I had a bit of a time deciding which X-Files episode to pick for this column. There are so many classic episodes, so many that are worthy of serious analysis and discussion… It was a hard choice. But ultimately, it was season six’s “Triangle” I was most itching to talk about. It’s not a perfect episode, never reaching the delirious heights of “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” or “X-Cops” - but damn it all if it isn’t one of my favorites. It also provides the perfect canvas with which to dissect why the series was so great when it was great, and how it all went horribly wrong when it wasn’t.
The X-Files was one of those zeitgeist things that come along every once in a blue moon - starting off as a small, cult TV show that soon grew to be a major hit… And really more than that. By the time the fourth season rolled around, the show was already a phenomenon, one that devoted fan and casual viewer alike could enjoy. Agents Mulder and Scully entered the cultural lexicon; “Trust no one,” “The truth is out there” and the like became instantly-quotable slogans, and the eerie theme by Mark Snow was the most recognizable piece of television music this side of The Twilight Zone. It got so big that a feature film was put into production while the series was still on the air, released in the summer between seasons five and six. It captured the public’s imagination in a way that few other shows ever did or have since, and its influence is still felt in every genre show that airs to this day.
There are several factors to take into account for X-Files’ success. It came pretty hot off the heels of the end of the Cold War, and Western culture as a whole was a little adrift without a boogeyman to obsess over. Conspiracies were in vogue again, paranoia was rampant - The X-Files arrived at just the right time to crystallize the raw materials lying around the collective unconscious of our culture into entertaining and engaging hour-long packages. The central conflict of Mulder and Scully also touched the nerve of a nation still in the throes of moving from God-fearing religion to a more science-based secularization. It was the perfect vehicle to deal with the unending conflict of science vs. faith, in a way that wasn’t so close to reality as to make it uncomfortable.
That conflict and the constant romantic tension between Mulder and Scully kept the audience invested, but it could only be sustained for so long. Eventually, Mulder and Scully must realize they are adults, and attracted to each other, and therefore should probably do something about it. “Triangle” gives us our first on-screen kiss between the two principals, although not in the way most would expect. The main thrust of the plot involves Mulder going on one of his off-hours adventures - this time sailing the Bermuda Triangle in the hopes of finding a British luxury passenger liner that was lost in the late thirties, right on the eve of World War II. He’s pulled aboard, and is met with resentment by the crew, who think he’s a German spy. Mulder tries to convince the crew members that they’ve traveled to the future, that the year is actually 1998. But listening to a nearby radio transmission, Mulder realizes that it’s he who has traveled back in time, right as Britain declares war on Germany… And a crew of Nazis have just come aboard to find a scientist who could change the course of the war.
That plot would be enough to support its own feature-length film, but writer/director (and series creator) Chris Carter wasn’t content to stop there - Carter plays up the classic Hollywood, Hitchcockian plot by borrowing one of Hitch’s tricks: much like Rope, “Triangle” is done all in a single take. Or it was designed to be all in a single take, as due to commercial breaks and the like, the episode consists more of several long takes. It’s a ballsy move for network TV and - with a few notable exceptions - works spectacularly.
Carter has a lot of fun playing up the time period (there’s a riot scene on-board late in the episode scored to a swinging big band number that’s especially nice), but what really makes the episode interesting is that Mulder meets alternate versions of the other characters: Scully’s an OSS agent assigned to protect the scientist aboard the ship, the Cigarette-Smoking Man and Agent Spender are Nazi officers, AD Skinner’s a German double-agent sympathetic to the Allies, and so on. All the actors seem to have a ball playing alternate versions of themselves - especially Gillian Anderson, who has a field day as the feisty, hard-nosed alternate Scully.
Having the characters appear as alternate versions of themselves raises the question of whether or not Mulder has actually traveled back in time, or if this is just a fever dream he’s having after crashing his sailboat and being knocked unconscious. If it’s all a dream, that makes the whole episode all the more interesting. Mulder envisions his life and the people within it as a classic Hollywood-styled movie - a total fantasy where he’s pitted with a beautiful secret agent against a horde of Nazis. Even more fascinating is the infamous kiss: deciding he’s probably never going to see her again anyway, he scoops up the alternate Scully in his arms and kisses her. And it would be totally in keeping with Mulder’s ultra-repressed nature that Scully punches him right after they lock lips. It’s like Mulder can’t even experience pleasure in a dream without punishing himself for it. Also, the stylistic choice of having the entire episode shot in a single unbroken take reflects Mulder's overall state-of-mind, like his relationship with Scully - they're both stuck where they are, unable to cut to the next scene - and also his whole life in general. He can't get over his sister's abduction, and therefore continues down his path for discovery much like a lengthy, unbroken take.
Where the episode falters is in the decision to cut back and forth between Mulder on the liner and Scully in the present-day. The real Scully’s scenes really drag the whole affair to a grinding halt, which is disappointing considering the rest of the episode is so engaging. It’s like Carter backed off his original idea, giving some leeway for audience members (or TV execs, more like) who many find the episode way too out-of-the-ordinary. The present-day scenes add nothing to the episode but filler, and play to Carter’s worst impulses as a writer: namely, exposition.
I’ve talked in other reviews about filmmakers’ being the victims of their own success, and nowhere is this more apparent than Chris Carter on The X-Files. The show became popular, Carter is hailed as a genius, and all of a sudden his work starts showing more and more signs of not knowing his own strengths and weaknesses. Exposition is Carter’s Kryptonite - there are countless monologues, speeches and voice-overs that state exactly what the characters and the plot are all about. It’s extremely evident here, as Scully runs about the Bureau trying to figure out how to save Mulder and giving line after line after line of needless exposition. There’s not even an attempt to hide it with some banter or snappy one-liners - it’s all nothing more than plot progression.
The whole episode is lowered as a result of Carter trying to weave too much in - Nazis, time-travel, the single-take style, repressed dreaming, some last-minute attempts to tie the episode into The Wizard of Oz - only so much can be successfully crammed into 45 minutes. That’s really the problem with “Triangle,” and ultimately the series as a whole: it was sunk by the weight of its own ambition. There was too much they crammed in, too many layers to the overall mystery of the show. There was no possible way for it to be paid off in a satisfying way.
But, as I’ve said before, I’d rather see an artist reach for the clouds and fall on their ass rather than keep running in place. That’s what made The X-Files special, and ultimately why I enjoy “Triangle” so much, despite it’s shortcomings.
* Random bit of trivia: Actors Isaac C. Singleton Jr. and Trevor Goddard played deckhands on the luxury liner in this episode. Five years later, they also appeared together as members of the cursed pirate crew in 2003's Pirates of the Caribbean. Weird...
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