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The X-Files S02 E23 "Soft Light" - TV Tropes

  • ️Fri May 25 2012

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Season 2, Episode 23:

Soft Light

The X-Files S02 E23 "Soft Light" Recap

"My shadow isn't mine. It's... it's like a black hole. It splits molecules into component atoms, it unzips electrons from their orbits, reduces matter into pure energy."

Mulder: Look here, there are hardly any shadows cast.
Scully: What do you mean?
Mulder: The lighting in here is diffused. It's soft light. What if that was what Banton was looking for?
Scully: Looking for his shadow?

A series of mysterious disappearences leads to a man (Tony Shalhoub) whose shadow vaporizes people.

Tropes:

  • Apologetic Attacker: The one and only time Banton uses his shadow to actively kill someone he apologizes beforehand.
  • Artistic License – Physics: Needless to say, there's no reason why anyone would have a shadow that kills people according to how much light falls on it.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: Mr X gets his way and begins to subject Doctor Banton to horrific experimentation for probably the rest of his life, however short or long it proves.
  • Captured Super-Entity: Banton is held in a government's science centre with sensors attached to his head and flashing light is casting shadows on a photoelectric panel.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • Newirth is an executive from Morley Tobacco: the Cancerman smokes Morleys.
    • Scully checks the heating vent for any sign of Eugene Victor Tooms.
  • Darkness Equals Death: Inverted; Mulder shoots out the lights so Barton's shadow won't kill them.
  • Doom Magnet: Poor Banton just can't stop people from walking into his shadow.
  • Downer Ending: Poor Banton is subjected to a Fate Worse than Death.
  • Exact Words: X tells Mulder that he didn't kill Banton. Though it would have been kinder if he had.
  • Faking the Dead: It's made to look like Banton was vaporized in the machine, but X has him under study elsewhere.
  • False Friend: Banton has his colleague lock him in the particle accelerator so Banton can kill himself. He then refuses to turn it on, and Banton belatedly realises he's working for the mysterious 'them' who are hunting him. Ironically X shoots the man dead after turning up to capture Banton.
  • Foreshadowing: While Mulder and Scully are examining the particle accelerator, Davey is shown spying on their conversation via the surveillance cameras, hinting that he may be hiding darker motives. It's later revealed that he's working with the government conspirators who want to get their hands on Banton.
  • Freak Lab Accident: One of these makes Banton's shadow into a black hole.
  • Intimidating Revenue Service: Invoked by X:

    Mulder: (re: Banton) He thinks the government is after him.
    X: It's tax season, so do most Americans.

  • Jurisdiction Friction: The Richmond PD is none too happy about Ryan calling in Mulder and Scully as a favor.
  • Magical Particle Accelerator: The source of Banton's condition.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Mr X uses Mulder to find and acquire Doctor Banton.
  • Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: A very dramatic example.
  • My Little Panzer: Discussed. Mulder compares leaving Banton in the hands of the local PD to giving "the A-bomb to the Boy Scouts".
  • Properly Paranoid: Banton claims the government wants to find him and perform a "brainsuck" to get their hands on his research. It sounds crazy — even Mulder seems skeptical about the term "brainsuck" — but the ending shows that they've hooked him up to a machine which is, indeed, implied to be attempting to extract information directly from his brain.
  • Single Tear: A Single Tear falls down Banton's cheek at the end of the episode.
  • Spontaneous Human Combustion: Mulder thinks this is what happened to Newirth.
  • Title Drop: Multiple times. Banton wants to be kept in soft light because then he has little to no shadow.
  • Villain Has a Point: As horrific as Banton's fate is in the end at Mr X's hands, what else was going to be done to contain a man who vaporizes everyone around him with his very shadow?