“Darkness Falls” is a silly-yet-entertaining episode of the X-Files. It does a decent job of creating and establishing a foreboding mood, and capturing a palpable sense of danger — even if we know everything will turn out alright for our heroes, Mulder and Scully, the circumstances make the means for their rescue enough of question mark to allow the episode to maintain a sense of tension right up until the very end. The result is an above-average, if not quite classic, installment of the series.

The episode begins with the bizarre disappearance of dozens of lumberjacks in the mountains of Washington State — the result of a strange green cloud of … little green lights. Without much ado, Mulder and Scully head off to investigate, with Mulder saying, “it’ll be a fun trip into the woods.”

Not so fast, good sir.

As it turns out, the loggers have been at odds with eco-terrorists. But both have become a victim of the greed of the loggers who, after cutting down an exceptionally old tree, have unleashed an ancient swarm of bugs into the woods. Ah, the sweet, sweet irony of greed destroying the world. Though, in truth, the episode does a decent enough job of explaining the ridiculous nature of eco-terrorists who use the ends to justify their means.

More importantly, though, is the question of how Mulder, Scully, a Federal forest ranger and an eco-terrorist will escape their predicament. The eco-terrorist has sabotaged all the vehicles (and radio). The encampment is more than a day’s hike from civilization. And the bugs just so happen to be afraid of the light — meaning stepping out into the dark of the night is to invite a most gruesome death (the bugs cocoon their victims, and suck the lifeblood out of them … yum!).

Mulder hedges his bets. First, he allows the eco-terrorist to escape with their only remaining gasoline, in hopes of getting to a working vehicle. This rankles Scully a bit, especially after the aborted attempt to radio for help (the generator had to be shut off in order to preserve fuel for the coming night). So we’re left to wonder: How will help arrive?

We spend a tense evening, waiting for the generator to fail, watching the lights flicker, and realizing the bugs are already everywhere — the light merely keeps them from swarming. The generator does fail, but just as it does, dawn’s first light. The eco-terrorist arrives in time to transport them all off the mountain, but their efforts are thwarted … by the roadside sabotage — initiated by the eco-terrorist. And so the trio are left to hope for a rescue that doesn’t come.

It’s a wonderful twist, allowing our characters to become overrun by the swarm and placed inside cocoons. Of course, help does arrive the next morning and our heroes are whisked away to a quarantine lab to be cured (which, of course, they are). But credit has to be given for allowing our heroes to actually come to harm — even if it isn’t quite permanent. And the prolonged tension is a benefit to the episode.

Overall Grade: B-

“Darkness Falls” is, as a story, a rather unremarkable episode. But it succeeds as an exercise in creating suspense and tension. I liked the buildup and execution of the story enough to find the whole production entertaining.

Characters: Mystery, Sci-Fi, TV Reviews
Filed under: Season 2, X-files

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