X-Files S2E11: Your mushrooms are lifting me higher

Sestra Amateur: 

Meet Michelle Charters, the Nurse Ratched of the Excelsis Dei Convalescent Home in Worcester, Mass. She’s bossy, controlling and impatient with the elderly residents. Unlike Michelle, Nurse Ratched never had to deal with poltergeists. And just like that, this episode veers from One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest to The Entity. 

This case features some interesting role reversal for our heroes. Scully is the one who brings the X-File to Mulder’s attention. He, in turn, uses psychological explanations to debunk Michelle’s supernatural-tinged account of battery and rape. They interview Michelle, who accuses 74-year-old Hal Arden, a resident she strapped down into bed shortly before the assault occurred. 

Sculder interview Hal while he’s taking his bath. Actor David Fresco, who was 85 years old when this episode aired, seems pretty fearless in front of the camera. He uses his frail state and withered, naked body to show the agents he couldn’t possibly be the one who attacked Michelle. Enjoy the visual image stuck in your heads, Sculder. Hal blames the sexual harassment fad for Michelle’s allegations and the look Mulder gives Scully almost makes you believe he buys what Hal is selling. Mulder still thinks Michelle lied for her lawsuit. Gung, the orderly assisting Hal, clearly knows what’s going on but is keeping quiet … for now.

Hal’s roommate, Stan Phillips, is concerned about the FBI’s arrival and investigation. Stan, played by character actor Eric Christmas, seems as physically frail as Hal, but just as mentally sharp. While Sculder interview the home’s director, Mrs. Dawson, Hal swallows an unmarked capsule. Stan tries to blackmail Hal into giving him one as well by threatening to tattle, but Hal starts choking. Dr. Scully rushes in to save Hal, then proceeds to perform the world’s slowest round of CPR before giving up altogether. Not going to save him that way, Scully. 

Sculder talk with Dr. Grago, who was treating several of the Alzheimer’s patients – including Hal and Stan – with Depranil. Stan continues to take Hal’s pills – not the Depranil – against Gung’s wishes. Other residents, including artist Leo and fear-mongering Dorothy (played by David Lynch favorite Frances Bay), also want more pills but Gung is resistant. Stan’s daughter arrives to take him home. Now that he’s lucid, he doesn’t want to leave, so he bolts. Abusive orderly Jerry runs after Stan and gets knocked out of a fourth-story window. He grabs onto the ledge but an invisible entity makes Jerry lose his grip one creepy finger at a time until he falls to his death. 

Michelle, who is still working there, complains about having more work now that Jerry is, well, dead, and the other orderly, Upshaw, is missing. Dorothy looks like she’s in full dementia mode as she talks to an empty room full of people. Anyone who has ever watched an Alzheimer’s patient talk to an empty room as though it’s full of people will be really unnerved by seeing what Dorothy sees. But the room is full … of invisible entities who swarm Scully. Luckily, they don’t harm her, but Dana seems to sense something around her. 

Hal’s autopsy results show ibotenic acid – ‘shrooms! -- in his blood. Leo’s manic artwork leads Mulder to the basement where Gung has been growing mushrooms. Fox also stumbles across Upshaw’s dead body buried in the soil. Back upstairs, Sculder interrogate Gung. Actually, Grago and Dawson interrogate him too. It’s a weird dynamic. Gung agrees to give up his stash of pills but when he retrieves the jar from his hiding spot, the capsules are gone. 

Mulder is finally on the supernatural bandwagon when the spirits drag away poor Leo and knock Michelle unconscious. The nurse and Mulder get locked into a flooding bathroom. If she survives, looks like Michelle will win her lawsuit after all. Stan, who took another pill, starts convulsing. Scully sends Grago to give Stan a shot to counter the mushrooms while she tries to free Mulder. The water pressure breaks open the bathroom door so Mulder and Michelle are safe. Dorothy tells them the entities are gone. 

The end of Grago’s Depranil and Gung’s herbal treatments cause Leo, Dorothy and Stan to revert back to their original mental states. I think the loss of Leo’s spectacular artistic ability is the saddest of the three. Unlike Stan, Leo used his abilities in a positive way. 



Sestra Professional:

 It's old home week on The X-Files. Actually, I meant we're seeing actors who have joined us before -- Jerry Wassermann (the experimenting physician was a shrink in "Tooms"), facility director Sheila Moore and dead orderly Jerry had tiny roles in "Deep Throat" and Stan's daughter Tasha Simms (one of the young Eve's moms in "Eve"). What did you think I meant by "old home week"? 

I wouldn't deem "Excelsis Dei" a favorite episode by any means, but it does come across as more of a textbook stand-alone than the shoe-horned heavy-handedness of previous episode "Red Museum" and its predecessor, the boring "Ice" retread known as "Firewalker."


On the other hand, getting into the subject matter via entity rape proves particularly unsettling. It gets easier to digest when the story sort of segues into The X-Files take on Cocoon, but political correctness demands Mulder forsake his usual glibness in favor of a more straight-laced (and dare I say, Scully-like) approach. He thinks Charters is the nurse who cried wolf.

I've got plumbing older than this building and it don't work much better either: That leaves Scully to question who or what could be causing Michelle's attack. She's got theories about the experimental Alzheimer's drug causing a psychotic state seemingly close to schizophrenia and she's got questions about the ancient building fostering contaminants causing further delusions, dementia and violent behavior despite the age of the patients. 

What are you, a track star all of a sudden? After Hal is dispatched, the focus turns to Spry Stan. His daughter claims it's like he's a different person -- although just as angry as when he was first brought to the home. Mulder finally gets to do something -- sprinting up to the window to help the orderly knocked out of the window, but even though he gets there in time, splat. 

Now Mulder's in the game. Apparently he doesn't like getting to Jerry in time and still not being able to effect a more positive result -- namely keeping the guy alive. The entities are unnerving Dorothy, but the meds are sure doing wonders for Leo and his artwork. Mulder believes shamans have used mushrooms for centuries to speak to the dead, Scully reverts to form by responding that they're just interpreting dreams or hallucinations they have under the influence.

Mushrooms aren't medication. They taste good on hamburgers, but they don't raise the dead: Asian orderly Gung may be dosing the residents with his cultivated mushrooms for medicinal purposes, but he claims the American tendency of sending the elderly into nursing homes is ultimately to blame for the unrest. The souls of those that suffered and died at this particular institution have been awakened. "They've taken revenge for their mistreatment," he says. Chock up another point for the show on the social issue front. 

The X-Files continues to revert to form when Mulder sees something Scully isn't privy to -- namely Michelle being flung against against the wall and being locked out of the rapidly filling water closet. Well, at least she was able to procure help for Stan. And it proved to be a great set piece when the bathroom couldn't hold its water any longer.

Ultimately, the episode ended up more like Awakenings at the end, as all the residents still alive and no longer taking the experimental drug nor the mushrooms have regressed to their earlier state. Kind of depressing, think Gung is exporting his crop from Malaysia? 


Guest star of the week: With apologies to the rest of a very game guest cast, it's Christmas time! Eric Christmas time, that is. A character actor with an extensive filmography, Stan Phillips is best known to the Sestras from Night Court and The John Larroquette Show. (He was the priest in Harold and Maude for the rest of y'all.)

X-Files S2E10: 'Red Museum' serves up a hot mess

Sestra Amateur: 

Today, we’re in Wisconsin cattle country, y’all. Beth Kane works at the meat packing plant. She goes home to her sons and an unknown man spying on her through a peephole. Her older son, Gary, takes a phone call and says he’s going out for five minutes. Twelve hours later, the cops find him traumatized and wearing only his tighty whities. On his back are the words “He is one.” 

Sculder get the case because several other teenaged victims suffered the same fate. Delta Glen Sheriff Mazeroski, played by Steve Eastin – who I know best as Eddie “He winked at me” Cicotte in Field of Dreams – directs Sculder to the Church of the Red Museum. Its members wear white clothing with red turbans. Their leader, Richard Odin, played by Mark Rolston – who I know best as Bogs “I could be a friend to you” Diamond in Shawshank Redemption – can type with his eyes closed. That’s not impressive; hell, even I can do that. His sermon speaks of soul transference and possession. Mulder refers to them as Walk-ins. I thought a walk-in was when I go to get a manicure but don’t have an appointment. 

Sculder and the sheriff are called out as non-believers. Clearly, Odin doesn’t know Mulder. Sculder and Sheriff Mazeroski interview Gary, who claims a spirit entered him. While talking to Gary’s younger brother, Stevie, Scully senses she is being watched but Mulder interrupts her. Sculder discuss the case over dinner at Clay’s BBQ restaurant. Sestra Pro probably loved the moment where Mulder wiped a glob of BBQ sauce off Scully’s face. After dinner, they stop the sheriff’s teenaged son, Rick, and his “gang” from bullying a teenaged boy from the Red Church. After they send the kids on their way, Rick’s girlfriend becomes the next abductee. She’s found the next morning stripped and marked while hallucinating bugs and birds. (Birds, birds, birds!) Scully learns from the toxicology report there were mind-altering drugs in the girl’s system.

Sculder return to the Red Church, but Odin will not allow the meat eaters to enter due to religious beliefs. The other members silently swarm around Sculder’s car. Mulder arrests Odin – even though he didn’t have evidence that the leader committed a crime at this point. During interrogation, Odin tries to change Sculder’s focus to growth hormones in the beef. Meanwhile, the church members protest outside the BBQ joint. No one does anything when Rick charges the group and flings a bucket filled with cow’s blood at the members. Nice town. The best bleach in the world isn’t going to get those whites white again. The Chinese restaurant across the street wisely stays closed during the fracas. 

Our heroes get a lead from an old man in a red pickup truck. He drives Sculder out to his family’s former cattle ranch and tells them the current owners are injecting the cattle with Bovine Somatropin – BST, a growth hormone. Guess the cult leader was right on this one. The old man scoffs at Scully’s naïve comment that growth hormones couldn't cause harm because they were cleared for usage by the FDA. 

Later that night, a UFO crash-lands in the woods. OK, it wasn’t a UFO but I had you going, didn’t I? It was actually a small airplane that lost oil pressure. Maybe it should have been an X-File, because the angle at which the plane crashed does not match up with the wreckage we see the following morning. However, I think that was just careless set design and not an actual plot point. What is important is the passenger list -- Dr. Larson, who died in the crash, was the one who delivered all of the teenaged victims. He also had a briefcase filled with cash and a vial containing an unknown substance. This convenient crash feels like the equivalent of Deep Throat or Mr. X providing exposition. 

Back on the BST ranch, Gird Thomas, the man who has been spying on the Kane family, leaves just before another man arrives and shoots Gird’s partner. There's something familiar about that shooter. Meanwhile, Sculder are interviewing Beth, who says Gary has never been sick a day in his life. Dr. Larson gave Gary and the other kids “vitamin shots.” Mulder sees light coming through the mirror and realizes someone has been watching and videotaping the Kane family for some time. Later that night, Rick gets abducted by Gird and is found the next morning stripped and marked – but also dead from a bullet to the head. Sheriff Mazeroski probably isn’t going to take his son’s murder lightly. 

In the car, Scully sees the shooter, but can’t quite place him. Instead of being a good investigator and attempting contact with him, she and Mulder continue in the opposite direction. This might have ended in Mulder’s favor if Scully just said something. Sculder interview Gird who admits to kidnapping and marking the teens who became monsters because of Dr. Larson’s original treatments. Not typical X-Files monsters but horrible people who rape and terrorize others. Gird, his partner and Dr. Larson were trying to right their wrongs by inoculating the cattle … and the kids. 

The vial analysis proves Gird’s account, but there’s more to it: The vial contained the alien DNA that Scully first saw in Season 1 finale "The Erlenmeyer Flask." And now Scully realizes why the man in the car looked familiar -- he’s the one who killed Deep Throat (and the one I referred to as UNK Man in that episode’s blog). Mulder tells Scully he wants UNK Man taken alive. Guess things aren’t going to end well for UNK Man. Mulder gets permission from Odin to hide the teens and their families on their compound. Sounds like the makings of a mediocre reality show: Walk-ins and Meat Eaters living together, wackiness ensues. 

Mulder goes to the meat packing plant and finds UNK Man about to torch the place in an effort to destroy evidence. UNK Man locks Mulder in, but gets caught by Scully and the sheriff. Sheriff Mazeroski avenges his son's death by shooting UNK Man several times and Mulder doesn’t get his answers. Of course no one can identify UNK Man -- after all, he is UNK -- and the substance in the vial breaks down so it can’t be tested anymore. As usual, we have more questions than answers. I’ll contemplate the episode more while enjoying a nice steak dinner tonight.   

Sestra Professional:
 
This episode is textbook early Chris Carter. The show creator has got something to say and his script is going to deliver it in the most heavy-handed way possible. (At least he gets better at it after attending the Church of Darin Morgan/Vince Gilligan later on in the series.)

It's kind of hard to tell the villains without a scorecard: Only problem is, in this particular case, Carter's going a bunch of different directions at once. Is this about Walk-ins not eating meat but being copacetic about violent revenge? Is this the physical reaction from a town that's been ingesting genetically engineered growth hormone? Is this about the dangers of a doctor with a monopoly on a small town? Or is it just the work of a creepy landlord?

Not to mention the time-tested X-Files way to clear this falderal up -- throw it all back on the conspiracy. The man who has been executing people here just happens to be the same shooter who took down Deep Throat. Scully's tests come back linked to Purity Control, which Mulder swears up and down is of alien origin -- although Scully clearly hasn't done enough testing to agree with that premise.

By the way, here are other ways to tell you're watching a Carter-penned ep. Are the words "mortal coil" used? Are references made to current events? Check and check. Here Scully mentions Colombian gangs using the hallucinogenic drug, scopolamine, to subdue kidnapping victims. Can't count on director Win Phelps to smooth this mess over, he only helms this one time. (Although props for the peep-hole view that catches Scully's eye, that's a sweet shot.)

For a holy man, you've got quite a knack for pissing people off: But back to the Walk-ins. It's like Carter had half an episode with the soul-transference believers and kind of shoehorned that in with the growth hormone and a pedophile. I do appreciate Mulder's knowledge of famous walk-ins (Abraham Lincoln, Mikhail Gorbachev and Charles Colson) and that even they won't take credit for Richard Nixon. I'm not sure Colson paints them in a favorable light though, even if he did find religion after Watergate.

There are some other interesting concepts in there. Technology enables cows to deliver 10 percent more milk, that puts "more meat on the hoof." And the ideas of these specific hormones causing the ridiculous amount of violence in town and a doctor who really has no competition conducting tests on the kids with vitamin shots. All these concepts I would buy in separate episodes. But you don't also need a stalker kidnapping the kids and the veganists. By the way, using the Red Museum as a control group doesn't seem like the brightest idea -- think none of them would ever sneak a hamburger like we did a candy bar as kids?

But then on top of that, Carter has to work the conspiracy back into the mix. Whew, it's exhausting. Basically the final third of the ep undermines everything that has come before it. So is Carter saying that absolutely none of those intriguing, intertwining ideas are responsible because ... (cue dramatic eye roll) ... yet again, aliens?!! 

Ribs like these, I'd say the Church of the Red Museum has its work cut out for it: Sestra Am, you have me all wrong. I am not a shipper who goes all a-quiver at the sight of Mulder and Scully touching. I am what was known back in the day as a no-romo -- meaning I don't particularly want Sculder to get it on. Nowadays, that's a rarity. The fandom has been overtaken by shippers. But much more on this in the blogs to come.

Guest star of the week: Lots of options from Sestra Am's "I know best as" crop, but I'm gonna go with Paul Sand -- who I know best from The Hot Rock and The Main Event. Landlord-turned-pedophile Gird Thomas is a severely thankless role, but he certainly gives it more weight than the script provides for him. And it's also markedly different from the sad-sack roles he completely inhabited in the '70s.

X-Files S2E9: Journey to silicon valley

Sestra Amateur: 

We’re back in Monster of the Week mode. No Skinner, no Cancer Man, no Lone Gunmen. But that doesn’t mean it won’t be a good episode, right? (Sestra Pro note: Wrong.)

Scully is back and ready to jump into a new case, almost literally. Scientists with the California Institute of Technology Cascade Volcano Research Team learn their robot, Firewalker, descended into a volcano. They activate the camera remotely and see the dead body of their chief seismologist. They also see a moving shadow right before someone – something? – disables the camera. But what can withstand the 130-degree temperature? Nothing human, of course. 

Dr. Adam Pierce reaches out to Sculder, showing them a videotaped interview of volcanologist Daniel Trepkos taken before the expedition. Trepkos comes across as dramatic and condescending at the same time. Maybe we’ll get to see an interesting debate between Mulder defending outer space exploration and Trepkos obsessing on the origins of the Earth. Pierce said he left the project six weeks prior because Trepkos was going mad, but Pierce is worried about public perception since the project was funded with $20 million in taxpayers’ money. It’s hard to consider any unit under the FBI umbrella as an unofficial channel, even the X-Files, but we'll see where the day takes us.

The facility in Washington is without power and looks like Mulder’s apartment after covert government agents trashed it. While searching inside the building, Fox gets jumped by robotics engineer Jason Ludwig, who claims he thought Mulder was Trepkos. The rest of the team comes out of hiding. Ludwig refers to Trepkos as a prophet. Doctoral candidate Jesse O’Neil claims he suffered from bipolar disorder. Jesse says Trepkos trashed the site to destroy his own work. But she, Ludwig and systems analyst Peter Tanaka are clearly hiding something. 

Mulder thinks the research team is acting weird, Scully chalks it up to them suffering from post-traumatic distress syndrome after being isolated there for the better part of a year. Fox is probably closer to the truth since Tanaka has this nagging cough -- with The X-Files, that always means something more than a cold. Meanwhile, Trepkos breaks Pierce’s neck. Sculder and the scientists find Pierce’s body and bring it back to the site. 

Mulder thinks the "prophet" found a silicon-based life form in the volcano. Scully argues that all life forms on Earth are carbon-based and claims he's talking about science fiction, not science. Still Mulder holds fast that the idea that silicon is the closest element to carbon and the idea isn't so far-fetched. It sounds like the basis of a book I read years ago called The Hollow Skull. Yeah, I guess that might fall under science fiction. You know, it’s nice the writers were able to get the Sculder rhythm back on track so easily, but their argument is one we’ve heard several times before – episodes "Ice" and "Darkness Falls" come to mind. Scully can still be the skeptic but after everything she has seen, it’s almost unreasonable for her to be so steadfast about it. At some point, her denial is going to make her look like a poor agent and doctor.

O'Neil tells Scully that Trepkos changed after his first descent. That’s when he stopped taking his bipolar medication. Jesse, who clearly loved Daniel, just wants to go home. Meanwhile, Tanaka’s nagging cough has Mulder worried. Scully calls for Search and Rescue to evacuate Tanaka, but Mulder notices something moving around in his throat. Tanaka runs away, but doesn’t get too far. We might have expected the chest burster from Alien, but the creature comes off more as the tequila worm from hell in Poltergeist II. The parasite bursts out of Tanaka’s neck and kills him. 

Scully analyzes the spores from the fungus in the late systems analyst's neck while Ludwig and O’Neil continue to act suspiciously. There’s a sweet Sculder moment when Fox lets Dana know how much he’s counting on her. Ludwig convinces Mulder to take him along while Mulder searches for Trepkos. Those guys were really roughing it up there -- $20-million project and they’re forced to drink Shasta? Sounds like poor budgeting. Dinner probably consisted of Ramen noodles. 

Mulder and Ludwig enter the steam caves. Trepkos promptly shoots Ludwig with a flare gun, setting him on fire. Trepkos disarms Mulder, who realizes one of the parasites was inside in Ludwig. Daniel tells Mulder that Erikson accidentally released the spores when he cut open a porous rock. Trepkos, who was in a manic state at the time and had locked himself away from the group for three days, didn’t know what had happened until it was too late and everyone else was infected. Meanwhile, O'Neil handcuffs herself to Scully just as the parasite is trying to explode out of Jesse’s throat. Dana carries Jesse to the lab and shoves her into a contamination room. They’re still handcuffed together so Scully can’t lock the door, but at least she’s protected from the spores when the creature bursts out of O'Neil. The sweet Sculder moments continue when Mulder gets to Scully with his handcuff key. Trepkos is clearly affected by Jesse’s death. He chooses to stay behind when Sculder get rescued. 

Mulder’s voiceover discusses their month of required decontamination. We see the biohazard crew removing everything from the research team’s lab and the camera lingers long enough on one of the uniform patches to let us know it’s something important. Mark Snow even throws in a musical cue. Cool epilogue fact: Mulder listed the dates of the investigation as being 11/11/94 – 11/13/94. I watched this episode on 11/11, wrote the blog on 11/12 and will link it to my friends on 11/13. Conspiracy? Nah, just a nice coincidence. Unless Sestra Pro planned this all along...

Sestra Professional:

This is the polar opposite of the Season 1 episode "Ice" in every possible way, not just the obvious one. Everything that was done right in the first truly great show of the series is done wrong here. 

As my Dr. Who Pro saunters by during this episode, he mentions how similar it seems to the 1970 episode "Inferno." The symmetry would go a long way to alleviating the heavy-handedness this one displays in every milli-second. In the official X-Files episode guide, writer Howard Gordon (working without usual partner Alex Ganza) said he was inspired articles he'd read about Project Dante, the NASA-funded robotic explorer sent into a volcano. Still seems like overcooked "Ice" to me.

But I'll give props to Gillian Anderson, particularly strong in Dana's resolve to get back to work after her ordeal. She later recounted in The Complete X-Files, "It was still just a week after a C-section and I had a fight scene, which I just kinda laughed at and said 'Guys, this isn't gonna happen. Better get some pretty good stunt doubles in here, I can't lift my leg that high.'"

He saw things ... we only dream about and then forget when we wake up: The rest of it is all ca-ca. The dialogue isn't working. The genius Trepkos is characterized as a guy whose dreams, ambition and great luck converged, until his luck ran out. Pierce describes himself as always playing Salieri to Trepkos' Mozart. We can understand that analogy. Then we're introduced to a guy named Jason Ludwig -- OK already with the classical music references. Even Mark Snow gets in on the repeat action, seemingly recycling his score from "Ice." 

Sculder moments that seem promising also fizzle out. Fox is still understandably concerned about her in the wake of all that has happened, but Dana holds her ground. From there, they get into a trademark discussion in which Fox is looking for one of science's holy grails -- a silicon-based organism. Dana isn't really wrong when she describes the heightened level of emotional distress the isolated crew has been under. (Obviously Jesse is suffering some kind of stress if she keeps giving herself the most unflattering hair style ever -- inch-long bangs?) But Mulder and Scully getting into a prolonged argument over carbon isn't going to set too many fans' toes tingling.

Then they're back in the possible contagion arena with the airborne microbe and a desire not to risk infecting the population. Scully determines that if the spores aren't ingested or inhaled immediately upon release, they become harmless. But Mulder's prognosis isn't all wrong either, all the death and disorder has been caused by a parasite existing in those conditions that lives to find a host. 

Then there was the biggest eye-roller of them all. Mulder telling Trepkos that he's going to have to shoot him because he's leaving the steam caves to help Scully might not be the right thing to say to a guy who has not only killed other people but has descended into madness. Like he's going to think twice about taking him out. Just another false note in an episode full of them.

But we do get something new at the end, no, not the patch signifying conspiracy involvement. Since Trepkos wasn't infected and clearly can't rejoin society, Mulder doesn't mind leaving him behind and shading his investigation report to reflect that. Now you're getting into the spirit of the mythology, Fox.

Guest star of the week: Bradley Whitford actually does fine work in the face of Trepkos' madness. Is he an oracle or just a prophet of doom? Whitford's work gets progressively more impressive and effective when contrasted with the cringe-worthy performance delivered by Shawnee Smith. Was kinda glad the organism took Jesse out and even intrigued at the idea of outcast Trepkos surviving in the steam caves.

X-Files S2E8: The strength of their beliefs

Sestra Amateur: 

Glen Morgan and James Wong do their best to atone for the atrocity of the previous episode. In fact, they provide the best argument that “3” was mostly Chris Ruppenthal’s mess since he’s not one of the “One Breath” writers. Gillian Anderson is back from maternity leave, and even unconscious, Scully makes quite the impression on those around her. 

The episode begins with Scully’s mother telling Mulder a story about when Dana and her brothers were kids. The three children were taking the first steps on the path to becoming serial killers by shooting at a snake they found in the woods and laughing about it. Luckily, young Dana experienced remorse at causing the reptile’s death and changed her path. Not so sure whether the brothers learned the same lesson, but probably did eventually since there was never an episode involving a Scully sibling serial killer. The guest-star list alone tells you it’s going to be a pivotal episode: Skinner, Mr. X, Cigarette-Smoking Man. We even get The Lone Gunmen but they’re on the back end of the credits so we don’t know that straight off. 

Good news: Scully shows up alive in a hospital. Bad news: She’s in a coma. Mulder understandably goes off the rails. Worse news: Dana had a living will, and if she gets her way, will be taken off life support because she never wanted to live in that state. So everything seems hopeless for our heroine. Mulder meets Dana’s spiritual sister, Melissa “I’ve been told not to call you Fox” Scully. Melissa claims she can contact her sister through her soul. She’s clearly less of a skeptic than Dana. But they only see Scully lying unconscious on the bed, hooked up to machines that keep her alive. Dana’s perspective shows her tethered to a boat on a lake with everyone unable to reach her because they are stuck on the dock. Fox returns home and tries to contact Mr. X through their bat signal -- the X taped on Mulder’s window.

Frohike shows up at the hospital with flowers for Scully. Aw. He also smuggles out her chart so the Lone Gunmen can analyze it. Double aw. They learn someone experimented on Scully, but they can’t give Mulder any hope that she will recover. Nurse Owens talks to Scully and tries to convince her to stick around a little longer. Nurse Wilkins draws a vial of Dana’s blood, which gets stolen during an unrelated medical emergency. 

Mulder chases the blood thief – please don't let this turn into “3” all over again – and they end up in the parking garage. Mr. X intervenes, cryptically telling Mulder he used to be just like him. Mulder continues his chase and the blood thief gets the drop on Mulder, but X intervenes and shoots the guy in the head. On the upside, the hands-on informant tells Mulder he’ll deal with the cleanup. Meanwhile, Scully’s metaphorical rope/lifeline snaps and she begins to drift away from the dock. 

Back at FBI headquarters, Cancer Man meets with Skinner to complain about the assistant director's lack of control over Mulder. Skinner amusingly tries to convince CSM not to smoke in the office, but of course he marks his territory anyway. CSM leaves just before Mulder enters through another door. Mulder plays the denial game regarding what happened in the parking garage. He’s not as good at it as the other players are, but Fox is still learning. Anyway, Skinner doesn’t give Mulder any answers. 

Nurse Owens continues talking to Scully and Dana appears to be hearing the words from her father. But how does Nurse Owens know their nicknames, Ahab and Starbuck? Maybe she watched the episode, "Beyond the Sea." Back at the hospital, Mulder gets a clue in a pack of Morleys -- I wonder whether Marlboro ever sued for some type of likeness infringement. 

The address leads Mulder directly to Cancer Man, who is sitting alone in a featureless apartment. Fox is so irate he actually smacks a cigarette out of CSM’s mouth. Cancer Man points out how pathetic his own life is, but insists he does what he does because it’s the right thing to do. Of course, he tells Mulder that he will never learn “the truth” if he kills Cancer Man. It really is the only card he has left to play at this point. 

Mulder, who has really made no progress, chooses to quit the FBI, but Skinner refuses to accept his letter of resignation. The assistant director gives Mulder one hell of a pep talk and Mulder realizes Skinner is the one who led him to Cancer Man. Mr. X later helps Mulder set a trap for the men responsible for Scully’s abduction, but Fox ends up going to the hospital to try and reach Dana by talking to her. Unsuccessful, Mulder returns home to his now ransacked apartment and breaks down – pretty sure he’s not crying about the apartment. 

Things have never looked bleaker for our hero. But now that Mulder’s hit rock bottom, it’s time to let Scully wake up. And just like that, she’s conscious – and coherent. For the first time in a very long time, we see a genuine Fox Mulder smile when he hears about it. Scully seems to have heard Mulder in her comatose state, so he reached her after all. Fox returns to Dana's gold cross necklace to her. Scully later asks Nurse Wilkins about Nurse Owens, but finds out Nurse Owens doesn’t exist. Her first case back should be opening a Nurse Owens X-File.

Sestra Professional:

Too bad her first case back wasn't Nurse Owens. You'll see why next week. And by the way, thank God you're back, Scully. You'll never believe what Mulder got up to while you were away.

The voiceover teaser. These consistently wind up being my least favorite part of The X-Files. I've always found them to be quite heavy-handed and pretentious. But the end of the tag when Dana's mother sees her daughter's would-be headstone, that gets me right where I live. 

While Scully's choosing whether to remain or move on, we get lots of nice character beats from those around her. Mulder needs as many answers about the sudden reappearance as he wanted from the initial disappearance, and he's not exactly taking the even-tempered approach. Her mother is just grateful her daughter's alive. Her sister's working her trademark crystals. Even Frohike's decked out to the nines and bearing flowers.

Every life, every day is in danger. That's life: So the quiet beats are nice and a bit shippy for all the Sculder fans who need more from the show than just plot progression, but the real driving force of the episode comes from the other end of the spectrum. Skinner gets the biggest laugh with his "Thank you for not smoking" sign, unheeded though it went, and he also provides the most poignant moment during a couple of horrific stories about serving in Vietnam designed to prevent Mulder's resignation from the FBI.

Good thing the tension's there, because meta threatens to overwhelm me at almost every turn in this episode. "We're all hopping on the internet to nitpick the scientific inaccuracies of Earth 2," Langly proclaims, in a very pointed reference to how sci-fi fans tended to dissect every single aspect of shows in chat rooms the second the end credits rolled.

Thank goodness we have the Lone Gunmen to serve as our medical experts, telling us all about branched DNA now apparently inactive inside Dana. Her immune system has been compromised by experimentation -- remember the use of Gillian Anderson's full belly in our last conspiracy episode?

Gotcha: But I think you're being a little naive, Sestra Am. There's a suspicious guy in the shadows and then a convenient medical emergency? I don't think it's unrelated. Those conspiracy types are rough, inducing a code red just to steal some blood. So there's the heightened tension of Mulder trying to catch up to him and ... it's over a lot sooner if you watch the blooper reel.

Sestra Am gets a point back, I never made a connection between Nurse Owens' words and Scully's dad. Probably because I was pondering his words about life seeming to have passed by in the length of one breath, one heartbeat. Or perhaps I was thinking about exhausted Gillian reportedly falling asleep while filming comatose scenes in her quick return after giving birth. 

And maybe X is more like Mulder than we suspected, because this guy is pretty tightly wound -- shoving his high-capacity compact SIG Sauer .40-caliber weapon in Fox's face in his attempt to prevent him from going what he deems to be the wrong way with his investigation.

Don't try to threaten me, Mulder. I've watched presidents die: William B. Davis has always maintained that the real hero of The X-Files is his character, and I kind of see his point in this episode. "Who are you to decide what's right?" Mulder asks with the business end of his gun." "Who are you?" newly monikered Cancer Man responds. He respects Mulder for threatening him, but like Sestra Am says, CSM's got a more powerful secret weapon -- if Mulder kills him, he'll never learn the truth about any of it.

Even Scully's hippie-trippy sister gets good at laying the guilt trip on Fox. He derides her "harmonic convergence crap," but Melissa's the one who points out maybe sitting at Scully's bedside and speaking his peace -- about his guilt, about his feelings -- would be better than running around with his gun half-cocked. And I find myself kind of buying into the fact that her beliefs aren't silly or trite just because they are positive and good.

Guest star of the week: We're mostly running with regulars this week, but I'm going to take a moment to show some appreciation for Melinda McGraw, which I think I've never done before. Melissa Scully comes in under the worst circumstances, obviously, and she's full-on with attempts at crystal blue persuasion. But Melinda's got a couple of real nifty scenes with David Duchovny. I can see why, at the time, the shippers were getting all up in arms at the possibility of the show putting those two together. Not something anyone ever needed to see, just respect for a show newcomer shining some light. Right on, Melinda!

X-Files S2E7: Sometimes 3 isn't a magic number

Sestra Amateur: 

Straight talk only here. I have really bad taste when it comes to movies. Ask anyone. Not everything, obviously, but there are some God-awful cheesy ones I enjoy watching, either because of the story, characters or music. Several vampire movies were released in the early '90s that are perfect examples: Pale Blood, Children of the Night, Blood Ties, Innocent Blood, Embrace of the Vampire. These movies were never meant to win any awards – well, maybe Razzies – but at least it was fun to pretend for 90 minutes that vampires could be real. So you’d think this episode would be right up my alley. 

The X-Files addresses all types of monsters, so it was only a matter of time before they wrote an episode about vampires. But "3" did everything wrong. The dialogue may have sounded better coming from actors and actresses (OK, one actress) who can actually act. Mulder, who’s clearly missing Scully, makes some majorly bad choices all through his investigation. Plus Glen Morgan and James Wong (who wrote the sterling "Beyond the Sea") are responsible for this?! It’s the perfect example of how every Empire Strikes Back writer has a little Phantom Menace in him. 

This episode opens in Hollywood Hills, California. Firefighters are battling wildfires in the background of the entire episode. Our victim’s first scene has him complaining ash fell into his glass of wine. People are losing their homes and their lives, but let’s not inconvenience the rich guy who made the conscious choice not to enjoy his beverage indoors. Turns out he sent his family away so he could play with some strange woman. She bites his neck and sucks his blood. Then another man comes out of hiding and they all struggle in the hot tub. Looks like the bloodsuckers won this round.

Back in Washington, D.C., Mulder is finally back inside the recently unlocked X-Files office. He moves the calendar from May to November and puts Scully’s case file in with the other X-Files. Mulder then goes to the crime scene in Hollywood Hills and talks to Commander Carver. Fox discloses that similar murders occurred in Memphis, Tennessee and Portland (Oregon) and the killers have to be around blood. Mulder says he plans on investigating alone. Guess he’s still smarting over that Krycek betrayal and his usual trust issues. 

He tracks down a suspect at a local blood bank with just a telephone and the Yellow Pages. Very innovative, Mulder. He takes John, a.k.a. The Son, into custody but John claims the bright lights in the interrogation room are hurting him. I wonder if keeping the lights on can result in an excessive force complaint. “Good Cop” Mulder turns them off and uses a softer red light, so John will now only talk to Mulder. The “Bad Cops” are happy to comply and leave the room. Mulder doesn’t believe John is a vampire because he can see John’s reflection in a mirror. But John believes he and his partners can prolong their lives by consuming other people’s blood. His partners are “The Father” and “The Unholy Spirit.” Mulder leaves and John somehow burns to death when he’s exposed to sunlight. Not his clothes or hair, though, just his skin. We’ll know more after Scully performs the autopsy. Oh yeah ... nevermind.

Mulder meets with the pathologist and they talk about medical conditions like porphyria and Gunther Disease, both of which can be related to false myths about vampires. A stamp on John’s hand leads Mulder to a club that looks and feels a little David Lynch-y. Mulder zeros in on Kristen, the first female he sees who’s looking into a compact that has no mirror. If she doesn’t use a mirror then how is her lipstick literally flawless? Is she “The Unholy Spirit?” That’s unknown but it appears “The Father” is in the club watching everything and sucking on his own hand. 

Kristen talks insipidly about blood, life, blah, blah, blah. Mulder seems engrossed – then grossed out when she offers him a finger of her blood. Our phlegm fatale leaves Mulder and hooks up with the next guy willing to suck her bloody finger. Fox follows them to a closed restaurant where the man thrashes Mulder and reminds him they are consenting adults. Then that man gets jumped and bitten, presumably to death. I’ll bet he didn’t consent to that. The pathologist on this one tells Mulder the bites are from three different people. 

Mulder, who now knows Kristen’s full name, learns she lived in Memphis and Portland. He goes to her house in the hills with Los Angeles Police Department detectives, who have a warrant. You know, there’s an awful lot of sunlight for someone who chooses to live in the dark. Does she really go to the trouble of covering her windows at night and removing them in the morning? Mulder checks her oven and sees a loaf of bread filled with blood. This apparently means she’s not a killer and is trying to protect herself from evil, not that she’s a really bad cook. No one who watches this episode will have strawberry jam on their toast ever again. 

Mulder somehow convinces the cops to leave without searching the rest of the house, then waits inside for Kristen to return home. The femme banal tells her sob story and even Fox looks bored. It started with her dad’s abuse. She and John got into freaky blood sports. She left him, but he hooked up with the other two and they’ve been following her since. Mulder convinces Kristen to try the normal route and they have sex. Makes you wonder if Fox had a condom in his wallet since Kristen probably didn’t have any in the house. And after his verbalized concerns in the club, it is unlikely he would have sex with her without one, unless he’s thinking with little Mulder. Oh, and “The Father” is outside watching them while the wildfires continue to rage nearby.

Now here’s where everything goes sideways. Just when we think we know what’s going on, John returns, unburned. He’s in Kristen’s kitchen with a knife and tries to convince her to kill Mulder. Kristen wakes him up, then stabs “The Father.” Mulder and Kristen incapacitate John, then try to leave in her car since his car is at the bottom of the hill. “The Unholy Spirit,” the Romanian woman who seduced the Hollywood Hills victim, grabs Mulder and pulls him up through the sun roof, rather effortlessly. Kristen hits the woman with her car. Mulder says he’ll run down the hill to his car. Really glad he didn’t take Kristen down there with him. Otherwise, she’d still be alive and we’d probably have to endure more episodes with her. 

Kristen licks blood she got from the trio because she thinks she’ll survive whatever happens next. Then she sets herself and John on fire. The house blows up and now the firefighters have even more work to do. They must be utterly exhausted. That woman was clearly a twisted, selfish waste of decent makeup. Mulder learns four burned bodies were found in the house. Wonder if he ever tells Scully about this case after her return. “Hey Fox, remember the time I disappeared and you nailed the blood addict because you were thinking with little Mulder?” 

A wise Mulder would keep this entire incident to himself. Everyone involved is dead. No harm, no foul. That’s enough for now. I just learned 1990’s Daughter of Darkness is available on Amazon Prime. Time to cleanse the palate.

Sestra Professional:

While Scully's away, Mulder will play. 

It's difficult to pinpoint the reason why this episode is so bad and so reviled among the show's faithful, maybe because there are too many culprits involved in the making it. It boasts a suspect list longer than the number of Murder on the Orient Express killers.  

There's the hubris of casting David Duchovny's then-girlfriend, Perrey Reeves, as the would-be vamp Mulder gets it on with. I suppose that wouldn't have been so bad if the whole thing wasn't so damn boring. Buffy the Vampire Slayer did interesting vamps for seven years, and The X-Files can't handle it for 44 minutes?

I suppose if anyone was going to turn Fox's head, it would have to be someone with a supernatural bent. Plus there's the added bonus of Kristen being the kind of helpless victim Mulder gravitates to in general, specifically after the trauma of losing Dana. Plus, the guy's pump already had to be primed after getting his hands inside his treasured X-Files drawers once again.

The story was penned by Chris Ruppenthal (who fared much better in the Season 1 outing "Roland," but didn't write another for the show after this abomination) with the seasoned team of Glen Morgan and James Wong handling the script. I'll just blame Ruppenthal for this trite yarn and credit Morgan and Wong for sly use of dialogue like a cop telling Mulder that "it's really hard to trust anyone" in California.

They have the same feeble grasp on the Bible as all those big-haired preachers do: I'd like to give the show credit for trying to make some advances on the basic vamp theme. Before Buffy, the vampire mythology was usually played a certain way. But these guys store the blood in advance, so they have no shortage later. That's a unique approach, right? Nah, still not interested.

Mulder says he works alone. Clearly, The X-Files shouldn't have played the Krycek villain card too soon. It could have been a fun three-way. Well, it could have been less monotonous at any rate. Especially if the story went a completely different way. 

Normal is not what I feel: Another possible saving grace might have been Mulder investigating something he previously discounted as mere myth. But this is handled in the most trite manner. There's no verve or zest to this episode. It's not just because Dana's not there and it's not because Mulder's getting it on with someone who is not Scully.
 

Show creator Chris Carter tried to explain the twist in The Official Guide to The X-Files, "This guy's a monk. Let's let him be a human. Especially in (Scully's) absence, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to do it." Count me among the precious few who would have accepted that, if there was anything remotely enticing about the way it was done.

The would-be vamp wishes she could die. We kinda do too. We get it, Kristen has got a thing for blood. So she goes to a club for fetishists. It's pretty difficult to avoid vampires when you do that, as it probably is their regular hangout. The pretentious, gothic place serves as a microcosm of the episode, pretending to be cool but really more eye-rolling.

There are a ton more exciting/sexy components (see also: the exact opposite), such as going to the would-be vamp's house with police and a warrant. Oooh, she has a snake bite kit and veterinary needles. I'm on pins and veterinary needles. Oooh, she's got bread with blood in it. That's supposed to protect her. Nothing in there that'll protect us?

Blood tastes dangerous: Then we get to know more about Kristen. That's a mistake. She likes the sweet and thick nature of blood. Please, you're killing us with the sexy here. And good lord, now back story, she was an abused kid. Could it be more heavy-handed? The beatings she took then and the fascination with blood now mark the only ways Kristen knew she was alive. Jury's out on the rest of us puttering around in waking comas.

Somewhere in there, there was a nugget of a plot -- these vamps are particularly dangerous when there's three of them. Could have, should have been a more intriguing story. Maybe one with less talking and less yelling about burning in harsh overhead lights and/or sunshine. Hopefully this makes Mulder think twice about getting involved again. One night with him, and the next day, his bedmate can't see past self-immolation. Thankfully, she took out the rest in the process. And finally something to love about the episode -- no pontificating, it just ends on that fact.

X-Files S2E6: Buying a stairway to heaven

Sestra Amateur: 

This episode should have been titled “Things one has to endure to get maternity leave.” As we pick up from the "Duane Barry" cliffhanger, Mulder is listening to the phone message Scully left at the end of the previous episode. Local cops are already on scene, crime tape and all, by the time Mulder gets to her apartment. Dana’s mom arrives, and Fox doesn’t have any answers for her. Maybe he should take the advice from the opening credits and “deny everything."

Skinner arranges a meeting at FBI Headquarters to discuss Scully’s abduction by Duane Barry while the Cigarette-Smoking Man lurks (aka sits quietly and puffs in a chair) in the background. Skinner sends Mulder home to get some sleep. 

Duane Barry is out for a lovely drive in Virginia, presumably in Scully’s car. Turns out she’s in the trunk. Duane is trying to get to his original abduction site. Must be using some intuitive form of alien GPS since he told Mulder last episode he didn’t know how to get there. His crappy driving draws the attention of a local trooper. This officer is a little too polite for his own good. He knows something is really wrong, but Barry keeps passively resisting his lawful requests. When Trunk Scully accidentally distracts him, Duane shoots and kills the trooper. 

Four hours later, Mulder is viewing the camera footage from the trooper’s car and sees Scully is still alive. Mulder realizes they are heading to Skyland Mountain. Of course, Krycek relays that information to CSM even though Mulder chooses not to tell Skinner. So the boys head that way, but Mulder almost kills them when he falls asleep at the wheel. That would have sent this episode in an entirely different direction, wouldn’t it?

The tram that goes up the mountain is out of service. Duane Barry (and Scully) took the scenic route, but Mulder coerces the tram operator into letting him take the tram. Fox leaves Alex alone with the operator as he races to try and save Dana. Krycek waits until Mulder is almost at the top, then incapacitates the tram operator. He stops the tram so Fox is just dangling near the mountain top, but with a lovely view. Mulder can’t raise anyone on the radio, so he climbs out of the tram. Krycek calls CSM to say Mulder’s been stopped, but Alex starts up the tram again ... with Mulder on the outside. Dick move, Alex. Is this because Mulder has two Titan vinyl figures and you don’t have any? I’m sure Sestra Pro will point out the duality of Krycek, friend and/or foe. 

Mulder gets to the top of the mountain safe and sound and finds Scully’s gold cross necklace on the ground. He then sees a UFO -- this description applies because the object that is currently flying is also unidentified -- and hears Duane Barry’s maniacal laughter. Barry tells Mulder “they” took Scully, so now Barry is free. Then the Feds arrive and Duane gets taken into custody again. Not so free. 

Mulder, who still hasn’t slept, loses control during the interrogation and stars to choke Barry. This is the perfect example of why it’s good to have more than one friend in your life. If you only have the one. then you kind of go off the rails when something happens to him/her. Duane Barry tells Mulder he’s sorry, but they “had” to take her. It also seems Mulder still doesn’t know Krycek was the one who initially stranded him in the tram. 

Gazing out a window, Mulder imagines Scully undergoing weird alien experiments. For the first time this season, Gillian Anderson doesn’t have to hide her pregnant belly. Then Fox sees Alex interviewing Duane and interrupts. Clearly, Mulder is the type of person who doesn’t want other kids playing with his toys. Krycek says Duane claims Mulder choked him. Do you think third person-obsessed Duane said, “Mulder choked me” or “Mulder choked Duane Barry?” Skinner arrives and is understandably pissed. Duane goes into another choking frenzy and dies. Krycek, what did you do?!?

In the FBI morgue at Quantico, Mulder meets with a military pathologist to discuss  Barry’s autopsy results. We know that’s normally Scully’s job, but given the circumstances, it probably wouldn’t be prudent to postpone the autopsy of her abductor until her return. Krycek discreetly meets with CSM in the parking garage. If they’re actually in the FBI garage, then I’m thinking it’s not so discreet after all. CSM tells Alex to write the truth in his report and Krycek’s reply is probably the best way to sum up the entire X-Files run: “What do you mean?” CSM says the Scully situation has been addressed (technically it was taken care of, but I really, really hate ending sentences with prepositions). CSM puts Alex back in his lackey place while continuing to expose him to second-hand smoke. If Krycek died of lung cancer, could CSM be held accountable? 

Skinner confronts Mulder about Duane’s death. Mulder takes Krycek’s car and tries to meet with Senator Matheson, one of his few supporters. Mr. X intervenes and tells Mulder the government’s policy is to deny everything. Makes you wonder if one or more government agencies opened a file on Chris Carter because of this show. Mulder finds cigarettes in Krycek’s ashtray and links them to CSM. He gives Skinner a complete report that essentially accuses Alex of murder and conspiracy. Skinner sides with Mulder and they learn Krycek has disappeared. Skinner can’t do anything about that but he does reopen the X-Files. Go Skinner! 

Mulder meets with Scully’s mom, but doesn’t have any new information for her. He tries to give her Dana's gold cross necklace but Mama Scully tells him to hold on to it until he finds her. But he does pose an interesting question: “If she was such a skeptic, why did she wear that?” Maybe she was still in her '80s Madonna phase.

Sestra Professional:

Actually the question of Scully's faith is addressed in later episodes, but as it stands here, I think it gives her more character. We're all more complicated than the nouns or adjectives we can use to describe us, here's another example of the show fleshing out their lead female. It's amazing how ever-present Dana is in this episode, when we see so little of her during it.

There couldn't have been a more powerful way for Gillian Anderson to go on her maternity leave. The atmosphere has been heightened in this arc, we're invested like never before. The conspiracy has been taken to a different level -- who has been after Duane Barry the whole time and why? Whatever the answer to that question,  now Scully's in that web.

Bravo for Mulder's detective work under personal strain and lack of sleep. He knows there's a reason Duane was able to find Scully -- it wasn't random and it wasn't bad scripting. It could have been the tracking device. Or, for once, Fox is even willing to believe the most plausible explanation -- someone told him where he could grab her.

Can't recall a better adventure sequence on the show to date than Mulder getting up the mountain on the tram. First, Fox disobeys operator orders (which he didn't hear much of since he took off before he heard them all) and revs the car past the recommended speed. That definitely quickens the pulse. Then there's the acrobatic routine just short of the summit, when Krycek's treachery comes in to play. Well, you did your best, Alex. Oh yeah, supposed to be rooting for Fox. Way to go, Mulder. Major kudos to David Duchovny for doing stunt work on this set piece -- he said at the time that if he was going to risk life and limb, we should at least be able to tell it was him getting the job done.

The military's in on it: It's another knockout performance by Steve Railsback, particularly atop Skyland Mountain when Duane's shouting to the heavens about pulling one over on the aliens by getting them to take Scully instead. "You can't touch Duane Barry any more! ... They took her! ... Them!!!!" He so completely disappears into character that it's not difficult to bemoan his fate, even after serving up Dana on a platter.

But all props to Gillian Anderson --  whose appearances are brief, but oh-so-suspenseful.  She's bound and gagged in the trunk of a car in one scene, and in the other, apparently undergoing experiments -- with her full belly.

You have no rights, only orders to be carried out: The show had looked to be maneuvering Krycek into a solid good guy/bad guy position, with Alex corroborating Mulder's story while still undermining him whenever he could do so. But then the plot point which has stuck in my craw lo these many years, Fox makes the connection to the Cigarette-Smoking Man when he spies the butts in the car ashtray. So that story ends before it can truly get under way. 

Mulder thinks Krycek is responsible for everything -- gave away the whereabouts of Scully, killed the tram operator, killed Duane Barry. Perhaps he also took the Lindbergh baby. And Mulder's basing that on a few stubbed cigarettes found in a car? The same kind smoked by a guy who sat in Skinner's office and listened to Fox and Alex reporting in on Duane Barry? Wouldn't Skinner be under suspicion by his own agent under that reasoning?

The back story is that Nicholas Lea was just hired to do this storyline --  they didn't plan on utilizing Krycek again. So much the pity, there was a lot more there to be mined. And going in that direction would have been a lot more interesting than what goes on in the next episode, one of the most abhorred in the show's lexicon. 

But back to the good stuff, some meta on the CSM-Krycek discussion/dress down, the head baddie explains why the conspiracy doesn't just kill Mulder -- "Kill Mulder and you risk turning one man's religion into a crusade." Fans had been wondering why he's allowed to continue his investigations, this was Chris Carter's way of addressing that issue. An example of how interactive the show could be from time to time, just not on the greatest question of all -- to ship or not to ship.