The X Files - Synchrony

 

Cryogenics, time travel, and the Scully paper about time travel Mulder seems to know from heart...quite an episode where you see bodies frozen from a poke brought from the future from Old Man Jason (Fairman, who has a fascinating, distinctive face to me), trying to stop Young Man Jason (Fuqua) and girlfriend/colleague, Lisa (Hoffman) from getting the Compound X they eventually bring to success in the lab from ever being linked to tachyons, presented in Zurich by another science which leads to discovering time travel. Seeing Scully's face when Mulder brings up her physics paper to her discussing the possibility of time travel is the bees knees to a fanboy like me. I love how Mulder brings the science to his beloved scientist partner. Scully, of course, brings up that the body couldn't withstand the process of moving forward or backward in time. The tit for tat between these two will always be my jam. 

I am guessing besides the time travel plot inspiring the older version of someone returning from the future to kill those who will bring about a scientific discovery destined to cause seemingly irreparable damage if not stopped from ever happening, the most memorable part of the episode is watching poor Dr. Yonechi (Kanagaway; he was a different character in the episode, "Firewalker") burn alive when resuscitated because the proper method to keep his body from rapidly freezing to rapidly burning hadn't been realized. The tank of solution used to bring Yonechi's body out of a freeze state should have been later used by Scully and Lisa resuscitated him. Scully later properly follows the different protocols on Lisa when Old Man Jason injects her with the cryo-compound freezing her. 

 While Scully is a bit reluctant to swallow this when presented by Mulder, the evidence eventually leads up to that fact. Fairman's performance is always this clear and present pressure to do whatever it takes to "repair" the future by rushing around all panicky and under duress. You get all that in his face and how he walks. The entire experience is obviously painful and the anguish is all over the guy. But Lisa, as the end would show as she looks upon the screen at Compound X, seems unabated to discontinue her research and science, despite the fact older Jason burns alive younger Jason through the cryo-weapon in his hand. 

The episode once again proves a point elaborated by Mulder and Scully during their final discussion...that attempts to correct a future by going to the past and interfere never truly alters the future. Old Man Jason still doesn't prevent Lisa from successfully creating Compound X.

3.5/5