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Recap / The X-Files S01 E02 "Deep Throat"

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Season 1, Episode 02:

Deep Throat

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thexfilesdeepthroat.png
"People see what they wanna see."
Written by Chris Carter
Directed by Daniel Sackheim

"When does the human cost become too high for the building of a better machine?"
Fox Mulder

Mulder and Scully receive a request from the wife of an Air Force test pilot to investigate what has happened to her husband. Maybe the pressure of the job just got to him, but after a mysterious informant warns Mulder off the case, he decides that he has to investigate. That decision proves costly...


Tropes:

  • Big Damn Heroes: Scully's rescue of Mulder, achieved single-handedly against the entire Air Force Base.
  • Character Title: Or pseudonym in this case.
  • Distressed Dude: After his investigation goes sour, Mulder is captured by government forces and needs to be rescued by Scully.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Deep Throat's enigmatic confrontation of Mulder and cryptic manner, and for the first time, we get to see how ferociously loyal and all-around badass Scully is when she makes a split-second decision to take a government employee hostage at gunpoint and use him as a bargaining chip to rescue Mulder.
  • E.T. Gave Us Wi-Fi: Mulder believes that the mysterious flying objects seen in the area are airplanes built by the Air Force based on UFO technology retrieved from the Roswell Incident in 1947.
  • Gun Struggle: One that Scully comes out on top of.
  • Hero Insurance: How was Mulder not kicked out of the FBI for breaking into a top secret military base? Likely only his political connections and Deep Throat made that so.
  • He Was Right There All Along: Deep Throat surprising Mulder in the bathroom.
  • Memory-Wiping Crew: There's one in the Air Force Base, which selectively removes memories from test pilots who see more than they can handle. They also work on Mulder at the end.
  • Mysterious Informant: The episode introduces Deep Throat, Mulder's first government informant.
  • Non-Indicative Title: To the new watcher, the title makes no sense whatsoever, for it's never mentioned who or what Deep Throat exactly is.
  • Offscreen Teleportation: Deep Throat vanishes as soon as he's left the bathroom, and there's no indication that Scully or anyone else in the bar saw him leaving.
  • Prisoner Exchange: Scully orchestrates one to rescue Mulder.
  • Shout-Out: "Deep Throat" is a well-known term for a mysterious whistleblower. Those viewers not familiar with All the President's Men may remain puzzled, however.
  • Stoners Are Funny: The stoner kids.
  • Strapped to an Operating Table: Happens to Mulder when he's captured by Air Force Base troops.
  • Time Skip: Although it's not obvious, this episode is time-stamped as taking place roughly 15 months after the pilot. Later episodes seemed to forget about this when mentioning how long Mulder and Scully had been partners, though.
  • Workout Fanservice: Mulder doing laps on the track at the end, mainly because of his bare arms.

Mulder: They're here, aren't they?
Deep Throat: Mr. Mulder, they've been here for a long long time.

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