"The X Files" Conduit (1993)

Director:

Daniel Sackheim

Writers:

Chris Carter (creator)
Howard Gordon (written by) ...

TV Series:

"The X Files" (1993)

Original Air Date:

1 October 1993 (Season 1, Episode 3)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Plot:

A Sioux City girl, whose mother once encountered a UFO, disappears in the middle of the night. Mulder...

Plot Keywords:

Male Female Relationship | Title Spoken By Character | FBI | FBI Agent | Alien

Cast

David Duchovny	...	Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson	...	Dana Scully
Carrie Snodgress	...	Darlene Morris
Michael Cavanaugh	...	Sheriff Jack Withers
Donald Gibb	...	Kip (as Don Gibb)
Joel Palmer	...	Kevin Morris
Charles Cioffi	...	Section Chief Scott Blevins
Shelley-Lynn Owens	...	Tessa Seers (as Shelley Owens)
Don Thompson	...	Holtzman
Akiko Morison	...	Leza Atsumi
Taunya Dee	...	Ruby Morris
Anthony Harrison	...	4th Man
Glen Roald	...	M.E. Worker
Mauricio Mercado	...	Coroner

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Argentina:13

Company:

20th Century Fox Television

Trivia:

This episode marks the first time Mulder says the famous line: "I want to believe".

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Mulder refers to the adult leader of a Girl Scout troop as a "den mother". Den mothers are in charge of Cub Scout troops. Adults in the Girl Scouts are simply referred to as "troop leaders" or "scout leaders".

Quotes:

[last lines]
Mulder: I want to believe...

Soundtrack:

Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Mvt. I, Allegro

"I want to believe..."

Conduit is one of the essential episodes of the first season of The X-Files, perhaps even of the entire series, as it marks the debut of the mythology storyline's most important and affecting subplot: Mulder's search for his sister.

The case begins with the disappearance of a young girl whose mother claims to have been abducted by aliens in the past. While Mulder and Scully set out to find the girl, it is revealed that Mulder's sister Samantha was abducted when he was twelve, and that incident is what eventually led to his belief in the paranormal and his work on the X-Files. Scully fears her partner might be taking the whole thing too personal, but has to admit they're probably onto something when the US government takes an interest in the missing girl's younger brother, who receives compromising information through a television set.

Apart from Mulder's usual spot-on remarks ("How can an eight-year old boy who can barely multiply be a threat to national security? And they call me paranoid!") and the postmodern use of the TV medium within the show (something that will occur several more times), the heart of Conduit is its digging into the hidden core of the show's male protagonist: childhood trauma is often used - or rather misused - as a dramatic device to explain a character's choices, but the careful writing and Duchovny's heartfelt performance give the back-story more substance than it would have in another program. This episode really establishes Mulder as a flesh-and-blood individual instead of a caricature of a conspiracy theorist, and it's very easy to share his hope when he utters a line that, much like "The truth is out there", came to define the series: "I want to believe...".