The story line of 'Wetwired' involves ordinary people committing acts of murder after being subjected to TV programs transmitted through a standard video trap for blocking cable channels, while emitting a signal that induces violent behavior. The broader plot element however, has the Smoking Man targeting Scully via the same method in order to take out Mulder and the X-Files. Recall that Scully shot Mulder on purpose once before because of his own bout of paranoia, but this time she's out for keeps thinking Mulder wants to kill her!
The episode contains some personal resonance for this viewer because Scully's spiral takes on the dimension of mental illness, which members of my own family have had to deal with to varying degrees. Scully trashing her room to uncover suspected placement of surveillance equipment reminded me of a family member insisting that a home computer was bugged and transmitting information secretly to the FBI. It's difficult enough dealing with that type of paranoia on a small scale, but when someone thinks you're going to kill them, that has to be traumatic.
And yet once again, I have to draw a parallel to the original Star Trek series in regard to the way Captain Kirk remained immune to many of the various maladies that affected members of his crew. The script for this story finds a way for Mulder not to be affected by the mind altering TV signals by virtue of being red-green color blind, making him immune to the psychotropic effect of the offending TV transmissions. As a one off, a situation like that is acceptable, but it happened often enough to make Mulder seem like Superman. But we know he's actually quite human in his responses and emotions.
This one ends on a very cool note when Smoking Man (William B. Davis) pigeon holes Mr. X (Steven Williams) on the fate of Mulder's source, who X states was eliminated. As to the identity of the source's source, X claims that person remains unknown. Playing both sides of the fence, one has to wonder if Smoking Man intuitively knows that the identities of both individuals are one and the same.
The episode contains some personal resonance for this viewer because Scully's spiral takes on the dimension of mental illness, which members of my own family have had to deal with to varying degrees. Scully trashing her room to uncover suspected placement of surveillance equipment reminded me of a family member insisting that a home computer was bugged and transmitting information secretly to the FBI. It's difficult enough dealing with that type of paranoia on a small scale, but when someone thinks you're going to kill them, that has to be traumatic.
And yet once again, I have to draw a parallel to the original Star Trek series in regard to the way Captain Kirk remained immune to many of the various maladies that affected members of his crew. The script for this story finds a way for Mulder not to be affected by the mind altering TV signals by virtue of being red-green color blind, making him immune to the psychotropic effect of the offending TV transmissions. As a one off, a situation like that is acceptable, but it happened often enough to make Mulder seem like Superman. But we know he's actually quite human in his responses and emotions.
This one ends on a very cool note when Smoking Man (William B. Davis) pigeon holes Mr. X (Steven Williams) on the fate of Mulder's source, who X states was eliminated. As to the identity of the source's source, X claims that person remains unknown. Playing both sides of the fence, one has to wonder if Smoking Man intuitively knows that the identities of both individuals are one and the same.