Although I can understand why the (not entirely unrealistic, but arguably out of place in this story) digs at feminism via the plot of Scully's old acquaintance would be distasteful for many, and the kind of fans who can't suspend disbelief and continually like to nitpick scientific implausibility always have a field day hating on the off-the-wall science here (whose absurdity the rest of us enjoy- and even find remotely plausible if we are ignorant of particle physics- which almost everyone is), and some people (wrongly) object to X's presence in a MOTW... none of these really diminish what Gilligan achieved in his first, most absurdly forgotten X-File (for some reason- although this has always struck me as a far more memorable episode than Pusher a year later- people seem to think Pusher was his first). Soft Light was also brilliantly directed by the mystery that is James Contner (clearly he should have done more episodes) and is probably the best Mark Snow score in the entire series, as it is the only episode where he comes up with brilliant ambient and rhythmic experimental tracks, AND brilliant melodic tracks. Usually he does one or the other, in a given episode. But half his material in this episode could be some of the best ever NIN beats and the other half could be the backing track to hit ballads by Mariah. This flowing musical score, the film noir feel achieved by Contner, and the sheer brilliant audacity and old-school, Outer Limits-y perfection of this story (including its brilliantly cheesy effects, which have not dated in the slightest because they never even attempted bland "realism" and always stepped out of a comic book) would be enough to make it a classic... but then we have to consider the character work. This is perhaps the only episode in the entire series apart from Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man, that achieves true greatness without really caring to develop either Mulder or Scully's characters in a memorable way (something Gilligan will more than make up for in his later work, heavy on Mulder and Scully character moments) and yet, it can get away with that because (like Musings does) it has a truly interesting side character, in this case a one-off, at its heart, and that character's arc encapsulates (and in a way comments on) the show's core themes and Mulder and Scully's own intellectual and spiritual quest for truth (which Chester Banton, pursuing such a quest through science, finds leads him to destroy himself and unwittingly destroy those he loves and finally to end up tortured and enslaved by the opposite evil ends from the truth he wanted to pursue). This complex mirroring of the main ideas of the show would of course be impossible without Tony Shalhoub's committed, frenzied yet unforced, naturalistic performance (the best guest performance in the entire series).

All in all, I believe the reasons Soft Light is less popular than later Gilligan episodes have more to do with its ending than anything else. We don't like to see X being bad. although we knew he did things of this nature- as Deep Throat did, see Musings- we just don't want to see it, we want to think he is morally pure. But the "worst" thing about the ending- for the average viewer who is complacent about Mulder and Scully's own place within the structures they seek to overthrow- is that it reveals Mulder and Scully to have been directly responsible for X gaining access to Banton, thus Mulder and Scully are implicitly his torturers, and their work is revealed sometimes, to uncover truth at the expense of also promoting injustice. This is, of course, the reality of how it would be. Which is why we are afraid to see it. The X-Files is only rarely (at its very best) genuinely unsettling and disturbing, rather than escapist, and this episode achieves that distinction in its final moments, which also have unintended Guantanamo overtones as well, thinking forward to Shalhoub's role in The Siege three years later, and the real life imitation of that movie that almost played out yet another three years after that.

Prior to 9/11 of course, it was much easier for Arab Americans to play all manner of roles without being typecast (Shalhoub probably did The Siege because he wanted to, not because he was only being cast in such roles). Hell, another actor of Lebanese descent, Dan Hedaya, played (noted foe of the Arab world) Nixon. there was no comment on his ethnicity. Going back to Omar Sharif (obviously more of a leading-man type than these "character" guys) there was a tradition in Hollywood that Arabs COULD occasionally be cast in "white" (non Arab white, and not even necessarily Jewish either) roles. This certainly became rarer than it had been after 9/11. What is interesting in the casting of Soft Light is that it was one of these examples of race blind casting. The producers probably did not consider or care either way about whatever ethnic background the actor had. The role of "Chester Banton" (a name that sounds neither Arab nor even Jewish) was certainly not written with any stereotypical "ethnic" quality in mind. They may well have not given Shalhoub's ethnicity a thought. And yet accidentally, in perhaps the most explicit X-Files episode to deal with US government torture, we end with this tortured man played by someone whose background, irrelevant as it is in the episode, unknown as it may have been to the producers, is in fact the same background of those who started to be most frequently racially profiled in order to be subjected to such torture (always in the supposed name of truth and knowledge) by the real US government, only a few years after the episode.

The single tear rolling down Shalhoub's face could easily have been unintentionally laughable and cliche, but the perfect cinematic rigor of the framing (really? you think you understand cinema, Nik Pizzolatto? you fucking don't- take a lesson from Chris Carter and Vince Gilligan) and the emotional nakedness of Shalhoub's performance throughout the episode, makes it stand equal to the famous shot of Hopkins in The Elephant Man.

What is intolerable about this ending is that it is so disturbing. So truthful. Nobody, not even Mulder and Scully, stands wholly outside the oppressive structure. Nobody is our savior. Indeed, in trying to save Banton, our hero Mulder sealed his doom. While this kind of message, repeated too often and without sufficient gravity, veers into its own kind of cynical cliche, this is really the first time the show has dared to articulate it so starkly, and it has a real effect.

Pusher offers a happy ending (one of very few completely happy ones in The X-Files- in which evil is banished and there is even a hint of possibly consumable- if not consummated- romance) and is consequently popular. The X-Files equivalent of a summer blockbuster. Soft Light is the movie everyone wants to pretend doesn't exist. The one that is ignored even by the Oscars. There is nothing self righteous in it to make ourselves feel heroic. It is however, a true sf masterpiece.