The American Dream in The X-Files: Tempus Fugit, Max, Synchrony, Small Potatoes, Zero Sum, Elegy, Demons, Gethsemane
The introduction to this series of posts on the depiction and criticism of the American dream in The X-Files can be found at: https://culttvblog.blogspot.com/2023/06/the-american-dream-in-x-files.html?m=1
4x17 Tempus Fugit and 4x18 Max (Core Mythology)
I'm a bit surprised on rewatching this two-parter to find that I didn't find it replete with possible references to the dream, which was what I was expecting. Instead the criticism of the dream which is hammered home at length is, of course, that there is a huge conspiracy and the justice and freedom from fear you might expect are possible illusory.
4x19 Synchrony (Monster of the Week)
No apparent reference to the American dream.
4x20 Small Potatoes (Monster of the Week)
No apparent reference to the American dream.
4x21 Zero Sum (Core Mythology)
I'm not a great believer in the 'few bad apples' argument whether applied to law enforcement or churches, because the few bad apples are usually just what you know about and there's all sorts of wrong going on behind the scenes. Despite my focus here on reading the show's great conspiracy as being related to the American dream, here I think Skinner is genuinely acting as an individual so his actions don't reflect on the corruption and conspiracy of the dream depicted elsewhere. I am aware that you could also read this episode the exact opposite way, that Skinner is exactly the sort of government official who makes the American dream an unattainable fantasy.
4x22 Elegy (Monster of the Week)
No apparent reference to the American dream. I was hoping to say that this episode might show that part of the dream could include being looked after if you are not so able, but in the show's relentless depiction of everything unpleasant in human experience, Nurse Innes has rather prevented me exploring that avenue.
4x23 Demons (Core Mythology)
Season 4 was made in the late 1990s and I think this episode may obliquely reference False Memory Syndrome, one of the hotly contested topics in psychology at the time, and again apply real history to the show. The application to the American dream, although I'm probably stretching this connection too far, would be that False Memory Syndrome feeds into the show's way of setting the show's conspiracy into the USA social setting also brings other aspects of US life, and thus of the American dream, into the conspiracy.
4x24 Gethsemane (Core Mythology)
No apparent reference to the American dream.
As I go through these posts I am going to keep a tally of how many episodes of Core Mythology and Monster of the Week types have significant content making the American dream in effect part of the plot rather than the omnipresent setting, and so far we have
Core Mythology: 30 (with signifcant content relating to the American dream: Deep Throat, Fallen Angel, E.B.E., Little Green Men, Anasazi, The Blessing Way and Paperclip.)
Monster of the Week: 67 (with significant content relating to the American dream: Eve, Beyond the Sea, Young at Heart, Miracle Man, Shapes, Blood, Sleepless, Fresh Bones, Syzygy, Home, Teliko, and Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man.)
As always, I'm totally unequipped to do this so if I've missed anything corrections are very welcome in the comments.