WRITTEN BY
Howard Gordon
DIRECTED BY
Rob Bowman
AIRED ON
October 7, 1994
RUNTIME
44 minutes
STARRING
VIEWS
445
LAST UPDATE
2024-08-21 17:05:13
PAGE VERSION
Version 4
LIKES
0
DISLIKES
0
SUMMARY
FBI agent Fox Mulder is approached by a new informant, X, who provides a mysterious audio cassette. The tape leads Mulder and his new partner, Special Agent Alex Krycek, to investigate a series of deaths involving Vietnam War veterans who participated in a secret military experiment. The experiment involved altering their sleep cycles, creating soldiers who no longer needed to sleep. The investigation reveals that one of these soldiers, Augustus Cole, has developed the ability to project his nightmares into reality, causing fatal hallucinations. As Mulder delves deeper into the case, the episode explores themes of government experimentation, the human need for sleep, and the psychological consequences of war, while also introducing the complexities of Agent Krycek?s character.
STORY
No story yet.
BEHIND THE SCENES
- First appearance of X (played by Steven Williams) and Alex Krycek (played by Nicholas Lea), two important recurent characters of the show.
- At first, X should have been a woman. They even shot the stadium scene with her, but then changed their mind and choosed Steven Williams instead.
MYTHOLOGY
Introduction of Alex Krycek, an FBI agent secretly working for the conspirators.
QUOTES
FILMING LOCATIONS
Scene: Where Mulder meets X for the first time
Address: 800 Griffiths Wy, Vancouver, BC V6B 6G1, Canada
Coordinates: 49.27798975801152, -123.1088441603323
The episode was filmed during the construction of the arena, initially called the GM Place and now called the Rogers Arena.
TOPICS
No topics yet.
REVIEWS
Excellent and evolutive
Written by
Pike on 2016-01-01
★
★
★
★
POWER OF SUGGESTION
Thinking of it, the episode is almost like a premise of "Pusher" from next season. Once again, The X-Files is so great when not going too far into the science-fiction.
I really enjoyed the theme of the episode.
ALEX KRYCEK
The introduction of Alex Krycek is simply perfect. The way Nicholas Lea is portraying him is marvellous. Often, in The X-Files, new characters will either be hated or loved from the very start. Like in a working interview, we only need a second to judge a new character. Thankfully for us, the new characters from the early seasons all work beautifully.
X
After the death of the perfect character Deep Throat, we now get to see Mulder's next informant, X (sometimes referred as Mr. X).
It was logical to have a character different from Deep Throat. It would have been cliché to have a similar character.
X, portrayed by Steven Williams is and will be a totally different character from Deep Throat. He is reluctant to being here, he is agressive, he is everything but the father figure that was Deep Throat before him.
ROB BOWMAN
After directing just one episode from the first season, Rob Bowman is back with an episode very well directed. I'll mention three visual ideas that worked particularly well. For instance, at one moment, Mulder leaves a building and is met by Krycek angry at him. The introduction movement of this scene is superb. We start in the air and then arrive near the road. Most directors would have had a very simple introduction, not Rob Bowman.
Second, when in the medical prison, the scene starts with images from the ceiling and then the camera is quickly going back to the characters rapidly walking.
Third, the shots from the first meeting between Mulder and X are beautiful. And when Mulder leaves, the camera is slowly moving out.
MULDER AND SCULLY
In "Sleepless", we have a slight glimpse of Mulder and Scully relationship. There is a beautiful scene in which they talk on the phone and Scully refers to Mulder working with someone else. The way they talk to each others is very delicate and by not saying much, we actually understand more. This is not only working well, this is also very realistic.
EVOLUTION
Finally, The X-Files is continuing on its beautiful evolution of the series. After closing the FBI x-files section, we now understand that we should fear even more and that something even great will happen soon.
The final scene from "Sleepless" is hinting that Scully will be part of it...
SUMMARY
The episode's atmosphere is very dark, very realistic. Although it is not perfect, "Sleepless" is an excellent episode, marking the (second) debut of Rob Bowman as a full time director on The X-Files in this second season. The introductions of Alex Krycek and X are as good as the characters themselves.
And the paranoia and references to the mythology are just perfect, like the last scene.
Finally, the theme of the episode is very fun and is almost like a premise to the sublime "Pusher" from next season.
I give the episode 7 out of 10. Excellent.
___________________________________________
Krycek on board!
Written by
DuaneB on 2018-06-25
★
★
★
★
★
This episode continues to immerse even more the series in darkness already thick built by the 1st season. Being the last stand alone before Duane Barry, I find it a dual function: that of closing a series of almost perfect episodes in a climate of paranoia post closure of x files; then that of being a pivotal episode that introduces us two key characters such as Krycek and X. Finally, this group shot of the first 4 episodes lead to the final scene in the dark office of the CSM, which speaks for the first time of Scully as a problem".
Mulder
The early season 2 Mulder, especially in episodes 2x01 to 2x08 is probably my favorite Mulder. And we must not see a blindness for his early youth, his passion. We must see a real admiration in believing so strongly in his convictions, maintain a course, a vision, certainties reinforced by past disappointments. Those disappointments are of course the death of Deep Throat and the closure of the x files.
Scully
The distance from Scully could have disappointed many fans, but from my point of view it's a good thing. Their distant relationship makes their exchanges very effective and respectful, showing us a Scully weirdly more receptive to the arguments of Mulder, and a Mulder more attentive to scientific advice and analysis provided by Scully. And by a post Erlenmeyer effect flasks, it's interesting to see a Scully herself develop a theory as far-fetched as Mulder would have done, and see Krycek frowning by almost taking her for a crazy one. Interesting this very slight shade of Scully.
Krycek
The appearance of this new agent, young and dynamic, brings a real virile energy that comes to give even more suspicion of Mulder already on edge. Lea is in a very fair game and gives the perfect image of the young pretentious at the bottom. The one we want to believe, and finally we will love to hate ...
X
Deep Throat's death was the father's death like. With X we have the replacement of the father by what I would call a grumpy old uncle. Choosing such a profile, as cold as Deep was warm creates a transition that makes us regret the old while giving us the impatience of the enigma created by the new.
Bowman
Bowman's camera movements are here a silent but very visual signature of the series. The realization, the movements of the ground to the sky and the sky to the ground are all processes that reinforce the feeling of realism so characteristic of X files. The backdrops of an old Harlem apartment, although filmed in Vancouver, are very credible.
The military
The subject of the eradication of sleep to make a sort of soldier foolproof, in a different register than in the episode Eve, already foreshadows the idea of ​​super soldiers. Finally, this episode is part of "military" episodes as we will have in almost every season: we still are in a military context in 2x15 Fresh bones, 3x07 The walk, 4x16 Unrequieted, and there's of course a huge chapter about it in the two part 9x09 and 9x10 Provenance and Providance, and finaly with our late 11x06 Kitten . Except that here, the Vietnam War is an alibi, a kind of backdrop.
Mental projections
Anyway, the mental images projection is a wonderfull idea, so good that they reused this idea in the genius episode Pusher. But here the process is not exactly the same. And the last recall of it was in the Kitten episode, with the gas. What is a real tour de force in this second season beginning is that they've been able to reuse this idea, this halucinating and psychologic process in both Blood and Sleepless episodes without creating any bored, even any repetition, since the contexte was really different.
The flip side at the end of the episode only confirms the suspicions of Mulder as those of the spectator. In short this episode is much brighter than we think. Another one to put in the decidedly copious series of the underestimated episodes.
I give it a 9 out of 10.
SCRIPT
TRANSCRIPT
No transcript yet.
2024-08-21 17:05:13 -
Pike:
Updated a filming location.
2024-08-21 17:03:42 -
Pike:
New filming location added.
