Soft Light

One of my all time favorites!!!

I'm glad you like "Soft Light", but for me it's easily the worst episode of season 2. The X-file is just so absurd, even for this show: A KILLER SHADOW! First of all, a shadow is not an actual thing unto itself - it's merely an area of an object that is blocked from light. But even leaving that aside, as you pointed out there is no scientific "logic" to the shadow's supposedly scientific properties. If it destroys the people that it touches, it should destroy everything it comes into contact with, no? But it doesn't. Why not???

This sloppiness of detail also extends into the plotting. For instance: Mulder decides, based on the fact that two out of the three missing persons recently traveled by train (from different locations), that the perpetrator must likely be hanging out at the train station looking for victims. WHY??? This makes no sense at all. The third missing person doesn't have a recent train trip in her past. And the story takes place in Richmond, Va. which is a pretty big city - the fact that two crime victims both happened to be on commuter trains recently wouldn't automatically mean that the train trip must be significant, and it certainly doesn't imply that someone must have stalked them at the train station. That's like saying that if two victims of similar crimes in New York City both happened to have recent Long Island Railroad tickets in their possession, the perpetrator is probably hanging out at Penn Station. Uh... NO? Without more evidence, it's a coincidence, period.

It gets worse: Mulder then has Scully call her police detective protegee and tell her to send a detail down to the train station. To do WHAT??? Mulder doesn't have a clue at this point who or what he's looking for, so he can't tell the police anything specific to be on the watch for. Yet on this flimsiest of non-leads, the detective sends two policemen to the station anyway - where they conveniently get killed by Dr. Banton's shadow!

Which brings us to the most ridiculous plot point yet: despite the fact that taking the train had nothing to do with any of the first three victims getting killed, it nevertheless turns out that Banton is hanging out at the train station! (Why? Because the lighting happens to be favorable there - lol) So it's made to appear as if Mulder is brilliant at logical deduction, when in reality the fact that Banton is found at the station is just, again, a complete coincidence - or perhaps more accurately, a contrivance.

And then there's the unresolved mystery of what Dr. Banton was doing outside the home of second victim Margaret Wysnecki - that's never explained at all in the episode. And at the end when Dr. Davey has locked Dr. Banton inside the accelerator chamber, who does he call, saying that Banton can be picked up? Clearly it's not X, since X is already there in person and promptly shoots him, so who is it? It appears Dr. Davey was working with someone else, but why bother to bring that element into the story if you're not going to clarify it?

The one thing about "Soft Light" I do really like is Mark Snow's music score - it's very cool and distinctive, right from the opening scene. But IMO the story itself is kind of a mess, and on the basis of this script I'm kind of surprised that Vince Gilligan was asked to write more for the show. Thankfully his subsequent episodes were an improvement.

Dreamsville, you got issues if you're looking at a SCREEN for reality.

The lack of logic is irrelevant in the episode. Because if it was, you'd be able to tear up 99% of the X-Files series.

Also, who says the shadow wouldn't possess the niche of only destroying certain organisms that possess a certain level of chemical balance (via similar to the main character in the episode).

A bright light can hollow the deepest of nothingness.