The X-Files - S2:E9 "Firewalker"

[ S2:E8 "One Breath" <<< Season 2 >>> S2:E10 "Red Museum" ]

With Scully back on the job, and the X-Files reopened, we're finally back to the status quo. Which probably means we're in for a string of monster-of-the-week episodes, here in the middle of the second season. But it should be interesting to see how (or if) the show has evolved - given the writers' expanded experience - since the first season.

Interestingly - and much like the friendship between Mulder and Scully - there's always been a link between science and technology and the paranormal on The X-Files. This isn't a show about pure imagination and speculation - it's about the weird shit man encounters at the edge of his understanding, when he delves a little too far beyond the realm that he knows and is familiar with - like in Ice, to which this episode draws many parallels.

Here we join a volcano research team that has apparently discovered a dangerous silicon-based lifeform inside of a volcano. This isn't the last time we'll see infectious spores - and, given the fact that the military swoops in at the end, I wonder if there isn't some connection. This is only a mediocre episode; it seems there's still some growth to be done before this show starts churning out top-notch monsters of the week.

Memorable quotes:

Trepkos: Scientific data? We're talking about revisiting the very origin of the Earth, peering into the fire where it all began - a human endeavor more important even than man's exploration of space.

Trepkos: The possibility of this new, or perhaps unfathomably old, lifeform has left me sleepless, wondering if I haven't lost all perspective - if my intense desire to find the truth hasn't finally eclipsed the truth itself. Our meddling intellect misshapes the beauteous forms of things. We murder to dissect. My mind is a tangled knot I can no longer untie.

Scully: I'm back, and I'm not going anywhere.

Trepkos: You still believe you can petition heaven to get some penetrating answer. If you found that answer, what would you do with it?