The Red and the Black (The X-Files)
"The Red and the Black" | |
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The X-Files episode | |
Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 14 |
Directed by | Chris Carter |
Written by | Chris Carter Frank Spotnitz |
Production code | 5X14 |
Original air date | March 8, 1998 |
Running time | 45 minutes |
Guest appearances | |
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"The Red and the Black" is the fourteenth episode of the fifth season of American science fiction television series The X-Files. It was written by series creator Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, directed by Carter and aired in the United States on March 8, 1998, on the Fox network. The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 12.0, being watched by 19.98 million people in its initial broadcast. The episode received moderately positive reviews from critics.
The show centers on
"The Red and the Black" continues from the previous episode, "
Plot
In the mountain wilderness of Canada, someone in a cabin writes a letter addressed to "Son" and expresses hopes that they may reconcile. The envelope is addressed to the FBI, and is given to a boy courier for mailing.
The Well-Manicured Man (John Neville) and other Syndicate Elders watch as their black oil vaccine is administered to Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden), which has yet to work. Later, The Well-Manicured Man meets with Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea), who is being held captive aboard a Russian freighter. The Well-Manicured Man believes that the Russians possess a functional vaccine to the black oil, or else Krycek would not have infected the boy. With a working vaccine, resistance to the alien Colonists is possible.
A spacecraft crashes at Wiekamp Air Force base in West Virginia, and the surviving Rebel passenger is captured by the military. Mulder shows Scully more photos of the victims and, having found more implants in them, believes the implant in Scully may be able to answer all of their questions. The Syndicate meets over the capture of the Rebel. The Well-Manicured Man informs them of the existence of the Russian vaccine, believing that this makes resistance to the Colonists possible. If the vaccine is ineffective he proposes avoiding handing over the Rebel and instead forming an alliance with the Rebels, but the other Syndicate members believe this would be a suicidal course of action.
Under hypnosis, Scully recalls the Rebels burning her fellow abductees, as well as a Colonist spacecraft killing the Rebels and abducting Cassandra. During a meeting with Walter Skinner, Mulder continues to insist that the events have been orchestrated by the military and not by aliens. Meanwhile, the Russian vaccine seems to have no effect on Marita. The First Elder tells the Well-Manicured Man that they have already decided to turn the Rebel over to the Colonists. Jeffrey shows Scully a video of him talking about aliens while under hypnosis while he was a child, claiming his mother had forced him to make those statements.
Krycek is released and attacks Mulder in his apartment. He claims that a war is raging between the aliens and that the Rebel
Production
Casting and filming
According to series creator
The opening scene was filmed at Grouse Mountain, north of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Most of the scenes at the Ruskin Dam were shot approximately 50 miles east of Vancouver, while the abduction sequence set at this location involved a full-scale replica of the dam being built on a soundstage. The various scenes with the Syndicate testing the black oil vaccine on Marita Covarrubias were filmed at an abandoned hospital in Vancouver. The show selected the site because, according to Carter, it had "an interesting observation space above it that we used", which in the end proved to be a difficult place to film.[2]
Effects
"The Red and the Black" was a technically demanding episode, which Carter later described, along with "Patient X", as "the most challenging and logically complex [project] of the season."
The opening scene featuring the alien rebels incinerating a group of Russian abductees was filmed without actual Russian cars. Picture car coordination Nigel Habgood noted, "I couldn't get real Russian cars, so I decided to get creative and go seriously European. We burned a couple Saabs, and a BMW 2002. I'm sorry we couldn't get any Yugos."[5] For the scene in which Mulder discovers the charred remains of abductees, the prop and the production design departments had to create specialized fake bodies. Carter later noted that it's "harder than it looks to create a charred, dead body."[2] The tagline for this episode is "Resist or Serve".[2] The tagline was later used for The X-Files game, The X-Files: Resist or Serve as well as the official book covering the fifth season of the show.[5]
Reception
"The Red and the Black" premiered on the
Critical reception to the episode was largely positive. The A.V. Club reviewer Zack Handlen gave "The Red and the Black" an A−, and wrote positively of the "galactic war" between the colonists and the rebels that is referenced in the episode, noting that it marked the point where "shit is about to get real".[9] Despite this, Handlen criticized the series for not following through on its tale of alien war, noting that the premise "never really [took off]--at least […] I've never heard anyone refer to [the last seasons of the show] as 'the seasons when The X-Files mythology finally paid off.'"[9] Handlen, however noted that "The Red and the Black" worked because "the performances are great as always, and because the second part of this two parter rarely feels bogged down or draggy."[9] Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode three stars out of five. The two called the episode a "typical mythology runaround" and noted that the plot was "complicated but the simpler scenes of confrontation are very well handled."[10] Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a positive review and awarded it three stars out of four.[11] Vitaris praised the episode's premise and wrote that it represented "a second half of a two-parter that is as strong as the first half."[11]
A variety of critics praised the hypnotism scene. Robert Shearman called the scene "gorgeous" and praised Gillian Anderson's acting abilities.[10] Paula Vitaris was extremely impressed with the scene's blocking, calling the rendition "virtually orgasmic in intensity" and concluded that "Anderson is marvelous".[11]
Footnotes
- ^ a b Meisler, pp. 187–196
- ^ FOX Home Entertainment.
- ^ Hurwitz and Knowles p. 151
- ^ Meisler, p. 196
- ^ a b c Meisler, p. 197
- Fox.)
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link - ^ a b Meisler, p. 284
- ^ Kim Manners et al. The X-Files Mythology, Volume 3 – Colonization (DVD). FOX.
- ^ a b c Handlen, Zack (25 June 2011). "'The Red and the Black'/'The Pest House'". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 29 April 2012.
- ^ a b Shearman and Pearson, p. 138–139
- ^ a b c Vitaris, Paula (October 1998). "Fifth Season Episode Guide". Cinefantastique. 30 (7/8): 29–50.
Bibliography
- Hurwitz, Matt & Knowles, Chris (2008). The Complete X-Files: Behind the Series the Myths and the Movies. New York, US: Insight Editions. ISBN 978-1933784724.
- Meisler, Andy (1999), Resist or Serve: The Official Guide to The X-Files, Vol. 4, London: ISBN 0-00-257133-1
- Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 978-0975944691.
External links
- "The Red and the Black" on TheXFiles.com
- "The Red and the Black" at IMDb