X-Files Rerun "Sleepless"

"Why else? To build a better soldier. Sustained wakefulness dulls fear, heightens aggression. Science had just put a man on the moon. So now they looked to science to win a losing war."
Originally Aired 10/7/94

Today seems like a good time as any to revisit this series. With Season Five being on a holiday break, and I also get a paid holiday break for the first time ever, I thought I'd jump back to where I left off with my Season Two reviews. "Sleepless" may appear like your typical killer-of-the-week investigation but several big revelations happen throughout the hour, making me feel like this is the time when "shit got real" on The X-Files. While Season One ended with a death, the closing of "The X-Files" unit, and there was also unknown forces working behind the scenes, this time they finally rear their ugly head.

I still feel they should have created more of a dynamic between Mulder and Krycek. Alex is very convincing in his role as the wet-behind-the-ears agent that originally opens the case and then brings Mulder along with him. Holding off on showing Krycek's betrayal til the next episode would have been a better move, that way the knife cuts a little deeper not just to Mulder but to the viewer. Instead we barely get to know Krycek. My only guess is that the producers went for a trademark of Hitchcock movies by building suspense because the viewer knows before the characters do. A unique part of Krycek's role is that he actually *is* sent to spent on Mulder, which he joked about in the Pilot episode when meeting Agent Scully.

Another interesting part of the episode is its guest star, Tony Todd. He always brings a quiet intensity to roles and his appearance on The X-Files is no different. Like Season One's Roland, Todd's character of "Augustus Cole" is a sympathetic villain. Although he does kill two SWAT team members to escape the police, most of his victims are out of revenge. Its like what I've read about many classic villains of movies and television, that the most convincing villains are those who believe they are doing the right thing.

There's even a third guest star this week, one who I have grown to love over my 5 years of reviewing episodes online. His appearance is limited to a brief scene but it has been teased since the start of this season, which is a new informant for Fox Mulder, simply named "X." Now that I've finally watched the movie JFK, I get the reference for naming the character "X", which also perfectly follows "Deep Throat" as another famous informant. X's appearance in this episode is much like Deep Throat's run, which was just to show up and advance the plot, but I like how X actually becomes much more than that in later episodes.

This is the unofficial start of my favorite story arc on The X-Files and years later its still a great episode. I say "unofficial" because they don't count it among the alien conspiracy episodes because the case is your typical "X-File" investigation. I actually really enjoy episodes like this the most from the first several seasons because it gives the series a sense of continuity and that something really evil is going on in the government. Once the series was hitting its peak, they seemed to do away with that and settled into a clear division of standalone and mythology episodes.

With Tony Todd in 2009