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Conduit (The X-Files)
Encyclopedia
"Conduit" is the fourth episode of the first season
of the American science fiction
television series The X-Files
. It premiered on the Fox network
on October 1, 1993. It was written by Alex Gansa
and Howard Gordon
, directed by Daniel Sackheim
, and featured a guest appearance by Carrie Snodgress
as the mother of an abducted teenager. The episode, although not directly tied to the series' ongoing story arcs
, provides more information on how Fox Mulder
's younger sister, Samantha Mulder
, had been abducted as a child; a plot thread which would go on to become one of the more prominent of the series.
When investigating the possible alien abduction of a teenage girl, FBI
special agents Fox Mulder
(David Duchovny
) and Dana Scully
(Gillian Anderson
) find that the missing girl's younger brother may be capable of receiving satellite transmissions, and that her mother may also have been party to a UFO encounter over twenty years earlier. Mulder finds himself becoming emotionally attached to the case due to its similarities to his own childhood experiences, when his younger sister Samantha was abducted from their home.
National Park in Sioux City, Iowa
, teenager Ruby Morris vanishes while camping with her mother and younger brother. In Washington D.C., Blevins tells Scully that Mulder has requested travel expenses to Sioux City because of a tabloid headline on the aforementioned disappearance. He also shows Scully an X-File
on Mulder's sister Samantha
, who vanished 21 years earlier. When Scully asks Mulder about the travel expenses, he tells Scully that Sioux City was the subject of UFO sightings in 1967 and that Ruby's mother Darlene was one of the witnesses.
On arriving at Sioux City, the agents meet Darlene and her son Kevin. Mulder observes Kevin writing down zeroes and ones resembling binary code
on a piece of paper; Kevin claims they are coming from the static on the TV screen. While waiting for an analysis of what Kevin has written down, the agents meet with the sheriff, who tells them that Ruby has a history of misbehavior and likely ran away. Upon finding a note on their car, Mulder and Scully meet a friend of Ruby's, Tessa, who says that Ruby had gotten pregnant by her boyfriend Greg, and was planning to run away with him. The agents are unable to find Greg at his workplace; however, after his boss is questioned about his UFO tattoo, the agents are directed to Lake Okobogee.
The numbers Kevin wrote down are revealed to be part of a transmission from a Department of Defense satellite transmission, and government agents ransack the Morris family's house looking for any other documentation that might compromise government security. An angry Darlene tells Mulder and Scully to leave them alone.
Mulder and Scully visit Lake Okobogee where Mulder finds sand turned to glass
and burned trees, evidence of the presence of some sort of massive heat source. Encountering some wolves, they discover the body of Greg in a shallow grave. On his person, they find a note in his wallet that eventually leads Scully and Mulder to conclude that it was Tessa, not Ruby, who was pregnant. Interrogating Tessa, she confesses to having killed Greg; however, she says that Ruby wasn't at Lake Okobogee that night.
Mulder and Scully return to the Morris' house, and, finding it deserted, discover the binary-covered pieces of paper laid out across the floor of the living room floor, forming an image of Ruby's face. The agents return to Lake Okobogee, where they find Darlene and Kevin in the nearby woods. A motorcycle gang appears, and as Mulder hurries to rescue Kevin from their wake, Scully discovers Ruby nearby.
Ruby is then seen in a hospital bed, with Kevin by her side. When questioned about her experience, she says she was told by an unnamed group not to say anything. Darlene also refuses to cooperate any further, given the ridicule that she faced after her experiences. Back in Washington, Scully listens to a tape of hypnotic sessions in which Mulder recalls the night his sister vanished. Mulder, meanwhile, sits in a church, crying as he looks at a picture of his sister.
, with Buntzen Lake
being used as Lake Okobogee. Several crew members became lost in the surrounding area after the van responsible for installing signage got lost itself. The mural of Ruby made up of binary code was designed by assistant art director Greg Loewen and Vivien Nishi, who hand-wrote all the numbers on the mural.
Writer Howard Gordon said of the episode, "Alex and I made an effort to play to our own strength, which is character. We thought this was an interesting place to reiterate Mulder's quest for his sister. We set out to tell a simple abduction story, which was played out behind the shadows. We wanted to create an air of tension. With everything that happened, we wanted to explain what it could be. At every point, everything can be explained. Was she taken or killed by her boyfriend, who she was seeing against her mother's wishes? Is it Twin Peaks
or an alien abduction? That was the theme of the show." Gordon and Gansa were afraid that series creator Chris Carter wouldn't like the script, but Carter liked the script and approved the episode they wrote.
Writer Howard Gordon praised the episode's ending, saying "I think we're most proud of the ending: Mulder's quest is re-established (and Daniel Sackheim directed it beautifully) with Mulder sitting alone in a church with only his faith. The story, again, was fueled by Mulder's belief and emotional connection with this case. Another girl taken from her family. And, in a way, the little boy who is the conduit, who is also perhaps touched by the aliens, is essentially Mulder. These little touches the fans seem to respond to. It was difficult for us, but in the end satisfying. It came out of frustration on our parts, and creative uncertainty".
Producer Glen Morgan felt that the episode's writers, Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, "have a better character-dramatic sense", adding that he believed the episode "really helped define Mulder". Chris Carter felt the episode's highlights were the ending and the realization by Scully that Mulder may not be a crackpot, feeling it was very important to the show in establishing its point of view. He also felt that the episode proved effective at highlighting that the series was told from Scully's point of view, citing instances of the character "pulling Mulder back" from his fringe theories and emotional attachment.
on October 1, 1993, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom
on BBC Two
on October 10, 1994. The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 6.3 with an 11 share—meaning that in the US, 6.3 percent of television-equipped households, and 11 percent of all households actively watching television, were watching the program. It was viewed by 5.9 million households.
In a retrospective of the first season in Entertainment Weekly
, "Conduit" was rated a B, with the episode being described as "excellent for background" for the series, though it was noted that Duchovny gave "a performance that makes wood look lively". Keith Phipps, writing for The A.V. Club
, reviewed the episode positively, rating it a B+, feeling that the episode worked well to expand on the motivations of the two lead characters, noting that "the work done here will pay off well later". The episode has been seen as laying the foundation for the recurrence of Fox Mulder's obsession with finding his missing sister, which would come to be one of the main plot threads of the series.
Duchovny's portrayal of Fox Mulder in this episode has been cited as an example of the character's reversal of traditional gender roles—his openness and vulnerability when dealing with the similarities between the Morris case and that of his sister casts him "in a pattern typically engendered as female". He represents a break from past archetypes, with his "emotional and empathic balance" providing a contrast to previous male detectives in fiction.
The X-Files (season 1)
The first season of the science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing on the Fox network in the United States on September 10, 1993 and concluded on the same channel on May 13, 1994 after airing all 24 episodes....
of the American science fiction
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
television series The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
. It premiered on the Fox network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
on October 1, 1993. It was written by Alex Gansa
Alex Gansa
Alex Gansa is a screenwriter and producer.He produced and wrote a number of scripts for the Beauty and the Beast television series. He later worked as a writer and supervising producer on The X-Files in its first two seasons, and on Dawson's Creek in its third season...
and Howard Gordon
Howard Gordon
Howard Gordon is an American screenwriter and producer.-Life and career:Gordon was born in Queens, New York, New York. After graduating from Princeton in 1984, Gordon came to Los Angeles with fellow filmmaker Alex Gansa to pursue a career in writing for television. Both broke into the industry...
, directed by Daniel Sackheim
Daniel Sackheim
Daniel Sackheim is an American TV and film director. He has directed several episodes of the TV show The X-Files, 3 episodes of Harsh Realm, House, and Life, the last two of which he also served on as an executive producer.-External links:...
, and featured a guest appearance by Carrie Snodgress
Carrie Snodgress
Caroline "Carrie" Snodgress was an American actress.-Biography:Snodgress was born in Park Ridge, Illinois. She attended Maine Township High School East in Park Ridge then Northern Illinois University before leaving to pursue acting. Snodgress trained for the stage at the Goodman Theatre, in Chicago...
as the mother of an abducted teenager. The episode, although not directly tied to the series' ongoing story arcs
Mythology of The X-Files
The mythology of The X-Files, sometimes referred to as its mytharc by the show's staff and fans, follows the quest of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder , a believer in supernatural phenomena, and Dana Scully , his skeptical partner. Their boss, FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner was also often...
, provides more information on how Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...
's younger sister, Samantha Mulder
Samantha Mulder
Samantha Ann Mulder is a fictional character in the television series The X-Files. She is the sister of FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder and the daughter of Teena and Bill Mulder. As a child, Samantha was abducted, ostensibly by aliens, and was never recovered...
, had been abducted as a child; a plot thread which would go on to become one of the more prominent of the series.
When investigating the possible alien abduction of a teenage girl, FBI
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
special agents Fox Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...
(David Duchovny
David Duchovny
David William Duchovny is an American actor, writer and director. He has won Golden Globe awards for his work as FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files and as Hank Moody on Californication.-Early life:...
) and Dana Scully
Dana Scully
FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...
(Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...
) find that the missing girl's younger brother may be capable of receiving satellite transmissions, and that her mother may also have been party to a UFO encounter over twenty years earlier. Mulder finds himself becoming emotionally attached to the case due to its similarities to his own childhood experiences, when his younger sister Samantha was abducted from their home.
Plot
After a bright flash of light at Lake OkobogeeEast Okoboji Lake
East Okoboji Lake is a natural body of water, approximately 1,835 acres in area, in Dickinson County in northwest Iowa in the United States. It is part of the chain of lakes known as the Iowa Great Lakes. The area was long inhabited by the Santee or Eastern Dakota Sioux...
National Park in Sioux City, Iowa
Sioux City, Iowa
Sioux City is a city in Plymouth and Woodbury counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 82,684 in the 2010 census, a decline from 85,013 in the 2000 census, which makes it currently the fourth largest city in the state....
, teenager Ruby Morris vanishes while camping with her mother and younger brother. In Washington D.C., Blevins tells Scully that Mulder has requested travel expenses to Sioux City because of a tabloid headline on the aforementioned disappearance. He also shows Scully an X-File
X-file
On the television series The X-Files, an X-File is a fictional case that has been deemed unsolvable by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The files constitute an unassigned project outside the Bureau mainstream that is more or less concerned with unexplained phenomena. -First X-Files:The very...
on Mulder's sister Samantha
Samantha Mulder
Samantha Ann Mulder is a fictional character in the television series The X-Files. She is the sister of FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder and the daughter of Teena and Bill Mulder. As a child, Samantha was abducted, ostensibly by aliens, and was never recovered...
, who vanished 21 years earlier. When Scully asks Mulder about the travel expenses, he tells Scully that Sioux City was the subject of UFO sightings in 1967 and that Ruby's mother Darlene was one of the witnesses.
On arriving at Sioux City, the agents meet Darlene and her son Kevin. Mulder observes Kevin writing down zeroes and ones resembling binary code
Binary code
A binary code is a way of representing text or computer processor instructions by the use of the binary number system's two-binary digits 0 and 1. This is accomplished by assigning a bit string to each particular symbol or instruction...
on a piece of paper; Kevin claims they are coming from the static on the TV screen. While waiting for an analysis of what Kevin has written down, the agents meet with the sheriff, who tells them that Ruby has a history of misbehavior and likely ran away. Upon finding a note on their car, Mulder and Scully meet a friend of Ruby's, Tessa, who says that Ruby had gotten pregnant by her boyfriend Greg, and was planning to run away with him. The agents are unable to find Greg at his workplace; however, after his boss is questioned about his UFO tattoo, the agents are directed to Lake Okobogee.
The numbers Kevin wrote down are revealed to be part of a transmission from a Department of Defense satellite transmission, and government agents ransack the Morris family's house looking for any other documentation that might compromise government security. An angry Darlene tells Mulder and Scully to leave them alone.
Mulder and Scully visit Lake Okobogee where Mulder finds sand turned to glass
Fulgurite
Fulgurites are natural hollow glass tubes formed in quartzose sand, or silica, or soil by lightning strikes. They are formed when lightning with a temperature of at least instantaneously melts silica on a conductive surface and fuses grains together; the fulgurite tube is the cooled product...
and burned trees, evidence of the presence of some sort of massive heat source. Encountering some wolves, they discover the body of Greg in a shallow grave. On his person, they find a note in his wallet that eventually leads Scully and Mulder to conclude that it was Tessa, not Ruby, who was pregnant. Interrogating Tessa, she confesses to having killed Greg; however, she says that Ruby wasn't at Lake Okobogee that night.
Mulder and Scully return to the Morris' house, and, finding it deserted, discover the binary-covered pieces of paper laid out across the floor of the living room floor, forming an image of Ruby's face. The agents return to Lake Okobogee, where they find Darlene and Kevin in the nearby woods. A motorcycle gang appears, and as Mulder hurries to rescue Kevin from their wake, Scully discovers Ruby nearby.
Ruby is then seen in a hospital bed, with Kevin by her side. When questioned about her experience, she says she was told by an unnamed group not to say anything. Darlene also refuses to cooperate any further, given the ridicule that she faced after her experiences. Back in Washington, Scully listens to a tape of hypnotic sessions in which Mulder recalls the night his sister vanished. Mulder, meanwhile, sits in a church, crying as he looks at a picture of his sister.
Production
The episode was filmed in British ColumbiaBritish Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
, with Buntzen Lake
Buntzen Lake
Buntzen Lake is a 4.8 kilometres long lake in Anmore, British Columbia, Canada, in the Greater Vancouver area. It is named after the first general manager of the B.C. Electric Co., Johannes Buntzen...
being used as Lake Okobogee. Several crew members became lost in the surrounding area after the van responsible for installing signage got lost itself. The mural of Ruby made up of binary code was designed by assistant art director Greg Loewen and Vivien Nishi, who hand-wrote all the numbers on the mural.
Writer Howard Gordon said of the episode, "Alex and I made an effort to play to our own strength, which is character. We thought this was an interesting place to reiterate Mulder's quest for his sister. We set out to tell a simple abduction story, which was played out behind the shadows. We wanted to create an air of tension. With everything that happened, we wanted to explain what it could be. At every point, everything can be explained. Was she taken or killed by her boyfriend, who she was seeing against her mother's wishes? Is it Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is an American television serial drama created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The series follows the investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper , of the murder of a popular teenager and homecoming queen, Laura Palmer...
or an alien abduction? That was the theme of the show." Gordon and Gansa were afraid that series creator Chris Carter wouldn't like the script, but Carter liked the script and approved the episode they wrote.
Writer Howard Gordon praised the episode's ending, saying "I think we're most proud of the ending: Mulder's quest is re-established (and Daniel Sackheim directed it beautifully) with Mulder sitting alone in a church with only his faith. The story, again, was fueled by Mulder's belief and emotional connection with this case. Another girl taken from her family. And, in a way, the little boy who is the conduit, who is also perhaps touched by the aliens, is essentially Mulder. These little touches the fans seem to respond to. It was difficult for us, but in the end satisfying. It came out of frustration on our parts, and creative uncertainty".
Producer Glen Morgan felt that the episode's writers, Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, "have a better character-dramatic sense", adding that he believed the episode "really helped define Mulder". Chris Carter felt the episode's highlights were the ending and the realization by Scully that Mulder may not be a crackpot, feeling it was very important to the show in establishing its point of view. He also felt that the episode proved effective at highlighting that the series was told from Scully's point of view, citing instances of the character "pulling Mulder back" from his fringe theories and emotional attachment.
Broadcast and reception
"Conduit" premiered on the Fox networkFox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
on October 1, 1993, and was first broadcast in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
on October 10, 1994. The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 6.3 with an 11 share—meaning that in the US, 6.3 percent of television-equipped households, and 11 percent of all households actively watching television, were watching the program. It was viewed by 5.9 million households.
In a retrospective of the first season in Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
, "Conduit" was rated a B, with the episode being described as "excellent for background" for the series, though it was noted that Duchovny gave "a performance that makes wood look lively". Keith Phipps, writing for The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
, reviewed the episode positively, rating it a B+, feeling that the episode worked well to expand on the motivations of the two lead characters, noting that "the work done here will pay off well later". The episode has been seen as laying the foundation for the recurrence of Fox Mulder's obsession with finding his missing sister, which would come to be one of the main plot threads of the series.
Duchovny's portrayal of Fox Mulder in this episode has been cited as an example of the character's reversal of traditional gender roles—his openness and vulnerability when dealing with the similarities between the Morris case and that of his sister casts him "in a pattern typically engendered as female". He represents a break from past archetypes, with his "emotional and empathic balance" providing a contrast to previous male detectives in fiction.