The X Files - End Game / Notes

 

This episode has so many things I like so much that doesn't feature CSM causing Mulder further grief. This story arc involving an alien bounty hunter executing clones with a mixture of Alien and Human DNA might not have--at the time--featured government conspiracy and CSM up to his usual tricks, but there was still plenty of danger and intrigue, mainly because it reminded Mulder of what drives him...and to not give up. When Brian Thompson's bounty hunter tells Mulder (while Mulder is thrown to the floor) Samantha is alive, that was surely enough incentive to provide inspiration. In this very season, Scully was the one who nearly dies, laying in bed quite worse for wear and recovering, looking over at a relieved Mulder. And in this episode, of the same season, the roles were reversed.

There is disappointment, though. Carter gives us and Mulder a taste (or tease) of "finding" Samantha, even though she's one of many clones. It begs the question: if there is a hybrid facsimile of Samantha, where is the actual human version? Obviously, Mulder wants to find her, but how? Chris Carter leaves that with us. Once again, Mulder doesn't have the entire puzzle. Once again, he's left in a bad state. But he's alive...and Scully is right there by his side. It is Scully who kept the doctor and staff from killing Mulder accidentally following the usual protocols of placing Mulder in warm water, eventually convincing them to remove him...right after he briefly flatlines. Scully sees a lot in "End Game" that shakes her faith in science, but that faith is restored when Mulder's condition, the "retrovirus" that harms him (after shooting Thompson's alien, some of the toxin temporarily blinding him) eventually is taken care of. Scully mentions how this virus is studied, figured out, and healed. Lucky for Mulder, his closest ally is a brilliant scientist.

Thompson's mission, to kill any clones and keep his species "pure" without "corruption", is relentless and seemingly unstoppable. Thompson's alien bounty hunter could have killed either Mulder or Scully, but his targets were specific and he seems to accomplish that mission successfully. Neither Mulder nor Scully can halt his course. They barely even hinder him. Because the alien bounty hunter can shapeshift and take the face and body of humans of his choosing, moving about folks is quite the gift. That and it makes for an all the more exciting episodes featuring the bounty hunter. Case in point: the bounty hunter is looking for the Samantha hybrid clone, mimics Mulder, and throws Scully around a bit before kidnapping her. Such an exchange set in order using Scully as a bargaining chip to barter for Samantha places Mulder in a very difficult position.

This episode uses Skinner to great effect. He might tell Scully to close his door on the way out, but ultimately Skinner engages in a fun fight with X over the location of Mulder in an elevator just for her. I think that is why Skinner always remained such a fascinating character. He could very well just let Mulder die, to destroy himself, and yet he won't. He did give Mulder CSM's address. He wouldn't just let Mulder turn in his resignation when Mulder felt he no longer wanted to be in the FBI. And he was willing to face a gun to the face and threat from X in order to get the coordinates to locate Mulder so Scully could find him. A submarine under ice, a crew dead, a space ship that landed not far from the sub, Mulder unable to get an actual specific location for his sister but still pulled off the sub and left on the ice; Mulder didn't stop the bounty hunter, wasn't able to keep the Samantha clones he later finds safe, and the bounty hunter escapes without much of a problem. Skinner even locates Mulder at Scully's hotel room and helps set up snipers in an attempt to stop the bounty hunter in the Sam for Scully exchange.

Mulder losing Samantha and having to tell his father is quite an emotional gut-punch, even if later Scully sees her body melt into a green goo and dissolve right in the ambulance. He's this weepy, guilt-stricken mess. And his dad doesn't exactly console him, even laying into him about the impact of his "actions" (the exchange with gunmen looking to shoot the bounty hunter) on his mother. Thankfully, Samantha was a clone, not the real sister and daughter lost as a child. The search will continue.

The bounty hunter throttling Scully in her room is quite a startling amount of violence. She didn't fare well, but neither does Mulder, who takes his lumps in order to get an answer from him about his sister. Even though this doesn't involve CSM, it does give us plenty of aliens. And that is always welcome for this X files fan. 4/5