Case 04, File 09: Terma

AKA: Gulags Are Known For Being Easy To Break Out Of

The difficulty in doing a two part episode, especially in the pre-Netflix era, is that you want to have each episode have a complete narrative while tying into each other, since you can't be sure that your audience will get to see both episodes. And The X-Files...is not the best at this. Yes there's the Duane Barry trilogy, but a lot of times the dual episodes either have a weak opening or fails to stick the landing. But there have to be some exceptions. Sometimes they have to get both episodes right.

Terma kicks off with a lady in a retirement home in Boca Raton getting some help from Dr. Kavorikian and then immediately starting to leak the Black Oil. While that's happening, some Russian former KGB guy gets orders from a mysterious somebody to go to America and do...stuff involving the Black Oil. Meanwhile, back at the plot, Mulder recovers from his ordeal at the end of the last episode and gets told by his buddy, the other prisoner, that Krycek betrayed him (duh), that the experiments are to develop a vaccine for the Black Oil and also gives him a knife to take his revenge.

Back in the states, the Russian guy goes to a horse farm, meets a lady named Bonita Charne-Sayer and immediately kills her. Like you do. Scully, who is off checking on the dude in a coma from the previous episode, gets told by Skinner that this lady died and also that the Diplomatic Pouch they intercepted with the rock in it was intended for her. Little suspicious that. It turns out she's a world renowned doctor working with vaccines and, as we learn piecemeal over the course of the episode, was working with the Conspiracy to develop a vaccine for the Black Oil.

Back in Russia, Mulder takes his opportunity to tackle Krycek onto a car, hijack said car and drive away from the Gulag with it. Turns out escaping from a Gulag is super easy. But keeping track of your treacherous buddies isn't as easy as Krycek jumps off the truck and it turns out its breaks are shit and Mulder crashes it. Our buddy cops spend some time hiding from their pursuers separately, until Mulder is found by some Russian peasants (who own the truck he crashed) while Krycek gets found by some anti-Gulag rebels who saw their own arms off to avoid the testing and decide that Krycek needs a good ol' Russian amputation too.

"There's a strange Russian man in my barn, but it's probably fine."

Back in the US, we finally hit our cold open from the previous episode, with Scully refusing to tell the Senate where Mulder is and getting arrested for Contempt of Congress. When she's next brought in, Mulder walks in mid-testimony and he and Scully (together again) head off to Boca to look into Charne-Sayer's nursing home. While this is all happening, our Russian buddy (remember him?) kills the guy in a coma and steals the rock.

At Charne-Sayer's nursing home, the Russian guy gets there first and kills all the patients, who start leaking the Black Oil and bolts. With no other leads, Mulder hits upon the bright idea to interrogate the leader of the terrorist cell Krycek was working for, who points them to Terma, North Dakota and an oil refinery. It turns out the Russian agent has dumped the rock into the refinery and causes an explosion, destroying it. Mulder gives a speech before congress about how aliens are real (really) and the episode ends with the Russian agent back in Russia talking to Krycek who reveals he orchestrated the whole thing.

As a standalone episode, Terma is quite good, a fun little ride with a lot of good stuff about it. Taken as a continuation of a very good episode, Terma is damn near perfect, extending the story of the previous episode, while still having its own running plot and themes. Its actually the platonic ideal for two part episodes, one which is damn near perfect in terms of what it sets out to do and what it actually does.

"Man, escaping from a Gulag is easy, why doesn't everyone do this?"

The one issue with the episode as a whole is that the Charne-Sayer storyline doesn't really get the breathing room it needs. The storyline is pretty easily the central one of the episode, but it kind of has to sit there until Mulder returns from Russia, which is fine, but it means there's no movement on the central plotline until nearly the 2/3rd mark. Maybe they should have started it in the first half.

But the rest of the episode really makes up for it. Mulder's escape from the Gulag may be absurdly easy, but it's still an exciting and well shot action beat, and the big final explosive one at the oil plant doesn't hurt either. The storyline with the Russian agent wandering around doing mysterious stuff mysteriously is kind of silly, but it works in context of the story, keeping Mulder and Scully one step behind him, trying to catch up.

It's also got some of our first real looks at members of the Conspiracy other than Cancer Man as a real people. The tidbits that the Well Manicured Man comes to his horse farm to avoid people and that he was in a relationship with Charne-Sayer are small, but they make him feel like a more complete person. And its worth mentioning that the Well Manicured Man's meetings with Cancer man are really excellent. They're kind of silly on paper, and they've got that vague X-Files dialogue stuff down pat, but John Neville and William B. Davis sell it so well, and get so much help from good lighting and direction that they end up really engaging.

"The writers don't explain how I got into this facility because even they don't know."

And then there's Krycek. We're not going to see our treacherous friend for over a season, so this is pretty much the season finale for him, and it's a pretty good way to go out for a while. The reveal that he's behind all of the stuff that went on with the Russian agent is cool and it's also nice to see him get his comeuppance for his constant betrayal of every single character he works with, what with his arm getting hacked off. Krycek is always an engaging character and never more than when he's actually accomplishing what he sets out to do.

There's other stuff I could go into, but this review is already pretty long and I'm writing it while on vacation. The most important thing you need to know is that, at this point in any rewatch (and I have rewatched this show about a dozen times since I first saw it) my interest in the Myth Arc is usually flagging, and rewatching these two episodes usually revitalizes it. And really, there's no better compliment than that.

Case Notes:

• I'm happy to see we're continuing our habit of painfully vague Previously Ons.
• Kicking off with an old lady committing assisted suicide and then starting to leak the Black Oil is a pretty goddamn memorable opening to an episode, I'll give it that.
• I'm not gonna lie, I kinda want a metal tea holder like the Russian dude has in this episode.
• Me at the "The cold war is not over" line in 2006: Ha, that's so ridiculous. Me now: Uhhhhhhhhh.
• The conversation in the Gulag is intensely Russian.
• "I have to live long enough to kill Krycek" Mulder, you and I both know you're going to let him go and he's going to betray you again. It's what he does.
• The lady who owns the horse farm is pretty chill about a dude just being in her barn. Given that he kills her, maybe she shouldn't be.
• "Right after a pouch intended for this doctor was intercepted, she dies under odd circumstances. Probably an accident though."
• I know they've got limited time in the episode, but Mulder's escape from the Gulag is piss easy.
• Mulder takes being in a car crash pretty well. Krycek takes jumping out of a speeding truck even better.
• I like the cinematography in the meeting between Cancer Man and the Well-Manicured Man. Lots of use of silhouettes and shadows, good stuff.
• "Wake the Russian bear and it may find we've stolen its honey," is, on paper, a terrible line but William B. Davis sells the shit out of it.
• I'm not clear on why Krycek is running through the woods in a panic. Isn't he buddies with the Prison Camp guys? I guess he's afraid of the one armed guys?
• Mulder is good at hiding. That's not a joke, the leaves thing was smart.
• Again, Scully is being ultra-tight-lipped in the Senate hearing, but I don't think she actually knows.
• She looks badass enough walking down the prison hallway that I'm willing to excuse it though.
• Mulder tells the family he needs them to help him get to Saint Petersburg. He was being held in Krasnoyarsk, which is 2,800 miles from Saint Petersburg, more than the distance from New York to LA. So, ya know, he's asking a lot.
• You know Krycek, if you hadn't betrayed Mulder all the time, you could be on your way to Saint Petersburg, instead of having your arm sawed off in the woods. So karma, it turns out, is a bitch.
• Scully's cell looks pretty nice. I've slept in worse bedrooms.
• Mulder entering when he does is so very very extra. And Scully looks so happy to see him, it warms my heart.
• The Russian guy hiding and pretending to be one the old people he just killed is pretty solid.
• Mulder is a pretty calm guy, so seeing him go off on the right wing militia guy is unique and also pretty satisfying cause fuck that guy.
• Scully just hops the fence to get to the oil refinery. Mulder is rubbing off on you Scully.
• Mulder gives a speech before Congress about how we should believe in aliens which sounds like fanfic, but is a thing that happens.
• The reveal that Krycek was behind the whole thing is pretty cool, not gonna lie.
• As always these reviews are supported by Patreon. Keep donating so I'll feel too guilty to stop working on these reviews even when I'm on vacation.