AIR DATE:  May 13, 1994
Written by Chris Carter
Directed by R. W. Goodwin

	"The Erlenmeyer Flask" is the best season finale X-Files ever
produced ("Anasazi" being a close second) because the episode had closure
while at the same time allowing people to speculate on what was going to
happen to our dynamite duo.  There was no Mulder in a burning boxcar,
Scully and Mulder at an abandoned factory with the Alien Bounty Hunter
coming toward them or Mulder faking his own death.  No, in "The Erlenmeyer
Flask" we have Deep Throat dead, the X-Files shut down and the bond
between Scully and Mulder has only become stronger.  The show could have
ended with this episode and it would have made a satisfying last episode. 

	"The Erlenmeyer Flask" truly begins the mythology arc of alien
hybrids and the government doing illegal and unethical experiments on
people.  Yes, there were earlier conspiracy episodes such as "Deep Throat" 
and "E.B.E.", but they only touched upon it whereas "The Erlenmeyer Flask" 
establishes the idea of hybrids that will be a continuing theme throughout
the show except when they diverse off to oily aliens and killer bees.  So
much happens in "The Erlenmeyer Flask" it is hard to fully explore
everything.  In the episode Scully and Mulder investigate a police car
chase brought to them via Deep Throat and in the process find out
something they could never imagine.  At the same time Mulder confronts
Deep Throat about the way he uses him for his own needs.  This comes only
after Scully confronts Mulder about wasting their time investigating a
seemingly futile case because Deep Throat told him to watch the local
news.  It was 5pm and they had been working all day on this case getting
nowhere fast and Mulder wants to question Dr. Berube's housekeeper.  It
isn't any wonder Scully finally said to Mulder, "this (the case) has
reached the point of obscurity", because it had and she wasn't going to
waste her time on it anymore.  Nothing gets Scully madder then when Mulder
allows himself to be used like this by people. It was something that
needed to be said by Scully and the show in general because how long were
we willing to believe Mulder would let himself continue to be treated like
this by Deep Throat.  Mulder finally confronts Deep Throat about his lack
of being forthright about this case and Deep Throat isn't too receptive to
Mulder, but it is something Mulder finally needed to do with Deep Throat.

	This episode has one of my favorite scenes and that is when Scully
goes into the top secret research lab to get the alien fetus.  I like this
scene so much because throughout it you can see the terror on Scully's
face.  Here is Scully who only a year earlier would never think of doing
something as illegal as using a fake ID and stealing something from the
Government.  It always reminds me of the scene in "Deep Throat"  where she
forces the Air Force security person to release Mulder at gun point.  Both
times she had the look of "I can't believe I'm doing this against my own
government."  She grew up in a military family so she had to be taught to
trust the government to act in the people's interest. So to discover that
the government is doing experiments on people supposedly with alien DNA
and would kill Dr. Carpenter and her family to keep it quiet was quite a
shock to Scully.  The look she gave the alien fetus was a great Scully
moment of realization of what is really happening.

	A few miscellaneous comments on "The Erlenmeyer Flask":

- I believe we get our first car chase in an X-Files episode when it opens
with the cops chasing Dr. Secare.  Nothing like seeing a good old car
chase to get the acceleration going especially when that cop car went
flying over the hill.  I don't think we can see any car chase on tv
without seeing a car going off all four of its tires as it goes over a
slight hill.  Actually this was a very good opening scene that didn't use
the old car chase to spice up a lame story.  It set up what was to follow
in this episode and later episodes from experiments between humans and
alien DNA being mixed together and the dangerous green blood. 

- Hmm, one of those things they don't think of at the time when the cop
steps into Dr. Secare's green blood his shoe doesn't get a hole burned
into it.

- It's a Sunday night and what is Mulder doing:  he falls asleep while
reviewing some old X-Files cases.  Boy, it sounds like he had an exciting
weekend.

- "Danny" really was helpful throughout this whole episode.  He was on
call at all hours throughout the episode.  The classic time was when
Mulder called him around 8pm or so and asks him to track down a phone
number and Danny is able to get it within minutes.  I guess Danny has as
much of a life as Mulder does since he has this amazing ability to get
information in a heartbeat at any time of the day.  What was Danny doing
at 8pm that he would be near the resources to get this information?  You
know, I think the Consortium should have kidnapped him too along with
Scully since he seems to help Mulder out as much as Scully.

- Great effect of the water being green when Dr. Secare's head pops out.

- Best line was Scully to Mulder when she goes to him after he hands her
the Erlenmeyer flask, "I'm warning you Mulder if this is monkey pee you're
on your own."  A good joke while being serious at the same time.  Scully
was interested in finding out if there was more to Dr. Berube's death, but
not with the intensity Mulder was giving it.  Actually, she seemed
frustrated and bored by what she felt was another wild goose chase brought
on by Deep Throat.

- Once again Mulder doesn't tell Scully where he is going during their
phone conversation before he goes into Zeus Storage though he was quick to
ask Scully where she was.  Talk about a double standard. 

- Loved the photography as Mulder is going down the hallway in the storage
building.  The camera seemed to be approaching and pulling back from him
at the same time.  It just set us up for the creepiness of the next scene
of Mulder finding those men in the water tanks. 

- Funniest scene was Mulder telling Dr. Secare he will be safe with him
and the next second Dr. Secare is shot.  Poor guy he should have known the
second he saw that gun in Mulder's hand he was in trouble. 

- How did Scully fit that alien fetus into that little suitcase without
anyone noticing the bulge coming from the suitcase.

- Another great shot was the crane shot used as it pulls away from Scully
leaning over a dead Deep Throat and an unconscious Mulder on the other
side of the street.  It symbolizes the helplessness and vulnerablity of
their situation. 

- Mulder appears to be a little bit drunk when he called Scully to tell
her the X-Files were being closed down.  Here he was going to lose the
access to continue his search for the truth behind the government lies and
lose Scully for the support he obviously needs.  It is interesting that
Skinner called him in late at night to tell him the X-Files were going to
be closed down, but not Scully.

- Notice how it is automatic for Scully by this time in the series to just
ask Mulder where he is when he makes one of his late night calls.

- My most vivid memory of "The Erlenmeyer Flask" was instead of being home
watching this episode I was up in Canada on a bus trip.  All I could think
of during the trip was how I was hoping my VCR wouldn't screw up recording
it.  Lucky for me the hotel carried a channel that showed the X-Files so I
was able to watch it up there though half-way through the episode the non
X-Files person I was with came in and started asking all these annoying
questions. Like "Why is he doing this?", "Who is that person?" Urgh,
sometimes you can't win.


	"The Erlenmeyer Flask" was a great season finale because it
brought into play some of the themes that will be brought up in later
episodes.  It had an unexpected ending with the death of Deep Throat and
Mulder and Scully seemingly separated.  How many shows would kill off an
important character like Deep Throat (now if they killed off Cigaratte
Smoking Man that would show they had real guts) or make their lead
characters continually lose against the bad guys?  "The Erlenmeyer Flask" 
rounded everything up by having a similar ending to the Pilot episode of
having Mulder calling Scully at 11:21 and CSM storing away what they
recover. A good way to end the first season by showing how everything has
gone back to the beginning of the first episode.

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

8/22/97

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