The Erlenmeyer Flask
From X-Files Wiki
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| Series: | The X-Files |
| Original Airdate: | May 13, 1994 |
| Production Number: | 1x23 |
| Date(s): | May 8, 1994 |
| Written by: | Chris Carter |
| Directed by: | R.W. Goodwin |
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The agents discover evidence of secret government experimentation with alien DNA, but the evidence and everyone who has seen it is quickly being eliminated.
Contents |
[edit] Summary
[edit] Act One
Police officers chase a man in a car to a dock, they attempt to apprehend him but the man, who appears to be in his forties, easily overpowers and outruns the officers. They electrocute him with a taser but to no effect. One officer manages to chase him and fires two rounds into the man before he dives into the harbor from a jetty. The suspect disappears into the water and a strange green fluid is seen on the dockside.
[edit] Act Two
Deep Throat telephones a sleeping Mulder and tells him to turn on his TV. The evening news tells the story of the shoot-out at the docks, capturing Mulder's imagination. Mulder and Scully arrive at the crime scene the next morning so find very little out of the ordinary except that the man's body is yet to be recovered and a car at the scene has had its license plate changed from that seen on-screen in the news program.
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[edit] Background Information
- A scene from the 1959 film Journey to the Center of the Earth can be seen and heard near the start of this episode, in the scene where Mulder awakens on his couch and answers a phone call from Deep Throat.
- Outside of the US, an Erlenmeyer flask is referred to as a conical flask. This is a source of some considerable confusion to non-US fans as the word Erlenmeyer means nothing to persons without a chemistry degree. In Brazil the episode title was renamed to "Jogo de Gato e Rato" (something like Cat and Mouse Game in an direct allusion to Mulder and Deep Throat)
- This is the first episode of The X-Files in which the words "the truth is out there" do not appear at the end of the opening credits sequence. Instead, the words "trust no one" are used as they are Deep Throat's famous last words.
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[edit] Trivia
- The end of the episode is an allusion to the end of the first episode, "Pilot," intended to bring the story of the first season full-circle.
- "The Erlenmeyer Flask" referenced in the episode title is often incorrectly thought to refer to the metal holder containing the alien fetus (pictured above). In fact, it refers to the glass flask containing the black liquid labeled "purity control" found in Dr. William Secare's laboratory. The alien fetus is removed from a dewar flask instead by Scully.
- Additionally, there is some question about what Scully gives to Deep Throat and subsequently to Crew Cut Man at the end of the episode in exchange for Mulder. Is it the alien fetus (as implied by her retrieving it in the previous scene and Cigarette Smoking Man's placement of it, no longer under liquid nitrogen storage, in the Pentagon at the end of the episode) or "The Erlenmeyer Flask" referenced in the episode title? If it was the fetus, how did she manage to smuggle it out of the high-security facility where it was held, why didn't she keep it under liquid nitrogen, and what happened to the Erlenmeyer Flask? If it was the Erlenmeyer Flask, how did the Cigarette Smoking Man end up with the fetus, no longer under liquid nitrogen, at the end of the episode? A possible answer is the Erlenmeyer Flask was stolen from the lab along with all of Dr. Carpenter's work.
- The actual flask does not feature again untill Season 6's One Son.
[edit] Memorable Quotes
- "Trust...no...one..." - Deep Throat
[edit] Cast
[edit] Guest Starring
- Lindsey Ginter as Crew Cut Man
- Anne DeSalvo as Dr. Anne Carpenter
- Simon Webb as Dr. William Secare
- Jerry Hardin as Deep Throat
[edit] Co-Starring
- Jim Leard as Captain Lacerio
- Ken Kramer as Dr. Berube
- Phillip MacKenzie as Medic
[edit] Featuring
- William B. Davis as Smoking Man
- Jaylene Hamilton as Reporter
- Mike Mitchell as 1st Uniformed Cop
- John Payne as Guard
[edit] References
Syndicate Operatives; Purity Control;
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