EPISODE REVIEWS SEASON 6

Episode 6x01: The Beginning

Category: Elders/X-files/Black Oil/Grays/Spender  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Contents Synopsis: When a researcher from the Roush corporation gets infected with the Black Oil, he gives birth to an Alien infant who now kills some people until he finds refuge in a nuclear plant, using the heat in the reactor chamber to transform into a Gray alien. --- Mulder and Scully are transferred to do anti-terror assignments, with their new boss, director Kersh, not being very amiable towards them. The X-files department will be headed by Spender and Mulder's ex-girlfriend, Diana Fowley. However, she helps Mulder getting access to the plant. --- The telepathic boy from 'The End' is being used by the syndicate to find the alien with whom he stays in contact and is left in the reactor chamber.

Review: Great opening and new obstacles for Mulder and Scully - the episode combines the threads from 'The End' and the movie to create new twists and threats. New questions appear by giving some answers - as always ;-).

October 4th/5th, 1999

Episode 6x02: Drive

Category: single case/X-files  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Contents Synopsis: While on a boring routine assignment, Mulder gets interested in an ongoing case. A man, having kidnapped his wife, is stopped and his wife rescued, but she dies in the police car from something in her head. As Mulder and Scully investigate the case, Mulder is kidnapped by the man who claims to have to drive West, otherwise he will die. --- Having disobeyed their orders, director Kersh reminds the Agents very clearly they're no longer assigned to the X-files, and that he is not their friend.

Review: A very strange case, even for The X-Files, and a tragical approach make this one of the most original episodes ever.

October 5th, 1999

Episode 6x03: Triangle

Category: single case/X-files  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Contents Synopsis: Mulder discovers the Queen Anne, a British ship lost in the Bermuda triangle in the year 1939, and is suddenly caught in the middle of a Nazi-takeover of the vessel, in which CSM is the Nazi commander, Spender his assistant and AD Skinner a Nazi with a conscience. Scully is a scientist with whom he has to save the world by preventing the ship from bringing Thor's Hammer, the knowledge about nuclear bombs, to Germany. He kisses the alternate Scully - and gets hit in the face by her. --- In the meantime, the Lone Gunmen and Scully try to find the ship, with Scully desperately searching for a friend at the FBI and finding one in Skinner. They, too, find the Queen Anne, but to them she is a ghost ship. They salvage Mulder when he is found lost in the sea. They don't seem to believe his story. When alone, Mulder admits his love to her.

Review: I had been watching a movie before this episode aired, and so it was only in the middle of the episode that it struck me I was watching WIDESCREEN. But soon I realized it had to be the letterboxed format for this to make the split screen scenes visually appealing. All throughout the episode, I couldn't really cope with what was on the screen - this is definitely one of the very best episodes so far, for various reasons. Chris Carter, who both wrote the script and directed, proves to still be able to give a fresh touch to an old concept. With Millennium cancelled, The X-Files is the best show on the air.

October 5th, 1999

Episode 6x04: Dreamland (Pt 1)

Episode 6x05: Dreamland (Pt 1)

Episode 6x06: Now the Ghosts Stole Christmas

Episode 6x07: Terms of Endearment

Episode 6x08: Rain King

Episode 6x09: S.R. 819

Episode 6x10: Tithonus

Episode 6x11: Two Fathers (Pt 1)

Category: Elders/Gvmt/Black Oil/X-files/CSM/Spender/Mulder  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Episode 6x12: One Son (Pt 2)

Category: Elders/Gvmt/Black Oil/X-files/CSM/Spender/Mulder  ·  Rating 5 of 5

Contents Synopsis: Cassandra Spender is the successful result of alien-human hybridization - thus the final phase of colonization can be initialized. This but endangers the plans of the syndicate which is playing for time - still trying to find a vaccine and develop means to counteract the invasion. Factions of the syndicate still want to deal with the resistance, while others feel urged to stick to the program. Cassandra Spender now is the end of hope - successful hybridization means that the aliens would be able to create their slave race, that they wouldn't need human cooperation any more. --- Mulder and Scully reveal the identity of the Cigarette Smoking Man as Agent Spender's father, C.G.B. Spender. CSM's plan to kill his wife makes his son switch sides and help Mulder. He rescues Covarrubias from the research facility where Cassandra is being kept. As CSM understands his son's changed allegiance, he kills him. --- When the Syndicate members prepare to save themselves and their families by surrendering to the aliens, they are instead killed by the rebels. CSM and his ally, Mulder's ex-girlfriend Diana Fowley, can escape. --- Mulder and Scully get back to the X-files department.

Review: A lot of ballast is being discarded with these two episodes - it is like a purgatory. The bees, the Black Oil, the Grays, the Resistance, the Syndicate - everything is brought together and (loosely) explained. This was about time, somehow, to take the show further in means of storytelling. The past is gone now, the present is more difficult than ever - and the future is endangered. The time is now to fight back. CSM seems to be the only remaining member of the American part of the Syndicate, his cause therefore more difficult in the future. How this will change his relationship with Mulder remains to be seen. These episodes came as a shock, but they were necessary. But it is amazing how the show could build up that much tension, and still remain powerful - even after this. I sincerely have no idea why so many people would think the show's lost - on the contrary: It is alive as ever.

October 5th, 1999

Episode 6x13: Agua Mala

Episode 6x14: Monday

Episode 6x15: Arcadia

Episode 6x16: Alpha

Episode 6x17: Trevor

Episode 6x18: Milagro

Episode 6x19: The Unnatural

Episode 6x20: Three of a Kind

Episode 6x21: Field Trip

Episode 6x22: Biogenesis