Wetwired is truly one of the best episodes of the entire series. First a little trivia fact. The episode is interestingly written by Mat Beck, the special effects coordinator for most of the episodes over the years. I am not sure how one comes up with that jump. I guess he just had a really good idea and let Chris Carter know about it and with a little help from Darin Morgan and Frank Spotnitz and others he gave us this great episode. There are so many elements and plot twists and turns that keep the viewer riveted the entire 40 some odd minutes of the episode. The basic plot in a nutshell is as follows. Mulder receives a lead from a source that neither he or we have ever seen before. the tip leads into a case dealing with normal ordinary people committing murders based on subliminal messaging coming through their cable filters. Scully is affected by the brain-washing device and believes Mulder has turned on her. When she finally is found and talked into getting help, Mulder follows a hunch to find that the one behind the case was his regular informant X. The episode ends with Mulder covering for X because he needs him as a source.
Twists and turns. The teaser is very intriguing. We see a man who is burying a body the whole time telling him that now he can never kill again. Later as he cleans off in the kitchen the man shows up again and he kills him again. Things really get weird when the cops show up and we see that they too look just like the man that was already killed. After being subdued the man's vision changes and we see that he has really killed his family and the cops are normal ones with dark bushy mustaches. From there we go to the scene with Mulder meeting with the unknown informant. It is perplexing of course to Mulder and to me who this guys is and why isn't X the one giving him the lead. Mulder follows the lead and soon Scully comes up with the theory of subliminal messaging through the TV. This is ironic to me for two reasons: Scully isn't usually the one coming up with the crazy theories and also one of the times she is right she is the one affected by the brain washing. After watching hours of TV Scully seems to see Mulder and CSM chatting it up in a car like old buddies. From here Scully starts to suspect Mulder of foul play, demanding he give her the scrambling device for analysis, wanting to know why he didn't talk to agent pendrell about it, looking for cigarette butts in the car's ash tray, etc. Finally Scully flips out and runs off. The next great turn is the moment of Mulder going to ID Scully's body. I remember how tense this was the first time I saw it even though I knew that for sure it wasn't her. Finally Mulder finds Scully at her mom's house and her mom is able to talk her into getting help and the trust is renewed. Mulder begins to wonder who is responsible based on Scully's story of seeing him in the car at the hotel with CSM and decides that maybe there was someone else there with CSM that Scully saw. As he begins to suspect the doctor he tries to track him down and through the hotel's number on a matchbook finds his room and is ultimately able to track down the location of the doctor's and cable guy's executions by none other than X. Monologuing follows with X explaining that his position does not allow him to be a renegade like Mulder and all he can hope is to have Mulder solve the cases before he has to carry out orders. Finally in our final two scenes we get a great summary of X as a character in my opinion. First with Mulder reporting to Skinner that he is an unknown subject and then switching over to the meeting of X reporting to CSM about having taken care of Mulder's informant and when asked who the informant's informant was telling him that he replies simply, "That person remains unknown." I love the parallel that this makes between Mulder's and X's characters as well.
Other tidbits that I liked in this episode: - MULDER: I just watched thirty-six hours of Bernard Shaw and Bobbie Batista. I'm about ready to kill somebody too. - MULDER: The naked lady in the ice cube. FROHIKE: Ah, one of my personal favorites. - *Shipper moment alert* MULDER: Scully, you are the only one I trust. - Mulder kicking the informants car in the parking garage. - Oh so many more...
I give Wetwired an easy 10/10.
Twists and turns. The teaser is very intriguing. We see a man who is burying a body the whole time telling him that now he can never kill again. Later as he cleans off in the kitchen the man shows up again and he kills him again. Things really get weird when the cops show up and we see that they too look just like the man that was already killed. After being subdued the man's vision changes and we see that he has really killed his family and the cops are normal ones with dark bushy mustaches. From there we go to the scene with Mulder meeting with the unknown informant. It is perplexing of course to Mulder and to me who this guys is and why isn't X the one giving him the lead. Mulder follows the lead and soon Scully comes up with the theory of subliminal messaging through the TV. This is ironic to me for two reasons: Scully isn't usually the one coming up with the crazy theories and also one of the times she is right she is the one affected by the brain washing. After watching hours of TV Scully seems to see Mulder and CSM chatting it up in a car like old buddies. From here Scully starts to suspect Mulder of foul play, demanding he give her the scrambling device for analysis, wanting to know why he didn't talk to agent pendrell about it, looking for cigarette butts in the car's ash tray, etc. Finally Scully flips out and runs off. The next great turn is the moment of Mulder going to ID Scully's body. I remember how tense this was the first time I saw it even though I knew that for sure it wasn't her. Finally Mulder finds Scully at her mom's house and her mom is able to talk her into getting help and the trust is renewed. Mulder begins to wonder who is responsible based on Scully's story of seeing him in the car at the hotel with CSM and decides that maybe there was someone else there with CSM that Scully saw. As he begins to suspect the doctor he tries to track him down and through the hotel's number on a matchbook finds his room and is ultimately able to track down the location of the doctor's and cable guy's executions by none other than X. Monologuing follows with X explaining that his position does not allow him to be a renegade like Mulder and all he can hope is to have Mulder solve the cases before he has to carry out orders. Finally in our final two scenes we get a great summary of X as a character in my opinion. First with Mulder reporting to Skinner that he is an unknown subject and then switching over to the meeting of X reporting to CSM about having taken care of Mulder's informant and when asked who the informant's informant was telling him that he replies simply, "That person remains unknown." I love the parallel that this makes between Mulder's and X's characters as well.
Other tidbits that I liked in this episode: - MULDER: I just watched thirty-six hours of Bernard Shaw and Bobbie Batista. I'm about ready to kill somebody too. - MULDER: The naked lady in the ice cube. FROHIKE: Ah, one of my personal favorites. - *Shipper moment alert* MULDER: Scully, you are the only one I trust. - Mulder kicking the informants car in the parking garage. - Oh so many more...
I give Wetwired an easy 10/10.