Yesterday night my lovely wife and I turned off the lights, lit candles
and watched the next two X-Files episodes.

s01e09 Space deals with a NASA space mission plagued by a mysterious supernatural or alien entity. The mission director at the ground
station in Huston, Colonel Belt, is a former astronaut himself and a
childhood hero of Mulder's. He had the same disconcerting
hallucinations during his own missions, and now the same is happening
again. The Space Shuttle appears to have been been sabotaged, and the
crew aboard is in danger.
The episode contains some references of the funding problem with
NASA, and how it is related to the public perception of space missions:
when a mission fails funding gets cut, even if it does not end in
tragedy; this creates an incentive to hide problems and lie rather than
frankly admitting them.

Colonel Belt keeps his secret well hidden along with the current Space
Shuttle problems, which somewhat affects Mulder's perception of him.
Here Scully is cruel, belittling and almost openly mocking Mulder for
once having been an immature kid dreaming of space.

I found that meanness unwarranted, understanding Mulder's point of view perfectly even without ever particularly sharing his specific dream.
Just when I was pausing the video to comment this issue with my wife
Scully was replying, about Mulder's childhood dreams:
- It ranks right up there with getting a pony and learning how to braid
my own hair.
My wife understood Scully's coldness by linking the astronaut dream to
a distinctly *boyish* idea, difficult for a woman to identify with.


A single fly had been roaming over us as we were watching the episodes, distracting us. Before watching the next we opened the window, enjoying
the soft sound of the rain in the warm night.


While Space was by all means not a bad episode I liked s01e10 Fallen
Angel even better.

Mulder sneaks, alone, into a closed Wisconsin forest area in which a
fallen alien spacecraft has just fallen; the US military are already
busy hiding evidence. Like Mulder we feel ourselves close to some
important truth; but as he is excitedly taking photographs of the scene
Mulder gets caught and arrested. In his detention Mulder meets Max
Fenig, an eccentric member of the “NICAP” UFO association, and a fan of his.

In the mean time, an alien is held in the area; it seems to have a
transparent body and moves very fast; we perceive the world from its
point of view, which really looks alien and disconcerting. The alien
evades.

Scully arrives the next day, just like a parent summoned at school
to take a misbehaving kid back home. Soon Mulder and Scully have to
stand at some internal FBI audition in Washington, in which the X-Files
might be closed, following Mulder's continuous disregard of protocols
and authority.
Scully dismisses the UFO explanation and accepts that the fallen object
is indeed a Libyan fighter jet -- Mulder laughs, as we do.

The alien suddenly attacks the military personnel. People suffer what
looks like radiation damage; Scully, a medical doctor herself, remains
to help the injured, welcomed by the doctor and much to the chagrin of
the military authorities.
Scully tries to help, but the situation with the injured is desperate.

Mulder sees Max Fenig in his camper; Fenig seems quirky but intelligent,
and very knowledgeable. Fenig has a seizure. Mulder, as he holds him,
notices a characteristic scar or burn behind Fenig's ear, characteristic
of some alien abuctees. Scully, noticing Fenig's psychiatric
medications, dismisses the abduction idea as a delusion; Mulder,
however, argues that Fenig never claimed himself to have been abducted:
only Mulder does.
The alien suddenly attacks again. As Mulder is physically thrown away
by the impact Fenig remains hovering midair, before disappearing.

At the FBI hearing back in Washington Mulder is on crutches, still
recovering from the encounter. Despite Scully's defense the section
chief is squarely against them. After everything seems lost, the chief
section is secretly advised by Deep Throat to let work on the X-Files
continue: people like Mulder are less dangerous when not openly fought,
he argues. Deep Throat's allegiance becomes even more mysterious.

Fenig is not one of the three “lone gunmen” people we are going to meet later -- I checked -- but he certainly resembles them in character. “NICAP”, pronounced like kneecap, is an awesome name for a club of any kind.

I believe that in this episode, like in the previous one, the audience
is supposed to identify with Mulder. Scully arises little sympathy, the
way I see it. She is too “neat”, the scruffy me says.

Mulder's monologue at the audition is idealistic and almost poetic in
its candidness:
- You can deny all the things I've seen, all the things l've discovered,
but not for much longer.
'Cause too many know what's happening out there and no one, no
government agency has jurisdiction over the truth.

Poor simple-minded, well-meaning, honest, naïf, blindly optimistic
Mulder.

--
Scruffy Beard

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