Conduit

Mulder, ever-vigilant when it comes to pursuing fringe cases, becomes obsessed with solving the disappearance of a Sioux City girl named Ruby. For Mulder, it hits too close to home, as it bears a similarity to the disappearance of his sister Samantha many years ago. Ruby's distraught mother Darlene (Carrie Snodgress, "Diary of a Mad Housewife") only wants her daughter back, although this isn't the first otherworldly encounter of Darlenes' life: as a Girl Scout, she'd witnessed a possible UFO when she herself was very young.

The ongoing Mulder story arc deepens as we see why the agent takes such cases so personally. He therefore becomes a haunted and sympathetic figure, and the audience begins to be invested in hoping that someday he gets closure of his own. In the meantime, the present-day story is compelling, even if this viewer was always more partial to those "Monster of the Week" episodes. Among the story details is the fact that Ruby's brother Kevin (Joel Palmer, "Valentine") starts furiously writing down sequences of 1's and 0's that seem to be some sort of signal coming out of the Morris family TV set. The NSA ends up getting involved since some of these sequences contain classified information.

One scene that this viewer really enjoyed was the scene in the biker bar, where button-down characters like Mulder and Scully tend to stick out like sore thumbs. Here we get a great cameo from imposing tough-guy character actor Donald Gibb, who you'll know as Ogre in "Revenge of the Nerds" and as Jackson in "Bloodsport". Suffice it to say that Gibb and his brethren are Believers.

Noteworthy as the first episode to introduce that catch-phrase "I want to believe", this also guest stars Michael Cavanaugh ("Forced Vengeance") as the local Sheriff, Charles Cioffi ("Time After Time") in his recurring role of Section Chief Scott Blevins, and Don Thompson from the 2006 horror-comedy "Slither". Standing out among the guest stars is Snodgress, who's just wonderful.

Good entertainment for 'X-Files' fans.

Seven out of 10.

Conduit is underrated episode in the first season of the X-Files. I like this Episode a lot. Conduit is about a missing teenage girl who disappeared and went missing in Sioux City, Iowa. Mulder and Scully fly there when Mulder takes this case personal.

Section Chief Scott Blevins (Charles Cioffi) did not want to give an open case to Mulder, but Scully convinced him to talk to Mulder about this case. They both travel to Iowa to look closer for a missing girl. The episode is about a Lake Okobogee that was the scene of a series of UFO sightings in 1967: Darlene Morris (Carrie Snodgress) was a member of a Girl Scout troop than, she was one of the witnesses and now her daughter disappeared. While Mulder goes deeper in to this case, we realized that he is looking for this girl because she reminds him on his sister Samantha who went missing and disappeared when he was 12 years old. Mulder does not quit until he finds the body of a girl.

The leads of a missing girl finds connection that Ruby (Taunya Dee) the girl who disappeared had a boyfriend name Greg Randall who was pregnant at the time when she disappeared, it turned out Mulder and Scully found a grave in the woods and it was Greg Randall and they found a suspect and got it in to custody and it was Tessa (Shelley Owens) the girl who told about Greg to Mulder and Scully. She killed him when she find out Greg was going to leave her for Ruby, but in the woods Ruby never showed up. So the search keeps continue when Mulder saves young boy Kevin (Joel Palmer) from biker gang been almost run over, when Scully find's Ruby buried and alive. Mulder and Scully saves the kids. We see Mulder in a church sad when he still misses and searches for his missing sister.

This is a mystery episode that evolves disappearance of a teen girl in Iowa. First I thought the Aliens did that, but than we go deeper in to the plot of the story in this episode. This is not a mythology episode is a mystery episode.

Here we have three incredible actors appearing: Donald Gibb from Bloodsport (1988) appears as bartender and a biker name Kip. We have Carrie Snodgress from Charles Bronson's Murphy's Law (1986) in it, as Darlene the mother of a missing girl and of course Shelley Owens as Tessa boy she was hot in here. The producers than really knew what kind of beautiful actress to cast in the episodes.

I like this episode, I know it should have been mythology episode but even without that, it is still good episode. Still I think this episode should involved aliens and alien abduction and put mystery together it would be a better episode tough, just my opinion. Daniel Sackheim did incredible joy directing this episode, he even directed my favorite episode of all time "Deep throat." 7/10.

The first season of the science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing on the Fox network in the United States on September 10, 1993, and concluded on the same channel on May 13, 1994, after airing all 24 episodes.

"Conduit" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. It premiered on the Fox network on October 1, 1993. It was written by Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon, directed by Daniel Sackheim, and featured a guest appearance by Carrie Snodgress as the mother of an abducted teenager.

7/10 Grade: B- Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Carrie Snodgress, Michael Cavanaugh, Donald Gibb, Joel Palmer, Charles Cioffi, Shelley Owens, Taunya Dee Director: Daniel Sackheim Producers: Chris Carter, Joseph Patrick Finn, Glen Morgan, James Wong Screenplay: Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon Rated: R Running Time: 44 minutes

Conduit introduces us to Samantha Mulder, Fox Mulder's little sister. She was abducted in front of Fox when they were kids. This episode essentially jump starts a large quantity of myth/arc episodes dealing with Mulder's search for Samantha. In this episode, however, it is just a side plot. The story of Mulder's sister is used as a reason for Scully to question Mulder's real reasons for investigating this case, and whether or not it is clouding his judgment. I think that it's the issue of Mulder's sister that makes this a good episode. The disappearance of Ruby is just a plot device to assist the more important storyline of Mulder's mission of finding his sister. Mulder's search for Samantha is a big reason for my interest in the show. It was fascinating to see the lengths he would go to to uncover the truth about what happened to his sister. And for the viewer, this is where it all begins.

Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa have never been among my preferred X-Files writers. Their scripts are normally serviceable, but they lack the sort of flair and quality characterization and dialogue that you can expect out of a good X-Files episode. Given the task of introducing a plot thread and theme which would stretch itself over seven seasons (and even further if you count references), this writing team create a mildly interesting X-File which is important for the aspect of it that works Samantha into the story, but otherwise a middling, unoriginal abduction story.

I'm not a big fan of the Samantha storyline. I got sick of it after a couple of seasons, but it remains a key part of Mulder's character and the show's story arc. I love the simplicity of the approach in this episode. In that sense Gordon and Gansa are phenomenally successful here. Beautiful handling of Mulder's character and some fine acting from Duchovny as well.

What's really worth pointing out about this episode is how many recurring phrases are introduced. Scully first tells Mulder to give up on his search for Samantha in this episode, and Mulder, in a beautiful final shot in the episode, says the famed "I want to believe".

"Conduit" handles Mulder's character and the Samantha storyline well, but the supporting cast is occasionally incompetent and the main storyline is mostly uninteresting. An important and key X-File, but not a very good one.

6/10

Prior to this episode we've been vaguely familiarised with Fox Mulder and his work and motivation. In Conduit, however, we have the opportunity, for the first time, to peek into agent Mulder's past and, probably, understand the driving force behind his obsession with his work and uncovering the truth.

The story opens at a campground at night ashore Lake Okobogee, where a single mother, Darlene Morris and her daughter and son are camping out. Darlene is awakened by the vibrations of the RV that is rapidly beginning to shake and rattle as a blinding light floods the scene, and the screams of her son calls her out for help. In the next moment she's outside the RV, as her son, Kevin worriedly informs her that Ruby's gone (his sister). She takes her son's hand as they go about calling for Ruby to no avail.

Personally I find this episode to possess the very primordial essence of the show's ambiance. I do have my doubts as to why I gave it 8 instead of 10 stars, but then again I do believe I have my reasons. Let's see if I can bring them to the surface.

Conduit is an attempt to wrap up the mythology up to this point and reinforce Mulder's quest for his sister, Samantha. The direction the writers' decided to pull the show in was pretty obvious but, what remains obscure, is the apocryphal way they took in going about doing that.

There are certain things that just don't add up quite. For example, the deliberate intentions to throw the viewer into doubt as to Ruby's fate by introducing an irrelevant character in the form of a trashy high school girl who winds up, as if by destiny, in the right time at the right place to tip off the agents about Ruby's disappearance.

The other thing that bothers me is the possible relation between Kevin's mental processing of binary messages by whoever or whatever, and his sister's abduction/disappearance. The episode failed to provide any, and I doubt I could possibly reach any meaningful interpretation, either.

Other than that I find it to be one of the best and most enjoyable episodes. No reason to belabor the point any longer.