Soft Light (The X-Files)
The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files.
In this episode, an ex-student of Scully's (Kate Twa) asks the agents to help her with her first investigation concerning a number of disappearances with very few clues.
Mulder ponders the idea of spontaneous human combustion but rethinks it when they find a man, Chester Ray Banton (Tony Shalhoub), who is afraid of his own shadow.
At a hotel in Richmond, Virginia, Chester Ray Banton (Tony Shalhoub) reaches a room and frantically knocks on the door while shouting the name ″Morris″.
The case of Newirth's death, the latest in several of its kind, is assigned to local detective Kelly Ryan (Kate Twa).
Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) also takes part in the investigation, believing Newirth died from spontaneous human combustion.
At Polarity Magnetics, the agents meet scientist Christopher Davey (Kevin McNulty), who identifies Banton, a physicist conducting research into dark matter.
He tells the agents that the accident in his lab caused his shadow to behave like a black hole, splitting atoms into component particles and reducing matter into pure energy.
Prior to writing this episode, Gilligan, who had long been a fan of the show, learned that his agent was a relative of series creator Chris Carter.
[3] Originally, the script called for Banton's shadow to be able to move independently; Carter and writer Howard Gordon rewrote the story to remove this aspect, which ended up "sav[ing] an enormous amount of money in animation costs", according to Gilligan.
Shalhoub, who had a recurring role on the NBC series Wings, was not familiar with The X-Files when he was offered the part because at the time he did not watch much television.
Initially, the Pacific Marine Training Institute would only give the series permission to film after 5pm, but the show's producers eventually talked the dean of the station into letting production begin at 2 in the afternoon.
[11] Robert Shearman, in his book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode four stars out of five.
Writing positively of the episode's focal case, Shearman called the set-up one wherein "Mulder and Scully get to investigate properly, coming up with theories that they later build on or retract.
"[12] Shearman also wrote positively of the episode's conclusion, noting that "there's no better illustration for distrusting the government than the brilliant closing scene" which features Shalhoub "fixed to a chair, bombarded with flashes of light, as one single tear rolls down his terrified face.
I’m a dangerous man!” He feels more equivalent to Walter or Jimmy/Saul (the latter, perhaps, in his future guise as the broken Gene Takavic) at the point they have lost their souls.
