The X-Files - Redux I & II

Redux I & II, opening the fifth season, is just X-Files at its best. You can introduce Samantha, Fox’s supposed long-lost sister, and The Cigarette-Smoking Man as Samantha’s father and that isn’t even but a small part of the overall surprise of this epic two-part start to the season. Dana Scully gradually dying from cancer that has metastasized to her blood, with the CSM offering a cure to Mulder (another implant for the neck), not to mention, a visit with his sister in exchange for loyalty to (and to work for!) him. You have Don S William’s sinister figure deciding to have CSM taken out after he is unimpressed with the plan to lure Mulder to their side. CSM looking at a photograph of Mulder and Sam as children before being dropped supposedly by a hitman’s bullet, trying to grab for the picture frame as he (supposedly) dies. Section Chief Blevins trying to convince Mulder to finger Skinner as the inside FBI “traitor” who has given Scully cancer and behind the conspiracy against Mulder and Scully, and Mulder outing him as the one instead. And then Blevins going down once in his office, in panic and sweaty, left with a gun in his hand as if he killed himself. And Scully realizing that the DNA from the ice found in Canada that could be from an alien is identical (after tests) to what is inside her. It goes on and on. I know that critically these two episodes didn’t fare well with many, but I LOVE Redux and its sequel.

Mulder collapsing his head next to Scully’s hand as he just breaks down, his mouth slowing opening in an ache, or when Scully’s brother, Bill, basically tells him it’s his fault that he’s lost one sister and is about to lose another. Mulder already losing all faith in the pursuit of unveiling the truth of extraterrestrial life when encountering Department of Defense’s Michael Kritschgau, who tells him all of what he has seen and experienced is essentially a lie perpetrated by those in the FBI. Mulder realizing he’s being spied on by a Department of Defense employee in the apartment above him, confronting him which results in having to kill him. So much Mulder goes through in these two episodes is really enough for an entire season. It kicks off the fifth season with a lot of dramatic tension and weight. Seeing Mulder with drooping shoulders, lost, trying to find answers; Redux I & II puts him through the emotional ringer. And yet by the end, he is relieved to have Scully in remission, having met his sister (or who he is led to believe is Samantha), and seemingly won’t be prosecuted for the murder of the DoD spy.

Scully dealing with cancer, possible betrayal by Skinner (she is convinced he is the mole in the FBI sticking it to her and Mulder), the attack on her and Mulder’s credibility as agents on the X-Files, Mulder’s loss of faith, and knowing that Mulder might be prosecuted (even offering herself as the shooter to give a leave of escape); she’s been dealt a lot, too! Scully and Mulder both contending with lots of life-challenging developments.

Then you have Mulder deep in the DoD, finding (perhaps) aliens and pregnant women on tables, an underground that leads to the infamous Pentagon evidence room CSM always leaves behind the extraterrestrial material and proof, actually allowed to leave with the vial containing potential cure for Scully when CSM is notified of his presence in both the DoD and Pentagon (because he feels Mulder will be a benefit to him by allowing him a few “privileges”). So CSM is all over these two episodes, even pronounced as dead by Skinner to Mulder because “too much blood was found” even if the body is missing. This proves you just can’t kill off officially such a memorable villain as CSM. With Skinner questioned (again) as suspect by Scully, the guy just never could seem to get a break. I always enjoyed when Skinner and CSM are at odds with each other. Skinner challenged by Scully but trusted by Mulder…this contentious “is he reliable or not?” is always an X-Files mainstay. I think many love Skinner while others are left to wonder can he ever be 100% trusted. Many an episode can have you teetering either way. At least in this episode, Skinner withholds evidence of Mulder’s guilt in order to help him only for Blevins to later have it in a file, hoping to negotiate with Mulder in the hopes of implicating Skinner as the mole.

But with all the conspiracy theories and cloning (Williams is at the dog track with a laptop watching government trial coverage on cloning), whether alien life is real or not, why this two-part episode so resonates with me is the obstacles both Mulder and Scully seem to always encounter, often victims of something aliens…or not. Mulder meeting a Samantha he thinks is his sister, only for her to tell him she was adopted and later met CSM who told her he was her father…that is a lot to absorb. Only for Samantha to not want to meet with her mother or give Mulder an address or phone number, just trying to get away from him, with Mulder left agonizing inside…what a ringer this guy is put through! And even worse, poor Scully tries to out the mole at a FBI hearing, only to bleed and fall, believing Skinner was the one, later proven wrong. When she isn’t working to uncover the ice alien DNA’s link to what is invasive in her, she’s in a bed worsening. Depressing but some strong material for Duchovny and Anderson to work with.

Forewarning though: between John Finn’s amazing, if exhaustive in a War and Peace kind of way, explanation of all the things the “industrial military complex” has done to use aliens to mask continuous spending, Mulder’s narration and Scully’s narration on what is happening to them (this whole write-up feels like cliff notes compared to what Redux I & II feature), there is a lot of ground covered. Fifth season really wants these two to go on quite a journey. All four seasons built to this. 5/5 (for both)