Episode 5 – Foo Fighters

After all the excitement of the previous episode, things slow down quite considerably for most of this instalment. Fuller turns up briefly and shouts out some numbers that call to mind Lost and they are tracked to a radio signal being broadcast by a group of former veterans, most of whom come from the famous real life 415th Night Fighter Squadron. The pilots of the 415th encountered more than their fair share of strange lights and craft during their sorties over western Europe during the Second World War. Red and green lights, cigar-shaped objects which they named ‘foo fighters’. The brass quickly placed the source of these objects as combat fatigue and wrote off the stories of a sizable group of their expert flyers but there are still many who think otherwise.

Aidan Gillen continues to impress in the role of Allen Hynek. There’s an especially nice scene where he has to dive into cover from gunfire and he does this remarkably well. His character is heading further down the rabbit hole and he’s selling it brilliantly.

Quinn and Hynek track down the signal and find the pilots, but they have degenerated into apparent paranoia, thinking that they can ‘summon’ the lights at will. Despite all this, there is still the music that they all report hearing that makes us think that there is something real behind all their apparent madness.

Also during this episode, the Mimi storyline continues to rumble along. She has a visit from a nosy neighbour who has become convinced that the family are ‘commies’. Quinn goes to visit Susie the Russian spy, possibly the worst prepared spy in history in this scene but she creates a smokescreen for him and sets things in motion towards what could be a dangerous romantic subplot, especially given her partner’s violence towards her. Hell hath no fury etc.

Half an hour into the episode it feels like nothing much has happened, then Quinn and Hynek drive off to Iowa, to the mysterious facility under an abandoned fairground – the kind of setting that wouldn’t be out of place in a Resident Evil game.

After some initial disappointment, Hynek finds Fuller outside the facility and, after a brief chase, he shows him the bizarre drawing of the symbol he was given. This results in some pretty drastic action by Fuller and, as though this program was being made in the 1950s, the egregious use of a dummy as a special effect. It really stands out against the decent standard that the show has set for itself up to now. It’s worth a laugh, though, even if it does detract a little from the shocking nature of the scene.

So, all in all, this episode feels like a bridge between what has been built up and what is coming. There isn’t much new given to us; it just shows Hynek’s sanity beginning to fray a little at the edges, given a nice little push by the traumatic scene he is part of at the end. I hope the build up leads to something satisfying over the next few hours.

Check out my thoughts on the previous episodes by clicking on the links below.

Thanks for reading,

Richard

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