The X-Files Season 2, Episodes 16/17: Colony/End Game

Another two part episode in the middle of the season. Why do I feel like they're building towards and absolutely epic season finale here?

So, the 'Colony'/'End Game' combination isn't quite on the level of 'Duane Barry'/'Ascension', but I'm OK with that, because these episodes still told an amazingly deep and complex story, and were quite tense at times. Plus, now we see Mulder in danger. I figured that had to happen at some point. (Besides 'Aubrey', I mean, since that wasn't part of the main plot.)

I like this form of storytelling, where we are shown the outcome and then flash back to the events leading to it. And of course, because this is told in two parts, the real payoff doesn't come immediately, and the first of the two episodes ends with a cliffhanger.

But again, tension is somewhat relieved because I know Mulder can't die. Anyway.

The voiceover at the beginning of 'Colony' has Mulder describing everything he's risked to find answers to what happened to Samantha, and throughout the course of these two episodes, we see what he's truly willing to give up (answer: everything). But what's more interesting to me is that by this point, Scully is also willing to give up everything, because she confronts Skinner, calls X to Mulder's apartment and eventually finds out where Mulder has gone and follows him. This despite Mulder explicitly warning her not to do that. Oh, right, and somewhere along the way, Skinner became a TOTAL BADASS.

Of course, it's only through this risk taken by both Skinner and Scully that Scully is able to save Mulder's life. So he's probably grateful for that in the end.

By starting this episode with the present and then telling the rest of the story that happened before it, the writers are able to plant a number of misdirects while still revealing one of the major twists very early, that of the existence and possible identity of the shapeshifter.

And stories involving shapeshifters are often intriguing and tense because apparently back in the 1990s, TV writers actually still trusted audiences to be intelligent and didn't feel the need to whack them over the head with obvious hints and clues. Not everything needs to be spelled out, and in 'Colony', it isn't. But never before has "trust no one" been such sound advice. With a shapeshifter on the loose, Scully can't even trust Mulder, and it ends up being her trust in him, even given her wariness (though to be fair, she did realise it, just too late), that results in her being abducted.

Again.

Really, I think this show can do better. This is what, the third time since 'Duane Barry' that someone has taken her? Doesn't that make the writers kind of lazy? Doesn't that also make her kind of terrible at being an FBI agent?

Speaking of terrible at being an FBI agent, she clearly did not think her cunning plan all the way through when requesting X's assistance, though Mulder is partly to blame for that. Signalling X by shining a light through tape on the window is easily compromised. If someone figured out the signal, they could intercept X or simply wait to determine his identity - it's not like Mulder's apartment isn't being monitored by who knows what secret organisations. If only there'd been anonymous web-based email in the mid-1990s. I can see it now:

From: want2believe@hotmail.com
To: marks_the_spot@yahoo.com
Subject: Got plans this evening?

Message: I've got tickets to the opera. It starts at 7.
---
From: marks_the_spot@yahoo.com
To: enigmatic.doctor@gmail.com
Subject: wtf?

Message: idek how u got this email but u need to stop lol i don't know what ur talking about
---
(Google voice and other less-than-traceable phone numbers would also have been immensely helpful to these people.)

Right, anyway.

Unlike 'Duane Barry', which appeared to be a standalone episode until the final moments, 'Colony' is much more clearly part one of two, and the first part is all the setup, with the payoff coming in 'End Game'.

'Colony' gives us the idea of the clones and teases us with the possible return of Samantha Mulder, and then in 'End Game', Samantha - or rather, whoever is claiming to be Samantha - explains the origin of the clones to Mulder. Or at least the supposed origin of the clones, or whatever they want Mulder to believe so they can use him to try to save themselves.

But I think the truly great part of this set of episodes is something that was begun in 'One Breath', or even, *gasp*, '3'. In those episodes, Mulder is lost without Scully. Here, he abandons her in an effort to protect her (seriously?), and nearly dies in the process, only to be saved by Scully herself. Her rage upon entering the ER (is it even called an ER in that case?) and her insistence on saving his life, followed by relief when he finally regains consciousness later, shows how lost she was without him.

I'm probably repeating myself when I say this, but this is an amazing show for that very reason. In a world where no one can be trusted, all Mulder and Scully really have is each other. Even X and Skinner are unreliable, but we've now spent almost two full seasons as viewers getting to know these two characters and seeing that relationship, that trust built up.

Which I suppose kind of makes the whole rest of the plot less relevant or important? Nah, it's important, too. Aliens! More or less confirmed? Again? Maybe? Scully is all about the science, but I don't know that conventional science can explain a shapeshifter. Or clones that look and sound precisely identical as adults, for that matter.

So like the other mythology episodes, this doesn't really answer many questions and only presents us with more. We still don't know exactly what happened to Samantha, but the clones did have a good point - how could they know so much about her otherwise? But since Samantha's disappearance is what drives Mulder, he probably won't find out the truth too soon.