UNCUT - The X-Files S2E8 - One Breath

Great reaction, I gotta recommend when you have a show slot open checking out babylon 5. I think you guys would be hooked on it given your feelings to this and DS9

The show that the Lone Gunmen mentioned, “Earth 2,” was an NBC sci-fi series about humans colonizing an alien planet. It lasted one season (21 eps) and aired 1994-95. Terry O’Quinn & Tim Curry had recurring roles. It was released on DVD back in 2005.

I really don’t think the producers thought the audience was dumb. Viewers regularly missed episodes because there were no reruns so connecting important plot points was needed at the time.

Scully is back and what a way to bring her back, I remember this when it first aired, and it is still so great. Mulder having to make a choice, to wait and do away with the people responsible and seeing who they are, but instead changing his mind to be with Scully in what is thought were her final moments. Then coming home, just in tears, thinking he loss Scully and also the chance to face the ones responsible, seeing that they had been there. Great moment. Skinner telling Mulder basically that Mulder is the one to go further into why. The writers, taking what you would think would be such a hit, that they star is going to have a baby, and then coming up with this arch, my applause to them. well done.

Does anyone else feel like Josh's camera during the reaction seems slightly lower resolution or lower quality than Alex's lately? Or maybe just out of focus slightly; I don't know. I think I noticed it on one of the recent Trek reactions too. Anyway, great episode lol

It was so nice back in the day getting to watch a great episode of television, which back then had to compete for less attention. Today a show of movie is as likely to be a tax write off play that does the minimum to allow them to keep owning that intellectual property, or riddled with preachy political messages. This was before the ensh*tification of media began! Great episode. I have said before that I came for the Star Trek but I will stay for The X Files, I would love you guys to do a classic comedy like Seinfeld.

I love that the first "related post" to this one (for me at least) is the pilot :) within the show they call him Cancer Man, but I think the fan base is more varied/flexible, sister and I always referred to him as CSM or Cigarette-Smoking Man. I mostly rewatch the MotW's but holy crap I forgot how hard some of the lore ones hit, wow! Glad you're making me revisit the WHOLE series again, it really is fire

What an absolute banger. I was gripped as much as the first time I saw it. Skinner and Skully's dad had such amazing dialogue. The supporting cast were all superb too.

Yeah they took her off before her sister visits and mulder goes to the hospital. She just didn’t die detaching the rope was cutting the cord. This was top shelf x file

Without question my favorite episode of the series Chef’s kiss perfection! THough seriously Gillian should not have been at work yet.

Was surprised but very pleased when we got Scully back so soon after her abduction.

"Don't try and threaten me, Mulder. I've watched Presidents die." Man, that line goes so hard! Gillian Fucking Anderson! 1 episode and right back at it. What a badass.

Do you think Melissa and her mother knew Mulder, though unsaid, felt more than friendship for Scully.

I knew you guys would love it. This episode is peak, brilliant conclusion to an amazing 3-episode arc.

A real return to form here in One Breath. Love the start of this one with Scully's mum narrating when Scully was a child. At this point it seems everyone, including Mulder and Scully's mother, had given Scully up for dead, but then she mysteriously reappears at a Washington hospital. It's really strange that the hospital cannot say how she got there, but she is now in a coma and on a ventilator. With the help of our favourite sidekicks, The Lone Gunmen, Mulder learns that her DNA has been altered and that her immune system has shut down. When X fails to make contact with him and Mulder then goes after Cancer Man, to try and save her. We of course get the introduction of Melissa, who unlike Scully is into all sorts on New Age thinking, and is very spiritual. Brilliant eeire scenes with Scully drifting on the boat near the shore. We see Nurse Owens talking gently to Scully in her coma. Great scene when X confronts Mulder in the car park. X don't mess, when Mulder's assailant overpowers Mulder, X got the Jet Li/Jackie Chan moves, then executes the guy in cold blood. A tense scene when Scully's mother is thinking of turning the machine off and rope snaps on the boat, and we see the nurse on the shore. After Scully's father appears to her, in the canteen we see the strange women say pack of cigarettes are in the machine, they are of course Morleys, CM's brand. Fantastic scene in CM's flat, and we are just willing Mulder to ice the MF!, but we know all Mulder wants is the truth. It seems Mulder has finally had enough as he drafts his resignation letter. Skinner of course rips it up, and tells Mulder his Vietnam story about killing the child, when he had to question everything. A brilliant 'Sixth Sense' ending to this one with the realisation by Scully that Nurse Owens did not exist, but was a type of guardian angel helping Scully out of the coma and back to life. What a brilliant X-Files episode this was, and there is even better to come!

RIP Don S Davis! I had no idea he was in the xfiles, I know him from....a different show. Such a great scene here

Great episode. Really enjoyed your reaction too. Got too impatient and spent the 5 dollars to get it early lol. But it was worth it. Glad y'all enjoyed it as much as I did. Really great moments and amazing acting in this episode, best acting I've seen since Joel Grey.

Awesome reaction. This show was truly made with both of your DNA in mind. "I've watched Presidents die" might be the coldest line ever spoken. And said so nonchalantly by the cancer man. Ice cold.

At its best, this series does two things: 1) Takes every answer and raises two more questions. 2) Makes every line fire. This episode was the series at its best. Damn, what a show.

My wife is a big proponent of living wills, and so am I. My father didn't have 1, either, and I never want to be in that situation ever again.

Watched last night and the reaction did not disappoint. The Scully abduction arc are some of the most memorable eps in the show in my opinion, especially One Breath. You may not really believe Scully is actually going to die, but the show damn well does it's best to make you think this is it. The story about Dana and the snake followed immediately by showing her tombstone makes you stop and ask "are we doing this". I'm so glad they brought Don S Davis back for that one monologue. In BTS he basically just commented on Dana keeping her Christmas tree up for so long and had the weird silent armchair scene. He's really very good at playing fathers or father figures, balancing strength and warmth. I'm of course most familiar with him from his work on SG1. As for whether Scully was abducted by the govt or aliens, it seems like it might be both, or at least that the govt has access to alien tech, given Byers' assertion that the tech to perform the genetic experiments was 50 years away at least. Although to be fair he may have underestimated the rate of advancement. Crispr gene editing was possible less than 2 decades later. As sad as it is seeing Scully barely hanging on halfway between life and death, I think Mulder's descent into despair and madness is the real heart of the episode. I think having Mister X tell Mulder he used to be in his position minutes before murdering someone in cold blood was a nice bit of foreshadowing. Wanting to quit the FBI, waiting in ambush in his apartment to kill the people who took Scully, and coming within half a trigger pull of blowing Cancer Man's head off, Mulder came so very close to following Mister X's path and becoming a dark reflection of himself. Only a combination of Skinner's war story and deciding being with Scully at the end was more important than revenge pulled him back from the edge. Still, when he comes back and finds his apartment trashed, knowing the people who took her got away with it and thinking she's still going to die, he must have felt like his whole world had fallen apart. Phenomenal episode

Fun fact about this show.... they filmed in actual hospitals. They used wings and floors that weren't in use at the time

They did unplug Scully. When you see her after she's not on oxygen anymore and they had her eyes taped before. They expected her to die right away but she hung on despite being removed.

Josh is correct about what Mulder meant in his conversation with Skinner. This was not related to her will, but basically, about him knowing the risks pulling her into his quest, and feeling guilt because of it.

Such great dialogue by Don S Davis RIP

You don’t need to worry about characters not being fleshed out there’s like 190 episodes and 2 movies left

I thought they actually unplugged her at the end - the doctor earlier in the episode said that some patients can function without the machine for years, but he was confident this won't be Scully's case.

A private conversation with Chris Carter. One breath https://youtu.be/cL_0LlY6LRQ?is=Y72xE81G2Plpl7jq

Character development: you're just getting started! 😉 So glad you guys loved this one.

Well said Alex agreed another awesome performance by not Boogie2988 Mr Steven Williams

Masterpiece episode.

Great to see you enjoyed this episode (was there any doubt?) as much as the rest of us. Can this season match or beat this one? I guess you'll find out :)

So many great things about both the episode and your analysis, this was a joy to watch. Yes, I should have been more precise in my take, and no I don't disagree at all. What I meant by "something special" was not solely the mytharc-focus, but the way in which the episode was executed in general, in all areas. Artistically, cinematically, the writing/directing/acting, the tension, score, atmosphere, "simple" one-liners evoking strong emotions, you name it. I think it is objectively very high quality in terms of TV, so I meant special in that sense, with the effort put into it, and the (very) successful execution, not merely special because it is non-episodic. :) Unfortunately, there are X-Files fans e-fighting to this day whether mythology or standalones are "better", whereas the truth is simply... it's a matter of taste, it comes down to what you like and what your priorities are, way too many facotrs involved. And you can enjoy both, too. I do however strongly argue that the mythology is literally the driving force of the characters, that it is what shapes them and develops them. Of course there are exceptions like "Beyond the Sea" (among others) adding to character development, but, I think that without the effect the mythology has on the characters, neither our main leads nor the supporting characters would feel "as real" or fleshed out, as they do feel at this point... and we're only into early season two. That's something to think about. And there are plenty of standalones that I prefer over some mytharc ones, so yeah, it's not as black and white as standalones are "better", or vice versa. I hope you get my point. What is amazing about this show is that is has something in it for everyone. It has every genre you can think of. And it has so many interesting ways it executes its ideas, that while yes, sometimes there will be an episode you don't care about or even detest, overall it's precisely that "mixture" of standalone and mytharc, that combination, which makes the show appeal to so many people, and why it still has a fanbase to this day that is obsessed with it in many ways, myself included.

I read somewhere (probably here) that Gillian Anderson went on just a 10 day maternity leave. She was afraid that if she went too long she could be fired. Which really sucks. Apparently it has happened to other actresses.

Fun fact RW Goodwin is actually married to Sheila Larken.

Great reaction to one of my favorite episodes. What amazing conclusion to the arc. It had it all. Great discussion, too. Thanks guys! Happy for you that you're enjoying it like that. One point about Skinner at 1:10:55: it was always my impression that Skinner doesn't just tell Mulder about his experience to convince him to stay. But also to show him that he believes in the supernatural due to his experience. Therefore he supports Mulder in his work (e.g. opening the X files again)

If I recall correctly, GIllian Anderson had ten or eleven days after giving birth before she was back at work.

Let's go!