The X-Files Recap: Episode 8 - Ice

Posted by Brian Cramer on 05.27.2008

Bring your mittens.

Cast:
David Duchovny - Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson - Dana Scully
Xander Berkeley - Dr. Hodge
Felicity Huffman - Dr. Nancy Da Silva
Steve Hytner - Dr. Denny Murphy
Jeff Kober - Bear
Ken Kirzinger - Richter
Sonny Surowiec - Campbell

A little reader feedback before we get started here. Also a small heads-up: I'm going to be moving in a few days, so next week's column is up in the air. I will try my absolute best to have it done and posted but if it isn't, please forgive me and make sure to tune back in on June 10th as we pick things back up.

M (Guest) says: “I love reading your reviews. thanks.”
I’m glad to be able to provide you with something you enjoy reading, if only once a week. However, there’s no need to thank me. I do this in an effort to reintroduce people to the brilliance that was The X-Files and to try to entertain a little in the process. If anything, I would like to thank YOU for taking the time out of your day to read them. That’s why I take the time to write them.

Joseph Lee (Registered) says: “I disagree, I didn't care too much for this episode. Good review either way.”
To each their own, and I value your opinion. Honestly, as I stated in my reply to your comment, I didn’t care for the episode too much myself. Ghost In The Machine seemed to be faster-paced than Shadows, which made it more tolerable in terms of watching and thus, garnered it a slightly higher grading. In any case, I’m glad you liked the review. Drop me a line back either in the comments or via e-mail and let me know what you didn’t like about it. I’m always up for conversation.

JohnnyGuapo (Registered) says: “I really enjoy these reviews. I love the show and you do it justice. Keep it up.”
You might have just hit on the ultimate compliment, by telling me I do the show justice. That was my biggest concern when starting – whether or not I could write recaps and live up to the greatness of the show. It’s awesome to hear that I’m doing something right. And I’ll keep it up until I run out of episodes or get fired – I promise.

Almost any of the writers here can tell you that there’s not much we love more than feedback. We take the time to write these columns to entertain and educate. If it weren’t for you readers, we’d be preaching to the choir. Let me, and all the 411 writers, know what you think. Comment boxes are located at the bottom of every article and our e-mail addresses are appended to the end as well. Speak your minds! And as always, thanks for reading! Now – on with the show.

ARCTIC ICE CORE PROJECT
ICY CAPE, ALASKA
250 MILES NORTH OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE

A panning camera shot shows us a thermometer on the wall that puts the temperature at -34° and a clock that tells us it’s 8:29 (presumably A.M., since the light is on next to where it says that). The camera shot also shows a number of bodies strewn about, appearing quite dead. A man (Richter) walks into the scene, covered in blood, with a pistol in each hand. It’s pretty obvious some crazy shit went down. He sits down in front of a video camera and starts talking into it, saying, “We’re not…who…we are. We’re not…who we are. It goes no further than this. It stops right here…right now.” Upon getting that last word out, another guy comes up behind him, putting him in a headlock and pulling him off the chair. They struggle briefly before Richter momentarily wins long enough to grab his pistol. When he turns back around, the second guy has a gun pointed at him as well. In an extremely odd scene, Richter lowers his gun, which for some reason causes his adversary to lower his also. Richter then places his gun to his own temple, again causing the other guy to do the same. We then get a shot of the outside of the compound, accompanied by the unmistakable sound of two gunshots.

*cue The X-Files introduction credits and theme song*
THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

In the X-Files office, Mulder shows Scully a transmission received from the Arctic Ice Core Project (AICP) a week before the scene we just saw. They’re all buddy-buddy, downing some brewskies and high-fiving. Then we see the video Richter recorded in the intro. Maybe they ran out of beer? Mulder tells her that they’re either “brilliant or expendable” because they drew the assignment. Ha. He tells her they leave for Nome shortly and suggests she bring her mittens. Ha again.

DOOLITTLE AIRFIELD
NOME, ALASKA

At the airfield, everyone meets up with everyone else. We have the agents, a geologist (Murphy), a medical doctor (Hodge) and a toxicologist (Da Silva). I think I heard a joke start this way once. Oh yea – and the pilot, Bear. After some non-essential banter, they depart for Icy Cape.

Upon arrival, they find a hell of a mess. The compound is pretty much trashed and bodies are still strewn about everywhere. Mulder finds some melting ice core samples in a freezer, which Murphy is keen to take samples from. While investigating another room, Mulder gets jumped…by a dog. After unsuccessfully fending it off with a tennis racket and Bear not being able to help, Hodge intervenes and gives it a shot to tranquilize it. Mulder is unscathed but Bear got mildly bitten.

While looking over the animal, they note that it has peculiar black nodules (that’s “bumps” for people like myself who may not necessarily know what the hell a nodule is) and that it appears to have been scratching off its own hair. Suddenly, something starts moving down the side of the dog under its skin. The briefly see it and just as fast as it appeared, it vanished. Quick cut to Bear in the bathroom wrapping his arm, when a severe pain hits him. He lifts up his shirt to investigate and finds the same black nodules that the dog had under his own arm.

Scully’s autopsy results show that the men definitely killed each other. Bear awkwardly asks if any of them had the nodules. Scully says no, to which he asks if the spots weren’t the reason they got crazy. Oddly, no one, including two agents of the FBI, picked up on the fact that this guy was really edgy and had no reason to be asking those particular questions. D’oh. We also find out that the blood work showed traces of ammonium hydroxide in Richter’s blood. Apparently, that’s bad. Da Silva said she found no such toxins in the air filtration system. Murphy has though – in the ice. He also found a little organism. Scully says she found the same thing in Richter’s blood (but failed to mention it until now?)

Bear has heard enough at this point and wants to get the hell out of dodge. Hodge agrees with him but Mulder says that they can’t risk an outbreak if they bring back an unknown organism. Scully suggests they all be tested for it before they leave. Everyone reluctantly agrees – except Bear, who pretty much realizes he’s fucked at this point. He throws a temper tantrum and storms off. They vote to force him to get tested and Mulder draws his weapon and when Bear returns, he tells him that they just want to check him out. If he’s clean, they leave. Bear agrees for about ten seconds – and then smashes a jar over Mulder’s head. Scully tackles him and they subdue him over a table, where Da Silva sees the parasite moving under his skin. Hodge insists on removing it before it kills Bear. He slices into his neck and grabs the “worm” with forceps. He pulls it out, in a rather disgusting moment, and sticks it in a jar.

Mulder gets on the radio and calls to the airfield. He requests quarantine procedures and pickup, to which the airfield tells him is impossible due to weather. Turns out they’re not going to have as much time as they thought. They either get out in an hour or they’re stuck for days. Mulder returns and asks if Bear is in any condition to fly. Scully and Hodge exchange glances and she tells Mulder that Bear is dead. Well shit. That sucks. After some conjecture, the remaining team comes to the conclusion that the worm attaches to the hypothalamus and feeds off of the hormone that makes people have violent impulses. In other words, the worm makes you kill.

Late that night, Mulder and Scully argue over whether or not the parasite should be destroyed (if they can even figure out a way to effectively do so). This causes Scully to get irritated, which Hodge calls her out on after he, Da Silva and Murphy confront the agents. Hodge finally concedes that they have to check for the nodules and Scully states they’ll check each other – no secrets. We cut to the men in their own room, starting to undress, which prompts Mulder to comment, “Before anyone passes judgment, may I remind you we are in the Arctic.” Hah. Tremendous. In another room, Scully checks out Da Silva’s breasts underarms for spots and looks up and smiles at her to confirm she’s clean. At this, everyone goes to sleep.

Mulder wakes up in the middle of the night and hears a door open somewhere. He gets his gun and goes to investigate. After getting the shit scared out of him by the (now awake) dog, he notices blood dripping out of the stand-up cooler the ice core samples are kept in. He opens it to have Murphy’s body fall on him. Of course, per Murphy’s own law, at this very instant Scully, Hodge and Da Silva all appear to find Mulder holding a gun standing over Murphy’s dead body. Mulder starts getting extremely defensive, which the others take for angry (and thus, infected). Hodge grabs a tire iron, which causes Mulder to point his gun at him, which causes Scully to draw her gun and point it at Mulder. They banter for a minute until Mulder tells Scully, “It’s me!” which Scully replies to with, “…you may not be who you are.” This hits Mulder who realizes Scully may be right. He lowers his weapon and voluntarily allows himself to be locked inside a bunker of sorts, but not before telling Scully, “In here, I’ll be safer than you.”

After locking him in, Scully returns to the lab part of the compound to find Hodge and Da Silva asleep with their hands in their arms. She quietly walks up to Da Silva and is about to cop another feel check her again for nodules when Hodge grabs her arm. He then makes the comment that she’s the only one with guns and if they do get infected, no one stands a chance. Scully sees the logic in this and removes the magazines from her and Mulder’s firearms and tosses them out the door. After an unsuccessful radio transmission by Scully, we see Hodge and Da Silva working with blood samples. Da Silva accidentally puts an infected sample on a slide with another infected sample and when Scully looks at it, she sees the worms attacking and killing each other. Apparently, these little buggers don’t like each other. They opt to test this theory out on the infected dog and after introducing another worm to its system, it goes from Cujo to Lassie.

Back where Mulder is locked up, Scully wants to talk to him alone first. She doesn’t want to infect him again unless she’s sure he’s infected in the first place. In the bunker, Mulder allows Scully to examine him and then he checks her out. They open the door up and she tells Hodge and Da Silva that they’re both uninfected. Hodge suggests they go back to the main room so he can check Mulder, who can then check the two of them. As soon as Mulder turns around, Hodge jumps him and Da Silva throws Scully into the bunker and locks her in. Hodge holds Mulder down and Da Silva is about to introduce the worm when Hodge sees something moving under the skin in her neck. He pushes her away and she gets up and bolts back into the main room, completely unnecessarily destroying things on her way. Seriously – she WAY overacted that to the point of ridiculousness. The agents tackle her and hold her down and Scully yells to Mulder that this is the last worm. After this, they’ll all be dead. Mulder tells Hodge to do it anyway, which he does. Scully quotes the video to a pained Da Silva, saying, “It’s all right. It’s all over. It all stops right here, right now.”

DOOLITTLE AIRFIELD
NOME, ALASKA

Hodge tells the agents that they’ll keep Da Silva in observation to make sure she’s not contagious and that their tests all came back clean. Mulder says he’s going back to the site, with proper equipment to continue the research. Hodge informs him that 45 minutes after they all got picked up, the entire site was torched. Scully asks who did it and Hodge says he doesn’t know – military perhaps – but the agents should know: “They’re your people.” After he walks away, Mulder tells Scully that it’s still there – 200,000 years down in the ice. Scully ponders this for a moment and then replies, “Leave it there.”

*end credits*

The 411: Going along with the trend from the past couple weeks, not a bad episode but nothing groundbreaking either.

We got to see more of the relationship Mulder and Scully have, namely their trust for one another. And we got a great illustration of the kind of man Mulder is when, as passionate as we know he is about finding the truth out about things, he sacrificed the last living worm sample to save Da Silva's life without a second thought. Plus we got Xander Berkeley, who just kicks all kinds of ass.

We're pretty much right on par with last week.

Final Score:  7.5   [ Good ]