The X-Files 7.1, The Sixth Extinction: Death and Resurrection

February 3, 2018

The X-Files 7.1, The Sixth Extinction: Death and Resurrection

My next Halloween costume

Scully’s still in the Ivory Coast, and still voicing over stuff. She came here to look into something she didn’t believe in, but she’s staying anyway, and will be there as long as Mulder’s sick. She’s not sure how to reconcile what she’s found with what she believes. She thinks Mulder should have been the one to find the spaceship. As huge bugs swarm around a lantern, Scully voices over that she’s going to figure out the link between Mulder’s sickness and the stone rubbing. Every illness contains the source of its cure.

There’s a man in Scully’s tent, but he disappears before she can see him. She turns off the lantern and grabs a machete that just happens to be lying around. The bugs are suddenly dying. Scully goes outside, but the beach is empty. When she returns to the tent, the bugs are flying around again. They cover the lantern and swarm her.

Back in the U.S., Skinner learns from Mulder’s doctor that his brain is dying. When Skinner goes in to see him, Mulder doesn’t seem to hear him. But then he attacks Skinner, trying to strangle him. Once Skinner has been rescued, Mulder just starts yelling. Skinner finds a piece of Mulder’s hospital gown in his pocket, with “HELP ME” written on it.

In the Ivory Coast, men come to the beach to dig out the spaceship. A woman named Amina finds Scully in her bug-covered tent and asks to see the spaceship. Scully asked for it to be kept a secret, but Amina says it’s become pretty well-known thanks to word of mouth, what Merkmallen called the “African Internet.”

Scully tells Amina, who’s also a biology professor, about what happened to her the night before, with the vanishing man and the bugs. Amina tells her not to tell anyone else – the men working there will see it as an omen and will want to stop unearthing the spaceship. For now, they need to let the men keep digging. One of the men starts yelling that the water is boiling. Scully sends him off to the hospital with burns. Amina tells her it’s another warning.

In Georgetown, Mulder is now restrained, and Skinner has to sneak in to see him. He promises to help, though he doesn’t know what to do, and he probably doesn’t have much time. Mulder can’t speak, but he can write on Skinner’s hand. Scully voices over that she can feel Mulder slipping away as she continues to try to figure out what’s happening with the spaceship. She just wants to learn how to use its power to save her partner.

A Jeep arrives on the beach, and the man who gets out wants to show Scully something. He’s brought Barnes with him. Scully tells Amina that Barnes killed Merkmallen, which Barnes denies. He tells Scully that the spaceship has extraterrestrial origins. Scully points out that he doesn’t believe in that stuff. “Neither do you,” he replies, but she’s there, so…

Barnes wants to help Scully help Mulder. He can read the symbols that will give them the answers theologians have been looking for all this time. Scully knows the news will get out quickly without Barnes’ help, so she allows him to stay. His driver shows them blood in the ocean water. Scully looks over at some rocks and sees the vanishing man from her tent standing there.

Mulder’s message has directed Skinner to Kritschgau, though neither man is sure why. Kritschgau goes to the hospital to see Mulder, who’s basically catatonic. His brain waves start changing whenever Kritschgau speaks. Skinner tells Kritschgau that Mulder said he was hearing voices. Kritschgau thinks Mulder’s anticipating things – he’s responding to questions Kritschgau hasn’t asked yet.

The men take Mulder to the hospital’s drug lockup so they can inject him with something that will allow him to communicate again. Kritschgau has read studies about remote viewing, a kind of ESP, and knows Mulder is being drugged the way those subjects were. Their brains worked overtime, but there was a drug they could be given that would make their bodies keep up. Skinner realizes that Mulder knew about this, and knew Kritschgau knew, which is why he wanted Skinner to contact him. As soon as Mulder is injected, he says, “They’re coming.”

After noticing that Mulder wasn’t in his room, someone called Fowley, but when she arrives, Mulder’s back where he’s supposed to be. Skinner claims he found Mulder wandering in the hallway. He pulls rank on Fowley, ordering her away. Mulder is somehow able to read minds now (I don’t know), and he warns Skinner that Fowley knows what’s going on. He tells Skinner to find Scully. Skinner says he doesn’t know where she is.

Mulder knows that Krycek is involved, and Skinner’s being blackmailed, so he doesn’t think Mulder can trust him. He just needs Kritschgau to prove what’s causing his illness. Kritschgau doesn’t believe in aliens, so he just thinks Mulder has a brain abnormality. Mulder still believes, though, and thinks Kritschgau is the key to helping him.

Scully puts together pictures of the spacecraft so she can look at the symbols. Barnes has written down the alphabet of the ancient Navajo language they’re written in, so Scully can translate. A lot of the workers have been scared away, so only a few men are still digging, but they’ve found some amazing things – Scripture from multiple sources and times. Scully’s worried that the secret won’t stay secret, and that she’s too late to help Mulder.

Amina brings Scully more symbols; they’re a passage from the Quran talking about the day of final judgment. Scully has found panels that correspond to human chromosomes. They may contain a map to human genomes. She sees this as beautiful, intricate artwork. Amina sees it as the word of God. Barnes disagrees, saying God doesn’t exist. Suddenly he believes in aliens and thinks life began somewhere other than Earth. The women think he’s gone crazy, and when Barnes picks up a machete, they probably think he’s confirmed their diagnosis.

Barnes tells Scully that she’s wasting her time and can’t help Mulder. Scully insists that the symbols have power. Barnes agrees, but he says Mulder got too close to it. He sits by the entrance of the tent, holding the machete, and tells the woman that no one will leave before he does.

Kritschgau tells Skinner about the remote-viewing tests as he sets Mulder up to do some. He’s supposed to touch screens and determine where an image of a UFO is – kind of a high-tech version of Three-card Monte – but his accuracy rate is only about 5%. Mulder’s confused, since he can see the images in his head. They do the test faster, and Mulder’s accuracy goes way up. In fact, he can anticipate where the UFO will be before it gets there.

Barnes seems to be dozing off in the tent, so the women keep an eye on him to see if they can run. Something rattles and wakes Barnes. It looks like some dead fish have been revived, and Barnes credits the spaceship. He’s distracted enough that Scully’s able to grab something to use to knock him out.

She and Amina escape in Barnes’ Jeep and head to the police, but Scully sees the vanishing man in the road and tells Amina to stop. He disappears again, then appears in the Jeep. “Some truths are not for you,” he tells Scully, reaching out to touch her forehead. It’s actually Amina reaching for her, making sure Scully’s still alive. She tells Scully the men were right to see everything as an omen and run away. Scully decides it’s time to go back to the U.S.

Mulder’s in bad shape again, and Skinner doesn’t want Kritschgau to inject him again for more tests. He thinks Kritschgau is using Mulder to get revenge on the FBI. Kritschgau insists that he’s trying to prove what Mulder’s been working on the whole time. Now Mulder’s the proof – “he’s the X-File.”

Skinner thinks they’ve gone too far, but Kritschgau thinks Mulder would keep going if it meant finally uncovering the truth. Skinner gives in. They inject Mulder again, but Fowley arrives before they can move him. She detains Kritschgau as Skinner tries to explain to Fowley and Mulder’s doctor what they were trying to do. Mulder suddenly starts seizing.

Barnes’ driver goes looking for him in the tent and is rewarded with a machete in the neck. Back in the U.S., Fowley tells Mulder that she knows what’s going on with him, and that he knows she’s a traitor. She needs him to look inside her and understand that she has her reasons for the actions she’s taken. She tells him she loves him, then leaves.

As soon as she’s back in D.C., Scully goes to Skinner to ask where Mulder is. He tells her she probably can’t get in to see him, since he and Kritschgau screwed up and now Mulder’s under heavy guard. He also can’t be treated because the doctors don’t know what’s wrong with him. Scully insists that Mulder isn’t dying; in fact, he’s more alive than his body can handle. And it may be from something extraterrestrial. Skinner agrees but doesn’t think anything can be done. Scully thinks that her medical credentials will get her access to her partner.

Barnes looks at all the pictures of the spaceship, getting distracted when he hears a glass of water being knocked over. He realizes that the driver’s body is gone and thinks that means the driver has come back to life. There are footprints on the beach (but only one set, because I guess this is when Jesus is carrying the driver). The zombie driver attacks Barnes with the same machete used to kill him.

Mulder’s ears are ringing and he’s hearing voices, but Scully’s is loud and clear as she convinces the doctors to let her see him. We get a rare in-person “Mulder, it’s me.” She asks for a sign that he can hear her, but he’s catatonic again and doesn’t give one. She thinks he would be able to find a way to hold on and stay alive if he knew what she’d been through.

Scully says that she’s found the key to every question that’s ever been asked. It’s a puzzle, and they’ll have to put the pieces together. She beg him to hold on. Back in the Ivory Coast, some soldiers accompany Amina to the beach to retrieve Barnes’ body. The spaceship is gone. To be continued, again…

Thoughts: Look, I don’t care what mysteries of the universe I could be solving – if there’s a swarm of bugs involved, I’m out. I’m not even getting to the point where the ocean’s turning to blood.

I feel like Scully and Amina could have easily gotten away from Barnes. Just lift up another wall of the tent and run. Barnes was middle-aged and Scully has FBI training; they could have outrun him.

Wow, Fowley is really a useless character, isn’t she? Also, what happened to Kersh? We haven’t seen him in ages.

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