User Reviews

A much better episode than I give it credit for, but it still suffers from too many vagueness and unanswered questions and that irritates me like hell.

But for the most part, this episode works very well. The directing is splendid, I love the scenes with the flashes of reality turning into delusions. Gillian Anderson is especially outstanding in this episode. She becomes paranoid by her own worst nightmare, of Mulder betraying her.

I loved the scene where she was hiding at her mom's house and Mulder had to convince her that it was all in her had. Again, some great Mulder/Scully moments here. It was nice to see Scully play such a different role, because she is usually the stable one.

X - i'm still not sure how I feel about him. He's a prick, but a good enough character with some nice mystery. He two-times both Mulder and Cancer Man. I appreciate that.

FOUR stars for this one. a very strong episode with some flaws.

In the eighties when cable was still largely without competition for offering "mega" TV selection the phrase "57 channels and nothing on" was popular banter (humorous: 57 channels was touted as amazing, more humorous: in 2013 w/ over 200 channels the maxim still holds). So here we have the premise of a "58th channel" which could be interlaced among every channel subliminally. This is good fringe science as it still is actually believed to be a potentially effective method of mind-control/suggestion. "Wetwired" the 23rd season three episode of The X-Files effectively uses this as a possible way to hi-jack a normal person into a killing machine.

Wetwired's beginning "teaser" immediately reveals a man who has just killed two people he believed to be someone else. Why this man has just killed his family isn't clear. That's a "big" enigma for a start and as the episode unfolds things begin to reveal the common element in the man's murdering spree and a more recent housewife gone wild murder is quite possibly that ubiquitous thing we all slave ourself to...TV. Before the hypothesis gels, however, Scully is herself a victim and darkness gets much blacker. Scully wigs out, shoots up her motel door with Mulder on the other side and flees. Mulder has to figure this out and the quicker the better now that Scully is in eminent danger. Enter The Lone Gunmen who in short order analyze a filter Mulder believes may be involved. Mulder was only spared his own brainwashing as he is colorblind. Now it's a race to save Scully from her madness as well as prevent any more victims from becoming murderous drones.

This is a very good, many times skipped over, episode. It is a return to form after last week's dud "Quagmire". Here we have nothing particularly paranormal as it is grounded in some actual science (even if it is extreme). It is a refreshing and good diversion to the alien myth-arc episodes though it does have the elements of the same conspiracy within the "shadow government" operatives being the behind-the-scenes "puppet masters". Wetwired is a really menacing, interesting, and entertaining episode that should be revisited and given its due.

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.

Wetwired is truly one of the best episodes of the entire series. First a little trivia fact. The episode is interestingly written by Mat Beck, the special effects coordinator for most of the episodes over the years. I am not sure how one comes up with that jump. I guess he just had a really good idea and let Chris Carter know about it and with a little help from Darin Morgan and Frank Spotnitz and others he gave us this great episode. There are so many elements and plot twists and turns that keep the viewer riveted the entire 40 some odd minutes of the episode. The basic plot in a nutshell is as follows. Mulder receives a lead from a source that neither he or we have ever seen before. the tip leads into a case dealing with normal ordinary people committing murders based on subliminal messaging coming through their cable filters. Scully is affected by the brain-washing device and believes Mulder has turned on her. When she finally is found and talked into getting help, Mulder follows a hunch to find that the one behind the case was his regular informant X. The episode ends with Mulder covering for X because he needs him as a source.

Twists and turns. The teaser is very intriguing. We see a man who is burying a body the whole time telling him that now he can never kill again. Later as he cleans off in the kitchen the man shows up again and he kills him again. Things really get weird when the cops show up and we see that they too look just like the man that was already killed. After being subdued the man's vision changes and we see that he has really killed his family and the cops are normal ones with dark bushy mustaches. From there we go to the scene with Mulder meeting with the unknown informant. It is perplexing of course to Mulder and to me who this guys is and why isn't X the one giving him the lead. Mulder follows the lead and soon Scully comes up with the theory of subliminal messaging through the TV. This is ironic to me for two reasons: Scully isn't usually the one coming up with the crazy theories and also one of the times she is right she is the one affected by the brain washing. After watching hours of TV Scully seems to see Mulder and CSM chatting it up in a car like old buddies. From here Scully starts to suspect Mulder of foul play, demanding he give her the scrambling device for analysis, wanting to know why he didn't talk to agent pendrell about it, looking for cigarette butts in the car's ash tray, etc. Finally Scully flips out and runs off. The next great turn is the moment of Mulder going to ID Scully's body. I remember how tense this was the first time I saw it even though I knew that for sure it wasn't her. Finally Mulder finds Scully at her mom's house and her mom is able to talk her into getting help and the trust is renewed. Mulder begins to wonder who is responsible based on Scully's story of seeing him in the car at the hotel with CSM and decides that maybe there was someone else there with CSM that Scully saw. As he begins to suspect the doctor he tries to track him down and through the hotel's number on a matchbook finds his room and is ultimately able to track down the location of the doctor's and cable guy's executions by none other than X. Monologuing follows with X explaining that his position does not allow him to be a renegade like Mulder and all he can hope is to have Mulder solve the cases before he has to carry out orders. Finally in our final two scenes we get a great summary of X as a character in my opinion. First with Mulder reporting to Skinner that he is an unknown subject and then switching over to the meeting of X reporting to CSM about having taken care of Mulder's informant and when asked who the informant's informant was telling him that he replies simply, "That person remains unknown." I love the parallel that this makes between Mulder's and X's characters as well.

Other tidbits that I liked in this episode: - MULDER: I just watched thirty-six hours of Bernard Shaw and Bobbie Batista. I'm about ready to kill somebody too. - MULDER: The naked lady in the ice cube. FROHIKE: Ah, one of my personal favorites. - *Shipper moment alert* MULDER: Scully, you are the only one I trust. - Mulder kicking the informants car in the parking garage. - Oh so many more...

I give Wetwired an easy 10/10.

What a thrilling episode with lots of twists and turns. I fully enjoyed it as it finally give us viewers some answers as to what the hell is going on. Even though our answers lead to more questions.

Mulder really shows his detective prowess in this episode he successfully tracked down the cable man and the doctor who was wrongly diagnosing the test subjects. It's such a great coincidence that mulder is red green colour blind and thought the idea of subliminal messaging was pseudoscience. I was surprised to hear the term pseudoscience leave mulders mouth to be honest. Nevertheless scully got off Scott free for firing at Mulder and civilians somehow and who knows how she recovered from her psychotic break so quickly.

Mr X working with CSM is a bombshell reveal.

Overall this was a great episode was lots of main arc story development. Giving us a thrilling near end of season.

Wetwired is about the investigation into a series of murders, linked to television signals causing paranoid hallucinations.

A solid episode, with all the players and cast members. However a bit vague and it doesn't really add to the overall. I also find it hard to believe Scully would fear Mulder being in on it, as his passion's suppose to be what drives her. It's well executed and enjoyable though, considering hallucinations aren't my thing.