SEASON 1

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SEASON 3

SEASON 4

SEASON 5

FIGHT THE FUTURE

SEASON 6

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SEASON 8

SEASON 9

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Back to the scene. Whoopsie, someone left a Canadian license plate on Duane's car. There's a big ol' maple leaf in between the numbers. Heh, when Nick Cave sings that "you'll see him in your nightmares, you'll see him in your dreams," Duane kinda looks at the radio and nods. He continues speeding while almost the entire song plays, until a highway patrol car stops him. The cop turns on his dashboard camera to capture all the fun that's sure to occur, and I mean that in a bad way, believe me. Duane is nervous, that song is still playing, the cop slowly walks up to the car with his hand on his gun and I can't stand the tension, arrgghhh. The cop nods at Duane, and we get a shot of Scully in the trunk with a gag in her mouth. The cop asks Duane to turn the radio off but Duane says he really needs to keep going. At the same time we hear a dispatcher over the cop's car radio that an APB (all points bulletin) has been issued by the FBI for Duane. Back at Duane's car, he asks the cop to just give him a ticket because he needs to be someplace, although he's not sure where. I hate it when I get that feeling too, although I don't think I've been abducted by aliens recently. The cop then notices Duane's medical bracelet and the blood smeared all over it and his knuckles. Oh dear. The cop draws his gun (one-handed, which is generally not the proper way to draw down on someone) and tells Duane to put his hands on the steering wheel. Duane says They are waiting for him and he can't be late.

Ohhh, the part I hate. The cop gets this scared, nervous look and repeats his request, but Duane refuses because he needs to keep moving. Duane does say, "Please, for your own sake" however, so I give him props for at least being polite. Then Scully bangs on the inside of the trunk, distracting the poor cop, and Duane shoots the guy right in the chest. Duane goes to the trunk to check on Scully, and she raises her head so we can see that she's gagged, and there's blood on her mouth. In Chris Carter's commentary on "Duane Barry" on the Mythology DVD set, he says that they had to battle the censors to get this shot. Hell, nowadays you can zoom the whole damn camera inside a bullet wound in a dead body and no one makes a peep.

In a great fade-in, the scene previous in which we saw Scully is now up on a monitor at the FBI video production unit. I wonder what they produce? It's 3:11 p.m., and Mulder and an FBI tech are going over the taped footage from the highway patrolman's dashboard camera. The tech is able to magnify the footage to show Scully in the trunk of Duane's car, and Mulder remarks that she's still alive. He asks the tech to print out the photo. I remember thinking that this scene was really cool in its day, because of the way the tech was able to zoom in on the screen and then sharpen it so that we see Scully. I'm sure they took liberties with the technology, but it's still harrowing when you watch it and the tech gives an audible "Oh my God," when he sees Scully.

Still at headquarters, it's now 4:03 p.m., and Mulder is staring at the photo of Scully and listening to the tape of Duane that the hostage negotiation team made while Mulder was talking to him in the Travel Time offices in the last episode. Mulder keeps focusing on the term Duane utters, "ascending to the stars." To break up this bit of investigative work, Krycek walks in with coffee for Mulder. He has a mug for himself as well, just so we don't think Alex went to fetch it for him or something. Krycek sits on the edge of Mulder's desk and asks how he slept. Awwww! I keep doing that. I can't help it; he's being so nice. This kinda makes me wonder if he's truly being a nice guy because he has come to like Mulder, or whether it's all show. Hmm. Anyway, Mulder says that he didn't sleep, and may I just point out that if Krycek took him home at 8:30 that morning and that it's now 4:03, he must have only tried to catnap or something. Or perhaps Alex is asking because Mulder seemed extremely relaxed when he left him, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. He's his partner! He should offer to help Mulder relieve...er...stress! Mulder keeps replaying the tape over and over again as Krycek sits there, and Nick just looks so cute and fresh-faced here it's not even funny. I love how his hair is parted; he looks like a schoolboy. Alex notices that Mulder keeps replaying "ascending to the stars," and asks Mulder what he thinks. Mulder asks Krycek where the patrolman was killed again, and Krycek tells him Route 229. Mulder thinks Route 229 leads to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but Alex doesn't know. Hey, look at that, the clock on the wall actually says 4:03. Very good, editors!

Mulder gets up and walks to a stack of phone books. The very top one for the District of Columbia is only for A-K. AK stands for Alex Krycek! It's a hidden clue! Or something. I just thought I'd point it out. Krycek isn't quite sure what Mulder is getting at with the phone books, and says, "What?" Shall I also mention how cute they look together? Because they do. Mulder finds an ad for Skyland Mountain that has the term "Ascend to the Stars" in it. Mulder then *rips the page out of the phone book*, like, how incredibly rude is that, and Krycek smiles and laughs, probably thinking Mulder's gonna get an ass-kicking for ripping up an FBI phone book, and looks amazed at his partner's deductive skills and incredulously asks if Mulder knows where Duane is going. Mulder simply tells Krycek to get his car and meet him downstairs in five minutes. Krycek kind of follows after Mulder like a puppy dog and asks where they're going, but Mulder won't tell him. Krycek worries about Skinner, but Mulder says that he'll deal with him.