The X-Files (S1.Ep24) – The Erlenmeyer Flask

The X-Files – Season 1 – Episode 24 – The Erlenmeyer Flask 1/2

Director: R.W. Goodwin Writer: Chris Carter. Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Lindsey Ginter, Anne De Salvo, Jerry Hardin, William B. Davis.

With “The Erlenmeyer Flask” Season 1 really ends with a bang (not just figuratively). There are so many great moments here as Mulder and Scully get deeper into the conspiracy and they seem to (both) get as close as they’ve ever been to the truth. This is the moment the show was propelled into stratosphere and became a must be seen show. It all starts with an exciting car chase and then for the first time we got a new message on the title sequence instead of the usual “the truth is out there” we got “Trust no one” (another classic x-files favourite). The scene with the room with the bodies suspended in liquid inside those tanks (and the subsequent one when the tanks have been removed) is also PURE X-Files!! Creepy, mysterious, shocking (well… for the time), intriguing. And how to forget the iconic moment when Scully actually sees an Alien foetus?

The internet went wild at the time and the online rumbled helped the series get a better slot next season (and its rating started going up).And then of course the very shocking death of one of the recurrent characters, which left everyone speechless. The episodes works as an end (when they wrote it, they didn’t know whether they were going to get another commission) but also as a cliffhanger.

What a great way to end the season. And how excited I am to start watching the second one now!