Sestra Amateur:
This episode begins in a grocery store in Loudoun County, Virginia. Customers are shopping to a sweet Muzak version of Johnny Mathis’s "Misty." Hopefully it won’t have as extreme an influence here as in the Clint Eastwood/Jessica Walter movie Play Misty for Me. Have you ever noticed the music while you’re grocery shopping? If it’s a song you like then the experience is more enjoyable. However, if it’s one you don’t like then you’ll rush to complete the task and get the hell out of the store, even though that means the wretched song will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. It’s wise to wait and see what the next one is because if it’s a good one, then your pleasant mood will return. But I digress.
One customer is stocking up on canned goods – he probably should have used a cart instead of a basket – then heads to the checkout line. We see Flukeman ("The Host" Season 2, Episode 2) has made the news, but it’s a tabloid so I guess that doesn’t really count. Besides if Flukeman really came back, wouldn’t Mulder have investigated? The customer, nicknamed Pusher, realizes he’s surrounded by undercover FBI agents, so he confronts them and they take him into custody.
Turns out he has some type of hypnotic ability because he messes with one police officer’s head and they get walloped by an 18-wheeler. Agent Frank Burst, Pusher’s nemesis, survives the crash to tell his tale of woe to Sculder. Turns out, Pusher has been bragging to Burst about his accomplishments, murders that look like suicides. Sculder learn Pusher has been advertising in mercenary magazines and an analyst Holly brings them some issues to search. Poor Holly was mugged and has a large bruise on her eye. She also has a rather pessimistic attitude toward law enforcement’s ability to solve crimes. Interesting, considering her career choice. Sculder find contact numbers for Pusher in the magazines and set a trap for him. But Pusher is on to them and leaves them a clue.
The next morning he is at the golf driving range when police show up to take him into custody … again. Pusher convinces one of the SWAT guys to set himself on fire. Sculder put him out pretty quickly, but the damage is done. Mulder finds an exhausted Pusher in a white Cadillac and easily arrests him, but Pusher chides he’ll get away with it. At the courthouse, Pusher identifies himself as Robert Patrick Modell. Fox tries to explain to the judge how the suicides are actually murders committed by Modell. It doesn’t work out so well and Pusher is released. Scully does some background research on Modell, but still doesn’t really believe in his power to put “the whammy” on his victims.
Then Pusher puts the whammy on the security guard and Holly at the FBI office and obtains Mulder’s home address. Every time they reference “the whammy,” I think of the game show Press Your Luck. Modell seems sincere when looking at the analyst’s bruised eye. Too bad he can’t find her purse snatcher. Skinner interrupts them and restrains Pusher, but Modell convinces Holly that Walter is her assailant. She sprays him with mace and kicks him in the face. Jeez, everyone is going to have facial injuries by the end of this episode. Surveillance cameras verify Pusher’s presence in the building and Dana now believes in “the whammy.”
Agents raid Modell’s apartment to arrest him, but he’s not there. Mulder, who has a search warrant, starts going through Pusher’s things. Looks like the only food he buys are canned protein drinks. Scully learns Modell is epileptic and takes medication for it. Fox thinks it’s the result of a brain tumor. Pusher calls them and talks Agent Burst into having a heart attack. Frank won’t hang up because he wants to complete the call trace. Talk about taking one for the team. Sculder track Modell to a hospital where he has an MRI appointment.
Mulder goes in alone and unarmed while the SWAT team waits outside. Fox learns the hospital security guard shot the technician then himself. The guard’s gun is missing. Dana sees Pusher’s brain MRI and there’s clearly a mass. Modell’s chart confirms he’s dying. Guess Pusher didn’t take the bad news so well, looks like he completely bypassed the denial stage and went straight to anger. Modell takes Mulder at gunpoint and Scully joins them in their psychological standoff.
Pusher rattles on and on about his warrior mentality then gives the gun to Mulder, who’s clearly being pushed into playing Russian roulette. Two rounds down, four to go. Fox then unwillingly turns the gun on Dana, who breaks through Mulder’s trance by pulling the fire alarm. Fox shoots Modell, who doesn’t die but is stuck on life support for whatever little life he has left. I guess you can say this experience has brought Sculder a little closer together. Sestra Pro, I saw in the IMDB credits that Dave Grohl had a cameo in this one. So how did that happen?
Sestra Professional:
Gotta have a guy who named his band the Foo Fighters in an X-Files episode, right? Dave Grohl was a big fan of the show and the Foos will contribute to "Songs in the Key of X" -- a compilation of songs inspired by the show -- and then the soundtrack of Fight the Future as well. Blink and you miss him here, even when you know he's walking into FBI headquarters behind Modell. And that's because of Robert Wisden's dynamic performance.
The sci-fi/fantasy character actor is the focal point of this exemplary stand-alone ep. "Pusher" really does stand alone. It also boasts a crackling, fast-paced and compelling script by Vince Gilligan with unforgettable Sculder moments -- all delivered via a light yet taut touch by the show's workhorse director Rob Bowman. They don't come much better. Because they can't.
Bet you five bucks I get off: Wisden's Robert Patrick Modell obviously doesn't give a damn. He's got his death sentence, he's got his animosity for society and he's just looking for a worthy adversary. The fact that it winds up coming from the FBI, which turned down his employment application, only makes it that more satisfying for him. He's capable of just about anything, taking great joy in all the pain he causes -- especially when he makes Frank Burst burst -- and doesn't mind leaving a trail of clues along the way.
The fact that law enforcement continues to catch him and he keeps getting away proves to be a nice change of pace from an ordinary episode. Usually there's 40 minutes of hunting for the bad guy/creature and some resolution of the case. Here, Sculder know how and even why -- although Dana's not too hot on the whole Press Your Luck theory.
Let's go, G-Woman: Mulder can't even keep up with Pusher on the quipping front. The best Fox can do is put his search warrant on Modell's TV set as it airs the movie, Svengali, about a music maestro trying to control the woman he loves through hypnotism and mind control. He also pulls the ol' "your shoe's untied"/"made you look" gag on Robert Patrick -- no relation.
But then there's the episode's real attraction -- advancing the relationship of Mulder and Scully. When Fox goes into the building unarmed -- lest he use his weapon on anyone but Pusher -- he's got Dana in his ear whispering sweet nothings (OK, more like important facts about Modell's brain tumor, but still, it's pretty sensual.)
Mulder, no. ... Mulder, yes: The final confrontation in the hospital is as tense as The X-Files will ever get. The strong-willed Mulder is not in control -- David Duchovny is spot-on here -- and even Scully has to struggle to get through to him -- Gillian Anderson rocks that, of course. The show really had to fight to get that Russian roulette denouement, the network was worried about giving impressionable kids ideas, Gilligan said in the official third-season episode guide.
Pleased to meta you: The casting of Modell proved to be fortuitous but not easy. According to The Complete X-Files, Harvey Fierstein and Lance Henriksen were considered for the role. ... Throughout his time writing for the series, Gilligan used the first or last name of his lady love -- Holly Rice -- in his eps. This time, Holly kicked some serious Skinner ass. ... Gilligan originally conceived the plot as a movie script, then retooled it when he joined The X-Files writing staff. ... Scully's line "He's a killer and a golfer" -- seems a little obvious, even over 20 years later. Less on the nose, devotees draw parallels between Robert Patrick Modell and Walter White, Gilligan's lead character in his much-beloved series Breaking Bad.
Guest star of the week: Lots of clutch performances in this one -- Vic Polizos is simply wonderful as the ill-fated detective and Julia Arkos' Holly literally kicks ass but is just as good before and after the beatdown. There's no pushing Wisden out of this spot, though. Talk about nailing the character. And those eyes. So persuasive, very calming, very tranquil, makes me think of a breeze ... a gentle breeze. I just can't help but give him the kudos.
Sestra Amateur:
When we left off last episode, Krycek – possessed by the black oil – was walking toward the camera and directly into Sestra Pro’s heart. But this ep doesn’t pick up exactly there. We change locale to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. We also flash back about 46 years. Some poor schlub with a minor case of radiation burns is telling a tale of woe and mutiny on board his submarine. The scene in which the oil oozes out of its host looks pretty convincing even for 1996 FX. The G-Men listening to the sailor’s story include a young William Mulder -- clearly this is one of those episodes where the sins of the father are visited upon the son -- and one young man who lights up a cigarette and sounds amazingly like William B. Davis. Did they dub his voice or just find a sound-alike actor? But let’s get to the important stuff, although some might argue aliens and nuclear energy are important.
Scully arrives at the hospital to check on Assistant Director Skinner. Dana takes his hand while talking to the doctor, and Walter squeezes it then whispers some information about his shooter. However cute that may be, they’d never make a cute shipper couple. Skully? Scinner? Nope. Ergo, it will never happen. And don’t try to use "Triangle" (Season 6, Episode 3) as a rebuttal, Sis.
We get to see Take-Charge Scully as she bosses around Agents Fuller and Caleca to keep Skinner safe in his hospital room. Meanwhile, Mulder and Krycek (Mulcek? Kryder?) arrive back in D.C. I was going to say finally arrive, but in the time it took Scully to get to a local hospital, the boys flew halfway around the world and rented a car. Unfortunately, someone is in hot pursuit and runs them off the road. Mulder, who wasn’t wearing his seatbelt, paints the windshield red with his blood. Black Oil Krycek takes out the would-be murderers.
Dana's unrequited lab crush Agent Pendrell processes Walter's crime scene evidence and gives her some leads. She sort of thanks him and he stares at her wistfully. Poor guy. Cancer Man checks on a live patient completely covered in tumors, and even that doesn't get him to stop smoking for a minute. CSM tells the doctor to burn the bodies.
Somehow, Scully gets notified that Mulder’s in a hospital room too. She’s sitting by his bedside when he wakes up. State police were too lazy to write him a ticket for not wearing his seatbelt, so they claimed he was buckled up. Crack investigative team they got there because the replay clearly showed he was not wearing it.
Fox updates Dana about what went down with Alex and she tells him about Skinner. Scully is in full you-go-girl mode when she shows how she learned the man who shot the assistant director and her sister are one and the same. Funny how Mulder -- a man who believes he’s seen aliens, monsters and the worst of humanity -- looks so shocked at this revelation. Walter tells Dana about the three men who warned him to stop Melissa’s murder investigation and how his shooter worked with Krycek.
Cancer Man’s Boys’ Club meets in New York City to discuss the French salvage vessel in San Diego and its radioactive crew. The Syndicate has an information leak and really needs to take care of it. Back in their office, Fox shows off Gauthier’s deep sea diver equipment and a small vial of the black oil he found slathered over the victims in San Diego and Hong Kong. Mulder claims the oil is 50 years old and altered due to radiation. Then he plays the alien card, if you’ve ever seen The Hidden then you’ll understand how Fox thinks this intelligent being is moving from body to body. However, the writers still need to address how it traveled through that underwater fuselage into Gauthier in the first place. Mulder somehow knows it’s now in Krycek.
And now for something completely different: The Lone Gunmen go ice skating. Nope, that’s not a typo. They really are not blending with the crowd, which is mainly children and young ladies, but it was good for a chuckle or two. They use Fox's locker key and retrieve the digital tape … or do they? Turns out, Alex beat them to it. He hand-delivers it to Cancer Man, who doesn’t react when the black oil covers up Krycek’s pretty eyes. The Syndicate meets again, and CSM proceeds to get berated by the others. There’s a lot of blah, blah, blah about “compromising beyond repair the secrecy of our work and the security of our project’s future.”
Fox goes old school and figures out the Syndicate’s phone number. Well-Manicured Man – the one who helped Dana, or at least helped feed her paranoia back in "The Blessing Way" (Season 3, Episode 1) -- arranges to meet with Mulder. WMM’s revelations don’t impress Fox. He wants more information, but doesn’t get it.
Agents Scully, Pendrell, Fuller and Caleca discuss Luis Cardinal, Skinner’s would-be assassin. Seems futile, but Dana is determined to find him. But she still checks on Walter at Mulder's behest, and it turns out the assistant director's being taken away by ambulance. Dana catches up to them and goes along for the ride, literally. She knows something’s wrong, especially when the shooter takes a shot at her in an utterly piss-poor assassination attempt. Scully chases Luis down and gets the upper hand. He begs Dana not to shoot him and agrees to give up Alex. She loses her opportunity to shoot Cardinal without witnesses when the police show up.
Then Sculder learn Krycek and the salvaged UFO may be in an abandoned missile silo in North Dakota, oh yah. Think they’ll find him? You betcha. But first they find men dead from radiation burns. Then soldiers find and disarm our heroes. Cancer Man arrives, looks at the handiwork and orders the soldiers to clean up. He walks by door No. 1013 (“I made this!”) but leaves without opening it. Behind that door, Alex is painfully leaking black oil on the ship and the alien finds its way home again. Things ain’t looking so good for Alex, though. See you next season, Krycek.
Back at FBI headquarters, Skinner pays Mulder a visit while looking for Scully, who is at Melissa’s grave. Fox catches up to her there and tells her Luis was discovered dead in his cell and “they” probably got to Krycek too. So we get more closure than Sculder because we’re able to move on to next week’s ep.
Fun fact: Suleka Mathew (Agent Caleca) and Nicholas Lea (Krycek) played a couple on Men in Trees, one of those ABC dramedies that almost no one remembers. She was a reformed hooker-turned-paramedic and he was a guitar-playing pastor in Alaska. Pretty sure Calcek won’t be a thing.
Sestra Professional:
Welcome back, Krycek. And farewell, Krycek. (Nick Lea isn't rushing off to Men in Trees just yet, he does John Woo's entertaining Once a Thief in the interim here.)
This episode caps one of the better two-parters in The X-Files pantheon. There aren't a lot of them that work so completely in back-to-back mythology episodes, usually there's a lot of padding, or even worse, convolution. And the amusing-but-needless ice skating scene aside, "Apocrypha" and predecessor "Piper Maru" wisely takes our conspiracy storyline to a much-needed new level.
That indeed was William B. Davis doing voiceover for Cigarette-Smoking Man to open the show. And what a start, to be certain. Fun to get to see Bill Mulder and CSM working together, in much the mold that the son and his brainy, determined partner will later take up arms (and other assorted body parts in various incarnations of decay and mutation). I'll give all the credit to director Kim Manners, who had the reins for his first mythology episode and delivered the goods.
Is anybody not looking for Krycek? Since we're picking up where "Piper Maru" left off, our leads spend much of the episode apart again, but their stories prove equally engrossing. There's the relationship that launched almost as much fan fiction as Sculder -- Mulder and Krycek -- and even on minimal display, they get a lot of bang for their buck. Alex gets his trademark beating of the week. And who doesn't love watching Dana throwing her weight around -- such as it is -- to protect Skinner and nail her sister's killer?
When our heroes are first reunited, Scully proves she's twice the agent Mulder is by determining the man who shot the assistant director was the same one who offed her sister. Maybe that's why Fox looks so surprised, she's surpassed him in the FBI power rankings. He'll make for it later with an array of black oil guesstimates.
Walter gets to make some sense by telling Dana anger is a luxury she can't afford. But most of the time, his advice comes off as really namby-pamby, clearly a function of being on their side but not the center of attention. "If you can't keep your ahead, it's all right to step away," Skinner tells his charge, and Scully realizes that's exactly what the conspirators would want her to do.
Anyone can be gotten to: It's also fun to see that all is not well in the Syndicate, neither Well-Manicured Man nor the Elder seem entirely comfortable with Cigarette-Smoking Man's methods and/or arrogance. That can only serve our cause and make it slightly more plausible that WMM would talk to Mulder, for maybe he's really after more information than he's getting out of the Tar heel. WMM does name-check a future righteous rock band, deeming the UFO at the bottom of the ocean that started this arc a "so-called Foo Fighter."
But then we again see the conspiracy's lackies proving to be not only ineffective, but downright stupid. The guy who killed Scully's sister also shot Skinner and then went after Walter again? On the other hand, the denouement certainly makes for another great Gillian Anderson confrontation scene, even if the concept seems incredibly insipid.
I didn't sign any disarmament treaty: And there's more than enough room for David Duchovny's amiable persona here too. Mulder knocks his overly technical cohorts down a peg by using a mere pencil to read the Syndicate's unlisted phone number. And then the piece de resistance, upon breaking into the missile silo, Fox taps into all our fears about government doing the opposite of what they tell us they're doing in Washington. Two hundred missile silos that were supposed to be concreted up haven't been? "Apparently no one else signed that treaty either," he quips, and we have to laugh or we'll cry.
Although there's a small confrontation between Sculder and CSM in North Dakota, what I appreciate most is the lack of a pretentious dialogue scene between Cancer Man and Krycek. No protracted discussion or ham-fisted threats. Alex just gets locked in there so the aliens can Fight the Foo-ture.
Guest star of the week: Lenno Britos, who finally got a name in this episode -- Luis Cardinal -- and stepped out of Krycek's shadow ... just in time to be nabbed by Scully, locked up for his crimes and then killed in jail by the people he worked for. Still, he got more air time and really ratcheted up the tension this time around. A far cry from playing the frightened janitor in "Fearful Symmetry" (Season 2, Episode 18).
This episode begins in a grocery store in Loudoun County, Virginia. Customers are shopping to a sweet Muzak version of Johnny Mathis’s "Misty." Hopefully it won’t have as extreme an influence here as in the Clint Eastwood/Jessica Walter movie Play Misty for Me. Have you ever noticed the music while you’re grocery shopping? If it’s a song you like then the experience is more enjoyable. However, if it’s one you don’t like then you’ll rush to complete the task and get the hell out of the store, even though that means the wretched song will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day. It’s wise to wait and see what the next one is because if it’s a good one, then your pleasant mood will return. But I digress. 
One customer is stocking up on canned goods – he probably should have used a cart instead of a basket – then heads to the checkout line. We see Flukeman ("The Host" Season 2, Episode 2) has made the news, but it’s a tabloid so I guess that doesn’t really count. Besides if Flukeman really came back, wouldn’t Mulder have investigated? The customer, nicknamed Pusher, realizes he’s surrounded by undercover FBI agents, so he confronts them and they take him into custody. 
The next morning he is at the golf driving range when police show up to take him into custody … again. Pusher convinces one of the SWAT guys to set himself on fire. Sculder put him out pretty quickly, but the damage is done. Mulder finds an exhausted Pusher in a white Cadillac and easily arrests him, but Pusher chides he’ll get away with it. At the courthouse, Pusher identifies himself as Robert Patrick Modell. Fox tries to explain to the judge how the suicides are actually murders committed by Modell. It doesn’t work out so well and Pusher is released. Scully does some background research on Modell, but still doesn’t really believe in his power to put “the whammy” on his victims.
Agents raid Modell’s apartment to arrest him, but he’s not there. Mulder, who has a search warrant, starts going through Pusher’s things. Looks like the only food he buys are canned protein drinks. Scully learns Modell is epileptic and takes medication for it. Fox thinks it’s the result of a brain tumor. Pusher calls them and talks Agent Burst into having a heart attack. Frank won’t hang up because he wants to complete the call trace. Talk about taking one for the team. Sculder track Modell to a hospital where he has an MRI appointment.
Pusher rattles on and on about his warrior mentality then gives the gun to Mulder, who’s clearly being pushed into playing Russian roulette. Two rounds down, four to go. Fox then unwillingly turns the gun on Dana, who breaks through Mulder’s trance by pulling the fire alarm. Fox shoots Modell, who doesn’t die but is stuck on life support for whatever little life he has left. I guess you can say this experience has brought Sculder a little closer together. Sestra Pro, I saw in the IMDB credits that Dave Grohl had a cameo in this one. So how did that happen?
The sci-fi/fantasy character actor is the focal point of this exemplary stand-alone ep. "Pusher" really does stand alone. It also boasts a crackling, fast-paced and compelling script by Vince Gilligan with unforgettable Sculder moments -- all delivered via a light yet taut touch by the show's workhorse director Rob Bowman. They don't come much better. Because they can't.
The fact that law enforcement continues to catch him and he keeps getting away proves to be a nice change of pace from an ordinary episode. Usually there's 40 minutes of hunting for the bad guy/creature and some resolution of the case. Here, Sculder know how and even why -- although Dana's not too hot on the whole Press Your Luck theory. 
Mulder, no. ... Mulder, yes: The final confrontation in the hospital is as tense as The X-Files will ever get. The strong-willed Mulder is not in control -- David Duchovny is spot-on here -- and even Scully has to struggle to get through to him -- Gillian Anderson rocks that, of course. The show really had to fight to get that Russian roulette denouement, the network was worried about giving impressionable kids ideas, Gilligan said in the official third-season episode guide.
Guest star of the week: Lots of clutch performances in this one -- Vic Polizos is simply wonderful as the ill-fated detective and Julia Arkos' Holly literally kicks ass but is just as good before and after the beatdown. There's no pushing Wisden out of this spot, though. Talk about nailing the character. And those eyes. So persuasive, very calming, very tranquil, makes me think of a breeze ... a gentle breeze. I just can't help but give him the kudos.
