A Beautiful Mutation

Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus, Revised Edition, 1831 (Wikimedia Commons).

One of the most experimental—and iconic—episodes of The X-Files is 1997’s “The Post-Modern Prometheus,” which is a fairy-tale-esque ode to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818). The episode plays with the novel’s story and indulges in its own fantasy ending by taking place within the pages of The Great Mutato, a fictional comic book featured in the story of the episode itself in a self-referential move befitting the “Post-Modern” moniker.

Viewers follow the main characters, FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) as they investigate a modern-day Dr. Frankenstein and one of his creations, The Great Mutato, who is possibly drugging and impregnating women. The victims describe Mutato as a monster with a facial deformity, and who also seems to have a passion for peanut butter and Cher, whose music is used as the diegetic soundtrack to the crimes. In addition to referencing Shelley’s 1818 novel, the black-and-white episode also borrows from director James Whale’s 1931 film adaptation—from the dramatic lightning flashes to the torch-bearing angry mob.

The episode’s style and substance lends it a surreal and self-aware air, but this is taken to another level in the final minutes. Mulder and Scully discover that Mutato’s surrogate father, not the doctor, was actually the perpetrator impregnating women in an attempt to create a companion for his lonely adopted son. The townspeople no longer view Mutato as a monster, but he’s still arrested for being an accessory to the crimes although the extent to which is unclear.

“This is all wrong, Scully. This is not how the story is supposed to end,” Mulder declares. “Dr. Frankenstein pays for his evil ambitions, yes. But the monster’s supposed to escape to go search for his bride.”¹ Mulder’s invocation of Whale’s sequel to Frankenstein, 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein, suggests hope for the monster finding companionship. Such hope doesn’t exist in Shelley’s novel, where Dr. Frankenstein has already partially created, and then destroyed, the bride. The novel then ends with the creature floating away on an ice-raft after stating that he will “ascend my funeral pile triumphantly, and exult in the agony of the torturing flames.² Those who have seen Bride of Frankenstein will also know that the Bride actually rejects the monster when she sees him.

In most versions of the story, the creature is a tragic figure who is both a villain and a victim. It is his rejection, not only by his creator, but also by almost every person who he encounters, that leads to his monstrous behavior. Mulder, unwilling to accept this sad ending, asks, “Where’s the writer? I want to speak to the writer.”³ On a surface level it appears that he’s referring to Izzy, the writer of the in-world comic, but really he’s acknowledging that he exists as a character in a television series and is calling out to Chris Carter, the writer and director of the episode as well as The X-Files’ creator.

Answering Mulder’s plea, Carter defies the expected ending and instead offers up a revision, with the already surreal story fading into a scene that feels entirely fantastical. Mulder and Scully escort Mutato to see his favorite artist, Cher, perform live. Mutato gleefully dances along to “Walking in Memphis” in a moment of wish fulfillment that changes not only his own tragic ending, but, as a representative of Shelley and Whale’s monsters, also provides an alternative ending for the mistreated (and consequently murderous) creature in both the novel and film.

But the wish fulfillment doesn’t end there. The dreamlike final sequence also provides space for our FBI agents to share a dance before their romantic connection really takes off in the regular storyline.⁴ Mulder and Scully’s “will-they-won’t-they” relationship dynamic is an integral part of The X-Files, and at this point in the show, five seasons in, there had been a number of moments—from the sharing of affectionate words to Mulder giving Scully a lingering forehead kiss—which had teased the pair having deeper feelings for each other. But nothing had been made explicit yet and the unreal nature of their dance at the end of “The Post-Modern Prometheus” gives viewers another flirtatious taste without overwhelming, and thereby ruining, their building romantic tension.

Carter, however, wasn’t actually responsible for this intimate moment between the pair. “I had all these distractions and other things I was focused on, and at some point David and Gillian got up and started to dance,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “They just did it because they were enjoying themselves.”⁵ Mulder may have demanded to speak to the writer, but it was David Duchovny who took matters into his own hands by literally holding out his to Gillian Anderson, inviting her to dance.

The scene is a beautiful mutation of both the standard tragic Frankenstein ending and of Mulder and Scully’s (at the time) largely professional relationship. While the sequence is only a fantasy—proven by their dancing figures freezing and turning into a comic book drawing—it sure is a sweet one.

Photo of Elsa Lanchester and Boris Karloff from the 1935 film The Bride of Frankenstein (Wikimedia Commons).

1. The X-Files, season 5, episode 5, “The Post-Modern Prometheus,” written and directed by Chris Carter, aired November 30, 1997 on Fox, https://www.disneyplus.com/series/the-post-modern-prometheus/5suiTvtcMtxC (accessed in Scotland).
2. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (London: Penguin, 2003), 225.
3. The X-Files, “The Post-Modern Prometheus,” 43:22.
4. For a timeline of their relationship see Kat Rosenfield, “A Brief History of Mulder and Scully’s Once-Controversial Romance,” Vulture, January 21, 2016, https://www.vulture.com/2016/01/mulder-scully-romance-history.html
5. Joy Press, “The X-Files: Chris Carter on the unscripted surprise that got in ‘The Post-Modern Prometheus’ episode,” Entertainment Weekly’s The Ultimate Guide to The X-Files, Yahoo, January 2, 2018, https://www.vulture.com/2016/01/mulder-scully-romance-history.html

Lorna Wallace

Lorna Wallace earned a PhD in English Literature from the University of Stirling in 2021 with a thesis examining duty in early modern history plays. She then left the world of academia to work as a freelance writer and now regularly writes for websites such as Mental Floss, Fodor’s, and Tor.com.