Sestra Amateur:
Sorry hockey fans, this episode -- entitled "The Red and the Black" -- is not a documentary on the New Jersey Devils. You can always go back and watch "The Jersey Devil" episode from Season 1, Episode 5, even though that has nothing to do with the hockey team either. We pick up where "Patient X" left off but the voice-over contrivance has been replaced with a visual one, an unknown author in a foreign land typing a letter meant for someone at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But that’s not important now.
Investigators have (finally) arrived at the bridge in Pennsylvania where dozens of people burned to death. Mulder and Assistant Director Skinner arrive looking for Scully, who somehow managed not to have all of her skin and muscle seared off like the others. (I’m telling you, those yearly contracts are life savers!) Jeffrey Spender arrives looking for his mama. I’m fairly certain the Syndicate’s silent lackey kept her safe from the assassins.
Marita Covarrubias gets recovered by the Syndicate, but her prognosis is grim. The Well-Manicured Man sees the black oil in her eyes while the rest of the Syndicate observe from above. At least WMM is brave enough to be within harm while checking on her. The rest of them are just chicken. Or maybe they drew straws and WMM got the short one. Dana wakes up the next morning with superficial injuries but no memory of the previous night’s events. She learns about the incident from the closed captioning on the hospital television, but it doesn’t jog her memory. Agent Spender brings news that only Cassandra’s chair was found. He’s pissed at Sculder, but that doesn’t help him get answers either.
WMM checks on Alex Krycek, who he left handcuffed on the ship. WMM claims Dmitri died on the bridge, but WMM and Krycek remain at a stalemate. An unidentified flying object crash lands at Wiekamp Air Force base in West Virginia. Soldiers quickly arrive and approach the survivor -- a faceless alien assassin, just like the one burning the abductees to death. The next morning Scully is trying to jog her memory and she is surprised to learn Cassandra was with her. Fox mentions how the other victims also had neck implants and were directed to the site. Mulder is convinced all of the answers to his questions are in Dana's chip. (So technically, the truth is “in” there?) The Syndicate discusses the alien rebel at Wiekamp. WMM claims the group has the vaccine is in their possession. The Elder suggests siding with the rebels if it doesn’t work. Marita will be the guinea pig.
Fox takes Scully to see Dr. Werber for a hypnotic regression therapy session. Surprisingly, she falls under pretty easily and relives being on the bridge looking up at the bright light in the sky as the triangular ship flies above them. Cassandra is with her and her escort (the Syndicate’s silent lackey) goes after the faceless assassins with a gun when the burning starts. (I’ll bet the shippers spent lots of time overanalyzing Dana's subconscious reach for support from Mulder and his conscious reaction.) Another ship arrives and attacks the assassins. Then the second ship’s spotlight focuses on Cassandra and she is beamed aboard while the remaining abductees slowly raise their hands like grade-school children who desperately want to be picked next. Skinner reviews the session recording. Fox initially sounds like he believes Scully’s account, then likens it to his “false” memory of his sister’s abduction. Since Dana doesn’t have independent recall, Walter may be stuck with Mulder’s theory that the bridge incident was staged, even though he’s more inclined to side with Fox now than he was five years ago.
Back to the lab rat. So far, Marita is not showing any signs of improvement. The Elder makes the decision for the Syndicate to turn over the rebel. (Don’t you wonder how their conversations with the aliens go? Phone call, face to face, smoke signals. How do they communicate?) Jeffrey Spender confronts Scully in Mulder’s office. He shows Dana a video of his hypnotic regression therapy session from when he was 11 years old. He claims his account of alien abduction was fake, manipulated by Cassandra because she was insane and he was just a kid who heard her stories way too much. Spender thinks Scully is prone to the same influence with Fox's ongoing account of Samantha’s abduction.
In Mulder’s apartment, Krycek gets the jump on Fox and tells him about the aliens’ planned invasion of Earth. Mulder doesn’t believe him, but Alex claims the mass incinerations occurred to prevent the colonization, maybe because they can only colonize people with the implants. He also mentions that one of the rebels is being held hostage then surrenders his gun and leaves. And at the Air Force base, a familiar alien bounty hunter has arrived.
Sculder head to Wiekamp Air Force Base, thanks to Krycek’s tip. There’s a large truck exiting the base at the same time and Scully recognizes the driver. (It’s the Syndicate’s silent lackey.) Fox jumps on the back of the truck while Dana gets detained at the gate. The driver’s face changes and now he’s the alien bounty hunter again. He stops the truck and prepares to stab the rebel with a ice pick-like weapon, you know, like the one from Colony (S2E16). (I just love how I can plagiarize myself.) There’s a bright light from above, the ship calling forth the rebel. Mulder screams and shoots. Now alone in the truck, Fox is taken into custody by the military. Scully asks what happened but, of course, Mulder doesn’t remember. Dana takes his hand as a show of support. And it looks like the vaccine has finally work on our resident lab rat, Marita.
The next morning, Assistant Director Skinner tells Agent Spender his mother’s case is officially an X-File. And that letter from the pre-credits scene (you know, the one you forgot about) has finally arrived. It’s for Spender and it originated from Quebec, Canada. Spender does one likable thing: He sends the letter back to the source as undeliverable. And the source? Cancer Man himself. Wonder whether the young boy playing postmaster for him also delivers his endless supply of cigarettes. Bonus points for saving William B. Davis’ credit until after the final scene. Bet that was a nice surprise for the first-time watchers. By the way, the envelope is red and the print is black. Is that really what the title is about? Or should we delve deeper and argue how red is blood and black is alien oil?
Sestra Professional:
I'm not sure any original-run watchers didn't expect that letter to be coming from the supposedly dead Cigarette Smoking Man. I know I definitely did. It would have been painfully obvious if he had been in the opening credits, instead it was just sorta obvious.
But let's talk a little about the contents of that missive. It talks of reconciling differences between a father and a son. At this point, X-Philes thought it was addressed to Mulder, after all, it was going to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A little bait-and-switch there, eh, Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz? But we probably should have picked up on that before, since Jeffrey Spender's portrayer Chris Owens did play the younger version of CSM in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" (S4E7) and "Demons" (S4E23).
Now back to our heroes. It's very helpful that Sculder can't remember what's happened to them, usually in the confines of the same episodes. It helps the show return to its factory settings. Mulder and Scully's scene in the hospital is nicely played, but nevertheless a bit of a stilted set piece in which we again recap what's been going on for the past five years (the show looooves to do that during mythology episodes, and Skinner does it later too). That moment leads to an even better one, though -- Dana's hypnosis.
Gillian Anderson totally rocks this scene, recounting the startling events of the night on the bridge with alien ships and two breeds of aliens. Cassandra's ascent to the ship was striking, certainly not a vision I'd seen before. (Or at least remember having seen, I could have been rinsed out.) I'm not a shipper, but even I appreciated the moment when Scully reaches out and Mulder takes her hand. That's the real magic of the relationship, folks. They are there for each other no matter what they're going through. It's bigger than a "they're in love" label. David Duchovny is mighty fine here as well. He's playing Fox believing Dana's experiencing an implanted vision, but with total support for her nevertheless.
At this point, Mulder's so off his game that he's siding with counterpoints that he's probably heard for years. He does believe Scully witnessed something powerful, namely Cassandra being abducted by the military, but that it came with all the bells and whistles of a religious rapture. Jeffrey's childhood hypnosis scene sort of backs that up. He heard abduction stories so many times that he believed them, rather than thinking that his father's abrupt departure drove his mom insane. Spender thinks Dana's gone down the same path after she heard Samantha's abduction story and others like it from Fox a kajillion times.
There is one law -- fight or die -- and one rule -- resist or serve: But Scully's hypnosis isn't even my favorite scene from the episode. In truth, "The Red and the Black" boasts my single favorite conspiracy bit from the run of the show. It starts with salty jokes between Krycek and Mulder. But Alex ratchets up the stakes by saying he'd just as soon shoot Fox if it wasn't in his own best interests. "There is a war raging. And unless you pull your head out of the sand, you and I and about five billion other people are going to go the way of the dinosaur," he says pointedly while detailing the planned colonization and the resistance. That's right, Krycek gave Mulder back his groove. And it's capped off by a moment slash-fiction writers salivated over as much as shippers did the hypnosis scene. Alex kisses Fox on the cheek, relinquishes a gun and wishes him luck in Russian on his way out the door. (Well, the slash writers wouldn't have had Krycek walk out the door so soon.) It's a brilliant couple of minutes between Duchovny and Nicholas Lea that get Fox back on track.
But when Marita was getting interesting -- screwing Krycek (hee hee) and the Syndicate -- she turns into some kind of black-oil test subject. And the annoying factor that used to accompany her character seems to have been transferred to Jeffrey Spender a lot like the way black oil jumped between bodies in "Tunguska" and "Terma" (S4E8-9). (I'm following your lead, Sestra, with callbacks.) Anyway, Spender's blaming Mulder for all kinds of things when Fox hasn't even been actively involved in the Cassandra investigation. You're not winning at brownie points by accusing Mulder of things he hasn't done, kid.
The Well-Manicured Man has been coming on strong this season. The absence of the Cigarette-Smoking Man brought him into clearer focus. WMM is hard-nosed when he needs to be, and he realizes giving the vaccine to someone who betrayed him can work out in his favor. It's good to see The Syndicate the least bit concerned about being betrayed by the aliens and coming up with a Plan B in case it doesn't work out. But again, WMM understands turning over the alien rebel makes that harder to do. By the way, I too have often wondered how communications go between that group and the aliens. "You have e-mail?" Would it be "U-mail?" Maybe they just learned the Kodaly method from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Meta mortals: I think both Sestra Am's points about the title, "The Red and the Black" are valid. Add to the mix that the first track on Blue Oyster Cult's 1973 album Tyranny and Mutation had that title, and that the classic rock band had a proclivity for songs about aliens and government conspiracy. ... Rob Bowman was slated to direct this episode, but was prepping for Fight the Future reshoots, so Carter took over with some assistance from Kim Manners. "He was so mad at me," Bowman recalled in The Complete X-Files about Carter's reaction to that bit of news. ... The list of Skyland Mountain victims on the television is composed of names of staff members on the show. ... CSM's messenger boy was played by Jack Finn, son of X-Files producer J.P. Finn.
Guest star of the week: Veronica Cartwright again. She doesn't have a lot of screen time (or dialogue) in this one, but she's the centerpiece nonetheless. I certainly believe Cassandra and the unique way in which we're shown a victim who doesn't just buy into her abduction scenario, she relishes it. I had the pleasure of meeting Cartwright at a local pop-culture convention a few years ago and she gave me detailed descriptions of filming the two-parter in much the same way she delivered the goods on the show, with feeling and enthusiasm. Check out the details here.
Sestra Amateur:
Your bottle episode break is over. Like it or not, we’re back in X-Files mythology land, which apparently involves a forgettable and meandering Mulder voiceover. Pay attention, there will be a quiz. Two young men are watching an unidentified flying object over Kazakhstan. They follow it and find dozens of burned cars and one live burning man. (No, not Nevada’s Burning Man annual event, just a man on fire. No, not the movie starring Denzel Washington, just, well, forget it.) The fire man, whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut, stops one of the boys, who screams bloody murder. The other boy might get away if he stops turning back to look at what’s happening.
The next morning the military – and Marita Covarrubias – arrive with fire extinguishers. Dmitri, the boy who escaped, didn’t get far. Alex Krycek and the guards stopped him. Alex and Marita argue over jurisdiction in Russian and English. Krycek sends Covarrubias home with a message – a rather rude one.
Meanwhile at M.I.T., a panel is reviewing the statement of Patient X (no relation to Mr. X) Cassandra Spender, played by horror and sci-fi legend Veronica Cartwright. Mulder is part of the panel, but he’s between a rock and a hard place. He wants people to believe in the existence of aliens, but does not want people to believe everything they hear about them. It’s like Fox thinks all aliens are E.T. or Starman and none are Body Snatchers or Xenomorphs. The irony is that the panel’s audience will probably pick apart his statement and focus on key words: Conspiracy! Plot! Government agenda!
After the panel, Dr. Werber expresses disappointment about Mulder's lack of progress following their initial hypnotic regression therapy regarding his memories about Samantha’s abduction. Turns out, Werber is Patient X’s doctor. Fox warns X she should leave the hospital, but Cassandra believes she is about to be “called” by the aliens again … and she seems OK with it.
Meanwhile in Kazakhstan, poor Dmitri has been tortured by Krycek. Alex claims he obtained the information he needed. Remember back in "Tunguska" (Season 4, Episode 8) when Fox was strapped to a wire rack and forced to absorb the black oil leeches? Now you know what happened to Dmitri, who ends up with Krycek on a Russian ship after the kid's eyes and mouth have been sewn shut. You know, Alex, there are other orifices from which the black oil can exit the body.
Back in D.C., it’s the first appearance of Special Agent Jeffrey Spender, although Chris Owens may look familiar from previous X-Files roles. Spender gripes to Dana because he can’t reach Mulder. He wants Fox to stay away from his mother -- Cassandra -- because he doesn’t want an undesirable reputation at the Bureau. Yeah, Scully and Mulder can both relate to that.
Marita Covarrubias is in NYC updating the Syndicate about the events in Kazakhstan. Turns out 41 people burned to death out there and at least two victims had chips in their necks. The Syndicate assumes the rest of the victims had them too. She also rats out Krycek for being there and possibly knowing the cause. He calls right on cue to ask about the progress of their black oil vaccine and tries to barter the vaccine for Dmitri.
Sculder discuss Cassandra and Jeffrey Spender. Dana is concerned about Patient X’s similarities to her own abduction, so she goes to the hospital to warn Cassandra against removing the implant. But Ms. Spender is different from Scully, she never considered removing it.
Up on Skyland Mountain in Virginia, a man watches the assassin from the pre-credits scene set fire to another man. Dozens of others have been burned. The next morning, the agents arrive at the crime scene, but seem to be experiencing some role reversal regarding their beliefs. The Syndicate apparently has an issue with dozens of abductees being killed on U.S. soil – apparently, they’re more accepting of it when it occurs all the way in Russia. Cassandra watches the news coverage and reacts emotionally when the victims’ names are posted. Jeffrey Spender arrives at the hospital, annoyed Sculder won’t leave his mother alone. Jeffrey claims Cassandra and her now-dead friends belonged to an alien abduction cult.
Meanwhile, the Russian ship arrives in New York Harbor. Marita intercepts Krycek, but it turns out their confrontation in Kazakhstan was just for show and they’re intentionally putting the screws to the Syndicate. Their romantic relationship begs the question, can black oil be sexually transmitted? So in the land of the lesser of two evils, should we be rooting for “Alita” or the Syndicate? The Well-Manicured Man takes matters into his own hands and surprises Alex with a gun, demanding Dmitri.
Later that night, Dana is “called” from her sleep. The next morning, Fox reviews findings from Skyland Mountain victims and learns at least three had neck implants. Scully surprisingly tells Mulder not to rule out Cassandra’s abduction statements. They get interrupted by a phone call from Marita, who tells Fox about the Kazakhstan incident. Unfortunately, Dmitri is with her and has "allowed" the black oil to ooze out of his eyes. Mulder rushes to meet Marita, but she’s gone – and there’s trace ooze on the phone booth. Cassandra ends up on a bridge with one of the Syndicate’s silent lackeys and dozens of other abductees. Dana and Dmitri wind up there too. Everyone sees a bright light in the sky and a triangular ship flies above them. Scully finds Cassandra and they face their fates together. That is, until the assassins start burning everyone on the bridge. This could get messy. Back to the pop quiz: What was Fox's voiceover about? Yeah, I don’t remember either.
Sestra Professional:
It was high time to get back to the mythology. "Patient X" does so with great relish, a sparkling performance from the legendary Veronica Cartwright and character development that must have pleased leads David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Spoiler alert, Cartwright is gonna get the "Guest star of the week" kudos, probably for two straight weeks -- a Sibling Cinema first.
On the other hand, the show didn't do Chris Owens any favors with Spender's introduction after the actor's amazing prior association with the show -- it was no small feat portraying the young Cancer Man in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" (S4E7) and "Demons" (S4E23) and he delivered an endearing performance under a ton of makeup and prosthetics as The Great Mutato in "The Post Modern-Prometheus" (S5E5). But here, he comes onto the canvas not only as a foil for Mulder and Scully, but an annoying one at that. In short, he's a turnoff.
Speaking of foils, the gold standard for doing it the right way is Alex Krycek. (I'm not including Cancer Man in this mix, because he's more of the show's villain than a mere foil capable of gumming up the works.) At this point, Nicholas Lea was doing double duty between The X-Files and his 180-degree turn as Victor on the underrated Once a Thief. But it was important to have him in the fold, and he breathed some much-needed life into Marita Covarrubias in more ways than one.
Tell them it's all going to hell: Marita really hadn't ingratiated herself with fans or even as part of the story in the same manner as Mulder's previous deceased informants Deep Throat and Mr. X. This mythology two-parter helps remedy that flaw. It's pretty intriguing that her loyalties aren't as cut and dried as those of her predecessors, she's smart enough to discern there's more going on with the aliens who struck the original deal with the Syndicate and there's a certain chemistry between Lea and Laurie Holden. It wasn't a stretch to expect them to ... uh, share more bodily fluids than just spit.
Marita's machinations are certainly intriguing. I'm not sure I consider the Russian meet-and-greet with Alex to be a ruse, and Sestra kinda softpedaled the fact that she might have bartered sex for oil and/or the vaccine against it. So Covarrubias parcels out information to Mulder when she feels like it, gets it on with Krycek and takes the boy. Which parts of that were at the Syndicate's behest and which were her going renegade?
Look who's answering the bat phone: The group has more to be worried about than her loyalties and whatever Sculder's up to, as the Well-Manicured Man might be getting uncomfortable with his group's approach. If Marita was taking the boy on behalf of the conspiracy, then there wouldn't be a need for WMM to show up after the fact to try to do the same. The men in that group have a lot more to be concerned about than the lines of their power suits.
I've had my head up my rear end for the last five years: Speaking of changing sides, "Patient X" marked some Mulder movement we never, ever would have anticipated. Not the overblown voiceover, we've come to expect those. He no longer believes, beyond the fact everyone's buying into "a conspiracy wrapped in a plot inside a government agenda." He distrusts his own memories of Samantha's abduction. What fresh hell is this? Who's gonna fly the "We Are Not Alone" banner and break onto military bases when they're not supposed to now? It provides Duchovny with some meaty material, but I'm not buying into this. I was hoping he was faking it for an as yet unknown reason.
As for Scully, well, her journey continues to be the reason to want more conspiracy stories. She's the opposite of Cassandra and the juxtaposition works really well for the drama. Ms. Spender's not afraid -- even though she says she's been abducted dozens of times, an unborn fetus was taken from her body and the other worlds are living in a "time of upheaval." Dana's not ready to buy into that narrative, even though she increasingly can't ignore the sensations that lead her straight into the middle of it.
The mythology is getting a wee bit convoluted. We'll learn more about the "radical cosmetic surgeries" and the warring alien nations next week, but how do bees and shape shifters fit into the mix? I guess they're leaving that for when the movie comes out at the end of the season.
Meta methodology: According to the season guide, the role of Jeffrey was created for Chris Owens, who didn't even have to test for the part. ... Playing Dmitri was rough on Alex Shostak Jr., who was on set for over 12 hours due to makeup demands. The crew reportedly gave him water through a small straw and had to lead him around the set since he couldn't see. ... Casting director Rick Millikan described Veronica Cartwright's allure in The Complete X-Files. "She's got a voice that adds a little creepiness and a little mystery that I thought played really well. She was just the perfect X-Files person."
Guest star of the week: Wow, Cartwright, what a great get for the show. My all-time favorite performances of hers have been as the screaming Lambert (I'm quite confident I'm not alone there) in one of my top-10 movies, Alien, and the anguished Felicia Alden in The Witches of Eastwick. Cassandra Spender quickly was added to that list by me and the Academy, which nominated her for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for the two-parter.
Sestra Amateur:
Sestra Pro promised a good episode was coming up and she was right. In the woods of Chaney, Texas, Mulder is chasing a suspect who apparently won’t take responsibility for whatever wrong he committed. (OK, allegedly committed.) Luckily, just like in horror movies, the runner trips, so Mulder catches up to him. There’s a struggle, but Fox manages to stake him. (Wait, what?) Scully catches up and Mulder proudly shows her the suspect’s pointy teeth. He’s a vampire! Scully shows they were fake. Ooh Mulder, you’re in truh-ble…
Back in their D.C. office, Fox takes out his anger and frustration on an innocent garbage can. Dana says Assistant Director Skinner wants their report in one hour. So does that make this a real-time episode? With commercials, there would be approximately 57 minutes left. Funny how alternate media options just mess up a good in-joke without even trying. So let’s just pretend Skinner wants their report in 44 minutes. Also, they’re being sued by the family of Ronnie Strickland (the fake vampire boy) for a blatantly punitive amount of money. Mulder wants to get their stories straight. He is sounding more and more like someone who did wrong and desperately wants to cover his tracks. Scully tells him her version of the events. Yes, it’s a Rashomon-ian bottle episode. It’s actually a great tool to articulate how Scully thinks Mulder “sees” her, with condescension and superiority.
The previous day, an overly excited Mulder brings a new case to Scully -- dead cows in Chaney whose carcasses were drained of blood. “Classic vampirism!” Fox exclaims, then buries the lead about a dead tourist being one of the victims. They meet with the local sheriff Lucius Hartwell, played by Richie Tenenbaum himself, Luke Wilson. (Someday I’ll watch The Royal Tenenbaums, Sestra Pro. Honest.) Dana gets all swoony, but I blame Mark Snow’s dreamy score for that. Scully begins her preliminary exam of the dead tourist. The sheriff is on board with all of her not-a-real-vampire analyses. Real-time Mulder takes umbrage with “Dana’s” embellishing.
Back in the morgue, Fox makes the discovery of a lifetime, the victim’s shoes are untied! To quote Roy Neary in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, “This means something.” Mulder and Hartwell head to the local creepy cemetery while Scully is on autopsy duty. After the world’s most boring autopsy, Dana checks into either the Davey Crockett Motor Court or the Sam Houston Motor Lodge, and Fox eventually appears covered in mud. Scully tells Mulder the victim has an abundance of knockout drops in his system. Fox sends Dana to autopsy the latest human victim while he steals her Magic Fingers bed time and laughs maniacally. She also lets Mulder have her pizza. By the way, the delivery boy is Ronnie Strickland.
I was wrong, the second autopsy might be the world’s most boring one, except for the intestine thing. Doesn’t Fox realize the importance of sleep and nourishment for accuracy? If Scully made any mistakes it could have tanked Mulder’s whole investigation. Dana then gets interrupted by a heavy breather on the phone. Good to know she takes obscene calls in stride. Once she gets back to the examination, she realizes this victim had the same last meal as the previous victim. The chloral hydrates (knockout drops) were in the pizza! The pizza guy did it!
Scully breaks into the motel room (even though she has a key) and sees Fox unconscious on the floor. She sees the pizza guy – yes, with fangs – and shoots! She misses him but disables his car so Ronnie escapes on foot. After Mulder regains consciousness and starts to sing "Shaft," Dana pursues Strickland. Somehow, Fox gets to Ronnie first and “overreacts.” Scully admits they caught a killer, just not a supernatural one. Now it’s time for Mulder’s version (and his perception that Dana is impatient and whiny).
They do agree on two things: Fox brought this case to Scully’s attention and he already had their plane tickets. He’s not nearly as enthusiastic with his sales pitch and clearly doesn’t have confidence in his supernatural beliefs, at least not around Dana. This version of Mulder is practically worn down, probably from years of dealing with Scully’s skepticism. At the funeral home, Fox is clearly jealous of the attractive sheriff as well as Scully’s reaction to him. Or maybe Lucius really does have buck teeth and a lack of intelligence. Mulder is rattling off a laundry list of vampire facts when he notices the victim’s untied shoes.
Mulwell head to the cemetery, where they run into Ronnie and his pizza delivery car. There’s your suspect, Fox. But it’s daylight and he looks like a normal guy, so no alarm bells yet. Later that night, Mulwell are waiting patiently for their vampire when the sheriff gets called to an unusual scene -- a runaway RV is driving backwards in a circle while a crowd (including Ronnie) watches. After they fail to shoot out the tires, Mulder tries to board it, but just gets dragged and flung into a mud puddle. It runs out of gas and stops on its own, then Mulwell find the latest victim inside.
Fox gets to the motor lodge and asks Dana to handle the autopsy. This Scully says everything to Mulder that Rashomon Scully did not. After she storms out, Ronnie delivers the drugged pizza to Fox, who generously tips Ronnie two cents. Yep, you read that right. To add insult to injury, he clearly still has quarters for the Magic Fingers. Shoeless Mulder sees his shoelaces have been untied and tries to call Scully, but he’s been drugged. Yes, Fox is Dana's obscene caller. Didn’t we have Caller ID on most cell phones in 1998? Maybe not the name, but at least the number. Since Mulder called her cell on his, she should have known it was him. I stand by my theory that the biggest and lamest plot contrivances on this TV show relate to the cell phones.
So anyway, Fox is losing consciousness when Ronnie returns, all fangs and glowing eyes. Mulder flicks a bag of sunflower seeds at him which distracts Strickland, who compulsively has to pick them up. Fox loses consciousness but wakes with fangy/glowing green-eyed Ronnie attempting to bite him. Scully shoots Ronnie but – from Fox's perspective – the bullets hit him in the chest twice and don’t stop him. Then Strickland flies toward Dana and gets away with her in hot pursuit. Mulder breaks up some furniture to make a wooden stake and goes after them. He finds Strickland first and stakes him. Fox is convinced Ronnie’s autopsy will vindicate him.
Strickland's autopsy is being performed in Dallas. The coroner has a legitimate theory as to the cause of death, because the stake is still protruding from Ronnie's chest. After the doctor removes it, a glowing-eyed Strickland rises off the table. He’s clearly disturbed by his lack of fangs, but bites the coroner anyway. Sculder are more than relieved when Skinner sends them back to Texas to locate Ronnie’s now-missing body. Luckily the coroner lived, just probably has an embarrassing hickey.
The dynamic duo returns to the local cemetery, where Sheriff Hartwell chats with Scully while Mulder tracks Ronnie’s greedy, lawsuit-happy family in a local RV park. Unfortunately, Lucius is part of the problem; he drugs Dana and reveals his glowing green eyes. Fox finds Ronnie in one of the RVs, but the “family” starts to come after Mulder. He uses two garlic sticks as a makeshift cross, but that doesn’t do squat and they overpower him. Sculder wake up the next morning groggy, disoriented and puncture-free. The RV park is empty because the would-be vampires pulled up stakes. (Get it?) Back in D.C., Walter has trouble believing our intrepid heroes, but clearly the “I was drugged” defense works to a degree for both of them, which might be the most unbelievable part of this entire tale. Nah, the cell-phone plot contrivance still wins.
Sestra Professional:
This might be Vince Gilligan's finest hour on The X-Files. With irrepressible writer Darin Morgan's departure, a glaring hole opened up in terms of comedy episodes that still felt true to the show. The supervising producer had somewhat toiled in Morgan's shadow on this front. He delivered some of the best episodes of the entire run -- "Pusher" (Season 3, Episode 17) and "Paper Hearts" (S4E10) -- that seamlessly worked in humorous moments, but "Small Potatoes" (S4E20) didn't quite hit the middle of the comedy target. With "Bad Blood," Gilligan showed he could not only match, but in some respects surpass the gold standard set by Morgan. It was certainly a blueprint for Gilligan's later supremacy as the creative force behind Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
How could he do that for The X-Files? Well, some fans consider the Morgan episodes a little too deep. They find his material dense and don't particularly want to work out the deeper meanings in his stories. (Please don't include me in this grouping.) But Gilligan's work -- and here particularly so -- is instantly accessible. He can get laughs without sacrificing the rest of the story.
In "Bad Blood," he uses what's become the time-honored entertainment trope of differing versions of the same tale. It's masterful. It utilizes everything we know of Sculder to this point, including a couple quick digs at "El Chupacabra." It's a veritable throwaway line, but every fan who's seen every episode will instantly pick up on the fact that Gilligan's touching upon the Mexican goat sucker from the widely reviled S4E11 episode "El Mundo Gira."
You really know your stuff, Dana: "Bad Blood" requires a lot of the actors too. There are three Scullys in this episode, there are three Mulders as well -- the way each looks at himself/herself, the way each looks at the other and the way their boss looks at both of them. Like they say about the truth -- there's one person's version, another's person's version and what actually happened. Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny hit the perfect notes with all of them. Gilligan gives them the opportunity to be short with each other, basically to react to a co-worker the way an actual human being would react as opposed to the way a television character might in similar circumstances. Andovny (just following Sestra Am's lead) respond with great relish, it must have given them some license to work out some issues about each other's idiosyncrasies.
Props to episode director Cliff Bole for giving all the brilliant little moments the necessary time and space, starting with Fox exclaiming "oh, sh--" and the timely cut to the opening credits to avoid completion of the swear word. We'll never look at a Dana autopsy the same way again after watching intestines slide off the scale the way they did in this show. Even the Dallas coroner gets a laugh when looking at the stake running through Strickland's body.
That is essentially exactly the way it happened: Scenes for both versions were shot one after the other, which made it a little difficult on the actors. "You never know whether the way you have to shoot something is actually going to end up inhibiting important performances," Anderson said in The Complete X-Files of her all-time favorite episode. "It's hard to know whether that, in and of itself, will work and benefit the show. So the fact that it did work was very satisfying."
There's even room for growth in this comedic bottle episode. We get a finer look at Scully, she continues to be the character who shows more colors as the series moves onward. Her interest in the sheriff seems a lot more organic and tangible than with fellow FBI agent and ex-boyfriend Jack Willis in "Lazarus" (S1E15). And we even learn more about her in the small moments -- Dana can be doing an autopsy on a guy who ate pizza, and that makes her hungry enough to order her own pizza. She does go off on her half of a light cream cheese bagel tirade and calls her "obscene caller" a creep in Mulder's version of events, but hey, low blood sugar can do that to a girl. Trust me.
Hoo, boy: Is it my imagination or does Fox come off as kind of ridiculous in all the variations? The muddy Mulder jumps on the bed to not waste Scully's quarters in the Magic Fingers and downs her pizza. In his own, six dead cows are still more important than one dead human. He's never been this subservient to her -- "that's one opinion and I respect that." During his story, he's so bothered by the competition that he describes Hartwell as having big buck teeth, gets dragged around by the RV when he's unable to shoot out the tires and gives the aforementioned two-cent tip. In short, he condemns himself with his own words.
I'm not bothered by the cell-phone thing at all, Sestra Am. I wasn't close to having a flip phone yet when this originally aired on Feb. 22, 1998. If I even had a cordless at this point, it didn't have caller identification. So none of that diminishes the impact of the story for me, and Fox turning out to be Dana's obscene caller was priceless because it was so unexpected. But what do I know, I bought the "I was drugged" defense. Couldn't they do a blood test to confirm such a thing?
Meta bites: In the official episode guide, Gilligan admitted his original plan was to play "Bad Blood" like an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, with other actors playing Mulder and Scully. But ultimately he couldn't figure out how to make it work, so he took co-executive producer Frank Spotnitz's suggestion to play it like The Dick Van Dyke Show (see also Rashomon.) In the episode "The Night the Roof Fell In," Rob and Laura Petrie (remember those names, you'll need them in Season 6) give differing accounts of a quarrel. ... The runaway RV required a stunt driver out of camera range to work from an auxiliary steering station at the back of the vehicle, manipulating the wheel backward as if driving a fork lift, the guide said, adding Duchovny was stretched out on a small hidden creeper rig for Mulder's failed attempt to stop it. ... Gilligan always worked the name of his girlfriend, Holly Rice, into his X-Files scripts. Hartwell is her middle name. ... The part of the sheriff was written for Wilson, who starred in the Gilligan-penned 1998 movie Home Fries.
So we had a pair of famous guest-star writers (Stephen King for "Chinga" and William Gibson with "Kill Switch") in the previous two episodes and now Gilligan's dazzling comedy effort. We definitely need to get back to the mythology, so we can try to figure out what the black oil's all about and why those shape shifters always seem to be ahead of the curve and what the heck Alex Krycek has been up to. Sculder will be searching for the truth, the Sestras will just be trying to figure out what the heck is going on and how/if the pieces fit together.
Guest star of the week: Whether or not you think Lucius Hartwell has big buck teeth, Luke Wilson deserves some kudos. Earlier I was talking about how tough it was for our regulars to dish out variations on their character. Well, Wilson was only on the show for one episode and had to deliver two widely different accounts of the sheriff. He was picture perfect for both of them.
Sestra Amateur:
Just to clarify, this episode, "Kill Switch," is not a crossover between Kill Bill and The Matrix, but wouldn’t that be a fun one to watch? (Quick memory refresher: Switch was a member of Morpheus’ crew, the blonde lady who referred to Neo as “Copper-Top” and wore white leather when everyone else on the team wore basic black.) And yes, I realize both Kill Bill and The Matrix were released after this episode originally aired, but if I wasn't out here making pointless pop-culture references then I’m just not being true to myself, or you. Fun fact: This episode aired on Sestra Pro’s birthday in 1998.
A bug-eyed man is hacking a computer program on the crappiest laptop while drinking coffee in an empty and dimly lit D.C. diner. But business is about to pick up. Every local criminal with a score to settle is heading to the Metro Diner, along with a couple of U.S. Marshals because they all received the right tips to head over there. Care to guess how many people are about to get shot? If you said everyone, then you are correct. Hopefully the waitress was smart enough to stay in the back.
Sculder are called to the scene, probably because of the hacker’s identity. Mulder enlightens Scully about David Gelman’s history as a Silicon Valley pioneer, practically the inventor of the Internet, who disappeared in 1979. Fox is convinced the whole bloodbath was a hit on Gelman. He removes Gelman’s laptop from the crime scene and finds a CD in the CD-ROM drive. We get to listen to the dulcet tones of "Twilight Time," a beautiful Platters tune. (Not one of my go-to favorites, though. I’ve always been partial to "The Great Pretender," "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" and "My Prayer.")
The Lone Gunmen analyze Gelman’s laptop and Mulder shows them the CD. When Byers asked what is it, I really wanted Fox to reply, ”It’s a small plastic disc on which digital information is stored … but that’s not important right now.” Byers figures out there’s background data embedded in the song. Dana suggests checking Gelman’s email, which leads them to a shipping yard.
Sculder find a young woman in one of the shipping containers. Her likes are computers, loud music and zapping FBI agents with a stun gun. She calls herself Invisigoth (she definitely enjoys dressing the part) and surrenders fairly quickly to Scully. Too bad someone (something?) has locked onto their location via satellite and blows up the hacker’s “home.” Luckily the agents (with very little assistance from Dana, I might add) and Goth Girl escape with only minor damage to the company car (your federal tax dollars at work). There are times when I’m glad they prove Scully wrong. Her hemming and hawing almost got them killed.
Sculder and Invisigoth have been driving all night. Either that or it’s a bad segue between scenes. Mulder asks Goth Girl about Artificial Intelligence, which she claims Gelman let loose on the Internet so it could flourish in its natural environment. Dana seems jealous at having another intelligent female around because Goth Girl just pushes her buttons. Scully slams on the brakes and bails out of the car. Our heroes argue about A.I. and what the government is capable of. Jeez, Dana, have you regressed all the way back to Season 1 denial?
Invisigoth claims the A.I. would recognize her voice, so she doesn’t even use a phone but there’s a third member of their team named David Markham out there somewhere. And it turns out "Twilight Time" contains the kill switch to catch the A.I. "Twilight Time" would have been a better episode title than "Kill Switch," it gets said just as frequently.
It’s easy to think this girl is too paranoid for even the Lone Gunmen, but remember, it’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you.
The L.G. meet Invisigoth. whose real name is Esther Nairn. You’d think they just ran into Neil Armstrong or Amelia Earhart, they act like total fan boys. Esther is less impressed with Mulder’s brain trust, who almost got her incinerated and destroyed her home. Goth Girl points out how the A.I. arranged for Donald’s death by sending everyone to the diner. She realizes they can’t catch the A.I. over the Internet, so they need to locate its hard drive to directly install the kill switch. Fox finds the right place in Fairfax, Virginia. Napping Scully wakes to find Esther escaped from her handcuffs. And apparently, the Lone Gunmen sleep together … is that a paranoia thing or are they just that close? Invisigoth gets the drop on Dana and forces her at gunpoint to drive to David’s location. Unfortunately, it looks like Markham’s house also got torpedoed from above. Handcuffed Scully frees herself, but Esther breaks down and gives Dana the gun.
Mulder approaches a cheap-looking motor home which has some serious security precautions -- thermal cameras, a fingerprint scanner (which confirms his ID) and the world’s most annoying siren. But he still manages to enter the trailer from underneath with only a screwdriver. Once inside, Fox thinks he found David, or at least what’s left of him. The A.I. then takes Mulder hostage and bolts him to the hardware.
Fox later wakes up in an ambulance with visible burns on his wrists. They arrive at a hospital, where things seem a little off: He’s wearing a hospital nightgown instead of his regular clothes, the nurses look more like strippers and a creepy doctor is coming at him with a bone saw. Scully and Esther (Sculther? Sculgoth?) are now working together to stop the A.I.. They need to cut off its T3 connection and locate Fox, who is being alternately comforted and tortured by a blonde nurse. She claims they cut off Mulder’s left arm (yep, it’s not there) and will cut off his right arm if he doesn’t tell the nurse what she needs to know. Fox gets a wee bit panicky, understandably so.
The A.I. targets Sculgoth, but luckily they get rid of the computer (and the kill switch) in time. Fox wakes up to three attractive nurses taking care of him. The scene is reminiscent of Dracula’s three brides tending to Jonathan Harker in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Blonde nurse again tries to get kill switch virus info out of Mulder, who realizes his right arm also has been amputated. Lucky for him she threatens to take the legs next, not a different appendage. Dana arrives and pummels the three nurses, then starts to question Fox about the kill switch virus. I guess Mulder finally realized this isn’t real because he kicks Scully and she is revealed to be part of a computer simulation. (Hey, my Matrix comment at the beginning was disturbingly accurate!) Fox is still in the trailer, trapped in a virtual reality nightmare and yelling out to Dana for help.
Sculgoth find the trailer. Scully handles the siren differently than Mulder did, she just shoots it. Now they can hear Fox. Dana enters the trailer from underneath and shoots at the robot standing guard. Esther spots David’s dead body while Scully tries to get through to Mulder, who is trussed up with lid locks like Malcolm McDowell’s character in A Clockwork Orange. Turns out, Esther did not get rid of the kill switch when she dumped the laptop. The A.I. wants it and continues to torture Mulder until it gets it. "Twilight Time" starts playing as our dynamic duo escape the trailer.
Esther takes Fox's place and uploads the virus until it kills her too … or does it? This has turned into The Lawnmower Man, in which Jobe is trying to upload his consciousness to the Internet. Then the satellite blows up the trailer. The next morning, Scully looks at the motor home wreckage and is convinced Invisigoth died, but Mulder thinks Esther may have succeeded with her upload. A loving message to the Lone Gunmen’s computer -- "Bite Me" -- supports that theory. In a trailer park in Nebraska, a teenager retrieves his football from a fenced-in yard containing a motor home which has some serious security precautions, just like the one in Fairfax, Virginia…
Sestra Professional:
I can say this much for "Kill Switch," it's got an arm up -- Mulder's specifically -- on last week's super-fan contribution, Stephen King's "Chinga." And it's head and shoulders above William Gibson's second offering, "First Person Shooter." But we'll get to tearing that one asunder in Season 7.
At the time this originally aired, computers weren't quite the ever-present notion that they've become in the ensuing decades. It made for an intriguing concept. Now a system locking on to your location is something we deal with on a daily basis, with Facebook showing us ads on something we've looked for on another site. But in the day, it was fodder for Gibson ... even if it wasn't a typical kind of X-File. The subject matter seems more Millennium-istic to me.
What are we but impulses? Electrical and chemical, through a bag of meat and bones: It's sort of telling that King's X-Files episode gave Scully the spotlight, while Gibson stands firmly in Mulder's corner. As Sestra Am pointed out, Dana doesn't seem to be retaining any of the data she's collected over lo these many seasons. That's not to say the cyberpunk writer can't flesh out female characters, because Invisigoth proves to be right up his alley. Just that in this particular case, Scully seems to have reverted to her factory settings. Although he seems to try to make up for that in the dream fight sequence.
Ah, "Twilight Time." Well, it's certainly better than hearing "The Hokey-Pokey" over and over again last episode. Ever notice this show doesn't tend to use music recorded before the invention of compact discs? Thank goodness, Chris Carter shoehorned "Walking in Memphis" into the Cher-riffic episode, "The Post-Modern Prometheus" (S5E5), after setting the stage with "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" and "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves."
The agents were able to locate Invisigoth pretty easily considering she's so paranoid about being found. If she couldn't elude dogged-but-computer-ignorant Mulder and leery Scully, Goth Girl should probably just count herself lucky they got to her first. Even if Dana did almost get them blown to bits like the motley crew in the teaser.
Whoops, there go your legs: The whole episode virtually exists to get Mulder into his convoluted extended dream/nightmare scenario. The computer's so astute it probably knew of Fox's predilection for porn. Hence the nurses. It really makes me wonder how much it knew about his biggest wishes and fears. I'm not sure whether I should be more concerned for Mulder's mind state ... or Gibson's.
Sestra Am painstakingly explained all the hows and whys of the episode, yet there's really nothing substantial in here that propels our characters or the story. Of course, we don't really look for that in a stand-alone episode. But we also don't want to take away from all they've done and all they've learned either, just to give Fox the ultimate wet dream and/or The Lone Gunmen someone to drool over.
But we do get one of the hard and fast rules about technology in modern times. All the conspiracies in the world, all the aliens and hybrids and shape shifters can't do as much relentless damage as computers. We may think we have control of them, but ultimately, more often than not, they seem to be ruling us.
Metadata: Gibson kept bumping into executive producer Chris Carter on airplane flights prior to his involvement on the series. In the official show episode guide, Gibson said he initially just wanted to wrangle a set visit, but Carter came up with the idea of him submitting a script. The writer recruited friend and author Tom Maddox to help him do so. It took years before their idea became "Kill Switch." ... Editor Heather MacDougall took home the Emmy for Outstanding Single Camera Picture Editing for a Series for her work on this show. ... Episode director Rob Bowman said in The Complete X-Files that it took 22 days to film it, all while he was still piecing together Fight the Future for summer release. ... Gillian Anderson, who called the artificial intelligence trailer "the set from hell" in the episode guide, added in The Complete X-Files that she relished the fight scene. "When I read that scene, I was so happy," she said. "I happened to be in good shape at the time and was just raring to get in there and be taking these half-naked nurses out with some karate chops."
Guest star of the week: After opening eyes (and The Lone Gunmen's mouths) as Invisigoth, Kristin Lehman continued on in the science-fiction vein for years afterward with work on shows such as The Outer Limits and Strange World. Obviously it wasn't all in Esther Nairn's fondness for clothing and makeup, she displayed a great flair and presence needed for the genre.
Sorry hockey fans, this episode -- entitled "The Red and the Black" -- is not a documentary on the New Jersey Devils. You can always go back and watch "The Jersey Devil" episode from Season 1, Episode 5, even though that has nothing to do with the hockey team either. We pick up where "Patient X" left off but the voice-over contrivance has been replaced with a visual one, an unknown author in a foreign land typing a letter meant for someone at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But that’s not important now. 
Investigators have (finally) arrived at the bridge in Pennsylvania where dozens of people burned to death. Mulder and Assistant Director Skinner arrive looking for Scully, who somehow managed not to have all of her skin and muscle seared off like the others. (I’m telling you, those yearly contracts are life savers!) Jeffrey Spender arrives looking for his mama. I’m fairly certain the Syndicate’s silent lackey kept her safe from the assassins. 
WMM checks on Alex Krycek, who he left handcuffed on the ship. WMM claims Dmitri died on the bridge, but WMM and Krycek remain at a stalemate. An unidentified flying object crash lands at Wiekamp Air Force base in West Virginia. Soldiers quickly arrive and approach the survivor -- a faceless alien assassin, just like the one burning the abductees to death. The next morning Scully is trying to jog her memory and she is surprised to learn Cassandra was with her. Fox mentions how the other victims also had neck implants and were directed to the site. Mulder is convinced all of the answers to his questions are in Dana's chip. (So technically, the truth is “in” there?) The Syndicate discusses the alien rebel at Wiekamp. WMM claims the group has the vaccine is in their possession. The Elder suggests siding with the rebels if it doesn’t work. Marita will be the guinea pig. 
Fox takes Scully to see Dr. Werber for a hypnotic regression therapy session. Surprisingly, she falls under pretty easily and relives being on the bridge looking up at the bright light in the sky as the triangular ship flies above them. Cassandra is with her and her escort (the Syndicate’s silent lackey) goes after the faceless assassins with a gun when the burning starts. (I’ll bet the shippers spent lots of time overanalyzing Dana's subconscious reach for support from Mulder and his conscious reaction.) Another ship arrives and attacks the assassins. Then the second ship’s spotlight focuses on Cassandra and she is beamed aboard while the remaining abductees slowly raise their hands like grade-school children who desperately want to be picked next. Skinner reviews the session recording. Fox initially sounds like he believes Scully’s account, then likens it to his “false” memory of his sister’s abduction. Since Dana doesn’t have independent recall, Walter may be stuck with Mulder’s theory that the bridge incident was staged, even though he’s more inclined to side with Fox now than he was five years ago.
In Mulder’s apartment, Krycek gets the jump on Fox and tells him about the aliens’ planned invasion of Earth. Mulder doesn’t believe him, but Alex claims the mass incinerations occurred to prevent the colonization, maybe because they can only colonize people with the implants. He also mentions that one of the rebels is being held hostage then surrenders his gun and leaves. And at the Air Force base, a familiar alien bounty hunter has arrived. 
The next morning, Assistant Director Skinner tells Agent Spender his mother’s case is officially an X-File. And that letter from the pre-credits scene (you know, the one you forgot about) has finally arrived. It’s for Spender and it originated from Quebec, Canada. Spender does one likable thing: He sends the letter back to the source as undeliverable. And the source? Cancer Man himself. Wonder whether the young boy playing postmaster for him also delivers his endless supply of cigarettes. Bonus points for saving William B. Davis’ credit until after the final scene. Bet that was a nice surprise for the first-time watchers. By the way, the envelope is red and the print is black. Is that really what the title is about? Or should we delve deeper and argue how red is blood and black is alien oil?
But let's talk a little about the contents of that missive. It talks of reconciling differences between a father and a son. At this point, X-Philes thought it was addressed to Mulder, after all, it was going to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. A little bait-and-switch there, eh, Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz? But we probably should have picked up on that before, since Jeffrey Spender's portrayer Chris Owens did play the younger version of CSM in "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man" (S4E7) and "Demons" (S4E23).
Gillian Anderson totally rocks this scene, recounting the startling events of the night on the bridge with alien ships and two breeds of aliens. Cassandra's ascent to the ship was striking, certainly not a vision I'd seen before. (Or at least remember having seen, I could have been rinsed out.) I'm not a shipper, but even I appreciated the moment when Scully reaches out and Mulder takes her hand. That's the real magic of the relationship, folks. They are there for each other no matter what they're going through. It's bigger than a "they're in love" label. David Duchovny is mighty fine here as well. He's playing Fox believing Dana's experiencing an implanted vision, but with total support for her nevertheless. 
There is one law -- fight or die -- and one rule -- resist or serve: But Scully's hypnosis isn't even my favorite scene from the episode. In truth, "The Red and the Black" boasts my single favorite conspiracy bit from the run of the show. It starts with salty jokes between Krycek and Mulder. But Alex ratchets up the stakes by saying he'd just as soon shoot Fox if it wasn't in his own best interests. "There is a war raging. And unless you pull your head out of the sand, you and I and about five billion other people are going to go the way of the dinosaur," he says pointedly while detailing the planned colonization and the resistance. That's right, Krycek gave Mulder back his groove. And it's capped off by a moment slash-fiction writers salivated over as much as shippers did the hypnosis scene. Alex kisses Fox on the cheek, relinquishes a gun and wishes him luck in Russian on his way out the door. (Well, the slash writers wouldn't have had Krycek walk out the door so soon.) It's a brilliant couple of minutes between Duchovny and Nicholas Lea that get Fox back on track.
The Well-Manicured Man has been coming on strong this season. The absence of the Cigarette-Smoking Man brought him into clearer focus. WMM is hard-nosed when he needs to be, and he realizes giving the vaccine to someone who betrayed him can work out in his favor. It's good to see The Syndicate the least bit concerned about being betrayed by the aliens and coming up with a Plan B in case it doesn't work out. But again, WMM understands turning over the alien rebel makes that harder to do. By the way, I too have often wondered how communications go between that group and the aliens. "You have e-mail?" Would it be "U-mail?" Maybe they just learned the Kodaly method from Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Guest star of the week: Veronica Cartwright again. She doesn't have a lot of screen time (or dialogue) in this one, but she's the centerpiece nonetheless. I certainly believe Cassandra and the unique way in which we're shown a victim who doesn't just buy into her abduction scenario, she relishes it. I had the pleasure of meeting Cartwright at a local pop-culture convention a few years ago and she gave me detailed descriptions of filming the two-parter in much the same way she delivered the goods on the show, with feeling and enthusiasm. Check out the details here.
