Herrenvolk (The X-Files)
| "Herrenvolk" | |
|---|---|
| The X-Files episode | |
 X naming Fox Mulder's next informant. The death of X was called "shocking" by one reviewer. | |
| Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 1 |
| Directed by | R. W. Goodwin |
| Written by | Chris Carter |
| Production code | 4X01 |
| Original air date | October 4, 1996 |
| Running time | 44 minutes |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"Herrenvolk" is the
FBI special agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is shown more evidence of his sister's abduction by the mysterious Jeremiah Smith (Thinnes) and makes a desperate attempt to rescue her, whilst being pursued by the Alien Bounty Hunter. Mulder's informant X is found out by those he has betrayed—with fatal consequences. "Herrenvolk" is the second part of a two-part episode, continuing the plot from the third season finale, "Talitha Cumi".
"Herrenvolk" saw the death of Steven Williams' character X, and featured another appearance of Mulder's sister Samantha, a character described by Carter as the "lifeblood" of the series, who last appeared in the second season double episode, "Colony" and "End Game". The episode featured scenes filmed using swarms of bees, which caused problems due to the difficulty of taming and directing the animals. Other special effects in the episode were achieved through motion control photography.
Plot
In rural Alberta, Canada, a telephone lineman is stung by a bee as he works at the top of a pole. Five identical boys approach and watch as the lineman adversely reacts to the sting, causing him to fall to the ground and die. The boys look down at his body, then walk off silently.
At a remote industrial site,
On the boat, Mulder and Smith debate whether they should save Mulder's mother
The Bounty Hunter learns of Mulder's whereabouts by listening in on a phone call between him and a captive Scully, leaving her to pursue him and Smith while Scully informs Mulder that the Bounty Hunter is still after them. In
Meanwhile, in Canada, Smith and Mulder's car runs out of gas. Walking the last few miles on foot, they come across the corpse of the electrician, grossly decomposed and covered in ants. Jeremiah takes Mulder to a mysterious field where they find a group of identical children; the girls all resemble Samantha at the age when she was abducted. Jeremiah tells Mulder that the cloned children are drones, workers used to tend the fields, incapable of speaking. After retrieving a gasoline can, Mulder tries to take one of the female clones with him, against Jeremiah's wishes. However, the Bounty Hunter arrives and chases them. As he corners them in a large
Scully and Pendrell report to Skinner and the
Production
The appearance of Samantha Mulder, this time as a clone of her from when she was still a little girl, was due to series creator Chris Carter's desire to bring her back. Carter felt Samantha was an important element of the show, referring to her as being part of the lifeblood of the series. The decision to kill the character X was made at the end of the third season. The writers felt that they could only do so much with the character and decided that they would either make him a bigger player on the show, or have him pay the price for collaborating with Fox Mulder. Ultimately they decided on the latter. This led to the introduction of Marita Covarrubias at the end of the episode, Mulder's latest informant.[2]
The exterior shots of the crop fields in the episodes were filmed in ginseng fields, which writer Frank Spotnitz felt had an "otherworldly" quality to them.[3] These fields were located near the city of Kamloops, which is approximately a three-and-a-half-hour drive from Vancouver;[4] a location from which the production had rarely strayed during its first five seasons.[3] The hair, makeup and wardrobe truck ended up getting lost while driving there. A fiberglass composite lattice used by the aircraft industry was used to create the honeycombs through which the alien bounty hunter chases Mulder.[4]
The death of X was a prominent scene in the episode, and it took several takes to complete the final scene;[5] with Spotnitz feeling that "it was a good way to send him off".[3] Director R. W. Goodwin has noted that he is responsible for directing the episodes that featured the deaths of X, Deep Throat, Mulder's father, and Scully's sister.[5]
Thousands of live bees were used during production, with the understanding that the bees would not sting without a queen present. However, this theory proved incorrect, and Vanessa Morley, who played the Samantha Mulder clones, was stung during filming. She kept quiet and did not react until the scene had finished filming, leading Spotnitz to call her "a trooper".[3] The cold open for the episode, with multiple cloned boys, was achieved with motion control photography, allowing for two children to play all five of the clones; multiple takes were recorded with the boys in different positions, and with the camera controlled by a computer to follow exactly the same motions for each take, these could be seamlessly composited together.[6]
The episode title comes from the German word for "
Broadcast and reception
This is the sort of mythology episode that would ultimately give the show a bad name, as it adjusts and shifts established elements, gives us a few token new pieces of information, but makes sure to tie up any loose end that could potentially change the show's dynamic too aggressively.
—The A.V. Club's Zack Handlen on the episode's plotting.[9]
"Herrenvolk" premiered on the
In an overview of the fourth season in Entertainment Weekly, "Herrenvolk" was rated an A−. It was noted that the episode "makes good use of locations", and the ambiguous resolution to Jeremiah Smith's plot arc was seen as a positive, as it "opens the door to all sorts of provocative potentialities".[12] Writing for The A.V. Club, Zack Handlen rated the episode a B+, though he felt it suffered from "treading-water plotting". Handlen also described the episode as being tense on its own, but suffering from "stagnation" when held as part of the series' ongoing mythology. He cited the death of X as an example of this, feeling that the scene was "appropriately shocking" and perhaps "one of the most memorable deaths in the series"—however, the almost immediate introduction of a successor character, Marita Covarrubias, was seen as "deflat[ing] the importance" of the events.[9]
Footnotes
- ^ Meisler, pp. 19–25
- ^ Meisler, pp. 25–27
- ^ Fox.
- ^ a b c Meisler, p. 27
- ^ Fox.
- Fox.
- ^ Meisler, p. 25
- ^ Edwards, pp. 191–192
- ^ a b Handlen, Zack (September 25, 2010). "The X-Files: "Herrenvolk" / Millennium: "Pilot"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- Fox. 1996–1997.)
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link - ^ a b Meisler, p. 298
- ^ "X Cyclopedia: The Ultimate Episode Guide, Season IV". Entertainment Weekly. November 29, 1996. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
Bibliography
- Edwards, Ted (1996). X-Files Confidential. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 0-316-21808-1.
- Meisler, Andy (1998). I Want to Believe: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 3. Harper Prism. ISBN 0-06-105386-4.
External links
- "Herrenvolk" on The X-Files official website
- "Herrenvolk" at IMDb
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