Teliko - Themes

Themes

Law, or more usually, fails to be fully integrated into the civil order. In the "Teliko" example I have noted from the X-Files, this other is of course the illegal immigrant who lives among the ethnic minorities of his own color and preys upon them. Thus, the image of otherness in The X-Files is conjoined to a major concern of political systems in the West.

—Writer Henry Schwarz on the themes of the episode.

"Teliko" explores the concept of the other, with the "other" representing characters of a difference race. In the episode, the US and its culture are treated as the norm, wherein the African culture in the episode is depicted in an intimidating way. African Folk tales, which are not often considered strange in their own nation, are shown in the episode as ominous and bizarre. The episode prominently features tribal music, and according to Allan F. Moore in his novel Analyzing Popular Music, the usage of the episode reinforces a "dangerous but culturally dangerous slippage between the others." The writer claimed that linking the supernatural ethnic character to the tribal music adds a more "exotic" feeling to the character.

By making the character seem more unnatural, it adds an "extraterrestrial" quality to him, making him seem even more unusual in nature. Charles D. Martin mused in The White African American Body that "blackness is clearly attached to racial identity" in the episode, commenting that the episode equates the cultural understanding of race to mere skin color. Martin cites Mulder's joke about Michael Jackson as a self-aware comment on "another contemporary white negro" which reinforces a stereotype.

Zoe Detsi-Diamanti, in her book The Flesh Made Text Made Flesh, commented on the episode's depiction of race. She argues that the episode makes the point that a "perfectly normal" black man looks a certain way, pointing out that the episode states that a black man is defined by a "certain skin pigment". Any exception to this norm is depicted in a negative manner, with science being the only answer to unnatural phenomena. Dean Kowalski agreed with the analysis in The Philosophy of The X-Files, commenting that one of the main themes of the episodes revolved around science's attempt to explain folk theories and paranormal phenomena. The episode's antagonist Aboah, escapes the FBI by fitting into a dinner cart, a feat that was compared to slaves escaping in unconformable slave ships.