X-Files 6.3: "Triangle"

Written by Chris Carter
Directed by Chris Carter

In which Mulder investigates the Queen Anne and becomes caught up in an apparent time warp, while Scully is stuck between a rock and a hard place in her attempt to find and rescue him…


Status Report

There’s no doubt that this is a technically impressive episode. In reality (or through use of inventive cuts), these are some of the longest tracking shots in the history of the series, and Carter made quite a bit out of how rare that kind of filming technique is. (There was much discussion of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope”, which is indeed quite impressive.) Ignoring the fact that “Babylon 5” routinely filmed extremely long scenes in a single take before and during the same time period, the scale is much bigger than one would expect given the techniques employed.

That doesn’t necessarily give the episode a free pass, however, since the story itself is a bit of a mess. In general, it plays as Mulder’s version of Oz, with familiar faces popping up in the apparent past. From that perspective, it works rather well. Yet other elements lend credence to some aspects of actual time travel. The question becomes: can the episode be placed in a context that will allow the story to be consistent and valid as presented?

It would be easy to dismiss this as another “alternate reality” episode, especially given that some historical details don’t quite mesh. Carter’s previous storytelling experiment, “The Post-Modern Prometheus”, was rendered effective by its self-contained nature. Mulder and Scully were treated as icons, their personalities writ large on a classic horror comic stage.

That’s not quite what happens in this episode. Instead, it’s as if the storytelling conceit is used to amplify the reality of the characters in question. Mulder is more obviously Mulder, but very much as he sees himself. Scully is more acerbically Scully than has been seen in some time, which suggests that her emotional state serves as a source for “amplifying” her personality. In fact, everyone in the story is a bit more emphatic, as if responding to the scope and bombast of the story.

Even so, this is not necessarily a problem. In the latter seasons of the series, there was a movement (acknowledged or otherwise) to move Mulder and Scully into the iconic status that they had achieved in the popular culture. They had a history, and the characters had previous growth, but those details were dismissed as the story demanded it. This wasn’t a great writing choice, since characters should never serve the demands of the plot over their own psychological drives in good writing, but at times it worked. This was Mulder and Scully as “modern myth”.

Taken from that perspective, the presentation of the episode makes a great deal of sense. This is a story about Mulder and Scully as told through the amplified excess of myth-making. Carter takes on the role of the storyteller, the bard weaving the tale of these two heroes. That still doesn’t explain how the plot might work as presented in this fashion, since outside of the convenience of “myth”, there needs to be a truth at the heart of it all.

Mulder’s decision to run off on his own and find the Queen Anne is hard to argue. It’s classic Mulder. It would be more shocking if he didn’t go running off and putting his life in danger. But once he is pulled out of the water, what is he experiencing? There’s some degree of tactile reality to it, but given the fact that familiar faces continue to emerge, how real is this version of “reality”?

In a way, some theories on paranormal activity may explain what happens in the episode. The idea is that events and memories become entangled with the physicality of an object. Normally this leads to the so-called “residual” haunting: the perception of a past event that has become “imprinted” on an object or space. Some believe that there is an actual “scene” played out that is perceived; others believe that the perceived “scene” is all within the mind(s) of those affected by the presence of this information.

To take it a step further, there is the idea that a non-corporeal intelligence can take on a material form if it has enough energy and focus to do so. Various episodes support the application of this theory within the mythology of the series. Logically, there is a scale in play: at one end, the mere presence of a “residual” haunting; on the other, the focused and directed act of a non-corporeal intelligence.

This episode suggests something in the middle of that scale. The events as portrayed are a mixture of the events that took place, resembling “residual” characteristics, and an interactive communication with Mulder himself, resembling a true haunting or time travel experience. Yet it’s possible that the events on the ship are purely residual.

The idea is this: the peculiar electromagnetic properties of the Devil’s Triangle (something more or less confirmed by science but taken into some odd places in urban legend) could add enough energy and structure to the residual haunting that the presence of the right person could, in fact, lead to something more than the usual re-playing of events.

Instead of merely seeing the past, Mulder begins to interact with the residual haunting itself. (This could be considered an early demonstration of the psychic abilities activated by Mulder’s exposure to Purity in “Tunguska” and amplified in “The Sixth Extinction”.) Mulder appears to be an addition to history, at least from his point of view. But the situation, odd as it is, works far better if Mulder slips into the role of someone already on the ship in 1939.

Mulder’s own point of view then begins to “interact” with the residual haunting. The incomplete personalities imprinted on the Queen Anne react to him as though he were really there. The past becomes a tactile experience for him, as it must have been for whatever individual was in his position in the first place. In turn, there is a certain sense of feedback: personalities that are residual take one the appearance of people in Mulder’s world, based on how his mind perceives that past individual. So a strong-willed woman looks a lot like Scully, the Nazi leader looks like Cancer Man, and the American agent in Nazi clothing looks like Skinner.

In other words, those individuals did not necessarily look like that in 1939; Mulder’s perception made them appear as they did. At the same time, appearance is clearly not everything; the core personalities are intact, reflecting the people who were really on the Queen Anne when it was lost to history. The residual haunting draws Mulder into that ephemeral reality, based on the unique characteristics of that moment.

That theory explains 99% of what happens in the episode. Mulder is drawn into this perceptual reality and eventually returns to “normal” perception at the very end. What complicates this interpretation of the episode is the final act, in which Mulder is running around in the “past” through corridors that should send him careening into Scully in the “present”, if he is really just perceiving the world differently.

The only way to explain this with any consistency is to interpret Mulder’s interaction with the “residual past” on a completely non-corporeal (“astral”) level. In essence, Mulder is between life and death, floating in the ocean, which in turn allows his latent psychic ability to intersect and interact with the residual haunting on the Queen Anne. Thus Mulder is not actually there, and since he is operating on the same level of existence as the “residual intelligences”, it seems like reality from his point of view.

This would explain why Scully doesn’t see Mulder on the Queen Anne. Her own psychic ability would recognize that someone with a very similar personality was within the same “space”, however. One scene in particular shows both “versions” of “Scully” reacting to each other. This is a clever way to touch on the idea of psychic ability as independent of time. Whoever Mulder is running around with “resonates” with Scully; they both feel an association, in past or future, that is unseen and unexplained. Just as Mulder recognizes a strong similarity to Scully in this OSS agent, prompting him to see her as Scully, Scully herself feels the association with this imprinted memory of that same person.

As seen from this (admittedly) convoluted context, the episode is viable as a somewhat mythic version of some actual event. It no longer matters that the events in the episode were supposedly taking place at the same time as the events in “Drive”; this is the story as told by someone else with a distinct and subjective point of view. At some point, roughly in late 1998, Mulder ran off and had a very strange experience. He probably reported it in an X-File, and sooner or later, that would get out to the rest of the world (probably through that whole Freedom of Information plot device mentioned in “Fallen Angel”). The story became a legend, as seen in the episode.

The episode cannot be dismissed as a fantasy or “alternate reality” for other reasons. Because of the format and the psychological elements involved, information is provided that pertains directly to the overall status quo in the beginning of the sixth season. In particular, Scully learns a great deal about Cancer Man’s hold over the X-Files and the FBI leadership, while Mulder’s suspicions are reflected in which characters reveal themselves in the “past”. It’s actually rather clever in execution, but it does require the episode to be relevant in terms of the big picture.

From Mulder’s point of view, Spender is a lackey to Cancer Man. Scully is an upfront, strong, and loyal woman. Kersh is a man desperately trying to pave his own way, despite considerable pressure from all sides (which is a rather favorable interpretation, given Kersh’s obvious hostility in “Drive”). It’s also significant that Mulder only sees a handful of people in this “past” incarnation. This implies that Scully, Skinner, Spender, Kersh, and Cancer Man are primary forces in his mental landscape.

This episode gives a rare look at Scully’s world. Scully is stuck in the worst possible office environment (not even a soul-crushing cubicle!). In short order, she determines that Skinner is on a tight leash, Kersh, Spender, and Fowley are in bed with Cancer Man, and even Skinner can be distracted enough to ignore a kiss from Scully. Though how the Gunmen manage to run around the Hoover Building when everyone is trying to intercept Scully is rather hard to fathom.

The final act is a lot of fun, even if it brings up some challenges in the logic department. At that point, though, the “legendary” side of the episode is in full swing. The use of period-appropriate swing music is neatly evocative. The only real complaint is the use of grainy video (intentional, as per Carter) and the terrible lighting, required by the demands of the directing technique. Too many scenes are bathed in shadow and hard to follow.

A number of fans love this episode, but probably not for the daring direction or entertaining themes. There’s also the issue of the kiss and Mulder’s delirious declaration of love. This would become a running theme for the sixth and seventh seasons, as the writers sought to squeeze every last drop of tension out of a relationship that should have reached its pinnacle in “Fight the Future”. Looking back on this moment, it’s a clever yet unnecessary tease to a very specific subset of the audience.

This is the last attempt at an episode designed to win an Emmy. Future episodes would play around with the idea of meta-fiction (“X-Cops”) and “legendary” aspects of the now-iconic characters, but there was never an attempt to win awards through some huge production twist. “Triangle” is therefore the last of its kind, and in many ways, that’s probably a good thing.


Memorable Quotes

SKINNER: “Use your head, Scully. It’ll save your ass.”
SCULLY: “Save your own ass, sir. You’ll save your head along with it.”

SCULLY: “I want you to do me a favor. It’s not negotiable. Either you do it or I kill you. You understand?”
SPENDER: “You OK, Agent Scully?”
SCULLY: “No, I’m not. I’m a gun ready to go off so don’t test me, Spender. Don’t even think about trying to weasel me!”

CREWMAN: “What’s wrong with you? Don’t you know there are spies everywhere? Trust no one, mon!”

MULDER: “Hey, Scully.”
SCULLY: “Yes?”
MULDER: “I love you.”
SCULLY: “Oh, brother…”


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode is an interesting if overdone attempt at another Emmy-chasing twist to the usual production values. Not everything works, and the plot requires a great deal of speculation and hand-waving to make sense in the end. Still, there are some interesting psychological aspects at work, which is the saving grace of this period in the series’ existence.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 1/2
Style: 2/4

Final Rating: 7/10