The X-Files Recap: Episode 12 - Fire

Posted by Brian Cramer on 07.01.2008

This episode is hot. Fo' real. And Mulder had a girlfriend! And you can win a dollar!

Cast:
David Duchovny - Fox Mulder
Gillian Anderson - Dana Scully
Amanda Pays - Phoebe Green
Mark Sheppard - Bob the Caretaker / Cecil L'Ively
Dan Lett - Sir Malcolm Marsden
Laurie Paton - Mrs. Marsden
Duncan Fraser - Beatty
Phil Hayes - Driver #1
Keegan MacIntosh - Michael Marsden
Lynda Boyd - Woman in Bar / Mrs. Kotchek
Christopher Gray - Jimmie Marsden
Alan Robertson - Grey-haired Man / Charles

Comments!

Twitch (Registered) says: “That Eve 6 fact was quite interesting. I never knew! Hmm…what to call the facts. "X-Facts"? "X-tra File Facts"? Well I may be a fan of the column but I never said I was much of a writer myself. =]”
Don’t sell yourself short, sir. X-Facts has a distinct ring to it, although I think I’m going to change the “F” to a “Ph”. While I’m going to keep the contest open for another week or two since you’re currently unopposed, that’s definitely the new interim name. As always, thanks for reading and continuing to prove why you’re my biggest (read: only?) fan. ^_^

So, yes, the contest will be open for a bit longer. Again, it’s nice and simple:

CONTEST: Come up with a name for 1) the “facts” section of the column and/or 2) the column itself.

PRIZE: If I end up choosing your name as the new permanent name of the “facts” section and/or column, you will win ONE dollar. A whole dollar. I mean it. I will send you a dollar and letter of congratulations. So get those entries in via comments or e-mail!

The X-Phacts: (courtesy of Twitch) *drum-roll*

Linda Boyd, who plays Mrs. Kotchek in this episode would later return in the episode F. Emasculata two years later in another bit part.

Alan Robertson, who portrays Charles, would also appear in another episode, Teso dos Bichos, three years later.

David Duchovny actually sustains a mild burn on his hand while filming this episode. During certain parts later on in the show, you can see a burn on his left hand that wasn’t there when the episode began. While not a major injury, it was severe enough to scar.

Sir Malcolm Marsden borrows his name from the show’s hairstylist. You know, I’d love to be the coffee-boy or something on a kick-ass show just to get a character named after me.

Let’s get on with the show.

Episode 12 – Fire

BOSHAM, ENGLAND
70 MILES SOUTHWEST OF LONDON

Ol’ jovial Charles bids his wife farewell – and then spontaneously combusts and kills over, while a creepy gardener looks on and smiles. Talk about starting out with a bang.

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

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Mulder and Scully find a cassette tape on their dashboard, which they pop in the car’s player. The tape chronicles a gentleman in England who found a tape, just like theirs, and when he popped it into his cassette player, it armed a detonator which was activated when he opened his car door. While Mulder and Scully piss themselves, Mulder’s ex-fling Phoebe Green from Scotland Yard jerks his car door open. Ha. That whole set-up and scene was hilarious.

Long story short, she still wants on his nuts (as evidenced by a kiss when she first sees him again, while Scully looks on is somewhat disbelief) and she wants his help figuring out who’s roasting all the important English buggers.

The arson guy at the Bureau gets off looking at the pictures of the fires that Phoebe brought with her. After he cleans himself up, he rattles of some theories but the bottom line is he has no idea what could’ve caused them to catch fire.

CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTES

The English guy that escaped death once arrives with his family at his new safe-house. Inside a painter (our gardener from the intro scene) is painting the walls with a type of rocket fuel. He sees the family, stops painting and lights a cigarette with…well, nothing. He just puts it in his mouth and it lights itself. I HAVE to learn that trick.

He introduces himself as the caretaker, Bob, to the couple, walks outside and smiles towards the kids. He then frowns towards their dog, who has taken it upon himself to start digging something. He kicks the dog out of the way to reveal the buried arm of the real caretaker.

In the X-Files office, Mulder fesses up to Scully that he’s scared to death of fire and this is all a mind-game that Phoebe is playing by showing up ten years later with this case.

Back in Cape Cod, the creepy-ass fire guy stands outside the kitchen window and stares at Marsden’s wife in a less-than-innocent way. He hears someone outside coughing and finds the Marsden’s driver, who he offers to get cough medicine for when he goes to town.

At a bar in town, a woman hits on Bob, who offers to light her cigarette for her. At first, a flame appears at his fingertip but when she turns to get people’s attention to show them and turns back, his whole arm is in flames. He slams it down on the bar; effectively wasting a whole bunch of alcohol I could be drinking. Bastard.

BOSTON MERCY HOSPITAL

Mulder and Phoebe visit the woman from the bar in the hospital. She tells them what happened and that the guy had an English accent. Somehow, in the midst of this, we learn that Mulder and Phoebe got freaky on top of Sir Arther Conan Dolyle’s tombstone. Go figure.

FBI HEADQUARTERS
WASHINGTON, D.C.

Scully sneaks a peek at the case file and profiles the victim. Male, less than 25-years-old and likes to satisfy sexual urges or insecurities with destructive behavior.

We segue back over to Cape Cod where Bob makes a cigarette disappear from his enclosed fist and makes it reappear, lit and half-smoked, from his ear. This impressed the Marsden boys (and me). He then makes a few cigarettes light themselves and actually tries to get the boys (they’re about 10-years-old) to smoke them before they’re interrupted by Mrs. Marsden. Apparently, the driver has gotten worse and they need someone to drive them into town for a banquet. Bob is more than happy to oblige.

Scully continues her profile. Usually unmarried and prone to obsessive fantasies about women or men who are inaccessible to him. She makes the connection between Marsden’s trip to the U.S. and the fire in the bar. An agent brings her a list of recent immigrations as we cut to Mulder and Phoebe.

They decide to set a trap at the party tonight. Phoebe is travelling with the family and tells Mulder to go ahead to the hotel and have a look around.

VENABLE PLAZA HOTEL
5:15 P.M.

Scully calls Mulder as he checks into his room at the hotel and tells him that she might have information about the arson suspect. He seems rather apprehensive about her actually coming to Boston though.

6:47 P.M.

The family arrives and festivities begin. Mulder is chilling in a room connected to the banquet room presumably standing guard. Phoebe joins him and gets him to dance with her. Scully takes this time to appear and sees them dancing but doesn’t say anything. She just sighs and waits. She notices Bob standing creepily behind a plant but thinks nothing of it. She then sees Mulder and Phoebe kissing. What a night for Scully. She notices Bob is gone and oh – look at that – there’s a fire on the 14th floor. This gives her a reason to break up Mulder and Phoebe’s moment. Ha.

Mulder tries to get to the kids but chokes (proverbially and literally) and collapses. The firemen help him back downstairs and Bob emerges from the elevator (aren’t you supposed to avoid those during a fire?) with the kids safe in hand. Ha! The pyromaniac sets the fire and then saves the kids to impress their mother. Nice.

Back in Mulder’s hotel room, he’s laying in bed recuperating with Scully at his bedside. Aw. He tells her that he panicked and is pissed at himself. Phoebe arrives around this time and tells them that the family is going back to Cape Cod after the party to pack and head back to England. During all this, Scully’s the only one suspicious of Bob but Phoebe says he checked out (going under the assumption that he was the driver and the real driver’s credentials DID check out).

Scully gets to the point of her visit, which was the fact that on her list of hired help of the victims, the name Cecil L’Ively appeared on two of the victims. Cecil L’Ively also died in 1971. Oh yea – and a visa was issued to a Cecil L’Ively and stamped by the port in Boston two weeks prior. Mulder tells her to get the sketch from the woman in the hospital and he’s going to find Phoebe. Scully calls for the sketch just as it’s faxed over. It is, indeed, the “driver”. She tries calling Mulder but he’s “out of the area”.

Mulder races back to the Marsden safe-house and barges in to find Phoebe mackin’ it with Mr. Marsden on the staircase. Wow. Ha. What a skank. He tells her to go find the rest of the family because they have to get them out of there. Scully arrives and tells him it’s the driver. He says he knows because the driver disappeared. Thing is, they’re not talking about the same driver and they don’t realize it. When they show the Marsden’s the sketch, the clear it up and tell them that’s not the driver, it’s the caretaker – and he’s upstairs with the boys.

Upstairs, Mulder finds the REAL driver burned to a crisp in his bathroom (you’d think someone would’ve noticed that smell) and Phoebe yells for Mulder to come to the bedroom that she and the Marsden’s are in. When he and Scully get there, things in the room start randomly catching fire. Everyone obviously gets the hell out of dodge.

Mulder goes back upstairs to go after the kids. L’Ively appears behind him in the hallway and snaps his fingers, effectively setting the whole hallway ablaze. He heads downstairs where Scully trains her gun on him. He tells her she won’t shoot for fear of the spark of the gun blowing the whole house up. Phoebe appears from around the corner and throws a glass of the accelerant in his face. Was that really such a smart idea? I digress. He stumbles out the front door and we cut back to Mulder.

Upstairs, Mulder lets his balls drop and makes his way down the engulfed hallway to the room the kids are in. After legitimately burning his hand on a wall (see the X-Phacts) he busts in the door to get the kids.

Outside, Mulder appears carrying the kids as L’Ively decided setting himself completely on fire and presumably killing himself is a good idea. He yells, “You can’t kill me!” and “You can’t fight fire with fire!” before collapsing in a blazing heap. Everyone looks on in amazement and disgust.

In the X-Files office, Mulder sits, thinking. A door can be heard opening and an English accent saying, “Care to take me to lunch?” It’s Scully. Ha. Tremendous. Mulder says Phoebe never called but did messenger him another cassette tape. He hasn’t played it though and doesn’t seem too concerned to get around to it.

Our buddy Cecil, as it turns out, it alive and chilling in a hyperbaric chamber in a high-security medical facility. Apparently, he has extraordinary tissue regenerative capabilities and is expected to fully recover from his 5th and 6th degree burns in as little as a month. A nurse checks on him and asks him if she can get him anything and through his disgustingly burned face, he answers, “I’m just dying for a cigarette.” and smirks.

*end credits*

The 411: A great stand-alone episode. While most of it isn't really applicable in the future, we learn more of Mulder's past and get to meet one of his old flings. We also get to see Scully's awesome reactions to this.

We also got a kick-ass story that is an easy, enjoyable watch as much the third and fourth time as it is the first. Good episode worth the viewing. Thumbs-up.

Final Score:  8.0   [ Very Good ]