X-Files S5E13: Be 'Patient' with Mulder

Sestra Amateur: 

Your bottle episode break is over. Like it or not, we’re back in X-Files mythology land, which apparently involves a forgettable and meandering Mulder voiceover. Pay attention, there will be a quiz. Two young men are watching an unidentified flying object over Kazakhstan. They follow it and find dozens of burned cars and one live burning man. (No, not Nevada’s Burning Man annual event, just a man on fire. No, not the movie starring Denzel Washington, just, well, forget it.) The fire man, whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut, stops one of the boys, who screams bloody murder. The other boy might get away if he stops turning back to look at what’s happening. 

The next morning the military – and Marita Covarrubias – arrive with fire extinguishers. Dmitri, the boy who escaped, didn’t get far. Alex Krycek and the guards stopped him. Alex and Marita argue over jurisdiction in Russian and English. Krycek sends Covarrubias home with a message – a rather rude one.

Meanwhile at M.I.T., a panel is reviewing the statement of Patient X (no relation to Mr. X) Cassandra Spender, played by horror and sci-fi legend Veronica Cartwright. Mulder is part of the panel, but he’s between a rock and a hard place. He wants people to believe in the existence of aliens, but does not want people to believe everything they hear about them. It’s like Fox thinks all aliens are E.T. or Starman and none are Body Snatchers or Xenomorphs. The irony is that the panel’s audience will probably pick apart his statement and focus on key words: Conspiracy! Plot! Government agenda! 

After the panel, Dr. Werber expresses disappointment about Mulder's lack of progress following their initial hypnotic regression therapy regarding his memories about Samantha’s abduction. Turns out, Werber is Patient X’s doctor. Fox warns X she should leave the hospital, but Cassandra believes she is about to be “called” by the aliens again … and she seems OK with it.

Meanwhile in Kazakhstan, poor Dmitri has been tortured by Krycek. Alex claims he obtained the information he needed. Remember back in "Tunguska" (Season 4, Episode 8) when Fox was strapped to a wire rack and forced to absorb the black oil leeches? Now you know what happened to Dmitri, who ends up with Krycek on a Russian ship after the kid's eyes and mouth have been sewn shut. You know, Alex, there are other orifices from which the black oil can exit the body.

Back in D.C., it’s the first appearance of Special Agent Jeffrey Spender, although Chris Owens may look familiar from previous X-Files roles. Spender gripes to Dana because he can’t reach Mulder. He wants Fox to stay away from his mother -- Cassandra -- because he doesn’t want an undesirable reputation at the Bureau. Yeah, Scully and Mulder can both relate to that.

Marita Covarrubias is in NYC updating the Syndicate about the events in Kazakhstan. Turns out 41 people burned to death out there and at least two victims had chips in their necks. The Syndicate assumes the rest of the victims had them too. She also rats out Krycek for being there and possibly knowing the cause. He calls right on cue to ask about the progress of their black oil vaccine and tries to barter the vaccine for Dmitri.

Sculder discuss Cassandra and Jeffrey Spender. Dana is concerned about Patient X’s similarities to her own abduction, so she goes to the hospital to warn Cassandra against removing the implant. But Ms. Spender is different from Scully, she never considered removing it.

Up on Skyland Mountain in Virginia, a man watches the assassin from the pre-credits scene set fire to another man. Dozens of others have been burned. The next morning, the agents arrive at the crime scene, but seem to be experiencing some role reversal regarding their beliefs. The Syndicate apparently has an issue with dozens of abductees being killed on U.S. soil – apparently, they’re more accepting of it when it occurs all the way in Russia. Cassandra watches the news coverage and reacts emotionally when the victims’ names are posted. Jeffrey Spender arrives at the hospital, annoyed Sculder won’t leave his mother alone. Jeffrey claims Cassandra and her now-dead friends belonged to an alien abduction cult.

Meanwhile, the Russian ship arrives in New York Harbor. Marita intercepts Krycek, but it turns out their confrontation in Kazakhstan was just for show and they’re intentionally putting the screws to the Syndicate. Their romantic relationship begs the question, can black oil be sexually transmitted? So in the land of the lesser of two evils, should we be rooting for “Alita” or the Syndicate? The Well-Manicured Man takes matters into his own hands and surprises Alex with a gun, demanding Dmitri.

Later that night, Dana is “called” from her sleep. The next morning, Fox reviews findings from Skyland Mountain victims and learns at least three had neck implants. Scully surprisingly tells Mulder not to rule out Cassandra’s abduction statements. They get interrupted by a phone call from Marita, who tells Fox about the Kazakhstan incident. Unfortunately, Dmitri is with her and has "allowed" the black oil to ooze out of his eyes. Mulder rushes to meet Marita, but she’s gone – and there’s trace ooze on the phone booth. Cassandra ends up on a bridge with one of the Syndicate’s silent lackeys and dozens of other abductees. Dana and Dmitri wind up there too. Everyone sees a bright light in the sky and a triangular ship flies above them. Scully finds Cassandra and they face their fates together. That is, until the assassins start burning everyone on the bridge. This could get messy. Back to the pop quiz: What was Fox's voiceover about? Yeah, I don’t remember either.

Sestra Professional:

It was high time to get back to the mythology. "Patient X" does so with great relish, a sparkling performance from the legendary Veronica Cartwright and character development that must have pleased leads David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Spoiler alert, Cartwright is gonna get the "Guest star of the week" kudos, probably for two straight weeks -- a Sibling Cinema first.

On the other hand, the show didn't do Chris Owens any favors with Spender's introduction after the actor's amazing prior association with the show -- it was no small feat portraying the young Cancer Man in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" (S4E7) and "Demons" (S4E23) and he delivered an endearing performance under a ton of makeup and prosthetics as The Great Mutato in "The Post Modern-Prometheus" (S5E5). But here, he comes onto the canvas not only as a foil for Mulder and Scully, but an annoying one at that. In short, he's a turnoff.

Speaking of foils, the gold standard for doing it the right way is Alex Krycek. (I'm not including Cancer Man in this mix, because he's more of the show's villain than a mere foil capable of gumming up the works.) At this point, Nicholas Lea was doing double duty between The X-Files and his 180-degree turn as Victor on the underrated Once a Thief. But it was important to have him in the fold, and he breathed some much-needed life into Marita Covarrubias in more ways than one.

Tell them it's all going to hell: Marita really hadn't ingratiated herself with fans or even as part of the story in the same manner as Mulder's previous deceased informants Deep Throat and Mr. X. This mythology two-parter helps remedy that flaw. It's pretty intriguing that her loyalties aren't as cut and dried as those of her predecessors, she's smart enough to discern there's more going on with the aliens who struck the original deal with the Syndicate and there's a certain chemistry between Lea and Laurie Holden. It wasn't a stretch to expect them to ... uh, share more bodily fluids than just spit.

Marita's machinations are certainly intriguing. I'm not sure I consider the Russian meet-and-greet with Alex to be a ruse, and Sestra kinda softpedaled the fact that she might have bartered sex for oil and/or the vaccine against it. So Covarrubias parcels out information to Mulder when she feels like it, gets it on with Krycek and takes the boy. Which parts of that were at the Syndicate's behest and which were her going renegade?

Look who's answering the bat phone: The group has more to be worried about than her loyalties and whatever Sculder's up to, as the Well-Manicured Man might be getting uncomfortable with his group's approach. If Marita was taking the boy on behalf of the conspiracy, then there wouldn't be a need for WMM to show up after the fact to try to do the same. The men in that group have a lot more to be concerned about than the lines of their power suits.

I've had my head up my rear end for the last five years: Speaking of changing sides, "Patient X" marked some Mulder movement we never, ever would have anticipated. Not the overblown voiceover, we've come to expect those. He no longer believes, beyond the fact everyone's buying into "a conspiracy wrapped in a plot inside a government agenda." He distrusts his own memories of Samantha's abduction. What fresh hell is this? Who's gonna fly the "We Are Not Alone" banner and break onto military bases when they're not supposed to now? It provides Duchovny with some meaty material, but I'm not buying into this. I was hoping he was faking it for an as yet unknown reason.

As for Scully, well, her journey continues to be the reason to want more conspiracy stories. She's the opposite of Cassandra and the juxtaposition works really well for the drama. Ms. Spender's not afraid -- even though she says she's been abducted dozens of times, an unborn fetus was taken from her body and the other worlds are living in a "time of upheaval." Dana's not ready to buy into that narrative, even though she increasingly can't ignore the sensations that lead her straight into the middle of it.

The mythology is getting a wee bit convoluted. We'll learn more about the "radical cosmetic surgeries" and the warring alien nations next week, but how do bees and shape shifters fit into the mix? I guess they're leaving that for when the movie comes out at the end of the season.

Meta methodology: According to the season guide, the role of Jeffrey was created for Chris Owens, who didn't even have to test for the part. ... Playing Dmitri was rough on Alex Shostak Jr., who was on set for over 12 hours due to makeup demands. The crew reportedly gave him water through a small straw and had to lead him around the set since he couldn't see. ... Casting director Rick Millikan described Veronica Cartwright's allure in The Complete X-Files. "She's got a voice that adds a little creepiness and a little mystery that I thought played really well. She was just the perfect X-Files person."

Guest star of the week: Wow, Cartwright, what a great get for the show. My all-time favorite performances of hers have been as the screaming Lambert (I'm quite confident I'm not alone there) in one of my top-10 movies, Alien, and the anguished Felicia Alden in The Witches of Eastwick. Cassandra Spender quickly was added to that list by me and the Academy, which nominated her for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for the two-parter.