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Revisiting The X Files Episode 11 · Death by Multimedia

0:20
Music. Good day everyone and welcome
0:50
back for episode 11 of Revisiting The X-Files where
0:55
each episode I will be working my way through the 11 series, 2
0:59
movies and several books that make up The X-Files.
1:04
For those of you returning for this next episode, thanks once
1:07
again for being here. And if you are a first time
1:10
listener, well I hope this is not only enjoyable for you to
1:13
listen to, but perhaps piques your interest once again in a
1:17
great TV show. The format here is that I'll be
1:20
working my way through the entire show and several other
1:24
media as we go, and for the most part we'll cover 5 episodes of
1:28
the series in each podcast episode.
1:31
I would also like to offer my apologies for the delay between
1:34
episodes here. Time just got away from me, and
1:38
it has been a challenge to not only find the time to watch the
1:42
episodes we will be discussing, but also to find the time to
1:45
record this episode. So thank you for your patience,
1:49
and I hope you're back on track now with our usual episode every
1:52
fortnight. We'll see though.
1:56
But first, I'll go back through the feedback on the last
1:59
episode. And that was some time ago now.
2:01
And in this case, the episode before that as well.
2:04
We had one of our listeners in particular who caught up on a
2:06
lot of episodes recently and then shared his thoughts on Blue
2:10
Sky. So Jeff from Florida, he offered
2:14
us the following on episode 9. Spent a chunk of the day
2:18
catching up on X-Files episodes so I could listen to at Real
2:22
Metal Kevin dot bsky dot Social and give his reviews.
2:26
Here's my thoughts on each episode before I listen to his
2:30
ascension Paradise Lost reference.
2:32
Of course Jeff only Paradise Lost love this episode.
2:36
One of my faves. I actually felt Scully was in
2:39
real peril. 5 out of five, pretty good.
2:43
Three. I don't know how you follow the
2:45
previous two episodes without a let down, so I may be too harsh
2:48
on it. I had trouble following it and
2:50
it was weird in a bad way. One out of five.
2:53
That also is accurate. One breath, a better episode,
2:58
but I'm probably still in a hangover from the previous
3:00
episode. It wasn't bad, but not great.
3:03
Three out of five. Yeah, fairly good Firewalker.
3:07
I love Bradley Whitford, so do I.
3:09
So I'm I'm predisposed to liking it.
3:11
A very good stand alone episode. The silicon based life form was
3:15
creepy. Firewalker gets 4 1/2 out of
3:18
five. Fair enough.
3:20
And then read Museum back to mythology and I had trouble
3:23
following it again. It also didn't do anything to
3:26
advance it. 3.5 out of five. And then Jeff caught up on the
3:31
episodes I covered on the previous episode, episode 10,
3:34
and his thoughts were as such, Excelsior Day.
3:37
I loved this episode when it came out.
3:39
It did not age well. I was definitely uncomfortable
3:42
with the handling of the assault.
3:44
Three out of five, yes. Also, fair enough Aubrey.
3:48
Great episode. A good standalone episode.
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Loved seeing Terry O'quinn but wished he'd been the character
3:53
from Millennium. I'm going to make that my head
3:56
Canon. 4 out of five. I couldn't agree more.
3:59
Terry O'quinn was underutilized in that episode.
4:03
Dyhand Dyvarct or Dyhand du Violettes, however you want to
4:08
pronounce it. I love the injection of humor on
4:11
this one. Holds up well, especially with
4:13
the return of the American Satanic Panic. 4 out of 4. 1/2
4:18
out of five. I think I gave that something
4:20
pretty similar too. And Fresh Bones.
4:23
A solid episode that doesn't really do anything for me. 3 out
4:26
of five. Yeah, pretty fair.
4:27
So awesome. Once again from Jeff, and it's
4:30
great to have loyal listeners who are also happy to offer
4:33
their thoughts on these episodes because in the long run, that's
4:36
what this podcast is all about for me to rewatch this series
4:39
again and to get other people to do the same and then share their
4:43
thoughts. We also had a share from Michael
4:46
from Melbourne on Blue Sky. Simply sharing another mixed bag
4:50
of five. And I don't have too much
4:52
feedback for these five episodes.
4:54
Some good ones coming up though. Keep up the good work, Bill.
4:57
Well, I hope to be doing that right now as we head back into
5:00
the heart of The X-Files where the alien conspiracy is about to
5:03
get a little bit clony. Thanks to everyone who has
5:08
listened to the podcast over the 1st 10 episodes and those that
5:13
have offered their thoughts. And if you'd like to leave your
5:15
own thoughts on anything to do with this podcast or this
5:17
episode, I'll give you all the contact details at the end of
5:21
the episode. But for now, let's get back on
5:24
track in Season 2, where we start to see some significant
5:27
changes and additions to the story that bring us to some of
5:31
the best parts of the early seasons of The X-Files.
5:40
So let's kick it off with episode 16 of Season 2 titled
5:45
Colony. This was written by the pairing
5:47
of Chris Carter and David Duchovny, and was directed by
5:50
Nick Mark. So apparently Carter said that
5:54
while Colony is a part of the alien mythology of the series,
5:58
it quoted came about inadvertently when David
6:02
Duchovny suggested that it would be interesting to face an alien
6:06
bounty hunter. So the two of them sat down and
6:08
discussed this further, which then brought up the idea to,
6:12
whew, spoiler alert, bring in Samantha Mulder.
6:17
But there are spoiler alerts from the beginning of the
6:19
episode anyway, so as it opens up with the closing scene from
6:22
the following episode. So we're already ahead of
6:25
ourselves as the episode opens. And this has Mulder's dialogue,
6:30
or his monologue, sorry, over the top, explaining that he had
6:33
lived his life based on the premise of what had occurred
6:36
with his sister, and that though he is now dying, spoiler Lord
6:41
again, he can die knowing that he was right and that there is
6:45
intelligent life in the universe and that they have begun to
6:48
colonize all of Louvre. Which leaves us with a number of
6:52
questions to kick off, and perhaps the deluded belief that
6:56
we will actually get answers to them.
7:00
So the episode clicks into high gear immediately with the
7:02
arrival of said bounty hunter in frozen ocean of the North, who
7:06
immediately gets into action by tracking down doctors and
7:10
bumping them off. Mulder gets emails of these
7:13
killings, which is immediately suspicious to him because all of
7:17
the doctors look identical. So he and Scully are immediately
7:20
on the case and having tracked down another of these docs, they
7:24
send Asian Vice off to tracking down from the FBI.
7:28
Problem is, Bounty Hunter arrives ahead of them and
7:32
disposes of him. But does he?
7:36
Because when Mulder and Scully arrive, Vice meets them at the
7:39
front door and tells them the doc has disappeared.
7:43
Now let's kick it up a notch. Skinner brings Mulder in and
7:47
gives him an absolute dressing down as Vice has turned up dead,
7:50
and he tells him that his investigation is shut down,
7:53
despite it being an X file. Of course, despite this, Mulder
7:58
and Scully meet with CICIA, sorry official Ambrose Chapel,
8:03
who tells them that the doctors are clones from a Soviet
8:06
genetics program and are being systematically killed off by
8:10
both the Russian and US governments.
8:14
Unfortunately for Mulder and Scully, Chapel is actually the
8:17
bounty hunter who is able to shapeshift to look like
8:21
basically anyone and is now using the agents to track down
8:25
the remaining docks. And though Scully is suspicious,
8:29
Mulder actually believes he is genuine.
8:33
Maybe we should have dropped this case when you were told.
8:36
Scully. What our friend from the CIA
8:38
says is true. This could blow the lid off one
8:39
of the biggest national security conspiracies ever, our friend.
8:42
From the CIA is about as unbelievable as his story, as is
8:46
everything about this case. I mean, whatever happened to
8:48
trust no one, Mulder? I changed it to trust everyone.
8:51
I didn't tell you I ran a full background.
8:53
Check on this guy. Ambrose Chapel is a 17 year
8:56
veteran special. Intelligence clearance.
8:58
He's the real thing, Scully. Why would a man with his
9:03
experience need our help? And how could he let a man that
9:06
he's been looking so hard for slip away so easily?
9:10
You know, that doctor wasn't running away from us, Molda.
9:12
He was running away from Agent Chapel.
9:14
I think you're being overly paranoid about him, Scully.
9:16
Paranoid. Have you stopped to consider
9:19
that maybe it was Asian Chapel who killed that field agent in
9:21
Syracuse? Is that what you want me to put
9:22
on my report to Skinner? Because I'd be more than happy
9:25
to have you explain that to. Me.
9:26
Dammit Molda, that is not my job.
9:28
You'll pursue a case at the expense of everything to the
9:30
point of insanity and expect me to follow you.
9:33
There has to be somewhere to draw the line. 3 identical men
9:36
are dead. 1/4 identical man is alive and on the lamb.
9:39
If the pursuit of this case seems like insanity to you, feel
9:42
free to step away from it. An FBI agent died because of our
9:45
pursuit. Of this case.
9:46
Those are the risks we take. You either accept them or you
9:48
don't. We all draw our own lines.
9:55
From out of nowhere, though, Mulder gets a call from his
9:58
father Bill, who asks him to return home immediately.
10:02
For what we discover is the return of Samantha Mulder 22
10:08
years after her disappearance. Now, on watching the episode,
10:13
this feels like a convenient distraction, one that will allow
10:17
the bounty hunter to complete his work.
10:19
But we discover much more is happening here as the episode
10:22
barrels towards its conclusion, as Mulder is discovering from
10:26
Samantha that the bounty hunter and the clones are actually
10:29
aliens, and that once the bounty hunter finishes exterminating
10:33
them, he will be coming after her.
10:36
Scully has tracked down a lab that contains 4 of the clone's
10:39
doctors who ask for her help, sorry, her help in escaping
10:43
their fate. Unfortunately, Scully leads the
10:47
bounty hunter right to them and he disposes of them in quick
10:50
order, which leaves him with one more target.
10:54
And to do this, he needs a hostage to negotiate and track
10:58
down that target. And the episode ends with Mulder
11:02
meeting Scully at her hotel room just as Mulder calls her on the
11:07
phone at the same time, leaving us all to believe that the
11:10
bounty hunter is in town. And we fade to the To be
11:14
Continued banner on the screen. Now what a ripping episode this
11:19
is. We are back into the alien
11:22
mythology in a big way because we have several layers of
11:25
exploring to take in. The cloned doctors, all a part
11:29
of an alien colony that he's being set up to become the
11:32
number one species of the planet along with a cross breeding
11:35
program of human alien hybrids that brings the ire of the head
11:40
of the alien invasion. Which is why they sent the alien
11:43
bounty hunter in to exterminate their progress.
11:46
All as Mulder and Scully try to keep up and stay with the game.
11:51
And the return of Samantha Mulder is a massive payday in
11:54
the series. The reason Fox has pursued his
11:57
path for 22 years has suddenly returned, but also with an
12:02
agenda in mind. Is it really Samantha?
12:05
Or is this a part of the ploy to eradicate the clones on the
12:09
planet? We also meet Bill Mulder, Fox's
12:12
father, for the first time, and we can see the strained
12:16
relationship between him and Fox.
12:19
And at the end we can see that once again it seems as though
12:22
Scully is going to find a way to get herself kidnapped.
12:27
So there's a lot going on, and even though it isn't a stand
12:30
alone episode, it has so much packed into it that it feels
12:34
longer than a normal story in the series, and there is plenty
12:38
unanswered. Will the bounty hunter take out
12:40
Scully? Well, obviously no, but who
12:44
knows. Is Samantha who she claims to
12:46
be, with Mulder and his mother still questioning whether it can
12:50
really be her. Why is Bill Mulder such as Sour
12:55
Puss? And with that opening scene
12:57
which references what is yet to come, how does Mulder end up
13:02
almost dying on the ice? It was a nice cliffhanger to
13:06
finish on to leave the viewer waiting for a week for the
13:09
answers to be laid out for them. This is a terrific episode and
13:13
is finally another five out of five episode, reaching back into
13:18
the alien mythos we are all here for and leaving us wondering
13:23
what is yet to come. So from that cliffhanger ending,
13:32
if you are like those of us who watched it when the series first
13:35
aired and only came out on a weekly basis and you had to wait
13:40
a whole week to see what would happen in episode 17 of season
13:44
2, which is titled End Game, an ominous title if there ever was
13:50
1. This episode was directed by Rob
13:53
Bowman and written by Frank Spotnitz, his first episode of
13:57
The X-Files, but by no means his last.
14:00
Spotnitz became a prolific X-Files contributor as well as
14:04
being involved in the creation and writing of the spin off
14:07
series The Lone Gunman, which we will definitely be talking about
14:11
down the road a bit further. He also helped to create the
14:15
series The Man in the High Castle, which is based on the
14:18
novel by Philip K Dick, and it is worth watching if you haven't
14:21
already done so. Spottnitz later said in an
14:25
interview that he and Carter, who helped him with this episode
14:28
as it was his first writing credit on the show, were overly
14:32
ambitious on what they tried to achieve here.
14:36
As could be expected from the end of the previous episode,
14:38
Scully is indeed battered and kidnapped by the bounty hunter.
14:43
And even though there was a stunt double used in places, it
14:47
was pretty brave of Gillian Anderson to take part in those
14:50
scenes given she had given birth just a couple of months before
14:54
and they are pretty realistic. So it is confronting to see
14:58
Scully treated the way she is in that opening scene.
15:02
Once Mulder discovers her trashed hotel room, it's time
15:06
for Samantha to come clean because she knows full well that
15:08
it is her that the bounty hunter wants and he will try to set up
15:12
a trade. And the reason is because the
15:14
clones who have been posing as doctors are all a part of a
15:17
colony who are trying to establish themselves on Earth to
15:20
become the prime species of the planet.
15:24
And to this end they are looking to create alien human hybrids to
15:27
make that transition easier. This has displeased the aliens
15:32
still up out there in the sky and so the bounty adder has been
15:35
sent down to destroy the colony, something he is proving
15:38
extremely adept at. Samantha of course also reveals
15:43
how to kill the bounty hunter and by the way, any alien clone
15:48
that is sent down. Skinner arrives to try and
15:52
contemplate what is happening and it is now that Mulder says
15:55
to him, if I ever needed your help, your trust, it's now.
16:01
So the trade between Scully and Samantha is set up with a sniper
16:05
on hand to take out the bounty hunter, and that goes about as
16:10
well as you would expect. Scully is saved, but Samantha
16:14
and the bounty hunter plunge into the icy depths of the river
16:17
below. So two things happen here, both
16:21
very significant as we move forward.
16:24
Mulder returns home to inform his parents that Samantha,
16:27
returned for all of a day or two, is now dead.
16:31
And the scene between Fox and his father Bill is a Ripper.
16:36
Duchovny's acting in this scene is just superb when he awkwardly
16:40
tries to hug his father who spurns his advances, the slow
16:44
breaking down as he tries to apologize to his father for
16:47
allowing Samantha to be killed. Everything about that scene
16:51
showcases that Duchovny is a serious actor and not just the
16:55
guy making a few bucks from a science fiction series.
16:59
And the other point here is when Bill says your sis Samantha left
17:05
this at the house for you in case she went missing.
17:08
The stutter to not complete the word sister and instead say
17:13
Samantha leads you to believe that perhaps Bill Mulder knows
17:16
something that his son does not. And what might that be?
17:21
And how would he know? And is it the first indication
17:24
here that Bill Mulder, who has only just arrived in this
17:28
series, knows a bit more about what is going on than he has
17:32
ever revealed to his son? As Scully watches, the frozen,
17:37
recovered body of Samantha from the river corrode away like
17:41
those of the clones before her, thus confirming that she was
17:44
also a clone. Mulder discovers the clinic with
17:48
the dozens of clones of Samantha, which obviously
17:51
infuriates him because of the mental and emotional anguish
17:54
this has all caused him. Despite their pleas for his
17:58
help, the bounty hunter arrives, knocks Mulder out and disposes
18:02
of the evidence. So now Fox is a little cranky
18:07
and he goes to our good mate X to find out the location of the
18:11
bounty hunter and then he disappears with instructions in
18:17
an e-mail to Scully to not follow him.
18:20
Well, that's not going to happen, but finding him proves
18:24
more difficult. Scully goes to Skinner who
18:26
refuses to help. She then realizes that Mulder
18:30
had contacted X, so she does the same.
18:33
X turns up to Mulder's apartment, expecting Mulder to
18:36
be there, but when Scully answers the door, he leaves
18:39
without answering her questions. However, the Saviour is at hand
18:45
and Skinner is the man. He turns up and he beats the
18:50
crap out of X to get Mulder's location out of him.
18:53
And that is another great scene. It shows that X is not quite as
18:58
careful as he would like to be, and that Skinner is far more
19:02
invested in what is happening around him than he might pretend
19:05
to be. He doesn't pretend to understand
19:08
what is happening in all of these dealings, but he is
19:11
willing to inject himself when he wants an answer of some
19:14
description. And this episode provides
19:17
another couple of excellent examples of how Skinner's
19:20
character is growing in this series.
19:26
Where's Mulder? Sorry, I must have the wrong
19:30
apartment. Where's Mulder?
19:37
I need to know. Damn it, I'm.
19:39
Sorry, you've mistaken me for someone else.
19:41
I'm losing time. I'm sorry.
19:50
I can't help you. Excuse me?
20:06
Did you tell her what she needed to know?
20:13
How hard you want to make? This no harder.
20:16
Than it has to be. I've killed men for five.
20:34
S you pull that trigger, you'll be killing two man.
20:39
No, I want to know what Mulder is.
20:49
Agent Mulder took a commercial flight to Tacoma, WA and he
20:53
caught a military plane to Deadhorse, Alaska.
20:59
Uses it. Mulder, of course, is chasing
21:02
the bounty hunter and has been directed to a stranded and
21:05
abandoned submarine trapped in the ice in the Arctic, where of
21:08
course he confronts the bounty hunter who is trying to escape
21:12
to his escape craft, in the process being exposed to the
21:16
toxicity of his blood and then left to die on the ice.
21:21
And this is where we return to the opening scene of the
21:24
previous episode, with Scully arriving and saving Mulder's
21:28
life by explaining that the retrovirus is in fact halted by
21:32
low temperature, and by trying to bring Mulder's body
21:35
temperature back to normal, they are in fact killing him.
21:39
The bounty hunter and the sub have now disappeared, but Mulder
21:43
is alive. And as Scully ends the episode
21:46
espousing how it is science that had saved Mulder, Mulder himself
21:50
is saying that he has been invigorated in his search for
21:53
the truth. So there are lots of great
21:56
pieces through this episode. And even though it was a 2
21:59
parter, this episode is really packed full of great parts of
22:03
the alien arc of the show. Samantha was here, but it wasn't
22:07
her. But it is suggested that she is
22:10
still alive by both the Samantha clones at the facility and the
22:14
bounty hunter himself. Scully and Mulder have again
22:18
both been battered and you wonder that in real life how
22:22
much more they would be able to take of that happening every
22:25
couple of weeks. Walter Skinner had an important
22:29
part to play in this storyline, which is terrific for the series
22:31
itself. And Bill Mulder has arrived and
22:35
it feels as though he knows a lot more about what's going on
22:38
than he is letting on. So without a doubt, this is a 5
22:42
out of five episode. These two episodes have brought
22:46
life back to this series and also that alien mythology arc,
22:51
and it's right when it was needed.
22:59
How do you follow up those last two episodes of this show?
23:03
Well, you come up with episode 18 of Season 2 titled Fearful
23:07
Symmetry, helmed by two first timers on the show, directed by
23:11
James Whitmore Junior and written by Steve De Jarnette.
23:16
OK, so this is a strange 1 and it probably won't be a surprise
23:20
to you that it is quite the come down from what we have already
23:23
seen on the previous two episodes.
23:26
And even though this is considered to be a monster of
23:29
the week episode, it has as much of the aliens from outer space
23:33
about it as anything else. So let's visit Fairfield Zoo and
23:39
try to work out why animals seem to be disappearing without any
23:42
means of escape along with turning up miles away.
23:46
This could have begun as the case of the invisible elephant,
23:51
but it involves from that into a story about alien abduction.
23:55
Believe it or not, around the story on the edges it sees
23:59
conservationists trying to have caged animals in the zoo being
24:03
released back into the wild, and the case of Sophie the gorilla,
24:07
who has learned sign language with her saviour and keeper
24:10
Ambrose, who is being sought by the Malawi government to be
24:14
returned to them. We have the X file of
24:17
disappearing animals that suddenly reappear miles away
24:21
that then come to grief in other ways.
24:24
It's not until it is discovered that the elephant that
24:27
disappeared and then reappeared had been pregnant, and that the
24:31
same was discovered not long after by a tiger that it had the
24:35
same occurrence, that Mulder espouses his theory.
24:41
He suggests that the animals are being abducted by aliens and
24:45
then being artificially inseminated before having the
24:48
embryos harvested and then return to the zoo.
24:52
Except that he believes they have a problem in returning to
24:55
the zoo for whatever reason the writers could not come up with.
24:59
Which is why they are turning up not back at the zoo and instead
25:03
some miles away on an abandoned Rd.
25:06
Why? Well, Mulder speculates on an
25:09
alien Noah's Ark to save the creatures that humans appear to
25:13
be wiping out. Great theory.
25:15
Which is then more or less confirmed by the sign language
25:19
using gorilla Sophie when she says she is scared because baby
25:24
go flying light. Among the chaos of the zoo being
25:28
shut down and the death of animals and some of the story's
25:32
protagonists, Sophie disappears after bashing the crap out of
25:36
Mulder and then turns up on the highway and is taken out by a
25:41
police car. Good job aliens, really good
25:44
navigation. So this episode ends with Molder
25:48
suggesting that what has occurred has been an alien
25:51
conservation effort in trying to create their own Noah's Ark of
25:55
the planet's endangered species. Now what this always set off in
26:00
my head was does this mean that the same alien race that are
26:05
looking to colonize the Earth are also playing
26:08
conservationists? Or is there more than one alien
26:11
race looking to plunder the Earth's resources and then take
26:14
them for their own? And if so, will that come to
26:17
bear in future episodes and series of The X-Files?
26:22
Because if there is more than one alien race having a crack at
26:24
the Earth, we are in some serious trouble.
26:28
And of course, well, that will have to wait for future episodes
26:33
to have an answer attached to it.
26:35
And it adds up to the depth of what The X-Files alien mythology
26:39
arc is actually setting up. But apart from all of that, is
26:45
this that interesting an episode?
26:48
It is an interesting concept, I'll give it that.
26:52
But as to just how important this episode is, well, look,
26:56
that's open to individual interpretation.
27:01
Willa Ambrose and Ed Meacham have been charged with
27:03
manslaughter for the death of Kyle Lang, and though the courts
27:07
will rule on this matter and justice will no doubt be served,
27:10
the pall of a greater tragedy remains.
27:13
The motives of the silent visitors who set these events in
27:16
motion remain unclear. Could this be a judgement on a
27:19
global rate of extinction that has risen to 1000 times its
27:23
natural rate in this century? An act of alien conservation of
27:27
animals? We are driving hard toward
27:28
oblivion. And if so, might it follow that
27:33
our own fate and existence could finally be dependent on the
27:36
conservatorship of an extraterrestrial race?
27:41
Or, in the simple words, of a creature whose own future is
27:44
uncertain, will man save man? I'm happy to rank this as a
27:52
three out of five episode for its slightly quirky storyline
27:55
and the fact that it did, in my mind at least, open up the
27:59
possibility of more than one alien race taking an interest in
28:04
Earth in this series, But beyond that, this just feels like a bit
28:10
of filler. We've had some strange turn of
28:19
events so far on today's podcast episode, and that continues as
28:23
we head deeper into Season 2 with episode 19 titled Dead
28:27
Calm. Though it is spelt in a
28:29
Norwegian way, I think it is, or a Swedish way.
28:33
This is directed by Rob Bowman and written by Howard Gordon and
28:36
Alex Ganza. Prior to this episode being
28:39
produced, the Canadian Forces had granted permission for the
28:42
show to use the HMCS McKenzie, a decommissioned destroyer, for
28:47
the production of Colony and End Game.
28:50
And then series creator Chris Carter, who wanted to take full
28:54
advantage of this rare opportunity, asked Howard Gordon
28:57
to write another episode that could also be filmed on the
29:00
ship, which was then scuttled after the filming and now
29:04
apparently acts as an artificial roof for divers.
29:08
So our agents are set in motion by the discovery of a sailor who
29:12
is the sole remaining survivor of the USS Ardent, whose age is
29:17
listed as 26, but Tiscali appears to be 90 years old.
29:22
Mulder offers some evidence of X-Files from the past of ships
29:26
that have disappeared without a trace in a similar arc on the
29:29
65th parallel. Well, that almost didn't come
29:32
out right, did it? On the 65th parallel up there in
29:35
the north. And he and Scully decide to head
29:37
out and see what they can discover when no one is willing
29:41
to take them to that area as they are spooked by old sea
29:44
legends of a meteorite that crashed through the ice hundreds
29:48
of years ago, they finally find someone who wants money enough
29:51
to take them in Henry Trondheim. They find the Argent by
29:56
literally crashing into it and boarding her.
29:59
They find it is corroded and looks, according to Trondheim,
30:03
like no one has been on board for 20 to 30 years.
30:07
They find corpses everywhere, almost mummified, and then
30:11
someone takes off in Trondheim's ship and leaves them stranded.
30:18
Mulder's initial conclusion is that the Argent is a military
30:21
experiment that uses a time beam technology to try and travel
30:26
through time, much like in the Philadelphia Experiment, but it
30:30
doesn't quite seem to hold logic to it.
30:33
Things change once Trondheim's first mate Halvorson is killed.
30:37
They discover the ship's captain Barclay, who looks 100 but is
30:41
actually 36, who offers what little he can before he carks
30:46
it, and then the pirate whaler Olafsson is found and detained
30:50
as he tries to off Trondheim. From here we lead into Scully's
30:56
explanation for the time acceleration that is being
30:59
experienced. Walter, what do you know about
31:03
free? Radicals, this is a quiz.
31:07
They're highly reactive chemicals containing extra
31:09
electrons. Now they can attack DNA
31:12
proteins. They can cause our body tissue
31:14
and cell membranes to oxidize. Grow old, you mean?
31:17
Is the prevailing theory on how our bodies age.
31:21
So you think something is triggering that reaction in US?
31:24
Well, this is just a theory, but what if this ship is drifting
31:27
towards another massive metallic source like a meteor?
31:31
Maybe it's way down deep in the ocean or embedded into an
31:33
iceberg, but the two could effectively be acting as
31:37
positive and negative terminals. With the ocean itself being a
31:40
kind of giant battery. That level of electromagnetic
31:44
energy could be exciting the free radicals and effectively
31:47
oxidizing every piece of matter in in its field.
31:51
It makes sense, Scully, the organic equivalent to rust would
31:55
be rapid premature senescence. What the hell?
32:00
Borneo? Scully and Mulder are
32:02
experiencing the same effects, though Olafsson appears
32:05
relatively unaffected. On a journey into the bowels of
32:09
the ship, they discover that the ship's sewage pipe is uncorroded
32:13
and a pine that it is the only water on board that is not
32:17
contaminated by the event that has taken over this ship, which
32:21
is why Olafsson and his crew were unaffected.
32:24
Olafsson, in trying to escape, has already offered this
32:28
information to Trondheim, who summarily bumps him off and
32:31
decides to hoard all that water for himself.
32:34
Good plan. Nothing could possibly go wrong
32:37
with that, except if the corrosion bursts all of the
32:41
other pipes and floods the compartment, leaving him to
32:44
drown. Oh no, that's what happens.
32:48
Who would have thought? Ha, it's a bit like Homer in The
32:52
Simpsons episode where the devil is trying to punish him and says
32:55
here have all the doulas in the world except for Trondheim.
33:00
It is water, and it is punishment by death, so the
33:05
final climax of the episode probably drags out far too long,
33:08
especially given that we know Mulder and Scully are going to
33:12
survive. Scully pulls together every drop
33:15
of water she can find, but Mulder slips into a coma as
33:18
Scully meticulously details all of the events, which ends up
33:23
saving them both because the docks they get airlifted to when
33:26
they get rescued. Read what she has written and
33:30
use her hypothesis to create the solution to bring them back to
33:34
reality. But the conversation between
33:37
Mulder and Scully of their fate and the Scully voice over
33:41
explaining their predicament and then the final rescue scene
33:45
could have been brought about quicker and tighter in the best
33:49
elements of the show's best episodes.
33:53
Beyond that it's a really good episode.
33:56
Gordon and Ganza have come up with another interesting story
33:59
that again combines monster of the week with the element of
34:03
visitors from outer space. This time of course being the
34:06
meteorite which has caused the situation from where it has
34:09
landed and by suggesting the ships disappear without a trace
34:14
over time has its explanation on the fact that the hulls breach
34:18
and the boats sink is actually a really good storyline.
34:22
Not sure that works with wooden holes from the past, but stop
34:26
trying so hard to dissect everything, Bill.
34:30
The story keeps ramping up through the episode, and the
34:32
introduction of each factor is done really well to keep the
34:36
episode moving. As I said though, except for
34:40
those last five minutes or so, which just drags out too long.
34:44
Which I guess is why I'm only going to rate this a four out of
34:47
five episode when it maybe, perhaps deserves half a point
34:52
more. And so to today's final episode,
35:01
one that stretches The X-Files to a different part of its
35:05
shared universe with episode 20 of Season 2, titled Humbug,
35:12
directed by Kim Manners and written by Darren Morgan, his
35:16
second writing credit for the season and the show.
35:20
And let's climb on board, people, because this might be a
35:23
monster of the week episode, it might have no elements of the
35:27
Alien mythology arc, but it is definitely an X file episode in
35:31
the grand traditions of the show, and everything is nailed
35:35
to the wall here. It is a ripping story, told
35:38
beautifully and filmed and directed perfectly.
35:44
Our intrepid agents are called to the town of Gibsonton after
35:48
the murder of a man that matches up with 48 similar attacks over
35:52
a 28 year period, all with a similar MO.
35:57
There seems no motive for the killings and it doesn't appear
36:00
to herald a serial killer. The victim in this case is a man
36:05
known as the Alligator Man who lives in a community of circus
36:09
freak performers and the scene that opens the funeral with the
36:14
pan around to all of the people attending is just terrific and
36:18
gives you a good sense of what is going to happen from the
36:21
outset. The complete destruction of the
36:23
funeral as Doctor Blockhead, played by the real live Jim
36:27
Ross, is topped off perfectly as Molder states to Scully in the
36:31
deserted clearing. I can't wait for the wake.
36:36
The scenes as they are written and performed in this episode
36:38
are top shelf. The one with Mulder and Scully
36:42
trying to book a room with the hotel manager Mr. Nutt is
36:46
wonderfully deadpan and hilarious as a result.
36:49
The first sighting of Lanny and his conjoined brother Leonard is
36:53
excellent, with Vincent Chevelli perfect in the role of Lanny.
36:58
The appearance of the conundrum emerging from the river with a
37:01
live fish and consuming it in front of Mulder holds centre
37:05
stage. The sight of both Lanny and
37:08
Scully tightening their dressing robes as they each looked at
37:11
each other is a great short write up and then really well
37:15
performed. And Dr. Blockhead exhibiting his
37:18
own skills is fascinatingly amusing as well.
37:22
His quote about being able to draw his testicles up into his
37:25
abdomen, followed by Mulder's reply of Minor doing that as we
37:29
speak is spot on. And the discovery that Sheriff
37:33
Hamilton was once Jim Jim the dog faced boy until his hair
37:38
began to fall out is timed superbly in the story.
37:43
So the deaths keep coming and yet each suspect comes along and
37:47
then is ruled out through the circumstances of the episode.
37:51
Each new murder is just as strange and supposedly
37:54
unsolvable, but the laughs keep coming as well.
37:57
The humour infused into this episode is the star attraction
38:01
alongside the excellent portrayals of the characters.
38:05
It isn't until Lenny is taken to the cells to sleep off his
38:08
emotional outburst that it is discovered that his twin Leonard
38:12
can detach from him and roam around independently.
38:16
And Lenny, who has known what has been happening from the
38:18
beginning but did not want to implicate himself, tells the
38:22
agents that Leonard is looking for a new brother.
38:25
And by trying to attach himself to his victims in the same way
38:28
that he attaches himself to Lenny, he ends up killing them.
38:32
And then Leonard has to come back.
38:35
This wound is identical to the other victims wounds with one
38:38
exception. He's not bleeding.
38:41
If you're trying to tell me his twin brother can crawl out of
38:43
his body and then go gallivant around town, you're as drunk as
38:46
he is. You said it yourself, Sheriff.
38:49
It's what's inside that counts. I have a feeling that Lanny has
38:53
an internal. Anomaly that allows his.
38:55
Conjoining twin to disjoin. But.
38:57
How, how, How could I turn him in without turning myself in?
39:04
Lanny why does he attack other people?
39:07
I don't think he knows he's harming anyone.
39:12
He's merely seeking another brother.
39:16
Are you in pain, Lanny? It hurts.
39:25
It hurts not to be wanted. I don't know why he hates me so.
39:37
I've taken care of him for all of our lives.
39:44
Maybe that is the reason why. How long can he survive outside
39:49
of your body? Long enough to understand that
39:55
you cannot change the way you were born.
40:01
So our agents head off in pursuit of Leonard, finding the
40:05
Conundrum having been attacked by him but still OK, and the
40:09
trail following that goes cold. The following morning, Doctor
40:14
Blockhead and the Conundrum are packing up and leaving, feeling
40:16
they are unsafe while Leonard is on the loose.
40:20
Mulder asks how the Conundrum is as he still appears under the
40:23
weather, and as the car pulls away, he utters his only words
40:28
of the episode. Probably something I ate.
40:31
And as the episode fades to black, Mulder and Scully give
40:35
each other that quizzical look, suggesting that they now
40:39
suddenly know of Leonard's fate. So let me just say this again.
40:44
What a brilliant episode. This was written by Darren
40:48
Morgan that many of you will remember acted as the flute man
40:51
in the early season 2 episode The Host, and he wrote the story
40:55
for the episode Blood that followed it.
40:58
But here he wrote this on his lonesome and the terrifically
41:02
unique storyline as well as the humor brought into the script is
41:05
what sets this apart as one of the very best episodes of season
41:10
2. It is an absolute X file in
41:12
itself without any of the alien spark about it that most fans
41:17
want of the show. The casting as well is brilliant
41:21
using members of the Jim Rose circus including including sorry
41:24
Jim Rose himself and the Enigma who played the Conundrum as well
41:28
as established actors to bring the right mood and feeling to
41:32
the episode as well. The direction in filming, helmed
41:35
by Kim Manners, is terrific as well, which is really
41:38
interesting because he had some problems with his episode
41:41
apparently and felt that there was too much humour in many
41:46
places. And in fact he left a lot of
41:48
scenes on the cutting room floor that he felt were out of place.
41:52
And the way that David Duchovny and Julian Anderson portray
41:56
their characters in this episode also lays the foundation for how
42:00
the episode works so well. So yes, this is a 5 out of five
42:06
episode, and it's one that if you haven't seen, you really
42:11
must go and watch. Because not only does it
42:14
epitomize The X-Files, because the whole episode is certainly
42:17
an X file, but it also shows that you don't have to make
42:22
every episode somewhere where Mulder and Scully are getting
42:26
the crap booting out of them or getting kidnapped or any of
42:28
those things to make a really great X-Files episode.
42:38
So that's all there is for me for this episode #11 is in the
42:42
books. And it's fair to say that we are
42:45
very much back on track with these 5 episodes of the series
42:49
and much more compelling as a selection of episodes, which I
42:53
will talk more about in my Susan Wrap episode.
42:56
But here we had three, five out of five episodes, a four out of
43:00
five and a three out of five. So this has been a really good
43:03
selection to have been able to watch once again.
43:06
But of course before we get to that season wrap episode, we
43:10
have the epic 5 episode conclusion to season 2 and
43:15
perhaps the best and worst cliffhanger it has ever been my
43:20
misfortune to have had to watch. So thanks for listening and
43:24
being a part of this. If you would like to get
43:26
involved and give your thoughts on this episode, there are a
43:29
number of ways you can do it. You can find me on X as Metal
43:33
Bill with the handle at Royal Metal Kevin.
43:36
I'm on Blue sky as metal Bill under at Metal Kevin dot B sky
43:40
dot social. You can leave a comment on the
43:43
episode page on Spotify. If you're listening to this
43:46
podcast on that streaming service or if you want to check
43:49
out my Patreon page, you can find that at the creation of me,
43:52
a lifetime retrospective and look up at real metal Kevin at
43:56
Patreon. Go to the podcast Revisiting The
43:59
X-Files, and you can leave a comment on that page for this
44:02
episode as well. You don't have to be a paying
44:05
member of my Patreon account to go to that site.
44:09
You do just have to be a free member.
44:11
And then you can go and look at that site for revisiting The
44:15
X-Files episodes, and you can leave comments there by doing it
44:18
that way. And of course, if you know
44:20
anyone who may be interested in going on this journey with us,
44:24
please pass on this episode to them and let's get them on
44:26
board. Wouldn't that be great?
44:29
All right, enough for me for this episode.
44:31
I appreciate the fact that you're still here, if you are
44:34
still here. As I said, there was some time
44:37
between episodes. I'm looking to rectify that
44:39
going forward to make sure that we still have just the two week
44:43
break between episodes. And obviously the next one is
44:47
the big one, the last five episodes of season 2, which I am
44:51
looking forward to reliving all over again.
44:54
So when I return with revisiting The X-Files, I expect that we'll
44:58
all be able to say once again, the truth is out there.
45:03
Cheers.