Veiled Vesta

Last episode recap for season four.

BTW, thank you all so much for the birthday wishes and reading my recaps! This is the kind of feel good buzz I can't get from alcohol. I think Tanith answered my Krycek/Fowley nakednes question but since the first thing I saw in her post was that "delightful" vomiting smilie I won't read it just yet. Don't want to spoil my good mood right away.

Gethsemane

(OMG, WTH, D3P-Redux Note: All the acronyms are necessary because they mirror my reactions when I saw this episode the first time. This is part of yet another three parter, the season finale being the first part and the first two episodes of season 5 being the second. Because the second two episodes have the title: Redux I dub this the D3P-Redux. Why do I torture myself with these season finales? *sigh*)

First seen is the TV playing a meeting of the NASA Symposium Boston University meeting that took place on November 20, 1972. The bespectacled man on the TV is talking about the possibility of contact with other civilizations and he predicts it would happen sometime in their lifetime. Later on we get a shot of Mulder's apartment in the morning with Scully presenting her badge and looking worried. She is allowed through and sees a body covered in a sheet. Oh dear... a detective at the scene identifies himself and lifts the sheet for her to identify. She affirms that "it's him". No names but still I worry. There's a special meeting at the FBI Headquarters in a dimly lit room. Scully enters and we see a face that I haven't seen since the Pilot: Chief Blevins. He tells Scully to sit down. She does so. He says they've had a conversation beforehand and would like Scully to reiterate it to the panel. Scully explains to the panel how she was assigned to the X-Files four years ago to provide an analytical POV on Agent Mulder's work. She says that his belief in the paranormal stemmed from his belief that his sister was abducted by aliens when he was 12. She is there, in front of the panel, to prove the X-Files are not legitimate and he was but a victim of his beliefs in the biggest of lies! Et tu, Scully!?

D3P-Redux Season Finale Opening Credits! The depressing episodes that came before this, Elegy and Demon, have all led up to this shocking twist and angsty ending. Carter is the master of the mind freak and probably earned more than a little ire from the fans back when this aired on television.

All the good stuff seems to happen in Canada. In this episode, we see the mountain range of the Yukon territory. A helicopter flies overhead and two men are inside, talking about how they're going to meet up with the guide at base camp. One of them is talking about an unbelievable discovery made up in the mountains. They get to the base camp and a man is there to greet them and take one of their bags. The three men won't get to base camp by nightfall and one of them is excited to see "it" so he's willing to get make the trek up and get there late. They start hiking and after a few hours, night falls. The men get to a camp inside a cave area. There are a few other men in the cave and after some introductions, the big discovery is revealed. It's a body in ice. The body is not human.

Back at the dimly lit FBI Headquarters meeting, Scully the Betrayer is explaining how Mulder was recently contacted by a man who was looking for alien life, just like Mulder. He was so intent on believing the lie that he was duped by a man who she plans on exposing today. A flashback commences.

We're at Mrs. Scully's residence, where a fancy dinner party is being held. Mrs. Scully is lighting candles and she walks over to Scully who is telling an amusing anecdote to some partygoer. Scully's big brother, Bill, stops by. He's dressed in a navy uniform and Mrs. Scully is very happy to see him. Scully goes over to hug her big brother. Bill apologizes for being late and asks if she got her birthday card this year. She says yeah and it's nice he remembers once decade. Mrs. Scully go greets another guest. It's a a priest. Hope he brought some blood of Christ! Scully and Bill join the dinner table, Scully looking a little concerned at seeing the priest. At the table, the priest, Father McCue, seems to sense the uncomfortable feeling Scully is exuding and she apologizes. Father McCue came to the party because her mother asked him to talk to Scully and he mentions how Scully has been drifting away from the church. He mentions her cancer and how faith might help her but she doesn't need his help though she appreciates it. She says she has all the strength she needs (perhaps strength from a certain dark haired believer...?) and she won't go back to the church. At that moment, the phone rings and Bill answers. It's for Scully. Mulder's on the phone. It's a sign! He apologizes for interrupting her dinner but he needs her help. A Doctor Arlinsky told Mulder about something he found on a mountain in Canada. Mulder needs her to come to the Smithsonian right away and Bill, who didn't look happy when he initially found out Mulder was calling his little sister, leaves the kitchen. Scully sighs but says she'll be right over. The dinner party didn't look so interesting anyway.

At the Smithsonian, Mulder and Scully walk up some stairs while he apologizes once again for the interruption but his news couldn't wait. Doctor Arlinsky is a contact of Mulder's who was involved in some UFO scandal a while back but the doctor claims he's innocent. Rather than tell Scully the big news, he'd like to show her, leading her with a hand on her back. Very sweet. In a lab in the Smithsonian, they see a projected slide of the alien body in ice. Yes it's an alien body. What did you expect for an X-Files season finale? Doctor Arlinsky explains that the body was perfectly preserved in a crevice on a mountain and is estimated to be over 200 years old. A Canadian geodetic survey team found the body, along with Doctor Arlinsky's colleague, Babcock. Scully starts looking through some paper work while Doctor Arlinsky says that the men are still on the mountain and he says that the body is unlikely to be a fake. He even took ice core samples which support his theory that the body is real. Mulder says the doctor should be careful about going public with this ice core samples because either he'll be seen as a crazy outcast or the secret covert government will try and bury the truth. The doctor won't go public with nothing short of the actual body in his possession, and he needs Mulder's help to get it all he wants in return in credit. Maybe Mulder can make a nice sum off the royalties from Ice Alien t-shirts. I'd buy one.

Mulder and Scully head downstairs and Mulder guesses she thinks the whole thing is crazy but she actually has no opinion. That throws him for a loop. Scully is tired of going after little green men and this time she's putting her foot down. Her dying wish is not to prove the existence of extraterrestrials. Mulder argues that it's not just his silly little fantasy and he's just as skeptical as Scully is. (Really? I'm skeptical about that claim. ) Scully asks what difference would it make to get proof since he already believes in aliens and he counters with the "proving God exists" simile. She won't budge. She's not going with him to Canada. I'm surprised she initiated the Myth-Arc Split-up in this one. It sucks that she isn't going because they could've found new ways to use maple syrup. Mulder asks for her to at least examine the core samples for him. Find out if they're the real McCoy.

Switching over to the dimly lit FBI Headquarters meeting, Scully tells them that what she didn't tell Mulder was that her cancer was getting worse and I suppose that's why she couldn't go with him. So she couldn't tell her most trusted partner that her tumor had metastasized, mind you he was the first to know she had the cancer in the first place, but she has no problem telling a room full of suspicious FBI officials? It's just not right.

Flashback to the Canadian cavern, where men are using chainsaws to get the alien body out of the ice. One man, Babcock, is loading a gun when a colleague enters his tent. Babcock says he doesn't trust the guys working on the ice alien and since he's going to be up in the mountains alone with them until his colleague returns, he'll need protection. A bit overly paranoid but we'll soon see he has good reason to be. Another man calls his attention and shows him something he found in the ice block. It's a bubble or a weak spot which is odd because it seems like it could be also be used to pour something in there. In any case they won't know what it is until they get the body out of that ice so keep working, dudes. One of the men, I think the guide, heads down the mountain later on.

In a University lab, Scully is getting the ice core samples tested. The lab tech identifies it as old ice but he also finds a strange hybrid cell in there. Not animal or plant exactly. They need to get it under the microscope and start examining. In the base camp at night, someone is walking towards the tents and we hear a gun go off. Uh oh. Someone else knows about the alien body in the ice. Someone dangerous. In the morning, Dr. Arlinsky and Mulder (who looks wonderful in his snow suit) get out of their helicopter and arrive at the tents. Someone was supposed to meet them but there's no one there. They head for the tents, and enter the big, main one. Dr. Arlinsky is unsure how to go about things since he doesn't have the guide so of course they figure to throw caution to the icy cold wind and head up to the base camp by themselves. At least there's a trail to follow and on their way up they find their guide. Lying dead in the snow. Mulder thinks it's a funny place for a nap. Don't lend the gunshot wound fool you, it's a relaxing technique to soothe insomniacs. Why not try it, Mulder? (Wait, thinking about the ending of this episode, I'm gonna say scratch that please)

Scully enters the University lab and sees someone at the computer doing unscrupulous things. Did they have naughty websites back in the 90s? Scully says she's looking for a certain doctor but the guy in the suit doesn't say anything. She asks if the doctor is there and the guy in the suit says no. Then he grabs a tube and leaves. That's when Scully notices the lab fridge is all messy and some ice core samples are melted. Plus that guy stole her lunch from the fridge! She gets outside and it looks like the guy just ducked into the stairwell. She gets to the stairs but he's no where to be seen. When she tries another stairwell door which doesn't open right away, she gets knocked down by the guy in the suit! The two end up in a struggle before he pushes her down the stairs then leaves! That S.O.B! She's a petite woman with cancer for heaven's sake! So what if she possibly betrays Mulder later, she doesn't deserve that!

Meanwhile, Mulder and Dr. Arlinsky get to the base camp by nightfall. Good to know they didn't run into any abominable snowmen on their way up. The two enter the cavern with their flashlights handy and they're shocked to see the men shot dead in their tents. After Dr. Arlinsky checks on his seemingly dead colleague Babcock, he goes to check the alien body in the ice but it's gone. Mulder is disappointed. All that way for nothing, it seems. He thinks maybe the men's radio communication was being monitored and then they hear a moan. Babcock is still alive. Mulder gets him some water and Dr. Arlinsky wants him to tell them who shot them all. Then he laments that whoever it was also took the alien body but Babcock tells them he buried it. They find it buried under some snow by Babcock's tent. Maybe the trip was not a total wash.

Scully is in a doctor's room, I think, and she just finished up an exam. Her brother comes inside. She asks what he's doing there and he said he heard her talking to their mom so he brought her some clothes and some worry. With some prodding, Scully tells him she got knocked down a flight of stairs and he frowns that she's not okay like she claims, especially since she has cancer. Scully is not happy their mom told him and Bill is not happy she's still doing dangerous things at work when her cancer is getting worse. Scully doesn't want a lecture but too bad, she's getting one. He guilts her regarding their mom and what she's going through and Scully says that just because she's not telling everyone including him and Father McCue, doesn't mean she doesn't care. She just wants to focus on what's important for her. Bill thinks she's talking about Mulder and gets even more upset. He wants to know where Mulder is while Scully is going through hell but she thanks him for coming and leaves.

Looks like Mulder is not that far from Scully. He's back in D.C and sneaking a crate into a warehouse. He's with Dr. Arlinsky and Babcock, and the three men open the create to show the alien in the ice. Time for some hot water to melt that sucker. While they wait, Mulder and Dr. Arlinsky wonder about it's authenticity and what tests they'll do on it. Run ever test you can boys: blood test, carbon test, pregnancy test... wait. Babcock adds his own two cents about the six men dead on Canadian soil that, at the very least, make it a very deadly hoax. Meanwhile, Scully is at the FBI lab getting evidence on her attacker. The tech with her managed to find a partial fingerprint in the stairwell. The print was run through the criminal database with no hits found but when Scully suggests she run it through the federal database, the techie hits pay dirt. Michael Kritschgau works for the Pentagon Research division in Virginia but lives in Washington. Nice to put a name to the S.O.B's face. Back to the warehouse of impending discovery. Dr. Arlinsky is doing an actual autopsy on the alien body and I am rather shocked. A cut up alien body seen by already? I didn't expect to see this so soon. It's just... wow. The doctor describes his procedure as he slices and dices: 47 centimeters long, weighing 24 kilograms, grey scratchy skin with no hair, four fingers on each hand, three on each foot, not sure on the gender, and, oh, here comes the eye dissection in all it's gooey, blue veiny glory. Lovely. The two wine coolers I had earlier are catching up to me, I think. The innards of the body is fairly human-like with heart, lungs, ribs etc. but there's also other tissue inside the body that is unidentifiable. Enough autopsy, thanks. Let's see what Scully is up to.

She's waiting for Michael Kritschgau outside his work building and she sees him leave. Time for some Scully wrath. He enters the parking lot and sees an angry little red head driving her car full speed towards him. Yeah, Scully! Run that S.O.B over! She does not because she's an enforcer of the law but she does give him a good scare and she gets out when he tries to run. She hollers at him stop and identifies herself as a federal agent. She runs after him but soon loses sight of him. She yells at him to identify himself because he's getting his ass arrested. Well when you out it like that, her I am, Agent Scully. No, she has to find him herself, which she does. He tries to drive away but she gets in front of her car and points her gun at him. He stops and she demands he get out of the car. For once he does something smart in following Scully's orders. He doesn't want her to shoot and says he didn't mean to hurt her but he had no choice. Tell it to the hand. Scully shoves him down to face the hood of his car. Nice! Get rough, Scully. Kritschgau says that if she arrests him he'll be killed by the same people who gave her the cancer. I say take your chances Scully. At least rough him up a bit. Let's join Mulder and the two men now that the autopsy is over. They still want to run DNA and tissue analysis. Mulder gets a phone call.

In real time, Scully is still sitting at the dimly lit FBI Headquarters meeting and has been recounting the story thus far in great detail. I wonder if she mentioned all the problems she had at the dinner party and with Bill. If she did I hope the FBI officials were more interested in it than I was. She tells them that she called Mulder who was at a warehouse just outside of Washington, in Virginia. They managed to get the frozen body past the lax Canadian border in a refrigerated truck and though Mulder believed he had definite proof of alien life, but Scully's conversation with Kritschgau convinced her other wise. She was told in great detail of the lies perpetrated against Mulder and herself which cost the their family members and her health. Chief Blevins wants to know if she told Mulder those facts but in her story, she had just gotten him to meet her and listen to the story from Kritschgau himself.

In the flashback, Mulder leaves the warehouse to meet up with Scully and he's being watched as he leaves. A gun is cocked and a figure steps into the warehouse just in time to reveal Babcock was in on the shooting at the mountain. The killer from the mountain is there to shoot Dr. Arlinsky and he asks where Mulder is. Babcock the Backstabber says he got a call to go and confirms Mulder is a believer. He and the killer are the only ones who know.

Mulder is at his apartment with Kritschgau ready to explain everything to him, and it doesn't involve aliens. Scully is also there listening as Kritschgau recounts a tale of government hoaxes and a plan so convoluted it can only be pulled of in the X-Files universe. Kritschgau worked for the Department of Defense so he became privy to terrible government Cold War experiments that may have well been uncovered had the government not decided to make up the whole idea of aliens and UFOs to keep suspicions off of their atrocities. He comes to Mulder with the truth that I could've never imagined because his son is sick from the experiments the government exposed him to in the Gulf War and he needs to avenge him or clear his conscious or something. I don't know or care because this is a huge thing to wrap my mind around. He says that everything Mulder ever believed and saw regarding alien phenomena all trace back to meticulously manufactured "proof" by their government: UFO sightings are top secret military aircrafts, alien tissue and DNA are unclassified natural biologic anomalies, and the body in the ice was basically a chimera - Frankensteined through the use of different cells and frozen in such a way as to make it seem older than it really was (that's what that ice bubble was for; to add materials that would make it look old). Mulder is still not convinced but Kritschgau says the body Mulder found was only meant to be seen, not tested. The body is now long gone.

Since he has to see it for himself, Mulder along with Scully and Kritschgau go to the warehouse only to see he was right and the alien body is gone. Though they still have Dr. Arlinsky's body as a consolation prize. Plus Babcock the backstabber got a taste of his own medicine as his body is found in the boiling water that melted the ice. Mulder is angry, convinced that this proves the alien was real, after all why go to the trouble of killing all those men and taking away the only proof Mulder had? Scully says Kritschgau's facts overwhelm any argument but Mulder argues anyway, saying lies were created to support these "facts". Mulder refuses to believe it's not true after all he's seen and experienced but Scully thinks he's just in denial, saying he'd rather believe the lie because it's easier. Scully is really breaking his heart here. And I won't even mention to the FBI meeting later with Chief Blevins later. Mulder wants to know why she's so dead set on believing the guy. You mean besides the obvious reasons that she likes science and skepticism? Okay, he gave her the answers regarding her cancer. She now knows that she was definitely, deliberately given the cancer by the men behind the giant extraterrestrial hoax. Mulder just leaves. Oh God, why did I volunteer to recap this again? At least the next two parts are more shipper friendly to my sad heart.

Mulder left to sit on his couch in the dark and totally angst out. He's watching the video from the opening scene. The one with that NASA Symposium man talking about alien existence. There's more to the video, more talk about intelligent life, and more people confirming all the things Mulder ever believed. He's actually crying silently as he watches this. Some more talk and more of my poor disenchanted, confused believer as he just keeps watching. Then the final scene back at the darkly lit and depressing FBI Headquarters meeting with Scully giving the final blow. I do believe she is trying not to cry but she's on the verge of tears as she says that earlier that morning she was called into Mulder's apartment to identify his body. She says he shot himself in the head and died. WHHHYYYYY!? What a depressingly horrible way to end the fourth season. And it's to be continued. Once again, I wonder how the viewers back in the 90s handled it. Judging by the fanfics on Gossamer, they had a lot to say.