5X02 - Redux II

Scully lies on the brink of death with her family ready to give up hope. Following a tip from Cancer Man, Mulder discovers a metal chip hidden inside a vial of water he had found in the Pentagon's basement. The Cigarette-Smoking Man gives Mulder an offer to give him the truth and Scully's cure in exchange for Mulder to quit the FBI and work with him. The Smoking Man is apparently shot through a window, and out of a miracle Scully's cancer goes into remission.

My Rating: **** (4)
Written by: Chris Carter
Directed by: Kim Manners

[Return To Top]

5X03 - Unusual Suspects

In an episode set in 1989, we see the three members of the Lone Gunmen (Byers, Langley, Frohike) meet at a Baltimore computer convention. They stumble upon a government conspiracy involving tests on the public, which they and a woman named Susan Modesky attempt to stop. They are caught and Mulder has a hallucination in which he believes he is being abducted by aliens. Susan Modesky is kidnapped by the mysterious Mr. X.

My Rating: **** (4)
Written by: Vince Gilligan
Directed by: Kim Manners

[Return To Top]

5X04 - Detour

Mulder and Scully are on their way to an FBI convention when they find themselves in the woods after they are stopped by a roadblock. They find that an invisible predator has been preying on people in the forest. The agents find themselves stranded but eventually shoot the predator dead.

My Rating: *** (3)
Written by: Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Brett Dowler

[Return To Top]

5X05 - Post Modern Prometheus

In an episode filmed in black and white, a letter from a single mother brings Mulder and Scully to a small mid-Western town where they discover a strange mutation akin to Frankenstein which has two faces. They work to find the creature but then try to protect it when it becomes the target of a mob which includes the doctor who had originally created him. The doctor, named Pollidori, kills his own father. The creature, the Great Mutato, is suspected of the murder. Mulder and Scully find Mutato, and he addresses a mob of people, telling them that he's not a killer. Pollidori is arrested for murder and Scully and Mulder bring Mutato to a nightclub, where he dances to Cher's music.

My Rating: ***** (5)
Written by: Chris Carter
Directed by: Chris Carter

[Return To Top]

5X06 - Christmas Carol

In an episode focusing on Scully, she investigates an apparent suicide that turns out to be a murder. Blood tests on the murdered woman's daughter seem to show that she was the child of Scully's deceased sister Melissa. Scully receives anonymous phone calls in which she hears the voice of her dead sister, from beyond the grave, telling her that the girl needs her help. After receiving the results of a DNA test on the girl on Christmas morning, Scully later reveals to her family that the girl, named Emily, is actually her daughter, not Melissa's.

My Rating: *** (3)
Written by: Vince Gilligan and John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Peter Markle

[Return To Top]

5X07 - Emily

Mulder arrives to help Scully and has Frohike hack into a database which reveals Emily's birth mother as "Anna Fugazzi". Emily develops a green cyst on her neck. After it is punctured, it leaks green ooze and fatal gas. After Dr. Calderon refuses to release Emily's medical records, Mulder beats him and points a gun to his face, then walks away. Two men kill Dr. Calderon and morph into his appearance. Dr. Calderon bleeds green ooze. Mulder finds a nursing home where he meets Anna Fugazzi, then he finds a fetus in green liquid which has Scully's name on it. Kresge of the police department runs into Mulder and the two are approached by one of the men morphed as Dr. Calderon. Mulder escapes but Kresge is killed when he shoots the clone. Emily dies peacefully. Scully's family attends Emily's funeral and she finds her necklace. Mulder explains that the nursing home where Anna Fugazzi lived in had been emptied and all knowledge of Dr. Calderon's work denied.

My Rating: *** (3)
Written by: Vince Gilligan and John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Kim Manners

[Return To Top]

5X08 - Kitsunegari

Mulder's nemesis from the third season episode "Pusher" returns by using his ability to force his will on others to manipulate a prison guard and several other people who allow him to escape as Mulder, Skinner, and Scully try to catch him. The man who prosecuted Robert Modell (Pusher) in 1996 is found dead. His long-lost sister, Linda Bowman, turns out to have the same powers as Modell and manipulates a woman into electricuting herself. Skinner shoots Modell. Linda talks Modell's heart into stopping. Linda encounters Mulder at a warehouse and talks him into thinking that she is Scully until the real Scully shoots her.

My Rating: *** (3)
Written by: Vince Gilligan and Tim Minear
Directed by: Daniel Sackheim

[Return To Top]

5X09 - Schizogeny

A boy named Bobby is suspected of murdering his stepfather when his stepfather is pulled underground and suffocated by mud. His friend Lisa goes to stay at her therapist's house when her father is killed by falling from a window. The therapist of the two kids, named Karin Matthews, uses an apparent control over nature to kill the girl's aunt (and apparently killed the two fathers as well) when she comes to pick Lisa up. Karin then goes to Bobby and chases him then causes him to start being pulled underground along with Mulder. The orchard keeper then decapitates Karin with an axe.

My Rating: * (1)
Written by: Jessica Scott and Mike Wollaeger
Directed by: Ralph Hemecker

[Return To Top]

5X10 - Chinga

A little girl named Polly goes with her mother to the grocery store. Polly carries her doll with her. It opens its eyes and says "I want to play." Suddenly the other customers start scratching at their own eyes and slapping themselves. Scully, who is on vacation, finds out about the incident. Polly uses the doll to cause an old woman and a policeman to kill themselves. Melissa, Polly's mother, tries to end it all by trying to set herself, her daughter, and the doll on fire, but the doll makes Melissa hit herself on the head with a hammer. Scully and the Police Chief burst into the house and Scully microwaves the doll, causing it to burn up.

My Rating: **** (4)
Written by: Stephen King and Chris Carter
Directed by: Kim Manners

[Return To Top]

5X11 - Kill Switch

A computer genius is shot dead. While investigating the murder, Mulder and Scully meet Esther, a colleague of the murdered man. An automatic tracking system controlled by a computer almost kills the Esther and the two agents. Mulder finds the computer but it traps him and makes him hallucinate that his arms have been cut off. Scully and Esther find Mulder but Esther stays behind to upload herself to a computer as a deadly blast from a satellite destroys the trailer she was in.

My Rating: **** (4)
Written by: William Gibson and Tom Maddox
Directed by: Rob Bowman

[Return To Top]

5X12 - Bad Blood

A teenager named Ronnie Strickland is chased through the woods and stabbed in the chest by Mulder. Scully and Mulder decide to get their stories straight before telling Skinner.

Flashback:

Scully and Mulder arrive at Chaney, Texas, and go to the funeral home. Scully performs an autopsy on a man who was murdered and had his blood sucked out through two vampire-like bites on his neck. Mulder meanwhile goes to a cemetary with the local sheriff to see if he can find any evidence of vampirism. Mulder and Sheriff Hartwell then find an RV which has been going in circles, with nobody apparently in control. After failing to shoot the tires, Mulder grabs onto the back of the RV and gets dragged across the muddy ground. The RV finally stops and Mulder finds a dead body with puncture wounds on the neck. Then he goes to Scully's motel room and asks her to do another autopsy. He eats a pizza she had ordered and while she's gone, the pizza boy, Ronnie Strickland comes into the motel room but before he can bite Mulder, Mulder throws sunflower seeds at him, and Ronnie impulsively picks them up. Mulder then falls unconscious until Scully's autopsy makes her suspect of the pizza boy, and she barges into the motel room and shoots Ronnie a few times, with no effect. He runs out into the woods, with Scully in pursuit. Mulder recovers and chases Ronnie through a different path. Mulder catches up to Ronnie and stabs him in the chest with a wooden stake.

Back in the present day, Mulder and Scully are sent to Texas to investigate the disappearance of Ronnie's body. Scully and Sheriff Hartwell talk alone in the car, and the Sheriff drugs Scully, rendering her unconscious. Mulder, meanwhile, goes to an RV park, finds Ronnie, alive in a coffin, but is surrounded by several people who's eyes glow green like Ronnie's. Mulder falls unconscious. Both Scully and Mulder wake up in an empty RV park, unharmed.

My Rating: *** (3)
Written by: Vince Gilligan
Directed by: Clifford Bole

[Return To Top]

5X13 - Patient X

In Kazakhstan, a UFO descends from the sky and 41 people are burned to death. A witness, Dimitri, is captured by Alex Krycek at the scene. Krycek has the boy infected with black cancer at Tunguska then takes him on a ship. Mulder is on a lecture panel discussing Cassandra Spender, a purported multiple alien abductee. He meets her, but claims that it is a government conspiracy. Jeffrey Spender, Cassandra's son, asks Mulder and Scully not to get involved. At Skyline Mountain (Scully's abduction site), alien abductees gather, only to be burned to death by the Alien Bounty Hunter, who appears as if his nose, mouth, and eyes have been sewn shut. Marita Covarrubias reports to the Syndicate about the deaths at Kazakhstan. Marita meets Krycek at his ship and they kiss. The Well-Manicured Man confronts Krycek. Marita has Dimitri in her car but he approaches her while she is talking on the phone with Mulder. Scully and Cassandra Spender are "called" to a bridge by the implant in their necks. They meet with a large group of other abductees. Suddenly, 2 Alien Bounty Hunters approach, setting people on fire with wands. Part I of II.

My Rating: ***** (5)
Written by: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Kim Manners

[Return To Top]

5X14 - The Red and the Black

Scully is found burned, but alive at the bridge where she had gathered with the other abductees. After recovering, Scully undergoes hypnosis to recall what happened on that bridge with the aliens. She recalls that the two faceless Alien Bounty Hunters had been vapourized by another alien ship, and that Cassandra Spender was abducted shortly after. Marita Covarrubias is found infected with the black cancer. The Well-Manicured Man attempts to cure her with a Russian-made vaccine. Jeffrey Spender visits Scully. Mulder encounters Krycek, who tells him that a war is going on and 5 billion people could die if an alien race colonizes Earth. He also leaves Mulder the name of an air force base. Scully and Mulder visit it and a truck arrives. Mulder sneaks aboard while Scully is arrested. The Bounty Hunter is revealed to be the driver of the truck. He goes and looks for Mulder but a bright light appears and Mulder fires his gun. He wakes up later but remembers nothing. Jeffrey Spender receives a letter from the Cigarette-Smoking Man, who had taken residence in a cabin in Canada. He sends the letter back, unopened.

My Rating: ***** (5)
Written by: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Chris Carter

[Return To Top]

5X15 - Travelers

A man named Edward Skur is shot by a sheriff after a dead body was found in his bathtub. Skur utters the name "Mulder". Agent Fox Mulder investigates the mysterious death, contacting a man by the name of Arthur Dales. Dales reluctantly recounts a story beginning with when he arrested Skur for being a communist. Dales' partner reports that Skur hanged himself in his prison cell, but Dales is attacked by Skur 2 hours later. Dales' superior, Roy Cohn, orders him to omit any references to Skur on his report. Afterwards, Dales meets Bill Mulder at a bar, who tells him that Skur is not a communist, instead, he was the victim of an inhumane experiment (of which there was another victim, Gissing) and may be out for revenge. Agent Michel, Dales' partner, sits at home when he is attacked by Skur and is killed when a gruesome organism is ejected from Skur's mouth and enters Michel's screaming mouth. Dales tries to get his partner's body autopsied, but his request is denied by his superior. Later on, he sneaks into a morgue and asks the morgue director to cut Gissing's body open. A small insect-like organism emerges from the body, but sinks back in. Agent Dales asks Skur's wife to help him expose the people who had done the experiment to her husband. Skur attacks and kills his wife soon after. The FBI Director arranges for Bill Mulder and Roy Cohn to escort Dales to meet Skur in a bar. Dales goes in alone and is attacked by Skur. Bill Mulder and Roy Cohn barge in and find Skur handcuffed to the floor. Later, Bill Mulder sets Skur free on a country road, hoping that one day the injustice inflicted on him will be exposed.

My Rating: *** (3)
Written by: John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: William Graham

[Return To Top]

5X16 - Mind's Eye

A blind woman named Marty Glenn is found at the scene of a murder. She is suspected of the murder because she has blood on her. Scully and Mulder question Marty in jail. When she takes a lie-detector test, the needle goes wild when she is asked whether she saw the murderer. Scully finds bloody gloves with Marty's prints on it. Marty sees a man bothering a woman at a bar. Marty is released from jail. She sees the man assaulting the woman, and finds the woman dead. She confesses to both murders. A stash of drugs is found with the fingerprints of a man named Gotts. His fingerprints are also on the gloves found earlier. Mulder reveals that Gotts is Marty's father and that he had killed her mother as she was pregnant with Marty, which caused her blindness. Marty had developed a "psychic" type link to her father so she could see through his eyes. While at her apartment with the detective, Gotts comes in. Marty knocks out the detective and takes his gun, then kills Gotts. She's arrested and sent to jail, but she is satisfied because she doesn't see through Gotts' eyes anymore.

My Rating: **** (4)
Written by: Tim Minear
Directed by: Kim Manners

[Return To Top]

5X17 - All Souls

Scully goes into confession. She recounts the following story:

Father McCue requests Scully to talk to a family whose daughter had died mysteriously. Dara Kernoff, who was wheelchair-bound, had been found kneeling on the street, with her eyes burned out. No evidence of a lightning strike was found. She had an extra digit from each hand and foot surgically removed. She was a quadruplet. Paula, her identical sister, dies when a man dressed in black enters her room. She dies kneeling with her eyes burned out just like Dara. Mulder and Scully interview Father Gregory, who says that the mother of the girls had died at childbirth. Mulder and Starkey look for a third sister but the black-clothed man kills her before they can get to her. Gregory is there and is taken in for questioning. Starky demands to know where the fourth girl is but he kills Father Gregory when he refuses to tell. Mulder learns that the last girl's name was Roberta. Scully has a vision of a man dressed in black whose face can turn into a man's, a lion's, an eagle's, and a bull's. Scully and Starkey find Roberta but she dies like her sisters.

My Rating: *** (3)
Story by: Billy Brown and Dan Angel
Teleplay by: Frank Spotnitz and John Shiban
Directed by: Allan Coulter

[Return To Top]

5X18 - The Pine Bluff Variant

Mulder chases after a man named Jacob Haley, a leader of a terrorist group. Mulder claims that Haley got away, but Scully sees that Mulder let Haley escape when she views a videotape. Bremer, another man, uses a spray bottle to spread a lethal bio-toxin around a movie theatre which kills the people inside. Mulder talks with Haley by phone. Scully tries to follow Mulder but she is intercepted by government agents who take her to Skinner. Mulder is questioned by Haley and The Skin-Headed Man, who breaks one of Mulder's fingers. Mulder returns to his apartment and talks with Scully. Bremer records them through a listening device. The terrorists take Mulder with them as they pretend to rob a bank, instead spraying the money with the toxin. Bremer and The Skin-Headed Man take Mulder aside and Bremer kills The Skin-Headed Man, then tells Mulder to escape. Mulder goes back to the bank and finds Scully and Skinner. A Field Agent falsely states that no money was contaminated with the bio-toxin, because he is part of a government conspiracy. Haley dies from touching car-keys contaminated with the bio-toxin.

My Rating: *** (3)
Written by: John Shiban
Directed by: Rob Bowman

[Return To Top]

5X19 - Folie A Deux

A telemarketer named Gary Lambert is working when he believes he sees a insect-like monster lurking among the cubicles at work. He attempts to warn his coworkers by sending a tape to a radio station. Mulder investigates and questions Gary's boss, Pincus, who says that a previous employee had fired on coworkers in 1994. Gary sees his seat-mate, Nancy Aaronson, with a zombie's face. He holds the workers hostage. A SWAT team sets up outside the offices. Gary murders Backus with a rifle, another man he thinks is a zombie. As Gary tries to kill Pincus, an armored car bursts through a wall and Gary is shot dead. Mulder becomes suspicious of Pincus. He follows Pincus to a house and tries to kill "the monster", but it escapes. The resident of the house, Gretchen Starns, says Mulder acted like a madman. Mulder thinks he sees Pincus/the monster attack Skinner and goes wild, but Skinner grabs Mulder. He's forced to stay restrained in a hospital. He believes the insectoid monster is outside his window and calls the nurse. The nurse doesn't believe him and opens the window. The insectoid approaches Mulder, but Scully bursts in and shoots it. It escapes.

My Rating: ** (2)
Written by: Vince Gilligan
Directed by: Kim Manners

[Return To Top]

5X20 - The End

A man and a boy, named Gibson, are playing chess in a packed arena, but the man is shot and killed (by a sharpshooter) as the boy checkmates him. Meanwhile, Krycek finds the Cigarette-Smoking Man at his cabin and brings him back to the Syndicate. Mulder questions Gibson, whom he thinks can read minds. Mulder then interviews the gunman, who doesn't want to talk. Gibson is proven to be a mind reader. Scully becomes upset when she sees Mulder and Agent Diana Fowley, his former partner, holding hands. Scully reveals that Gibson has an abnormal brain lobe that may be responsible for his talent. Mulder believes it's from an alien gene. While trying to protect Gibson, Agent Fowley is shot and almost killed. The Cigarette-Smoking Man kidnaps Gibson and takes him to the Well-Manicured Man. Agent Spender presses charges on Mulder when Mulder accuses him of working for the Smoking Man. The Smoking Man goes to the X-Files office and takes the Samantha Mulder X-File before telling Agent Spender that Smoking Man is his father. Later, Mulder and Scully come to their office to find it burnt down, files and all.

My Rating: **** (4)
Written by: Chris Carter
Directed by: R.W. Goodwin

[Return To Top]