1.11 - Eve

Pretty great Cold Open here, definitely set up to guide the viewers toward a certain expectation. Huge amount of blood loss, dual puncture wounds in the jugular? Obviously that means Mulder is going to bring up…

…cattle mutilations.

I’m a big fan of this episode but there are portions that seem wildly disconnected from what it’s actually doing. Some of that is their purposeful misdirection, although some seems more related to trying to weave an intricate plot within only 45 minutes of screen time. It’s never bad — there are other episodes you can look to if you want actually bad — it’s more that sometimes it’s hard to follow because we need lots of info dumping to guide us.

The little girl they open on is definitely creepy, so they succeeded there. When she says “they wanted to exsanguinate him” she seems less creepy, somehow, but again, I think that is most likely intentional based on what happens later.

All the red herrings the little girls drop in Mulder and Scully’s way have the unwanted side effect of delaying the true plot long enough it has to be stuffed into a smaller portion of the script. One of the weirder parts at the beginning is even Mulder doesn’t seem to take his UFO references seriously.

Finally arriving at the intro to Dr. Sally Kendrick around 15 minutes in, we’re closer to having a grasp on what’s going on. Again, this is a good episode, the concept is interesting and Dr. Kendrick herself is a great villain. Maybe my main problem, if you could even call it a problem, is that Kendrick is more interesting than the episode has time to showcase all the layers and nuance there. Harriet Sansom Harris plays Eve 6 (and all versions of Dr. Kendrick/adult Eve, obviously), she’s the linchpin of this episode, not just because of her character’s storyline but because her performance is fantastic. She’s undoubtedly one of my favorite characters in the first season because of how great she is on screen.

A great exchange between Mulder and Scully:

“Mulder you’re rushing me out of the room”
“No I’m not.”
“Do you have a girl coming over?”
“What’s a girrrllll? I got a movie I wanna’ watch on TV.”

Deep Throat shows up proving this isn’t a standard Monster of the Week episode, although it isn’t part of the alien saga either, not officially. He seems to be randomly telling Mulder about the very case they’re currently investigating? Mulder and Scully visit Eve 6 (yes, her name inspired the band name) after the little dockside chat between Mulder and his clandestine bro.

A key part of this episode DOES set up a plot point within the alien saga, and how it fits together is subtle and one of the best parts of the first season.