Sestra Amateur:
Aw, man, Mulder’s voiceover opens the episode and I’ve already lost interest. On Oct. 13, 1973, which was a Saturday, according to my handy-dandy Google search, the much-younger Syndicate members have a close encounter with an alien race in an unknown hangar. Young Cancer Man (would he be called Pre-Cancer Man?) honors them with a folded American flag.
Back in the present in Mulder’s apartment, Fox doesn’t get the chance to shoot Cassandra Spender. Biohazard soldiers from the Center for Disease Control break down the door, spray Sculder and Cassandra into submission, then treat the room like they are preventing an outbreak. (I’ll bet Mulder’s neighbors just hate him.) Agent Diana Fowley claims the trio is being treated for an unknown contagion.
Some fans were probably thrilled at the concept of Fox and Dana showering “together,” but hopefully they kept in mind it’s not a romantic shower, more like a decontamination one. Clearly it rattled whoever spelled the cast member names because the role of Langly is being played by “Dean Haglung” instead of Haglund. Scully deduces their location, she’s a smart one. Agent Fowley actually makes some sense when she explains why they raided Mulder’s apartment the way they did. Of course, she won’t divulge Cassandra’s current location because of her “Patient Zero” status. Dana isn’t buying it because Cassandra was a patient in a normal hospital for several days without infecting anyone. Diana blames Agent Spender for the CDC activation.
Alex Krycek is reading Cassandra’s medical records to a small group of Syndicate members. Cancer Man wants to give Cassandra to the rebels for their own preservation. Back at Fort Marlene, apparently our heroes are no longer prisoners -- Mulder is able to talk to Assistant Director Skinner by phone, and a nurse ignores him while Fox literally runs around the place looking for a woman in a white hospital gown who bolted when she saw him. (Maybe his thrift-store attire repulsed her.) He finds her hiding from him. It’s Marita Covarrubias and she looks like hell. (Does Alex even know she’s there? Does he care?) Marita admits Cassandra is part of a hybrid program that’s been running for 25 years. Covarrubias became part of the vaccine protocol, but Cassandra truly was the first successful alien/human hybrid. And knowledge of her existence will result in the colonization of aliens on Earth.
Fowley brings Jeffrey Spender to Cassandra. He thinks he’s keeping her safe from Cigarette Smoking Man. Cassandra continues to tell him he doesn’t understand. Just give it up, Cassandra. He’ll never understand because he’s always a step behind, even when he’s on the wrong side. Maybe if you showed him your green blood, he’ll start to see the possibilities.
Meanwhile, Sculder separately make their way to The Lone Gunmen, who -- along with Scully -- try to convince Fox that he cannot trust Diana. Why is Mulder only a conspiracy believer when it suits him? His denial during every step of their investigation’s results is extremely frustrating. Why wouldn’t he think it’s important to know Fowley was ordered to covertly obtain information on every female abductee in Western Europe? Victims just like Scully. And why would a man whose credo is “trust no one” trust someone like Diana so blindly? If anyone has earned Fox’s trust, it’s Dana. Scully’s puzzle pieces fit, Mulder. You just don’t want to put them together.
Or maybe he does … Fox goes to Fowley’s place at the Watergate Apartments. He picks the lock and starts rooting through her things. Cancer Man also shows up, claiming he is looking for his son. Mulder confronts him about experimenting on women and trying to save his own butt. CSM claims Bill Mulder was the lone dissenting vote at first, but he came around and gave up his daughter, Samantha. Cancer Man claims they saved billions of lives by postponing the alien invasion. In return, Cassandra Spender and several children were given to the aliens. The Syndicate received an alien fetus so they could use the DNA in future experiments. The vaccine was Bill Mulder’s idea. The faceless rebels have forced their hand and CSM claims they have to turn over Cassandra. He also continues to dangle the Samantha carrot to get Fox to cooperate.
Jeffrey Spender goes to the Syndicate hangout in New York City looking for Cancer Man, but Krycek claims they’re gone and not coming back. And CSM is on his way to retrieve Cassandra. Jeffrey naively thinks that’s not possible. The doctors drug Cassandra and the spouses have a private conversation in which he claims he’s been trying to save her and their son. She says Jeffrey can only be saved if Cancer Man kills her. The coward leaves, of course.
When Diana returns home, Fox confronts her with what he learned from CSM. Fowley kisses him. Jeffrey gets back to Fort Marlene, but his mother (and father) are already gone. Marita begs for help and claims to know where they’re taking his mother. And remember the nurse who ignored Mulder? Turns out she’s a faceless rebel who kills the lead doctor and assumes his identity. Fox calls Dana, who says she is going to get Cassandra at the Potomac Yards. Mulder sends Fowley to the El Rico Air Force Base – the location he got from Cancer Man -- without him.
Sculder arrive at the yards and shoot at the front of the train. The faceless rebel doctor and Cassandra are on board. At the same time, the older-but-not-wiser (it’s really your call) Syndicate members are back in the Air Force base hangar with a new crop of “volunteers.” Skinner arrives at the train yard to take his former agents to the hangar. (I guess they couldn’t stop a train after all with a car on the tracks and bullets. I also assume showing an actual train crashing into a car was outside of this episode’s budget.)
Cassandra, the faceless rebel doctor and CSM arrive at the hangar, but Cancer Man claims not to know who was shooting at the train. Alex is supposed to be there too, but he’s at Fort Marlene. He realizes the doctor is dead and the alien fetus is gone. Spender stops Krycek and asks for help getting Marita past security, but clearly Alex has zero interest in helping his ex-girlfriend. He’s focused on the big picture and looking out for number one. Diana arrives at the hangar, but things aren’t happening the way they were supposed to. CSM and Fowley get out of there while the Syndicate, their new sacrifices and Cassandra are swarmed by faceless rebels. There’s fire, there’s screaming, there’s fade to black.
Back at FBI headquarters, it’s daytime and Assistant Director Kersh, who is so far out of this loop that he can’t even see the loop, is looking at photos of the charred remains of the people from the hangar. Skinner and Agents Spender, Mulder and Scully are present. Officially, Cassandra is among the dead. Officially, Jeffrey is also taking responsibility for his screwups and pleads Sculder’s case in putting them back on the X-Files. Kersh still doesn’t get the clear-cut answers he wants, but apparently it’s enough. Spender confronts Cancer Man in his office. CSM continues to hold Fox in higher regard than his own son, who he shoots at point blank range! He also steals back the old photo of himself and Bill Mulder. Murder and petty theft? That’s just evil.
Sestra Professional:
So after twisting and turning for six-plus years, the Syndicate portion of the mythology program has come to a close. And not with a bang, but a whimper. Or actually a bunch of screams from people we don't care about.
Sestra Am is definitely right about that opening monologue. My issue with it is the condensation of our six-plus years of watching and the five decades the show's Elders were working their plan, sacrificing loved ones like Samantha, coming to a conclusion like that. And the sanctimonious dialogue ... blah, blah, blah ... "A 50-years war, its killing fields lying in wait for the inevitable global holocaust" ... "unwitting spectators to the hurly-burly of the decades-long struggle between heaven and Earth" ... yadda, yadda, yadda. Who talks like that? And who wants to listen to someone who does?
This would be our tragic mistake: When it comes to the now-time-honored tradition of deciding when a show "jumped the shark," this is the episode I point to. Not that there's still not enjoyment to be had, it's more like the turning point when I lost my ability to buy into the scenario and started watching more for characters than the desire to get to the end game. Maybe this is when fans' incredible need to see Fox and Dana getting it on really took hold. The suspense was gone, and watching Sculder go through their paces every week meant more when their relationship hung in the balance instead of the fabled conspiracy.
In The Complete X-Files, the show's most prolific director, Kim Manners, offered up an explanation to the capping of this part of the story. "The whole storyline of The Syndicate and the bees and the aliens and the chips in the neck, that all seemed to just accidentally fall in place and create an intriguing, mysterious storyline that eventually got so mysterious and intriguing that [creator Chris Carter] had to blow it all up, because he couldn't deal with it anymore," Manners said.
What choice have we if we want to see our families survive? Pretty much the opposite happened. It's not that I don't appreciate them blowing it all up, because I really do. I just thought it was going someplace it never actually got. Carter and team often declared there was no show bible pointing the way to the end of the road. Well, it kind of showed with plot twists left open and a Syndicate gameplan that showed an incredible lack of foresight from people who had been able to keep their secrets for 50 years. It was a terribly disappointing conclusion to the early string of conspiracy episodes that literally kept me on the edge of my seat.
Jeffrey Spender never had a chance. Certainly not from Carter and his writing team, and as a result, not at all from the fan base. Jeffrey certainly didn't inherit any of the genes Cancer Man possessed that made us interested in such a diabolical character. Spender was running the X-files for half a season, but we didn't see him do anything but whine in the occasional conspiracy episode. During the regular run, it's true, I was all, yay, that's the end of him. But the fact is he could have been used better. It would have been a nice seeing him try to come to terms with an X-file. A disservice was done to him and actor Chris Owens.
Also in the never-had-a-chance department, I present the case of Marita Covarrubias. Even looking like a rehabbing drug addict, she still coughs up useful information. It's interesting that she's been used as lab rat in the secret development of a vaccine against the black oil. Well, Mulder was infected with the black oil too, but he seems fine and dandy. Guess it's all who you know. Marita was supposed to know the right people, but guess not.
As for Diana Fowley, well, frankly, I don't want her to have a chance. She's not interesting. She's a walking, talking monologue. She meanders through scenarios with the greatest of ease, even though she wasn't part of the mythology for almost five years and a movie. Plus she's making Fox look ridiculous, Dana appear jealous and CSM incapable of doing anything for himself.
Because without the FBI, personal interest is all that I have: There are some things I like about "One Son." As Sestra Am said, not sure why Mulder would take Fowley's word over Scully's, maybe Fox was thinking with his anatomy and he hadn't yet done the deed with Dana, so... But the discussion our leads have in The Lone Gunmen's environs is a solid status check on their relationship, which later heightens the almost-thrown-away nature in which Mulder later sends Fowley ahead to follow up on Scully's instinct.
And we get another Cancer Man-Mulder confrontation. They cover the same terrain of episodes like "One Breath" (Season 2, Episode 8). At least Fox is smart enough to point out The Syndicate's been using women as human/alien hybrids to save his ass. He still won't use his gun on CBG, he'll probably regret that later. But Cigarette Smoking Man claims they saved billions of lives with their painful decisions. So the aliens insisted Mulder's dad "contribute" by giving up Samantha. Did they have a checklist? What's alien for, "Uh, we're missing one here." And if it was Bill Mulder's idea to develop the vaccine, a human hybrid that could survive colonization, that kind of confirms the conspiracy had no intention of saving billions of lives, they were just trying to save their own.
It's all gone to hell: It was nice to see Jeffrey finally coming around, particularly when he was confronted by Marita. Putting the two never-had-a-chances in the same space gave both a jolt. Then Krycek (still seeming a lot smarter than CSM would ever give him credit for being) winds up in the very same place Marita and Jeffrey are in. I'll give that a pass, because it added another charge to the scene. Spender later summons up the intestinal fortitude to declare he was wrong about everything and Mulder and Scully should be put back on the X-Files.
I zone out when I watch the final scenes. Scully parks the company car in front of the train Cassandra's on and our heroes shoot at it, but don't stop it. I guess Mulder didn't learn much from trying to blast out the tires on a runaway RV ("Bad Blood," S5E12). Then they call their favorite Uber driver Walter (before it exists, of course) so they can go to the air field. Meanwhile, Diana and CBG are smart enough to realize the rebels are gonna torch everyone, so they make a run for it. None of the others apparently have such keen insight. What about Strughold and the Jiffy Poppers in Tunisia from Fight the Future? Is the insinuation that they were taken out too by rebels not smart enough to block all the exits to this particular hangar?
"The loss of life here is, it is beyond words," Kersh says in his office. Well, I've got some -- boring, nonsensical, ineffectual. And why Cigarette Smoking Man shot his son, I still don't understand. CBG respects the choices Bill Mulder and his son made, even when they were in opposition to his own. But apparently Jeffrey is afforded no such latitude. Just when he was getting interesting.
Guest star of the week: Cartwright's a great screamer. That's almost all she has to do here, but it's been a joy to have her, even for four episodes. You need someone capable of standing on the same playing field as Cancer Man to be CBG Spender's wife, and Cartwright was more than up to that task.
Sestra Amateur:
Chris Carter decided it was time to get back to his years-long mythology arc. You know the one, it always involves Cigarette Smoking Man, old Syndicate guys and Fox Mulder’s convoluted personal history.
This time, doctors in protective gear are operating on a green-blooded body in a train car. Well, they’re trying to operate. The patient’s incision keeps healing before they can do anything, but apparently that’s a good thing. An old white man in a dark sedan (doesn’t that just scream Syndicate?) arrives to accolades from the others, but a facially featureless assassin – just like the one on the bridge in "Patient X" (Season 5, Episode 13) -- burns them all to death. He (it?) checks on the patient. It’s Cassandra Spender! So where has she been? If I remember correctly, she may or may not have been beamed aboard some type of flying object (like an unidentified one) back in "The Red and the Black" (S5E14).
Cigarette Smoking Man is summarizing (to an unknown person) what Carter has led up to for over six years -- humans have been preparing for an alien invasion and trying to create a race of alien/human hybrids since Roswell. Assistant Director Skinner and Agent Spender arrive at the train car where Jeffrey and his mother reunite. He bombards her with questions, but Cassandra will only talk to Fox Mulder. Spender fights Skinner on this one, but Mulder is hard to reach anyway because he’s playing hooky in a gymnasium. Scully intervenes (while wearing hard shoes on a gym floor, tsk tsk) and of course, is able to motivate Fox into going back to work. I think he also likes the chance to stick it to Agent Spender.
By the way, the assassin didn’t kill everyone. Dr. Eugene Openshaw, the late arrival at the train car, is severely burned and recuperating in a hyperbaric chamber. Cancer Man visits him and learns Cassandra is their success story. Does that mean she’s the alien/human hybrid? Either way, the doctor insists she be terminated and wants CSM to kill him too. And just to show the crackerjack medical and security staff situation at St. Mark’s Medical Center in Arlington, the machines beep for over 30 seconds and no one shows up to help the “good” doctor. If I were a member of Dr. Openshaw’s family, I’d give that hospital the worst Yelp review. Cancer Man calls the Elders to arrange a Syndicate meeting to discuss the Rebels. But a rebel assassin poses as Openshaw and kills an Elder.
Scully is surprised that Mulder isn’t working the X-File. He thinks he’s being set up for failure. Dana sees similarities between the crime-scene photos from the train car situation and the bridge incident. Scully goes to the hospital to visit Cassandra, who is now able to walk. Dana covertly brings her to Mulder, who is hiding in another room. Ms. Spender tells Fox he did not see the real Samantha Mulder the previous year -- I think she’s referring to "Redux II" (S5E2).
Cassandra also claims the aliens are not there to help them. They are infecting everything with “Purity,” a rather peaceful, pretty name for the black oil we’ve seen spreading through humans in previous episodes and the Fight the Future movie. She’s concerned because Jeffrey is working with her ex-husband, his father. Cancer Man, still narrating to an unknown person, admits he couldn’t kill Cassandra. Not because he loved her, because he didn’t. Not because it was wrong to kill, because it isn’t. It’s only because she’s the mother of his son.
Krycek is hosting the Syndicate meeting in New York. It's a good thing he gave up the Jesus wig because it would be hard to take him seriously in that. The Elder's assassin, in his victim's form, tries to turn the vote in a different direction. Alex stands up to him until Cancer Man yanks on Krycek’s leash. Meanwhile back at FBI Headquarters, Sculder use Agent Spender’s computer to research the case and learn Cassandra’s ex-husband, C.G.B. Spender, is Cancer Man! Skinner interrupts to try and save their hides, but Spender and his lackeys arrive too quickly. Jeffrey reports to CSM that Agents Mulder and Scully are going to be fired and demands to know the truth about Cassandra. Cancer Man, who is doing what most fans probably wanted to do during the original run, slaps Jeffrey around and shows how clearly he prefers Fox to Jeffy.
Scully finds Mulder playing basketball in the gym again. Even though they’re on “administrative leave,” she managed to compile a box filled with CMS sightings and files over the decades, including one picture with Fox’s father, William Mulder. And she found out Cassandra’s first “abduction” occurred on the same night as Samantha Mulder. And she found a decades-old link to Dr. Openshaw. (Funny how Dana is more productive when she shouldn't have full access to the files.)
Spender gets a new assignment from Cancer Man: Kill the rebel impersonating the dead Elder. CSM arms Jeffy with an ice pick-like weapon, you know, like the one from "Colony" (S2E16). (You have to love Microsoft Word; I do a search for “icepick” in my X-Files folder and it pops right up.) Krycek drives Spender to the Elder’s home, but Jeffrey botches the job. Alex, of course, gets it done.
Sculder try to bring Skinner up to speed on the theories of alien/human hybrids and an upcoming alien invasion, but the only thing that piques his interest is the revelation that Cancer Man is Jeffrey Spender’s father. Fox is worried for Cassandra’s safety, so Walter goes to the hospital to check on her. Krycek and Spender (Kryder? Spencek?) bond over their first rebel kill together until Alex accidentally triggers Jeffy’s Mommy and Daddy issues. Spender still isn’t ready to drink the Kool-Aid because helping the Syndicate means not helping his mother.
Cancer Man, who has been narrating this whole time to Spender’s partner, Agent Diana Fowley, reveals he doesn’t trust Jeffrey. Clearly no one should trust Diana. Skinner and Spender can’t find Cassandra, who makes her way to Mulder’s apartment. Too bad she was followed by the most patient (and non-verbal) person in the world who just knocks incessantly. (Rebel assassin? If so, why not just pretend to be someone she -- or Fox -- knew and trusted?) Cassandra frantically insists that Mulder kill her because “it all starts” if he doesn’t. Of course Fox points his gun at her head. So what is supposed to start? The alien invasion? The destruction of Earth? The decline of civilization? The rise of reality television? Maybe Fox should pull the trigger.
Sestra Professional:
Once upon a time, conspiracy episodes were something to look forward to -- we yearned to know what the government was up to and how Sculder would find some desperately sought truth. The mythology shows have become convoluted and actually kind of dull. That's clearly the adverse effect of not utilizing a "show bible" that maintains continuity and points the way to the end game.
So we start off "Two Fathers" in another train yard with another surgery done by another crop of nameless, faceless doctors -- not faceless in same way as the rebel aliens, but faceless cause they're covered head to toe in garb that doesn't look like it would prevent mosquito bites, much less protect them from toxic green blood.
Cancer Man's one-way discussion drones on and on. He talked about putting his life into an allegedly perfect conspiracy he deemed "good" and "right." Your gig was to secretly prepare for an alien race to reclaim the planet. What was good about it? You thought you and the aging Syndicate would be allowed to live? What was right about it? That humans would have been eradicated before they knew enough about what was going on to try to at least put up a fight?
You pale to Fox Mulder: There's finally an inkling of some backbone to Jeffrey Spender. It's too bad we haven't seen him working any X-files, that's a nice, easy paycheck he's been drawing there. And hey, there's Fox in a gym again shooting hoops. Twice. At the moment, Cancer Man's claims that Mulder is twice the man his son could ever be doesn't hold much water. Fox has been sticking his nose into business that wasn't his all season, now the best he can do for Spender is tell him to find the truth for himself.
Dana's the one doing all the heavy lifting in this one. Granted, it's mostly because she's wondering whether Cassandra could expose what happened to Scully back in Season 2. So Dana wasn't abducted by aliens, it was just the government testing on her. And she was chosen in the much the same way as Fox's sister, because it served a purpose to get her away from a man named Mulder. But at least Fox puts the pieces together for Skinner like a true hero in the end.
I got game, Scully: I appreciate Cassandra laying out exactly who the good guys are and who the bad guys are now. But she's done a 180 since being so eager to be abducted in last season's two-parter. Apparently while she was unconscious for copious amounts of time and being cured of whatever landed her in the wheelchair, she realized what the Syndicate was up to. The faceless rebels may not have eyes, noses and mouths, but they're the ones that actually have game.
Krycek made good points, he apparently has become the brains of the conspiracy. Even a hired hand realizes that if the plan was to pretend to work with the aliens and then fight that fabled future with alien-human hybrids and vaccines than an alliance with the rebels might be a better option than dealing with aliens who want to ... again ... expunge the human race. As formidable as the Syndicate once seemed, its members now seem to be completely ineffectual now. Resistance, in their hands, indeed is futile.
The green blood the doctors were "protecting" themselves from with their flimsy gear doesn't seem quite so toxic when unprotected Alex and Jeffrey come in direct contact from it. I guess we're not supposed to notice that since it's the light-bulb moment for Spender. Hey, aliens exist, Jeffrey! They do, they do, they do, they do. (That was a reference to the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz. This season's made a couple of allusions to that film, so why not in the rewatch blog too?) And a second light-bulb moment: Your dad made a test subject of your mom for 25 years. Talk about keeping it all in the family.
I'll help you, it's not too late: Oh yes, it is. So the "big" reveal is that Cigarette Smoking Man was talking to Diana Fowley. It's faaaar too late. This character -- even in the persona of Mimi Rogers -- has been more weakly sketched out than Jeffrey Spender, if that's possible. Oooh, we're supposed to see her as a threat to Dana for Fox. Yeah, no. Oooh, we're supposed to think she can handle the crumbling conspiracy. Yeah, no.
Like Sestra Am, I don't quite understand how Mulder shooting Cassandra could prevent the worst from happening or avert anything from changing in the slightest. But at least it's the most suspenseful moment we've had for some time. Hey, maybe that's how the Syndicate thinks too. It's not the best-case scenario, but it is, for all intents and purposes, a scenario.
Guest star of the week: For all the drawbacks and eye-rolling of the ramshackle remnants of the once-captivating conspiracy, at least Veronica Cartwright returns to inject some life into the proceedings. Nominated for an Emmy for last season's two-parter, the veteran actress again was deservedly recognized on that front in the sixth season for her work in "Two Fathers" and "One Son." And with us too.
Sestra Amateur:
Spoiler alert: "Tithonus" is a poem written by Alfred Lord Tennyson about an immortal man who wants to die. In this episode we visit Los Angeles’ version of New York City. (This line was funnier when the show filmed in Vancouver.)
Photographer Alfred Fellig, played by character actor Geoffrey Lewis (who has quite an extensive acting resume, but I know him best from Night of the Comet and The Lawnmower Man), follows a mail clerk as she makes her rounds. They both enter a crowded elevator, but he leaves after seeing everyone’s monochromatic reflections in the doors. (I can relate; if an elevator is too crowded I often choose to wait for the next one.) Alfred runs downstairs to the basement as the cables snap and the elevator car crashes to the ground. Alfie sees the dead bodies and takes photographs of them. (OK, I’m no longer relating to Fellig.)
Sculder are diligently doing background checks at FBI Headquarters when Scully is summoned to Assistant Director Kersh’s office. He gives Dana a new partner for the day: Agent Peyton Ritter from the New York bureau. Ritter, one of the guys from Two Guys, A Girl and a Pizza Place (the other guy being little-known actor Ryan Reynolds), somehow learned Alfred has a penchant for taking photographs of crime scenes before he’s been notified there was a crime in the first place.
Fellig has already moved on to his new subject, a man having a heart attack. Before the poor dude dies, Alfred sees him in black and white as well. Scully and Ritter investigate Alfie at the NYPD and find records dating back to 1964. Turns out he hasn’t aged much. Let me rephrase that: He’s old but hasn’t changed age in the past 35 years. He’s gotten kind of brazen though; while Sculter (Ritly?) are doing their thing, Fellig photographs a murderer and gets stabbed and robbed for his trouble. Luckily he’s able to pry that knife right out of his back and walk away.
The next morning, the prints on the knife lead Ritter to believe Alfred was the killer, not a victim. During a brief interview, Fellig shows the stab wounds on his back. Dana points out to her partner du jour that their job is to find the truth, not to just get a confession from Alfred. Scully reaches out to Mulder who is (not literally) chained to his desk but able to stay in the loop after intercepting Ritter’s emails to A.D. Kersh.
Dana relieves Ritter on a stakeout at Fellig's apartment. Scully confronts him alone about the photographs and agrees to go for a ride with Alfred. The duo (Scullig? Felly?) drives around until he finds a monochromatic woman (probably a hooker) and warns Dana about her impending death. Scully intervenes when a man (probably a pimp) starts harassing the woman, who gets killed by a truck. Alfie, who’s had enough fun for the evening, leaves Dana behind.
At the precinct, Ritter confronts "Dana" because Scully is X-filing his investigation (apparently that’s synonymous with mucking it up). But it should be an X-file; Mulder’s background check of Alfred Fellig (and his previous names) reveals him to be 149 years old. Conveniently, fingerprints confirm Fox’s findings.
Sidenote: I got to wondering why didn't Fellig use a more common name for each identity like Smith or Brown. All of his chosen monikers are pretty specific, so it’s very easy to track his history. In fact, according to mynamestats.com there are only about 70 Felligs in the world, with none living in the United States, according to the last census. I assumed there had to be some type of in-joke involved. It turns out, that’s the case. There was an Ascher Fellig, a photographer famous for his black and white crime scene photographs who died in New York City. And Alfred is likely a nod to the original "Tithonus" poet. We now return to our regularly scheduled episode review.
Scully defies Ritter yet again and confronts Alfie, who is jealous of his subjects’ ability to die. Fellig shows Dana the photograph of the carnage from the crashed elevator. He clearly sees Death taking the mail clerk’s soul (spirit, life, what have you). Scully claims it’s a lens flare and starts to look at his other photos. The one of a dead woman from 1928 seems to get to her. She leaves the darkroom, calls Mulder and asks him to research one of Fellig’s possible aliases, Louis Brady. Afterward, Alfie lifts her cell phone and turns it off.
Fox learns Louis Brady was charged with double murder and calls Ritter when he can’t reach Dana. While talking to Scully about his long life, Alfred sees her in black and white, knows she’s about to meet Death and wants to take her picture. Scully handcuffs him just as Ritter arrives and shoots Fellig, who is standing in front of Dana. Ritter’s high-caliber bullet goes through Alfie’s camera, through Alfie and lodges itself in Dana’s stomach. Fellig, in pain, still sees a monochromatic Scully. He tells Dana not to look at Death and holds her hand. The grayscale moves from her to him and Alfred finally gets his wish.
One week later, Mulder tells Scully that Fellig’s autopsy showed he died of a single gunshot wound. Ritter is lucky Fox didn’t punch him in the face for shooting Dana. Although, when you think about it, Mulder sorta, kinda (but not really) shot Scully this season in "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" (Episode 6) so maybe he just didn’t want to be a hypocrite. They can form their own club instead.
Sestra Professional:
So "Tithonus" feels more like an old-school episode of The X-Files that would have fit into the Vancouver years nicely, but it sometimes tends to get overlooked during discussion of the show. I've done it myself, although upon reflection, it's definitely a wheelhouse ep. It's kind of nice to be back on that terrain.
Director Michael Watkins rather vividly brings Vince Gilligan's chilling concept to the small screen. This is the writer's second foray into photography as an X-file after the thoughtography killer in "Unruhe" (Season 4, Episode 4). Watkins and the art department composes this one as well as Rob Bowman and crew did the other visual effort in the fourth season. The picturesque way the victims are seen in black and white through the camera's lens must have taken some doing. And the story is laid out at a nice languid pace we haven't seen a lot of in the sixth season.
Don't forget your toilet brush: "Tithonus" also fits very well into where the ongoing saga is at the point. With the actual X-files not within their grasp, Scully and Mulder are doing routine background checks. Assistant Director Kersh hasn't given up on Dana yet, so her expertise in forensic pathology has some value to him and the bureau.
Pulling her away gives us an offbeat look at Fox as well. He truly is eating his heart out that she's called off on a de facto X-file. (I guess if it was actually classified as that then Spender and Fowley would be on the case.) Just by looking at the reports in the FBI computer, Mulder devises an array of X-filey opinions -- murder by telekinesis, the fact that Muslim tradition believes photographs steal souls -- our usual first step in solving these mysteries. So he's on the case too without even leaving the office.
But we get even more insight into Dana in this one, not surprising considering Gilligan is one of the better Scully writers in the fold. She's willing to stand up to a green agent who just wants to bust the most obvious suspect in the case. Scully, as always, just wants the truth. To that end, she does go to some extremes. A ride-along with the suspect doesn't sound like the best idea in the universe. Maybe she's taking the psychic's contention that she doesn't die from "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose" (S3E4) too seriously. After all, she did survive cancer and numerous perilous situations thus far. No, I don't think she really is, but Darin Morgan's throw-away line in that episode continued to be a fan beacon after that.
Guy's a regular Dick Clark: This one continued to remind me of bits and pieces of previous episodes. Another example: Fellig has been around a long time. Maybe he took some pictures of liver-eating mutant Eugene Victor Tooms' earliest victims ("Squeeze," S1E3). But Alfie's lack of compassion for the victims eats away at Dana the most, pun intended. She gives it her best shot while trying to save the ostensible hooker, but would that woman have been killed by the guy accosting her instead of the truck if Scully didn't subdue him? Looks like we'll never know.
Don't sweat the math: Thank goodness Fox still can put the pieces together more cohesively in Washington than the green rookie who is probably scarred for life. He'll be lucky if he can handle doling out pizza after this. Mulder did get a big assist from Dana on the Brady pseudonym. Because that's when the fact that the photographer out looking for death went too far in that pursuit gets revealed.
There's a long final discussion between Scully and Fellig. Dana's assumed her typical X-file stance, she's recognizing something supernatural is going on but doesn't completely believe what Alfred's telling her. So it's not really a surprise but still a shock when we see Scully marked for death in black and white at the end of that scene. And since we're not in the aforementioned "How the Ghosts Stole Christmas" scenario, it feels more visceral. I'm still not convinced about the old switcheroo that gave Fellig what he wanted most. Maybe Bruckman was right after all.
Meta murals: So close, Sestra Am. According to the official episode guide, Alfred Fellig was named for the original photographer, Arthur Fellig, and another Vince Gilligan admires, Alfred Stieglitz. I thought there had to be a reason why Fellig's name was so close to beloved show abductee Max Fenig. ... Gilligan noted the guest star gave Gillian Anderson a boost during this episode. "At a certain point, you get kind of tired of playing the same character week in and week out. That episode seemed to invigorate Gillian a bit. She really liked Geoffrey Lewis and the two of them had this kind of simpatico," the writer said in The Complete X-Files. ... Some of the New York scenes were filmed on NYPD Blue sets at the other end of the Fox lot. ... Gilligan was introduced to the poem "Tithonus" by girlfriend Holly Rice, who he paid tribute to in the ep once again as one of Alfie's aliases -- L.H. Rice -- and with her birthday of April 4 on Fellig's press pass applications.
Guest star of the week: Lewis' wizened look proves effective in these environs. The veteran actor drew pictures with his words throughout the show, particularly delivering the story of yellow fever wiping out half of New York City with so much style and substance it reminded me of Robert Shaw's USS Indianapolis speech in Jaws.
Aw, man, Mulder’s voiceover opens the episode and I’ve already lost interest. On Oct. 13, 1973, which was a Saturday, according to my handy-dandy Google search, the much-younger Syndicate members have a close encounter with an alien race in an unknown hangar. Young Cancer Man (would he be called Pre-Cancer Man?) honors them with a folded American flag. 
Some fans were probably thrilled at the concept of Fox and Dana showering “together,” but hopefully they kept in mind it’s not a romantic shower, more like a decontamination one. Clearly it rattled whoever spelled the cast member names because the role of Langly is being played by “Dean Haglung” instead of Haglund. Scully deduces their location, she’s a smart one. Agent Fowley actually makes some sense when she explains why they raided Mulder’s apartment the way they did. Of course, she won’t divulge Cassandra’s current location because of her “Patient Zero” status. Dana isn’t buying it because Cassandra was a patient in a normal hospital for several days without infecting anyone. Diana blames Agent Spender for the CDC activation. 
Fowley brings Jeffrey Spender to Cassandra. He thinks he’s keeping her safe from Cigarette Smoking Man. Cassandra continues to tell him he doesn’t understand. Just give it up, Cassandra. He’ll never understand because he’s always a step behind, even when he’s on the wrong side. Maybe if you showed him your green blood, he’ll start to see the possibilities. 
Or maybe he does … Fox goes to Fowley’s place at the Watergate Apartments. He picks the lock and starts rooting through her things. Cancer Man also shows up, claiming he is looking for his son. Mulder confronts him about experimenting on women and trying to save his own butt. CSM claims Bill Mulder was the lone dissenting vote at first, but he came around and gave up his daughter, Samantha. Cancer Man claims they saved billions of lives by postponing the alien invasion. In return, Cassandra Spender and several children were given to the aliens. The Syndicate received an alien fetus so they could use the DNA in future experiments. The vaccine was Bill Mulder’s idea. The faceless rebels have forced their hand and CSM claims they have to turn over Cassandra. He also continues to dangle the Samantha carrot to get Fox to cooperate. 
When Diana returns home, Fox confronts her with what he learned from CSM. Fowley kisses him. Jeffrey gets back to Fort Marlene, but his mother (and father) are already gone. Marita begs for help and claims to know where they’re taking his mother. And remember the nurse who ignored Mulder? Turns out she’s a faceless rebel who kills the lead doctor and assumes his identity. Fox calls Dana, who says she is going to get Cassandra at the Potomac Yards. Mulder sends Fowley to the El Rico Air Force Base – the location he got from Cancer Man -- without him. 
Cassandra, the faceless rebel doctor and CSM arrive at the hangar, but Cancer Man claims not to know who was shooting at the train. Alex is supposed to be there too, but he’s at Fort Marlene. He realizes the doctor is dead and the alien fetus is gone. Spender stops Krycek and asks for help getting Marita past security, but clearly Alex has zero interest in helping his ex-girlfriend. He’s focused on the big picture and looking out for number one. Diana arrives at the hangar, but things aren’t happening the way they were supposed to. CSM and Fowley get out of there while the Syndicate, their new sacrifices and Cassandra are swarmed by faceless rebels. There’s fire, there’s screaming, there’s fade to black.
So after twisting and turning for six-plus years, the Syndicate portion of the mythology program has come to a close. And not with a bang, but a whimper. Or actually a bunch of screams from people we don't care about. 
In The Complete X-Files, the show's most prolific director, Kim Manners, offered up an explanation to the capping of this part of the story. "The whole storyline of The Syndicate and the bees and the aliens and the chips in the neck, that all seemed to just accidentally fall in place and create an intriguing, mysterious storyline that eventually got so mysterious and intriguing that [creator Chris Carter] had to blow it all up, because he couldn't deal with it anymore," Manners said. 
Also in the never-had-a-chance department, I present the case of Marita Covarrubias. Even looking like a rehabbing drug addict, she still coughs up useful information. It's interesting that she's been used as lab rat in the secret development of a vaccine against the black oil. Well, Mulder was infected with the black oil too, but he seems fine and dandy. Guess it's all who you know. Marita was supposed to know the right people, but guess not. 
And we get another Cancer Man-Mulder confrontation. They cover the same terrain of episodes like "One Breath" (Season 2, Episode 8). At least Fox is smart enough to point out The Syndicate's been using women as human/alien hybrids to save his ass. He still won't use his gun on CBG, he'll probably regret that later. But Cigarette Smoking Man claims they saved billions of lives with their painful decisions. So the aliens insisted Mulder's dad "contribute" by giving up Samantha. Did they have a checklist? What's alien for, "Uh, we're missing one here." And if it was Bill Mulder's idea to develop the vaccine, a human hybrid that could survive colonization, that kind of confirms the conspiracy had no intention of saving billions of lives, they were just trying to save their own. 
I zone out when I watch the final scenes. Scully parks the company car in front of the train Cassandra's on and our heroes shoot at it, but don't stop it. I guess Mulder didn't learn much from trying to blast out the tires on a runaway RV ("Bad Blood," S5E12). Then they call their favorite Uber driver Walter (before it exists, of course) so they can go to the air field. Meanwhile, Diana and CBG are smart enough to realize the rebels are gonna torch everyone, so they make a run for it. None of the others apparently have such keen insight. What about Strughold and the Jiffy Poppers in Tunisia from Fight the Future? Is the insinuation that they were taken out too by rebels not smart enough to block all the exits to this particular hangar?
Guest star of the week: Cartwright's a great screamer. That's almost all she has to do here, but it's been a joy to have her, even for four episodes. You need someone capable of standing on the same playing field as Cancer Man to be CBG Spender's wife, and Cartwright was more than up to that task.
