AIR DATE:  October 1, 1993
Written by Alex Gansa & Howard Gordon
Directed by Daniel Sackheim

	Each time I watch "Conduit" the more I like it.  It is truly one
of the pivotal first season episodes because it helped to establish one of
the most important aspects of the show:  it told us and Scully the real
emotional impact Mulder's sister's disappearance had on him. 

	Until this episode the only mention of Mulder's sister was in the
pilot episode where he tells Scully about her disappearance and the impact
it had on his family, but we truly don't begin to understand the impact
until this episode.  In "Conduit" all Mulder could see was his sister as
Ruby Morris and Kevin Morris as himself since Kevin witnesses Ruby's
disappearance.  It is the first time Scully sees Mulder at his most
obsessive and how it affects his dealings with a case.  Also, "Conduit"
set the stage for "Colony/End Game" because it revealed Mulder's deep down
desire to find his sister at any cost, and in "Conduit" he must have felt
if he could find Ruby he would find his sister.  Even though Mulder didn't
go off and leave Scully behind, almost getting himself killed as he did in
"End Game", "Conduit" did show how this pattern was starting to develop in
Mulder with him going back to the Lake to find Ruby.

	The episode had one of the best emotional endings with Mulder in
church looking at a picture of himself and Samantha together while Scully
is listening to his regressive hypnotic tape. If anything was going show
us how much Mulder blames himself and how much he wants his sister back
that scene does it.  In it we see Mulder in a church crying and praying
for some kind of peace about his sister's disappearance while we hear on
the regressive hypnotic tapes Mulder's description of his sister's
disappearance and his retelling of a voice telling him his sister will be
alright and will be returned.  The last thing we see is Mulder kneeling as
we hear him tell the therapist he wants to believe the voice.  You just
can't help feeling for his loss. 

	Just an outstanding episode which has only gotten better over the
seasons.  Now some miscellaneous comments: 

- One of the interesting aspects of "Conduit" is that it is Scully's call
whether they go on this assignment.  She has established a relationship
with Mulder so she doesn't dismiss the case offhand, but wants to find out
from Mulder why he wants to investigate this case especially after it
appears to have a close resemblance to his sister's disappearance.  Most
likely it was done this way so that we get an understanding from the
beginning that this case was not going to be an original abduction.

- It was nice to see the old slide projector again.  I don't think we saw
it all during this last season.  I forgot how much it was used in the
first season. 

- This is the first time I noticed a satellite disk outside the Morris
home which makes it more believable that Kevin was receiving those symbols
from the tv set.  Oh yeah, did anyone expect Kevin to say "They're here" 
when he pointed to the tv set. 

- Scully still has that big pocket book from the pilot episode.  When did
she finally lose that thing?

- We still get to see the young and innocent Scully when she gives the NSA
men the information they wanted about the paper Kevin drew the 1's and 0's
on.  She hadn't quite developed the distrust Mulder had about secret
government agencies yet.  She got her first taste of it in "Deep Throat",
but it wasn't enough to make her not trust the NSA.  There is no way in
hell she would do that today.  Of course, Mulder comes back to her when he
asks her "how an 8 year old boy could be a threat to national security,
and they call me paranoid." 

- One of the first tests of how far Scully will go with Mulder in his
search for the truth is outside the police station when she tells him "to
stop running after your sister.  It's not going to bring her back."  She
has understood Mulder's motive from the beginning on this case, that the
whole point of the investigation was to find his sister just as much as it
was to find Ruby Morris.  Mulder basically tells her she is either with
him in his search or not when he says to her, "Come with me or don't come
with me.  I'm not giving up on that girl."  In other words, as his
parents, the police and everybody else did on his sister.

- We can see the X-Files show was still on a low budget since Scully and
Mulder still had the puny flashlights and not the big high powered ones we
see them use in later episodes.

- I really liked how it was open to the possibility that Ruby could have
taken off with a motorcycle gang.  It also was a cool scene with all those
motorcycles coming over the hill. 

- I wondered where Mulder's bullet landed when he fired into the air to
scare the wolves away from the dead body.  This is always one of those
funny tv things where people can fire bullets into the air with no one
worrying where the bullets land.  It always makes me think of that
"Homicide"  episode where one of their murder cases ended up being a stray
bullet from a kid firing into the air. 

- There is a real parable between Mulder wanting to dig up the body in
"Conduit" to his digging up the body in "Paper Hearts".  In "Conduit" he
starts to dig up the body with his hands with Scully in the backround
telling Mulder to stop.  Mulder tells Scully, "What if it's her?  I need
to know."  In "Paper Hearts" as Mulder is digging up a body, which could
be his sister, Scully trys to get him to stop, and all Mulder can say is
"Help me, Scully."  The big difference is Scully is able to get him to
stop in "Conduit", but in "Paper Hearts" she has become closer to Mulder
and sees how emotional he has become about the case, and helps him dig up
the body.  Very hard hitting scenes because each time it is Mulder looking
for his sister. 

- I have to admit I like the Morgan and Wong version of Samantha's
disappearance with Mulder and her playing Stratego instead of them both
asleep in the same room.  I've always just found it weird they would be in
the same room.  Not that it doesn't happen in real life, but the Mulder's
seemed well off enough to afford a house with each child having their own
room.

- Another scene I really like in this episode is the scene where Mulder is
trying to convince Darlene Morris to let them talk to her daughter.  This
is where you get to see the beginnings of Scully grounding him from doing
something he shouldn't as he was about to do when he made a movement to
follow Darlene Morris back into her daughter's hospital room and Scully
holds him back.  The look and turn he made when she did that showed how
much this was important to him and how hard it was for him to back down. I
can't imagine it was a nice trip back to Washington, DC for Scully. 

	Boy, I can't believe how much I like "Conduit".  This is the first
time we see a case bother Mulder so much it affects him in ways that made
him more human to us.  Fox Mulder was not going to be your typical hero
where he doesn't have any weaknesses.  Also, Scully gets to understand
more where Mulder is coming from in his desire to investigate
non-conventional cases.  It was episodes such as "Conduit" that helped
X-Files to survive that tough low rated first season.

Claudia
E-mail:  Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

7/3/97

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