Mulder sneaks onto the military base and heads toward the bright light. He takes pictures of people in radiation suits hosing down an unidentified object embedded in the ground – UEO? – until he gets knocked unconscious by a soldier. Then the colonel takes Mulder’s roll of film and locks him in a cage. Mulder meets fellow detainee Max Fenig, who seems a teensy bit paranoid. He even says "trust no one" before Mulder. Max says he’s with NICAP – the National Investigative Committee of Aerial Phenomenon to the uninitiated – and just like that Mulder, has found a kindred spirit.

Meanwhile, Scully arrives to retrieve Mulder and bring him back to D.C. to answer for his rogue behavior. She's buying the “real” coverup story involving a downed Libyan jet with a leaking nuclear warhead. Now that’s way more believable than the toxic spill nonsense. Mulder tries to introduce Scully to Max, but he's gone. Also, Predator is still running around the woods. 

While trying to convince Scully they need to stay and investigate, Mulder does his best Jack Nicholson impersonation. The episode is starting to feel more like the silly comedy Chasers than the dramedy The Last Detail. Max then gets caught in Mulder’s hotel room and explains he’s been tracking the agent's career through the Freedom of Information Act. Back in his trailer, Fenig plays the radio transmissions from Deputy Wright and the responding firefighters who “saw” Predator. Sculder locate the deputy’s widow, but she’s been pressured not to talk. At the same time, Predator attacks some of Henderson’s men. 

Sculder talk to ER Dr. Oppenheim – interesting homage to the "father of the atomic bomb" – who treated Deputy Wright. He has also been coerced into not talking, but fortunately, Dr. Oppenheim hates fascists. So he reveals that the men he treated suffered from fifth- and sixth-degree burns. I’ve only seen as bad as third-degree, so those must be pretty horrific. Too bad the military removed the bodies before Dr. Oppenheim could do further testing. Scully learns more information by asking some key questions -- although she mispronounces "nuclear." It is not “nucular.” That’s not even a word; I double-checked on dictionary.com. Yup, all credibility is now out the window! 

The Colonel arrives at the hospital with his mortally wounded soldiers. He tries to kick Sculder out of the hospital, but Dr. Oppenheim manages to keep Scully around despite the Colonel’s protests. Those medical degrees are pretty handy. But Mulder still has to vacate, so he visits Max, and it's fortuitous timing because the latter is having an epileptic seizure. Max is stabilized, but Mulder's gained a key bit of info in the process -- Max has a scar behind his ear that Mulder has seen on other alien abduction victims. Scully's opinion is that Max’s episodes are related to his anti-psychotic medication. 

Predator locates Max in the trailer. Afterward, Sculder can’t find Max, but the scanner chatter on his radio directs them to the docks. They run across some more soldiers that Predator killed, then find Max in a warehouse. The dude's in a lot of pain and more soldiers have arrived outside. Mulder sends Scully to stall them. Good idea, Mulder: Send the medical doctor away from the patient. (Sestra Pro, I know why it was written that way; so Mulder can witness the unexplained instead of Scully. But that doesn’t make it any less annoying.) 

So Scully is quickly apprehended, but Predator's locked in the storage space with Mulder and Max. Predator zaps Mulder across the room. Mulder then sees Max floating in the air surrounded by a bright light. Max and Predator – Maxator? Predamax? – disappear and Mulder is left with only his NICAP cap.

Back in D.C., the government has whitewashed the whole event. Max's body was reportedly found in a storage container in the warehouse. Mulder is about to be fired, but Deep Throat prevents that from happening with an ominous old adage -- "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer."

Sestra Professional:

There you are, mythology. Missed ya.

As I don't know that Poison song Sestra Am mentioned, I spent that allotted time laughing about Operation Falcon. For those who don't know, when Die Hard was edited for television, instead of "Yippee-kai-yay, mutherfucker," Bruce Willis proclaims "Yippee-kai-yay, Mister Falcon." I guess I don't have to point out that it was the most ridiculous dialogue substitution ever. More excess laughter ensued in remembrance of the X-Files blooper reel. (The clip starts at the two-minute mark below.) When Sculder came across the last of the charbroiled bodies. Gillian Anderson bent over to look at them and proclaimed, "They're done!" as though she had been talking about a couple of minute steaks.




There's a lot to be enthusiastic about with this episode (penned by the steady team of Howard Gordon and Alex Ganza). Even though it doesn't include a lot of the specifics that later become common to the alien conspiracy, I greatly appreciated almost every ... wait for it ... last detail. Early on, the colonel tells his subordinates the unidentified bogey was a meteor and attributes its aberrant movement to instrument malfunction. Later, the same person tracking the region quips that "the meteor seems to be hovering over a small town in Wisconsin."

We also have better use of Deep Throat. He should be providing details on Operation Falcon, rather than pontificating about a computer that started thinking on its own in the episode "Ghost in the Machine." Even better, his motives are revealed to be not as cut and dried, as say, the original Deep Throat from Watergate. 

And indeed, as Sestra Am mentioned, it's Max who actually gets to say one of the show's catch phrases first: "Trust no one." As "another intrepid soul in search of a close encounter," Fenig is the perfect precursor for the ragtag trio who get mixed up in Sculder's lives (and vice versa) as the series kicks into high gear. Max has got theories on every dubious scenario -- from crop circles to JFK to (of course) Roswell. He's got state-of-the-art equipment to follow his hunches, and he's got a medical issue that does pose an interesting question -- is he just epileptic, delusional or an actual abductee? Gray areas are good ... especially when we're dealing with possible greys.

This must be the enigmatic Agent Scully: There's good conflict here. Since she's believing the "highly classified lie," Scully just doesn't get why Mulder continues to defy protocol and ignore jurisdiction. Even if she didn't have another answer at the ready, she'd probably still not understand that aspect of her partner. That's great for story potential and growth, although as Sestra Am bemoaned, the forced exit of Scully just ahead of a paranormal occurrence does kinda make your eyes roll into the back of your head. 

Truth be told, that was more than a little awkward. Scully goes to secure the warehouse, and two minutes later, she's got her hands in the air. At least she distracted the colonel with a little conversation. Mulder isn't doing much better. He tells Max under no circumstances will he let "them" take him. Two seconds later, he gone! These agents aren't getting the job done.

The technology in the episode -- such as the high-voltage rays being used to secure the crash site (and lock in an invisible enemy that had more than enough time to vacate the premises) elicited some unintentional chuckles from me. But then they got to a brilliant set piece -- Max being suspended in mid-air in the warehouse and shaking almost like he had during his seizure. That was truly eerie.

Ultimately, the ramifications of the story are both surprising and on point. Max isn't just one of those curious loonies chasing reports of alien spacecraft. In this case, he's the reason for the UFO to be there at that time and place. 
 

No government agency has jurisdiction over the truth: We do get to see Mulder make a strong case that paints him a little less ridiculous and probably more forthright than in earlier episodes. Over a dozen men lost their lives due to Predator and the government wants him to address issues of protocol?

Guest star of the week: Scott Bellis -- you might know him from Timecop or the Little Women remake depending on your movie taste -- couldn't be more perfect for the part of Max. Fenig's one of those wackos your mom always warned you to steer clear of, but Bellis makes him so endearing that you not only root for him, you kinda wish he stuck around and wasn't just stuffed into some crate. Or was he?