The X-Files Season 3, Episodes 15/16: Piper Maru/Apocrypha

Another two-parter! Third one of season 3! Best one of season 3! Also the densest. There are about a million plot and character threads in these two episodes, and I wish I could say we learned something from it, but I'm afraid it just opened up more questions without at least closing something.

But that's obviously the show's Thing, so I don't really expect to get any real actual answers until, I don't know, probably the second movie. Either way, 'Piper Maru' and 'Apocrypha' are two very good episodes that at first appear to diverge from the season's initial plot regarding the human experimentation and focus more on just aliens, but eventually come full circle and continue the plot threads started in 'Anasazi'.

First off, Nicholas Lea's contract needs to have a clause about haircuts, because Krycek seems to vary wildly between long and short hair, and since his face is often partly obscured, disguised, or bloody or dirty, that can be confusing. Maybe he should just wear a name tag.

Either way, Krycek is back, and he's got the MacGuffindigital tape, which appears to get him back in the Death Eaters' good graces. Well, for a time, anyway. I'd kind of wonder why he would still trust them, but then I remembered he was infected by the Hypnotic Goo at the time, so maybe he didn't really have much of a choice. But given that he ends up locked in a missile silo with a UFO and the Hypnotic Goo leaking out of his face, this seems like it was a bad idea.

Also, he's an murderer and just a general asshole, so I'm not exactly upset that he might be trapped in that silo until he dies of starvation.

The scene between Scully and Skinner regarding her sister's murder is another in the long list of scenes that demonstrate both Gillian Anderson's brilliance and Scully's growing distrust of the people she works for. Or rather, the people they answer to. Her point about being able to piece together circumstantial evidence as opposed to being apparently unable to investigate a murder with very solid evidence is unsettling, both within the show's universe and in the real world. It is a matter of interest. And like in the real world, the level of interest among those in charge of allocating resources to an investigation is extremely dependent on their interest in the victim or survivors. Here, at least, since we know that Krycek and the Death Eaters were involved in Melissa Scully's murder, it's pretty obvious what they're trying to hide and why.

But then it all gets tied together when Skinner is shot by the same person who murdered Melissa. Skinner isn't willing to put forth any conspiracy theories about the workings of the FBI, and warns Scully against using her anger to try to pursue the shooter, which of course is exactly what she ends up doing. Fortunately, she doesn't just go out and kill Luis Cardinal, but allows him to be arrested. Unfortunately, the conspiracies that Skinner isn't willing to believe exist (or at least isn't willing to indulge Scully on) end up allowing the Death Eaters to get to Cardinal first and kill him before he can be questioned.

And naturally, Cancer Man and the Death Eaters are involved in this conspiracy. Well, they are the conspiracy, and when Mulder meets with one of the Death Eaters, of course he doesn't get answers, only more questions. Though things also seem to be unravelling for Cancer Man a bit, because the other Death Eaters clearly do not trust him, and think he's kind of a lone wolf intent on doing things his way, rather than doing what they think is best as an organisation.

He's their Mulder, isn't he? Maybe he's actually Mulder's father, and William Mulder just raised him, and ... wait, no, that would be silly, because this isn't Star Wars. But either way, he's drawing attention to the Death Eaters that they'd rather not have.

I think that the Death Eaters continually underestimate Mulder, though, which makes them kind of naive. He's nothing if not persistent, and I can't believe Cancer Man would expect him to just give up and stop looking because he told him there's nothing in the missile silos. No, even if Scully won't go with him this time, Mulder's going to try to find out what's actually down there, and hopefully one of these days he will be successful.

Other random observations:

I read back over what I've written so far, and realised I mostly talked about 'Apocrypha' and not a lot about 'Piper Maru'. I guess like most of the two-part episodes, the first half was largely setup. Sure, we got Mulder's trip to Hong Kong and Scully's interview with her father's old friend, but I'm not sure there's that much I can elaborate on regarding those threads. They were largely just information gathering for the action in 'Apocrypha'.

I don't know exactly who the third conspirator in the flashback scene was, but damn they did a good job finding someone to play the young Cancer Man. He had the mannerisms and the voice down perfectly.

Also, what the FUCK is that 'submarine'? Obvious model shot is obvious. Holy shit, that's kind of hilarious and somewhat takes me out of the episode for a minute.

Oh, and one last thing. The Lone Gunmen ice skating was the most hilarious thing in pretty much any episode ever.