I really did have very limited memory of this episode, but not because it’s a bad or mediocre episode—it’s actually very good, as I’ll get into! I think probably part of the reason this episode got lost in my memory is that it immediately precedes the “Duane Barry/Ascension” arc we’ll get into starting next week, and that arc is so important to the series. I mean, if I’m honest, none of these first 4 episodes held a big place in my memory, probably because I was always just thinking “well, we’ve got 4 episodes of Mulder and Scully being apart, and then we get into the big meat of season 2”. The Flukeman “The Host” episode was most memorable because it’s gross and also a classic monster episode.
It is indeed true that even in this rewatch, I’m partly waiting for us to get to the “big mythology arc” in this season. But. Part of the reason I’m enjoying this slow rewatch is that I’m getting the chance to really sit with these first four episodes rather than just speedrunning through them.
And all of these episodes are really good! Season 2 gets off to a very strong start, with unique storylines that are directed, acted, and told very well. My average rating for these first four episodes comes to a very strong 8/10 .
Anyway. This episode. As I said, is a very good episode! Not excellent, because it does feel a bit like they were trying to cram too much into one episode, with nothing really getting the full focus it deserved. And while I do appreciate that they didn’t go too hard into trying to explain science and getting it wrong, it did annoy me a bit in this case that there really wasn’t any attempt at all to explain how the “dream hopping” or “bringing dreams to life” or whatever was happening in this episode. I mean, yes, it’s a mystery and it’s supposed to be that way, but…how the fuck exactly did the people in this episode die? 🤔
Regardless of that, I did appreciate the unique storyline in this episode, and because of the way the plot was directed and acted, the mystery of what was happening still worked well. I really don’t have much to criticize other than there was a bit too much happening, enough that the episode felt more disjointed than it could or should have.
Still. A very good episode. So let’s get into a few thoughts! I’m hoping (hahahaha 😂😂😂😂) to keep this one a bit shorter so I can get into a full afternoon/evening of gymnastics conference championships today.
Recon Squad J-7
The core of the “case” this episode revolves around the Vietnam War Army unit “Recon Squad J-7”.
In essence, this squad was created to be a group of soldiers that didn’t need to sleep. With the idea that these soldiers would be more efficient, and have more time to fight and conduct raids; probably a core goal/idea was that this squad would be able to travel at night and maybe better sneak up on enemy units?
Well, part of the military’s goal worked: This squad of 13 soldiers had over 4,000 confirmed kills during the Vietnam War.
But, what the military didn’t bother to take into consideration seemingly was that while perhaps the soldiers could stay awake without any apparent ill physical effects, that didn’t mean they were mentally and psychologically okay. The entire squad went AWOL basically, and stopped taking any orders, just going off and doing whatever mission they felt like. And I’ll get into this a little bit more later, but the lack of sleeping probably also contributed to this squad apparently losing any sort of moral compass, because there was no time spent to think and reflect and plan without sleep. It was just, go go go, we can keep going and we’re basically invincible.
We don’t meet or hear about all of the members of that squad, but here is who we do have + who was involved in creating this unit:
Dr. Saul Grissom: One of the two doctors who was responsible for the experiments in sleep eradication. I got the sense that he was the one who came up with the basic “idea” of sleep eradication and maybe pushed for the experiment to occur, based on his background studying sleep? But that’s not clear. Part of me does wonder exactly how much the doctor got a say in the real-life experiment. It’s unfortunately entirely believable to me that a doctor would want to conduct an unethical experiment on humans during war, but considering that Dr. Grissom was supposedly an expert in “sleep studies”…did he not warn the military about the likely downsides of eradicating sleep? Sure, you can do some serotonin replacement to counteract the ill effects, but…he had to know that wouldn’t work forever, or even for very long. Maybe he was interested in seeing how long the soldiers could survive without sleep. Very possible. Very, unfortunately, historically likely that a doctor would be excited to be given the opportunity and military funding to test his ideas on real live people…
Dr. Francis Girardi: The doctor who actually performed the surgeries that eradicated the need for sleep in the soldiers. We get even less background or information on this guy. But again, quite possibly someone who was excited about the idea of being able to experiment on people.
Henry Willig: In 1994, a middle-aged white guy. Seemingly unemployed, possibly an alcoholic (just based on his apartment surroundings), trying to forget what he did as part of the squad in the war.
Salvatore Matola: A Hispanic man. Out of the 3 surviving members we meet, he seems to have done the best for himself, as at least he has held down a job somewhat consistently, but also has managed to keep his head down in the years since the war ended.
Augustus Cole, A.K.A. “Preacher”: A black man, who, in the years after the war, has found himself languishing in a sleep disorder clinic for 12 years, kept in isolation and largely forgotten seemingly even by the staff of that clinic. But also during that time, has seemingly developed the ability to walk the line between the conscious and unconscious worlds—somehow, he can bring peoples’ nightmares to life, or maybe project his nightmares into reality? Unclear. But Preacher’s goal, now that he has achieved some sort of dream/nightmare projection, is to bring about some kind of justice for the horrors that happened because of his squad during the Vietnam War.
So that is who we have. In order, “Preacher” goes after/kills: Dr. Grissom (I suppose arguably the worst if he did indeed run the experiments), Willig, Dr. Girardi. And then has the goal of killing himself (or getting Mulder/Krycek to kill him) to end the pain he has suffered for 24 years, after he believes he has brought about some sort of justice and/or brought peace to both the victims and the members of Recon Squad J-7.
Interesting to note that Preacher never goes after Matola. One possibility is that he didn’t know Matola was alive, as according to Mulder’s informant (“X”), Matola was reported killed in action in Vietnam. Perhaps Matola went AWOL from the already AWOL squad, and then escaped Vietnam and kept his head down after the war.
But another consideration is that, at least in the conversation Mulder and Krycek had with him, Matola appeared perhaps the most repentant already for the crimes the squad committed? Although, if we consider that, really, both Willig and Cole/Preacher did also appear quite haunted by the crimes they committed as part of the squad, and Willig, at the very end, seemed relieved to be given the chance to escape his waking nightmare and find some sort of peace in death. I don’t quite know how to explain it, but in his words and actions, Preacher really did seem to want to bring peace to Willig, while with the two doctors he was more apparently seeking revenge and trying to make them see the horrors they were a part of, from across the ocean.
Because of that, and because Matola is also clearly very haunted and still living a constant waking nightmare, I do think that Preacher would have tried to bring peace to him as well if he knew he was around. And like Willig, I believe Matola would have quite happily accepted that death, an escape from the hell he has lived for the past quarter of a century.
One final note here: I don’t know whether this was a conscious choice by the writers, but the racial makeup of the squad is poignant: We have a black man, a Hispanic man, and a white man that we meet. The black man and the Hispanic man are given the most opportunity to tell the story of what happened, and to try to make amends for their roles in the war. I think this is important for a couple of reasons.
For one, as a society, when we do talk about war veterans, and veterans of the Vietnam War in particular, I feel that a lot of the focus falls on white men, while the soldiers from other racial and ethnic backgrounds get forgotten. Part of this feeling might come from the fact that I’ve been binging Unsolved Mysteries while weighing 💩 in the lab lately. Because that show is from the early 90s, there are several “mysteries” involving Vietnam War vets, and they have all been white men so far. This despite the fact that black men made up over 30% of ground soldiers in Vietnam…
I want to note here that I am definitely not terribly knowledgeable about war history and such, but from what I have read/listened to, I get the sense that young men from minority backgrounds were less likely to be able to find an excuse to “skip” the mandatory draft in Vietnam, and were perhaps even less likely to find themselves in positions that didn’t involve ground combat, leading to their overrepresentation in ground soldiers and in fatalities.
This holds true to some extent even today, without the draft. Joining the military remains one of the “easiest” (very much in quotes, it is not easy or safe!) ways for people from poor backgrounds to escape poverty and get an education, so we do still see a higher percentage of black and Hispanics in the military and in ground combat.
So, I think this representation is important, whether it was a conscious decision by the writers or not!
For this next part, a disclaimer that I am saying this as a white woman and I do not speak for the Black community in any way.
That being said, I also feel it is very poignant that Cole/Preacher, the black man, is the one seeking reparations and feeling the most guilt about what happened during the war. There is no question that Black people all across the world have suffered and still continue to suffer gross injustices and colonization. Knowing that history, I do wonder if black veterans of particularly brutal battles and wars, such as Vietnam, feel even more conflicted about their role in carrying out brutalities they know their own people have suffered and still suffer? Preacher may have volunteered for this role to some extent, but how much of it was really volunteering versus being forced into this unit, and then losing control of his own mind and actions due to the experiments the military conducted on him and his fellow soldiers?
Just. Something to think about. And I do think that what we are shown about the surviving squad is very important and meaningful.
Building a Better Soldier
I don’t want to get too much into a “WTF, the US military” rant here because as I stated, I am in no way super knowledgeable about military/war history. And honestly, particularly the Vietnam War. I feel like I know a fair amount about WWI/WWII from studying in school + reading fiction and nonfiction set in that time, and then of course I grew up during the 2003-onwards Iraq War. But we never really got too far into the Cold War in history classes, and I also feel like in general, even still today, as a society, we seem to try to bury the Vietnam War? So it feels less talked about just in general, because everyone would rather pretend it didn’t happen.
Anyway, that being said, I do want to discuss the “Building a better soldier” idea here just a little bit.
This idea is…uh, unfortunately actually quite real. The US military complex is constantly trying various ways to build a better/more efficient soldier through various experiments with technology and yes, even drugs. Without much thought for how these experiments will actually affect the real, human soldiers, because winning the battles is more important, right? We don’t have any evidence (yet…) of the military doing actual like, surgeries and such on soldiers, but the idea that the military during Vietnam was experimenting to create more efficient soldiers is entirely rooted in real history.
As are the effects of those experiments. One of the major reasons why so many Vietnam veterans still suffer from PTSD (not that other veterans don’t!) is that they were given stimulant drugs, which prevented them from really being able to process what was happening at the time. Which also makes for a more efficient soldier, right? If you don’t have time to reflect on what you are really doing, you won’t question it, but will just keep going along with orders and with what others are doing. And then after the war, once the military largely forgets that you exist, as does the rest of society (plus some of them hate you for just being part of a war you had no choice in), you finally have time to process, but no help with those nightmares and memories.
Just, overall, both the experiments conducted on Recon squad J-7 and the fact that all 3 survivors were basically entirely forgotten by society (homeless, in an institution, in the background working in a diner) feels very, very real.
Another historically accurate government conspiracy/coverup for The X-Files…
The Vietnam War: An Unceasing Waking Nightmare
Just again, briefly. The idea that the Vietnam War remains an unrelenting waking nightmare for veterans permeates throughout this episode. I don’t know if that was a conscious thought by the writer either, but it does feel like a deliberate choice to make the characters veterans of this particular war. I mean, sure, it’s also the most recent big war in the time period, but it nonetheless remains very poignant.
I do also want to note here that Wallig, Matola, and Cole all still feeling haunted by their actions from 24 years ago also feels very rooted in reality. There is no question that the Vietnam War was a particularly brutal, nightmare of a war for everyone involved on all sides. And some US soldiers did indeed carry out horrific brutal acts against Vietnamese civilians. I’m sure there are some veterans who don’t feel any remorse, but from what I have read, watched, and listened to regarding the war, those veterans are in the minority. Many veterans who took part in brutal acts are haunted by what they did and recognize looking back that it was horrible and violent and, most often, completely unnecessary.
It is very easy for outsiders to judge what happened during a war. But none of us know for sure what we might do when placed in a similar situation, and in the case of the Vietnam War, deprived of sleep, given stimulant drugs, and told that everyone on the ground is an enemy. I am not at all saying that makes any of what happens, any war crimes against civilians, okay or understandable or justified. NOPE. The victims of war crimes deserve justice and what happened in those cases never should have happened. But we should also listen to soldiers who are haunted by their actions and give them a chance to apologize for what they did in a terrible situation themselves.
And that’s at the core of what Preacher is trying to do in this episode I think. Both make amends for the actions of his squad in Vietnam, and also bring some peace to himself and Willig (and likely would’ve done for Matola if he’d known) to escape from their waking nightmare with their deaths.
Bridging the Unconscious and Conscious Worlds?
OK, now this again as I stated is where I do have questions: What the fuck exactly was Preacher doing that caused those deaths? Is he bringing his victims’ nightmares to life, or is he projecting his own thoughts and dreams into their reality?
This never gets explained!!!!
Honestly, the death of Dr. Grissom at the beginning is the most confusing one to me. Is the Grissom known to be afraid of fire, or was that just the brutal way Preacher wanted him to die?
Since we aren’t given any background, I am inclined to believe the latter, and this leads me to thinking what is actually happening is Preacher brings his own unconscious dreams to reality. Grissom’s death is arguably the most vengeful I think—dying in a fire is a horrible way to die, particularly as it can take quite a while suffering from smoke inhalation and heat. In contrast, Willig is given perhaps a quicker death by a “firing squad” of what appears to be the children at that school the squad slaughtered. Vengeful, but also brings Willig perhaps more peace and a greater sense of atonement? And then we have Girardi, seemingly maimed (it’s unclear if he actually dies or is saved by paramedics) by the same surgery he performed on the soldiers. Which again, I have a bit of a hard time imagining he actually has nightmares about—that death also feels more like Preacher bringing his dreams to life rather than Girardi’s nightmare to life.
I do always appreciate it when the show doesn’t try too hard to explain science the writers don’t really understand, and the storyline still works very well here. But I do just want to acknowledge that it bothered me a bit that we really get no explanation for what exactly Preacher was doing here that allowed him to “alter reality”.
X: Mulder’s New Source
We finally get to meet Mulder’s new source, after hearing his voice on the phone during “Little Green Men”. He isn’t given a name here, and I honestly don’t remember when that happens, but just let me say: He is referred to as “X”.
We still don’t get very much from X in this episode, and honestly, that stays true throughout his tenure on the show. He is quite different from Deep Throat, and I like that that is established basically right off the bat. X is not going to be a father figure for Mulder, and he’s not going to get as close or as involved in Mulder’s search for the truth. He wants to help Mulder expose certain activities and conspiracies, but he doesn’t have the same motivations as Deep Throat. He has his own loyalties and his own reasons, and Mulder is very much a tool for him, even more than he was for Deep Throat.
Agent Krycek A.K.A. Ratboy
Ah, and we get another new character! This is part of what I mean by there being too much happening in the episode: We’ve got all of the disjointed Vietnam War storylines, X making his on screen appearance, and now a new villain. Plus still trying to make sure Mulder and Scully are working together even though they’re being kept apart.
I do kind of wish I could go back to before I knew Krycek was evil (which, uh, happens at the end of this episode so…) because now that I do know his whole storyline, I have a hard time not seeing him as suspicious from his first on screen appearance with Mulder. So, if anyone is reading these while also watching the show for the first time, let me know if you thought he was suspicious or were shocked by the reveal at the end of the episode.
I suppose from the start Krycek does just kind of seem like a very green new FBI agent eager to make a name for himself, but he’s a little…too willing to accept Mulder’s wild theories? Like, it def feels like he’s just trying to ingratiate himself with Mulder so he likes and trusts him (which honestly, isn’t that hard because Mulder still has his stupid selective paranoia and trusts X and apparently Krycek without question this episode).
I also wonder at the choice to expose Krycek as part of the “Syndicate” working against Mulder in this episode already. I guess part of it was probably wanting the audience to know something Mulder doesn’t during the upcoming mythology arc, but I still feel like it would’ve hit harder if Krycek wasn’t exposed until two episodes from now…
Our “Completely Platonic Coworkers”
Mulder is basically asking Scully to go on a date with him in NYC
Oh, you’re busy Scully? That’s OK, we can get takeout! 😂
Mulder, you have a new boyfriend? 😢
Also, Krycek also definitely thinks Mulder is hot, right? Right???
The 90s™
I don’t have too much here. Just the fact once again that Mulder got slipped a cassette tape in his morning newspaper. Very bulky. Did X slip that into his newspaper before it was delivered, or after, while it was outside Mulder’s door? I would think it would have to be after, because it wasn’t taped or fastened to the newspaper in any way—it just fell right out.
I did also chuckle a little bit that Mulder apparently had to dig for his tape player. Mulder, people seem to give you cassette tapes all the time. Shouldn’t you just leave that on your desk?
Also, just a reflection here again that while I do chuckle at the cassette tapes because they are very 90s (though interestingly…making a vintage comeback?), sending information like this actually does seem a bit more secure? There’s no way that cassette tape can be traced back to “X”, which wouldn’t necessarily be the case today if it was e-mailed, even in an encrypted file I think. For certain security purposes, the good old analog stuff does seem to have its advantages.
Goofs/Bloopers/Fun Facts
I don’t have a ton of goofs here, especially because I don’t have the knowledge to fact check any Vietnam War storylines.
But, here’s just a few combined goofs/questions/fun facts:
Why did they decide to make it the 24-year anniversary of the fictional Phu Bai massacre? Making it a nice even, more meaningful 25 years would’ve been totally believable; that would’ve had it happen in 1969; My Lai massacre occurred in 1968.
There is no “Bronx Station”. And if Girardi was taking the Amtrak or some other commuter train from Massachusetts, he would’ve gotten off at Penn Station.
Writer Howard Gordon was suffering from insomnia during the time leading up to/while writing this episode
Overall Thoughts/Summary
Episode rating: 8/10. It is a very, very strong episode! Really, I’d forgotten that season 2 starts out very strong with the “one-off” episodes. Though, this one does connect tangentially into mythology. At the very end. And with “X”, our new inside informant. The next two episodes are also very strong, but warning that episode 7 is…not. 😅 A strong run of 6 very good episodes is really good though.
I do feel like this episode hits all the “very good” marks, but not jussssst misses the “excellent” mark. It almost felt like they were trying to do too much in this episode, telling the story of the Vietnam veterans + sleep eradication experiments, plus carrying out the story of Mulder and Scully, plus introducing the new character of Krycek, and another new character in “X” (though we heard his voice in “Little Green Men”). And then at the very end, the reveal of Krycek’s “double agent” status.
With everything going on, it felt like this episode needed to be longer? Even the way the episode was shot, it felt very cinematic—like a movie. And to really fit everything in, and tell a full story, either parts of the episode needed to be cut out or the episode needed to be longer.
I’m not a TV writer or producer or director, so I don’t really know exactly how I would make this episode fit better into its 45-minute time slot and tell a full story. But just giving my thoughts that it felt like something was missing, and the episode was a little too rushed on almost every aspect of the various storylines.
But. A very good episode nonetheless! The Vietnam War veterans storyline felt very tangible to me, Krycek is a good character, we got some nice government/military conspiracy stuff tied in, and Mulder and Scully were great as always.
X-files cases “solved” to date: This is a bit of a tough one. I mean, technically I guess Mulder did solve the case (with Krycek)? I don’t know who else would’ve looked into Augustus Cole as the likely perpetrator of the deaths, for one thing. I can’t actually tell if the final doctor’s life was saved, so it’s unclear if any deaths were actually prevented. And we still don’t know exactly how Cole killed those people. Maybe he was projecting his dreams. We do also have that Mulder exposed the experiments the military conducted on Recon Squad J-7, so that’s another “case” kind of solved? The government was seemingly trying pretty hard to cover up those experiments.
Anyway. I’ll give it to Mulder (and Krycek, begrudgingly) with the help of Scully’s autopsies and medical knowledge.
3/4 cases for the season, 23/28 total so far.
Me: “I’m going to try to keep this one shorter so I can watch gymnastics!”
Me: *writes over 4000 words anyway* 🤦♀️
Next we have the two-parter “Duane Berry”/“Ascension”. Even though they are two directly connected episodes, I am going to separate my reviews, with “Duane Barry” next week and then “Ascension” the first Sunday in April. My reviews are already long enough as it is with one episode, and we can get a little bit of a better feel of what it was like to watch these two (or more, in upcoming seasons) part episodes in “real time”, having to wait for the story conclusion.
Time for 8+ hours of watching gymnastics conference championships for me! 😁