X-Files S3E2: Moving at a faster Clip

Sestra Amateur: 

Albert Hosteen is back in voiceover mode. I know I should be paying attention to what he’s saying because it probably relates to what is happening in the episode but I’m impatient and want to get back to the Scully/Skinner standoff. There’s really no good “shipper” name for them: Skully? Scinner? Wally? It’s like you have to root for Sculder. 

Anyway, Mulder shows up and joins the standoff. It becomes two against one, so Skinner wisely gives up his gun. Walter shows them the tape. Fox claims he and his father, William, died because of the information on that disk. Skinner tries to convince them he’s on their side, and this time, they decide to trust him. Hopefully they won’t get written up for insubordination ... or aggravated assault. 

Margaret Scully arrives at the hospital thinking Dana’s been shot, not Melissa. The doctors have induced a coma but it’s not looking good for Scully’s sis. Mulder shows the Lone Gunmen a photo of his father and some Syndicate men from 1973. Byers tells them about a post-World War II project called Operation Paper Clip. This may be the quickest explanation of an episode’s title yet. Some Nazi scientists escaped the Nuremberg Trials in exchange for their scientific knowledge. Victor Klemper, one of the scientists, conveniently lives locally. Frohike arrives, thrilled to see Fox is still alive. He tells Dana about her sister but Mulder convinces her it’s not safe to see Melissa yet. 

In New York City, Syndicate members are annoyed Cancer Man’s assassin botched the Scully shooting. They also doubt CSM has the recovered disk and say mean things about Dana’s would-be assassin – Alex Krycek. I wonder if Scully thinks Krycek is the one who shot Melissa. She hasn’t mentioned him since she shot Mulder and let Alex get away last season. Guess she’ll blame herself when it finally hits her. 

Sculder meet with Klemper to find out about Bill Mulder’s involvement with Operation Paper Clip. Klemper gives Dana a vague clue and points them in the direction of West Virginia. He then lets the Well-Manicured Man know Mulder is still alive. Lucky Cancer Man already left or they might have killed him then and there. Meanwhile, Albert arrives at the hospital to help Melissa and tries to comfort Margaret. Back at FBI headquarters, Skinner meets with Cancer Man about the tape. CSM starts getting frantic again when Skinner continues to play the game. Can you imagine how tense he’d be without his nicotine fix? 

Sculder arrive at a mountain vault in West Virginia, and using Klemper’s clue, open a door that leads to miles of medical records and tissue samples dating back to the 1950’s. Mulder finds files on his sister, Samantha, and Scully. He thinks it’s because they were both victims of alien abduction. Fox sees bright lights and feels a weird vibration. He goes outside and sees an unidentified flying object. Back underground, Dana spies a swarm of humanoid creatures. Men in unmarked vehicles show up and start shooting at Mulder. He dodges them and gets back to Scully. They go deeper into the records vault and manage to escape from the other end. If only they remembered to take Dana and Samantha’s files with them…

The next morning, Skinner meets with Sculder at a diner in Maryland. He discusses trading the tape for their lives. Dana tries to rein in Fox and take the deal. She wants them to get back in the government’s good graces so they can investigate within the law, not outside of it. And she’d like to see her sister too. Mulder lets Scully make the call on the deal and they all leave together. 

Albert continues to try and save Melissa, to no avail. Skinner talks to Margaret about Dana, then notices someone watching the family with interest and chases him down. Unfortunately, he gets jumped by three of the Syndicate’s muscle – including Krycek, who steals the tape from Walter and leaves him in a heap on the floor. (Sestra Pro, who were you rooting for in that fight? It’s not like it was a fair one.) The two extras then try to kill Alex with a car bomb, but Krycek gets away, and he ... is … pissed. He later calls CSM who lies to the Syndicate that Scully’s would-be assassin is dead and the tape has been destroyed.

Sculder go back to Kemper’s place, but he’s dead from alleged heart failure. Well-Manicured Man is there instead and tells them about a body recovered from the 1947 Roswell crash. Mulder realizes the alien-human hybrids he found in the train car in New Mexico (at the end of Season 2) were created during experimentation by Klemper. WMM claims the mountain vault’s medical files – which were documented as smallpox vaccinations -- existed for ID purposes in case of nuclear war. Scully believes the Well-Manicured Man’s explanations are science fiction, not fact, and he is just telling Fox what he wants to hear. Mulder still believes the files document alien abductees. WMM says Samantha was taken to keep William Mulder in line. Fox visits his mother and asks whether his father ever made her choose between their children. Teena says she refused to choose, so Bill made the choice and she hated him for it. Jeez, no wonder she divorced him. Talk about irreconcilable differences.

Skinner and Cancer Man meet at FBI headquarters again. Walter tries to trade Sculder's safety for the tape. CSM knows Skinner doesn’t have the disk anymore and calls his bluff. Turns out, it wasn’t technically a bluff. Albert, one of the original Navajo code talkers, and 20 other men will spill the tape’s contents to anyone who will listen unless Cancer Man takes the deal. Get ‘em, Skinner! Fox meets Dana at the hospital and learns Melissa died during surgery. On the upside, Sculder are reinstated and will be back to work next week – probably in a bottle episode.


Sestra Professional:

We sure do cover a lot of ground in this one. We see aliens and a spaceship. Skinner finally gets off the fence, Alex leaves the syndicate the hard way, Mulder finds out how and why Samantha was chosen for abduction, Scully's sister dies. Also, the government is involved in genetic engineering involving an alien-human hybrid. And the Cigarette Smoking Man doesn't seem quite as untouchable as he once did.

But backing up to the beginning of this ep, voiceover might be my least favorite aspect of The X-Files. I once heard that it's the least creative way to deliver exposition. Add to that insult that it's always pretentious on this show and cue the eye rolling. Just like Sestra Am, all I really wanna do is get to the resolution of the Wana standoff. Albert would most certainly preach patience, but I'm not gonna listen to someone who irks me at every turn. And I really don't need that analogy to understand that Melissa took a bullet meant for Dana.

But then all is right with the world again, cause not only are Scully and Skinner holding guns on each other, but then Mulder joins the fray. That's downright hot! We finally get to see whose side Walter is on. And he may not see things the same way as his agents, but he's not with the Syndicate for sure.

Mulder gets to use what will become a trademark phrase about the
global conspiracy of silence about the existence of extraterrestrial life. It kinda makes me groan now since I've heard it so much, but back then, it really hit the mark. A lot more than a line like "I was a dead man, now I'm back," which we also get from Fox -- and executive producer Chris Carter, who wrote this one.

When Sculder leave Skinner behind to find truths that aren't on the tape, we think we're gonna get a sentimental moment with hugs and declarations of love. What we actually get is Dana telling Fox she went to his father's funeral and told his mother that she knew her partner would be fine. Oh, and a callback to first-season episode "Eve," when Mulder asked her how she knew that. "I just knew."

Carter gets to shoehorn in some knowledge about Operation Paperclip, and it really does work for the show. I'm not quite sure why the bit about Klemper helping the United States win the space race was added, but I'm more certain the Klemper character was named after the actor on Hogan's Heroes.  

As stated earlier, this isn't a great episode for CSM. Well-Manicured Man berates him for believing he can fix anything with enough bullets. The rest of the syndicate elders say CSM's profession is not one for men who make mistakes. Yet they continuously make many of them, thankfully since the show's mythology virtually hangs on their every miscue.

While the episode's initial Sculder reunion didn't pack the punch shippers wanted, perhaps they were more pleased with Scully's concern for Mulder at the mountain vault. She knows he hasn't processed his father's death, and she's pretty concerned about him finding out something that would irrevocably change his opinion of Bill. Which, of course, is exactly what happens. This Scully is psychic, she's an X-File unto herself.

Love the mountain vault set piece. "Paper Clip" as a whole is representative of Rob Bowman's directorial strengths. There's the gun standoff, the rising UFO and subsequent chase and a car bomb detonation, but he still gives Mulder and Scully some room to breathe and relate to each other.

We also get good advancement on the conspiracy front with the discovery of the medical files. What would they have found behind one of the other locked vault doors? Finding Dana's recent tissue sample -- and the supposition that smallpox vaccination would be used for post-apocalypse identification -- show the power of the conspiracy at its best, heightening our paranoia. Who wants to do any kind of medical tests or get shots after noting the tabs being kept on Scully?

I do have some questions. I'll let go the part in which Fox's name is under Samantha's label in her file. But this building with pretty crucial information is left unprotected but for a few number locks? It seems  abandoned and rather dilapidated. If this is the case, why are spaceships still visiting there? If Dana is seeing aliens in the building, why did the craft leave without them? And do the aliens have these numerical codes?

We have turned ourselves into outsiders: We get some more juicy Sculder stuff when Fox tells Dana that she gets to decide about Walter's deal to ensure their safety. He wants to know why they killed his father, what happened to his sister and what they did to Scully. But she knows they've been operating outside the law and just wants to see her sister while she can. (Unlike the fan base, who gladly accept the Missy sacrifice on Dana's behalf.)

Forgive me for not shedding a tear at the death of Klemper, but there seem to be many others willing to take up the slack and make Joseph Mengele's dream of a super race through genetic engineering a reality. With humans and aliens. And speaking of knocking people off, if CSM eliminates Alex for botching Melissa's death, then he has to take out the two guys who botched Alex's death. Everyone should be gone before an alien invasion can take place.

This is where you pucker up and kiss my ass: But best of all, Skinner and Krycek gain some traction in this ep. The assistant director had been so wishy-washy to this point. His resolution of having Albert and other Navajo code talkers memorize the tape was bizarre, but effective. And spinning Krycek away from the Syndicate was a master stroke. Now he's a gun for hire.

But in the end, it's Scully who gets to set up the show's new premise -- "I've heard the truth, now what I want are the answers." Judging by this episode, it should be fun trying to get them.