The X-Files: The Complete Second Season on DVD
The Collector’s Edition
The X-Files: The Complete Second Season Collector’s Edition, originally released on DVD in 2004, is chock-full of surprises and interesting turns as the show that the magazine Entertainment Weekly dubbed “a goner” in their 1993 Fall TV Preview issue began gaining momentum and experiencing what has since been referred to as a cult following.
The beginning of season two sets up various new obstacles for the ever struggling, yet unbreakable partnership of Mulder and Scully when The X-Files division of the FBI is closed down and the agents are split up. Scully is reassigned to teaching classes at the FBI academy in Quantico, Virginia while Mulder finds himself on the menial duty of surveillance, once again locked away in a basement room, but with the doors to his obsessive passion closed. Throughout the season, even though they are separated, the agents find themselves linked closer than ever when Scully’s life is put in danger, forcing Mulder to reconsider his previously chosen lifestyle of isolation in favor of offering a part of himself to someone else.
Chris Carter’s Infallible Vision
The drastic decision to orchestrate the agents’ separation and Scully’s abduction was made more from necessity than from want. At the end of season one, Gillian Anderson approached Chris Carter to break the news of her expected pregnancy. Unsure of what to do, but vehemently against the idea of recasting (which is what the FOX executives were nearly demanding), Carter opted for a more dramatically complex story-line that would allow Anderson some screen time, but with limited view, and a disappearance that accounted for her astronomically short (10 days) maternity leave.
Aside from the uncertain fate of the female protagonist, the show was solidly written and directed during the whole of the second season. Beginning with a bang, the show featured its first glimpse of an extraterrestrial alien during the season opener “Little Green Men”. It experienced many controversial episodes, including “Fresh Bones,” which dealt with voodoo and the military, “Sleepless,” another military themed episode where soldiers were unfairly experimented on in order to extinguish their need for sleep and “The Host,” quite possibly the most remembered episode of the season due to its involvement with a radioactive created fluke-man that dwells in the sewers.
The X-Files Takes Form
In addition to these episodes, season two also introduced some of the most important secondary characters. Alex Krycek (played by Nicholas Lea), initially thought to be an ally, is eventually discovered to be one of the most heinous enemies the partners will encounter. No character is greater, however, than the ominous and evil Cigarette-Smoking Man (played by William B. Davis), who’s voice and demeanor truly take shape during the course of this season. Mulder also acquires a new informant, the secretive and questionable Mr. X (played by Steven Williams), who offers vague clues and never divulges his precise loyalty. This supplementary cast is rounded out nicely by the strongest supporting avenue the agents have at their disposal, Assistant Director Walter Skinner (played by Mitch Pileggi), who, with debatable motives at first, winds up being their greatest asset.
Season two has the largest number of episodes of any other in the series with twenty-five. There’s a fifteen minute documentary entitled “The Truth about Season Two,” Carter discusses twelve episodes, there are special effects clips from “End Game” and “Anasazi,” a behind the scenes clip of Gillian Anderson from “Humbug,” deleted scenes from “Sleepless,” “3,” “Humbug” and “Anasazi,” nine “Behind-the-Truth” spots from the F/X channel, forty-nine promotional spots and the “Unholy Alliance,” a DVD-ROM game for the computer.
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