X-Files S5E2: Throwing a few Hail Marys

Sestra Amateur: 

Good news. X-Philes, our prayers were answered. No voiceovers! When we last saw our intrepid heroes, Scully was on her deathbed. Mulder arrives at the hospital to see her. Assistant Director Skinner updates Fox about Dana’s condition, then has men drag Mulder out of Scully's room and into Section Chief Blevins’ office at FBI headquarters. Blevins talks a good game, but Fox leaves without giving any answers. Skinner deserves bonus points for not punching Mulder, considering the compromising position he’s been put in while protecting both of his lying agents. Fox finally reveals an FBI mole infected Dana.

Back at the races, Cancer Man and The Elder discuss Mulder’s cockroach-like ability to stay alive. The Emperor thinks he can turn Luke Skywalker to the Dark Side ... I mean, CSM wants to convince Fox to play ball in exchange for saving Scully. Mulder returns to Dana's bedside, she wants to save Fox from jail time by taking the blame for killing the man in his apartment. After all, she’s already facing a death sentence. Mulder finally meets Dana’s brother, Bill, who gives Fox the move-along. Cancer Man surprises his “friend” Mulder at the hospital to discuss options. Turns out, the deionized water Fox stole from the Pentagon archives contains a microchip that might cure Scully’s cancer after all. Oh, and a hitman with a rifle is setting up shop somewhere.

Remember Mr. Kritschgau? Well, his son died earlier that morning and it’s now his turn in the FBI panel hot seat. Considering Dana almost dropped dead during her inquest, he might want to take some precautions. Michael admits to providing Sculder with information about government conspiracies and denies knowing who killed Scott Ostelhoff. Back in the hospital, Scully’s mother and brother are trying to be supportive, but it’s in that they-have-no-clue-what’s-going-on way. Dana decides to take a chance on the microchip. And that hitman is still assembling his rifle. What the hell is taking him so long? Hopefully it’s just an editing continuity issue, but if he’s that slow, then maybe his target will have a fighting chance.

Bill confronts Mulder while Scully undergoes treatment. I think it’s interesting that we should really be siding with Bill, who already lost one sister to Fox's quest for “the truth” and is about to lose another. But Bill doesn’t come off as sympathetic at all. We side with Mulder, even though we know his obsession can/will/does get innocent people killed. Fox then gets a phone call from CSM, who arranges a little meeting at a nearby diner with ... Samantha?? She claims Cancer Man is her father and just trying to protect their family. Mulder tries to convince Sam not to trust CSM. Sam doesn’t trust Fox until he reveals their mother is still alive. She claims it’s too much too soon and leaves without letting Mulder know how to reach her. So, Fox, did meeting “Samantha” make things better or worse for you?

Dana and Dr. Zuckerman are talking about her treatment options. Apparently, “miracle” is on the list of possibilities. Hitman is back and he’s got Fox and Cancer Man in his sights. Mulder does an interesting 180: He asks Cancer Man why he’s given him the two things he wanted most -- a cure for Scully and the truth. Then, after declining CSM’s suggestion of quitting the FBI to work for him, Fox claims Cancer Man has given him nothing. Clearly Mulder hasn’t forgotten the murders of his father and Dana's sister. Hitman can’t get a clear shot, so he doesn’t take one. Both Fox and Cancer Man live to gripe another day.

Scully is visibly frustrated, has a crisis of faith and breaks down in front of her mother. The Elder is watching a hearing regarding human cloning at which Skinner has the best seat in the house. The Elder is not happy with this turn of events. Mulder returns to Dana's bedside and cries quietly while she sleeps. Actually, it looks like he’s about to take a bite out of her wrist. Sorry if that diminishes the impact of the scene for ya.

The next morning Fox is called into Blevins’ office to discuss the forensic evidence obtained in Mulder’s apartment. The section chief assumes Scully was going to name Skinner as the FBI mole and suggests Fox do the same. Back in Dana’s hospital room, Mulder recaps the meeting. The Scully family priest arrives so Dana can finally find peace. 

At Fox's inquest, Walter squirms because he doesn’t know what Mulder is going to say. Fox is up on his soapbox very much the same way Scully was right before she was about to name names. But he is not suffering from a fatal illness, and boy, when he names names, he does it right! Skinner is safe because Mulder hangs Blevins out to dry. The section chief somehow leaves the hearing and retreats to his office, where another hitman shoots him in the chest then puts the gun in Blevins’ hand. Hope ballistics has fun with that reenactment, because that’s an awkward way to commit suicide.

Oh, and the hitman shoots Cancer Man who appears to drop dead while holding a picture of young Fox and Samantha. Skinner tells Mulder that CSM was shot to death but his body is missing. Yeah ... riiiiight. If he's gone, they can always clone him like Samantha. And Blevins was on a biotech company’s payroll, you know, the company that does cloning. Fox tells Walter that Dana’s cancer has gone into remission. Skinner gives Mulder the photograph that was found in CSM’s apartment. And those are all the answers you’re going to get for a long, long time, Fox. You should have rationed them.

Sestra Professional:

So we're set up for a season in which Mulder just doesn't believe ... in anything. Kritschgau detailed for him how everything he's investigated has been a government conspiracy. The aliens he's been chasing for longer than just the previous four years have just been the ultimate coverup. But he's not the only one whose whole world has been torn asunder. Scully's faith is at a low ebb as well, she'll need to turn that around in much the same way Fox has to get his groove back. Maybe rebooting to factory settings will help her in that regard.

Season 4 was so weighted down by Dana's light-headed spells and nose-bleed reminders of her illness that it's nice to be able to dispel all of that so quickly and easily. But the Syndicate has a cure for cancer and mortals who don't have family members at the highest level of power aren't able to get it? That would give us a disgusting glimpse at government that won't be matched until the timeline catches up to our current landscape. Unless her cancer was different from the insidious disease that pervades the rest of society, and thusly needed particular treatment that wouldn't work for others.

If I can save you, let me: The cancer scare did serve to heighten the connection between our leads. Show creator Chris Carter explained it as "a meeting of the minds" in The Complete X-Files. "Theirs is an intellectual romance," he said. "It's the most potent kind of sexual energy. ... Everything else is easy and fleeting. Ephemeral. But that -- I'll call it a soul connection -- is the greatest romance."

We're not having anywhere near that kind of fascination with Scully's brother. Sestra's right, we should be firmly on Bill's side in his standoff with Mulder. But because Bill doesn't know anything about anything, his words ultimately sound hollow and feeble. Basically, he comes off like a jerk. But point taken about everything happening to Dana because of her association with Fox.

It's not a good episode for siblings. This isn't the Samantha we've been wanting Mulder to find for four seasons. Sam's apparently fine -- albeit with not a lot of memories of her childhood. She thinks Cigarette-Smoking Man is her dad, if you ask me, that should have been the plot twist the whole time instead of him being Fox's father. But Samantha's patron didn't bother to tell her Mulder was looking for her or that her mother was still alive, not to mention the fact she could have seen her real father before his untimely departure. Yet she still leaves with CSM despite finding out all that by determining that "it's too much" for her? Weak. 

I don't care whose father you are, I will put you down: The latest confrontations between Mulder and CSM work to a lot better effect. Fox's pop has utilized a sizable amount of leverage when push comes to shove, even when it puts Cancer Man's own life in peril and is in direct opposition to the work he's trying to get done. I'll just deem that the most elaborate and long-running job pitch in the history of man. It's probably good that no one heard Mulder threaten the guy not long before his old man was supposedly gunned down. Because that would have started off a whole new wave of hearings.

Skinner seems to be back in no man's land, even though he's always showing concern for his charges. But at least he's in a better place with Sculder than Cancer Man is with the Syndicate. I guess The Elder decided there had been one foulup too many between the ineffective assassins and side deals with Fox. 

One sorry son of a bitch speaking: I remain taken aback at the reveal of baddie Blevins to this day. I'm still not real sure of what actually happened there. The section chief hadn't been on the canvas since the first season, for goodness' sake. I guess he had been up to a lot of no good since then. But Mulder had evidence of Cancer Man in Skinner's office on a regular basis, on occasion while he was there. Both CSM and Walter were in Fox's sights coming into the hearing -- with a lot better target than that slow-moving hitman had, for sure -- no wonder Walter was so worried. 

In The Complete X-Files, William B. Davis (CSM) explained the series was so successful because of that kind of reinvention. "It wasn't trying to follow a preset template. It was able to go with what was happening within the stories themselves and the characters themselves, and also within the audience's response to the stories," he said. "So it kept finding a life because of that. If you look for consistency, I think you're going to be challenged."

Guest star of the week: As mentioned earlier, it was a bit of a cheat to make Section Chief Blevins the fall guy when he hadn't been seen since "Conduit" (Season 1, Episode 4) prior to this arc. But Charles Cioffi (who built a career out of these kind of roles on episodic television) did a fine job, first as the guy seeking answers -- or at least a patsy -- and then after the big reveal.