Conduit

Season 1, Episode 4, Aired
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Episode Summary

As Section Chief Blevins expresses his concern with the direction of the X-Files department, Mulder becomes obsessed with solving a case that closely parallels an 'encounter' he experienced as a child... the abduction of his kid sister, Samantha.
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Fan Episode Reviews (18)

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  • Girls get abducted and boys are left to tell the tale.

    7.0
    "Good"
    By twilightboy, May 19, 2011 Report Abuse
    Once again Mulder and Scully are investigating an UFO related incident. Although, nobody else thinks this a paranormal case except for Mulder. This episode is rather slow and not very exicitng but it is not boring either. It takes you slowly through the plot and doesn't let you go very easily either.

    I really disliked Scully telling the NSA agents that the boy was the "conduit" and Mulder not doing anything about it other than complainging for what seemed, 2 seconds. Once again we get to see a very powerful light in the distance that turns out to be something else than what we were expecting. This is rather repetitive and of course, I don't like it.moreless

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  • Intriguing...

    7.2
    "Good"
    By Cristina_chavia, Aug 27, 2010 Report Abuse
    It seems that while I was away the rules had changed. Suddenly, binary is cool. It's all the fault of TV.

    X Files is at its best when it is dark. And this is true of this episode. A teenager has disappeared, but no one cares because she sleeps around. Ouch. Only Mulder wants to listen. But Ruby herself doesn't have much of a role.

    The key character is her little brother, Kevin. The TV is making Kev write down pages and pages of binary. Within itself, each piece has significance. All together, the individual parts form a picture of Ruby. Whether this is suggesting that people are made up of the influences around them or just looks cool is unclear.

    And then back to the Ruby plot. Has she run away with her no-good boyfriend? Why is her sort-of-friend so keen to get involved? Right up until the end it looks like Kevin is the only one having a supernatural experience. Until Ruby is returned, having experienced weightlessness. We also learn more about Samantha in this episode. Quite why Mulder ends up in a church is unclear, since this seems to introduce a religious theme for him that is never picked up. But it does bring back the idea that everything in his life is about her, and no other answer will satisfy him.moreless

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  • Awww Poor Mulder

    8.0
    "Great"
    By mrsKrycek, Aug 09, 2010 Report Abuse
    In this epp you learn more about the abduction of mulders little sister samantha. He thinks that the disapearance of another girl may be connected. the agents go to lake ocapogee (sorry for the spelling). Lake O. is also another popular place for alien sightings where the mother of the missing girl saw a ufo when she was young. The girls brother starts acting strangly. He draws lines and circles on a notebook and tells mulder taht they are coming from the tv. Mulder takes one of the papers and discoveres that it is part of a defence code. Military men come for the boy and his mother. They dont' find anymore codes but they do find other things. incompleted pictures, music notes, Dna ect. A good epp that always makes me feel bad for mulder.moreless

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    1 0

  • Mulder and Scully investigate the abduction of a teenage girl... but is it a "whodunnit" or a "whatdunnit"?

    6.5
    "Fair"
    By foxal81, Apr 16, 2009 Report Abuse
    I'm a bit conflicted on whether or not this is a good episode or not. It has some great scenes (the reveal of the picture made up of 1's and 0's is cool) and it also helps to reaffirm to the audience Mulders quest for the truth about his sister, and how this affects him. But its also at times very slow and uninvolving. The search for the missing girl becomes more of a personal matter for Mulder, as if finding her may help solve the mystery of what happened to Samantha. But then she is found, and despite the evidence suggesting she may have been abducted at the end, he's not much better off than before the case began. Not a lot to say about the show really, the later episodes regarding abduction are better, mainly as its Scully that has the interest in these cases, given what happens to her later in series, so both the characters and the audience have more of an interest. The first sort of dud show in my book, but then its by no means the worst of the seasonmoreless

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  • Good episode but could have been faster paced.

    8.0
    "Great"
    By JustA90sChild, Sep 20, 2008 Report Abuse
    This episode was ok. It had some good moments but overall I thought it was kind of slow in pace. My favourite part would have to be the last scene where Mulder says the infamous line "I want to believe", that was great. Another good scene was when Scully discovers the binary image that the boy had left, yet they never explained how the boy managed to translate TV signals into binary codes, I guess it will be one of those things we will never know the answer to. And did anyone else notice that goof in the scene with the note in the wallet, one moment Mulder is wearing gloves and the next he's not. I hope the next episode will be faster paced.moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

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    • Goof: Before Kevin hands the pad to Mulder you can see that some of the shapes are filled in. But after Kevin hands Mulder the paper the shapes are just outlines, and it doesn't appear that pages were flipped. Edit
    • Principal setting: Sioux City, Iowa. Edit
    • Sheriff Jack Withers rubs the evidence a wallet pulled from a dead man, against his chin. Before handing it to Mulder who handles it with latex gloves. Edit

  • Notes

    ADD NOTES
    • There's a song playing in the background when Mulder and Scully are talking to the guy in the bar. It's "Whipping Post" by The Allman Brothers. Edit
    • The address in Samantha Mulder's file, 2790 Vine Street, is the former address of The X-Files production office in Vancouver. Edit
    • The huge portrait of Ruby that Kevin draws was originally a computer printout, but it looked a little too perfect, so art department member Vivien Nishi painstakingly hand-drew all the 1's and 0's to make it look like a child's drawing. Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • Mulder: She should be encouraged to tell her story, not to keep it inside, it's important that you let her. Darlene: Important to who? I have my daughter back, I don't want any more trouble. Besides she can hardly remember anything. Mulder: But she will remember one day, one way or another, even if it's only in dreams. And when she does, she's gonna wanna talk about it, she's gonna need to talk about it. Darlene: Like I did? Listen to me, all of my life I have been ridiculed, for speaking my mind. Mulder: But it was the truth, Darlene. Darlene: The truth has caused me nothing but heartache, I don't want the same thing for her. Edit
    • Mulder: Any ideas what caused the coma? Scully: Eerrr, there's no sign of head trauma, no narcotic traces or electralight abnormalities, but her white blood cell count was skyhigh. Mulder: By any chance was there attendant reduction in the lymphocyte population or a release of gluco-cordacoids? Scully: Errmmm, actually both, how did you know that? Mulder: They're symptoms of prolonged weightlessness. Shuttle astronauts have reported similar imbalances. Edit
    • Mulder: You know when I was a kid, I had this ritual. I closed my eyes before I walked into my room, 'cause I thought that one day when I opened them my sister would be there. Just lying in bed, like nothing ever happened. You know I'm still walking into that room, everyday of my life. Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • Mulder: I know a friend who knows a friend who knows a friend who can get you tickets to a Redskins game. The Redskins are a professional football team based in Washington DC. Edit

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