A tobacco company appears to be involved in mysterious deaths in North Carolina.
(Originally aired April 16, 2000)
Written by Steven Maeda and Greg Walker
Directed by Kim Manners
WHAT HAPPENED
Smoke rises from the chimney of a house in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Inside, FBI Assistant Director Skinner advises a middle-aged couple to stay away from the windows and doors. "As of this evening, the FBI's top priority is to keep you safe," he says.
The man, Dr. James Scobie, a tobacco scientist, is scheduled to testify the next morning. Yet soon he coughs, and we notice a strange black object left in his glass of water. A few hours later, Dr. Scobie is found dead on the bathroom floor, his face a bloody skull. Skinner look sickened. (more
spoilers)
ANALYSIS
"Brand X" benefits from a certain unpredictability in its plot and characters. The menace is unusual, and imaginatively conceived. The tobacco company and its employees display a degree of complexity, rather than merely serving as one-dimensional villains in a public-health morality play.
Nonetheless, "Brand X" will be unsatisfying to viewers who hope for any development of the X-Files "
mythology arc" of aliens and conspiracies. Indeed, the presence of smoking villains, but not Cigarette Smoking Man, underscores the episode's disconnection to the overarching theme of the series.
Equally unsatisfying is the lack of any sustained character development in the series. In last week's episode, for instance, we saw Scully undergo supposedly
life-altering experiences, yet these seem to have been forgotten somewhere en route to tobacco country.
WHAT WE LEARN
Tobacco beetles are herbivores -- or at least they used to be.
DANGLING PLOT THREADS
Will Mulder stay off the habit?
Shouldn't someone tell the Cigarette-Smoking Man about all this corruption in the tobacco industry? Or does he already know?
REALITY CHECK
Genetic engineering of the tobacco plant has not been known to have the consequences depicted here. However, there was an episode of "The Simpsons" in which Homer grew "tomacco," an addictive yet foul-tasting hybrid of tomatoes and tobacco.
TUNE IN NEXT WEEK
Actually in two weeks, when The X-Files goes "Hollywood A.D." This episode, written and directed by David Duchovny, asks what would happen if a movie were made about our favorite agents -- with Garry Shandling as Mulder, and Tea Leoni as Scully.
What do you think? Send your comments to the
critic or editor.
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