"Providence" is the tenth episode of the ninth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on March 10, 2002, and later aired in the United Kingdom on BBC One on January 19, 2003. The episode was written by series creator Chris Carter and executive producer Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Carter. "Providence" helps to explore the series' overarching mythology. The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 5.2 and was viewed by 8.4 million viewers. The episode received mixed reviews from critics; some reviewers enjoyed the story and the show's way of integrating an absent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) into the storyline, whereas others felt the plot was ludicrous.
The show centers on FBI special agents who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files; this season focuses on the investigations of John Doggett (Robert Patrick), Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). In this episode, Scully, distrustful of both Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) and Brad Follmer (Cary Elwes), circumvents the FBI's investigation into William's kidnapping and performs her own, assisted by Reyes and The Lone Gunmen. Scully discovers that William has been taken by a UFO cult that believes William is destined to become the savior of mankind, but only if Fox Mulder is still alive. If Mulder is dead, William will lead the forces of evil: the alien invaders.
Co-written and directed by Carter, the episode opens with a shot of a fire fight during the Gulf War and the Super Soldiers' involvement therein. Many of the cast and crew were pleased with Carter's directing, including Anderson and Gish. The episode makes reference to rubbings from an alien wreck, a direct continuation from the plots of the sixth season finale "Biogenesis" and the seventh season opener "The Sixth Extinction".
Plot
Retired Lieutenant Colonel Zeke Josepho recounts a strange experience during the Persian Gulf War and how he claims it brought him to God: as his squad was ambushed during the Battle of Al Busayyah and on the verge of defeat, four mysterious men showed up and defeated the enemy with astonishing ease. While Josepho thinks of them as guardian angels, they are revealed to be the almost-indestructible Super Soldiers. In the present, Josepho stands above the wreckage of a spacecraft in Canada.[2]
At the FBI, Brad Follmer (Cary Elwes) discloses to a room of agents that Dana Scully’s (Gillian Anderson) son William has been abducted. Follmer notes that The Lone Gunmen are identifying the woman who took the child and ran over John Doggett (Robert Patrick). However, Follmer leaves out any potential motive for these crimes, which causes a frustrated Scully to leave the room. Byers (Bruce Harwood) reveals that he put a cell phone in the baby's belongings so they can track the Overcoat Woman; Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish) and Scully head out to find William. The two eventually find William's car seat along with the cell phone in an abandoned SUV. Meanwhile, the Overcoat Woman reports to Josepho that she has William.
Scully meets Agent Robert Comer, whom she was forced to shoot after his attempt on William's life, and uses the alien artifact to heal him. Comer explains that Josepho believes a physical manifestation of God exists inside the spacecraft. According to an ancient prophecy, William is destined to become the savior of humanity, but only if Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is still alive. If he dies, William will instead lead the Colonists. Comer claims that Mulder was supposedly killed by the cult in order for the aliens to successfully invade; he tried to kill William to prevent him from causing humanity's destruction. Suddenly, a nurse and the Toothpick Man (Alan Dale) arrive and ask Reyes and Scully to leave. Comer ends up alone with the Toothpick Man.
Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) later reports to Reyes and Scully that Comer has died. Reyes accuses Toothpick Man and others in the room of killing Comer. Meanwhile, Scully visits Doggett, who warns her not to trust the cultists. However, Scully goes to meet Josepho near Calgary. Josepho claims to be protecting William, but demands Mulder's head as collateral in exchange for the baby's release. When Josepho returns to the wreck site, the Overcoat Woman relates that the aperture of the craft began to glow when William started crying. The craft soon rises up out of the ground. Looking on the site from a distance, Scully and Reyes see the craft burst out of an enclosure and into space, lighting the ground beneath it on fire as it goes. The two find an unharmed William among the charred bodies of the cultists.
At FBI headquarters, Follmer asks Kersh to remove his name from the final report. Instead, Kersh rebukes him and goes in to see the Toothpick Man, who is revealed to be a Super Soldier.[3]
Production
The opening scene depicts a fire fight during the Gulf War. A desert area one hour outside of Los Angeles stood in for Iraq, and the scene featured actual U.S. military personnel as extras (U.S. Marines in Iraq pictured).
"Providence" was written by series creator Chris Carter and executive producer Frank Spotnitz.[4] A large portion of the episode, as well as the previous entry, was based on the ancient astronaut theory; a theory that proposes intelligent extraterrestrial beings have visited Earth in antiquity or prehistory and made contact with humans.[5] The themes had previously been visited in the "Biogenesis"/"The Sixth Extinction"/"Amor Fati" story arc.[5][6] This episode, as well as the one that proceeds it, plays around with questions concerning traditional religion and faith.[7] About the plot, series co-star Robert Patrick later joked: "The baby's the Messiah. I don't understand any of it. I'm Episcopalian; I don't get it."[6]
Carter also directed the episode; initially, the episode was supposed to have been helmed by another individual, but no one was ever selected. At the last minute, Carter took on the role. Due to time constraints, Carter was writing whole parts of the script while the episode was being filmed.[7] Many of the cast and crew were pleased with Carter's directing. Gillian Anderson said that she thought "Chris has directed some of our best episodes. He's very even tempered, and he's quiet and gentle and quite nice to have as a director, because that energy can't help but pervade the rest of the set […] He's got a clear vision, and he's good at communicating that."[6] Annabeth Gish noted that Carter's directing was "very meticulous" and that he "knows exactly what he wants".[6]
The episode's opening scene depicts a firefight during the Gulf War. This sequence, which took two days to film, was shot on a dry expanse of land located an hour outside of Los Angeles. This area had been selected due to its resemblance to an Iraqi desert. Series' co-executive producer Michelle MacLaren said: "We [MacLaren and location manager Ilt Jones] were way out in the desert and we drove around this corner of these hills and I felt like we had entered another country. It was so desolate, and there were these stone buildings that looked like a bomb had gone off in them. It was perfect."[7] To add authenticity to the shoot, several of the extras used during this scene were former U.S. military personnel.[7]
Unlike many of the sets featured on the show, which were filmed on a Fox soundstage, the shot of the buried alien space craft was actually filmed in the hills near Simi Valley, California. Carter wanted a full-scale mock-up of the alien ship to be buried in the ground. This was unusual for the show; usually, a small portion of the ship would have been buried in the ground and the rest would have been filled in either via digital graphics, or with a scale model. In this episode, however, all the shots of the alien ship, sans the takeoff, were done practically. To create the otherworldly glow of the ship, over 100 lamps were hidden within the craft. The ship was also covered in fictional characters that had been programmed into a computer, printed off as stickers, and then applied to the ship's hull.[7]
Broadcast and reception
Ratings
"Providence" first premiered on the Fox network in the United States on March 10, 2002.[4] The episode earned a Nielsen household rating of 5.2, meaning that it was seen by 5.2% of the nation's estimated households and was viewed by 5.49 million households,[8][nb 1] and 8.4 million viewers.[9] "Providence" was the 56th most watched episode of television that aired during the week ending March 10.[8] The episode eventually aired on BBC Two on January 19, 2003.[4] "Providence" was later included on The X-Files Mythology, Volume 4 – Super Soldiers, a DVD collection that contains episodes involved with the alien super soldiers arc.[10]
Reviews
"Providence" received mixed reviews from television critics. Jessica Morgan from Television Without Pity awarded the episode a B+ rating.[11] Jeffrey Robinson from DVD Talk concluded that "Providence", along with the previous episode "Provenance", "does a fairly good job without including Duchovny" due to its adherence to "the series' main storyline [about] the government conspiracies."[12]Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode one star out of five. They called the entry "shallow and pretentious, and internally inconsistent" and derided its plot. They wrote that "at the centre of [the show's] mythology [is] a situation dependent on Mulder and a baby. One of them is absent, and one of them can't talk."[13] Furthermore, Shearman and Pearson criticized the line asking for Mulder's head, but praised the episode's teaser.[13] M.A. Crang, in his book Denying the Truth: Revisiting The X-Files after 9/11, also complimented the teaser sequence, calling it "glorious", but was heavily critical of the rest of the episode's "confused and impenetrable" story.[14] Tom Kessenich, in his book Examinations, wrote a largely negative review of the episode and derided its plot. He wrote that "as this series winds down, you would think Carter and Spotnitz would be in a hurry to resolve some of the myriad of questions they've posed. Instead, 'Providence' was just more of what we've come to expect the past two seasons."[15]
Explanatory notes
↑ At the time of airing, the estimated number of households was 105.5 million.[8] Thus, 5.2 percent of 105.5 million is 5.49 million households.
Shearman, Robert; Pearson, Lars (2009). Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN978-0975944691.
The eighth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing in the United States on November 5, 2000, concluded on May 20, 2001, and consisted of twenty-one episodes. Season eight takes place after Fox Mulder's alien abduction in the seventh season. The story arc for the search of Mulder continues until the second half of the season, while a new arc about Dana Scully's pregnancy is formed. This arc would continue, and end, with the next season. The season explores various themes such as life, death, and belief.
The ninth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing in the United States on November 11, 2001, concluded on May 19, 2002, and consists of twenty episodes. The season takes place after Fox Mulder goes into hiding, following the events of the eighth season finale, "Existence". As such, the main story arc for the season follows Dana Scully, John Doggett, and Monica Reyes on their hunt to reveal a government conspiracy involving the elaborate and malevolent creation of "Super Soldiers".
Monica Julieta Reyes is a fictional character in the Fox science fiction-supernatural television series The X-Files. She is portrayed by Annabeth Gish. At first a Field Agent before becoming a Special Agent with the FBI, she works with her longtime friend and partner John Doggett in the X-Files office, which is concerned with the investigation of paranormal cases, dubbed "X-Files". Introduced in the series' eighth season, Reyes would become a main character throughout the entirety of its ninth season, before returning for a single-episode guest appearance in the tenth-season finale, and later in a recurring capacity during season eleven.
Alvin D. Kersh is a fictional character in the Fox science fiction television series The X-Files, played by James Pickens Jr. He serves as a figure of authority within the series, first introduced as an Assistant Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and is later promoted to the post of Deputy Director. Kersh acts as an antagonist who bureaucratically prevents Special Agents Fox Mulder, Dana Scully, John Doggett and Monica Reyes from investigating cases dealing with the paranormal, dubbed X-Files.
"The Truth" is the finale of the ninth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. "The Truth", the 19th and 20th episodes of the season and the 201st and 202nd episodes overall, originally served as the finale for the entire series, until the return of the series in January 2016. First aired together on the Fox network on May 19, 2002, the episodes were written by series creator Chris Carter and directed by Kim Manners. "The Truth" was the most-watched episode of the ninth season and was seen by 13.25 million viewers upon its initial broadcast. The finale received mixed reviews, with many commentators criticizing the episode's lack of closure. Others were pleased with the full return of actor David Duchovny to the series, as well as the episode's conclusion.
The X-Files Mythology – Volume 4 collection is the fourth DVD release containing selected episodes from the eighth to the ninth seasons of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. The episodes collected in the release form the end of the series' mythology, and are centered on those that involve the alien "Super Soldiers" and Dana Scully's son, William.
"Without" is the second episode of the eighth season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States and Canada on November 12, 2000, on Fox and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2001. It was written by executive producer Chris Carter and directed by Kim Manners. The episode helps to explore the series' overarching mythology and continues from the seventh season finale, "Requiem", and season eight premiere, "Within", in which Fox Mulder was abducted by aliens who are planning to colonize Earth. The episode earned a Nielsen rating of 9.0 in the United States and was seen by 15.1 million viewers. As with the previous episode, "Within," it was generally well-received by critics, although some detractors criticized various plot points.
"Nothing Important Happened Today" refers to the two premiere episodes of the ninth season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. Part 1 first aired on November 11 and Part 2 aired on November 18, 2001, on Fox in the United States. The episodes were written by executive producers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz. "Nothing Important Happened Today I" was directed by Kim Manners and "Nothing Important Happened Today II" was directed by Tony Wharmby. The episode helped to explore the series' overarching mythology and earned a Nielsen rating of 6.5 and was viewed by 10.6 million viewers, whereas the second part earned a rating of 5.9 and was viewed by 9.4 million viewers. Critical reception to the episode was largely mixed.
"Trust No 1" is the sixth episode of the ninth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on January 6, 2002. The episode was written by series creator Chris Carter and executive producer Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Tony Wharmby. "Trust No 1" helps to explore the series' overarching mythology. The episode received a Nielsen household rating of 5.1 and was viewed by 8.4 million viewers; it garnered mixed to negative reviews from television critics, with many feeling that it portrayed the series' characters in a way that was unfaithful to the show's history.
"Provenance" is the ninth episode of the ninth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on March 3, 2002. The episode was written by series creator Chris Carter and executive producer Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Kim Manners. "Provenance" helps to explore the series' overarching mythology. The episode received a Nielsen household rating of 5.5 and was watched by 5.8 million households and 9.7 million viewers. It received mixed to positive reviews from critics.
"William" is the sixteenth episode of the ninth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, which originally aired on the Fox network on April 28, 2002. The teleplay of the episode was written by series creator Chris Carter, from a story by former series star David Duchovny, Carter, and executive producer Frank Spotnitz; the entry was directed by Duchovny. "William" helps to explore the series' overarching mythology. The episode received a Nielsen household rating of 5.8, being watched by 6.1 million households and 9.3 million viewers upon its initial broadcast. It received mixed reviews from television critics, many of whom were unhappy with the episode's conclusion.
"Release" is the seventeenth episode of the ninth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode originally aired on the Fox network on May 5, 2002. The teleplay for the episode was written by David Amann, from a story by John Shiban and Amann, and was directed by Kim Manners. The episode helps to explore one of the show's story arcs involving John Doggett finding the truth behind his son's murder. The episode earned a Nielsen rating of 5.1, being watched by 5.38 million households, and 7.8 million viewers in its initial broadcast. The episode received largely positive reviews from critics.
"Essence" is the twentieth and penultimate episode of the eighth season and the 181st episode overall of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States on May 13, 2001, on Fox, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom. It was written by executive producer Chris Carter and directed by Kim Manners. "Essence" earned Nielsen rating of 7.7 and was viewed by 12.8 million viewers. The episode received largely positive reviews from critics.
"Alone" is the nineteenth episode of the eighth season and the 180th episode overall of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States on May 6, 2001 on Fox, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom on Sky1 on June 14, 2001. It was written and directed by executive producer Frank Spotnitz. "Alone" earned a Nielsen household rating of 7.5 and was viewed by 12.7 million viewers. It received mixed to positive reviews from television critics.
"Empedocles" is the seventeenth episode of the eighth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on April 22, 2001. The episode was written by Greg Walker and directed by Barry K. Thomas. "Empedocles" is a "Monster-of-the-Week" story, unconnected to the series' wider mythology. The episode received a Nielsen rating of 7.3 and was viewed by 7.46 million households and over 12.46 million viewers. Overall, the episode received mixed reviews from critics.
"Per Manum" is the thirteenth episode of the eighth season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on February 18, 2001. Written by Frank Spotnitz and series creator Chris Carter, and directed by Kim Manners, the episode helps to explore the series' overarching mythology. "Per Manum" received a Nielsen rating of 9.4 and was watched by 9.61 million households. Overall, the episode received mostly positive reviews from critics.
"Existence" is the twenty-first episode and final episode of the eighth-season of the science fiction television series The X-Files and 182nd episode overall. The episode first premiered on Fox in the United States on May 20, 2001, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2001, on Sky1. It was written by executive producer Chris Carter and directed by Kim Manners. "Existence" earned a Nielsen household rating of 8.4 and was watched by 8.58 million households and 14 million viewers, overall. The episode received largely positive reviews from television critics.
"This Is Not Happening" is the fourteenth episode of the eighth season and the 175th episode overall of the science fiction television series The X-Files. The episode first aired in the United States on February 25, 2001, on the Fox Network, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom. It was written by executive producers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Kim Manners, and forms part of the series' overarching mythology. The episode received a Nielsen household rating of 9.7 and was watched by 16.9 million viewers, making it the highest-rated episode of the season. "This Is Not Happening" was received positively by television critics.
The mythology of The X-Files, sometimes referred to as its "mytharc" by the show's staff and fans, follows the quest of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder, a believer in supernatural phenomena, and Dana Scully, his skeptical partner. Their boss, FBI Assistant Director Walter Skinner, was also often involved. Beginning with season 8, another skeptic named John Doggett, and Monica Reyes, a believer like Mulder, were also introduced. The overarching story, which spans events as early as the 1940s, is built around a government conspiracy to hide the truth about alien existence and their doomsday plan. Not all episodes advanced the mythology plot, but those that did were often set up by Mulder or Scully via an opening monologue.
"Three Words" is the sixteenth episode of the eighth season of the science fiction television series The X-Files. It first aired in the United States and Canada on April 8, 2001, on Fox. Written by executive producers Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz, and directed by Tony Wharmby, it explores the series' overarching mythology. It earned a Nielsen rating of 7.6, viewed by 7.77 million households, and received mixed to positive reviews from television critics.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
