Veiled Vesta

Hi Arista! Don't worry too much about the second viewing party, not many people could join because of problems on but hopefully you'll be here in 2 weeks when we start season 2! (I'm going to check out the XF Livejournal link after I post my last recap of the night.) My thoughts on the season 1 finale:

The Erlenmeyer Flask

(**Season Finale Side Note**: Woo! Last episode of season 1! And now I know what those kinds of lab beakers are called (Erlenmeyer flasks aka E-flask). I always learn new things with this show. Yes, children who may be reading this, The X-Files teaches you all you need to know about math and science. To hell with studying, watch The X-Files! And now back to our regularly scheduled recap.)

We start out with a super cool car chase. Mulder isn't part of it unfortunately but he'll get his own taste of the action later on. The car passes a train, and the cops keep on his tail. They chase him into shipyard area where a truck nearly gets them both. The getaway car guy smashed into some boxes and is now trying to get away but the police are on him. One of them clubs him with a nightstick but that doesn't really slow the perp down. In fact he manages to grab the nightstick and swing at the two cops before he gets tasered by back up. Nope, not even a taser can stop him because he's heading up some stairs while an armed officer starts shooting at him. He dives into the water away from sight, leaving the stunned officer who was sure he shot the guy. They notice some green liquid on the top of the stairs. Is that the perp's blood? *gasp*

Season Finale Opening Credits! Good times. Like the Pilot, Squeeze, Ice, Beyond the Sea, Darkness Falls, Tooms... hmm. That's about it. Plus this episode. That sure was a quick trip own memory lane. (Honorary mentions: Deep Throat, Fallen Angel, Eve, Young At Heart, and EBE. Little Mulder/Scully moments scattered in those episodes, some of them even have plots that are intriguing enough without the M/S love.)

Once again, Mulder is sleeping on his couch, making the power company happy and his next door neighbors annoyed. But it's a good thing he has the TV on because he gets a call to turn to channel 8 where they're reporting on the pre-credits chase scene, and the man hunt that has ensued. Mulder records what he can and the on scene interview is cut short because the captain is needed. Interesting. The next day at work, Mulder is still looking over the tape while Scully asks what he hopes to find. Mulder doesn't know. But it's probably important. Scully thinks Deep Throat is yanking his chain. Mulder suggests she yank his... okay, I won't go there. At least not until the opportunity comes up.
The two head to the crime scene where they're informed that three different government agencies were out looking for this man. All because of a parking violation. Plus the green blood but they don't know that yet. The captain heading the investigation wants to know what the FBI's interest is in this case and Mulder lies, saying the guy matched the description of a federal fugitive. Busted! No description was given out, you silly FBI guy. Mulder would still like to see the getaway car.

Mulder and Scully check out the getaway car, comparing it to the pictures from the tape. Scully thinks they're wasting their time and even Mulder isn't disagreeing with that. Then he leans back and takes another look at the car. His eagle eye sees that the car is different from the one in their picture. Back in D.C they examine it more closely: the car in the photo has a sticker on the windshield, a sticker that only doctors would put on their cars. The car they checked out didn't have the sticker. Someone switched cars on them. Mulder manages to get a partial plate number from an enhanced version and asks a lab tech, Danny, to run it. Do we ever get to see Danny because I think he's mentioned a few other times. Maybe it's better he stay off-screen. Don't want him to end up like Pendrell...

They find out who the actual car is registered to: a lab doctor testing on monkeys. If PETA saw this... oh wow. The doctor claims he didn't know his car was involved in a high speed chase and gets defensive when asked about his experimenting. Suspicious! Mulder and Scully take their leave, and after Mulder makes sure Scully wasn't bitten by a monkey (very nice) he's set to question the doctor's housekeeper. Scully surprisingly refuses. There's only so many times that she can follow Mulder on these crazy, half-thought out hunches and she's finally putting her foot down. Hmm...I would've out my foot down after nearly freezing in Alaska Ice but that's just me. Scully thinks Deep Throat is toying with them and Mulder tries to defend him by saying he can't afford to give them anymore information or he'll be exposed. Then Scully goes for the low blow (heh) by suggesting Mulder gets off on this rationing of facts and chasing down vague clues. That is why I love Scully, and though the moment is here for the yanking his "chain" joke, I cannot top her. Yup, when it comes to Mulder, she'll always be on top. Zing!

And there's the chain yanking master, Deep Throat. He's a bit disappointed that Mulder isn't working on the case anymore. Mulder seems to have taken Scully's words to heart as he demands more information and refuses to help when he doesn't get what he wants. Mulder mentions Obi-Wan Kenobi, a reference I'm sure would make more sense to me if I watched Star Wars. So is Deep Throat Obi-Wan? And does that make Mulder, Luke Skywalker? If so, who's Princess Leia? Scully? And who is Chewbacca? I should ask my brother about this... anyway, Deep Throat teases him by saying he's never been closer. Closer to what? Sometimes you just want to kill the guy with all that riddle talk he spouts. Oh wait... shouldn't have said that.

Back at the monkey experimenting facility, a mysterious man in a suit comes and acts all threatening to the overly-defensive doctor from earlier. The doctor looks more afraid but he still doesn't want to answer anymore questions. The mysterious suited man asks about a "doctor Secare" and overly-defensive doctor pleads ignorance. Looks like he's finished. With his work. And with life. Quick cut to the docks to show the police have stopped searching for the green-blooded car chase perp, then we come back the next day where we see the destroyed monkey facility and dead defensive doctor. Mulder, Scully, and a bunch of other officers are investigating the scene which has been listed as a suicide. Looks like he tied medical gauze around his neck and jumped out the window. That's some strong medical gauze. It'll be great to add to my list: 101 Unpleasant Uses For Medical Gauze. (Number 12 is make an "I Heart Bees" banner; number 45 is make a thong for Cigarette Smoking Man.)
They find an e-flask of some dark, brownish liquid labeled Purity Control and Scully must find out what it is while Mulder tries to find more on the dead doctor. Scully hopes it's not monkey pee. Mulder hopes the doctor's house has HBO.

So while Mulder is breaking and entering into a dead man's house, Scully is at the FBI microbiology lab with a nice female doctor who makes her first and last appearance in this episode. That just sucks. The female doctor/analyst notes that the bacteria (from the e-flask, I'm assuming) is different than any other bacteria she's ever seen. They need to freeze it and take a slice to examine it further. And now she plays the waiting game.

Mulder is rummaging through the good doctor's home office, bills, bills, junk mail, picture of Phoebe Green (you know she gets around), more bills, junk mail again, and wait, a phone bill. It's important because there's a number on there that's been called many times. He calls the unseen Danny again to run a trace on the number then finds some keys and just takes them. Hey, the guy's dead, so anything's up for grabs. Oh! I think the doctor has a nice flat screen in his bedroom; it'll make the Knicks game look way better! (Did they have flat screens in the 90s?) What Mulder fails to notice is the big white van rolling up behind him and the mysterious suited man hanging out his window with a freakin' satellite dish hanging out to pick up every sound within a ten mile radius. Was spying that obvious in the 90s? When the phone rings, Mulder answers and the guy on the other line is the green blooded car chase perp. I think this is that doctor Secare. So Doctor Secare's calling from a phone booth and he must have water in his ears because he mistakes Mulder's lovely monotone voice for the dead doctor. Mulder plays along, trying to find out where green blooded man is, but he's too injured to answer so he faints and a good Samaritan comes by to call in the injury but doesn't tell Mulder the location of the phone booth. Afterwards, he gets the address of the phone number from Danny and Mystery man/Obvious spy finally gets noticed by Mulder but it's too late because the white van rushes off. The phone number reveals Zeus Storage on 16-16 Pandora Street (I love the Greek mythology names used here. )

Meanwhile, the green blooded perp is in an ambulance, looking pretty shabby. The ambulance personnel don't know what's with the green blood and when they stick a needle in him, toxic air hisses out, causing them all to cough and sputter. Even the ambulance driver is affected because he swerves and crashes. The green blooded guy takes this chance to escape.

Scully calls Mulder who quickly tells her that their car chase guy is alive and still running. Scully informs him of her recent findings in the microbiology lab. Examination of the bacteria shows that they're plant-like and they have viruses in them. Maybe it was used for gene therapy with the monkeys from the dead doctor's facility as test subjects. The bacteria puzzles Scully as it's unlike anything she's ever seen in modern medicine. Mulder has been driving this whole time (while talking on his cell phone; lucky 90s people that don't get fined...) He arrives at Zeus Storage. Inside, he sees a bunch of doors and when he gets to the door that matches the storage locker key he swiped from the doctor's place, he takes a look inside. What he sees is astonishing: a bunch of tanks with water, all hooked up to machines, with a human male in each one. Kind of like a test tube but horizontal. Wow. This would be a good Kodak moment. If only Mulder wasn't an idiot and owned a disposable camera.

More information is being uncovered about that bizarre bacteria. After a lengthy DNA lesson, Scully finds out that the bacteria contains a fifth and sixth DNA nucleotide. And only four nucleotides exist in nature. In other words, this discovery is extraterrestrial. That's the magic word. Now that Mulder is done looking at the weird aquarium in Zeus Storage, he is not happy to see mysterious suited men waiting for him outside, a little ways off. He tries to play it cool but when one of them starts running after him, he rushes out of there, jumping a fence and everything. When he hits a dead end, he turns to face his opponent but there's no one behind him. That's some luck. The next day Scully's calling him at his place, wondering where he's been all night. He tells her he left his phone in his car then learns about Scully's findings. Now is a good a time as any to show Scully the bizarre aquarium.

They pull up in front of Zeus storage but before they enter, Scully stops him. She says this nice little speech about how he was right and she was wrong, how she should've trusted him earlier and how she doesn't know what to believe anymore. He builds her up, ready to blow her mind with some tangible proof and they enter the storage room - time for Scully to become a believer! ... Or maybe not, because the storage room is empty. Well, what did you expect, it's only season 1. We're gonna have many more seasons of skeptical Scully, so get used to it. Mulder is surprised and tries to explain what he saw, Scully wonders where it all went. Then they see Deep Throat. Was he hiding in a corner somewhere this whole time? He tells them that the bizarre test tube/aquarium tanks have been destroyed possibly by some cover "black organization". These same men killed the overly defensive doctor and may have been waiting for Mulder outside the storage area the previous night. Mulder believes that the dead doctor had been conducting human experiments with extraterrestrial viruses. Deep Throat's like, well yeah, but that's old news. That kind of experimenting has been going on for decades and the doctor was killed because his work was too successful; green blooded man is a human alien hybrid (he's got superhuman strength and can breathe underwater) and the storage room they're in is where the first one was created. See, this is why cameras are always handy. Or camcorders. Now Scully must check back with the female lab doctor/analyst while Mulder looks for the green-blooded alien human hybrid. Thanks for the info, Deep Throat!

At the microbiology lab, Scully is surprised to learn that the female doctor is dead, along with her whole family. Supposedly from a car accident. That's just cold. Her and her whole family? Really? Just because she did her job? Stupid, mean covert black organization.
Mulder's discovery is just as surprising - he finds the green blooded alien human hybrid in the attic of the dead doctor's house. The alien human hybrid attacks Mulder but promises that he'll protect him. Then a gunshot gets the green-blooded guy. So much for that promise. The guy who shot green blooded man is the same guy who killed the overly defensive doctor. He doesn't have to do much to overpower Mulder because the toxic alien blood is doing the job for him. He ends up tied down, his eyes and mouth all red and burned. Aww, but those are his cutest features. Mulder's cell starts ringing and the mystery man/killer doesn't choose to answer it because he has "this thing about unsecured lines". Oh, har dee har.
Scully is at Mulder's apartment, ringing his doorbell, when Deep Throat appears out of some corner he always likes to hide around (I guess it makes him seem more mysterious) and he tells him that Mulder isn't home. He seems to know that Mulder's been captured and the only way Scully can save him is if she makes a deal with them. But first she needs something they're willing to trade for; and that's where her medical credentials come in. With his covert connections, he's going to get her inside a high containment facility where the original alien tissue is being kept. Finally, Scully gets to do some cool actiony stuff!

Scully is in the building. She's all no-nonsense professionalism with her long trench coat and business briefcase. She gets past the first guard easily. Walks along. Gets to the elevator, and goes up to the seventh floor: Cryology. She uses her key card to get past many doors throughout her little walk. Finally she gets to an important door where a guard asks for her name, company, and project password. By all accounts, it looks like Scully wasn't expecting the password question. When the guard repeats himself, she finally answers: "Purity Control". As far as lucky guesses go, that's the luckiest guess of season 1! That and the people of that high security facility label their e-flasks with their project passwords, which seems a bit reckless but whatever. She's inside, and she's got the evidence she needs: a weird alien-like body. Maybe a fetus? That's one hell of an alien tissue sample. Scully is understandably shocked and yet she's still skeptical come season 2. *sigh*

Deep Throat meets up with Scully on a bridge at night. He asks if she has it, she says yes, and he says they're willing to make the exchange. Scully is a bit wary, not trusting him because she knows pretty much nothing about him. Not a name or organization, or even his favorite flower (my sources tell me he's a sunflower guy.) Deep Throat is annoyed at her and demands the parcel because her and Mulder are the only ones who can bring the truth to light. She finally does so and a white van drives towards her car. Then another car drives past Scully, and for a moment, she sees the driver's face (important to know for next season!) The driver is the same guy who killed the first doctor and the alien hybrid doctor, and now... he's going to kill Deep Throat! Noooo! Even after Deep Throat gives him the package, that mysterious killer still offs the guy. The van nearby opens up and tosses Mulder out. He's still tied up and probably not doing so well. After checking on Mulder, she rushes to Deep Throat but alas it's too late. With his last breath, Deep Throat tells her to "Trust no one..." Good line to remember.

What a night. Scully is in bed asleep when her phone rings. This scene is awfully familiar. It's Mulder calling her at 11:21 pm (just like in the Pilot) to break the news that they're shutting down the X-Files. The two agents are going to be reassigned and is it just me, or does Mulder sound drunk? Or tired? Or both? In any case he's all quiet about it and says it's over but he still won't give up. Not as long as "the truth is out there." Another good line. They hang up.

These two are partners no more, or so it seems, which would be a dramatic enough way to end the first season but there's one more scene, and it's just as familiar! Practically a mirror image of the Pilot: CSM has original tissue sample that Scully traded for Mulder's life, and he's storing it in a box with other similar looking containers with dead alien bodies. Doesn't that stuff need refrigeration? It was in liquid nitrogen before. I guess he doesn't care if it rots, and in fact this way is better because no one can use it. The room he's in is the secret evidence hiding room carefully concealed behind the Emergency Exit door! The perfect plan, unless, you know, a fire breaks in that place. Or maybe two horny government agents need an area to make out in. It could happen. In any case, way to go, X-Files! The parallels and surprise ending really got me when I first saw this. Can't wait for season 2, and the reuniting of our favorite agents!