X-Files S1E24: Trust that the truth is out there

Sestra Amateur: 

Funny how a simple title like "The Erlenmeyer Flask" can transport you back to 11th-grade chemistry class. But I’m pretty sure this episode will contain more deadly experiments than anyone ever experienced in a high-school classroom. Now let’s see how it relates to the season finale.

Somewhere in Maryland, patrol cops are in hot pursuit of a suspect. The terrified driver leaves his car and tries to run on foot, but the cops surround him. The suspect takes one of their batons and starts beating the police officers. Exhibiting unusual strength, he overpowers the cops. Another one arrives and tries to stun the suspect with a Tazer, but the suspect just pulls the probes out of his chest. I don’t know if any of you have ever used a Tazer-like device on a human being, but the “oh, shit” look on the cop’s face when it clearly had no effect is pretty accurate. Luckily for this cop, the suspect chooses to run away instead of continuing the attack. The cop shoots at the man who jumps into the river. It looks like the guy was hit, but instead of seeing blood there are puddles of green goo on the dock. Looks like he's on the right show.

Deep Throat calls Mulder and wakes him up. Sestra Pro, what movie was on Mulder’s television? One actor sounded like James Mason, but it wasn’t a film I’ve seen before. Also, does it have some related meaning/foreshadowing with this episode or was it picked randomly? DT tells Mulder to watch the news, so he records the coverage of the chase and reviews the tape ad nauseum. He cannot identify one spectator who I’m going to refer to as Unknown Man. Mulder learns the incident began with a moving violation. See how quickly situations can escalate? 

Sculder go to the crime scene, which 18 hours after the incident, still looks very active. The police captain out-thinks Mulder while Scully looks bored. They check out the suspect’s car and learned someone secretly replaced the original one with Folgers. I mean someone stole a rental car and replaced it with the one the suspect originally took, which belonged to Dr. Berube of the Emgen Corporation molecular research laboratory. 

Berube is very carefully handling substances in an Erlenmeyer flask. While questioning the doc, one of his monkeys tries to bite Scully. Berube then gives Sculder the move-along. Scully refuses to continue the investigation because she thinks DT is yanking Mulder’s chain – her words, not mine. So when Mulder meets with his informant, he gives him a piece of his mind. Scully would have been proud -- but Mulder stays on DT’s hook and continues the investigation. 

Back at the lab, Unknown Man arrives looking for Dr. Secare, the moving violator. He kills Berube as Secare emerges from the river. Guess Secare can breathe underwater. The next morning, Sculder are back at Berube’s lab investigating his “suicide." They learn Berube was working on the Human Genome Project, the mapping of human genes. With his bare hands, Mulder picks up the flask labeled “purity control” that Berube handled so cautiously. He convinces Scully to test the contents. Scully takes the flask from him and I have to keep reminding myself they weren’t using latex gloves very often 22 years ago. 

Scully takes the flask to Georgetown University. Dr. Carpenter, the hooker from Arthur, analyzes the contents and tells the agent it contained a bacteria and virus that Berube was cloning for gene therapy. Scully also learns that the bacteria predates homo sapiens and the DNA contains an “extraterrestrial” base panel. Guess she's back on board. 

Mulder illegally enters Berube’s home and finds keys for a storage facility. Secare calls Berube, but Mulder answers the phone while the Unknown Man is eavesdropping. Secare is unable to say where he is because of his injuries. A Good Samaritan calls for an ambulance. The paramedics try to treat Secare, but he releases a toxic gas that overpowers the EMTs and their driver. How come we see the green goo and blood here, but no blood at the original crime scene? I’m calling the continuity police. 

Mulder goes to the storage facility and opens locker #1056. Hey Sestra Pro, shouldn’t it be #1013? Inside, he finds adult human bodies that appear to be asleep in tanks of murky water. Mulder is chased by Unknown Man and his cronies. Surprisingly, Mulder walks all the way home instead of ... oh, I don’t know, doubling back to see what the men are doing or calling Scully from any other phone in the state of Maryland. This is one of those times when a great story can get marred by a contrived, senseless plot point. 

So Scully goes to Mulder’s apartment to pick him up and they arrive back at the storage facility the next morning. A great scene in which Scully finally admits to Mulder that, after 24 episodes, she doesn’t know what to believe is ruined by the knowledge that the storage unit will be empty when they finally go inside. That’s what they get for taking too long to get back there. At least DT is there to provide some more exposition. Turns out the bodies were terminally ill patients who voluntarily submitted to gene therapy. Secare survived his treatments, but the government couldn’t risk having him live a normal life as a human/alien hybrid. It’s hard to disagree with DT since we saw what happened to those poor paramedics who tried to treat Secare. 

Scully returns to Georgetown and learns Dr. Carpenter was killed in a car crash with her family. Mulder returns to Berube’s house and finds Secare hiding in the attic. Right when Mulder says he’ll protect the guy, the Unknown Man shoots Secare. Toxic gas escapes from the new hole in Secare’s body and blinds Mulder. The unknown but live one, who is wearing a gas mask, subdues our intrepid hero. The gas causes visible burns to Mulder’s nose and mouth. Unknown Man further tortures Mulder by leaving a ringing cell phone just out of his reach and refusing to answer it. In addition to having no name, that guy truly has no scruples. 

Scully and DT team up to try and save Mulder. Scully obtains the original alien tissue sample from a secured laboratory. It looks like a frozen alien baby. Scully somehow smuggles out the embryocicle and gives it to DT, who meets with Mr. Unknown to exchange it for Mulder. I find it hard to believe DT would support the theory of the needs of one outweighing the needs of many, but since David Duchovny is under contract, I guess it will play out this way. So Unknown Man takes the package, shoots DT, dumps Mulder from the van and leaves the scene. DT, who was not wearing a bullet-proof vest, tells Scully to “trust … no one ...” then dies. And no, we do not learn anything more about his identity. 

Mulder's looking a lot better 13 days later and he calls Scully to tell her the X-Files have been shut down. Of course, he is very determined not to give up his search for the truth because it’s, well, out there. Meanwhile, in the Pentagon, we see a rare Cancer Man moment in which he is not smoking a cigarette. He’s securing the alien embryo in an evidence room that is reminiscent of the final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the government hides the ark in a maze of bureaucracy. Guess Cancer Man is one of the “top men,” but we already knew that. See you next season. 

Sestra Professional:

So long, Deep Throat. We hardly knew ya. And by that, as Sestra Am said, we really don't know who you were or high up the Washington food chain you climbed. But here's one of my favorite meta bits ever. When Deep Throat's portrayer Jerry Hardin received his copy of the script, it had a note from executive producer Chris Carter on it that read, "No one really dies on The X-Files. 

That was a particularly nice thing for the show runner to do since that demise was so shocking when it aired. However, it did provide the sense of jeopardy and imminent threat that the show needed to stay vital. As well as hammering home the first two really distinctive catch phrases -- "Trust no one" and "The truth is out there."

So many Sestra Am questions, so little time. The James Mason movie was Journey to the Center of the Earth. So there's that tangential connection to what's going on around our parts. Plus the added bonus of the final bit of dialogue used before Mulder changes channels -- "Science is not a guessing game." Mason is soooo Scully. 1056 was a variation on Carter's 1013 birthday theme, as he was born in the year 1956. And perhaps Secare starts bleeding in addition to gooing at his end because he's still part human and is actually dying that time?

But in regards to that green goo and all the permutations which emanate from it, that has always been one of the least cohesive elements of the conspiracy episodes. And that's saying something since there was never a "show bible" kept for such purposes. But that's discussion for another season, other than the obvious -- maybe it's a conspiracy.

You work so hard and you still don't see it: The early mythology episodes did more to advance the character of Mulder, but this season-ending one really gives Scully a boost. Sure, he gets to see the hybrids before they (and he) disappear, but she gets to do the heavy lifting and save him in the process. Although saving him at the expense of the best proof anyone's ever had does seem like a little much.

Scully understandably starts off annoyed by the cryptic Deep Throat phone call that really did not give the pair much to go on. But then she sees the gene-therapy evidence first-hand and comprehends the bacteria containing a virus to be both millions of years old and extraterrestrial by definition. After somehow coming up with the containment facility's project password "Purity Control" when it could have been everything from "monkey pee" to CSM's favorite brand of cigarettes, she finally holds that confirmation of alien life in her own two hands. The kind she can't deny because she's been out of the room all season when Mulder ran across it.

Maybe this time we can just cut out the Obi-Wan Kenobi crap: Sestra Am, you made no mention of Mulder's Star Wars reference. I'm opening my own X-File on that one. Mulder was right on target declaring Deep Throat had become too dependent on him. And Sculder's real lucky that Berube "did a Greg Louganis out the window" or they never would have gotten anywhere on the case. 

What's always been particularly terrifying about the show are its assertions about groups within groups conducting covert activities unknown at the highest levels of power that make you think about what might be going on in the real world. Dozens and dozens of Unknown Men putting Alien Pops in Pentagon evidence rooms (without refrigeration yet) and the like. Meanwhile, the show also gives us smart throwaway lines like Deep Throat's claim Roswell was a smoke screen, as the government had half-a-dozen better alien salvage operations.

So they're shutting the X-Files down? Guess that's the end of our blog. It was fun while it lasted. But one last wee bit of meta: Count Sestra Am's recap paragraphs and then count these. We can do it too, sort of.

Guest Star of the Week: She's a hooker? I forgot all about it! Talk about not getting typecast. Anne De Salvo, also well known to the Sestras as a wife with absolutely no redeeming qualities in D.C. Cab, did a fine a job delivering the scientific gobbledygook here as she did holding her own against Dudley Moore's drunken sod.