Case 06, File 22: Biogenesis

AKA: No TV And No Beer Make Mulder Go Crazy

There inevitably comes a point in a plot heavy series where, no matter how much you try to trim the cast or simplify the concept, the weight of all the stuff that comes before it will overwhelm it and two things will happen: First is that the ongoing plot will become completely incoherent to newcomers and the second is that, in order to keep the ongoing plot going without resolving it (because resolving it would end the series) you have to begin to pull more and more outlandish stuff to keep it running. And I'm not going to say we've reached that point here. I probably will later in the review though, you should keep reading.



Our episode kicks off with a scientist in the Ivory Coast (which is just about 7 months out from a military coup when this episode aired, but don't worry about it) discovering a weird artifact that, upon getting it back to his office, fixes itself to another similar artifact he has at top speed. It also goes through a Bible, but I think the director just thought that looked cool. Anyway, he decides to take it to the US to see a guy named Dr. Sandoz at American University, but when he gets there, he meets a guy pretending to be Sandoz and is immediately murdered. Whoops.

Mulder and Scully get assigned to look into this based on uh...it's weird, they're weird, I dunno. Skinner gives them a rubbing of the artifact, which starts giving Mulder weird headaches accompanied by screeching noises, general stuff. They go to the university where the guy disappeared (Sandoz is also missing) and meet the guy who was pretending to be Sandoz, who is actually named Dr. Barnes and thinks Sandoz is a crank.

Mulder realizes that Dr. Barnes is full of shit and probably killed the guy from the Ivory Coast, and maintains this belief even when Chuck (remember him?) shows up and tells him that the language on the rubbing is Navajo and it's probably fake. But it's still giving Mulder psychic powers, psychic powers he uses to find the guy from the Ivory Coast's body in a trash can at Sandoz's house. But while they're at Sandoz's house they find a picture of him with Albert Hosteen (remember him?)

"Holy Bible...I guess the artifact has a keen sense of symbolism."

They run and go tell Skinner that they think Sandoz is being framed and also that the artifact emits radiation, while Mulder acts like a weirdo. Skinner is also acting weird, which is explained when he hands off a video tape of their conversation off to Krycek, who is also in this. Scully heads to New Mexico to see Hosteen, and finds him in a coma, dying of cancer. Not ideal. Oh and Mulder heads back to American University to tail Barnes but immediately gets overcome by the noise and collapses in a stairwell. Also not ideal.

Back in New Mexico Scully catches Sandoz and starts talking to him, who tells him that Hosteen was helping him translate the artifact and that it says stuff from the Bible proving that...humanity and all our institutions were created by aliens. I didn't follow his logic train, but Scully decides to phone up Mulder who immediately believes it, because of course he does. Of course Scully finds it odd that Mulder is at home and also that Diana Fowley is the one who picks up the phone.

Albert goes to get the same mystical healing stuff that saved Mulder wayyyyyyyy back in Season 3, but Scully gets a call that shit back in DC has gone sideways and so returns to DC, leaving Sandoz in New Mexico. Scully finds that Mulder is in a mental institution, but not for Bigfoot Porn addiction, but because the voices are driving him insane. And she finds that bow Fowley and Skinner are there, and realizes that they're both against her, sending her back to her office to search for surveillance. Sandoz calls her to tell her that the artifact says stuff about human genetics, but is immediately shot by Krycek and the episode ends some time later with Scully in the Ivory Coast checking out the space ship.

Biogenesis represents the moment where the series plot episodes ceased any attempt to keep newcomers up to speed and became six car pileups of characters and subplots not seen in two or more seasons smashing into each other and trying to figure out where the story is going. It, and its follow up episodes, are in my opinion where the main plot arc goes completely off the rails. None of that is to say that I dislike it though.

"Honestly, I'm only surprised by why he ended up here, not that he ended up here."

I think that one big issue, one that had to have plagued new viewers on the first viewing, is that we're kind of doing a deep dive on character stuff. Sure Skinner being manipulated by Krycek was established this season, as was the fact that Fowley is working for the bad guys, but Chuck was a tertiary character who hasn't been seen since Season 4, and Albert Hosteen hasn't been seen since Season Three. Yes I know Hosteen technically had a plot line up in the air, but I don't know if we needed to drag him back in, it probably would have served better to have a whole new character.

Not that the episode makes total sense without the callbacks; In an effort to make the episode exciting as a setup, it starts taking major narrative shortcuts and as a result feels a little rushed. Fowley just sort of wanders into the plot apropos of nothing, Krycek can teleport as the episode demands and Mulder gets brain destroying psychic power from a...rubbing, which everyone just seems to roll with. Yes, that'll come back in the next episode and The X-Files has asked me to swallow much bigger nonsense, but it still bugs me that they just leave that totally unexplained and no one even floats a theory.

I'm being too mean and I know it, I do enjoy this episode as the culmination of several season long plot threads. I especially like Skinner's role in this episode, both his clear discomfort at being pulled along by Krycek's schemes and the betrayal Anderson puts into her performance when she realizes Skinner isn't on her side. The callbacks to long forgotten characters don't work for me, but the moments that build on character relationships do (and it goes without saying that the moment where Scully is certain that, even as unhinged as Mulder is, he's not a threat to her, is one of those moments).

"Oh man, when Mulder is sane again he's going to tell me 'I told you so' so many goddamn times."

I also dig some of the details of the plot that make it feel like it's a major event. Duchovny usually gives a pretty restrained performance, but he gets to let loose here when he goes completely crazy. And while the episode skips a few steps in the interest of time, I like the slow degrade from Mulder feeling a little off to full bore crazy. I also love the shot at the end of Scully standing atop the spaceship. Maybe it's a little cheap, but it feels big.

Usually this is the spot where I have to say that we'll see how the episode holds up when it's part of a larger whole, but at some point I dunno if I wanna keep saying that. This episode is the last thing of Season Six, and Season Seven wouldn't start for six more months after this aired, so at some point this episode needs to work on its own, and I'm not convinced this one does work on it's own. So I guess we'll just have to see how it works with its two follow up episodes.

Case Results:

• Best Episode: Drive
• Worst Episode: The Rain King

Case Notes:

• Scully giving a lecture about all the mass extinctions Earth has gone through makes me wonder if Gillian Anderson ever got offered a Cosmos style tv show.
• I'm pretty sure the shot of the cavemen in the opening montage is a reused shot from Fight the Future.
• I had 100 percent forgotten about the spaceship that they find in the Ivory Coast until this moment, but I feel like it's a big plot point going forward, right?
• So putting the pieces of the spaceship together make them...hate? Bibles? Cause that thing went STRAIGHT at the Bible.
• The episode makes light of the fact that his metal piece nearly got Dr. Merkmellen arrested in Germany, but honestly, post 9/11, the TSA would probably have you eaten alive for trying to bring that thing in.
• Dr. Merkmellen just randomly intuits that Sandoz isn't really him, I guess cause the scene is over.
• Skinner's reason for giving Mulder and Scully this case is basically just, "They're weird, you're weird, go figure it out."
• I like Scully pointing out that Mulder has basically beaten the Conspiracy, as they're all dead, but him bringing up his sisters as why he keeps going feels odd. When was the last time she was mentioned, beginning of season 5?
• The rubbing giving Mulder the power to read minds is a weird plot point.
• I like Mulder and Scully arguing about whether the rock is real while Chuck is trying to sit on the fence. Pick a side Chuck!
• I think the writers must have been so happy that Mulder got psychic powers in this episode: Now he could psychically learn things he'd normally just intuit.
• The cops searched Sandoz's apartment but didn't bother to open the garbage? They are bad at their jobs.
• Honestly, Mulder telling Skinner that he can hear Skinner's thoughts is only a little bit outside his normal behavior.
• The sudden shift from Mulder and Scully in the FBI and Skinner giving stuff to Krycek, to Scully in the hospital in Arizona briefly gave me the feeling I'd missed something.
• Mulder keeps following Barnes, even as his brain is hit by the psychic feedback. He is nothing if not a trouper.
• Krycek is, of course, following Barnes around the college, because he's Krycek.
• Scully is very insistent that humans can't be descended from aliens, which is again, only slightly above Mulder's average insanity.
• Diana Fowley is just hanging around Mulder's apartment answering his phone because everyone forgot she was working for the Cigarette Smoking Man.
• And then we jump back into Scully narration from the opening, which again, makes me feel like I missed something. I had to double check we hadn't started the next episode.
• Scully decides to not join in on the healing ceremony cause it's not her faith. That's a good attitude to have people.
• Everyone is acting really sad and somber with Mulder at the psychiatric ward, but I'm pretty sure everyone who knows him in real life would just be waiting for Mulder to snap.
• Scully is sure that Mulder isn't a threat to her, no matter how crazy he gets. Aw.
• Scully realizing that Skinner is lying to her face is a nice subtle acting moment from Anderson.
• Sandoz is bad at hiding his location, it's no wonder Krycek was able to find and kill him pretty quickly.
• The crane shot of Scully standing on top of the spaceship is a great way to end the season.
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