In the eighties when cable was still largely without competition for offering "mega" TV selection the phrase "57 channels and nothing on" was popular banter (humorous: 57 channels was touted as amazing, more humorous: in 2013 w/ over 200 channels the maxim still holds). So here we have the premise of a "58th channel" which could be interlaced among every channel subliminally. This is good fringe science as it still is actually believed to be a potentially effective method of mind-control/suggestion. "Wetwired" the 23rd season three episode of The X-Files effectively uses this as a possible way to hi-jack a normal person into a killing machine.
Wetwired's beginning "teaser" immediately reveals a man who has just killed two people he believed to be someone else. Why this man has just killed his family isn't clear. That's a "big" enigma for a start and as the episode unfolds things begin to reveal the common element in the man's murdering spree and a more recent housewife gone wild murder is quite possibly that ubiquitous thing we all slave ourself to...TV. Before the hypothesis gels, however, Scully is herself a victim and darkness gets much blacker. Scully wigs out, shoots up her motel door with Mulder on the other side and flees. Mulder has to figure this out and the quicker the better now that Scully is in eminent danger. Enter The Lone Gunmen who in short order analyze a filter Mulder believes may be involved. Mulder was only spared his own brainwashing as he is colorblind. Now it's a race to save Scully from her madness as well as prevent any more victims from becoming murderous drones.
This is a very good, many times skipped over, episode. It is a return to form after last week's dud "Quagmire". Here we have nothing particularly paranormal as it is grounded in some actual science (even if it is extreme). It is a refreshing and good diversion to the alien myth-arc episodes though it does have the elements of the same conspiracy within the "shadow government" operatives being the behind-the-scenes "puppet masters". Wetwired is a really menacing, interesting, and entertaining episode that should be revisited and given its due.
Wetwired's beginning "teaser" immediately reveals a man who has just killed two people he believed to be someone else. Why this man has just killed his family isn't clear. That's a "big" enigma for a start and as the episode unfolds things begin to reveal the common element in the man's murdering spree and a more recent housewife gone wild murder is quite possibly that ubiquitous thing we all slave ourself to...TV. Before the hypothesis gels, however, Scully is herself a victim and darkness gets much blacker. Scully wigs out, shoots up her motel door with Mulder on the other side and flees. Mulder has to figure this out and the quicker the better now that Scully is in eminent danger. Enter The Lone Gunmen who in short order analyze a filter Mulder believes may be involved. Mulder was only spared his own brainwashing as he is colorblind. Now it's a race to save Scully from her madness as well as prevent any more victims from becoming murderous drones.
This is a very good, many times skipped over, episode. It is a return to form after last week's dud "Quagmire". Here we have nothing particularly paranormal as it is grounded in some actual science (even if it is extreme). It is a refreshing and good diversion to the alien myth-arc episodes though it does have the elements of the same conspiracy within the "shadow government" operatives being the behind-the-scenes "puppet masters". Wetwired is a really menacing, interesting, and entertaining episode that should be revisited and given its due.