And darkness fell

In the Olympic National Forest in Washington State , a group of lumberjacks are running through the forest trying to escape some danger. But ultimately they die from a large swarm of small, luminous green insects .

Later at the FBI headquarters, Fox Mulder shows his partner Dana Scully a photo of the missing lumberjacks, telling her that another group of lumberjacks disappeared similarly in the forest in 1934. Two agents are sent to the forest, where they meet the inspector of the Federal Forest Service Larry Moore, as well as the head of the security service of the timber company, Steve Humphries. During a trip through the forest, their car runs on the spikes left on the ground by eco-terrorists , forcing them to walk the rest of the way. Upon arrival at the lumberjack base, Mulder and Scully find transport and communications equipment destroyed. Inspecting the forest, they find a corpse enclosed in a large cocoon hanging on a tree.

During the repair of one of the heat generators, Humphreys detains one of the eco-terrorists, Doug Spinney. He tells the group that there is a deadly insect swarm in the forest, and that they must avoid darkness in order to stay alive. The next morning, they discover felled old trees , with inexplicable stripes of green color, contained in tree rings. Mulder suspects that some organisms were hibernating for centuries in the trees, but their peace was disturbed when the tree was cut down. Humphreys does not believe this, and goes to Moore's SUV to leave, but dies from the swarm at nightfall. Those who remain in the camp maintain the lighting at night, as Scully finds out that there are insects in the green annual ring that do not tolerate light. The next morning, Spinnie convinces Mulder to give him gasoline to go to their colleagues, fill up the jeep and return, taking them. Scully and Moore are against it, as this will leave them almost without fuel for the generator.

After waiting one more night in the light of a single bulb, and left almost without fuel, the agents and the inspector decide to go to Moore's SUV with a spare wheel, but they find Humphreys' corpse there. Spinny arrives in a jeep, claiming that all his friends have died. The survivors are trying to get out of the forest in a jeep, but they run into one of the traps of eco-terrorists. Spinny runs into the forest and dies, and insects enter the car through the ventilation system and attack people. However, they are found by a team of rescuers, evacuated and placed in quarantine. One of the scientists tells Mulder in quarantine that a decision has been made to destroy these insects with the help of pesticides and controlled fires ^{[2] [3]} .

Chris Carter was inspired to create this episode by his dedrochronology dedication, which includes analysis of tree rings of non-tropical tree species ^[4] , he believed that trees that are thousands of years old can ultimately act as “time capsules” that will shed light on the events of the past or open new species ^[5] . Carter also linked the ending of the episode with his distrust, growing in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, to the country's government ^[5] . The green insects in this episode were created on a computer and added during the period after the shooting process ^[4] . Close-ups of insects were taken using photographs of microscopic mites ^[6] .

Initially, this episode was supposed to be a bottle episode , that is, a series that should be shot in one place and help save money, but a number of difficulties, including bad weather, increased production costs, and this was one of the most difficult episodes for the team in season ^[7] . This episode was filmed in the Lynn Valley , British Columbia , in the lower part of the Seymour Reserve, known as the Seymour Forest Demonstration ^[8] . The atmosphere on the set was quite tense and by the end of the shooting it led to sharp disagreements between director Joe Napolitano and first assistant director Vladimir Steffoff, after which Napolitano refused to appear on the set. "And darkness fell" was the last episode of the series, which was directed by Napolitano ^[9] . Weather conditions delayed the filming process so much that it was necessary to shoot some moments in other places in order to have time to make the series on time ^[4] . The delays were also caused by the inaccessibility of the filming location, generators, equipment and cameras were delivered late ^[9] . Jason Bech, who played Larry Moore Ranger, was a friend of David Duchovny’s childhood and he convinced him to pursue an acting career. The friendly relations between the two actors, as they say, helped to raise the mood of the team during the difficult filming of the series ^[4] .

The premiere of the episode "And the darkness fell" was held on Fox on April 15, 1994, in the UK the premiere was held on BBC Two on February 9, 1995 ^[10] . This episode was rated 8.0 according to Nielsen’s rating , becoming the 14th program in the ratings for the week, that is, about 8 percent of all TVs in the country showed this episode, and 14 percent of households watched the episode. This is equivalent to about 7.5 million households ^[11] .

In its review of the first season, Entertainment Weekly gave the episode a rating of “B”, calling its storyline “creepy” ^[12] . Zack Handland of The AV Club called "And the darkness fell" "excellent" episode, which "takes the right notes." He highly appreciated the plot of the series, comparing it with the earlier series of the first season “ Ice ”, and considered that the approach to environmental topics was well done ^[13] . Matt Haig, a columnist for Den of Geek, positively assessed the ambiguous topic of the episode, noted in him “mysticism and power”, as well as “reliability and intrigue” in the plot ^[14] . IGN called the episode one of its five favorite monsters of the week on the show, noting that the series “has several interesting twists and turns,” and a “smart” environmental theme ^[15] .

Although the scriptwriter and creator of the series, Chris Carter argued that “The Darkness Has Fallen” was not written with an environmental message, this episode was awarded the fourth annual Environmental Media Awards in 1994, having won the nomination "The best dramatic television series of the series" ^{[4] [16]} . The plot of the series was also adapted to the novel in 1995 by writer Les Martin ^{[17] [18]} .

• Edwards, Ted. X-Files Confidential. - Little, Brown and Company, 1996. - ISBN 0-316-21808-1 . ISBN 0-316-21808-1
• Gradnitzer, Louisa; Pittson, Todd. X Marks the Spot: On the X-Files. - Arsenal Pulp Press, 1999. - ISBN 1-55152-066-4 . ISBN 1-55152-066-4
• Lovece, Frank. The X-Files Declassified. - Citadel Press, 1996. - ISBN 0-8065-1745-X . ISBN 0-8065-1745-X
• Lowry, Brian. The Truth is Out There. - Harper Prism, 1995. - ISBN 0-06-105330-9 . ISBN 0-06-105330-9

• " And darkness fell " (English) on the Internet Movie Database
• "And darkness fell" episode on TV.com
• "And darkness fell" on the official site of X-Files