Fearful Symmetry (The X-Files)

Infobox Television episode | Title = Fearful Symmetry


Caption = "Fearful Symmetry"
Series = The X-Files
Season = 2
Episode = 2X18
Airdate = February 24 1995
Production =
Writer = Steve De Jarnatt
Director = James Whitmore Jr.
Guests = Jayne Atkinson
Lance Guest
Jack Rader
Episode list = Episode list
-
Prev = End Game
Next = Død Kalm|

"Fearful Symmetry" was the eighteenth episode of the second season of "The X-Files" science-fiction television series created by Chris Carter, and deals with alien abduction. This episode won an EMA Award for its environmental message. [cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106179/awards|title=IMDB|accessdate=2007-07-08]

Plot

The episode begins at night in downtown Fairfield, Idaho. A couple of migrant janitors are cleaning in the lobby of a building when they hear a loud noise, followed by the destruction of a wall-length window. The janitors survey the damage just in time to see a small car get crushed by an invisible force just down the street. Later that night on a nearby highway, a team of federal construction workers are attacked by the invisible force, and one of them is killed. The following day, a trucker drives along a lonely stretch of rural highway when an elephant literally appears out of nowhere in front of him. The trucker abruptly stops to avoid hitting the animal, and after a brief staring match between the two, the elephant walks away. We next see the elephant, surrounded by police and spectators, dying on the highway.

Mulder and Scully travel to Boise and interview witnesses to the incident on the city street. Mulder is, of course, more interested in the theory of an invisible elephant, while Scully is naturally skeptical. They are soon met by Ed Meecham, an employee for the zoo (which is also mentioned on a brochure in ) in the town of Fairfield. Meecham tells them that the elephant most likely died from exhaustion, and that he had found the elephant's stall empty but locked tight upon hearing the news. He also refers Mulder and Scully to his boss at the zoo, a naturalist named Willa Ambrose.

Upon meeting Ambrose at the zoo, she shows them the elephant's stall. When the agents notice the stall's cramped size and tie-downs on the floor, Ambrose tells them that she has been trying the reform the way animals are treated at the zoo, much to the dismay of Ed Meecham. She also notes that with the recent death of the elephant, the zoo will have to face a public relations nightmare in the face of an environmentalist group called the Wild Again Organization, or W.A.O.

The title is from the poem "The Tyger," by William Blake: "What immortal hand or eye / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"

Cast

Recurring Roles

*Tom Braidwood - Frohike
*Bruce Harwood - Byers
*Lenno Britos - Janitor #1

Guest Star

*Jayne Atkinson - Willa Ambrose
*Lance Guest - Kyle Lang
*Jack Rader - Ed Meecham
*Charles André - Ray Floyd
*Garvin Cross - Red Head Kid
*Tom Glass - Trucker
*Jody St. Michael - Sophie

References

External links

*imdb title|0751121|Fearful Symmetry
* [http://www.tv.com/the-x-files/colony-1/episode/532/summary.html?tag=ep_list;title;15 Fearful Symmetry] at TV.com