The Grand X-Periment Day 20

10/20/11

52 & 53) Two Fathers, One Son- Season 6, Episodes 11 & 12- Full disclosure, this is the last mythology episode I remember watching during the original run of the show until the finale. And watching these again tonight, I can see why.

This two parter brings in every major cast member: Mulder, Scully, Skinner, The Lone Gunmen, Cassandra Spender, Jeffrey Spender, Cancer Man, Diana Fowley, Krycek, The Fat Man and Marita C. As I was telling a friend tonight, this was the payoff to six years worth of mytharc. It really felt like a kind of ending (despite the fact it totally wasn't).

Cassandra Spender is the first perfected human/alien hybrid. Now that she is done, the conspirators have a choice: kill her and let the aliens think they are still working on the hybrid project or deliver her to the aliens and let colonization begin at once. Cassandra becomes a pawn in a chess game between Mulder and Cancer Man (one hoping to fight the future and one hoping to insure it). There are multiple flies in the ointment as the shape-shifting rebels try to screw up the plans and Jeffrey Spender is led astray by Krycek and his father.

By the end, (MAJOR SPOILERS) Cassandra, Jeffrey and all the conspirators are dead. Diana is shown to be in league with Cancer Man. Mulder and Scully are probably back on the X-Files. This all seemed the buildup to the end of the world but, no thanks to any of our heroes, the world is spared colonization for now.

It was very cool to watch all these relationships built up over the years bounce off of each other. Mulder finally gets to hear exactly what the masterplan is (hybrids are slave labor and, once the process of bonding was perfected, the conspirators and their families would become hybrids). I still haven't figured out why dudes were abducted along with women unless their sperm was being harvested like women's ova (although there are easier ways).

At any rate, a good, violent, twisty two-parter that made me feel like I was leaving the show on a high note. I am super curious to see where the next three seasons go.

Tomorrow, the last two eps I watched in their original airing until the end of the 9th season.