The Grand X-Periment Day 15

10/15/11

39 & 40) Christmas Carol & Emily- Season 5, Episodes 6 & 7- These two episodes are omitted from the official Mytharc collection but that seems like a huge mistake. Just because Mulder isn't the focus doesn't mean these episodes have no importance.

In this two-parter, Scully is contacted by the ghost of her sister and led to intervene in the life of a little girl named Emily. Scully is convinced that Emily is the daughter of her deceased sister, born in secret and given up for adoption. The first episode has only one shot of Mulder in it so it is an all Scully episode. With the help of a San Diego detective, Scully finds out that Emily's adopted mother was murdered and even manages to catch the killer (kind of). The end of the episode is a big old reveal that Scully is actually Emily's mom.

Besides the ghost call, everything else is explained in part two. Mulder helps put together the pieces that Emily was made from the ovum stolen from Scully (Mulder found out about that in the Memento Mori episode). Mulder further discovers that the conspiracy is using elderly women to give birth to the hybrids made out of the stolen ova. I guess the precise mechanism by which the hybrids are born doesn't really matter but it does help make the big picture clearer. And we learn there is more than one shapeshifter on the conspiracy payroll.

However, they did lose a great opportunity to tie this all back into Roush Pharmaceuticals (the company said to have been pulling all the strings back in Redux). Instead they introduce Prangen Pharmaceuticals. Oh well.

The real pleasure of these episodes is in seeing Gillian Anderson just act the hell out of wanting a family. Perhaps I was more moved than I would usually be because of some personal stuff going on with me but this was yet another example of how Anderson really pulls off the heavy lifting (acting-wise) in this series.

41) Bad Blood- Season 5, Episode 12- Skipping ahead a bit, we land at one my favorite non-myth eps. Luke Wilson and that freckled kid from the Sandlot guest star in this Rashomon inspired episode.

This is always a fun gimmick for any show. AV Club accused Jose Chung's From Outer Space as being a Rashomon episode but it is pretty linear, we just get different parts of the narrative from different unreliable sources. Rarely did their stories overlap. When Mulder and Scully tell their versions of an investigation into vampire like murders, the results are very funny.

First off, the cold open is probably one of my favorites besides The Unusual Suspects. We see the kid from the Sandlot running through the woods at night screaming for help and being chased by a shadowy man. Finally, the boy trips and turns to find Mulder over him, wielding a stake. Mulder puts the stake through the kid's heart and pounds it in with a rock. As Scully catches up, Mulder looks kind of proud and points out the kid's vampire teeth. As Scully removes the false teeth, Mulder wears a completely screwed look and says "Oh Shi-" cut to the opening credits.

Scully's version of the story includes a lot of Duchovny's comedy, doing his dialogue at twice his normal speed. She obviously has a crush on Luke Wilson's local sheriff from the moment she sees him. Mulder's version paints Anderson as a whining harpy. It is all pretty fun stuff.

The way the whole thing resolves actually makes sense when you think about it and it is one of the rare cases where they both get to be right. Also, like Darkness Falls, they actually fail to protect themselves from the threat at hand. Fun stuff.

42 & 43) Patient X & The Red and The Black- Season 5, Episodes 13 & 14- You don't normal think of this show as having a huge cast but in this two-parter, there are a lot of moving pieces even with Skinner and Cancer Man playing very small roles.

Faceless versions of the alien Bounty Hunter are turning up all over the world to murder groups of abductees who are assembling to be re-abducted. Krycek gets to the site of one massacre in Russia just a little late but snatches up the only survivor before Marita C. can for the Conspiracy guys. Krycek beats info out of the boy, has the boy infected with black oil and then sews the boys eyes, mouth and ears shut to prevent the oil from escaping. When the poor kid dies at the end of the first part, it is kind of a blessing.

Meanwhile, we meet two new and pivotal characters. Jeffrey and Cassandra Spender are an FBI agent and his abductee mother (respectively). Jeffrey just wants to make a name for himself without people finding out about his mother and labeling him another Fox Mulder. Cassandra just wants to be abducted again like a space hippie.

Meanwhile meanwhile, Scully and Mulder have totally switched places. Mulder believes is no such thing as aliens. Scully is feeling drawn to a location to be abducted again. Scully buys into Cassandra's story a little too easily for my tastes. Scully's skepticism should not be that shaken. Mulder had decades to develop his beliefs and Scully is a total convert after four (most of them not that convincing)? Mulder jumping to conclusions and believing that everything he thought was true was a lie rings true to his character. Scully is usually more careful than this.

Meanwhile meanwhile meanwhile, the Conspiracy is all up in arms because they are caught between warring alien factions. The faceless bounty hunters are trying to prevent the colonization of Earth. The faced ones are still helping the Conspiracy.

By the end, Scully has almost been killed but switches back to being skeptical for some reason. Mulder has faith again after bumbling his way into a fight between the faceless and faced aliens. The Conspiracy have a vaccine for the Black Oil that Krycek stole from Russia so now they can resist their alien collaborators if they want to. Marita is outed as a sort of triple agent who screws over the Conspiracy and Krycek to get info to Mulder. Cassandra is abducted and Jeffrey Spender is revealed to be the long lost son of the Cancer Man. Whew...that is a lot of plot for two episodes and I am leaving a lot of it out.

For all the moaning and complaining about how slowly the mytharc moves, this one feels a little too fast. If I remember reading other things correctly, the alien rebellion is a loose end that never really gets resolved. Maybe that alone tells us that the Faced alien won the fight Mulder can't recall at the end? The writers had to get Mulder back to a level of plausible acceptance of weirdness and Scully back to being cynical so that dynamic could play out in the movie.

I think Gillian Anderson deserved another Emmy for having to play completely nonsensical emotional developments. From her super fast attachment to Emily to her Crazy Ivans in regards to her belief in UFOs, the writers have tasked her with moving through changes no one would ever go through.

Anyway, the big picture of the conspiracy is still surprisingly easy to keep track of. The movie tomorrow will kind of lay out the exact plan for colonization but attentive viewers know that all the pieces are in place. Black Oil is a big part, bees are important. Abductions and cloning play some kind of part. Hopefully, it will all work out in the end...right?