1X08 ICE

"Ice, ice, baby."
Vanilla Ice

"Maybe the organism in the ice core somehow got into the men."
Murphy

"Separate thyself from thine enemies, and take heed of thy friends."
Apocrypha
Ecclesiastics 6:13

SYNOPSIS

ARCTIC ICE CORE PROJECT
ICY CAPE, ALASKA
250 MILES NORTH OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
NOVEMBER ? 1993
Men drilling on the Ice Core Project suddenly become wacky and kill each other. Mulder, Scully and a team of scientist go up to figure out why men who were friends turned on each other.

SCULLYVISION

In the teaser, one of the men of the Ice Core project is shown making a videotape, maybe as an explanation or apology for their behavior, by saying, "We're not who we are." That line is the embodiment of the episode, and the method of the monster of the week. He also goes on to say, "It stops right here, right now. It goes no further than this", a line that Scully will repeat to good effect later.

He's attacked by another member of the project, who we'll see in the video Mulder and Scully receive is a good buddy. They fight, break things, and hold guns on each other. At this point, we don't know these guys or situation, but when Mulder and Scully hold their guns on each other, it will be riveting. Nice use of this teaser for foreshadowing, setting up the mood that will carry through the entire episode.

Mulder tells Scully about the tragedy that happened up on Icy Cape as she coolly reads the file. It is only when she looks at the videotape Richter made in the teaser that she's disturbed, not being able to take her eyes from the TV screen, and slowly turning her head, transfixed. This scene is also wonderful because it's always good to see Mulder kneel down and look up at Scully.

At Doolittle Airfield in Nome, the scientists are joined. Each of their characteristics are laid out, as we need to figure out who these people are, in order to care for them if the episode is going to work.

First we see the happy-go-lucky Charger's fan, Murphy, professor of geology, University of San Diego. He can easily keep up with Mulder in the joke department when Mulder asks about his experience with ice in San Diego, Denny comments, "Only what's around the keg". Hodge and DaSilva arrive together and there's not much time to meet them, although we'll learn from Murphy that Hodge is a medical doctor and DaSilva is a toxicologist. Since this episode is also about paranoia, it isn't Mulder who takes it to the highest level, it's Hodge, stick up his butt, who asks for ID from everyone, to "make sure we are who we say we are". What was in his background? They show each other their IDs, to which Mulder scans Scully's and announces, "That's you."

More seeds of paranoia are sown when they wonder why they were all sent, considering their specialties, and DaSilva questions Mulder and Scully's lack of information on what they're going to find up there.

Within seconds, we know everything we need to know about Bear, the pilot who's going to fly them up to the Icy Cape. He's a rebel, doesn't fly by the rules, and don't mess with him or you can walk. The actor is likable here, not at all like the only other role he's remembered for, the killer in the movie, "Ghost".

Right off the bat, as soon as they arrive and open the door to the lab, they're faced with a gruesome crime scene, Richter and Campbell's dead bodies. Scully goes right to work photographing the bodies as they lay and warns the others of the flashing. Very considerate.

When Mulder and Murphy zone into the ice core samples the drillers has taken, the camera zooms in, so we know that's the danger.

When the lights come on after the generator started, the dog attacked Mulder, while DaSilva stood around. Bear charges in to help Mulder, only to get bit. After Hodge sedates the dog, they inspect him, thinking it was rabies. If only it were that simple. Scully first notices black nodules on the dog's armpit, then notices the dog was scratching off it's own hair, then spotted something crawling under the dog's skin. Murphy so eloquently states what we're all thinking, "What the hell was that?"

While that's going on, Bear's taking care of the dog bite in the bathroom and gets a pain under his arm. He sees black nodules on his armpit. Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo....

Scully went right to work on the bodies and found three instances of murder, as there were deaths of strangulation, and Richter and Campbell killed themselves. All the bodies had tissue damage due to fever. Meanwhile, Hodge had checked over the dog, and the black nodules are gone. They had to be symptoms of fever, that disappear in the later stages.

Another quick scene of foreshadowing, DaSilva is going to pick up files from the desk and hesitantly moves one of the guns packed as evidence to the side, by the top, as if it contained the plague.

All the scientists talk about their conclusions. Scully found ammonia in Richter's blood, to which Hodge says is impossible, and DaSilva says she hadn't found any trace of ammonia in the water filtration system. Murphy though, says he found it in the ice, while Bear is nauseous.

Murphy found a skeletal moving object in the ice, just as Scully found in Richter's blood, deducing it was the larval stage of a larger animal. Some disagree, their talking isn't getting anywhere. Bear is scared and suggests they just get out of there. To make sure we don't like Hodge at all, he suggests that Scully missed something in her investigation.

Bear won't be talked down, he's going. Mulder brings up quarantine conditions, and all of a sudden, voices rise, arguing about who got bit by the infected dog. Scully calms them down with simple suggestion that they check each other over. Hodge says protocol requires blood and stool samples, to which good ol' Murphy says, "Gee, this kind of travel always makes that tough. For me." And Mulder, needs the morning sports section for such a mission.

Bear knows he's infected, but is leaving anyway. When Mulder calls for a vote whether they should keep Bear there until he agrees to an examination, Scully sides with Mulder instantly. Then Murphy, gotta love him, joins in.

Bear pretends to concede to it, then takes off. Who's the first one to get him? Of course, feisty Scully! With a tackle any football team would be proud to have on their side. Mulder and Scully subdue him, while the others stand around. Some help they are.

The extraction of the worm from Bear grosses most out, but Hodge and Scully plunge ahead. Mulder immediately gets a container for it and hands it off to Murphy, and runs, not walks, to the radio for help.

DD's acting of fright at the radio was magnificent. The ironic grunt after hearing there's no hope of rescue for another day was perfect.

When he comes back from getting bad news on the rescue front, Scully informs him that Bear is dead. Another symptom of the monster of the week. So what do we have so far about it: it lives in ice, it's transferred through wounds in the skin, it produces black nodules and fever, the nodules disappear, makes you loony, kills it's host if it's extracted. Cool!

They show a live worm in the fridge and Scully brings another one in from the dead bodies. Two pieces of evidence for the moment. Even though Hodge poo-pooed her theory that the worms lived on Ammonia, she filled the container of pure ammonia for the worm. I don't think Hodge ever apologized for being snippy, either.

Scully and the others try to figure it all out, and wonder why the first team killed themselves. Mulder theorizes that they did it to save their rescuers. Scully doesn't confirm or deny such a thought, only puts her head in her hand. The tension and circumstance are getting to everyone, and Scully goes back to the bodies, just in case she didn't miss anything. Then gets into a discussion about whether or not the 'thing' should be killed. Scully will listen to Mulder, together searching for answers, but she cuts him off when the discussion turns to alien beings. She thinks it should be toast, if it gets out, cities could be infected within days. Mulder thinks they should study it, in case it crops up again, or there are other meteor craters containing the same thing. Then it gets loud, that makes Hodge and DaSilva paranoid. What do the agents know? Why won't they tell the others? Why are they loud? Paranoia is setting in. The seeds of them turning against each other when Hodge mentions that Bear's blood got on Scully. He had a spooky look when DaSilva mentioned that it was also on him.

Boys check the boys, girls check the girls to see if anyone's infected. Mulder jokes about shrinkage while Scully holds DaSilva's hand and closes her eyes in relief that they're both clean, meaning no visual nodules.

When they all retire to their separate rooms that night, Scully is relieved, maybe feeling better, but Spooky Mulder, always one not to trust anything, reminds her the nodules disappeared on the dog. Thanks, Mulder. She should sleep well, if at all.

The pivotal scene of confrontation after Mulder discovers Murphy's body, only to have the others rush in to see Murphy's body in Mulder's arms, was tension filled and sparkling from beginning to end. For just a moment, Scully has to process what she's seeing, Mulder over a dead body. Then immediately backs him up that he didn't do it, if he said so. She's the one who controls the situation. Mulder's leery of Hodge, rightly so when he picks up a lug wrench to use on him, making him point his gun at him. That's out of control, Scully pulls her gun out and points it at Mulder. All the previous episodes of the series, the partnership they've forged, the friendship they've honed, all comes down to that moment. All the outside forces of paranoia, disease and infestation have to take a back seat to the simple truth which is, do they trust each other. He tells her to put the gun down, "It's me!" She is forced to tell him that "You may not be who you are". They regard each other for that moment, and Mulder realizes she needs to have her proof that he is in fact Mulder, who just stumbled upon a dead body.

Needing to work fast and alone, with Mulder locked away so he can't hurt them, because he refused testing, she comes to the correct conclusion of how to save them by figuring out that two worms in the same vicinity with attack and kill each other. After testing the theory on the dog, it's time to test it on the one they assume is infected... Mulder.

Scully is calm and rational when telling Mulder the plan, but he's been closed up alone for so long, he isn't so cordial, a probably just a little ticked for her not to trust him right off the bat. He knows he didn't kill Murphy, he can't be infected. The end of the scene is also a red letter scene. She demands to know why he didn't let them check him, when he's so obviously, in his mind, convinced he wasn't. The answer was simple, "I don't trust them. I want to trust you." They'd been through a bit together by that time in their partnership, but still testing the waters. After turning around and baring his neck to her, trusting that she isn't the infected one herself, Scully rubs her hand over his skin, kneads the skin, sure there wasn't a visitor. Then, he grabs Scully to inspect her. The look on her face was surprise, a little sexual tension, a little better done than in the pilot when Mulder inspected her mosquito bites. Here, she's fully clothed, and it's a more powerful scene considering who they are to each other, and the circumstances they find themselves in.

After figuring out it's DaSilva, Hodge falls back, no help. Mulder makes sure Scully's freed from the room she was tossed into and they run after the infected one together. Gotta love it.

DaSilva, knowing just where the gun was before, grabs and fires it just as Mulder is running in. Good thing he's also a great tackler and she's a bad shot.

Full circle as Scully calms DaSilva with the worms fighting each other in her body, "It all stops right here, right now."

Big Brother is a factor in the series, as the lab facility was destroyed after they left, and they find out about it from Hodge. There's confirmation of just where Mulder and Scully stand and their beliefs as Mulder wants to go back and study the worms, and Scully just wants to leave it there.

This is truly a Scully Comes of Age episode. She's not tagging along as Mulder's shadow in any way. She's tough and takes charge of everyone, including her partner. Scully is at her best here in a number of roles: Dr. Scully identifies the source of the threat and neutralizes the killer worms, Agent Scully tackles Bear after he hits Mulder on the head, Partner Scully aims her gun at Mulder forcing him to lower his own gun, Leader Scully takes control of everyone by shouting "Stop it. Stop it. Shut up" (when Scully says shut up, people do), Loyal Scully cares about Mulder and defends him, "If Mulder is infected, it's not his fault. He needs our help."

Scully does all of this in a flannel shirt and a ponytail. How can anyone who can kick your ass look so huggable? Only that beautiful beast woman Dana Scully.

OH COME ON!

There's a thermometer inside the compound that reads -30 degrees. Shouldn't that be outside? Everything would be frozen up inside if that was really the inside temp.

Why did the lights go out after Richter and Campbell shot themselves? Did the dog flip them off, not wanting to see the crazy dead humans?

Dogs don't have that fast of a digestive track, do they? Only a few minutes, or maybe an hour after the worms killed each other in it's body, he passed them in his stool? Or, how did the worms get into the dog's digestive track to pass them in his stool to begin with?

Why did Mulder and Scully have to find out the lab was torched from Hodge?

THINGS LEARNED
or All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned From the X Files

When the last person alive shoots himself, the lights will go out.

Don't look only at your gun as you're putting it away after threatening an infected pilot. He's going to smash a bottle over your head.

The Hypothalamus Gland secretes hormones, and acidicolene which makes the being exhibit violent behavior.

Never lead the way for people you don't trust. They'll grab you from behind and try to put a worm in your ear.

JACK'S MONSTERVISION

Ah, yes, Ice. A great episode with a mediocre MOTW. The writers just needed something to make a bunch of people stranded in a arctic paranoid. Not that I'm saying it was a bad idea, actually it was quite ingenious: the worms were basically undetectable when in a body, whether human or canine, when surgically removed, they let loose a poison to kill their host, they could stay frozen in ice for a long time, they can make their hosts extremely violent (although this doesn't seem to help the worms themselves in any way). Despite those things, I don't really like or respect them as MOTWs. They had two weaknesses: they can only exist in ammonia and when they are near another like themselves, they kill each other. Wonder how they survived together in the ice all that time... I give these ice worms a 2 out of 5 ice core samples.

SFX

The worms under the dog's skin was creepily first rate. But, the worms wiggling around in the containers were obviously computer animated.

WRITERS
Glenn Morgan/James Wong

Coupe de gras for the boys. From the set up of the claustrophobia and distrust of each other in the teaser to Scully's line of leave it there, this episode was the first episode of the series that 'rocked'. It's a barometer to rank all others that come after, excellent teaser, scary monster of the week, tension, trust, reasoning behind the X File, solving of the case, giving the secondary characters character. First rate.

This episode had a lot of people in a small setting, and they did a good job of keeping them all busy at the same time, doing logical things. It was much like an Agatha Christie novel or Hitchcock film in how they all slowly fall into distrust, or are killed off one by one.

DIRECTOR
David Nutter

Wonderful direction all around. Scenes that stuck out, Bear's corpse with the worm in his blood in a container next to him, everyone's different ways of spending their night alone in their rooms. Scully lingers over the nice personal pictures of whoever's room she's in, then remembers what happened to him and blocks entrance to the room with a dresser. Murphy listens to his football games on tape to give him a sense of security, staring at the door. Hodge makes notes on who could be infected. Funny, the only one he doesn't mention in the note is DaSilva. He trusts her too much, they did arrive together, wonder what their relationship is. Interestingly, DaSilva is the only one depicted with her back to the door. Foreshadowing that she has nothing to fear from the others? Mulder makes sure his gun is nearby and looks at the door.

The explosive scene after Mulder finds Murphy's body was well handled, making the audience not trust any of them, and worry about their sanity.

Of course, the checking each other over scene was sensual, surprising, hit the right notes with the words, actors and camera angles.

RUNNING TALLIES
Flashlights - when arriving at the lab, going to their rooms at night
Guns - both Mulder and Scully show them only, thank goodness
Slide Projector, no, but did use videotape to introduce the X File
Scully does an autopsy on Richter and Campbell's bodies
Raining? No, but it's snowing

SIDE NOTE: The dog in the episode was played by DD's real life dog's mother. First time Mulder and Scully point their guns at each other.

ATHENAEUM

"Jack Torrance at your service," the Curator in spitting image of Jack Nicholson from the movie 'The Shining' sweetly smiled to his guest.

Mulder chuckled, and said, "Let me guess... you're the proprietor of the Overlook Hotel?"

"Just call me Jack. How can I help you?"

Mulder shifted his stance as he gave the Curator the once over, stepping on the rail in front of the tall desk to peep over and see if there was anyone back there. "Ah, you called on me. I don't know how you can help me, or if you could."

"It's come to my attention that you are looking for something about cabin fever."

"Okay," Mulder shrugged, having just experienced the phenomena of cabin fever first hand, but to argue with an axe weilding maniac wasn't at the top of his to-do list. When he saw Jack's eyebrows sinisterly raise, he changed his tone. "Yes, sir. I need that information. Cabin fever seems to be a very real psychological state but isn't listed as a diagnosis in the psychiatric manuals."

"It ought to be. Trust me it's real and it's brutal." Jack turned, then disappeared amungst the imposing book shelves.

Mulder looked around and wondered just what mysteries were hidden among these dusty shelves. He walked around the large desk and entered a shadowy aisle. He squinted to make out the titles of some of the books, but blank spines stared back at him. Suddenly there was a gap on the shelves and between them was the grinning, leering face of Jack Torrance. "Heeeeere's Johnny."

Mulder jerked back in surprise, then laughed, "You are him!"

"Please step back out to the main desk, sir," he politely said. Because Mulder just stood there, the sight of Jack's huge ax made Mulder comply rather quickly.

"Now here's the cabin fever bible, I wrote it myself," Jack let a huge volume drop onto Mulder's toes. "It tells you everything you wanted to know about cabin fever but were too anxious to ask. Cabin fever is a feeling of aggravation when confined to an enclosed area for an extended period of time. Symptoms include feelings of isolation, depression, and obsessive behavior over minor situations. Cabin fever victims often find their feelings, and even behaviors, escalating out of control. Their anxiety evolves more slowly than the sudden onset of claustrophobia."

During that exchange, Mulder had hopped around silently, with one hand clamped onto his toe, and the other firmly choking off the string of obsenities he wanted to hurl at the rude man, but knew better than to speak because Jack was swinging that axe up over his head. He ran for the door to get the hell out of there, but Jack beat him. Mulder jumped back from Jack's body standing in front of the door.

Torrence used the axe to clean out under his fingernails as he slowly, threateningly walked toward Mulder, "Cures include staying out of cabins."

"Sure," Mulder nodded politely. "No problem."

"And," he added, "To avoid spending the winter cooped up in a large snowed-in hotel with a whining wife and a sniffling little brat of a kid and..."

A woman in the form of Shelley Duvall, shrieked out, "Whining? You called refered to me as whining?"

Mulder was more surprised by her sudden appearence than the fact that Jack Torrence used him as a shield from his wife, who wielded a large butcher knife. She continued, as she thrust out with the knife, "You think you were the only one left up there? You certainly weren't company. Me and Danny had to fend for ourselves because you were revisiting some sort of personal reincarnation crap."

One of her thrusts hit Mulder on the finger, "Hey!" he cried out. He shoved Jack back, "How am I involved with this?"

Wendy straightened up and said in an apologetic tone, "I'm sorry. My husband just happens to grate on my nerves. I have no idea why I went back for him, I should have just let you freeze to death," she yelled at him. "He's spent the last 15 years in a sanitarium."

Jack sneered as Mulder grabbed the axe out of his hand, "I got carried away. Anyway, cures for cabin fever can include planning activities with others, engaging enthusiastically in projects such as cleaning, reading books, surfing the Internet, and generally finding ways to stay active and releasing anxious energy."

Wendy smiled at her husband, "Oh, Jack. You have been listening to the doctors."

Jack hugged his wife and told Mulder, "Your book is due back in three weeks. Good day."

Mulder was tempted to ask him to do the 'here's Johnny' line again but thought better of it. As he climbed the stairs he could hear the sound of a ball being thrown repeatedly up against the basement wall. Mulder was greatly amused by it all, until he got home.

He sat on his black leather couch and opened the book he received from Athenaeum, only to find line after line and page after page of "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." He threw the book on the coffee table in disgust and stared at the walls of his apartment. They seemed to be closing in on him.

QUOTES

RICHTER We're not... who... we are. We're not... who we are. It goes no further than this. It stops right here, right now.

MULDER Bring your mittens.

MURPHY Touchdown! Fouts... Is... God!

MULDER San Diego? You get much of a chance to study ice down there?
MURPHY Just what's around the keg.

HODGE I just want to make sure we are who we say we are.

MURPHY Well, two federal agents, a geologist, a medical doctor and a toxicologist. That should give us some idea what they're thinking.

DASILVA Come on, you're FBI. You have to know more than we do.

BEAR Credentials. The only credentials that I have is that I'm the only pilot willing to fly you up there. You don't like those credentials, walk.

SCULLY There seems to be a presence of ammonium hydroxide in Richter's blood sample.

HODGE That's kind of a leap, don't you think?

RADIO Welcome to the top of the world, Agent Mulder. Over.

SCULLY A parasite shouldn't want to kill it's host.

MULDER Before anyone passes judgement, may I remind you we are in the Arctic.

MULDER I'm not turning my back on anyone! As far as I'm concerned, you're all infected!

MULDER Scully, get that gun off me!
SCULLY Mulder, you have to understand!
Mulder points his gun at Scully.
MULDER Put it down!
SCULLY You put it down first!
MULDER Scully! For God sakes, it's me!
SCULLY Mulder... you may not be who you are.

SCULLY If Mulder is infected, it's not his fault! We can't turn our backs on him now, he needs us to help him!

SCULLY The larvae from two different worms killed each other.

SCULLY No one's been killed since you've been in here.
MULDER So?

MULDER You give me one worm, you'll infect me.
SCULLY If that's the truth, then why didn't you let us check you?
MULDER You pulled a gun on me. Now I don't trust them. I want to trust you.
SCULLY Okay. But now they're not here.

HODGE Mulder! It's her!

SCULLY It's all right. It's all over. It all stops right here. Right now.

MULDER It's still there, Scully. 200,000 years down in the ice.
SCULLY Leave it there.