Case 07, File 02: The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati

AKA: Is That The Title? Cause It's Long

In addition to being a moment that's usually kind of transitory, the seventh season is when you have to start wondering what your endgame is, especially if you're a plot heavy show. What plot threads are still dangling, what character arcs and motivations would you like to resolve. How is your plot going to finally wind down, if it is going to wind down any time soon. What do your characters actually want? These are the sort of questions the series has to look into as it hits Season Seven.

We kick off this episode more or less where we left off, with Mulder in a coma, but able to read minds. Also he's having visions of himself and a kid on a beach, but that does't matter too much right now. His mom shows up, and she's upset about the coma and he's upset that he can't talk to her. And then, cause he's not upset enough, the Cigarette Smoking Man shows up, but he gives him a...something? Which turns off his psychic powers and makes him able to walk and talk. Oh and as long as he's ruining Mulder's day, he also tells Mulder that he's Mulder's father.

Back with Scully, she finds out that Mulder's disappeared (his mom apparently checked him out) and that Skinner is basically of the opinion that his presence is doing more harm than good. Kritschgau is still hanging around too, and he currently thinks Mulder's condition is caused by him getting infected with the alien virus way back in Season Four, and he's mad that Scully doesn't agree with him.  Oh and they catch a glimpse of Mulder's mom on security footage, talking with Cigarette Smoking Man, but can't contact her. Mulder, it turns out, has been kidnapped by the Cigarette Smoking Man, who drives him off to parts unknown.

Parts unknown, incidentally, turns out to be a suburb where he has a house waiting for him and also Deep Throat is there. Turns out he didn't actually die, he's just been in hiding in a normal neighborhood, which is pretty convenient. Later on, Fowley shows up and she and Mulder bang, and when Mulder is annoyed about the fact that the Cigarette Smoking Man is off to go do more evil, she shows him that he lives in the neighborhood too, with his kids and also Samantha. So that's pretty nice, right?

"Why didn't you tell me you were alive?"
"I was a vague and often unhelpful guy in life, I decided to continue that in death."

Except it's not, Mulder has actually been captured by Fowley and the Cigarette Smoking Man and is being prepped for a procedure that will take Mulder's immunity to the Alien Virus (because he thinks Mulder is a functioning alien-human hybrid) and give it to the Cigarette Smoking Man, all the shit in the suburb is just a dream Mulder's having. And while we're talking about the, you know, real world, Scully gets a visit from Albert Hosteen who tells her to find Mulder. And then she gets a book on Native Beliefs that says that one man will stop the upcoming apocalypse. Oh and Kritschgau hacked her computer to get the info on the alien ship in Africa, but she deletes it.

Back with Mulder in the dream, he dreams that he marries Fowley, has some kids, grows old...uh, loses Fowley and Samantha? I dunno dude, maybe have some nicer dreams. He also dreams that he's elderly and bedridden, and that the Apocalypse is happening outside while Cigarette Smoking Man watches passively. Cigarette Smoking Man, in the real world is busy getting the surgery done. Scully is meanwhile trying to get Skinner on board, but he gets attacked by a mysterious bearded man (it's Krycek) who escapes and also gets into a fight with Fowley cause she thinks Fowley knows where Mulder is.

Fowley does of course, and after Scully gets another visit from Hosteen, Fowley leaves Scully an ID card of where to find Mulder, while Kritschgau gets killed by Krycek, who steals his laptop. Scully appears to Mulder in his dream and tells him that he has to get up and fight, while in reality, Scully finds Mulder and tells him that she needs him. Mulder, of course does get up, and the episodes ends with Scully and Mulder meeting at his apartment, affirming to each other how much they mean to each other. Oh and both Fowley and Hosteen are dead. Fowley got killed, but Hosteen was in a coma when he was visiting Scully. That part is important.

The Sixth Extinction II (the Seventh Extinction?) is an episode divided into two parts, the looks into Mulder's psyche in the dreams and Scully's plotline in the real world, trying to push the plot of the series forward. It would be...less than charitable of me to assume they did this because neither part was strong enough (or long enough) to stand on its own, but it does feel like the latter is leaning a little on the former, since the actual plot movement is pretty thin on the ground.

"Hey, remember when I was your motivation? Me neither."

Not that there's no movement in it, it's just that most of it is setup for later in the season. Skinner being compromised by Krycek is still there from last season, and Kritschgau and Hosteen die, to mixed but muted emotions (and Fowley, but more on that in a moment) but all the rest of it? Cigarette Smoking Man becoming a human-alien hybrid, Mulder's mom being in on it, Krycek getting the spaceship info, all of it is setup and none of it gets resolved. Maybe they thought Mulder and Scully's tearful reunion would be enough to get most fans on board and yeah, they're right, but it still rankles a bit.

And then there's Fowley's death, the most significant plot movement in this episode. A few weeks ago I got some comments mad about how much I hate Fowley and Spender, and while I won't deny I found Spender very irritating, I dunno if I ever hated Fowley so much as I thought she was underwritten and kind of pointless. She hangs around a lot in Season Six, and even switches sides a few times, but we never get motivation or backstory for her, so she feels like she's just moving at the whim of the plot. Krycek does that too, but he's so strongly acted and intense that it feels more like a character trait for him, Fowley is just kind of there to act as temptation for Mulder briefly. The fact that Kritschgau got a death scene, but not Fowley, tells you all you need to know about the writers interest in her.

On the flip side of plot movement, there's Mulder's Suburb Fantasy, which is a stronger part of the episode because it can stand alone. I can't tell if it's intended to be a surprise that it's not real, but it doesn't feel like one (I mean, Deep Throat is there, of course it's fake) so I'm gonna treat it like we're supposed to grok that it's not real immediately. And I like it. I like when we get glimpses into our heroes' psyche and see what they might actually want, and giving him a lengthy fantasy sequence (not even brought on by anything, Cigarette Smoking Man says it's a dream) is a cheap, but effective way to do that. And it does make a bizarre sort of sense that Mulder would be desperate for the basic stuff most people can get, but he can't.

"...that's great it starts with an earthquake..."

On the other hand, the stuff surrounding it paints Mulder as uh...well Jesus metaphors are overdone, but his surgery requires his arms spread for some reason. Taken with the previous episode, this feels a little like a contradiction of the element where the series was trying to figure out what it would like without him, stating that it could never exist without Mulder. Maybe Chris Carter (who wrote both episodes, the second with Duchovny's help) wanted it both ways, staging one episode as an effort to imagine the series without Duchovny and the second as a love letter to beg him to stay no matter what. Or maybe it's all a coincidence and I'm reading too much into things, who knows?

Aside from that, the technical details are uh...well they're mixed. The editing and direction are good, although the script is vintage Chris Carter, and all the good and bad things that suggests, as well as a heaping dose of fanservice. What really holds the episode together are the performances of our two leads. The final couple scenes between them, and the emotionally charged conversations therein, are what keeps this episode high in the fans regard, and rightfully so. At this point the series is basically on board with "Mulder and Scully; Soulmates" and it's basically flying that flag the entire back half of this episode.

I said last time that we'd have to see how this trio of episodes wrapped up, and aside from strengthening the connection between our leads, this ending doesn't feel much like an ending, more like it's trying to use these episodes a jumping off point into something new. Season Seven is a season that, in my memory, is defined by a handful of truly heinous episodes (you know which ones, and we'll get to them), but maybe on this watch, I can try to focus more on the good stuff, and the ways in which it was trying to move the story towards a resolution.

Those episodes are really bad though, jeez.

Case Notes:

• The bits with Mulder on the beach puts me in mind of Minority Report for some reason. Maybe it's the soft filter over everything?
• It took like a week for someone to think of telling Mulder's mom that he's in bad shape.
• I do like the shot of Mulder watching his mom walk away while he screams in his own head.
• I like that the Cigarette Smoking Man knows Mulder can read his mind and acts accordingly.
• The Cigarette Smoking Man's speech about how Mulder should just stop playing martyr and leave is decent, but him referencing Nader dates the speech pretty badly.
• I like that we've finally identified what's making Mulder psychic, but the opening conversation smacks of "We need to exposit the conflict between Scully and Kritschgau."
• Skinner waits two full episodes to realize he needs to tap out.
• I actually really love Mulder's talk with the Cigarette Smoking Man in the car, it's nice to see them interact more with somewhat lessened antagonism.
• Albert Hosteen returns to the plot in a way that basically tells the audience he's already dead.
• The fridge full of sunflower seeds is a nice touch.
• Holy crap, it's Deep Throat. He's been dead for five full seasons, this trio of episodes really is reaching way back.
• That said, Deep Throat's presence is basically telegraphing that Mulder's experiences at the house aren't real.
• Fowley showing up with the handcuff keys makes me feel like some writer realized he was still wearing them.
• Scully getting a book called "Native American Beliefs and Practices" is really amusing to me, because it's still presupposing that they're all one culture which is a painfully common belief.
• Krycek escapes from Skinner's office by pulling the fire alarm, which I feel is a little too easy.
• Fowley trying to get Mulder to believe that he should stay and become a father is one of the elements that rings pretty false and makes it more clear it's fantasy sequence. Good thing too, it would make Fowley even more underwritten if she only wanted to be Mulder's waifu.
• I like the final indication that Mulder's domestic bliss is a fantasy being the Cigarette Smoking Man living with a family and Mulder's sister. He's been characterized as a lonely, bitter, miserable person, so this would be so violently against that, I think even the most clueless of the audience is intended to pick it up here. The cut to Fowley and Cigarette Smoking Man in reality just confirms it.
• It is the same actress as the fake adult Samantha from Season 5 though, which is a nice touch.
• Fowley is trying to intimidate Scully in their confrontation, like Scully couldn't take her apart in alphabetical order.
• Cigarette Smoking Man is dropping way too much exposition about stuff we already know.
• The editing and camera work gets more interesting after Mulder's fantasy has been revealed as a fantasy.
• Mulder looks okay with just grey hair, but the old age makeup at the end of the fantasy looks pretty bad. Better than Dod Kalm I guess.
• The back half this episode gets kind of abstract and I'm not certain it works. Albert Hosteen telling Scully to pray to find Mulder while Cigarette Smoking Man talks about how Mulder being an alien hybrid is God's blessing feels uh...trite?
• Even in the fantasy, Mulder reacts worst to Scully being dead.
• Krycek murders Kritschgau and steals all his stuff because uh...well who knows why Krycek does what he does at this point? Probably not even Krycek.
• Scully giving Mulder an angry pep talk is one of the things people remember this episode for and it's one of those moments that we need to be really thankful for Gillian Anderson for, she sells the hell of out some kind of meh dialogue.
• Scully basically revives Mulder with her tears touching him. It's uh...look it's a little fanficky, okay?
• Mulder telling Scully that Hosteen was already in a coma when he visited her is apparently a bridge too far for her to believe. Mulder even says that that's kind of weird given all the shit that went down.
• The final moments between Mulder and Scully are incredibly sweet and, I maintain, the reason this episode is fondly remembered by fans. No judgement, I welled up a little bit too.
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