Crazy People Howling at the Moon
In the first four episodes of The X Files, there are clear dynamics and questions set up that will be prevalent in seasons to come. In the world of the 1990’s X Files, It is clear that people who believe in alien abductions or experienced them are perceived as “crazy” and that the stigma against being perceived as “crazy” is so strong that people will go to great lengths to avoid that perception. The audience, meantime, is in on the secret. While there are many questions related to the details of alien existence, four episodes in the viewers know that, in this world, alien abductions are real.
Conduit clearly frames this debate away from the concept of is Mulder crazy to how far other individuals will go to be seen as normal. The mother, who herself saw an UFO when younger, chooses to tell the world her teenage daughter took off with a biker gang for a few days and to tell her son that he imagined what he saw. She believes that this a better alternative to her children being thought of as crazy for believing in alien abduction.
The viewer is supposed to recognize the similarity between Mulder being the boy seeing his sister abducted and the young boy in conduit knowing his sister was abducted. In the future we will meet Mulder’s parents and realize they had the answers for which their son searched and their own reasons to conceal those answers from their son.
The first four episodes establishes a firm foundation for the viewer’s investment in Mulder as an hero in search of the truth. While he might not want Scully to view him as crazy, he is a man willing to tell the truth despite the fact that he will be perceived by so many as one of the “crazy people howling at the moon.” There is a nobility in telling the truth despite the consequences. Mulder is clearly on a hero’s quest with Scully, the skeptic, to provide the balance and credibility to a non-believer world.