By its fifth season, The X-Files had practically split into two shows. One was a dull, ponderous and pretentious conspiracy series, with twists and turns that turned the viewer about so many times they no longer cared, and pathetic monologues concerning some mixture of truth, lies, deciet, and occasionally obfuscation that sounded as if they’d been written by a self-important high-school student. The other was a lively, scary, occasionally hilarious and almost always engrossing series, with monsters, psychopaths and every possible nightmare attacking the United States’ most unfortunate, held off only by the efforts of our sarcastic heroes, the skeptic and the believer.

Oddly, this story, one of the prime examples of the latter show, was written and directed by the man who had near-complete responsibility for the former — Chris Carter. I can’t explain this; it’s unexplainable.¹

In ‘The Post-Modern Prometheus’, Mulder and Scully get called out to an isolated town in middle America — the sort you think of when you hear about the National Enquirer — to follow up on the claims of a single mother that she has been impregnated by aliens. Once there, the FBI Agents discover that their suspect bears a great similarity to the Great Mutato, the main character in her son’s comic book. And that there’s a Mad Scientist nearby growing flies with legs in their mouths. And that Shaineh isn’t the only housewife being impregnated…

The episode opens in the pages of a comic book, and takes us into the most over the top, cartoonish world that The X-Files has ever visited. With a writer-director at the helm, all the right notes are hit to make the script sing; ‘The Post-Modern Prometheus’ is an endless parade of perfect little moments. The unceasing lightning in the Mad Scientist scene, the monster dancing in the gas-filled houses, Mulder and Scully dropping their heads into frame to question Izzy. And through it all drifts a delicate, playful, fairy-tale score by Mark Snow. All of these lead to a final few minutes that are just heart-achingly beautiful.

If TV shows got epitaphs, The X-Files could be happy with this: “Here lies a show that once took Jerry Springer, Middle America, Cher and Frankenstein, and made something magical out of them.”

1. Isn’t it possible, Scully, that Carter killed Darin Morgan and ate his soul, thus gaining all the writing powers inherent in that least understood of bodily organs?
   That’s ridiculous, Mulder.
   Hear me out; Morgan contributed some of the best and kookiest scripts in early seasons, and hasn’t been heard of since. And now, Carter is writing stories like this one. How can you deny the evidence?
   Look at the facts, Mulder! Tim Minear, later famous for Angel, Firefly and Wonderfalls, is story editor this season — that has to have some bearing on events. And Carter was bound to get sick of bringing back Samantha Mulder after the third time. I’m sorry, but I just don’t see any justification for what you’re saying.