The X-Files: Scully’s Journey (a complete Season 3)
We’re going to switch things up a bit, starting now. Remember those comprehensive X-files recaps I was doing that took forever to read and about forever X 20 to write? I think the both of us can agree there were diminishing returns on the time spent. So let’s focus on just what we need to know going forward in the summary and simple top ten of what is awesome enough to keep our attention out of the whole (and if you think I’m avoiding episodes involving killer kitties, plastic surgery gross-outs, and episodes that keep talking about, but have nothing to do with El Chupacabra, then you are partially correct).
In a nutshell…
As we saw last time, Mulder is not dead (surprise, surprise!) , despite the best efforts of the Department of Mysteries and Old Smoky. They’re trying to off Scully, too, but they get her sister, Melissa, instead. There’s also this damned digital tape everyone’s after like it’s a Tickle-Me Elmo circa 1996. When our not-dead duo team up again, they find the government has been gathering medical data on most of the population, including Scully and Samantha. Our well-manicured friend tells them it’s all for alien/human hybrids (which Mulder buys and Scully doesn’t). Anyway, our duo get off the hitlist with the help of Skinner’s wheeling and dealing…
…which was so cool. Also, Old Smoky tried to kill Krycek and made himself an enemy, there, considering Krycek has the tape. With Melissa gone, Mulder and Scully have both lost a father and a sister and are more united than ever in their effort for answers.
They later split up to find those answers. Scully finds a group of women who seem to remember her from their abduction adventures and all have removable implanted devices and some nasty cancer. Mulder finds a train with a bomb on it. There’s also what he thinks is a hybrid and what Scully thinks is a deformed human due to illegal experimentation from the same men (and definitely not aliens) who abducted her. X saves his life and is awesome again!
In MOTW land, we learn that Scully does believe in God and miracles as steadfastly as Mulder believes in little green men (“Revelations”). We also learn that, when Mulder gets super into profiling a serial killer, he gets a little creepy and obsessed (“Grotesque”).
Later, a WW2 submarine is dug up from the ocean and the mythos unceremoniously replaces the green, hissing alien blood of yore with sentient, crawling black oil. It passes through hosts and gives them the power of radiation-burning everyone in a ten-foot radius.
Scully gets info on the dangers of it from an old friend of her father’s from the WW2 days. She has also been looking into who shot her sister, which Krycek was a part of even if Luis Cardinal pulled the trigger. Cardinal is still running around on Old Smoky’s business and tries to kill Skinner. Mulder has been running around tracking the black oil hosts and ends up handcuffing himself to an operative who was going to meet Krycek. He takes Krycek prisoner… just before Krycek gets an eyeful of black oil.
We learn that Old Smoky and Bill Mulder were part of covering up the post-WW2 black oil infections back in the olden days before we return to Krycek and Mulder, who are having so much fun!
Until Mulder gets knocked out while Krycek radiation-kills a bunch of DoM flunkies and gets away.
Mulder theorizes Krycek is hosting some oil.
The Lone Gunmen show up to help him get that tape…
…but it isn’t there as Not!Krycek has it. Meanwhile, Scully is closing in on Luis Cardinal with the help of Skinner recognizing him as the man with Krycek when they beat him up. Later, Cardinal is ready to finish the job on Skinner, but Scully chases him down and barely resists shooting him in a fit of vengeance.
As for not!Krycek, he’s finally traded that damned tape back to Old Smoky in exchange for the location of a salvaged UFO. He’s still in hot water over his crappy-ass hitmen with those Department of Mysteries jerks, so he doesn’t tell them about it. Meanwhile, Mulder meets with the Well-Manicured Man, who tells him about the cover-up of the UFO and the black oil in exchange for Mulder telling him about Krycek having had the tape.
Our duo end up in North Dakota looking for that UFO and Krycek among a sea of missile silos, but get caught by Old Smoky and his cronies and taken away. As for the loose ends, Cardinal is killed in prison by the DoM and then we’re left with the disturbing shot of Krycek puking black oil from every orifice into that old UFO…
…before coming back to himself and being trapped for who knows how long in that silo, banging on the door and yelling. I mean, the guy’s a real jerk, but who deserves that?
Next, our duo deal with a mind-whammying psycho who tries to make Mulder kill Scully, then himself. Also, red-headed Scully wears red and gets away with it!
The psycho does does not get away with it and our duo is closer than ever. Sometimes literally. Like so close I want to hug myself and cry.
A few MOTWs and one “Jose Chung” later (we’ll talk about some of those in my top ten), it’s a Skinner episode. He’s heading for divorce and ends up in bed with some chippie he meets in a bar… and she ends up with her head on backwards. Turns out it’s all a set-up to frame him for murder! Our duo help him out and his marriage ends up saved. Also, there’s a random old ghost lady. I just watched this one and I still can’t remember what that was about, but, you know, first Skinner episode.
Next, our duo investigate a quirky — not quite Darin Morgan quirky, but it tries (with the help of some uncredited rewrites from the genius himself)— town with a Loch Ness type monster. The most important thing is that Mulder and Scully end up stranded on a rock and bonding about books and impossible quests and it elevates an otherwise lackluster episode. It’s lovely… Well, except for how Scully’s dog gets eaten.
Next, we have a standalone with mythos ties when our duo investigates a series of murders committed by people hallucinating. Turns out they’re getting subliminal messages from TV that make them see whatever they fear and kill it with extreme prejudice. Mulder figures it out with the help of The Lone Gunmen, also that he is safe due to his red/green color blindness (does this mean he never truly experiences Scully’s glorious hair? That makes me so sad), but Scully starts going crazy paranoid.
She imagines she sees Mulder laughing with Old Smoky and that he’s part of the conspiracy. He tracks her down at her mother’s house, where Maggie Scully calms her down. She is hospitalized and de-crazied… and we assume Mulder will never let her live this down.
Considering Mulder goes off the deep end time and again and it’s always up to Scully to rein him in, it feels almost safe as a premise and we trust her to get the job done. So it’s refreshing to see that changed up here, even though the actually talking down goes to the amazing Maggie Scully.
It turns out the DoM is involved, with X in particular playing a part in doing the dirty work and cleaning up their mess. Even though X swears he’s been helping Mulder, Mulder doesn’t believe him. OMG, X, just tell him about this…
… and you’ll be besties again!
Why are you so afraid to be loved?
Anyway, season 3 wraps up with one mythos addition (or more STUFF) which I actually didn’t mind and would have liked to have seen more of in future seasons (though I won’t). Turns out some of those shape-shifting alien clones/hybrids/whatevers aren’t total douchebags. One of them, Smith, saves all the victims of a shooting, then is hunted down by his fellow aliens with Old Smoky’s help, featuring our old pal, the Alien Bounty Hunter.
In other news, Old Smoky had a thing with Mulder’s mom (*shudder*) and likes to throw it in her face, now and then. He upsets her so much that she has a stroke. Even with that, she leads Mulder to one of those weird weapons the ABH and pals like to use to turn their defectors and clones into green, hissing goo. I have no word for it except the noise it makes, which is Pfft. X seems to want Mulder to give him the pfft-stick, but Mulder refuses and they fight. X reveals Smoky’s meeting with Teena Mulder and Mulder also gets real sick of Old Smoky’s antics.
Old Smoky captures and interrogates the real Smith, who morphs into faces of men he had killed to see if Old Smoky is still capable of guilt…
…as they debate about whether taking away people’s freedom is for their own good. Meanwhile, ABH poses as Smith to throw our fearless duo off the trail. It doesn’t work, as Scully finds lots of other Smiths working in government and they are far from letting this go. Mulder even confronts Old Smoky himself.
When the real Smith escapes somehow, our duo meet him. Mulder wants to have him heal his mother, but the ABH shows up to pfft him to death!
That’s where we leave off for now.
Top Ten Episodes of Season Three…
I’ve said before that this is a solid season, but certain episodes stand above the rest. Let’s start off with the above.
10. Talitha Cumi
I love the idea of fleshing out the aliens/clones/hybrids/whatevers as beings with their own wills and ideas about what they’re doing messing with humanity. Up to this point, they have been presented as drone-like creatures on a mission with no emotion. If they are such an intelligent and advanced race, scientifically, then it stands to reason they have their own paradigms, emotions, and a sense of right and wrong. Jeremiah Smith was the first to introduce the idea that they might understand us, like us, want to do good among us. So I don’t much mind them crowding magic healing wizardry into this mythos stew if it means giving the aliens/clones/drones dimension and humanity, if you will. I’m kind of bummed out that we didn’t get more like him as the seasons wore on.
9. Quagmire
It wasn’t the greatest episode, but there was something about that little Darin Morgan-esque quirk that was present, aided by his uncredited contributions to the episode. You can definitely see it in the bait shop owner’s obviously well-rehearsed story about Big Blue and the dead serious rantings of the frog conservationist. But it’s that long conversation our duo have, stranded on that rock (and unknowingly feet from the shore), that elevates it. It’s nice to see them check in and try to understand each other, even if it’s through forced proximity.
8. Paper Clip
It’s just a damned good hour of television, from the hell-yeah moments to Mulder and Scully on the run with everything, even their own lives, at stake. I might complain about the mythos getting convoluted, but I also give it credit when the episodes manage to entertain me, even with all the damned STUFF.
7. Grotesque
It was nice to get some insight into Mulder’s past and how much he can lose himself in his work. It was also lovely to see how much Scully balances him these days, helping him pull himself out of that darkness.
6. Nisei/731
I’m not gonna lie. I think the main reason these episodes get a spot is because of Mulder being a bad dog and jumping on that moving train and because of the badass X rescue that made his heart grow ten sizes that day.
5. Apocrypha
Not that “Piper Maru” didn’t have it’s moments, but “Apocrypha” rises slightly above the two pretty much only due to the disgusting, yet effective end scene where Krycek spews black oil out of all of his face holes and the horrible thought of him trapped in there indefinitely. I love when the show, rather than the by-now expected “THE END?” ending, goes for something full-on dark.
4. War of the Coprophages
Though it doesn’t have the pathos of “Clyde Bruckman” or the hilarious self-parody of “Jose Chung,” though there is some level of that, this one is just an enjoyable, campy, crazy hour (or 45 minutes, if you want to split hairs). I heard Morgan himself wasn’t satisfied with it and I can sort of see why. It does kind of toss a lot of scenarios in a blender without a truly clear resolution, in the end, but sometimes I’m okay with a silly, quirky outing to get our duo out of the doldrums.
3. Pusher
I love everything about this one. I love the fact that Pusher is intelligent, layered, and interesting as a villain, but they never push that into a place where you’re supposed to understand him or sympathize with him. But the main selling point for this episode is the closeness, connection, and — I’m just going to say it — love that has grown between our duo by this point.
It’s something that Pusher sees as clearly as we do and wants to toy with. It makes that last scene extra harrowing and our fearless duo triumphing even more satisfying.
This is a Vince Gilligan episode and it’s clear from Breaking Bad that he knows what makes for good drama with such great scenes between Walt and Jesse or Walt and Skyler. It’s not so much being in hard or horrible situations, but how the characters deal with each other getting through them… or ultimately making them worse in the case of the slow tragedy that was Breaking Bad. The closeness and level of trust between Mulder and Scully is the heart of the show and, when you test it, it only comes out stronger. Honestly, it’s possible that Pusher should be in the number two spot just based on the character moments and stakes for our duo. But I’m kind of an unapologetic comedy slut, hence my top two…
2. Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose
As I said before, this is a wonderful episode. It’s funny, it’s dark, it plays with the dynamics between our duo, and it plays with our expectations of the ending. Despite the suicide, which I’m never on board with as a decision, the episode leaves several possible reasons behind it, all of which are understandable if not condonable: Maybe Clyde wanted to have a choice in his own death, the control that he never sees among the poor suckers in his visions. Or maybe he always saw this as his end and he just surrendered to it. Or maybe his life, largely aided by a big old bummer of a super power, was so empty and lonely that he didn’t see much point in continuing after the high point that was his time with Mulder and Scully and he likes the idea of dying at a time when there’s someone around that might feel sad about it.
It’s not a tidy ending and I never quite know how I feel about it. Maybe a bit blindsided and sad, but also kind of at peace with what I’ve just seen. I really struggled with which of these two episodes should be number one. In the end, I had to give it to the below because…
1. Jose Chung’s From Outer Space
It’s just freaking hilarious! I kept having to rewind it because I laughed over most of it. Even having seen it before, even several times, I’d forgot how perfect it was.
But it’s not just that. It’s clever as all hell. I love the way, when Chrissy (I also love how straight Sarah Sawatsky plays her scenes) is flashing back, the police, aliens, military are always standing in the same position.
The unreliable narrator trope (one of my top 5 tropes) is used to perfection here and the guest stars are all amazing, from Detective Manners’ censored potty mouth…
… to Alex Trebek and Jesse Ventura as aggressive Men in Black to Charles Nelson Reilly as the ambiguously-ethnically-named Jose Chung to the paranoid nerd who thinks Mulder is an android and Scully’s hair is just too red.
I watched it, then I watched it two more times. That’s pretty much the standard I judge all TV, movies, books, and music by; how many times I can experience them and still want to do it again.
Rescue Tally…
We were at 12/8.5 with Scully in the lead at the end of season 2 and this season only added one instance of one of our duo rescuing the other from certain death and that goes to Scully preventing Mulder’s throat-slashing in “Clyde Bruckman,” so it’s 13/8.5 now. That’s not to say Mulder didn’t carelessly toss himself into certain death several other times. But fate, X, Skinner, and a few others stepped in to save his bacon..
Scully’s Journey….
We last left off with Scully more firmly entrenched in her faith in science than ever, but with a seemingly incompatible faith in God and the existence of miracles in a very lapsed Catholic sort of way. It’s not as incompatible as it seems, though, when you take Scully as someone who is willing to believe when she witnesses something that she cannot explain any other way. In season two, she had her coma/limbo experience with the mystery nurse, something she explained gave her faith in the afterlife in “Dod Kalm.” So she’s definitely a bit of a doubting Thomas, but once she sees, she believes. The problem with her believing in all the alien stuff Mulder and the audience get to see is that there’s always another explanation that is more plausible. She might be on the verge of believing in Mulder’s space opera in “Nisei” after meeting her abduction sorority sisters, but Mafia Man gives her a more scientifically plausible explanation in “731” that resets things.
As for my favorite lady of season 3, on the whole, I’ve gotta give it to Margaret Scully for the strength and emotional clarity she showed between “Paper Clip” and “Wetwired.” She has lost just as much as Scully has and some of it to a fight that has nothing to do with her and she has to know that a lot of this is due to Mulder’s obsession, yet she protects him and talks Scully down.
Ship check-in…
It’s unavoidable to me at this point. Mulder and Scully are madly in love even if they don’t know it. They’ve developed a level of trust and dependency on each other by now that is off the charts. Mulder has always been overly touchy-feely with Scully, but there’s something about it in this season that is deeper and more mutual. If they ever slowed down long enough, they’d admit how they feel and do something about it, but they don’t… which I think creates mild resentment in both of them and brings us to moments of belligerent sexual tension, like in “Syzygy” and some more overt moments we’ll see in season four when we get there. But, by the end of season three, and especially after “Pusher,” they are the closest they’ve ever been.
Other Notes…
The hypnotist from “Jose Chung” also played the final psychic in “Clyde Bruckman.” That might be the first time we’ve had a casting repeat offender within the same season. We had more repeat offenders in “Quagmire” in the stoner duo who survived “War of the Coprophages,” but they were playing the same characters, so I guess that doesn’t count.
“Hell Money” isn’t a bad episode. It’s just not a very good one. But it is notable for the number of HITG actors of Chinese descent. Most notably, B.D. Wong and Lucy Liu before they were giant stars and the very seasoned HITG all-star James Hong.
All I remembered about “Teso Dos Bichos” was fake-looking killer cats and it turns out that’s all I needed to remember.
Next up: Season Four
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All images from The X-Files are property of 20th Century Fox Television and Ten-Thirteen Productions. I can’t even begin to catalog the ways I rabidly hunt down gifs, but I get a large number of screencaps here.
