Season Six Episode Reviews

6X1    The Beginning 
Plot:  A gestated Mutated Grey is on the loose with Muldar and Cancer Man each chasing after it.  Gibson is involved with the chase.  Meanwhile Spender and Fowley replace Muldar and Scully on the X-Files.

This was a great season opener, and a great improvement over the last episode, but in the history of the show it ain't a real standout.  The blend of the Gibson plot and the movie plot was really excellent, and love the thought of Gibson being a strategic weapon to hunt down any stray Mutated Greys.  And I must say these new desert shooting locations were really wonderful, it really carried over the look of the movie.  It looks like this entire season is going to be movie quality cinematography!  That bit where the FBI Board quickly breezes through everything the movie revealed was nice but not too obvious.  The Muldar-Scully scenes were nice, but as always it borders on cheesy discussions.  The action scenes with the alien were pretty impressive though short.  Spender as always is an asshole, but Fowley was much more interesting this episode as a secret ally for Muldar, working inside the system.  I think when she pulled a gun on Muldar she was playing along with act of 'finding' him making an illegal search.  This will make for an interesting situation, and I am curious how Spender and Fowley are getting along.  The arc revelations in the episode were small but important; all humans have latent Black Oil DNA and Gibson's abilites came from his being activated?  A gestation goes from Mutated Grey to Grey Colonist?  Wow!   That was a great ending scene.  However this episode carried some open endings that were inexcusable.  First of all, how in the hell did that Roush Tech man get infected without anyone noticing?  WHAT will happen to Gibson who is stuck in a room with a gestated Grey?  I assume the Syndicate will get their hands on them again, but this means that they will now learn that a Mutated Grey sheds into a Grey Colonist!  I really think like this is something we should see them learning about, otherwise we can't assume they know!  Oh well.

6X2    Drive 
Plot:  Mulder is taken hostage by a man whose head will explode unless he is moving in a car.  Scully tracks down the source of the 'disease'- the government!

This was an awsome standalone episode with some great car chases and scenery!  Furthermore I really liked the Mulder-Crumb interaction, most of all the Jewish stuff.  Looks like this season Mulder will finally be back to his believer get into trouble persona, something mysteriously absent since about the fourth season!  The Teaser was a really great presentation as a newscast, and the ole' exploding head was a great effect.  This episode was chock full of good characterization and awsome stunts.  The scene of Scully and CDC investigating the Crumb house in hazmat suits looking very unearthy with all the fog and flashlights.  The ending was a real shocker- I was sure we were going to see Scully sticking that horse needle in Crumb's ear!  The last scene with AD Kersh proved that Kersh is a real asshole and is definitely a pawn of Cancer Man, the kind of guy you love to hate.  A great episode.

6X3    Triangle 
Plot:  Mulder gets stuck on a Nazi-infested British 1939 liner in the Bermuda Triangle, where he meets many familar faces.  Meanwhile Scully and the Lone Gunmen must search for him despite Cancer Man's influence.

WOW!  This is easily the best non-mythology episode EVER!  It was amazing!  It looked like a movie, only more fun!  Every single second was wonderful!  The wide screen format was awsome, every thing looked BIG like a movie, and in the last act those splitscreens were awsome!  The Nazis were great, especially Spender and Skinner as Nazis.  I love the way the WWII characters' personalites reflected their real life counter parts.  It also shows something about AD Kersh; he was a slave in the engine room who was afraid to go against the Nazi's orders despite his own personal wishes.  Maybe this is what the real AD Kersh is like?  The second act in one take of Scully running around the FBI to get help was amazing.  First Skinner then Kersh then Spender, with some Cancer Man and Lone Gunmen thrown in!  Scully's determination was pretty impressive here, and we got lots of little tidbits about the new FBI situation.  The final bits of big fistfights with the Nazis and alt-Scully being a OSS agent were amazing!  I was also surprized to see Scully on the boat; how in the hell could she ever explain away this one?  The characters running through the splitscreens was hilarious, the kiss was nice.  The camera angles on this episode were just amazing!  Cris Carter is to be commended.  The visuals on this liner were just amazing!  My main complaint; it was too damn short!  Why couldn't this have been a 90 minute episode like NYPD Blue occaisonally does?

6X4    Dreamland (part 1 of 2) 
Plot:  Mulder goes to meet an informant at Area 51 but instead finds himself switching bodies with a Man in Black.  While Mulder tries to keep up his charade and find some secrets, Morris in Mulder's body gets Mulder and Scully into trouble.

While it was certainly funny, this episode seems to be a real waste; not only of a mythology two-parter (counting this one there's only four left in the freakin' series) but also what should be the prime goal of Mulder's life; sneaking into Area 51.  Mulder and Morris both act extremely strangely, to the point that I wonder if their minds were screwed up.  Morris is a MIB, but when he abruptly enters Mulder's body he doesn't react at all!  He goes on to live Mulder's life without missing a beat!  This could only mean it was planned, but we later find out it was a freak accident!  Plus, Mulder spends WWAAAAYYY too much time screwing around with Morris' family when he should be checking out Area 51.  If I were Mulder, the first thing I'd say is "hmmm.... I think we should personally check out the rest of the 'aircraft' to make sure they won't have the same accident..."  Mulder's life goal is within reach; instead he falls asleep on the Fletcher couch watching porno!  C'mon!  This episode also did not reveal nearly enough plot information; all we learn is how they fly and that they started in '53.  No Syndicate connection or mention.  Once again, it seems like a waste of an episode.  On the up side, the episode was pretty hilarious.  Mulder in peticular was a laugh riot, especially when doing his Marx Brothers impersonation and when he told his 'daughter' she's too young for a nose job.  The other problem with this episode is the way it detracts from the mysterious power of the MIBs, seeing them as regular petty lazy guys makes them less dangerous.  And that 'cliffhanger' was nothing but.

6X5    Dreamland II (part 2 of 2) 
Plot:  Scully figures out the Mulder-Morris switch, and the three team up to fix their situation which ends up involving the mysterious informant from Area 51.

This was a huge improvement over the last episode; it actually went somewhere instead of being mindless slapstick!  The teaser, recounting Mulder's life through Morris' eyes, was a real hoot.  Morris' plot to screw Scully was also a real hoot, and revealed once and for all if Mulder has an apartment or not.  Scully suggesting handcuffs was also hilarious; unfortunately showing this in the promo spoiled the fact that she was aware of the truth and trying to get him handcuffed.  Scully's then dragging Morris across country at gunpoint was also pretty funny, Morris is even more funny now that he doesn't have to restrain himself.  Meanwhile Mulder is much more subdued but it is brilliant the way he talks himself out of the Area 51 brig (speaking of which his little encounter with the pilot was hilarious!).  The whole subplot with Morris' wife was also cute, the way she thinks he's fantasizing.  Morris meeting the Lone Gunmen was the episode's highlight; he laughs at their crackpot theories and explains that he invented all this stuff!  Unfortunately making Morris the man who creates the disinformation and created Hussein (while at the same in the last episode was the man responsible for 'disapeering' witnesses) makes me wonder what the REST of the men in black do!  The bar run in between Mulder, Morris, Scully, the General, and Smoodge was really funny, especially when Mulder finally meets up with his double and proceeds to kick his ass!  The revelation of the General as the informant really threw me, as well as the fact that he knows nothing about aliens.  I knew someone sabotaged that UFO, and I was afraid they would fix the switch by sabotaging another UFO in the opposite way but they didn't do that to their credit.  However the effects just being temporary was a little bit of a cop-out.  All in all this was a cute episode with many great scenes, but by no means a classic.  We learned little or nothing about the mythology in these episodes!  As an aside, this is the fifth episode in the row that says 'hey!  we're in the desert!' but frankly I love the desert backgrounds.

6X6    How the Ghost Stole Christmas 
Plot:  Mulder and Scully get trapped in a haunted house on Christmas Eve and get tormented by two ghosts who killed themselves as lovers but soon lost the love for one another.

Another wonderful episode by Cris Carter, that while not being as stellar as "Triangle" it has something very relevant to say about the Mulder-Scully relationship.  Like "Post-Modern Prometheus" lightning flashes were everywhere; last time it was silly to be silly but this time it was a little stupid.  The first few acts were just a tad slow because it was only Mulder and Scully, but still good.  What's really good is when the wonderful guest-stars show up.  Ed Asner's psychological profile of Mulder was deliverered beautifully (he has an awsome voice!) and is also in someway right.  Scully's frantic state was a laugh, and Lily Tomlin was pretty funny.  I like the "We're Jewish!" line when Scully asks where their Christmas tree is.  The ghosts' relationship itself was pretty funny; they kill themselves to spend eternity together and promptly hate each other's guts!  The ole' shootout was a hoot, especially the shocked look on Scully's face when "Mulder" shoots her.  Easily the best scene for laughs was Mulder and Scully crawling along the floor in one another's blood, heading for the door.  The FX of seeing through Ed Asner's hole in his head were pretty impressive.  And a classic scene was that final ending...an X-Files Christmas.  This was a great episode about their relationship.  Unfortunately like "Triangle" and "Dreamland" there is absolutely NO way for Scully to disprove these events, and it kinda stretches credibility.

6X7    Terms of Endearment 
Plot: A pregnant women dreams of a demon abducting her baby... and wakes up to find its true.  The husband, a demon in disguise, is trying for a normal baby but his second wife has a surprise in store for him.

Sure its the weakest episode thus far but it's still a great MOW episode!  The whole demon premise was very interesting and the progression was as well.  It was kind of wierd having Spender in for one scene, but it was interesting to see the FBI work Mulder and Scully were doing.  Actually this was more of a Mulder show.  You actually sympathize for 'Wayne' the demon, hoping he can elude Mulder.  The car chase between Wayne and Mulder was cute.  Best of all the plot twist that his second wife is another demon trying for a demon baby; all in all a very intertaining episode.

6X8    The Rain King 
Plot:  The agents investigate a man who claims to control the weather but instead get stuck in a love triangle where a woman is in love with Mulder and the man who controls the weather with his emotions is in love with the woman.  All thus, plus a one legged man and a cow falling through a roof.

Quite a pleasant surprise, really a romantic comedy.  For once nobody dies (just a cow) and the 'villian' is discovered half way through the episode.  And Mulder has to give him dating advice!  It's also a nice look at the Mulder Scully relationship when Mulder gets a not so secret admirer.  The absolute inverse of a normal X-Files episode.  All this plus the pure comedy elements of the one legged redneck con man and the histerical sight of a cow being whisked up into the air and then come crashing down through Mulder's roof!

6X9    S.R. 819 
Plot:  Skinner is poisoned mysteriously and has 24 hours to live.  With Mulder's help he investigates Senate Resolution 819, a bill he was investigating about releasing theoretical nanotechnology to third world countries.  Mulder enlists the aid of Senator Matheson, who is implicated as well.  Behind it all is an old associate of Skinner's.

Well, I was disappointed but mainly because I was expecting the Black Oil to be what was in Skinner's blood.  Nanotechnology really threw me off, which is a good thing.  This episode was a good Skinner episode and had a great Senator Matheson appearance that confirms once and for all that he was no angel.  However I was distressed to find this episode actually had little to do with the mythology; no Black Oil, Pilots, Syndicate, etc.  Of course the best thing about this episode is the Krychek appearance.  It was very mysterious, I very curious as to why he was doing what he was doing.  This episode essentially makes Skinner the pawn of Krychek, and it is obviously a set up for a future episode.  I find it interesting that Krychek is so high up in the Syndicate now that he can do this kind of stuff, or maybe he was merely following orders.  For that matter, Krychek was in the Syndicate solely because of Well-Manicured Man.  Now that First Elder is de facto leader, is he still letting Krychek hang around given his history?  Oh well, Krychek's little nanotech robots were very interesting, and this episode had some nice old fashioned car chases and assassin chases.  I've missed these, they've been gone since like the third season, and so has Matheson for that matter!  What I found really interesting is the way after Skinner's near-death experience he says he's tired of not doing something a la Mulder, then he goes right around and does nothing because of Krychek!

6X10    Tithonus 
Plot: AD Kersh partners Scully with a New York agent to work the case of a photographer who can see who is about to die because he himself is immortal and has escaped death and is trying to die by seeing death.

These kind of emotional Scully episodes really aren't my cup of tea, but this one was done pretty well.  Fellig was a pretty cool character, for an immortal he was pretty depressed and insightful!  It's interesting to see the inverse of the expected.  My favorite line: "people are idiots" that's why he wants to die.  Scully is all hopeful for humanity but Fellig is the ultimate defeatist.  The teaser was pretty cool too with the falling elevator and all.  However the whole seperate partner thing was annoying and Mulder really got the short end of the stick on this one.  Kersh showing sympathy for Scully by trying to save her career is interesting, it paints him as having a conscience as hinted to in "Triangle".

6X11    Two Fathers (part 1 of 2) 
Plot: Cassandra Spender is discovered in the aftermath of the first strike as the Faceless Rebels wage war on Syndicate operations.  Mulder and Scully learn many secrets from her and are lead to the origans of Cancer Man.  Meanwhile Cancer Man introduces Spender to being a Syndicate hitman.

Well, after all the buildup I admit that I was disappointed.  While Cassandra revealed lots of big tid bits, I was expecting Part One to have the origans and Part Two to have the action.  Cancer Man's narration was very interesting, but as we learn more about him we see that his sense of family duty has totally warped his ability to be a successful Syndicate operative, jepordizing Earth itself.  By not killling Cassandra he is inviting invasion.  Cassandra seemed like just a nut last year, but in this episode I actually liked the character!  The way she treated Mulder and Scully like old friends, so joyous to see them and threatening to pee the floor, was really entertaining.  One complaint though; she says the Colonists are infesting the universe.  The universe?!  Isn't that a bit much?!  At least say the galaxy!  And besides, since the Black Oil (which she said IS the Colonists) originated on Earth aren't they only concerned with reclaiming their homeworld?  Any who, Spender also became an entertaining character for the first time ever.  Being sent to kill the Faceless Rebel, the desperate defeated look on his face as he watched the Rebel decompose really made him a real character and not just a jerk.  I actually sympathize for him now!  That scene where Krychek consoles him was also very touching, it is nice to see Krychek has finally realized his loyalties need to be with Cancer Man and the Syndicate.  The whole Syndicate v. Rebels concept is very entertaining, but it makes Well-Manicured Man out to be a misguided fool to have wanted to allied with them.  And yet, the Rebel imposter tried to introduce that idea to the Syndicate... Fowley turning out to be Cancer Man's new buddy was also a good move for the character; note the way she softly puts her hand on his shoulder as he walks by.  That was a pretty tame cliffhanger; since Cassandra is a perfect Hybrid now even if Mulder shoots her in the face she will survive and Mulder and Scully will get infected with the alien retrovirus.

6X12    One Son (part 2 of 2) 
Plot: With Cassandra under protection and the invasion emminent, Mulder learns the truth from Cancer Man while Scully grows suspicious of Fowley.  The origans of the Syndicate are revealed as well as the story of Cassandra, Cancer Man, Samantha, and Bill Mulder.  With the Syndicate refusing to take action to prevent colonization, it is up to Mulder and Scully to save the planet.

Wow.  WOW!  The revelations in this episode were just amazing, explaining some stuff we guessed and other stuff we had no idea about.  It also brings much more illumination on earlier episodes especially "The Erlenmeyer Flask".  This episode may suffer from a lack of action, but it more than makes up for it with just amazing character interaction.  The way everyone EVEN MULDER are ready to just abandon the planet was really amazing; in the end it was Marita, Spender, and Scully who saved the world!  The Rebel attacks kept the pace moving, though they appear far less than in last episode.  The first scene where a Hazmat team storms Mulder's apartment was visually jarring.  Spender had a lot less to do but it was still mainly good; Krychek also ended up in a bit role.  Unfortunately after a year of waiting Marita's return felt very forced into this episode; what ever happened to this character?!  She's had 3 appearances in the last two years!  Carter needs to figure out what to do with her- at first she was supposed to be Deep Throat #3 but they soon forgot about that.  The flashback scenes were amazing, that huge air hanger looks very...alien.  I wonder why Cancer Man was handing over that US flag...?  The last scene where the Rebels arrive en masse to torch the Syndicate was cool, I especially love the way Cancer Man immeadiately runs away like that!  More than anything I now want to know what will happen after this.  Is Cassandra in Rebel care?  Did the Colonists ever find out about what happened?  Is Cancer Man the sole leader of the Syndicate now?  In yet another dumb 'death' Cancer Man 'kills' Spender.  C'mon!  Everyone knows Spender is coming back, it's another cheesy false-drama moment.

6X13    Agua Mala 
Plot: Former FBI Agent Arthur Dales brings Mulder and Scully onto the case of a sea monster terrorizing a Florida hotel that is sealed off because of a hurricane.

The first real klunker of the season, it would probably seem better if this wasn't the episode after "One Son".  Having ZERO reference to that episode and just having them looking after a case (whether they are on the X-Files yet is left unclear) really, really, hurt this episode.  The episode itself was pretty unoriginal and surprisingly boring as well.  The sea monster was very disappointing given previous monsters and the 'bottle show' in a hotel really didn't work.  In addition to that Dales seems thrown in for no reason at all, cheapening the character who seemed so heroic in last year's "Travellers".  Also missing is the typical scientific theories from Scully or more spooky gory scenes to make the episode interesting.  When compared to classic Season One horror stories like "Ice" this episode just really falls on its face.

6X14    Monday 
Plot: Mulder and Scully are caught in the middle of a bank robbery but due to a time loop are doomed to repeat their grisly ends over and over unless a girl who can remember the previous times can convince them to break the circut.

A really good stand-alone episode!  Very enjoyable, with some nice explosions and suspense as well as humor.  The opening bit with Mulder's water bed and the boring FBI meeting (including B5 alumni Wayne Alexander!) were all classic moments.  It also has come cute references to "Dreamland" and it's interesting to see that Mulder has kept the water bed and actually uses it.  The time loop concept while not original (and this being the fourth time amok episode this year!) was still very entertaining.  The bank and the city street were both very nice big realistic locales, and it was nice to see our agents back in the Basement Office and with Skinner, though I must complain that we never actually learn on screen they got the X-Files back, nor did we in "One Son" where it is alluded to.  I was worried that the repeating events would get boring, but they were just enough different to be entertaining.  Mulder's final solution, memorizing the phrase 'I've got a bomb' so he would remember it next time, was very ingeneous of him but I am reluctant to mention that this is the same solution Data used in the Star Trek: Next Generation episode that this is episode is based on, but it was still good.  Mulder's comments on fate were as always very interesting, and it's always exciting to see Mulder take a bullet in the chest and both of the agents blowed up real good.  Plus, Mulder displays his unorthodox thinking again when he asks the bank robber to just walk out and he'll let him go, to end the circut.

6X15    Arcadia 
Plot: Mulder and Scully go undercover in a perfect housing community where dissenters are brutally murdered by a creature.

I've heard this episode had a lot of problems and had to be reshot in parts, I found it to be a very enjoyable episode with a very cool looking monster.  The Mulder and Scully married concept was a hoot, and aside from mere comedy it suggested another level to the ever deepening Mulder-Scully relationship.  Mulder was relentless in his sexual proposals and Scully started to get really annoyed by it... Mulder is desperate!  This episode also featured a very nice housing community with big beautiful houses...all covering a landfill!  The themes of the episode were nice, the wierd characters enjoyable enough.  The Tulpa was an awsome creature, eight feet tall for god's sake!  When you heard it pounding up the stairs to come for Scully, it seemed extremely real and frightening.  And when it came after Mulder only to disintegrate into dirt... very scary and real looking images.  A semi-classic all around.

6X16    Alpha 
Plot: A vicious and ancient shapeshifting Asian killer dog in on the loose.  Mulder employs the help of a reclusive dog nut who has a wierd crush on him but he's oblivious to the fact.

Well, it was better than "Agua Mala" but not by much.  Sure the concept wasn't too original, but it was a reliable story.  Mulder and Scully had some good reportoire in this episode, lots of dog jokes.  This from the writer of "Rain King", I was pleased to see the excellent banter continue from that episode, as well as the girl falls for Mulder and Scully is jealous plot, only this time she's a freak!  Andrew Robinson, DS9's Garak, made a welcome and creepy appearance as the human form of the killer dog.  The I WANT TO BELIEVE poster made it return, that's nice.  However this episode was pretty by the numbers and not very involving, hell Mulder and Scully never got one real encounter with the dog, not even at the end!  A disappointing climax to be sure.

6X17    Trevor 
Plot: A convict disapeers in a tornado, which gives him the power of intangibility which he uses to track down his son.

An original villian with a sympathetic purpose but by-the-numbers plotting makes this a somewhat average episode.  I like the intangibility thing, it was an ingenous and original idea (at least for this series).  I appreciate that the bad guy had a sympathetic side, he was seeking out his long lost son, rather than just being a crazy killer.  This was a pretty trite story though, and it ain't the first time on this show that a prisoner escapes from prison and runs right home to his honey who is now screwing someone else ("F. Emasculata" and "The List" off the top of my head).  The scene with Rawls and his son was nice though, and so was his death scene.  My biggest complaint about the episode; no one ever made comment of the fact that he was running around naked!  No one even looked!  And the guy made little mention of it too!  Makes for a strangely funny yet dangerous scene though.  Another nit; how does a regular tornado give him these powers?  Usually these stories at least suggest the unusual bit, leaving this one sitting out in the wind so to speak.  I also appreciated Mulder's ingenuity at rubber bullets, though I was hoping he would make up a full-body rubber suit and hug him to death...

6X18    Milagro 
Plot: A writer's creation has come to life and is killing without a trace.  The writer becomes infatuated with Scully.

This was a wonderful and touching episode with excellent preformances from the writer and the killer.  The writer was perfect for the role, and I love the accent of the killer.  However I was dissatisfyed with Scully's preformance, especially when she cries into Mulder's shoulder at the end.  My favorite scene was the scene where the killer asks the writer why he kills and says he is ashamed of what he does, and they argue about love and motive.  A close second are the scenes were the writer speaks to Scully, giving these huge expositions about how her body reveals her character.  This entire episode seemed to smack of the series' writers feeling smug about themselves, this episode seems to say that if you are a good writer then you're characters will become manifest... like they did with Mulder and Scully!  Anywho, the murder scenes were somewhat hokey I thought, the teaser was totally non-sensical (he ripped his own heart out?  I thought only the killer could do it!), and the ending with the writer pulling out his own heart (I guess) was just dumb.  Also, uncomfortable parlells with "Never Again" two years ago, in both episodes Scully gets it on with a crazy man who ends up next to/ inside a basement furnace.  I also liked the revelation that Scully loves Mulder and there could never be another man in her life.

6X19    The Unnatural 
Plot: Mulder meets Arthur Dales' same-nammed brother who tells him a tale of a baseball loving alien in 1947 who just wanted to play the game but ran into trouble with the police and an Alien Bounty Hunter.  Written and Directed by Fox Mulder himself.

This was a surprizing enjoyable and touching episode.  The Teaser was a cute puzzler (the KKK guy is an alien?!) that ended up being a flashforward to the climax.  The first Mulder-Scully scene was cute as well, Scully with a faux icecream cone berating Mulder's monkishness while he's reading ancient baseball scores, all very funny dialogue.  Mulder meeting Dales v.2.0 was also a hoot, M. Emmett Walsh was hilarious in this role but he also had some truely touching lines about reality being what you believe it to be.  Meanwhile, Mulder (like me!) kept demanding concrete information about the aliens but Dales v.2.0 waves him off and explains the story is more important than the facts.  My only complaint; what happened to Darren McGavin?  Is he sick/dead?  Dales having a same-named brother was just a little too much.  Anywho, onto the main story in the past.  Ex(ley) was perfectly played by whoever, this man truely did look like an alien.  He had a tiny mouth, extremely smooth face, and was always grinning.  He truely looked alien, and gave a wonderful touching performance.  Young Dales was good to, but not standout.  I wonder why Dales would see an alien reflection of Ex though, it suggests that he doesn't really shape-shift but alters the preceptions of those around him.  Just a nit.  The beaning is also suspicious; if alien blood came out, why was no one infected with the alien retrovirus?  The Pilot appearances kept the story moving, it's very nice to see The Pilot in his first real role since the Year Four premiere "Herrenvolk".  Like in "Colony" he places wanted ads for Ex, using the local hate group to do his footwork.  The scene where Dales meets Alien Ex was a hoot, as well as their squeezing of each other's faces.  The Human-Sized Greys looked very good, but their mouth movements did not match up with the actor's voice unfortunately.  I found Ex's and Dales' later conversation about his people being humorless and all verrryyy interesting, it's the first real social information we've learned about the aliens.  Ex really stood out here, where seeing a baseball game was what made him 'defect' to Earth, the pure joy of the atmosphere as he described, and then the black team signing that hymn which repeats throughout the show.  I am still humming that hymn to myself days later.  About the Pilot's comment about coming from Mars, based on what I've heard about the season finale this might have been true!  The final scene where the Pilot kills Ex was truely touching.  The Pilot demands he dies in his true form, but Ex tells him this is his true form.  Ex dies in Dales' arms, not with alien blood, but with human blood.  He finally became human.  This was a great, classic scene.  The final Mulder teaches Scully to play Baseball scene was cute but nowhere near Ex's death.  I really felt sorrow for Ex's death, more than Deep Throat's, X's, Spender's even Well-Manicured Man's.  It was played perfectly.  I hope Ducovney writes many more episodes next season, he has the dialogue down pat.

6X20    Three of a Kind 
Plot:  The Lone Gunmen try to infiltrate a Las Vegas DoD convention, but when they encounter Suzanne Modeski and a web of conspirators they call in Scully for help.

This episode was a hoot, and it was much better than it's prequel "Unusual Suspects" because most of that episode was how they met and lots of dumb computer stuff.  Though the teaser with Byers' little love story was really stupid, this episode was a hoot all around.  I loved the bits of The Lone Gunmen infiltrating the conference.  Byers is the plant, Frohike is the man of many disguises who can break into anything, and Langely is the hacker genius.  An awsome team!  I suppose it was nice to see Modeski again, I wonder why Byers must always be the star when Frohike is clearly the coolest Lone Gunman around, he's the only one that can actually do anything.  I like the way this week's conspiracy experiment was actually related to a previous one rather than being the 21st totally different experiment they've done that we'll never see again.  And of course, Bimbo Scully was hilarious, most of all her brief scene with... Morris Fletcher!  Oh man, I wish Morris was in the whole episode as one of the conspirators and always hitting on Scully, that would have been hilarious.  While "Dreamland" was no classic I love this later reference to it.  The climax with Langely shooting Modeski was pretty obvious because we all know if Langely really did it he would be in jail; in fact, since all the eye witnesses saw him 'kill' her, why isn't he in jail?!  I also loved the fact that another faux-Lone Gunmen group exists doing the same thing, and that one of their number was a conspirator plant!  That was a cool twist.  A shame we didn't see any REAL conspirator characters in this episode though, this episode seems to conclusively prove that anyone in the DoD and military have no idea about aliens they just do experiments on the people testing new tech with the Syndicate overseeing all without their knowledge.

6X21    Field Trip 
Plot:  Mulder and Scully hallucinate 'what if' scenarios where Mulder dies and Mulder shows Scully a living alien; behind it is killer mushrooms!

This was an enjoyable episode, especially where Mulder shows Scully an alien.  Of course, we should at some point actually see this scene!  I must again question Scully's skepticism towards UFO sightings when in "One Son" she accepted the fact that the aliens were just about to arrive and colonize the planet!  Mulder's funeral was neat, nice to see the Lone Gunmen and Skinner show up but WHERE IS MULDER'S MOTHER?  We haven't seen her since "Demons" two years ago!  Anywho, Mulder's fantasy was clearly the best bit, with Mulder actually having a sustained telepathic encounter with an alien and Scully meeting an alien.  Cool!  I also appreciate the double ending- Mulder figures they're still underground... so he shoots Skinner.  A little over the top, but still nice.  I liked the frantic final scene where masses of masked FBI agents were combing the area for Mulder and Scully, and how when they're thrown in an ambulence they hold hands.  Unfortunately we will never hear of this episode ever again...

6X22    Biogenesis (part 1 of 2) 
Plot: The discovery of ancient alien or Navajo artifacts in Africa prompt theories of humans being created by aliens and gives Mulder the abilites of telepathy which are driving him insane.  Skinner is spying on Mulder for Krychek, and Fowley is still working with Cancer Man.

An acceptable but weak season finale, no godddamn action!  The artifacts are certainly interesting, especially Scully finding that UFO looking object in the cliffhanger (intriguing but not much of a cliffhanger).  I also LOVE the idea of Mulder getting telepathy, I only hope he can actually control and use it in the next episode.  The opening half of this episode, dealing with about five doctors all with different agendas, made for one of the more confusing plots in the mythology.  A very slow and methodic episode on a whole, though I love the ties to old episodes.  Skinner is working for Krychek from "S.R. 819"!  Cancer Man has constructed a new Syndicate after "One Son"!  Fowley is still working for Cancer Man and goes after Mulder with her clothes off!  Albert Hosteen returns from "Anasazi", though this is ridiculous since he never speaks in the whole damn episode.  I assume he is undergoing a Blessing Way ceremony like he gave to Mulder?  I did like Scully going globe hopping off to Africa at the end, but this was on the hole an adequate season finale.  Certainly the best season finale since Season Three though!