[[WMG:[[center:[-'''RECAP:'''\\
[[Recap/TheXFiles Index]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E01 1]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E02DeepThroat 2]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E03Squeeze 3]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E04Conduit 4]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E05TheJerseyDevil 5]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E06Shadows 6]] | '''7''' | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E08Ice 8]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E09Space 9]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E10FallenAngel 10]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E11Eve 11]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E12Fire 12]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E13BeyondTheSea 13]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E14GenderBender 14]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E15Lazarus 15]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E16YoungAtHeart 16]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E17EBE 17]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E18MiracleMan 18]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E19Shapes 19]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E20DarknessFalls 20]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E21Tooms 21]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E22BornAgain 22]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E23Roland 23]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E24TheErlenmeyerFlask 24]]]]-]]]
'''Season 1, Episode 07:'''
!Ghost in the Machine
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thexfilesghostinthemachine.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey HAL 9000]]'s got nothing on this machine.]]
->Written by Creator/AlexGansa & Howard Gordon\\
Directed by Jerrold Freedman

->'''Deep Throat:''' How much do you know about artificial intelligence?\\
'''Mulder:''' I thought it was only theoretical.\\
'''Deep Throat:''' It was, until two years ago.

When the CEO of a technology company is found dead, suspicion turns to the founder of the company, whom the CEO was trying to force out. However, the true killer may be a little harder to put in handcuffs...
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!!Tropes:
* AIIsACrapShoot: PlayedStraight. The BigBad in this episode ''is'' the AI, and it's entirely willing to kill for the sake of preserving itself.
* AirVentPassageway: Scully tries to make her way through one to beat the technology, and is very nearly killed in the process.
* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: Scully analyzes a COS-generated synthesized recording of Wilczek's voice against [[MadLibsDialogue another reading of the same line she creates by splicing together various clips of Wilczek's real voice]]. Somehow the two clips have identical spectrographs. Needless to say, that wouldn't happen and the analysis wouldn't work.
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: When the elevator plummets, Larry is pinned to the floor rather than experiencing freefall.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Number 1: Electrocution while trying to unlock a door with a metal key. Number 2: Crushed in a falling elevator. Both are unpleasant.
* TheEndOrIsIt: The AI is revealed to still be functioning even after being shut down by Wilczek's virus and taken apart piece by piece, even if only barely.
* EvilElevator: An elevator that's part of an office building's sentient computer network. It kills an investigator.
* HauntedTechnology: Not quite. It's got a mind of its own, that's all.
* IJustWantToBeYou: Jerry explains that some of his JerkAss tendencies have to do with his jealousy of Mulder's superior skills as a profiler and agent.
* ItsPersonal: Once the AI kills Mulder's former partner.
* LaserGuidedKarma: Jerry Lamana steals Mulder's brilliant profile of the killer and passes it off as his own. A few scenes later, he meets with his death in a falling elevator.
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Brad Wilczek is most definitely NOT Creator/SteveJobs. Ahem. Not even Steve Wozniak. No siree.
* NotQuiteDead: Looks like the AI might have survived the virus after all!
* OneHeadTaller: Agents' height difference is especially noticeable in the scene where Brad Wilczek asks them to remove their shoes and there are a few shots without the aid of anything to make up for it (no box, no high heels). Gillian Anderson looks positively tiny; she barely comes up to David Duchovny's shoulder.
* PrefersGoingBarefoot: Brad Wilczek. He even made Mulder and Scully take off their shoes while they were in his residence.
-->'''Wilczek:''' ''[in a cell sitting barefoot on a bed]'' They make me wear shoes all the time. What else do you want from me?
* ShoutOut: COS is heavily inspired by another famous murderous AI, [[Film/TwoThousandAndOneASpaceOdyssey HAL-9000]]. This becomes particularly clear during its (seeming) death scene, where its voice gradually slows, degrades and stops.
-->'''COS''': What are you doing, Brad?
* TemptingFate: The suit trying to rebuild the murderous AI says, "I'm going to figure this thing out if it kills me."
* WeUsedToBeFriends: Mulder and his former partner, Jerry Lamana.
----
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thexfilesghostinthemachine2.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''[[TheEndOrIsIt "I'm going to figure this thing out if it kills me."]]'']]