The X-files
Jose Chung's From Outer Space
Episode: 3X20
First aired:4/12/96
Written by: Darin Morgan
Directed by: Rob Bowman
As
Jet-Poop said above, this is one of the best episodes of
The X-files. It is so incredibly funny and original.
A must see episode.
Two
teenagers, Harold and his date Chrissy, are driving when the car stalls. the two pass out in a blinding light, and two small
aliens drag them away before a huge, growling, and obviously fake alien interrupts them. One alien says to another "Jack, what is that thing?"
Author Jose Chung interviews
Scully, who apologizes for
Mulder's reluctance to speak with him. Chung is writing a book about
alien abduction, a
nonfiction science fiction, that a feels will assure him a spot on the best seller's list. Scully just wants
the truth to be printed and Chung replies that truth is as subjective as reality.
He asks Scully to tell him her version of the story:
Scully explains that Chrissy was found with signs of
abuse and her clothes inside out, appearing to be a victim of
date rape. Harold is apprehended by the
police, and he tells authorities that they were abducted. Detective Manners doesn't believe Harold's story but Mulder arrives and isn't so sure, convincing Chrissy to undergo
hypnosis, under which she recalls being on an alien ship. Mulder is impressed with her descriptions, but Scully thinks it is all a little too typical, given the prevalence of
abduction lore. Manners tells Mulder that he's "really bleeped up this case."
Scully, while telling the story, uses the word 'bleep' for curse words. This works because as she describes the scene, we see it and hear the dialogue where the detective does say bleep. It's quite funny.
Harold recalls being on the ship and seeing an
alien crouched in a corner, smoking and repeating "This is not happening, this is not happening." He also admits that he and Chrissy did have sex, but he did not force her.
A
witness, Rocky, comes forward saying a man in
black visited him, telling him he saw Venus, not a
UFO, and threatening to kill him if he tells anyone. Rocky hands over his
manuscript detailing the story, in which he saw two smaller aliens being attacked by a large one called "
Lord Kimbote." Mulder acknowledges that Rocky is probably
delusional but still may have seen something.
Mulder has Chrissy
hypnotized again. Manners comes in and tells them that they found a
bleeping dead alien.
We see now, Chung is interviewing
Blaine, a
science fiction nut who dreams of being abducted and has his own version of events. He describes seeing men in black, but it's really Mulder and Scully. In Blaine's version, Mulder yelps like a girl when he sees the alien body, which is
extremely funny. Scully then threatens Blaine not to talk. "He said I said what?" asks Scully, who is now talking to Chung.
Blaine shot footage of the
autopsy, which has been turned into a video, hosted by
the Stupendous Yappi. Scully, watching it with Chung says it's so embarrassing, noting that the video was edited so as to obscure the fact that the alien was in fact an Air Force major in a costume.
Air Force personal arrive seeking the body but when they return, it is gone. Blaine also says that the
men in black threatened him and took his
video.
After that, Scully admits, Mulder's account of things gets a little odd. Heading back to the hotel, he encounters the other missing
Air Force pilot, who claims he and his partner were flying a UFO as a part of a covert
government operation but were abducted themselves.
Officers take the man away, but not after Mulder had apparently eaten a whole
pumpkin pie (according to the
cafe owner). Mulder meets with the Man in Black (
Alex Trebek) who suggests that some
alien encounters are hoaxes perpetrated by the government. Mulder awakens in Scully's room and she has no memory of the incident. They go to a site where they're told a
top-secret plane has crashed, which explains the UFO sightings. They see the two pilot's bodies being carried away.
Mulder visits Chung asking that he not write the book, which will do a disservice to a field of inquiry that's struggled to achieve
respectability. Chung says that book will be written but asks what really happened to the two teenagers. "
How the hell should I know?" Mulder replies.
Scully reads the book, Jose Chung's
From Outer Space, describing agent Diana Lesky and her partner Reynard Muldrake - described as a ticking time bomb of insanity. Mulder lies in bed watching
bigfoot. Harold visits Chrissy who tells him to leave. Chung reminds us that "although we may not be alone in the
universe, in our own separate ways, on this planet, we are all alone."
Important Quotes:
Chung -- "And here I was thinking you were just some...
brainy beauty. Now I find out that you also have...
good taste."
Scully -- "Ok, just as long as you're attempting to record the truth..."
Chung -- "Dear God no! How could I possibly do that?"
Manners -- "Well, thanks a lot! You really BLEEPED up this case!"
Scully -- "Well, of course he didn't actually say 'bleeped', he said..."
Chung -- "No need to
elaborate. I'm quite familiar with
law enforcement...
vernacular."
Scully -- "This is soooooo
embarrassing..."
Mulder -- "You still gonna hold the boy?"
Manners -- "Oh, you bet your blankety-blank bleep I am!"
Scully -- "All her clothes were on inside out and backwards."
Chung -- "Oh, have I had my share of
mornings like that."
Blaine (talking about the "men in black" i.e. Mulder and Scully) -- "One of them was disguised as a woman, but wasn't pulling it off. Like, her hair was
red... but it was a little TOO red, you know."
Blaine -- "Well, hey, I didn't spend all those years playing
Dungeons and Dragons and not learn a little something about courage."
Scully -- "That was Detective Manners. He said they just found your bleepin' UFO."
Chung -- "Alex Trebek? The
game show host?"
Scully -- "Well, Mulder didn't say that it *was* Alex Trebek. It was just someone who looked incredibly like him."
Chung (from his book) -- "Seeking the truth about
aliens means a
perfunctory nine-to-five job for some, for although Agent Diana Lesky is noble of spirit and pure in heart, she remains, nevertheless, a
federal employee. As for her partner, Reynard Muldrake, a ticking time bomb of
insanity, his question to the unknown has so warped his
psyche one shudders to think how he receives any pleasures from life ... For although we may not be alone in the
universe, in our own separate ways on this planet we are all alone."
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