AIR DATE:  October 7, 1994
Written by Howard Gordon
Directed by  Rob Bowman

	"Sleepless" sets into motion everything that is going to happen in
the next 4 episodes.  Krycek (aka Ratboy) is introduced as a young green
agent. We get to see Mr. X for the first time and how he is going to be
different than Deep Throat, and we see the beginning of the decision to
take Scully away from Mulder.  It didn't hurt either that it was a good
X-Files story of Vietnam soldiers who were surgically altered to never
have to sleep and one of them developing the power to make people see and
hear things so real they believe them.  An all around excellent episode
with a fine performance by Tony Todd as the Preacher. 

	In "Sleepless", Mulder is partnered up with someone who appears
eager to work and help Mulder in his search for the truth.  This being the
X-Files we know Krycek isn't going to be all he appears to be which turns
out to be true when we see him making a report to Cigarette Smoking Man.
Obvious CSM wasn't taking any chances as he did when he assigned Scully to
work with Mulder.  This time he was going to send someone who has little
integrity and has no problem with betraying a trust.  Scully was sent in
to discredit the X-Files, but she wasn't the type of person who could be
influenced by CSM and wouldn't betray Mulder after working with him for so
long.  CSM must have teamed Mulder up with Scully because she was supposed
to give them credibility to closing the X-Files.  Now with the X-Files
closed CSM doesn't need Scully anymore, but he does need someone to keep
an eye on Mulder so in comes Krycek ready to work and willing to believe
in Mulder's work.  Everything that happens in the episode indicates he was
working with Mulder to built up that trust because Mulder would sense in a
minute if Krycek was holding anything back.  Scully was instantly
distrustful of Krycek and barely even acknowledged his presence in the
room and didn't bother to shake his hand.  The tougher part is figuring
out how much Mulder trusts Krycek or was it Mulder just putting up with
this upstart agent.  Krycek has always been a hard person to figure out
because his motivation have never been fully explained.  Was he an overly
ambitious operative of CSM, a person who wants power and money or a
Russian spy?  So much has happen with Krycek since we first met him that I
don't think we will ever know exactly who Krycek is.  But at the time of
"Sleepless"  he definitely was a rat who recommended that they get rid of
Scully because he saw her as a hindrance to getting closer to Mulder and
he saw what a big asset she was for Mulder. 

	Along with Krycek we finally get to see Mr. X, Mulder's new
contact.  Once again the issue of trust comes up with Mr. X.  Mulder tells
Skinner, "My source, the only one I ever trusted, is dead."  It appears it
hurt Mulder to admit this and it showed how their relationship had partly
become father and son.  This is not the case between Mr. X and Mulder
where it is more adverse and this never changes throughout the series. 
Mr. X never hid his agenda of using Mulder for his own gains whereas Deep
Throat used Mulder as a way to expose the misdeeds of the government. 
Scully asked Mulder if he trusts Mr. X and he can't even answer her
because he still isn't sure who to trust other than Scully.  This is why
Mr. X was a good alternative as a contact for Mulder since he was testy
and made no bones about pointing a gun at Mulder and threatening him.  It
only stressed the danger Mulder and Scully are in.

	The X-File in "Sleepless" was a good story of once again the
government doing some illegal experiments on people for its own gain. This
time it was the making of ultimate soldiers who were made not to sleep in
the hope they would become a better killing machine which they did.  In
this bunch was Augustus Cole, aka Preacher, who decided to take justice in
his own hands and give himself and his former comrades some rest.  I have
always liked Tony Todd as an actor and he didn't disappoint in "Sleepless" 
as a man who develops the ability to make people see and hear things. 
Todd shows the regret Cole feels for his actions in the past which is why
he made Krycek think he was holding a gun so that he would end it for him.

	Some miscellaneous comments on "Sleepless":

- Once again I prove how unobserved I can be sometime when it took the
third time I watched "Sleepless" to realize Cole was one of the people
coming down the stairs during the fire alarm in the apartment building. 
Gee, sometimes you have to hit me on the head to get me see these things
since the third time around it is obvious there is something suspicious
about a man the camera lingers on and shows a large scar on the back of
his neck.

- Boy, after doing good work on solving the Flukeman case and stopping a
killing spree in Franklin, Pennsylvania, Mulder is still put back on
transcribing a bunch of wiretap tapes.  Skinner never lets up. 

- Mulder has the same photo of him with his sister taped to the file
cabinet next to him that we saw him holding at the end of "Conduit". 

- Glad to see Mulder is an equal opportunity ditcher since he ditches
Krycek as easily as he does Scully. 

- Lucky for Augustus Cole everyone he wanted to kill lived in New York
City.  Hate to think of the time and effort it would have taken him if he
had to go all over the country to find these people. 

- We get one of those great Scully and Mulder conversations when Mulder
calls up Scully from the hospital.  Nothing said more about their
partnership than this conversation especially when Mulder gets that little
quiver in his voice when the conversation gets a little bit more personal.

- What happened to the X-Files express as we see Mulder and Krycek stuck
in a traffic jam?  I guess without Scully there it doesn't work as
efficently.

- Why didn't Mulder send in NYPD to the train station instead of taking
the chance he would be late for the train?  Oh yeah, I forgot this is tv
and we wouldn't have had the scene where Mulder gets "shot".  I won't get
into why everyone else who Cole made think they were being shot died while
Mulder gets up with no problem.  Cole had no problem having those two NYPD
officers shoot each other so why would he have a problem with Mulder. 
Unless he had no choice with the NYPD officers while he only wanted to
distract Mulder and Krycek at the station.

- I always liked how Krycek went desperately looking for the gun he
believed Cole was aiming at Mulder after he shot Cole. He honestly was
looking for the gun because an officer can get into big trouble if a gun
can't be found.  Krycek didn't kill Cole because he was supposed to since
they show us Krycek's point of view where he sees Cole holding a gun at
Mulder.  It only helped to establish some kind of trust between Mulder and
Krycek. 

- I liked the red-eyed look all the soldiers had showing how much they
want to sleep, but couldn't. 

	A whole bunch of stuff happens in "Sleepless".  We get introduced
to Ratboy and Mr. X along with a good old government conspiracy, and we
are given the first hint that Scully is going to be taken care of in some
fashion.  A solid X-Files episode. 

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


9/10/97