The X-Files: Scully’s Journey (Season Five)
Before I get started, I just want to give some love to The X-Files Poster Project, a tumblr where a man — dare I say — a genius has made vintage movie-style posters for every X-Files episode in tandem with the rewatch (which I am STILL catching up to). I’ve been enjoying these whenever I come across them and will try to incorporate the here and there, but I urge you to check out his tumblr. The level of artistry and creativity he has dedicated to every episode is astounding. The Phile is strong in this one.
Anyway, it’s Fall 1997! The summer before had seen the beginning of South Park (one of my greatest loves!). Titanic is about to take the world by storm and ensure no one will ever go on a ship without announcing that they’re “king of the world” ever again. As for our duo, they are in top form.
In a nutshell…
Well, outside of my little cheat sheet, we last left off at the end of season four with Mulder gone forever! No backsies! For real! Even though the movie was already announced with him starring for after season 5, he was so totally DEAD!
Come on, Show. We’re not idiots. Redux does just what we expect it to do. It shows us he’s (*gasp*) alive by going back to that scene where he’s miserably watching old hearings. Mulder gets tipped off by that same DoD guy from the last episode that someone is listening in on. Mulder finds a hole in his ceiling and busts into the apartment above his and struggles with the same guy that shot up those scientists. There’s a gunshot and then he shows up at Scully’s place and makes himself known juuuust when she’s undressing.
She is not amused. They realize this dead man has been calling someone at the FBI and formulate the plan to declare Mulder dead and expose the corrupt party “a lie to find the truth” and all that.
So Scully goes to that hearing while Mulder uses Dead Man’s card to get into the DoD and gets some help from DoD Guy and a little history lesson on all the shady government lies. But Mulder is pretty much only there for a cure for Scully. Mulder finds a warehouse with more fake alien bodies, pregnant women being messed with somehow (it involves light, I guess), and more miles of files in the Pentagon (the same ones Old Smoky was perusing in The Pilot), where he finds a vial with Scully’s name on it.
Old Smoky checks out Mulder’s place and seems a bit miffed to find that Mulder was being watched by someone besides him. Mafia Guy later claims no one on their end was monitoring Mulder.
Scully is led to believe Dead Man was calling Skinner, but is interrupted by one of the scientists she bought that ice core sample to. He says that the cells in that sample were forming a life form. She sciences all over it and even compares her own blood, trying to find if it’s related to her cancer.
So Mulder’s got a vial in his hand and Old Smoky is watching and even clearing his way. Meanwhile, Scully is in that hearing and we hear all we did before with some handy flashbacks. Scully tells us of Mulder’s death again and says she has proof of the lies and evidence on the men who gave her cancer, but she’s hit with a nosebleed and faints. Skinner catches her as she whispers that she was about to point the finger at him. Mulder takes that vial to The Lone Gunmen to find it’s just de-ionized water.
You know, I could be snarky about how cheap the “Scully is going to die!!!!” plotline is, but it’s been given enough story and attention that, even knowing Gillian Anderson will be in the movie at the time of the airing, it felt dead serious and weighty in a way that “Mulder is suddenly suicidal!” did not. Anyway, Redux II…
Undead Mulder shows up at the hospital, demanding to see Scully and sends my shipper heart into sad flutters when he finds her full of tubes and wires and...
Skinner is there, too, and brings Undead Mulder before Blevins. Now Mulder is in trouble for this mystery dead guy. He says nothing. Skinner tells him he knew the body wasn’t Mulder for some time and hid it as long as he could. Mulder, who is still on Team Skinner, confides that he knows Scully’s cancer is all part of the conspiracy.
Old Smoky meets with Mafia Man and they go over Mulder’s undead state and what he’s found. Old Smoky claims he has it all under control, says he can gain Mulder’s loyalty. “As I’ve said all along, Mulder’s much more valuable alive.” Then Mafia Man tells Quiet Willy (named by the fans, BTW) he can “proceed now.” We’ll see with what by the end.
Back at The Hospital Room That Contains All My Tears, Mulder visits Scully.
Mulder updates her on all that’s about to go down and she says she thinks Skinner’s in with the DoM, but Mulder and I know she’s wrong on this one because we love our Daddy. Then, because Scully is a flawless, self-sacrificing goddess, she offers to take the fall for Dead Guy since she’s dying and all that.
Mulder and I can barely tell her we do not accept her sacrifice before Ma Scully and Bill walk in. Ma Scully greets him warmly, but Bill’s kind of a dick, telling him to leave the work at the door (Does he not know Scully at all?) and and “let her die with dignity” (Does he not know Mulder at all? Scully does not die if he has anything to say about it!).
Old Smoky shows up and tells Mulder there’s more to that vial he found, so Mulder goes back to The Gunmen and finds a chip in the vial, but smaller than the one Scully had taken out, still it leaves the question as to whether her cancer or that of the other women would have developed if they had not removed their chips. That’s a creepy kind of insurance, Aliens. Why can’t you all be more like Jeremiah Smith?
Anyway, Mulder brings the chip to Scully and her family and, despite Bill’s protests, Scully wants to try implanting it. Mulder and Bill argue outside. Well, Bill argues and hates on Mulder, calls him a “sorry son of a bitch.” Mulder just takes it before Old Smoky calls him and says he has another gesture of good faith for him. Long story short: he brings him to meet Samantha. Well… it looks like her, or like the other Samanthas. This one is a bit more emotionally invested in the role, so if she isn’t Samantha/is just another clone, I don’t think she knows it. She says she was raised by Old Smoky and that she doesn’t want to remember her life before or her abduction, that she can’t deal with this right now and leaves, crying.
As Quiet Willy tracks them in his snipery sights, aiming at either Old Smoky or Mulder, Smoky offers Mulder more. He says he can give him the whole truth if he quits and joins the dark side. Mulder rightly says he’s given him nothing. Scully is still sick and Samantha, if that was her, is still gone. No deal.
Meanwhile, Scully has a heart-to-heart with her mother and says she’s lost her faith all this time and she wants it back before the end. My feelings start leaking. Later that night, Mulder shows up and my feelings explode.
Back at another hearing, DoD guy is being called in about Dead Guy. He clues our panel and Skinner into a lobbying firm called Roush. Mulder is later called in by Blevins, who seems to want Mulder to name Skinner as the man who killed Dead Guy, even though he knows Mulder’s gun was involved. Mulder visits Scully and tells her he’s not playing games with anyone and not taking her offer of taking the blame. He’s just gonna put the truth as he knows it out there and see what happens.
Scully: Why did you come if you’d already made up your mind?
Mulder: Because I knew you’d talk me out of it if I was making a mistake.
He leaves when her priest comes and she barely lets him go, with her perfect puppy-dog eyes.
But he has to get to that hearing (intercut with scenes of Scully saying the Rosary and Quiet Willy following Old Smoky) where Blevins and pals are all “Did you shoot the guy? Answer the question! Answer the question!” Mulder’s all “I will answer at after I name the guilty party, he’s in this room, the spy, the enemy of the people and all that stuff!”
They keep hanging on Skinner, but come on. Despite these episodes’ best efforts, we will never lose faith in our Daddy. Mulder names… Blevins.
Well…
Is that supposed to be dramatic? We haven’t seen hide nor hair of him for years now. Seems like a rather convenient choice. Anyway, Blevins goes to his office, all panicky, some guy shoots him and makes it look like a suicide and Quiet Willy shoots Old Smoky in his office as he clutches a picture of Mulder and Samantha. Skinner updates Mulder on all the dramatics, except for how Smoky’s body wasn’t found. But Scully’s cancer? It’s gone, and thanks to Mulder sneaking around (even if he did get some hints from Old Smoky). That puts our certain-death rescue tally at 15/10.5, still in Scully’s favor.
Next, we find out how Mulder and The Lone Gunmen met, when they ended up aiding a scientist on the run from the Defense Department (also, Byers is a little bit in love with her, which will come up later). We also get to see X again! The main things you need to remember are that X was already running cleanup for those Department of Mysteries bastards in the 80s, X-Files apparently exists in the same universe as NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Street, with Detective John Munch (Richard Belzer) making a cameo, that Mulder loved cell phones even when they were the size of a shoebox, and that everyone thought poor Byers was a narc. We’ll talk about it more in the top tens.
Next, we have an MOTW with a subpar monster (old timey conquistadors found the mythical Fountain of Youth and it turned them into weird tree-people or moth men or something), but with some adorable bonding between our agents when they’re supposed to go to a team seminar…
…but Mulder has them take a detour (title drop!) to help the locals out. Scully doesn’t mind and is all ready for a wine and cheese party for two…
…when Mulder just LEAVES!
I’m sorry, but when Dana Scully comes to your motel room to celebrate her survival by getting drunk with you, Mulder, you don’t just leave! There are shippers watching!
She gets back at him later by shooting down his naked cuddling suggestions when they are stranded in the woods.
But is kind of enough to cuddle with him clothed.
I’m sorry, but do you see that goofy grin on his face, all beaming where Scully can’t see? DO YOU SEE IT? She also sings to him, against her will.
And she opens up a little about her life and death struggles.
Like I said, sub-par monster, but some great bonding. I had to talk about it here because it is, sadly, not in my top ten (but that collective ten minutes are gold!). The next episode, a fantasy outing that I am still not sure is supposed to be seen as canon, is. We’ll talk about The Post-Modern Prometheus below.
Next, Scully’s Christmas visit with her family (A Christmas Carol) is interrupted by flashbacks of Melissa and a ghostly call that sounds just like her, which leads her to a house where a mother has taken her own life (or did she?) and left a little girl who looks just like Melissa when she was young. When Scully examines the mother’s body more fully, it turns out there is murder afoot and the girl’s father is arrested (some MIBs kill him in his cell later, though).
In the meantime, Bill’s pregnant wife is giving Scully pangs for the fact that, after her abduction and cancer, she can’t bear children. When Ma Scully suspects something’s off, Scully tells her.
As for the girl, Scully digs into her records to find she was adopted and there’s a window of time where Melissa could have given a child up. The initial DNA results seem to agree, and that seems to be enough for Scully to want to adopt her. Of course, no one wants to give a busy FBI agent a child with extreme medical issues. That all turns moot, however, when further DNA testing shows the child is, biologically, Scully’s. (!!!!!!!!???????)
Yes, Emily (title drop!) is a little something that came from Scully’s time away, or at least from her harvested ova, but Scully doesn’t care how she came about. She wants to take her home. Mulder is supportive and even breaks out his best impression.
Her family is also tentatively supportive. Of course, Emily is no ordinary child. Remember the green goo? Well, it’s back. We’ve got a hybrid. Her doctor? Also a hybrid. Mulder also kind of aggressively beats the guy up at one point. Damn, Mulder! But it’s the MIBs who kill him with the pfft!stick. You know, they’re really bringing the classics back here. I almost appreciate it before it gets more convoluted. Mulder also finds a nursing home full of old women that, we assume, have been incubating the hybrids during experimental “beauty sleep” treatments. Mulder finds Scully’s name on some records there, along with a hybrid fetus. A fake Doctor Hybrid shows up and green goos a detective, morphs into him, fools Mulder, and escapes.
Meanwhile, whatever DNA cocktail is inside Emily, it’s not working out. She’s got an aggressive tumor. Scully, despite protest from social workers, tries to get her treated in an oxygen chamber, but Emily freaks. When Mulder comes back, there’s not much hope she’ll make it.
She doesn’t. Poor Scully. Even after surviving cancer, she keeps getting clobbered. Infertile. Finds daughter. Daughter dies. Let’s not forget that daughter looked just like Melissa, who she’s still mourning, so you can add that to her holiday haul. I’m going to have to remember this whenever I think I have a bad Christmas.
Later, Mulder finds Scully in a chapel after her family leaves the tiny funeral for Emily.
SCULLY: Who are the men who would create a life whose only hope was to die?
MULDER: I don’t know. But the fact that you found her… and had a chance to love her… Then maybe she was meant for that too.
He goes over some of the missing person/missing evidence hijinks. There is pretty much no evidence left. Not even Emily’s body, it turns out. They find it’s been replaced with sandbags. Worst Christmas ever.
Next, Modell aka Pusher is back (Kitsunegari or “fox hunt”) and people are killing themselves all over. But it’s not him. No, he’s out of a coma and has just lost his will to kill. It’s his long lost twin sister out for revenge!
And he’s trying to protect her and stop her and, though I love Diana Scarwid in other roles, whether it’s the writing or directing, this episode just doesn’t bring it. The scary thing about Modell/Pusher is that he was so high on himself and his powers of persuasion that it was all a game to him. And there’s something to the way Scully and Skinner are written, making them super closed off to Mulder, who’s just right about everything, even when it’s far-fetched, that… Look, it all just bugs me. They do try to wring some angst out of Twin Pusher making Mulder think Scully is dead, so he’ll kill Scully, who she’s made look like herself.
Yeah. Whatever. It doesn’t work without Gillian Anderson’s acting. It’s not horrible, but nowhere near as good as Pusher was. Now, if had been Modell doing this, out to take his enemies down before his body gave out, I might feel differently. But, you know, he’s suddenly a pacifist, so…
Next, our duo deal with lame killer trees (Schizogeny)…
…and lame killer dolls (Chinga).
The latter was written with help from Stephen King (who I adore and whose books were my LIFE from twelve on). Though it has a few creepy moments and dolls are my number one nightmare fuel, it’s not as good as I’d expect from him. It has all the King markings: set in Maine, local weirdos with folksy speech, seemingly evil kid. All this should super work for me, but it’s just such a half-baked plot. If the kid were evil, it would have made more sense since she plays it straight-up evil until she’s finally all vulnerable at the end, where we find it’s all the killer doll, and, technically, it’s a doll who makes people kill themselves, so it’s Doll Pusher. I’d discard it, except for the hilarious conversations our duo have on the phone. It’s worth it for Scully getting reeled into the investigation against her will…
…and Mulder pretending he’s been super busy when he’s really just been waiting for her calls…
…and this…
Yeah. Uncle Steve ships it. Also, love this kick-ass poster done just like an eighties King cover:
Next, we have an eerie kind of episode in Kill Switch, and a SUPER AWESOME episode in Bad Blood, both of which have no impact on the season arc, so I’ll get into them in the top tens.
In mythos world, we see how far Mulder’s experiences have taken him from blind belief. After everything he saw back in Redux II, he’s now convinced that all the alien hullabaloo is just the DoM playing around to cover up their experiments on an unwitting public. He even says so at a UFO panel, to the surprise of many. One of Mulder’s former cohorts, the doctor who hypnotized him back in the day, is super bummed and wants him to meet Patient X (title drop!) AKA Cassandra Spender (AKA HITG extraordinaire Veronica Cartwright), who’s a big Mulder fan, is in a wheelchair, and who thinks she is some kind of apostle chosen by the aliens to spread their message of peace and enlightenment. Because they’re just super nice and don’t want to hurt us at all.
But the alien races are in upheaval. She’s positive she’ll be called soon because she’s super important as an ambassador (and not as an incubator and lab rat at all). She wants Mulder to know so he can… do something. Mulder’s all “Sorry. I’m not playing anymore.”
Meanwhile, in Russia, there’s a new breed of alien bounty hunter, they’ve got their face holes sealed shut, but they still seem to kill people just fine, except instead of the pfft!stick, they just burn shit up. In the aftermath, Krycek “meets” Marita Covarubberducky and tells her to tell her bosses to kiss his ass (I’m just assuming they know each other by their makeout session later and this is all for show). Also, this one poor kid escaped the Faceless Men only to be found by Krycek, who tortures him for information, has him infected with the black oil, sews his eyes and mouth shut, and takes him on a ship to the US.
Later, at the Department of Mysteries, Marita Covaroomba tells Well-Manicured, Mafia Man, Quiet Willy and a few others about the Faceless Men, how the people they’ve been burning were multiple abductees, how she’s pretty sure they aren’t on the same team as the aliens the DoM is playing with, and how Krycek seems to know some shit. Just then Krycek calls up and offers them Nightmare Face in exchange for the black oil vaccine they’ve been working on.
Back in D.C., Scully meets Agent Jeffrey Spender (Chris Owens), and he’s all “Tell your boyfriend to stop encouraging my crazy ass mom in her alien delusions, kay?” She goes off to ask Mulder what that was all about…
…but he tells her he’s not encouraging her, that he’s put away his alien-hunting playset for good, and he’s sick of all these UFO nuts crawling up his ass. I mean, in nutshell. Scully, however, is taken aback by the fact that Cassandra has an implant like hers and visits her.
Scully has the heebie-jeebies like crazy, but covers it and says she’s just here to warn her not to take the implant out. Cassandra’s all “Oh, never! I just love being abducted, don’t you? Aren’t aliens just grand?”
Cut to Skyland Mountain, where a bunch of abductees were gathered and burned up by our new faceless pals. Mulder theorizes a mass cult suicide. Scully thinks, given the place, that it might be… maybe… possibly abduction related, but she barely gets to say so before Mulder, quite snippily, Scullies her all “what’s your evidence of that?” and stalks off. Skeptic Mulder is kind of a douche.
Back at the DoM, they’re pissed off this is happening on their turf now. WMM says they’d better stop these “before the colonists intervene.” So, here’s where I get confused — I thought the colonists were calling the abductees, then Team Faceless was stepping in like those slot machine lurkers. But I guess Team Faceless is putting out a false call just to burn their lab rats up and the colonists don’t know.
Anyway, Cassandra is watching the news and crying about her abduction mates when our duo come in. She’s all “This is not supposed to be happening… you have to stop it.” Then Spender comes in to chew them out for visiting his mother. Mulder douches it up, all “Oh, son of… the prophet.” Scully says they needed to come as part of their investigation, since Cassandra said she knew some of the dead. Spender’s all “Duh, because they were in a UFO cult together.” Mulder’s like “Nuff said!” and leaves, passing Quiet Willy on his way out.
We go back to Krycek’s ship, now docked, where he and Marita talk about how they’ve got the DoM on their knees and they’re going to rule the world and have that makeout sesh which, though out of nowhere, is kind of hot…
…but results in them leaving Nightmare Face unattended, which pisses both Krycek and WMM, when he shows up, off when they find an empty cell. Yes, Marita was double-double-agenting and she makes off with Nightmare Face and calls Mulder from a phone booth. Mulder had just been in the middle of telling Scully the government is doing this for… some reason he doesn’t have yet and Scully is wondering if they should listen to Cassandra (Much reverse. So Irony. Wow.) when he gets the call. Marita tells him where she is, but not much else before Nightmare Face rips some stitches and black-oils her.
Mulder finds Marita’s payphone, but not Marita. He does find some black oil traces and doesn’t even put his fingers in it. My God, who is this person?! We cut to a phone ringing in Cassandra’s room and Spender answering. It’s Mulder looking for Scully, but she’s not there. Neither is Cassandra.
We find Cassandra at an abduction party on a bridge, with Cassandra escorted by Quiet Willy. Nightmare Face shows up and so does Scully. Everyone looks dazed and mildly happy… until our Faceless friends show up. And that’s where they leave it.
Next, (The Red and the Black) we travel to wintry Canada, where some guy is typing a letter to his son, hoping they can reconcile, before giving it to a boy to post. After credits, we go to Ruskin Dam in Pennsylvania (my home state!), where Mulder is freaking out and dreading finding Scully among the burnt bodies.
Luckily, Daddy Skinner shows up and says they found her alive with 50 others, huddled in the woods. Spender also shows up, looking for his mother. Later, Mulder (who I hope is over his douche-attacks) tenderly caresses Scully awake.
She can’t remember anything, including going to the dam. Spender shows up to accuse Mulder of stuff some more, since they still haven’t found his mother. Later, Scully still can’t remember, but Mulder thinks they have to keep trying. He thinks it all comes down to that chip in her neck, which he now believes is all government work.
Scully isn’t so sure it’s the government, she’s also not too into this faithless version of Mulder. “If you ask me now to follow you again, to stand behind you in what you now believe, without knowing what happened to me out there, without those memories, I can’t. I won’t.”
Meanwhile, with the DoM, WMM has doctors working on black-oiled Marita Covarootcanal, but their vaccines aren’t taking. He goes to Krycek, imprisoned on that ship, and tells him he wants whatever vaccine the Russians have, which he’s pretty sure Krycek has or he wouldn’t have infected Nightmare Face.
Later, when a UFO crashes on an airforce base and a Faceless is taken prisoner. The DoM talk over whether they should just throw in with the Faceless if they’re the winning team and scrap the colonist alliance, but then decide to wait and see if Krycek’s Russian vaccine works first, since it could mean resisting colonization. When it doesn’t seem to, they decide to keep playing on Team Colony.
Back with our duo, Mulder has taken Scully to his old hypnotist where she’s all “I don’t know if this is gonna wo…OH, MY GOD!” And we get one of the most beautiful scenes in X-files history.
It’s seriously gorgeous. I can’t even find the gifs to do it justice.
Through all the OMGs, we learn that, after Team Faceless came in with their blowtorches, Quiet Willy tried to take them out, then another ship came, froze everything, and hoovered up Cassandra.
Douche Mulder returns when they meet with Skinner, being super dismissive and saying he’s sure the military put on a show or implanted false memories. Even Skinner’s like “Dude, maybe aliens are more plausible.” Later, in The Basement of Broken Dreams, Spender finds Scully and shows her tape of him under hypnosis. He says his mother drummed that nonsense into him, after she went insane due to his father leaving. He thinks Mulder’s done the same to her.
Mulder goes home just to get attacked by a freed Krycek, who tells him he’s there to help, that there’s invasion and colonization coming. We all know how Mulder feels about that by now, but Krycek is all “you need to save that faceless rebel or we’re all doomed, dooooomed.” Then the Mulder/Krycek shippers throw a party.
He leaves Mulder with the address of that military base and our duo are off! Of course, they aren’t let in, but Mulder straight-up hops a truck and leaves Scully to get arrested. I’d point out how douchey he’s being again, but we all know that’s just classic Mulder. He hides when our old pal, the ABH hops in to pfft!stick Faceless, but then everything goes blue as another Faceless floats in, maybe to kill ABH. Mulder jumps out, all “Noooooooooooooooooo!” and fires his gun, but we don’t see what or who he hit. He’s in that truck alone when the military arrest him and toss him in with Scully.
As for the rest… The vaccine works on Marita Covarugula. Spender’s mother is still missing, but he does get a letter from his father, the same one from the opening, which he rejects. We go back to snowy Canada to see the sender…
Oh, just put away that sad face! Nobody is sorry for you! God, this episode was awesome, which pisses me off in hindsight. More on that in the top tens.
Next, we have an episode about spider aliens that eat people from the inside, courtesy of flashbacks to the fifties with Papa Mulder and Arthur Dales, the man who started The X-Files. It’s okay.
The only really important things are that Darren McGavin plays an older Dales (which is awesome because he starred in Kolchak: The Night Stalker, the show that inspired The X-Files), that Garret Dillahunt is in it (which is awesome because he is awesome) and that Mulder used to be married and used to smoke with eerily similar mannerisms to that other father of his.
Then we have Mind’s Eye, where a blind woman sees through the eyes of a killer.
It’s also okay, but only because the criminally underrated Lili Taylor is in it (and Emmy-nominated for it).
Next, we have another okay episode made better by a flawless actress, the always amazing Gillian Anderson (who was Emmy-nominated again).
All Souls has a seraphim and a demon fighting over a nephilim, with Scully in the middle and… well, kind of manipulated, being sent visions of Emily to lure her to help out. It explores Scully’s renewed — yet still shaky — faith, her feelings of loss for a daughter she barely knew, and her partner’s ability to act like a really smug, dismissive douche whenever he’s in skeptic mode.
Ugh! Between this and our last mythos duo, he’s taken it to youtube comment section levels of assery. Seriously, I don’t know what it is GA does right, but Scully never comes off as smug when she’s doing her thing. Still, he does drop the smug when Scully reveals what has her believing.
Next, we have a truly excellent episode in The Pine Bluff Variant.
I mean, there’s nothing you need from it in the season’s greater arc, except we STILL can’t trust the government (if it’s not secret plans with aliens or those bastard, killer bees, it’s a flesh-eating toxin), but it is a great, twisty undercover story. And it also establish that Mulder will never be able to hide anything from Scully with any success.
And that she will break protocol pretty easily these days, if there’s even a slight chance he’s in danger.
Then we have another super awesome episode that, though it’s an MOTW, I think you need. Our duo is assigned sent to investigate a crackpot threat against a company. Mulder tells Scully to sit it out. He’ll go because it’s probably bullshit anyway. Gosh, he’s fun these days.
Of course, when he hears a phrase that rings a bell, he has Scully look it up, then has her come, after all. She arrives right after he’s gotten himself mixed up with the hostages. Yes, one of the telemarketers has gone crazy (I feel his pain, because that job will take you there!) and thinks his boss is a giant insect and that he’s turning people into zombies. He kills one accused zombie. Mulder keeps trying to talk him down, then he suddenly sees the bug boss himself.
Scully thinks he’s suffering from shared delusion or folie a deux (title drop!). There are some weird things she also sees, as in the “zombie” our bug-hater shot has the mark of someone dead about two days before his chest hole. Long story short, it’s all true, but only Mulder can see it clearly. He runs around, chasing bug monsters into people’s houses.
At one point, he pulls his gun on Bug Boss when it looks like Skinner is threatened. Yeah. He gets himself thrown in the mental ward.
“Five years together, Scully. You must have seen this coming.”
Aw! Even at his lowest, Mulder copes via self-deprecation. Despite that, he wants Scully to examine one of the bodies further. He says she’ll see what he’s talking about if she tries.
That moment and the moment Scully finds some weird marks on the body both open Scully’s perception up a crack.
So when a zombie nurse lets Bug Boss in to kill him, Scully sees her zombification and saves Mulder’s ass (putting our rescue tally at 16/10.5). In the end, Scully isn’t sure what she saw and sums it up as folie a deux…
Speaking of the end (title drop!), we should have known what was coming by the way the camera makes sweet love to all the clippings, pictures, posters, and post-its papering the walls of The Basement of Repressed Longing… But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s see if I can get this one knocked out quickly.
So there’s this kid, Gibson, and he’s a chess prodigy, except not really because he just reads minds (cheater!). The DoM was trying to kill the kid, but they shoot some poor bastard instead. And this this is the fierce enemy they need to bring Old Smoky back for, so Krycek collects him. Though Spender has the case, Skinner tips Mulder off (along with some vague stuff about where the X-Files are going) and he noses in. So does this other chick.
Yeah. Diana Fowley. Just want to let you know that I like Mimi Rogers (Scientology aside) as an actress and think she does a fantastic job at making me hate Fowley’s smug, condescending, stupid face! They both think the kid was the target and psychically sensed the shooter. Anyway, our duo and the intruder go to see the boy and confirm the psychic thing.
GIBSON: I know what’s on your mind. I know you’re thinking about one of the girls you brought.
MULDER: Oh?
GIBSON: One of them’s thinking about you.
DIANA: Which one?
GIBSON: He doesn’t want me to say.
As much as I want it to be Scully who Mulder is thinking about AT ALL TIMES, I’m assuming he’s thinking about our intruder because, you know, they have a history, something Scully figures out quickly.
Anyway, they decide to put the kid in a safe house and Mulder goes off to talk to the shooter. Spender’s all “Waaah! This is my case!” And Mulder’s all, “Why are you such a douchebag?” then tells the shooter he knows Gibson was the target and they can maaaaybe get him protection if he tells them who sent him.
Meanwhile, Scully takes the kid for brain scans and psychic testing while Fowley tries to act like she was all about Mulder before it was cool. A rather ticked-off Scully goes to The Gunmen, pretending she wants them to look at the kid’s scans, but she’s really all about Fowley. They tell her she was Mulder’s “chickadee” back in the day and was there when he started the X-Files. Hmmph! So Mulder goes back to the safe house, where Fowley’s all “Oh, that Scully sure is super uptight and doesn’t believe anything. Not like meeeeee.”
Then Fowley chooses the exact moment Scully is walking by to take Mulder’s hand…
…and her resolute, noble moment of silence in the parking garage breaks my heart. She gathers herself, then calls Mulder to meet her at their office so she can go over Gibson’s scans, probably hoping he’ll come alone. She leaves just as Spender parks and is accosted by Old Smoky, who’s all…
Spender’s all “Who the hell are you?” but he disappears just as Mulder comes in, all “You were just talking to a dead guy!!!” Later, everyone ends up in Skinner’s office — Well, not Old Smoky — and Scully shares that Gibson’s brain shows strange activity, then our duo say they want to offer the shooter immunity to get more info on Gibson, who could be the key to solving everything in the X-Files, to which… Dude, really? That’s taking it a bit far. And Fowley is suddenly super confrontational. “You can’t use science on the spiritual. You guys are going to get the X-Files shut down. Meh, meh, meh, meh…”
Mulder goes to the shooter and says he might be able to get him immunity if he gives him something, so the shooter says the kid’s a “missing link,” which Mulder theorizes to mean he has active DNA that could tie to ancient aliens!
Spender’s all…
Meanwhile, our well-manicured friend is chewing out Old Smoky for letting Mulder get this far before killing the shooter. Scully is on Gibson watch and the show takes a moment to shill King of the Hill (not that I disagree, but please pimp harder) they start bonding before Fowley ruins their moment, like every moment she enters. I guess someone agrees, because she’s shot soon after (she’ll live to ruin more moments) as is that shooter in his cell… with a Morley box left behind, which Mulder shoves in Spender’s face.
“Who do you work for? You work for him? You and Old Smoky, is that who put this together? You’re going down for this! I’m going to see you prosecuted for murder! You watch me! Watch it happen! Your days are numbered!”
OMG, he called him Old Smoky. Me and Mulder are like twinsies right now! Anyway, Spender whines “It’s your that are numbered, meh!” Meanwhile, Smoky takes Gibson to WMM, who makes it clear he still finds his methods distasteful. WMM’s being chauffeured around by Krycek, who’s all “Can I run him over? Please?” But WMM denies him.
Back in Mulder’s apartment, our duo commiserate over how the Attorney General hates them and how Spender’s telling everyone about Mulder’s ancient aliens nonsense and how Skinner said they’re talking about reassigning them. Mulder believes there’s been a game afoot from the start.
Old Smoky steals Samantha’s file from The Basement of Broken Dreams. Then he passes Spender in the hallway, tells him he can do things for him, then he drops the Vader line…
Then this happens…
Then this happens…
Then this happens…
See you at the movies next!
Top ten episodes of season five…
10. Christmas Carol
I always love a good Scully episode, mostly because Gillian Anderson brings it like no one else can, especially in moments without dialogue. There are times when that expressive face might as well be shouting her thoughts. The scenes with her family are much better than the scenes with Emily, herself, which is why the conclusion of this duo, Emily, didn’t fare as well with me. I just found it hard to invest in this child we just found out existed and, from what I hear, Anderson had trouble conveying it as well.
9. Unusual Suspects
From seeing the Gunmen interact before they were besties, to Langley’s high stakes D&D, to Mulder’s giant cell phone, to Byers being taken sort of seriously, to Frohike coming onto everything in a skirt, it’s just enjoyable. And you can see how this experience left the three (well, the four, including Mulder) tied together in paranoid bliss.
8. Kill Switch
As dated as the technology seems now, it’s a nice little thrill ride and Scully also saves Mulder’s ass again, putting our rescue tally at 17/10.5.
7. Redux II
Besides the feelings!porn, this episode also brings a fair amount of sneaky Mulder in action, some great work from D.D. (of course, G.A. brings it, as usual), and even squeezes the Gunmen in. I’m not gonna lie — I did not like the manipulative and easily seen-through “MULDER’S DEHD, OMG!!” ending of Gethsemane and it’s possible some of that stuck with me through Redux I. But this entry went a long way towards smoothing that over.
6. Patient X
Mulder’s douchiness aside, I really enjoyed this and the one below. They introduced something into the mythology that looked like it was leading to resolution rather than convolution. More on that below…
5. The Red and the Black
The introduction of our fire-bug aliens and the DoM getting their hands on a working vaccine made for what might have been an exciting end game. We could have had a human race fighting back, strengthened with immunity and help from those pyromaniacs (if they could be talked out of burning every innocent abductee, that is), a fight against our would-be overlords. It didn’t go there because they had to go and keep things going with supersoldiers and ancient aliens and that will always piss me off a little. But this was a great pair of episodes with some amazing imagery.
4. The Pine Bluff Variant
This was just a really awesome, gruesome (that flesh-eating toxin put me right off my leftover turkey and stuffing) spy tale. The idea of the government using anti-government crazies to do their dirty work is a very twisty twist. I love how cannily Mulder keeps himself in the game only to find he was being played and how well Scully plays detective against Mulder, then for him. I hope he learned his lesson about hiding things from her by now.
3. Folie a Deux
I just love an MOTW that brings out the bonding in our duo. Paranoid believer/rogue monster hunter Mulder is back and that makes me happy because non-believer Mulder was just too snippy and smug for my tastes (Seriously, how does G.A. make skepticism so endearing?). The bug monster could have been hilariously bad, but it just fits in with the darkly comic vibe. And who hasn’t seen their boss as a bit of a hive-master, forcing people to work like mindless drones and sucking out their life force?
2. The Post Modern Prometheus
First off…
Much like Small Potatoes, this is an episode that would not go over well in our time. While these women aren’t raped in the traditional sense, they are impregnated without their consent, but it’s all hunky dory because they don’t mind or something. *Sigh* I just have to say that whole thing bugs me, but much like with that other problematic, yet entertaining episode, it’s hard to judge something from thirteen years ago by our standards. That being said, please see this extended dance scene:
I know it doesn’t wash away the ickies, but it’s a fair palate cleanser. It’s hard for me to feel for Cher-obsessed Frankenstein’s monster Mutato (played by pre-Spender Chris Owens, BTW) when he and his father are knocking out and inseminating unsuspecting women, but it’s also hard not to enjoy this episode. (Todd VanDerWerff over at one of my top 5 sites, the AV Club, explains these conflicting feelings way better than I ever could). The fantasy weirdness, the wide angle lens, the bizarre circus music, the early 60s, B&W, B-movie atmosphere…
It all just comes together and flies us over the ickiness. It also had seven Emmy noms. I might go nuts over Anderson’s dramatic abilities, but when it comes to comedy, Duchovny’s deadpan can really work for him, especially in his clumsy, drugged out interrogation scene. I won’t say that it’s the equal to any of the Darin Morgan episodes in sheer cleverness and plot-building, but it’s one of the closest in later seasons in that it finds a way to step back and play with the show’s world.
I can never decide if the entire episode is supposed to be considered a non-canon fantasy departure or just a fictionalized version of a case they covered. Either way, since Mulder asks for the writer to change the ending, I could call it Mulder’s fevered B-movie imaginings and then consider it canon that one of Mulder’s most treasured fantasies ends with him asking Scully to dance with Elvis-like smoothness (while still not meeting her eyes and grinning like a schoolboy, mind you, because even in his fantasies, Mulder is unable to be less than goofy about getting to touch Scully) and Scully accepting with obvious delight. Let’s see that again, shall we?
I just want to roll around in a puddle of my own squeals until I grow faint! The only way it could have been better is if they ended it with them staring deeply into each other’s eyes while swaying, but that might have released the squeal that ended me. Oh, Chris Carter, you are not just acknowledging the ship, but you are starting to ship them as hard as we are by now and there’s no use denying it.
- Bad Blood
Much like Jose Chung, I watched it twice in a row. Honestly, the plot or the monster could have been anything because the character work was so freaking awesome. Unreliable narrator is one of my favorite comic devices, especially on an established show where you know the characters so well that seeing events through their POV is a real treat.
I love Scully’s version of Mulder, bouncing off the walls, talking a mile-a-minute, belittling her science and invading her space…
…then her version of herself, long-suffering and heroically dealing with him and all the entrails…
…and his vague demands…
…and doing this…
Then I adore Mulder’s version of himself, calm and cool and very gently putting forth his theories…
…and his version of Scully, all snarky and dismissive and rolling her eyes at every word he says…
…whining and ranting at him…
I also love their conflicting versions of Luke Wilson’s sheriff…
I also adore the ending…
It’s just a damned fine episode and probably in my top ten of all time (Yeah, that’s coming before the end).
Scully’s journey…
This season’s been a hell of a ride for Scully. She’s come closer than ever to accepting what happened to her, through her abduction, cancer, and cure. Not only has she tentatively started believing in God again, but she’s also closer to believing across the board. She still has her share of skeptical reserve, but she’s seen too much not to be swayed that there is more to this world than science, or what is known of it now, can prove. She comes to another more personal revelation, in that she wants children, more so because she knows it’s no longer an option. As much as the episode Emily didn’t grab me, it’s definite that it’s another loss of many along this path. And it only makes her dig in harder because she truly does want to “give meaning to what’s happened to her.”
I stopped doing least favorite lady, but I think we all know who would win that crown (except it’s more like a bedazzled paper bag over her smug, condescending face!). I had a few favorite ladies. Officer Michele Fazekas for being such a take-charge, woodsy ranger in Detour or Unusual Suspects’ Susanne Modeski for pulling out her own molar like a boss or Shaina Berkowitz for being such a darned sweet mother to both of her amnesia babies in PMP when she really, really didn’t have to, and Maggie Scully continues to be awesome… But I think I have to give the crown to Esther Nairn/Invisigoth from Kill Switch for sheer badassery and quality snark.
Hair check-in…
Situation unchanged, in the best possible way. The Scully remains a paragon of businesslike fluffiness that we should all aspire to.
Ship Check-In…
I would say that this is the readiest Scully has ever been to receive or return Mulder’s advances, but he’s pretty much stopped making them! Okay, not really…
Look, there’s no question Mulder would be all over Scully if she gave clear signals during a moment when he was paying attention (Stupid Mulder! How did you miss it in Detour? She was ready to get tipsy and celebrate her escape from death all over you!), but I think Mulder has largely given up on the idea that Scully would, in any universe, take his sorry ass. Remember, he’s got her on this full-on pedestal now. It would take a lot for him to get up the guts to try again. Like a possible parting forever. We’ll talk more in movie land.
Other Notes…
Nah. I’m good. I had a lot to say about this season.
Next up: Fight The Future
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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 there’s a good comprehensive screencap archive here.
