Fan-Favorite X-Files Episode Connected To Quentin Tarantino
Sadly, we never got an X-Files episode directed by Quentin Tarantino, though the acclaimed director came very close to directing the season 4 episode “Never Again.” However, the show was still highly influenced by the Kill Bill director, and that influence can be seen as early as Season 1. In the episode “Eve,” one scene seems like a recreation of a similar scene in Pulp Fiction, and Mulder also drives a car that has the same license plate as The Wolf character from that film.
Eve
Before we can explore this strange connection between The X-Files and Tarantino, it’s important to recap the episode in question. The episode “Eve” is about Mulder and Scully investigating an attack that he (to nobody’s surprise) originally attributes to aliens. However, the two FBI agents discover a gaggle of girlish clones that are connected to a Cold War-era supersoldier program, and they must soon discover whether these superpowered girls are friends or foes before it’s too late.
The Pulp Fiction Homage
Now, one of this X-Files episode’s connections to Pulp Fiction is one that you might not notice unless you watched this Tarantino film so often back in the ’90s that the tape broke. At one point, Mulder and Scully go to speak to Cindy Reardon’s mother, Ellen.
While they don’t end up chatting to Cindy at the time, both the setting (a family home) and the framing of certain shots make this scene look like an homage to when Christopher Walken’s character visits the home of Bruce Willis’ character (which is where we get that hilarious watch monologue from Walken).
The Wolf
By itself, this could just be considered a coincidence, but there is another weird bit of connective tissue between this X-Files episode and Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Mulder and Scully drive a rental car in “Eve,” and at one point, we can clearly see the license plate 3ABM581, a California plate. It’s not exactly a memorable plate, but it is the same license plate used by the Pulp Fiction character “The Wolf.”
Tarantino and X-Files
It’s still possible that these connections between The X-Files and Quentin Tarantino are a coincidence…while later X-Files producer and Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan is an avowed Tarantino fan, he had nothing to do with this episode, and Chris Carter has not spoken about the homages.
However, we can only assume the showrunner is a big fan of the director’s work because Tarantino was the first choice to direct the Season 4 episode “Never Again.” Sadly, Tarantino had angered the Directors Guild of America by not joining after he worked on ER, and this ensured that he couldn’t work on The X-Files.
Eve Channeled Tarantino
While we never got an X-Files episode directed by Quentin Tarantino, at least we have “Eve,” an episode that channeled the director’s spirit in some fairly unexpected ways. And hope springs eternal: since Tarantino abruptly backed out of his last project, there is always an infinitesimal chance that he could end up directing an X-Files movie as his final film. Then we might finally learn the truth behind the greatest X-Files mystery of all: what they call an alien burger with cheese over in Paris.
