SEASON 1

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SEASON 4

SEASON 5

FIGHT THE FUTURE

SEASON 6

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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.