Spoilers

“Triangle”

This was an absolutely wonderful episode of the X-Files. It was the combination of an old Twilight Zone episode and the Wizard of Oz, creating a exceptional tale of time warps and World War II escapades all inside the Bermuda Triangle.

Mulder finds himself in the Bermuda Triangle because a satellite found the Queen Anne, a British passenger ship that was rumored to have been sunk by Nazis in the war. On the ship, Mulder is in 1939 and confused about what was going on. Recognizable faces from Mulder’s life started showing up in the 1939 timeline, including Scully, Skinner, Smoking Man, and Spender, in differing roles than what Mulder was used to.

There was a scene in this episode that, in my humble opinion, may be the greatest scene ever shot for the X-Files. It is designed to look like a “Oner” a continuous shot that follows the characters as they move through the story in real time. It is something that a lot of movies and programs try to use these days, but such a shot was not used as much during the time of The X-Files.

It was not a single shot as I could find several “hidden” cuts as you would say, but it really worked well. The scene I am referring to as the greatest ever is the scene where the Lone Gunmen come to see Scully at FBI Headquarters and Scully sets off to try and find information about where in the Bermuda Triangle Mulder was. Following Scully around FBI HQ, going to Skinner, Kirsch, Spender etc. was brilliantly conceived. Scully running into Smoking Man was ominous and her interaction with Spender was hilarious. The scene ending with Scully jumping in the Lone Gunmen’s van and speeding away was utterly perfect.

There was another amazing moment in this episode that has to be considered groundbreaking. With a split screen, Mulder and 1939 Scully were coming down one of the aisles of the Queen Anne while regular day Scully was moving down another one. The two Scullys crossed paths and paused for a moment as if they could feel them passing by each other. This was such a clever use of the format that it stood out among a really exceptionally filmed episode.

The episode was clearly an homage to The Wizard of Oz. There are several Oz allusions though the episode and it ended with Mulder in a bed, much like Dorothy is at the end of the Wizard of Oz.

It is epic when a long running series takes a risk in the manner in which it is presented. Triangle was a massive hit for the show and I loved it more this time than my memory of it from before. This was exceptional TV.