By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
In some ways, The X-Files is one of the most straightforward TV shows ever made…sure, the mythology about alien conspiracies and government cover-ups got a bit confusing at times, but viewers rarely had to untangle whether certain plot beats were metaphors for any kind of deeper message. However, two of the series’ greatest writers secretly felt that the show’s driving plot was actually a postmodern way of analyzing one of the main characters. In their comments about the X-Files Season 2 premiere, “Little Green Men,” writers Glen Morgan and James Wong revealed they thought that the show’s aliens symbolized Fox Mulder’s innermost fears.
At the time, this X-Files episode felt momentous because it showed us more onscreen alien life than we had ever seen before. Mulder actually saw one of the titular “Little Green Men,” and Wong felt that this moment “was what this whole series is about.” That’s because he thought the show was asking viewers poignant questions like “what are your little green men” and “what do you concoct in your mind that you’re afraid of, or that you need to face?”
Now, X-Files fans who have watched this episode are likely to be confused by this metaphorical analysis because we actually see the alien onscreen, and there are no hints that this is a hallucination on Mulder’s part. However, Morgan clarified that he and co-writer Wong “were trying to work up the notion, ‘Was that even there? Is this real?’”
Interestingly, the X-Files writer felt that these crunchy philosophical questions were foreshadowed by Mulder’s admission to Scully that he was starting to doubt that his sister was actually abducted by aliens. Morgan felt this might cause audiences to ask whether the fear of aliens is “in his head” and further ask, “do we create these kinds of fear ourselves?” He also clarified that both he and Wong wanted viewers to consider “the idea that we all have to fight our own little green men and carry on.”
What is most fascinating about this idea is that it feels shockingly ahead of its time…like, in a post-Golden Age of TV world, we wouldn’t be surprised if Ryan Coogler’s upcoming X-Files reboot teased the idea that Mulder might be chasing down aliens that exist only in his mind rather than crusading for the truth. But for a quirky ‘90s genre show, the idea that audiences can’t ever trust what the main characters are seeing was nearly unthinkable. For example, even Twin Peaks (the spooky sister show which also featured David Duchovny) treated the paranormal weirdness encountered by its own crusading FBI agent with complete earnestness.
However, X-Files fans on their umpteenth rewatch of the entire series (it’s not just us, right?) might enjoy viewing the show through the lens of Glen Morgan and James Wong’s own alien conspiracy. Suddenly, we are forced to ask how many of Mulder’s extraterrestrial encounters really happened and how many of them might be fabrications of his inner fears. Additionally, Scully getting assigned as Mulder’s partner would suddenly make more sense…sure, she’s there to debunk Mulder’s work, but maybe the FBI also wants her there because they worry that their best agent has suddenly lost his mind and started babbling about aliens.
Sadly, these two X-Files writers eventually left the show, and their vision of Mulder fighting inner demons manifested as aliens left with them. However, their comments have completely changed how we view “Little Green Men” and other early episodes of this pioneering show. Mulder might well be TV’s most unreliable narrator, and we can’t wait to unravel what he has and has not imagined about aliens in our next binge session of this seminal show.
