The X-Files: Ghost in the Machine

(S01E07) Well, this was never one of my favorite episodes of The X-Files and, as it turns out, the writer wasn't too fond of it either. According to The X-Files wiki, writer Howard Gordon described this episode as "one of my biggest disappointments". Apparently, FOX thought the computer-comes-to-life story was a bit "pedestrian" for The X-Files. I have to agree.

There isn't much mystery in this episode, is there? It is pretty obvious in the opening sequence that a computer is killing people. The show begins with a suited, CEO-type being electrocuted by a runaway computer program. Scully and Mulder get called in on a favor by one of Mulder's former partners, played by Wayne Duvall (who also played Homer Stokes in O Brother, Where Art Thou?). It takes half the episode for Mulder to catch on that the computer programmer, who is the lead suspect in the killing, is not the guilty person. After watching his friend (Duvall) fall to his death in an elevator run by the C.O.S. computer program, Mulder realizes the computer is the killer.

Interestingly, we finally get to see Deep Throat again. We only saw him in the second episode of the season. He returns near the end of 'Ghost' to tell Mulder why the government wants the computer programmer and his C.O.S. program on its side. Mulder confronts the programmer and, despite Scully's skepticism, he takes it upon himself to destroy the program. Of course, the computer program has other ideas. It crank calls Scully in the middle of the night and starts downloading X-File information from her computer. Scully meets Mulder at the Eurisko building where the computer immediately tries to kill them by dropping a parking garage gate on their car. They climb 29 stories on foot where the computer tries to electrocute them. They finally get smart and cover the camera in the hallway. Scully crawls through a vent to get out of the stairwell but the computer turns on the air and pushes her toward a giant blades of a spinning fan (the original script called for more mayhem in the elevator shaft but the sequence was too expensive so the final version ended with an air shaft). Scully shoots the fan with her gun and Mulder prepares to install the virus to disable the program. Unfortunately, one of the technicians in the building turns out to be on the defense department's payroll. He pulls a gun on Mulder but Scully (all beaten and battered after battling the fan) saves him just in time and orders Mulder to install the virus. The program gets mad and dies. It's last word is, 'Why?'