With only three months until the movie, things are finally beginning to fall into place. The alien colonists are making their presence felt, a vaccine for the black cancer has been discovered, and our favourite bad guy is alive and kicking again... We are fighting for our future against the forces that wish to eliminate us. Now is the time to make one of the most important decisions of the entire planet - do we wish to resist, or serve?

I don't know about you, but frankly, I found this whole plot line slightly hokey. An alien war? Resistance fighters? Not who...but what? Pulease. Talk about cliché. The story behind this episode was like a mix of the French Revolution and the War of the Worlds. "Patient 'X'" set it up wonderfully, posing many questions and reviving old and new storylines alike, but I felt the resolution of this mythology arc wasn't able to live up to its predecessor. Kind of like Marita... ;-) Actually, a lot of the arcs have been like this lately. "Christmas Carol" was a beautiful episode, but the whole storyline was killed by "Emily". The X-Crew are great at setting up these mythology episodes, they just need some work on the conclusions. I didn't particularly like "The Red and the Black" as an arc ending because it answered too much too soon, but ended so suddenly that none of it could properly sink in. It left me feeling bewildered and confused...and wondering what new twists could be left for the rest of the series. But Chris Carter has surprised me before, so I still have hope for the future of the series (if not for the world ;-). And at least we're getting some answers for once instead of more questions. My only hope is that when we finally learn what exactly has been going on all these years, I'll actually understand it.

That's not to say I didn't like "The Red and the Black" as an episode. I did. There were some great moments in it. Many scenes stand out in my mind, but my favourite was the hospital scene in which Mulder goes to talk to Scully. It was the most heart wrenching part of the whole show. When Scully expressed her unwillingness to follow Mulder in his new quest without her memories, my heart stopped. I honestly thought she was quitting the X-Files, right there, right then. Luckily, we later found out this wasn't the case (I guess they're saving that for the season finale), but Mulder's reaction to her statement was still very moving. It was an honest performance, a look of a man in extreme emotional turmoil over his inability to help a friend. Great job David. :-)

Unfortunately, this scene wasn't perfect. One line greatly disturbed me:

"The truth I've been searching for, that truth is in you."

Come on guys! Couldn't you think of something a tad more original? You've already used that line! If you remember back to "Memento Mori" (which I believe you both had a hand in writing) you might remember this little sound clip:

"I think that we both know that right now the truth is in me."

Yes, we know the truth can most probably be found in Scully, but wasn't there any other way to say it? Maybe something a little more inventive? I know this is being incredibly picky, but it did bug me.

"I don't think this is working. Oh my God!"

I had mixed feelings about Scully's regression scene. There were parts in it that I liked, but there were also parts that I felt were a bit excessive. Namely, all the "Oh my God!"'s voiced by Scully. I realize this is her favourite expression, but seven times in one scene? I think that's going a little overboard. I think Gillian Anderson does some of her best acting when portraying Scully as a quiet, but incredibly strong and determined individual. This type of portrayal has worked very well in the past, most recently in "Christmas Carol" when she was being interviewed by the social worker. I wasn't as moved during this regression as I have been in the past. It was too loud and too repetitive for me to get much out of it. But as I said, my feelings were mixed. Even though parts bothered me, I still felt it was a very important scene for the mythology, and for the characters of Mulder and Scully. When hypnotized, Scully was off guard, and we were able to glimpse something of her true self. By reaching for Mulder's hand in the middle of the regression, we can assume (or at least *I* can assume ;) that subconsciously she needs him. She has always tried to be strong around Mulder, to show her strength and independence, only able to break down that barrier and show her true feelings, her vulnerability, under hypnosis.

When she came out of the trance, it puzzled me as to why she doubted that Mulder had been there the whole time. I couldn't understand how she could question that. After all, he's her best friend - why wouldn't he have been there for her? That led me to believe that she wasn't so much doubtful of Mulder, but embarrassed. Embarrassed that he saw that she was human, that she had emotions and fears just like any other person, and was not just the dispassionate shell she tries to put forward around him. After watching this show for four years, I've come to realize that it's less about aliens, and more about humanity.

During the weeks leading up to this episode, I've been getting worried. Not about aliens colonizing the earth, or bees infecting me with a strange form of smallpox, but worried for the show that came up with these radical and innovative ideas. Something's wrong in X-File land. Many episodes this season have incorporated a switch in belief between Mulder and Scully, but none so much as "The Red and the Black". As interesting as this role reversal may be once in a while, over the past couple of weeks it's been used too much for my liking. I realized last week that something had to be done soon to get Mulder's belief and Scully's skepticism back. The series isn't the same without those two separate, but essential, beliefs. Mulder's memories were all that he had for four years - it was all us fans had as well. Even if we didn't believe him, we could still draw from his faith. That isn't possible anymore.

Ever since that belief was shaken in "Gethsemane", something has been missing in Mulder's character. I was hoping the situation would be rectified during "The Red and the Black", but by the middle of the show, that hope was rapidly fading. In Skinner's office, Mulder and Scully couldn't have sounded more like the other. If someone had found a way to switch their heads before the episode was aired, I wouldn't have noticed (although Mulder might have looked a little odd in a skirt...). Thanks heavens they remedied this matter by the end of the show. It may have been a little hastily done, but it was there, and am I thankful. Scully was beginning to question her beliefs, Mulder's faith was beginning to return to him, and most importantly, they were still in it together. I believe that's what was meant by the final hand hold in the car. Mulder didn't have to complete his quest on his own, Scully was there to share in his journey, and to help him solve the question that they seemed destined to ask.

"You must be losing it Mulder. I can beat you with one hand."

Oh Krycek, I love you! I am so glad they revived his character (albeit missing a limb) in this episode. He's so much fun! Sure, he's evil, but evil in such a way that you actually end up loving to hate him. The chemistry between Mulder and Krycek is always great, and their scene together in this episode proved to be one of the best. It was one of the only places where the hokey "The aliens are coming! The aliens are coming!" storyline worked, not because it was any more believable, but because it was so totally unbelievable! Mulder's incredulity only made Krycek's story seem more absurd, more cliché, and that paradox made the scene entertaining. Of course, the kiss added a little extra intrigue too...the members of the Mulder/Krycek UST Alliance must have had a field day over this one!

Krycek's one lean, mean, Russian kissing machine these days. Mulder in "The Red and the Black" and Marita in "Patient 'X'"... Speaking of the Uniblonder, I was gravely upset when I heard of her condition. She lived! Boo... We've coma so close, but alas, it was not to be. :-) A character that I was glad to see resurrected was Cancerman. It was obvious he was the man in the cabin at the beginning of the episode, but it was really great to see his wrinkled, smoke-parched face once again. Evil has returned...and ended up in the middle of a Canadian forest! If I didn't know better, I would think the writers were trying to imply something by putting all these evil people and sinister going-ons in Canada - the clone farm in Alberta, the alien body up in the Yukon, the Russian assassin in Alberta, and now Cancerman in Quebec. Hmmm... Hardly seems coincidental, eh?

The End

Okay, I lied. (Bad me! I'm turning into Cancerman.) I was simply attempting to parallel the ending of "The Red and the Black". Like my faux ending, I felt it was very abrupt; hurried; short. It seemed like there should have been more, and yet, there wasn't. It was as if halfway through writing the episode Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz realized they wouldn't have enough time to fit everything in, and as a result edited down a story that probably could have spanned three episodes instead of just two. But I guess you just have to take what you can get in these mythology episodes, for as always, we only have two options - resist or serve. I don't know about you, but if serving requires watching a great show every week, I don't think it's a such bad option.

"What happened?"
"I don't know."