AIR DATE:  April 15, 1994
Written by Chris Carter
Directed by Joe Napolitano

	"Darkness Falls" has always been one of my favorite first season
episodes.  It is suspenseful, Mulder and Scully have good interaction with
each other, and our heroes at the last minute figure a way out of their
predicament. I will concede that "Darkness Falls" does have its problems
in certain areas such as the lack of mention of lighting a fire or why a
fire wouldn't work against the bugs, why this one time Scully and Mulder
didn't take their cellular phones on the trip, and it has some
similarities to "Ice".  But these things never distracted me from the
overall story which I thought was good.  In "Darkness Falls" we have a
story of Scully and Mulder going into a logging camp to investigate the
disappearance of 30 loggers though it ends up being more than a simple
investigation.

	The part of the story I've always liked in "Darkness Falls" was
the fact they never suddenly figured a way of out their situation as
happens in a lot of tv shows and movies (what would Macgyver do). 
Everytime Mulder would say "We'll think of something" I cracked up because
that is what usually happens on tv shows.  Sure they got rescued in the
end, but it was from dumb luck more then anything else.  We don't know for
sure whether Spinney really radioed for help since if he had the ability
then why didn't he do it with his friends he left behind at his camp.  I
remember when I first watched this episode I kept thinking to myself how
the hell are they going to get out of there since it seemed so hopeless.
Even though I knew in the back of my mind they would get out of it, it had
me guessing and when it wasn't anything they thought of I was surprised. 

	Mulder showed us he can make some dumb decisions which shows why
he needs Scully there since he showed his lack of leadership in this
episode.  Mulder, a man who trusts no one, put a lot of faith in Spinney
to come back and help them out without thinking about the consequences of
his actions to the others.  Once he realizes his mistake it makes for a
great scene between Scully and Mulder where we get a bit of Scully getting
into Mulder for making such a dumb decision and, maybe, for dragging her
out there.  The dejected looked on Mulder's face as he sat on the bed
spoke a million words of how Mulder felt about himself and the last thing
he wanted was to hear it from Scully.  It was an eye opener for Mulder
about himself who must have always thought he knew all the answers.  This
scene is where we first hear Mulder say "We'll think of something" as a
way to built up some confidence after Scully asked him, "What are we going
to do", and he answers back, "I don't know".  I just love this scene
because it said so much about Mulder.  It showed us that our heroes are
not infallible and can make stupid mistakes.

	Some miscellaneous comments on "Darkness Falls":

- Boy, looked liked it was another rainy week in Vancouver when they
filmed this episode since everything looked wet.  I'm surprised none of
them slipped in the mud.

- Mulder making the boyfriend comment as they are looking at the loggers
picture was a great crack towards Scully's lack of a love life.  Even got
her to smile briefly. 

- The comment that said it all about what was going on was made by Scully
when she said, "Get the impression that we've walked into the middle of a
war that's already started."  Even before Scully met Spinney she knows
this war was between two factions that didn't trust each other and would
go to great lengths to destroy each other.  The Company Man, Humphreys,
looked upon people liked Spinney as a bunch of tree huggers and couldn't
understand what the big deal was about cutting down older bigger trees. 
Spinney only saw the loggers as one big evil entity who wanted to destroy
every tree in the forest for profits.  By their own close mindedness about
their cause they end up dying for it.  Humphreys's for being close minded
in not believing it could be anything other than the monkeywrenchers, and
Spinney for being responsible for sabotaging the equipment and the roads
in his quest to stop the logging.  I have to give it to Carter for making
both men totally unlikeable so neither side appears to be favored. 

- It didn't appear to be much of a logging road as Moore walked up it.  It
looked more like a plain old trail instead of a road.  I thought one of
the big deals about logging were the roads that were built in order to
transport the logs.  I just thought it looked funny because at first it
looked liked they were on a road then the next second they are on a trail.

- I was glad Humphreys knew exactly when sunset was about ready to happen
to drive the point home to us about the darkness being dangerous. 

- One can't help but think what Mulder really wanted to say to Scully as
she delayed cutting done the cocoon was instead of "You all right,
Scully", was "Hurry, the hell up Scully you ain't getting any lighter."

- I can't believe Scully and Mulder didn't have a pair of white plastic
gloves on them as they put their hands into the cocoon.  Gee, I thought
they automatically brought a pair with them wherever they go.  At least
the did remember to pack some with them since we see Scully using some
when she is studying the core sample.  

- Spinney accuses Humphreys of knowing that the logging company is cutting
down illegal trees.  My question is would Humphreys really know that since
he is only in security and there wouldn't be any reason for him to know
what trees are being cut down.  Just shows how each side looked at each
person as a symbol instead of as a person. 

- Those bugs sounded liked a bunch of weird demented frogs.  Boy, I don't
like bugs that much.  I'm fine as long as they are not near me which is
why the bee storyline is a lot more scary to me than those oily aliens
since bugs just freak me out.  I can totally understand why Scully freaked
out over seeing those bugs on her.  I didn't even have to know what those
things could do to me to freak out. 

- I have to admit I was surprised the Forest Service guy wasn't carrying a
gun too since I've read there are certain areas they have to because of
the violence that can happen to them.

- What the hell was that thing that flew across the scene when they showed
the first sunrise?  It sure was one fast moving object making one think of
a U.F.O..  Oh well, it most likely was because they ran the film fast to
get the sunrise effect as a bird flew by. 

- I wonder if Mulder would have been so trusting of Spinney if the episode
took place in the fourth season instead of the first.  Just look at how
different Mulder is in this episode compared to this season.  He's making
jokes throughout the episode and he looks so young and innocent not like
today where he looks older and weary from all that has happened in the
last 4 seasons.  This is always one of the most fascinating things about
watching these earlier episodes is how young he looks that it sometimes
takes me back. 

- One of my favorite lines comes from this episode.  Scully tells Mulder,
"It's a very big forest" after he says they only found one cocoon in a
lame attempt to assure Scully on them surviving the night.  My friend and
I got the biggest kick out of this line because it explained in one line
why they didn't find more cocoons and that they are going to die in the
forest because it is so big and remote.  Whenever my friend and me happen
to be walking in the woods we will always go to each other every now and
then "It's a big woods, Mulder" in reference to this episode. 

- Notice a different Mulder from the one in "Ice" where he wanted to have
the parasite study while in "Darkness Falls" he doesn't even question the
government totally wiping out an ancient insect species.  I guess it is a
little different when the ancient species almost gets you killed. 

	"Darkness Falls" is one of the underrated first season episodes
because of some the plot problems mentioned earlier, but if one can get
beyond those problems then it is an enjoyable episode.  I just loved the
fact they didn't figure a way to kill the bugs or get out of the woods in
a timely fashion.  Mulder's nice little trip to the forest almost gets him
and Scully killed because of his lack of leadership in knowing when to do
things.  It was a great little episode that had me wondering how things
were going to turn out. 

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

7/21/97

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