Aired: October 1, 1993
Starring: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson
Written by Alex Gansa and Howard Gordon
Directed by Daniel Sackheim
Following on the heels of three impeccably-filmed and engagingly-written episodes is no easy task. Couple that with a formula that starts to mold as any televised series progresses, and the element of surprise begins to wane. Unfortunately this episode falls victim to both obstacles, but in spite of itself proves a valuable character piece, capitalizing primarily on Duchovny's poignant and determined portraiture of Mulder in an episode that provides a vehicle into his character's backstory.
The plot of "Conduit" centers around an alien abduction not drastically unlike those from the pilot, yet follows a structure more akin to the previous episode "Squeeze." Like that episode, this one doesn't do much to further the main story arc. There's no presence of alien implants, government cover-ups, or shadowy figures lurking around the Pentagon. But all the same it is a story about aliens, and thus doesn't qualify as a monster-of-the-week affair.
This episode is perhaps most notable for its focus on the Samantha Mulder storyline briefly addressed in the pilot. In the teaser, a teenager named Ruby Morris vanishes while camping with her mother and brother at Lake Okobogee (there's one for the tongue), a presumed hotspot for UFO sightings. The case obviously has a personal stake for Mulder, who is all-too-reminded of Samantha's abduction that he is driven to some rather slipshod errors in judgment, namely tampering with a crime scene.
One particular point of interest to this episode is the character Kevin, Ruby's younger brother who seems to be perceiving binary code through television static. Later in the episode these numbers are revealed to be part of a satellite transmission, suggesting that Kevin is the titular "conduit" capable of decoding messages from space. While this is initially written as the crux of the episode, it's importance is never quite resolved, as Ruby is returned in the final act with no apparent link to Kevin's psychic ability. "Conduit" was in part written by Howard Gordon, who would go on to achieve greater fame as the eventual showrunner of 24. One unfortunate commonality of his episodes are red herrings that have little fundamental bearing on the main plot. This one is forgivable, as at the heart of "Conduit" is Mulder's personal journey to face the loss of his sister, and the denouement is quite beautiful to say the least, but it detracts from an episode that could have otherwise been far more compelling.
Grade: B
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