2. Detour (Season 5, Episode 4)
"Moth men? Really?" - Dana Scully
In "Detour," Mulder and Scully are being forced into attending an FBI conference about team building, accompanied by the enthusiastic Agents Stonecypher and Kinsley, who look forward to working on their communication and building constructive towers of furniture together. When they stumble onto a missing persons case, Mulder seizes the opportunity to help the locals and skip the conference. Soon learning that this case actually
is an X-File, Mulder and Scully find themselves in the middle of the deep and largely uncharted Northern Florida forest, armed only with handguns and hunting a creature that nobody seems to be able to see...and that may be hunting them right back. While Season 5 may seem a bit late for an introduction to the show, "Detour" is an episode that should not be missed. The codependent relationship between Mulder and Scully is amusingly contrasted with the appropriate professional distance between Stonecypher and Kinsley, and the use of the thick foliage of Vancouver (where
The X-Files was filmed for Seasons 1 - 5) gives a tone of realism and isolation to the trek into the forest. Mulder and Scully are both extremely capable agents with extensive experience in life or death situations, but neither of them can light a fire. The effects are creepy and minimal enough that they don't shout "1997!" and "Detour" is an example of a MOTW with real tension but that does not take itself too seriously. Also, for fans of the Mulder/Scully dynamic, this episode features some fantastic character moments that should not be missed.