1×08 – ICE
by foxestacado
Episode written by Glen Morgan and James Wong
Recap written by Adrienne (aka Starbucket)
Icy Cape Alaska, the Arctic Ice Core Project. The captions indicate that the base shown onscreen, mid-blizzard, is 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle. I’m pretty sure the Arctic Circle is north of Alaska, but I’m too lazy to look it up so let’s go with it. Mark Snow’s Creepy Music of Doom kicks in as we jump inside, and follow a very Blue-like dog through the building, past the thermometer reading a balmy minus 32 degrees, and around the dead body lying on the ground. We pan up to a fairly Clive Oweny-looking shirtless man, who is bleeding and breathing heavily. He staggers drunkenly, gun poised at the ready, over to the CB radio and video camera, on which he records this requisite creepy/confusing message: “We’re not who we are. It goes no further than this. It ends right here, right now.” Wow, he doesn’t look as much like Clive Owen when he’s in the light.
Not Clive Owen is grabbed from behind and thrown across the room by a blue-shirted guy. Not Clive Owen knocks him down and grabs his gun, giving Blue Shirt time to get up and point his own gun. Uh, oh. Mexican standoff. Then, with Mark Snow’s Creepy Music of Doom coming to a whining crescendo, the men move to point the guns at their own heads and… bam!
Credits. Ah, they’re so old and pretty. And look! There’s a clip from Squeeze! Don’t you just want to shout to Scully, “Run! As fast and as far as you can! Get out of there!” But, alas, she doesn’t. She stays on long after even Mulder has ditched the Files. So, sad. But let’s return now to happier times….
We fade in on a fuzzy screen, then color bars, then a blurry video of members of the Arctic Ice Core Project explaining to the camera that they drilled farther into an ice sheet than anyone. Ever. Go, them. The video’s kinda fuzzy, though. C’mon, Mulder. Invest in DVDs. The quality is amazing. Oh, wait. This is 1993. They probably didn’t have DVDs then, or if they did, they were probably secretly being used by the military for nefarious secret high-quality movie-watching purposes. Anyway, the video is paused mid-high five, and Mulder explains to Scully that the group was sent to the “artic” a year ago to drill. How hard is it to put that extra C in there? It’s said arCtic, not artic. I though you went to Yale, Duchovny.
Scully reads the file behind Mulder, both of them hanging out in what appears to be a middle school computer classroom, but what I suspect is one of several prototype LBOs that were tried out before the final design was established in, I think, “Eve”. Mulder explains that the samples they removed contained, “evidence that could reveal the structure of the earth’s climate back to the dawn of man.” Man. How much do you wanna bet he’ll find some way to get aliens involved? And I’m not just asking because I’ve seen this episode and know that’s the case. Mulder explains that there were absolutely no problems in the year the team was up there, until a week ago. The timestamp on the video is November 5, 1993 at 8:30 AM AST (Alaskan Standard Time, I’d imagine). Oh my God, this is 14 years old! Gah! I’m ancient. The first time I saw this episode was on Pro 7 in 9th grade. In German. Excuse me as I go pluck out a grey hair while Mulder shows Scully the video from the previous scene.
Can I just pause a second to say how cute Scully looks here? We’re graced with a close-up of Gillian emoting to the weirdness on the screen, and I’m impressed with both the array of emotions that pass over her face in a matter of seconds, and also with how young she looks. She’s, what, 24 here? With her semi-strawberry blonde hair and baby-fat-ensconced cheeks, she’s so adorable. Anyway, the video cuts out with Not Clive Owen being dragged out of his chair by Blue Shirt Guy and Scully stares dramatically at the screen and asks Mulder, “What happened up there?” Mulder explains that he and Scully must be either “brilliant or expendable,” (Hm, I think neither sometimes. And both sometimes. Depending on who’s writing which episode) because they’ve pulled the case. Did they just get handed cases by some unknown higher-ups (remember, this is before Skinner was even a twinkle in 1013’s eye)? I thought Mulder asked for these things. Scully asks if it’s “severe isolation distress” and Mulder says, basically, “Nope.” He explains to her, in what’s sure to be a foolproof plan that can’t go wrong in any way, shape, or form, that they’re heading up to Nome to meet up with three scientists, then they have a three day window to solve the case before a blizzard hits the area. I’m sure everything will be fine. Riiiight. Oh, and, “bring your mittens.”
Doolittle Airfield; Nome, Alaska. Wow, it looks a lot like Vancouver. But I guess it would, since they’re both, y’know, up there (hey, I’m in the desert. If it’s cold, it all looks the same to me.). A guy in a San Diego Chargers baseball cap is listening to an old Raiders/Chargers game on his walkman (oh, my God, did they not have CDs in 1993??) and exclaims “Faust is God!” before turning around to grin sheepishly at Mulder and Scully. Y’know, I don’t remember much about the German transmission of this episode, other than Scully having this unnaturally low voice, but I do remember this scene. Charger Fan exclaims, “Faust ist Gottlieb!”, which means the same thing. So, now I have to say that whenever I watch this. I know. It’s a thing.
Scully’s wearing this adorably huge winter coat with furry trim around the collar (I hope she didn’t get that at Burlington Coat Factory. Remember when they accidentally stocked coats that were partially made of dog fur?), and Mulder’s wearing, oh, some other kind of winter coat. Scully tells Charger Fan that there’s no football on Wednesday as jocks all over the world fall in love with her for knowing that, and he tells her that he’s got a recording of his favorite plays on tape. That explains the lack of CD. I don’t think they had CD burners back then. Unless, again, the military was using them to secretly listen to high quality, surround sound, crystal clear music. Nefarious music, of course.
They introduce each other, and Charger Fan is actually Danny Murphy (who gave Jerry a suit in Seinfeld and made him pay for it forever. Remember that guy? He’s a lot less annoying here.) from the Geology department at UC San Diego. OMG, that’s my alma mater! Awesome! I don’t remember seeing him on campus when I got there in ‘97. Oh, wait. I know why. You’ll find out, too, in Act Two. So sad.
Anyway, Mulder asks him if he studies much ice in San Diego, and Murphy (who I’ll keep calling Charger Fan because that’s easier to remember) jokes, “Only what’s around the keg,” as two more people run up to meet them. Hey, it’s Lynette from Desperate Housewives! Or, if you’re a purist, like me, it’s Dana from Sports Night! Along with Xander Berkeley. Oh, he so did it. He plays bad guys in everything. Air Force One, Shanghai Noon (yes, I admit, I saw it. On a dare.). Plus, he was a huge asshat on Apollo 13. He so did it. Anyway, Other Dana and Evil Xander introduce themselves as Dr. Da Silva, a toxicologist, and Dr. Hodge, a medical doctor, respectively. Xander already pulls a dick move by insisting on seeing everyone’s ID. Once they’ve established no one’s pulling a fast one on him, they turn to see a battered old Jeep pull into the hangar. Bear gets out. Hey, he was a bad guy on Buffy! I don’t trust him, either. Maybe he did it. He tells them to grab their gear and head for the plane. He’s their pilot. Hodge asks him for ID, and Bear scoffs. He’s the only pilot willing to fly them up there. Suck it, Evil Xander.
Stock footage of a plane flying over snow. Cut to Mulder breaking into the Ice Core Project Base from the teaser, to find a dead body at the entrance. The rest of the team enters with heavy coats and flashlights, and Mulder suggests they document the scene before touching anything. Way to use your FBI training there, bub. Scully begins to take pictures as Mulder ignores his own advice and opens one of the freezers to show us the ice that the last team had drilled. Charger Fan reaches in to get samples, as Mulder heads over to Da Silva to ease her jumpiness when a loud bang fills the air. “It’s the generator”, he assures her. Then, “You’re cute, Other Dana. Too bad you go all ape shit later and then end up forming a ridiculous plan to force Casey to date other women instead of you in order to get it out of his system, thereby becoming only the first of many of Aaron Sorkin’s almost-couples that never end up going anywhere. At least Donna and Josh ended up together.” He didn’t really say that last part. The lights flicker on and Mulder is attacked from behind by the dog from the teaser. He protects himself from being bitten by holding up, I kid you not, a snowshoe, as the group runs to help him. A horribly fake dub of “Dog Barking Sound #3: Disease Bearing Dog Attack” plays as Bear grabs the dog and gets bitten. Hodge prepares a needle while the other manly men hold the dog down. Uh, oh. Bear’s bleeding but Mulder’s okay; it didn’t break the skin.
The group places the now unconscious dog on a nearby gurney and proceeds to examine it. Scully finds black nodules under the dog’s armpits (legpits?) and swollen lymph nodes. Da Silva points out that those are symptoms of Bubonic Plague. They’re all gonna die! Or, not, since the show runs 8 more years. Hodge takes a blood sample and Scully notices a weird rippling just under the skin. Creeeeepy. Mulder leans way into Scully’s personal space to see the ripple. Oh, they’re so doing it. Okay, maybe not yet, but they’re thinking about it. Too bad it’ll only take six more years to actually do anything, leaving some seriously frustrated shippers in their wake.
Bear’s in the bathroom dressing his wound when he feels a pain in his side. He takes his shirt off (nice eagle tattoo, there, Bear) to notice the same black nodules under his armpits. Maybe Bear isn’t the bad guy.
I heart DVD. No commercials. See what you’re missing, Mulder?
In another badly dubbed scene, Scully explains that the autopsy shows that three of the guys were strangled, the other two killed themselves. How in hell did she have time to do five autopsies already? She’s like Speedy Scully today. Bear asks if she found nodules, and she says no. He’s totally obviously fishing, because why the hell would he care? I guess he could be some kind of bush-pilot-slash-amateur-epidemiologist, but I doubt it. Hodge steps in to tell him that the dog’s nodules are gone, so it could be an early symptom that goes away as the disease progresses.
Mulder takes satellite imaging photos over to Charger Fan, and they discover that the team was actually drilling into a meteor crater, which was twice as deep as they originally thought. Ooh, we’re getting close to that inevitable Mulder Alien Theory! Mulder then heads over to where Scully and Hodge are arguing about ammonium hydroxide, which she found in one of the victims’ bloodstreams, but which he insists shouldn’t be there. Scully’s all, “Are you questioning my abilities as a Medical Doctor? I just did five autopsies in a matter of hours. Step off, Evil Xander.” Charger Fan tells them that that substance is in the ice in massive amounts, more than what’s natural. Ahh, there’s Mulder’s Alien Theory. Because if it’s not natural, it’s alien, right folks? What if, Mulder posits, something foreign was introduced into the ice? From the crator? Hm. Charger Fan shows them a microscopic organism that looks kind of like a fish skeleton swimming in pink goo, and Scully tells them she found the same thing in Not Clive Owen’s blood. Hm. The organism must survive in that ammonium stuff! Bear interrupts, desperate to get the hell out of there now that they’ve discovered what happened. Hodge agrees, saying that the bodies should be shipped out and rechecked. This does not make Scully happy. He’s totally insinuating that she did a crappy autopsy! Mulder’s the odd voice of reason in this one, stating that those bodies need to be quarantined, not shipped out. Plus, Bear’s been bitten, so he could be infected. There’s a mass argument, and Scully lays down the law. Cause she’s awesome like that. They all need to be checked for nodules. If they’re clear, they can go. Savvy?
They’re each meant to give a blood and stool sample. Jokes are made about poop (as boys are wont to do) before Bear grabs a proffered jar and smashes it against the wall: “I ain’t droppin’ my cargo for no one.” I’ve never heard it described quite that way before, but let’s go with it. It’s Canada. Bear gets all up in Mulder’s grill, telling them all that he’s going home. With the plane. Sucks to be them. They all vote (well, Mulder, Scully, and Charger Fan) to hold Bear to check him out. He fakes agreement, then breaks the jar over Mulder’s head. Ow. He runs, but our scrappy little Scully in the ponytail and huge plaid shirt grabs him by his ankles and crawls up his body. “Don’t you be messin’ with my man,” she cries. They slam Bear onto a table and see the ripple under the skin in his neck, just like on the dog. They try to cut it out and discover it’s a worm. Mulder watches, his face twisted into a grimace, like he just ate some bad sushi. Hodge yanks and yanks as Bear screams and squirms, but nothin’. Then it pops in half, bleeding ominous black blood everywhere, as Bear twitches and is still.
Mulder gets onto the CB radio and requests immediate quarantine and evacuation. The woman from Doolittle Air Field comes back (that’s CB lingo), telling him that there’s a blizzard heading their way and they’re basically screwed. “Welcome to the top of the world, sir.” This is where Mulder would curse up a storm if this show were on HBO, but alas, it’s Fox. Home of World’s Deadliest Car Chases and Girls Gone Wild advertisements, but heaven forbid you utter the “F-word”.
Mulder goes back to Bear’s body, now dead. At least he made it to Act Two. Next to Bear we see the worm that was pulled out of his neck, resting peacefully in a glass container. Hodge explains that it has a scolex (like Flukie! Only, I’d imagine, much smaller. And less sewery. But, not played by Darin Morgan, so it’s probably not as clever, either.) like a tapeworm, but it’s different from anything he’s ever seen. Scully enters from the room where the bodies are kept, saying she found worms in all of them, but only one was alive. They were in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that produces hormones, which cause “violent, aggressive behavior”. These worms feed on those hormones, causing the host to go all postal on everyone. Hence all the strangling, attacking, smashing, and general freaking out that we’ve seen so far. So, Mulder deduces that the two guys who shot themselves did it on purpose, so the organism would die with them. For two guys so intent on saving everyone from this arctic worm, they seemed oddly ignorant about the dog’s infection. Maybe one of them belonged to PeTA.
Later. Scully’s in the Dead Body Storage Room checking to, um, make sure the bodies didn’t go all Shaun of the Dead on her, I guess. Mulder walks in to check on her. She can’t sleep. Mulder offers to spoon her like a little baby cat, but she just gives him a dirty look. You got a long wait ahead of you, buddy. Scully insists that the worm be destroyed, but Mulder wants to keep it alive to study it as a possible (and, there it is) alien life form that crashed to Earth millions of years ago on that meteor. “If we don’t kill it now,” Scully lectures, “we may run the risk of becoming [Blue Shirt and Not Clive Owen] with guns to our heads.” Wait, have you already read this script?
The argument escalates into a screaming match, and we cut back to Hodge and Da Silva just as a tired, frustrated and angry Scully begins to lunge for Mulder’s throat. The scientists roll their eyes.
Da Silva: They are so doing it.
Hodge: Nah. He’s putting up too much of a fight.
Da Silva: Who knows? Maybe they get off on it.
Of course, no one would know how right she is for a long time. Da Silva asks Hodge if there’s something hinky with the temperature. He explains that it’s busted, so it’s really hot. Hodge tells Da Silva that he’s sure that Mulder and Scully knew about this organism before they got there, and Hodge insinuates that Scully’s infected because she got Bear’s blood on her. Da Silva shoots back, “It also got on you.” The two head over to Mulder and Scully, who’ve now moved their fight into a smaller storage locker. Hodge asks Scully if she’s all right, totally calling her out as an infected one. Dude, how fair is that? Mulder was bitten, loses his temper and he’s not even suspected? While Scully, who’s totally right, by the way, gets accused of being controlled by some Evil Worm from Space? That’s like saying the only reason a woman gets emotional is because she’s PMSing. Sometimes I hate men. Especially men played by Xander Berkeley. Anyway, Scully, bundle of pint-sized awesomeness that she is, snaps right back at him: “What the hell are you trying to say?” Go, girl. Mulder breaks in, telling people to go to bed and not turn on each other. Hodge insists that they all be examined before bedtime, and Da Silva lamely asks if he’s going to do the exams. Hello, Other Dana! Scully’s a Medical Doctor, too!
The group splits up into guys and girls, and the guys begin to strip in the main bullpen area. There are pros and cons to this scene. Pro: Shirtless Mulder with – Oh, my – is that a six pack? No, an eight pack? Well done, Agent Mulder. Someone’s been spending a little extra time at the FBI gym. Con: Xander Berkeley, shirtless. That’s a nightmare I could have avoided. Mulder snarks, “Before anyone passes judgment, may I remind you we are in the ‘artic’.” because, apparently, his Cs are still not working properly. Cut to Scully in a tank top examining a shirtless Da Silva in what could surely be misconstrued as a lesbian love scene by the more immature (read: male) members of our audience. But that’s probably what Chris Cater was going for, anyway. Dressed and flashlight wielding, the group saunters sleepily down a dark hallway to bedrooms to the left and right. Scully pauses at a door to say goodnight to Mulder. “At least everyone’s okay,” she sighs. “Don’t forget”, he replies ominously,” the spots on the dog went away.” What a lovely thought to say goodnight on. He’s such a gentleman. Good thing he’s easy on the eyes.
Scully enters one of the AICP Members’ rooms, looks around, has a minor panic attack, and barricades the door with a nearby desk. She curls herself into a ball on the floor under a poster of a pair of half-naked women over a caption that reads, “Bosom Buddies.” Classy. Charger Fan listens to old football games on his walkman while staring worriedly at his door. Hodge spends his evening making lists of how everyone but him is the bad guy, when we all know he’s the one. Right? Da Silva, who sleeps with her giant chunky bracelet even though that’s gotta be uncomfortable, cries herself to sleep, while Mulder re-removes his shirt (not that I’m complaining) and places his gun on the nightstand. Seconds later, even though it’s probably supposed to be hours later, Mulder starts awake and turns on the light. He dresses and pads down the hall to see where that ominous clunking sound is coming from. Don’t forget your gun, Mulder! Oh, good. He got it. Flashlight in hand, he skulks the hallway, but not without noticing that Charger Fan’s door is open and his bed is empty. He enters the bullpen and the dog barks. Mulder panics and points his gun and flashlight, but it’s a false alarm. Entering the room further, he notices blood leaking from one of the industrial freezers along the wall. He opens it to find Charger Fan, covered in blood and, well, dead. Guess he’s not the guy, either. I still think it’s Evil Xander.
Just as Charger Fan falls into Mulder’s lap, Scully, Hodge, and Da Silva burst into the room. Hodge accuses him of murder, Mulder insists he didn’t do it, and Scully believes him. Hodge and Mulder start arguing. Mulder doesn’t have any symptoms, he argues. Scully steps between them and asks Mulder to take a blood test, just to be sure. So, maybe she doesn’t believe him. Mulder is worried that Hodge will doctor the results, and refuses. Scully wants to examine Mulder’s neck, but now he’s all paranoid shouty and points his gun at the three of them. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re all infected!” Hodge grabs a bottle to throw at Mulder and Mulder adjusts his aim. Scully, a note of panic in her voice, aims her weapon at Mulder and begs him to understand. Mulder swishes his weapon back to her and here we are again. Mexican standoff in Alaska. Gosh, these two have some great memories of that state. First, they almost kill each other, then an alien almost kills Mulder, then Scully saves his life. Okay, I guess it’s not all bad. Anyway, back in 1993, Scully is imploring Mulder, “You may not be who you are.” He gets it, lowers his gun, and agrees to be locked in that tiny storage locker from before. He tells Scully as she locks him inside, “In here, I’ll be safer than you.” She locks the bolt, turns, and sighs. It’s gonna be a long night, sweetheart.
She reenters the bullpen to find Da Silva asleep at a microscope. She sneaks over to examine her neck, when Hodge grabs her, waking Da Silva up. He snipes, “I can’t help noticing, you’re the only one with a gun. If you get infected, we don’t stand a chance, do we?” Y’know? I’m tired of this guy accusing Scully. Dude, she’s NOT infected. I promise. Give it a rest. You already have Mulder locked up. Why do you seem to trust Da Silva so implicitly? Is it because she has so little dialogue and is such a poorly developed character? So far, all we really know is that she sleeps with clunky jewelry, is an emotional wreck, and is possibly going through early-onset Menopause. Come on, Felicity Huffman. You’re so good on Desperate Housewives. What’s going on here? I blame the writing. Anyway, Scully removes the clips from both her and Mulder’s guns and tosses them unceremoniously outside into the blizzard. Hodge seems satisfied. He tells the ladies that “now’s not the time for the three of us to break down and turn on each other.” Oh, you mean like you were just doing ten seconds ago? Okay. “What about Mulder?” Scully reminds him. “Mulder isn’t one of us,” he shoots back. Man, I hope he dies. I don’t care if he’s the guy or not, I just want him dead. Scully comes to Mulder’s defense: “If Mulder is infected, it’s not his fault.” They should help him, not ditch him. Da Silva even agrees with her, finally showing some balls. Figuratively speaking. Hodge grabs Scully’s arm as she begins to walk away, “If he’s infected, he doesn’t go back.” “That would sure as hell make my life easier,” Scully replies, “Who knows? I could get promoted into the VCU, find a boyfriend, get married, have 2.5 kids and the white picket fence. I get this nagging feeling that none of that’s going to happen if he comes out of this alive.”
Scully breaks out of Hodge’s grasp and tries the CB Radio again, but all she gets is static. Yea, blizzards tend to do that. Hodge and Da Silva resume their places at the microscopes. They’re both bleary eyed and clearly at the end of their respective ropes. Hodge asks Da Silva to put the uninfected blood on the infected blood, because a) she’s clearly become his lab assistant, all of a sudden or b) he’s killing time, hoping to go back into that locked storage locker to find Mulder dead on the floor, having conveniently killed himself to save them the trouble. I suspect b, but could go either way. Anyway, because Da Silva is tired and Hodge is a dick, she accidentally puts the infected blood onto more infected blood. Hodge freaks out, Da Silva whines like a twelve year old who’s upset that her father won’t let her leave the house in that outfit, young lady, and as long as you live under this roof you have to live by my rules. She stomps petulantly out of frame as Hodge complains, “You’ve wasted hours of work!” In the midst of this argument, Scully’s curiosity is piqued. She slides over to the microscope and looks inside.
Those little skeletal fish things are fighting each other. Oh, look. Now they’ve killed each other. So, the only way to cure someone is to put another worm in them? Oh, fun. I can’t even stand someone else putting Q-tips in my ears. Gak. Scully calls Hodge over, who’s apparently calmed down enough to listen to her. “The larvae from two different worms killed each other,” Scully tells him. In the freezer, she puts the two worms next to each other in their clear canisters, and even though the CGI work in this shot looks like a student film by today’s standards, the worms freak out. Like if you put Japanese Fighting Fish in the same tank. That never ends well. “An individual worm will not tolerate another invading its host.” So, yea, two=zero. I need to go find some earplugs.
So, they put one of the worms into the dog’s ear. The CGI worm crawls into the ear canal of the dog and I don’t know what happened right after that because my eyes were closed. Ew! There’s whimpering and… it sounds like some twitching and… okay, it’s stopped. Yay! The dog is okay! All right. One worm left. Who killed Charger Fan?
Scully feeds the now healthy dog as Hodge explains that the dead worms were passed in the dog’s stool. Yay! So they didn’t break the first rule of filmmaking: You can kill as many people as you like, but you never, ever, kill the dog. Scully tells Hodge and Da Silva that she’s going to go in to talk to Mulder, “Try and make this voluntary.” I know I’d volunteer to have a worm forced down my ear. Because you all know how much that appeals to me. Da Silva doesn’t like the idea of her going in alone, but Scully seems to trust him enough to know that he would only trust her if she went in alone. This is good, this trust building. I wonder if they’ve built any towers of furniture yet.
Scully enters the room and turns on the light. Mulder squints back at her, his bangs curling boyishly as he listens to her explain that no one has died since they locked him up. Which is a pretty sorry reason for him to be in there. Um, maybe it’s because they’ve all been so cliquey since then, so there hasn’t been an opportunity to pick someone off? She tells him about the whole worm-kills-worm thing, and about how they’re going to put it in his ear. He’s all, “Hell, no! I don’t have the first worm!” She gets all up in his grill, “If that’s true, why didn’t you let us inspect you?” He leans down to her until their faces are inches apart, in what is an alarmingly sexually charged scene for two characters who look so exhausted, “I would have, but you pulled a gun on me. Now I don’t trust them. I want to trust you.” She agrees, and he turns around, baring his neck to her. What is it about 1013 and the back of the neck? First worms, then chips, then bees, then… weird spiny Super Soldier giveaway things. Someone has issues. Anyway, Scully pulls Mulder’s shirt down, nearly choking him (but he’s a manly man, so he doesn’t complain) and examines his neck and shoulders and… sort of… massages him. Way to cop a feel, Agent Scully. Moments later, when she’s finally satisfied, he turns dramatically and I think Gillian breaks character for just a second because of the nostril-flaring intensity on his face because she giggles in a very un-Scully-like manner. She turns to unlock the door when he grabs her by the back of her neck. She gasps. Once she figures out what he’s doing, he lets her return the favor. More massaging.
Outside the locker, Hodge and Da Silva have convinced each other that Mulder and Scully are going to come out a united front (how well they know them already) and that they need a contingency plan in case Mulder doesn’t volunteer. Mulder and Scully emerge, both looking thoroughly disheveled. “I just examined him,” Scully tells them. Sure you did. I bet it was a – eh-hem – very thorough examination. “He’s uninfected”, she continues. Yea, three guesses as to whether they buy that. Scully insists that it must be one of them, and Hodge fakes like they’re going back to the lab to get blood samples, then grabs Mulder around the waist as he and Da Silva throws Scully back into the storage locker and locks the door. When she did that, she let out this weird screech, which was so high I’m sure the dog in the other room was barking like wild. Mulder wrestles with Hodge as Scully finds some sort of… drill bit? to try and break the lock. Mulder’s on the ground with Hodge holding him, as Da Silva brings the worm ever closer to his ear. Am I gonna have to close my eyes again? Ew, ew, ew, ew… Okay, before she can put the worm in, Hodge notices a ripple along Da Silva’s neck. Oh, my God! She’s infected! It’s totally not Evil Xander! It’s awesome Other Dana from Sports Night! That sucks! So, Hodge, taken aback by this, freaks out and shoves her to the ground. The worm falls to the floor, squirming (as they tend to do) while Mulder releases Scully. Da Silva freaks out and runs out of the room, knocking over bottles and breaking all sorts of glass. She pulls a gun from an evidence bag and tries to shoot Mulder, but he tackles her and the gun goes off in the air. I’m surprised there wasn’t any falling plaster. As Hodge comes closer with the worm in his forceps, Scully shouts over Da Silva’s screeches, “Mulder! After this there won’t be any left! They’re all gonna be dead!” “Do it!” he screams to Hodge, who puts the worm in hear ear in a blessed long shot so we don’t have to see it again. She twitches like the dog, and is still, but alive.
Back on the ground in Nome, with the blizzard that was going to last three days suddenly a thing of the past, Da Silva is wheeled into an ambulance in full protective gear, while the rest of the group watch on. Hodge tells Mulder and Scully that she’ll be in quarantine with the dog, while the three of them will be released. Mulder wants to go back to the site, “fully prepared and with the proper equipment” because he wants to study the worm. He means, of course, that he wants Scully to study the worm, since last I heard he got his degree in Psychology, not entomology. But whatever. Neither does she. She’s got a medical degree, but she’s examined everything from an elephant to a boa constrictor, so I’d say that makes her qualified. But before Mulder can say, “let’s spend some more of the government’s money,” Hodge bursts his bubble by informing him that the entire station has been torched by the government ops people, and sucks to be you, Mulder, because that worm will have to remain our little secret. Mulder’s all pissed now. “It’s still there, Scully. 200,000 years down in the ice.” While staring off into the middle distance that Gillian’s become so good at in the ensuing years, Scully sighs, “Leave it there.” She walks away from Mulder, in her big, fluffy white coat with the Burlington Coat Factory hood, and the credits roll.
Recap by Adrienne (aka Starbucket)