"SR 819"

Unsightly vericose veins?  May I suggest blaming the government.

Alas, yet another episode with miniscule amounts of onscreen time between our two favourite soul mates.  Aside from the fact that Scully was the first person Mulder called when he found Skinner not feeling well (it was the return of the pencil-flicking as well - I had some Bad Blood deja vu there for a second) and a few personal-space-entering conversations, we were left with little love comfort.  For those of you who missed it, the plot (as far as I could figure it) went like this:

Skinner is injected with these machines controlled by the government (and in some connected way, Senator Matheson) in their plan to kill him, due to the fact that he has most likely been trying to figure out a way to reinstate Mulder and Scully.  Skinner being dead thereby decreases immensely Mulder and Scully's chances of getting the X-Files back.  The government's plot is to make him worse and worse until he dies of a heart-attack, but they didn't foresee Krycek coming into the picture.  

Krycek sabotages the palm-pilot like device that controls their health (or lack of) and kills the doctor for some reason.  He allows Skinner to get worse and worse, which means that Mulder and Scully work harder to find a possible cure for the engineered disease (if he has the cause and the cure, this makes him a very powerful individual).  He obviously doesn't want Skinner to die (as we could tell from the hit-the-bad-guy-who-is-trying-to-kill-Skinner-with-your-car scene) but blackmail can get you a long ways.

Scully visits an obviously worsening Skinner in the hospital who tells her that he hasn't got anything to show for in his life and work, and that if he dies now, he dies in vain.  Scully tries to comfort him but to no avail.

Quote of the Week:

Mulder: Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.

Skinner worsens still and when his heart stops, the doctors don't revive him.  Beyond their view, Krycek turns his "life-meter" back up and Skinner takes a deep breath in, his heart beating again.  He is saved, but for how long?

Back in Skinner's office three weeks later, Mulder and Scully note the miraculousness of his recovery.  Mulder asks for permission to futher investigate his illeness.  He abruptly denies this, saying shortly that he doesn't have the authority or the will to do that, and reminds them that they are under Kersh's authority, not his.

Down in the parking lot, Krycek waits in Skinner's car.  He still has the palm-pilot and could kill Skinner at any time if he doesn't give him what he wants.  Krycek wastes no time in making this clear to the AD.  It seems that Skinner is Krycek's tool now, not CSM's...

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