Season 5, Episode 18
Director: Rob Bowman
Writer: John Shiban

The X-Files‘s “The Pine Bluff Variant” isn’t a mythology episode. That’s simply because it doesn’t involve aliens or human/alien hybrids or Samantha Mulder. Yet, it bears many resemblances to the themes and construct of a mythology episode thanks to Chris Carter’s pervasive mistrust (borderline contempt for) the American government as embodied by The X-Files variation on the American government. In mythology episodes, the government holds little value for human life, frequently either killing people outright or kidnapping them and using them for experimentation. It’s never exactly clear how much “the government” really knows about what’s going on, but we can all agree that they’re hardly the ignorant party in the matter.

That brings us to “The Pine Bluff Variant” which carries forward the same theme of “the government is the root of all evil” in a variation of a monster-of-the-week storyline. As such, the episode holds more in common with standard police procedurals like the CSI franchise. It doesn’t really incorporate any supernatural elements, instead focusing on undercover police work to drive the suspense. It’s a good episode, but it doesn’t feel like The X-Files.

The episode opens on a stakeout with Mulder jogging around a park near the U.S. Capitol. They are in surveillance of a man named Jacob Haley (Daniel von Bargen) who leads the anti-government militia, the New Spartans. He gives a piece of paper to his contact, and the contact’s face begins to melt away almost instantaneously. Mulder seems to chase Haley away, but Haley escapes with Scully becoming very suspicious of the relative ease Haley experienced in escaping. Turns out that Mulder is working in coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s office to infiltrate the group. Scully is brought into the picture as the details surrounding the deadly biotoxin become more apparent. Haley spreads it at a small town movie theater, killing 14 people, and it is determined that the man-made biotoxin may have been manufactured within the U.S. Government.

After several near-misses, Mulder continues to gain the trust of the New Spartans despite hesitancy by high-ranking officials. They even break his pinky finger at one point to prove his loyalty. Mulder convinces them by giving into their demands – he provides them with mocked federal bank data. Suspecting the New Spartans are orchestrating a bank heist, Mulder goes along with the ruse. Scully, however, realizes that the New Spartans are using the bank heist as a ruse. Their true intent is to spray money with the biotoxin so that it can be widely distributed. Once the heist is complete (they force Mulder to participate wearing a vampire mask – better than a Nixon mask from Point Break, I say), a higher ranking member of the New Spartans calls out Mulder for being a spy. After some tense moments, it is revealed that the man is actually a government operative also undercover. He frees Mulder, allowing Mulder to return to the bank where Scully and team have already seized the contaminated money. There is some last-minute dialogue about the whole thing being a red herring / government test, further implicating the government in a plot that ultimately resulted in multiple civilian casualties. The episode closes with Haley slumped over his car steering wheel, dead from the toxin he contracted by a double-cross.

The X-Files can do this kind of episode in their sleep. There’s no supernatural challenge here – just simple, straightforward police procedural work that they pull off with grace and style. Adding the element of Mulder undercover heightens the tension and becomes a very effective plot point, serving to drive something of a wedge initially between him and Scully. Don’t worry, though. They patch that up quickly. My one complaint with the episode is that it’s never exactly clear what the government’s ultimate plan is in the end. Were they simply testing a new weapon? Seems like an awfully elaborate plan to pull off for a simple test that could be conducted in any location outside the U.S. Again, the government’s real plan is never fully conveyed, but we know all Chris Carter wants us to know – the government is a massive shadow organization capable of many evils.

And, given that, “The Pine Bluff Variant” becomes an extension of all the work performed on mythology episodes. Just without all the crazy bee stuff.

Season 5, Episode 17
Director: Allen Coulter
Writer: Frank Spotnitz, John Shiban

Despite Dana Scully’s penchant for skepticism and reliance on scientific evidence in most (not all) X-Files cases, the episode “All Souls” paints an intriguing portrait of her. She is the woman trapped between science and faith, between facts and belief. And I’ll be damned if The X-Files doesn’t put her through the ringer for it.

“All Souls” begins with the baptism of a severely handicapped girl. Later that night during a thunderstorm, the girl impossibly leaves the house and staggers down the street, approaching a man standing nearby in the driving rain. She falls to her knees, hands outstretched in a sign of prayer. When her father finds her, she is dead, eyes smoking as if she’d been struck by lightening. The other man was nowhere to be found. The event becomes the catalyst for an exploration of Scully’s faith and the darkest lingering questions she harbors after the death of her daughter Emily. Her pastor asks her to look into the case, and she reaches out to Mulder for information on Emily’s biological parents as she was adopted. Through the investigation, it is revealed that the girl was one in a set of quadruplets. The crux of the episode then becomes the race to find the girls before similar deaths can occur.

In the end, it is inferred that the man seen taking the lives of the young girls is a seraphim, an angel with four faces, who journeyed to Earth and impregnated a woman. According to religious text not included in the Bible, these four girls were born deformed as they “were not meant to be.” It is assumed by Scully that the now dead three sisters bear some resemblance to the religious text, particularly since she believes she witnessed the seraphim approach her. In the end, she is able to find the fourth girl and must save her from a man who may or may not be the Devil (his shadow reveals horns). In a touching scene where Scully tries to restrict the fourth girl from approaching the seraphim who is attempting to save her soul, Scully visualizes Emily holding her hand and begging to be let go. Scully obliges, and Emily/the fourth sister walks toward the light of the seraphim and dies. Grief-stricken and feeling responsible for their deaths, Scully confesses her sins to a Catholic priest who, in the end, tells her that she may have actually done her job, and their souls are now where they are meant to be.

The filmmaking behind “All Souls” places it squarely in the company of the lesser-known Demi Moore religious epic The Seventh Sign in which a religious-themed story is juxtaposed against Exorcist-level scares. Anything that brings to mind The Seventh Sign is not a good thing. It’s not Gillian Anderson’s fault at all. She very convincingly takes us on a journey with Scully – a journey about her faith, her skepticism, her guilt, and her longing for absolution from her involvement in children’s deaths. Scully balances between faith and science frequently, and the dichotomy has never been more severe than it is here in “All Souls.” Yet, the episode undercuts Anderson’s natural instinct to heighten the internal drama of the religious confusion by making literal the religious allegories. There is no doubt within the episode that Scully is right to believe, that there is a God and a Devil and angels and all of that.

Let me be more clear.

I’m not faulting the episode for taking a side on the existence of events and legends outlined in the Bible and other religious text. What I do fault the episode for is making these stories so incredibly literal and easily identified as to undo any tension arising from the internal struggle within Scully. It would have been far more interesting to engage in the story with an absence of certainty rather than blatantly certain storytelling. The X-Files does this alot, actually. Particularly with Mulder and his shaken faith regarding the existence of aliens. And that’s fine except they love to show actual UFOs. And aliens. Abundantly. We’re never not aware that Mulder is mistaken in his shaken faith much like Scully and Mulder are here. The audience is omniscient in this case, and it significantly reduces the pleasure of dramatic tension. Ultimately, it becomes the most tiresome Sunday sermon you’ve heard a thousand times –  you know exactly how it’s going to end without even listening.

Season 5, Episode 16
Director: Kim Manners
Writer: Tim Minear

Lili Taylor (most famous for her break-out role in I Shot Andy Warhol) was a fantastic “get” for The X-Files. Her steely, no bullshit demeanor and acting style not only fits perfectly with the overall series itself (by helping to sell the supernatural elements with a gritty, realistic performance) but also with the character she plays in “Mind’s Eye.” Without her, this episode would have all but collapsed, yet she makes it sing beautifully.

Taylor plays Marty Glenn, a steely, independent woman who has been blind since birth. What sets Marty apart from the typical helpless victim blind roles is that she can see imagery through a psychic connection with another man. That man eventually embarks on a killing spree and, although Marty makes every attempt to stop his murderous rampage, she winds up getting herself arrested on multiple occasions as the prime suspect. Mulder finds something within her and is, correctly, convinced she is innocent of direct murder. Marty, however, refuses to disclose any information or any details as to why she knows so much about the crimes. Mulder and Scully eventually prove through blood at a crime scene that she could not have committed the crimes and also discover that the murderer is actually her long-lost father. Turns out Marty’s mother was brutally stabbed by a man with Marty in utero, and the blood loss to the fetus was thought to have caused her blindness. The incident forged a psychic bond between the two so that Marty could see visions of her father’s sight every so often – unfortunately when he is committing a crime. In the end, Marty manages to trick her father and the FBI and uses his sight to shoot him in the head. She is imprisoned but is happy knowing she is finally free of her father.

Taylor’s contributions here cannot be undervalued. She drives “Mind’s Eye” with a fantastically convincing and determined performance. Granted, almost none of her actions make sense as the episode progresses, and there are a few unexplained plot points by the episode’s end. But her final action of freeing herself from her father is completely understood if too easily forgiven by Mulder in the end. The most impressive feat about Taylor’s performance is that she plays a blind woman who is the complete antithesis of most blind female characters in television or cinema. She is not helpless. She is not timid. She is not cowering in fear in the dark. She is shrewd. She is resourceful. Yes, she’s bitter and sarcastic, but it’s just completely refreshing to see a talented actress make such a unique spin on what could have been a thoroughly routine character.

The rest of the cast is fairly wasted with David Duchovny’s Mulder saddled with the bleeding-heart sympathy over the blind girl. His reaction to her and instinct to protect her is more typical of the traditional male role in such situations, yet she refuses to take the bait. In the end, she commits murder and is willing to pay the price for it. She makes no excuses – that was her end game all along. That action, without knowing he was her own father until the end, set her free from a life of torment and hardship. As she retreats into the shadows by the end of “Mind’s Eye,” it is not a sad, defeated retreat but a retreat into peace and solitary comfort. It is a beautiful, controversial combination that Lili Taylor was about to portray with great skill.

Season 5, Episode 15
Director: William A. Graham
Writer: John Shiban, Frank Spotnitz

The X-Files tries something a little unique in “Travelers,” an episode dedicated to the horrors – both sci-fi and political – of the 1950s. It’s an interesting shift in storytelling practices for the series, reaffirming the evil intent of the government in a different era where the corruption was a little more obvious and less clandestine as it has appeared in later episodes. Although only Mulder appears in a 1990s-set flashback, “Travelers” is a nice departure and gives us something different to chew on for a bit.

The episode begins in 1990 with two men attempting to evict Edward Skur from a ramshackle house in the middle of nowhere. Skur hides in his house until he is shot by an accompanying police officer. His dying word is “Mulder.” Later, a young Fox Mulder contacts a retired FBI agent tied to Skur in hopes of discovering why Skur mentioned his father. After some reluctance, the agent, Arthur Dales, begins to tell Mulder what he knows about Ed Skur.

The story jumps back in time to the 1950s when America was in the heat of the McCarthy-era unAmerican activities hearings. Dales and his partner have been sent to arrest a younger Ed Skur on suspicion of Communist activities. Skur is then reported to have hanged himself while in prison, but, in reality, he has escaped. Feeling guilty about arresting Skur, Dales pays a visit to Skur’s wife but encounters Skur. Skur attacks him and, as Dales is pinned to the ground, a creature begins to emerge from Skur’s mouth. Interrupted by a neighbor, Skur runs away, leaving Dales unharmed. Other agents with the government tell Dales to alter his report and pretend Skur is dead, which he does with great regret.

After being called to investigate the gruesome death of an ex-German doctor, Dales encounters Bill Mulder who warns him that Skur killed the doctor because he and two others were experimented on by the doctor. Mulder tells Dales he and his partners lives are also in danger because Skur believes them to be connected to the experiments. Dales tries to warn his partner, but it is too late: Skur has killed him using the creature that lives in his throat.

Using information obtained from Mulder, Dales tracks down the body of another man who killed himself because of the experiments. When an autopsy is performed, a live spider is found sewed into the corpse’s esophagus. Dales rushes to Skur’s house to assist him, but his wife does not acknowledge that Skur is hiding in the backyard bomb shelter. When she goes to check on Skur, he kills her. Finalky, the government (Mulder and his partner) use Dales to track down and capture Skur. Skur attempts to kill Dales, but Dales overpowers him. In the end, Fox Mulder learns his father was involved with a questionable government operation but does not know that his father pitied Skur and set him free.

I appreciated “Travelers” for its grounding in 1950s era suspense from the McCarthy hearings to the corrupt government figures like Roy Cohn to the 50s nuclear/science paranoia embodied by the creature living inside Skur and others. One of the themes of the episode is tied to the horror being “within” – literally within Skur but also within the American government. The Russians/Germans/Communists were held to be the villains of the era, but, in this X-Files outing, the horror is definitely of the American variety. It’s not a unique perspective for The X-Files to take, but it’s certainly well-rendered here in exquisite period detail, right down to the bomb shelter in Skur’s backyard.

Given the complete absence of Scully and the minor appearance of Mulder (comically made to appear younger thanks to bangs and goofy expressions), it is nice to see other actors stand out within the show. In this case, Fredric Lane gives a strong impression as the guilt-ridden Arthur Dales. His strong jaw and dimpled chin gives the perfect image of the Decent American Man who strives for honor among the thieves of the American government. He feels guilt but stoically conveys it in an accomplished performance for the veteran TV actor.

Overall, I enjoyed “Travelers” as a side bit of business. I’m a little frustrated that there weren’t more answers provided (Why did the victims’ bodies shrivel? What was the purpose of putting that creature in Skur’s throat? Was he just a killing machine? Where did the creature come from?), but such is life with The X-Files. Sometimes, there are no answers, only questions. And that’s ok too. The journey into a beautifully rendered 50s world was worth it.

Season 5, Episode 14
Director: Chris Carter
Writer; Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz

There are some episodes of The X-Files that simply don’t resonate with me personally. “The Red and the Black” is one of them. It’s not the episode’s doing. It’s a clear and elaborately detailed outing with which I can’t particularly find fault. Just the same, I can’t seem to find an access point into the episode or anything that I really ultimately care about. There’s a lot of meat there, but I don’t find any of it all that interesting. To me, it’s all a case of much ado about nothing.

The episode begins in a remote cabin in which someone types a letter to his/her “Son” in hopes of a reconciliation. The letter is sent to the FBI. Cut to: the aftermath of the burning victims on the bridge near the Ruskin Dam where Mulder arrives, frantically searching for Scully. She was found off the bridge and is air-lifted to a nearby hospital to be treated for minor burns. Cassandra (Veronica Cartwright) is nowhere to be found, and her son, Jeffrey Spender (Chris Owens), is naturally upset. Mulder is in the hospital when Scully wakes up, but she remembers nothing of the incident.

On the Syndicate side of the house, the Well-Manicured Man (oh, how I hate these names) continuously tries their variation of a Black Oil vaccination on Marita to little effect. He finds Alex Krycek and demands he share the Russian’s vaccination, which he correctly guesses they have since Krycek would never have infected the boy without it. The ultimate goal is to use the vaccination as a defense against a pending alien colonization, which the faceless aliens are apparently also working against by burning the aliens’ tagged abductees. Two of these faceless aliens crash land on an Air Force base in West Virginia, one of whom is captured by the military.

Trying to figure out what happened during her missing time, Scully agrees to undergo hypnosis with Dr. Werber and discloses that, according to the memory unveiled under hypnosis, the faceless aliens started to burn the survivors but were thwarted by another spaceship who killed the aliens and abducted Cassandra. In a conversation with Skinner, Mulder continues to believe that the events are all orchestrated hoaxes designed by the government to cover their clandestine operations. Scully is approached by Jeffrey who claims his mother made him describe an alien abduction experience as a child. In the end, Mulder and Scully go to the Air Force base to investigate the rumor of a crash (as told to Mulder by Alex Krycek). There, Mulder hops the back of an exiting truck which contains the faceless alien. The truck is overtaken by an alien ship, and a confrontation ensues during which Mulder fires at an alien but has no memory of the event. The faceless alien is also now missing. The final scene reveals that Jeffrey Spender’s father is none other than the missing Cigarette Smoking Man.

My hesitation with “The Red and the Black” stems from the incredible amount of detail Chris Carter stuffs into it. We aren’t merely provided detail – we’re suffocated with it. The dichotomy between the mythology and the “monster of the week” episodes is difficult for The X-Files to navigate at times. The creative team, Carter included, clearly doesn’t want the series to be about one or the other, so, when a mythology episode comes around, there is too much ground to cover after a handful of divergent episodes. That said, the performances and craft work behind the episode are as top-notch as ever. That’s typically never a complaint on the series as they are able to deliver fairly convincing special effects on a TV budget.

At its conclusion, though, I simply shrug at what I’ve watched. What, if anything, does “The Red and the Black” mean in the grand scheme of The X-Files. My answer to that is likely the same for the meaning of the mythology itself: much ado about nothing.

Season 5, Episode 13
Director: Kim Manners
Writer: Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz

“A conspiracy wrapped in a plot inside a government agenda.”

Those words are spoken by Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) in an MIT lecture during The X-Files episode “Patient X,” and there are no better words to fully describe the on-going series mythology. As I watched Duchovny deliver these lines, it’s clear to me that his often one-note and labored performance as Mulder is not necessarily his fault. It occurred to me that he’s speaking directly from the mouth of Chris Carter. These thoughts and feelings are Carter’s thoughts and feelings. No actor alive could have delivered them reliably with feeling. They’re not so much pieces of realistic dialogue as they are massive chunks of sermonizing. Duchovny often chokes on these words.

The rest of “Patient X,” another contribution in the broad series mythology,

The opening of the episode shows a UFO crash in Kazakhstan, and two boys explore the crash site where they are captured by an apparent alien with his eyes and mouth sewed shut. The next morning, U.N. troops led by Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden) attempt to explore the area but are met with resistance by Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) who captures one of the boys. Later, we see the boy imprisoned in a Russian facility similar to the one in which Mulder was imprisoned last season. The boy is purposefully infected with the black oil.

Back in the States, Mulder is a member of a panel discussing alien life at MIT. Here, he makes public his recent turn in alien belief – professing alien existence is a lie invented by the government to cover up other nefarious events. At the event, Mulder meets Dr. Heitz Werber (Jim Jansen) whose patient, Cassandra Spencer (Veronica Cartwright, finally appearing in The X-Files), claims to have been abducted multiple times over 30 years. She’s overjoyed to meet Mulder and tells him stories of wars between alien races. She also claims to anticipate another abduction. Mulder rejects her, claiming he cannot help her.

Krycek abducts the infected boy whose eyes, nose and mouth are also sewed up with the intent of holding in the black oil. Krycek contacts the Syndicate and tells them he’ll exchange the boy for all of their vaccine research. Meanwhile, Mulder tells Scully of his interaction with Cassandra, and Cassandra’s story shakes Scully considering the similarities between their supposed alien abductions. Scully reaches out to Cassandra and confirms that her son has asked Scully to help protect his mother from Mulder, but Cassandra recognizes Scully as a fellow alien abductee. She also warns Cassandra not to remove the implant from the base of her neck because it causes the almost certainly fatal cancer.

At Skyland mountain, a group of alien abductees congregate and are burned alive by the same faceless aliens. At the site, Mulder and Scully argue over the intent of the massacre with Mulder taking the skeptic position, believing the government has somehow killed all of these people. The Syndicate is mystified by the event. As details of the deaths emerge, Cassandra recognizes the names of many of the victims and begs that Mulder attempt to stop the killings. Cassandra’s son walks in on their conversation and is furious that they continue to feed her seeming fantasia. Later, Scully and Mulder review x-ray information from the burn victims and determine they all contained an implanted chip.

Back where Krycek is holding the infected boy, Marita confronts him and seduces him away from the cell. When Krycek returns to his cell, the boy is gone, and the Well-Manicured Man (John Neville) remains in his place. Later, Marita calls Mulder and informs him of the crash in Kazakhstan and of the boy who sits in her car pulling out the stitches in his eyes. The black oil drips out of his eyes, presumably infecting Marita. As Mulder tries to track her down, he calls Cassandra’s hospital room but discovers Cassandra is missing. The climax of the episode takes place on a dam where all abductees, including Scully and the boy from Kazakhstan, are treated by flying saucers. Just as Scully meets Cassandra, faceless aliens appear and begin burning the abductees just as they did in Kazakhstan and on Skyland Mountain.

One of my biggest complaints about mythology episodes is how they are plotted to within an inch of their life as television art. There is no room for humor or for liberties taken with the characters. No, it’s all plot. Plot. Plot. Revelation. Plot. Plot. Plot. Cliffhanger. Carter scripts these things with a massive sledgehammer designed to knock the audience members over the head with his “conspiracy wrapped in a plot inside a government agenda.” Frankly, by the end of the arc, it’s completely exhausting to follow and process all of this detail. I fully understand that this is how Chris Carter writes, and he most likely has a great deal of information he wishes to convey. It’s just not my kind of thing. I like to venture off the beaten path as there are so many worth exploring. This one can be so boring.

There are certainly gems to be found within “Patient X” – not the least of which is the presence of Veronica Cartwright, a naturally terrifying actress who deserves more material on which to chew. Instead, she’s given the role of the nearly angelic abductee victim on a nobel crusade to solve intergalactic politics, or some such nonsense. Cartwright is absolutely fine in “Patient X,” but I wanted more kookiness from her. I also personally thought the imagery here was particularly unnerving, including the shots of the burned-out cars, the faceless aliens, and the boy with his face all showed up. That’s the kind of stuff that causes nightmares. These X-Files mythology stories could use more of that.