X-Files S1E12: Let me stand next to your demon

Editors' Note: On the rewatch of The X-Files, Lorrie plays the part of Sestra Amateur and Paige serves as the resident "expert," aka Sestra Professional.
 
Sestra Amateur: 

Episode 8 was titled "Ice." Well, this one is called "Fire." Combined, they remind me of one of Pat Benatar’s best songs. Separately, they stand on their own as decent X-Files bottle eps (aka Monster of the Week episodes). 

This one opens in England, where we watch some old codger say goodbye to his wife and then promptly burst into flames in front of her and the help. The gardener, Cecil, is played by the future King of Hell, Mark Sheppard. Before Supernatural snapped him up, he did a lot of episodic work on different Fox shows. I didn’t realize before how much he resembled Robert Downey Jr. back then. Cecil is the only one watching who does not look surprised or terrified. How did he do it? We will learn that and more on this week’s episode of X-Files: The Scotland Yard Edition.

Back in D.C., Mulder is occupied with something spooky himself: His car doors were unlocked and he does not know how. Scully, of course, teases him about it. Funny how many of my sarcastic lines get voiced by Scully. Guess that means I’m more like Scully than Mulder, even though my pop culture cracks do rival Mulder’s. Inside Mulder’s car, he sees a cassette tape resting on the dashboard. For you millennials, a cassette tape is how we listened to music after long-playing albums but before compact discs. Fortunately, cassette decks were standard in 1990s automobiles, so Mulder is able to play it. 

Turns out, it’s a combination of information related to the British case and a practical joke by Mulder’s former Oxford classmate, Inspector Phoebe Green (Amanda Pays). She is best known to comic book geeks like me for playing Dr. Tina McGee in both TV versions of The Flash. Green explains how Scotland Yard is investigating three fire-related murders of important people in England’s government. Green came to the United States to protect Lord and Lady Marsden and their two sons, who are vacationing on Cape Cod. Mulder agrees to assist Green by reaching out to FBI resources. He later confides to Scully that he is afraid of fire. Wonder if Mulder’s stove is hooked up to gas or electric utilities.

Cecil has followed the Marsden family to Massachusetts, killed their caretaker and taken his place. He's obsessed with Lady Marsden and booby-trapped the house by mixing diluted rocket fuel with house paint. Now known as Bob, he agrees to pick up cold medicine for the family’s sick bodyguard/driver. While in town, Bob stops by a bar. A drunk snaggle-toothed chick tries to pick him up. He freaks her out with self-immolation, then proceeds to burn down the bar.

The next morning Mulder and Green interview Snaggletooth at the hospital and she agrees to help with a composite of the arsonist. Meanwhile, the bodyguard is getting sicker, probably because Bob added some rocket fuel to the medicine. What a dick. Scully, who is not officially helping Mulder but getting more done than he is since Phoebe is distracting him, starts working on a profile of the suspect which matches up to Cecil/Bob very well. 

Back on Cape Cod, Bob is performing fire-related magic tricks for the boys.
He’s also getting creepier – if that’s possible – by trying to get them to keep secrets and start smoking. What a predatory dick. Fortunately, Lady Marsden comes to check on them. Unfortunately, she asks Bob to be their driver for the night to their party in Boston since their regular driver is sick. Of course, Bob agrees.

Green books a room at the same hotel where the Marsdens’ party is taking place. Mulder's not happy about it and Scully heads to Boston to give him information about the case. Phoebe had checked up on "Bob," but she obviously doesn’t know the squeaky-clean real Bob is dead and Cecil took his place. Scully arrives and rolls her eyes when she sees Mulder and Green dancing together. Bob makes eye contact with her, then disappears. 

Now Mulder and Phoebe are kissing, and Scully gets to cut that short when fire alarms start ringing on the floor where the Marsden boys are sleeping. Mulder runs upstairs to save them. We can hear the boys yelling, “Let us out!” It’s a suspenseful moment nearly ruined for me because I, of course, flashed to the scene in the movie Clue when Mr. Green is yelling, “Let us in, let us in!” and Miss Scarlet and Colonel Mustard are screaming, “Let us out, let us out!” Mulder’s pyrophobia gets the better of him and he can’t save the boys. You can be the hero next time, Fox. Good thing Bob is there to rescue them and get all of the accolades, especially from Lady Marsden. What a scheming, predatory dick. 

As Mulder recovers from smoke inhalation, Scully tells him about Cecil L’ively, who was the gardener for two previous victims and entered the United States through Boston two weeks earlier. Will someone please give me a logical reason why Scully didn’t just tell Mulder on the phone and instead chose to travel 400 miles while sitting on that information?!?! It’s not like she brought a picture of Cecil to show Mulder. Maybe Scully was acting on jealousy? Mulder and Green take the Marsdens back to Cape Cod while Scully waits for a fax of the bar arsonist composite. When it arrives she sees it is clearly Cecil/Bob. Of course, now, she can’t reach Mulder on the phone at all. 

Mulder has his hands full; he just saw Lord Marsden and Phoebe embracing. Oops. When Scully arrives, they find the real caretaker burned to a crisp. Then the house starts to go up in flames. Cecil, with a snap of his fingers that even The Fonz would envy, sets the upstairs hallway on fire. Mulder dives away from the flames and saves the boys. Scully holds Cecil at gunpoint. Green splashes accelerant on Cecil, who burns and burns and but doesn’t die. What an overcooked, scheming, predatory dick. No more X-Files for Sheppard, but we’ll next you week on Supernatural, Crowley. 

Sestra Professional:

Spoiler alert, yes, Mark Sheppard is going to be my Guest Star of the Week. This is a great test run for his eventual run as the King of Hell on Supernatural -- the show that's about an angel (Castiel) and a demon (Crowley) in which two brothers do Sculder-like things. I'm Team Crowley and Team Castiel. Sestra Am is Team Castiel and Team Crowley. Don't worry, the brothers Winchester are taken care of by millions of adoring fans.

And now back to our regularly scheduled episode of The X-Files and the latest reason to flash back to Season 1's Gag Reel. That would be Mark Sheppard on sound check "singing" the Wedding March about as maniacally as demonically possible (at about 1:04). https://youtu.be/qr6y562XZuY?t=1m4s

My biggest problem with this episode is the half-baked nature of the Phoebe plotline. She's described as a master game player. I didn't really see anything that seemed that masterful. Oooooh, she got a cassette into his car. She got him to work a case for which he and Scully are uniquely qualified. Yeah, she got to snog with Mulder again, and later, Cold Lips is caught with the lord of the manor, so I guess she's still up to her old tricks. But even with a lot of fire in this episode, this crumpet doesn't generate enough heat to warm a Pop-Tart.

And then that has a cumulative effect on the episode itself. If we're not sure about her, don't really feel any threat from her, than Scully's differing reactions -- from making the 400-mile trek instead of the phone call as Sestra Am pointed out -- to the rolling of the eyes come off as meaningless and perhaps even petty. So both lead characters have both been diminished by someone appearing in a one-off ep. Not really what we're looking for in the early running.

Luckily that's mitigated by poor Cecil. You're so unempathetic to him, Sestra Am. So he's an overcooked, scheming, predatory dick? As a child, he was roasted to death in a ritual sacrifice in England in 1963. They never quite explain how that turned him into Ultimate Pyromaniac, but at least this guy has some semblance of motivation for "taking a certain delight in his work." 

It's kind of tickling to see Sheppard's character continuously referred to as a "demon." The FBI expert says he "exhibits a certain demon poetry." And then Mulder later spouts, "Sooner or later, a man's got to face his demons." Everything's coming up Crowley. Now there's an X-File for you, references made before the show was even a glint in the eyes of the WB and/or the CW networks.

Here's a bit of meta on Mulder: David Duchovny was pretty hacked off at Mulder's previously unaddressed fear of fire. He cited the fact that Mulder wasn't the least bit affected when his motel went up in flames in the show's pilot, but all of a sudden, he's powerless against it here.

All props to Scully for nailing the profile on the "clever and elaborately planned crimes" and the fact that the bad guy followed his quarry to the States: "The arsonist is usually unmarried and prone to obsessive fantasies are women or men who are inaccessible to him. Often the setting of fires results from his cowardice and inability to develop a natural relationship." 

And nice work from the behind-the-scenes crew on the lion's share of special effects. Cecil's fingertip and arm tricks at the bar are pretty nifty. Massive amounts of the episode's sets catch fire with one small drawback -- the Official Episode Guide says Duchovny reportedly suffered a burn severe enough to leave a scar on his hand during filming of this episode.

Guest star of the week: Sheppard! (Told ya so.) His Cecil is really quite 'Lively and more than makes up for the DOA nature of Phoebe. He also proves quite adept with a quip -- which will serve him very well in the future indeed.
Greatly enjoyed his take on an American accent as the faux caretaker, frankly that sounded more genuine than Pays' natural British one. (Even Gillian Anderson's Phoebe impression at the end was delivered well, but then again, she has spent half her life in England.)

X-Files S1E11: The that's-no-Lady Eves

Editors' Note: On the rewatch of The X-Files, Lorrie plays the part of Sestra Amateur and Paige serves as the resident "expert," aka Sestra Professional.
 
Sestra Amateur:
 
Today’s word of the day, boys and girls, is ex-san-gui-na-tion. Surprisingly, it was not one of my spelling bee words. In Greenwich, Connecticut, someone has killed the father of 8-year-old Teena Simmons. At first glance, it looks like a vampire bit his neck, but we’re not watching Buffy or Supernatural, so let’s put a pin in that for now. 

Back in D.C., Scully points out that Joel Simmons lost 75 percent of his blood. Mulder starts listing cattle mutilation statistics. He even has slides. Can you imagine Mulder’s conversation topics on a first date? I’ll bet he has no filter. Of course, that leads him to link the cow mutilation to UFO phenomena. And even though I’m watching this at 8 in the morning, I want a burger.
 
Teena later tells "Miss" Scully and "Mr." Mulder about red lightning and men from the clouds who were after her father because they wanted to exsanguinate him. Sounds like she’s telling Mulder exactly what he wants to hear. Scully gets notified that a similar murder occurred in Marin County, California. Wonder why the writers are so vague with their California location, or for that matter, so specific about Greenwich, Connecticut. I understand the Internet wasn’t very widespread in 1993, but atlases certainly existed. 

Either way, roughly three thousand miles separated the two murder locations. Doug Reardon was murdered at the exact same time as Joel. Doug was felled by hypovolemia -- just another fancy term for exsanguination. Don’t think that was a spelling bee word either. Doug also had traces of the plant digitalis, which acts like a paralytic drug, in his system. While Sculder investigate the second murder, Teena gets abducted. The next day the agents meet Doug’s daughter, Cindy, who looks exactly like Teena. 

Sculder rule out adoption and multiple births. They learn both girls resulted from in vitro fertilization at a clinic in San Francisco. Scully goes to the clinic and meets with Dr. Bennett – even though the subtitles read she is meeting with Dr. Katz. Dr. Bennett tells Scully about former employee Dr. Sally Kendrick, a brilliant scientist who experimented on ova with eugenics prior to implantation. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea, particularly when you consider what we’ve already seen. Dr. Kendrick disappeared after she was fired and reported for her unethical experiments.

Deep Throat flies all the way across the country to give Mulder some information about the case. Aw, how sweet. DT tells Mulder about the Litchfield Experiments, in which genetically controlled children nicknamed Adams and Eves – get it? – were raised and monitored by the government. Now we know where J.J. Abrams came up with Olivia Dunham’s origin story on Fringe. Sculder go to a mental institution to talk to Eve 6 – hey, isn’t that an alternative rock group? – and 6 looks exactly like Dr. Kendrick with bad teeth. Apparently, Eve 7 and Eve 8 escaped, but the others committed suicide. 

Sculder see a photograph with the young Eves and they all look exactly like Teena and Cindy. Dr. Kendrick was cloning herself with the IVF treatments, so Teena and Cindy’s mothers gave birth to Eve clones. Mulder thinks 7 and 8 committed the murders, while Scully begins to suspect the girls. Guess who’s right this time? Both are plausible at this point in the story. 

Eve 7 or 8 kidnaps Cindy, knocks out Scully and shoots at Mulder. Teena and Cindy then meet in a motel room. Adult Eve talks to the girls about redemption and treatment so they don’t have to be evil, but the girls use the digitalis – also known as foxglove – to poison 7. Or 8. Still not positive on that one but I’m leaning toward 7, since she escaped years before 8 did. Sculder find the girls and they blame 7’s murder on 8. Those devious little bitches. 

Teena and Cindy later put the digitalis in Sculder’s diet sodas. My mom always said diet soda is bad for you. Mulder realizes the drinks are poisoned and saves Scully. The girls try to hide, but Mulder outsmarts them. The government takes custody of Teena and Cindy – now Eve 9 and Eve 10 – and they are put into the mental institution cells next to Eve 6, who just may be the real Sally Kendrick after all. To make matters worse, Eve 8 shows up at the end of the episode and she is not in custody. On a side note, too bad there won’t be a sequel episode titled "Adam 12."

Sestra Professional:

Unfortunately, I can't nab the distinction as this ep's biggest fan -- I think naming your band gets that -- but it's always been one of my early favorites. But now I'm starting to wonder if I ever really knew this episode at all.

See Sestra Am thought Sally Kendrick was Eve 6. And I thought the creator of all this mess was Eve 7, the one the girls do away with in the motel after she expresses disappointment in their advanced development by pontificating on the fact that longterm medication and proper environment could help them.  The X-Files Episode Guide, however, claims Sally is Eve 8 -- the one who comes to see the newly detained Eves at the close of the show. I never realized this was such a brain teaser, now I want to know which Eve every viewer thinks is Sally. 

This sort of falls in line with the spirit of most of this ep anyway, because the adults are always a step behind the demon seeds and the grownups are always so sure they're right about everything. Now Sibling Cinema may be a step behind too. I just took a sip of my soda ... now I'm worried about the digitalis thing. OK, good, no giveaway residue around my cup.

Maybe they weren't looking in the right direction: Love the Macguffin of red lightning and Mulder's quick judgment that the exsanguination meant there was a UFO angle. Teena rides Mulder hard and puts him away wet, which would sound pretty bad considering she's a minor, except for the fact that I just mean she suckered him in.

Funnily enough, Mulder has got great reasoning when it comes to why serial killers working in tandem isn't a possible scenario. But his response to Scully's query about why alien beings would travel light years to Earth to play doctor on cattle is a throwaway line -- "for the same reason we cut up frogs and monkeys."

Perhaps the fact that the adorable cherubs preferred news to cartoons and used words like "exsanguinate" and "dinoflagellates" could possibly have been a stronger clue for Scully as she was considering their possible involvement. She gets near the truth a second time when stating that digitalis can't really be detected in soda. But in the end, it's Mulder who puts 1 +1 together and gets 7. Or  8. 

Deep Throat again? I really prefer him to consult on the mythology-related episodes, but I there wasn't quite a conspiracy game plan at this time. The government was trying to crossbreed top scientists and athletes to come up with a superior soldier. Instead they created kids who cultivated their own digitalis plants. The concept of Adams and Eves reminds Sestra Am of Fringe, but I'm getting a strong Orphan Black vibe. And that's why The X-Files was a seminal series, influencing future shows ... and even alternative music.

She is me and I am her and we are all together: Kudos to the casting department, first and foremost. Harriet Harris is dazzling as mastermind Sally Kendrick and whatever other Eves we saw, and Erika and Sabrina Krievins handle the transformation from victims to brilliant plotters with wisdom well beyond their tender years.

Guest star of the week: Sticking with Harris (often credited as Harriet Sansom Harris), who knocks it out of the park at least three different ways. The other role of hers that has stuck with me is as Stephen Tobolowsky's beleaguered wife in Memento. But here she can say lines about biting into a guard's eyeball as a sign of affection, then turn around and be disappointed in the girls' lack of progress and shift yet again to cause concern for the future of mankind by possibly unleashing all that heightened intelligence and heightened psychosis on the world once again.

X-Files S1E10: Yippee-kai-yay, Operation Falcon

Editors' Note: On the rewatch of The X-Files, Lorrie plays the part of Sestra Amateur and Paige serves as the resident "expert," aka Sestra Professional.
 
Sestra Amateur:
 
Good news, X-Philes: We’re back to aliens. Not ghost aliens like in the last episode, "Space"; this one feels properly conspiracy-ish. The episode opens with a deputy checking out a fire in the woods of Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the U.S. Space Surveillance Center in Colorado is tracking an unidentified bogey crash landing in that area.

Air Force Colonel Calvin Henderson, played by character actor Marshall Bell, tells personnel to classify it as a meteor, which it clearly isn’t. The Colonel then reports a “Fallen Angel” – now that Poison song is in my head – and mobilizes Operation Millennium Falcon. OK, it’s just Operation Falcon. Back in the woods, poor Deputy Wright gets attacked by a bright white light and there’s an invisible creature on the loose. We’ll cut right to the chase and call it Predator.

The next day, toxic spill evacuation plans are in full effect for Townsend, Wisconsin. Toxic spill … sure. Deep Throat tells Mulder he has 24 hours to look for evidence of alien involvement before Colonel Henderson clears the area. While Mulder is running through the Townsend woods, I started thinking of Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind racing to get to Devils Tower for answers. Hey Sestra Pro: Mulder is Roy! 

Mulder sneaks onto the military base and heads toward the bright light. He takes pictures of people in radiation suits hosing down an unidentified object embedded in the ground – UEO? – until he gets knocked unconscious by a soldier. Then the colonel takes Mulder’s roll of film and locks him in a cage. Mulder meets fellow detainee Max Fenig, who seems a teensy bit paranoid. He even says "trust no one" before Mulder. Max says he’s with NICAP – the National Investigative Committee of Aerial Phenomenon to the uninitiated – and just like that Mulder, has found a kindred spirit.

Meanwhile, Scully arrives to retrieve Mulder and bring him back to D.C. to answer for his rogue behavior. She's buying the “real” coverup story involving a downed Libyan jet with a leaking nuclear warhead. Now that’s way more believable than the toxic spill nonsense. Mulder tries to introduce Scully to Max, but he's gone. Also, Predator is still running around the woods. 

While trying to convince Scully they need to stay and investigate, Mulder does his best Jack Nicholson impersonation. The episode is starting to feel more like the silly comedy Chasers than the dramedy The Last Detail. Max then gets caught in Mulder’s hotel room and explains he’s been tracking the agent's career through the Freedom of Information Act. Back in his trailer, Fenig plays the radio transmissions from Deputy Wright and the responding firefighters who “saw” Predator. Sculder locate the deputy’s widow, but she’s been pressured not to talk. At the same time, Predator attacks some of Henderson’s men. 

Sculder talk to ER Dr. Oppenheim – interesting homage to the "father of the atomic bomb" – who treated Deputy Wright. He has also been coerced into not talking, but fortunately, Dr. Oppenheim hates fascists. So he reveals that the men he treated suffered from fifth- and sixth-degree burns. I’ve only seen as bad as third-degree, so those must be pretty horrific. Too bad the military removed the bodies before Dr. Oppenheim could do further testing. Scully learns more information by asking some key questions -- although she mispronounces "nuclear." It is not “nucular.” That’s not even a word; I double-checked on dictionary.com. Yup, all credibility is now out the window! 

The Colonel arrives at the hospital with his mortally wounded soldiers. He tries to kick Sculder out of the hospital, but Dr. Oppenheim manages to keep Scully around despite the Colonel’s protests. Those medical degrees are pretty handy. But Mulder still has to vacate, so he visits Max, and it's fortuitous timing because the latter is having an epileptic seizure. Max is stabilized, but Mulder's gained a key bit of info in the process -- Max has a scar behind his ear that Mulder has seen on other alien abduction victims. Scully's opinion is that Max’s episodes are related to his anti-psychotic medication. 

Predator locates Max in the trailer. Afterward, Sculder can’t find Max, but the scanner chatter on his radio directs them to the docks. They run across some more soldiers that Predator killed, then find Max in a warehouse. The dude's in a lot of pain and more soldiers have arrived outside. Mulder sends Scully to stall them. Good idea, Mulder: Send the medical doctor away from the patient. (Sestra Pro, I know why it was written that way; so Mulder can witness the unexplained instead of Scully. But that doesn’t make it any less annoying.) 

So Scully is quickly apprehended, but Predator's locked in the storage space with Mulder and Max. Predator zaps Mulder across the room. Mulder then sees Max floating in the air surrounded by a bright light. Max and Predator – Maxator? Predamax? – disappear and Mulder is left with only his NICAP cap.

Back in D.C., the government has whitewashed the whole event. Max's body was reportedly found in a storage container in the warehouse. Mulder is about to be fired, but Deep Throat prevents that from happening with an ominous old adage -- "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer."

Sestra Professional:

There you are, mythology. Missed ya.

As I don't know that Poison song Sestra Am mentioned, I spent that allotted time laughing about Operation Falcon. For those who don't know, when Die Hard was edited for television, instead of "Yippee-kai-yay, mutherfucker," Bruce Willis proclaims "Yippee-kai-yay, Mister Falcon." I guess I don't have to point out that it was the most ridiculous dialogue substitution ever. More excess laughter ensued in remembrance of the X-Files blooper reel. (The clip starts at the two-minute mark below.) When Sculder came across the last of the charbroiled bodies. Gillian Anderson bent over to look at them and proclaimed, "They're done!" as though she had been talking about a couple of minute steaks.




There's a lot to be enthusiastic about with this episode (penned by the steady team of Howard Gordon and Alex Ganza). Even though it doesn't include a lot of the specifics that later become common to the alien conspiracy, I greatly appreciated almost every ... wait for it ... last detail. Early on, the colonel tells his subordinates the unidentified bogey was a meteor and attributes its aberrant movement to instrument malfunction. Later, the same person tracking the region quips that "the meteor seems to be hovering over a small town in Wisconsin."

We also have better use of Deep Throat. He should be providing details on Operation Falcon, rather than pontificating about a computer that started thinking on its own in the episode "Ghost in the Machine." Even better, his motives are revealed to be not as cut and dried, as say, the original Deep Throat from Watergate. 

And indeed, as Sestra Am mentioned, it's Max who actually gets to say one of the show's catch phrases first: "Trust no one." As "another intrepid soul in search of a close encounter," Fenig is the perfect precursor for the ragtag trio who get mixed up in Sculder's lives (and vice versa) as the series kicks into high gear. Max has got theories on every dubious scenario -- from crop circles to JFK to (of course) Roswell. He's got state-of-the-art equipment to follow his hunches, and he's got a medical issue that does pose an interesting question -- is he just epileptic, delusional or an actual abductee? Gray areas are good ... especially when we're dealing with possible greys.

This must be the enigmatic Agent Scully: There's good conflict here. Since she's believing the "highly classified lie," Scully just doesn't get why Mulder continues to defy protocol and ignore jurisdiction. Even if she didn't have another answer at the ready, she'd probably still not understand that aspect of her partner. That's great for story potential and growth, although as Sestra Am bemoaned, the forced exit of Scully just ahead of a paranormal occurrence does kinda make your eyes roll into the back of your head. 

Truth be told, that was more than a little awkward. Scully goes to secure the warehouse, and two minutes later, she's got her hands in the air. At least she distracted the colonel with a little conversation. Mulder isn't doing much better. He tells Max under no circumstances will he let "them" take him. Two seconds later, he gone! These agents aren't getting the job done.

The technology in the episode -- such as the high-voltage rays being used to secure the crash site (and lock in an invisible enemy that had more than enough time to vacate the premises) elicited some unintentional chuckles from me. But then they got to a brilliant set piece -- Max being suspended in mid-air in the warehouse and shaking almost like he had during his seizure. That was truly eerie.

Ultimately, the ramifications of the story are both surprising and on point. Max isn't just one of those curious loonies chasing reports of alien spacecraft. In this case, he's the reason for the UFO to be there at that time and place. 
 

No government agency has jurisdiction over the truth: We do get to see Mulder make a strong case that paints him a little less ridiculous and probably more forthright than in earlier episodes. Over a dozen men lost their lives due to Predator and the government wants him to address issues of protocol?

Guest star of the week: Scott Bellis -- you might know him from Timecop or the Little Women remake depending on your movie taste -- couldn't be more perfect for the part of Max. Fenig's one of those wackos your mom always warned you to steer clear of, but Bellis makes him so endearing that you not only root for him, you kinda wish he stuck around and wasn't just stuffed into some crate. Or was he?

X-Files S1E9: Sculder, we have a problem

Editors' Note: On the rewatch of The X-Files, Lorrie plays the part of Sestra Amateur and Paige serves as the resident "expert," aka Sestra Professional.

Sestra Amateur: The Final Frontier. Last week, I snagged the "Ice, Ice Baby" pop-culture reference out from under Sestra on the episode "Ice." And now we have an obvious Star Trek correlation, so it can’t be avoided. Moving on.

Remember when the Weekly World News – the tabloid magazine that was more outrageous than the National Enquirer – ran stories and images of the Face of Mars? Essentially it was a rock formation on Mars that looked like a face, but people liked to think it was left by an ancient Martian civilization. That seems to be the basis for this episode. 

Former astronaut-turned-NASA program director Colonel Belt denies rumors about the alien civilization, but we learn he’s been having nightmares about his spacewalk. When a shuttle is about to launch, the mission is aborted three seconds before liftoff. Mission Control Communications Commander Michelle Generoo – does that even fit on a business card? – suspects sabotage and secretly reaches out to Mulder and Scully. 

Sculder head to Houston for the next scheduled launch. Mulder goes all fanboy when he meets his childhood idol, Colonel Belt. You know the theory that you should never meet your heroes because you’ll probably be disappointed? I think that’s going to happen to Mulder. Belt pooh-poohs the idea of sabotage, but agrees to let Sculder watch the next launch from Mission Control. Scully and I make the same sarcastic comment about Mulder’s star-struck behavior. The liftoff takes place without incident and Michelle stupidly lets Belt know she’s the one who tipped off the FBI. Guess she didn’t read Informants for Dummies.

Later that night, there’s a problem with the shuttle. While hurrying to Mission Control, Michelle sees the Face of Mars and crashes her car. She survives and they get there after an act break, but Michelle learns someone disabled the computer link to the shuttle and the ship is drifting toward the sun. Didn’t we see that plot in Airplane II? Belt arrives and authorizes Houston to disconnect the link so the crew can regain manual control of the shuttle. His plan works and Houston reestablishes contact with the crew. 

Belt seems calm and in control in public, but is acting weird in private. Mulder is concerned because his hero lied to the press about the mission, but Belt explains that the future of the program hangs in the balance. Can’t say I disagree with him on that one.
 

The colonel returns home and appears to be possessed by the Face of Mars. The apparition rises out of Belt’s body and floats out his apartment window. Then the shuttle crew reports to Houston that something is “thumping” their ship. That causes an oxygen leak, so the crew is in peril again. This situation is just like the one Belt experienced when he was in space. Sculder go to Belt’s apartment to tell him about the new emergency, but the colonel ain’t looking so good. Still, when they return to Mission Control, he takes charge. 

Michelle gets upset when Belt puts the mission completion above the lives of the crew. Sculder scours through all kinds of NASA files, looking for a needle in a haystack. Despite the enormity of this task, Scully -- of course -- finds a document that links Belt to this sabotage as well as the Challenger shuttle explosion. Meanwhile, the crew delivers their payload, then report seeing a ghost. Belt has a complete breakdown – no bouncing back from this one without repercussions. 

Belt has a seizure and Sculder see the distorted Face of Mars when they look at him. Belt tells Mulder the shuttle will be destroyed during re-entry, but the colonel finds himself long enough to impart information on how to save the crew. After a few tense moments, the shuttle lands safely in Albuquerque. 

At the press conference, Michelle takes a lesson from Belt and claims the crew experienced a problem-free mission. While in the hospital, the possessed Belt takes care of his problem -- and everyone else's -- by jumping out the window to his death. Scully later tells Mulder that Belt suffered from dementia. Guess she forgot what she saw with her own eyes. That happens a lot on this show.
 

Show creator Chris Carter wrote this episode. Sestra Pro can probably tell us if Fanboy Mulder represents Carter. It probably was to be expected that the episode contains references to the Challenger shuttle disaster in 1986. But there’s some eerie foreshadowing between the fictional shuttle’s re-entry plight and what happened to the Columbia shuttle in 2003. Now thinking about future X-Files episodes that will deliver such predictions.

Sestra Professional:

This is one of the fandom's most disliked episodes, and even Chris Carter himself once said it was one of his least favorites. But like Mulder, I have a fascination with the space program, and as such, I'll say at the outset that I kind of enjoy it. Now I haven't watched it nearly as much as last week's spectacular "Ice," and I won't put it anywhere near that level. But I'll defend it all the same.

'Tis true, Sestra Am has commandeered some potential blog titles of late. But it just makes me dig deeper -- the task inherent to the Sestra Pro anyway. While I can't speak to Carter being the real NASA fanboy, the correlation to the Face of Mars photo was right on target. In the official episode guide, Carter recalled lying in a hotel room and thinking, "Wouldn't it be weird if that face came down on me?"

What we've learned so far in the rewatch is that the series doesn't work too well when Sculder merely react to what's going on around them. In "Space," they can't do much to affect the outcome, which probably goes a long way to explaining the general antipathy for this episode. They're glorified gofers -- finding the colonel, looking through records and passing on information.

But there are some nice elements. When they're originally brought on the case with Michelle's X-ray evidence of tampering, she doesn't understand how and when anyone could have done the sabotage, which would require a lot more than one disgruntled saboteur able to do something undetected. An outside contractor contributes an even more telling line: "There about 17,000 things that can go wrong with the shuttle and about 17,000 people who make sure they don't."  

For all the ways in which Mulder and Scully have grown together, we get another look at the basic differences between them once again. "You never wanted to be an astronaut, Scully?" he asks. "I guess I missed that phase," she retorts. But even more importantly, Fanboy's fascination does give us an opportunity to see Mulder with his guard down when it comes to an authority figure. Until now, he's been highly suspicious and downright ornery.

Actual NASA footage gets more play in the episode than it probably did on nightly news programs at the time. Mulder's so giddy at Mission Control that he's shooting uncharacteristic thumbs-up and clapping. But because he's geeking out, he can also impart technical information to Scully (and us).

The threats to shutting down the space program also feel very real. Belt faces the possibility of killing the astronauts while trying to ensure they deliver the payload. Wasting millions of dollars would be all the impetus Congress needs to shut down the program. And that leads to the press conference whitewashes. So what do we know that's true about the real space program, I wonder (and apparently so does Carter).

It was probably not a good idea for a man who was on record as encountering an unknown entity in space to be put in charge of the whole program. Because as we know, possession (even of a hero colonel by a ghostly alien) is nine-tenths of the law. Luckily, in the last tenth, Belt's humanity is able to save the day.

The episode does get awkward when they blame the Challenger tragedy on Belt. It's clunky and it doesn't work, because it takes away from The X-Files fantasy element and forces us think to think about real-world events. Nevertheless, I still get that same rush off the denouement as Dana. Now even she's clapping and whooping. Meanwhile, Mulder finds the silver lining and keeps his hero's status intact. "He gave his own life. As an astronaut, that was something he was prepared to do." 

GUEST STAR OF THE WEEK: In The Complete X-Files, Chris Carter found something in the episode to be proud of -- the performance of Ed Lauter (possibly best known for recurring on ER) as the beleaguered colonel. Copy that, he's quite believable as both the unbending colonel and the overwhelmed human being.

X-Files S1E8: Getting to the core

Editors' Note: On the rewatch of The X-Files, Lorrie plays the part of Sestra Amateur and Paige serves as the resident "expert," aka Sestra Professional.

Sestra Amateur: I must apologize in advance, especially to Sestra Pro. For some reason, my brain’s go-to for the episode title "Ice" is “Ice Ice Baby." Now Sestra Pro will never use Ice in her Match Game on Facebook. For anyone who has watched John Carpenter’s The Thing, this episode may have a familiar vibe. Something bad is happening in Alaska, just north of the Arctic Circle. Two guys seem to be ultimate fighting, then decide to commit suicide instead. Heartwarming intro –- no irony intended.

Back in warm D.C., Mulder is telling Scully about the Ice Core Project. He shows her a happy video of the crew, then shows her the suicides which were captured on video. Pack your thermals, Sculder. You’re going to Nome! Did they even have pocket hand warmers in 1993? 

Sculder don’t get to work alone on this one; they have to travel to the Icy Cape with four other people, played by actors we have seen in dozens of shows since this originally aired. Kenny Bania from Seinfeld is much less annoying here. Percy from Nikita ups the paranoia ante right off the bat. Lynette from Desperate Housewives feels like Scully Lite even though she isn’t even FBI. (Sestra Pro would go for a Felicity Huffman/Sports Night reference.) Rack from Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the tough pilot who won’t let Percy make the rules so, of course, he’ll be the first to fall.

So Rack gets bitten by a dog right after they get there. The canine is behaving like the original crew. He has telltale spots -– a sign something is wrong – as well as a parasite visibly moving under his skin -– an even bigger sign. Of course, Rack promptly shows the same symptoms.

Meanwhile, Scully performs five autopsies in record time and determines three of the crew died from strangulation and the other two from those pesky gunshot wounds to their heads. Kenny Bania thinks the original crew members came across a parasite while digging in a meteor crater and that worm could be 250,000 years old.

The team is divided between leaving the site or staying because of infection and quarantine procedures. Gee, who do you think wanted to stay? Rack gets very defensive when they ask for a stool sample to prove he is not infected. Majority rules that Rack "drop his cargo" -– his words, not mine. When Mulder restrains him, everyone sees the parasite moving around the back of Rack’s neck. Percy yanks it out, but Rack dies anyway. 

Scully finds the organism in the bodies of the original crew and determines that the parasite triggers aggression in the host bodies. Can you imagine what would happen if that organism infected a hostess already suffering from PMS? Percy tries to push Scully’s buttons to get a reaction. The boys check the boys and the girls check the girls for spots and moving parasites. It’s not nearly as erotic as it could have been. Then they go to separate rooms to sleep but, of course, no one can relax. Mulder hears a noise and investigates. He finds Kenny Bania stuffed in a locker -– don't think this was a suicide. The others, including Scully, suspect Mulder because they find him crouched over the dead body. Mulder refuses to take a blood test. It escalates quickly to Sculder pointing their guns at each other. Mulder relents and they lock him in a room. 

Lynette accidentally learns the parasites will attack each other when they come into contact. Scully infects the dog to test the theory and it seems to work. She tells Mulder, but he’s still miffed that Scully pulled a gun on him. They inspect each other for the early-warning nodules. Their version of foreplay is clearly different from “normal” people. 

Back in us-against-the-world mode, they get taken out by suspicious Percy and Lynette. Now that’s just embarrassing. Percy is about to infect Mulder -– who, remember, is not infected -– but realizes Lynette is the one with the parasite. They force-feed her the second worm, and eventually, things return to normal. 

After they return to Nome, Mulder says he wants to go back to the site to continue his investigation, but he learns it's been torched. Mulder whines that more parasites are probably still stuck it the ice crater. Scully offers him the best advice, “Leave it there.” Maybe they can catch the Annual Fireman’s Carnival before they return home. Iditarod isn’t until March so that’s out. 

Sestra Professional:

To paraphrase the episode's recurring theme: We are not who we were. The X-Files landscape was forever changed by this episode. If the pilot set the groundwork and "Squeeze" showed what could it be, "Ice" upped the ante much further. It had all the elements -- mystery, grossouts, conspiracy and the first real hint of serious chemistry between the leads.

Beyond nuanced performances from David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, a lot of credit for this landmark episode can go to the series' early best writers -- Glen Morgan and James Wong. "Ice" was director David Nutter's emotional first effort for the series and composer Mark Snow made the suspense last as long as Willy Wonka would ever want it to. (Like a guy named Snow wouldn't be a standout in an episode from Alaska.)

No need for "Ice, Ice baby" apologies, Sestra. It was originally going to be this blog's title in a "say the title of the episode, title of the episode, endearing nickname" sorta way. I was more distressed by "pack your thermals," when Mulder gave us the adorable "bring your mittens" line to work off of. 

So two federal agents, a geologist, a medical doctor, a toxicologist and a pilot went to the Icy Cape. In itself, that might not sound too enthralling. However, with everyone suspicious of eventually everyone else, tensions were ratcheted up more than a few notches. This ain't no "Jersey Devil," that's for sure.

Before anyone passes judgment, may I remind you we are in the Arctic: Maybe it wasn't so titillating when the boys checked the boys and the girls checked the girls for signs of the nodules, swollen lymph nodes, skin irritation and the big bonus -- a parasite moving around the neck. But it was tantalizing when Mulder and Scully pulled their guns on each other for the very first time. Aw.

I don't trust them. I want to trust you: The old senses began tingling when Mulder and Scully whispered fervidly while huddled together. Even hotter still was when Sculder caressed each other's necks under the guise of looking for the parasite, of course. Previously paranoid Mulder turned his back to allow Scully to check for the parasite. She smiled with relief when she didn't find anything. And when she turned to walk away, he pulled her back to conduct his own "examination." And then a legion of shippers went out for a cigarette.

Another innovative aspect to this episode was the very nature of opinions. Previously, everything was black and white. Here, no one's opinion was particularly wrong -- with the possible exception of the person with a parasite roaming around in her. That's what really served The X-Files best and set a template for the future.

For example, Mulder and Scully's discussion about what to do about the parasites. Scully wanted them gone, all gone, so that future worms couldn't wipe out a population in mere hours. Mulder wanted to study it, because they wouldn't be able to stop a similar organism in the future without that knowledge. Both points were valid.

Later, they found the solution because everyone's on edge, and Lynette (I guess it would be confusing to call her by her Sports Night moniker since it's Dana) made a mistake. That's Morgan and Wong at their finest. The fact that these people were exhausted and irritable begot a way to kill the bad guy. I mean bad worm.

It was a very physical episode, with the best set pieces coming from the women. Girl power!! Scully tackled the infected Bear ... later, she swung some sort of pipe against a door with all her might while trying to get out of a locked room. Meanwhile, Huffman got to play a freakout that tops any ever seen on Desperate Housewives as the worm took over her brain. That looked like fun, I'd kind of like to do that after a rough night at the office. 

Even the capper is strong. Percy was the one who told the agents that the site was torched 45 minutes after evacuation. And once again, we see that while Sculder worked for the government, they didn't know a lot about what the powers-that-be want and what their roles were to that end. Another building block for the landmark series.

Guest Star of the Week: With apologies to Huffman and the rest of the guest cast, I'm giving the nod to the dog! David Duchovny's own border collie Blue was the daughter of the canine actor that attacked Mulder. Did some fine acting too, particularly in the uncomfortable scene in which the second worm was introduced into the ear.