The X-Files Season 6, Episode 2: Drive

OK, this was an outstanding and super tense episode. It reminded me somewhat of two Fringe episodes, 'The Box' in one particular way that, like in that episode, didn't initially make sense to me, but later turned out to be kind of awesome and 'Johari Window' in a slightly more apparent way.

When they introduced the deaf woman, I wasn't quite sure why the writers had chosen to make the character deaf. Then I realised that was the only thing that saved her from a horrible, explosive death. The science of it doesn't entirely make sense, but really, when does it ever on this show?

The other thing that was kind of fascinating here, unlike in many episodes, is that they failed at the end. While they may have uncovered the truth of something horrifying and got the military to put an end to it, everything else they did in the episode resulted in a failure to save Mr Crump. Not that I necessarily am upset that a paranoid, anti-semitic asshole didn't quite make it, but still, that's not the point.

Actually, to be fair, I'm not entirely sure why they had to make him anti-semitic. This is now the second time in the series Mulder has been thought by a bigot to be Jewish, but I guess that's a common meme among people like Mr Crump - "You're one of them," so I suppose it makes sense. And when making an episode that takes place almost entirely in a car (or two) there's only so much dialogue you can write before you have to start branching out.

At some point in the episode, I did notice the same problem that Mulder did, which is that they started in Nevada, and there's only so far west you can go from there. I mean, yes, there's about 600 miles between the Nevada/Utah border and say, San Francisco (Just following I-80), which isn't due west, but maybe he could have got away with driving southwest for a while? Actually, probably not, considering Mr Crump's condition was worsening and at some point, I'm guessing the direction would have had to gradually become more and more due west.

Despite the fact that Scully and Mulder were separated for much of the episode, they were able to do a pretty good job of having them interact, especially because Scully was able to figure out what the others couldn't, which was that there had to be a reason Mulder wasn't heading towards the road block. I'm not saying Scully has any kind of magical mind meld with Mulder (magical Mulder mind meld. Say that five times fast) but she's been working with him for five years. Oh, right, and she's really really good at her job.

The fact that this was not a contagion was also an interesting twist. How many episodes of this show have there been where there's some infectious disease or parasite on the loose and they need to figure out how it's spread? (I can think of at least three or four, not counting all the Black Oil plots in the mythology episodes.) But not this time. Which I guess is good, except they spent an awful lot of time trying to protect themselves from an assumed infection. (I still jumped when Scully got hit with some splatter.)

I'm also amused by what seems to be a running gag of referencing a popular movie of the time in each episode, though I'm not sure they'll continue it. Men in Black in the last episode, and now Speed, which Mulder has seen.

But let's talk about Assistant Director Kersh for a minute. While Skinner seemed to advocate for Mulder and Scully, Kersh seems to be intent on making sure they stay far away from any X-Files or otherwise unexplained or unusual cases. He clearly has an agenda, especially illustrated by his suggestion that if Mulder didn't like the assignments he's being sent on, he can always quit.

This is how the government, or really any huge corporation, gets rid of people. It's hard to fire someone, because you risk lawsuits and all sorts of potential backlash - people question your hiring decisions, maybe the shareholders have some second thoughts, and so on. It's far easier to assign someone to unpleasant work you know they won't like in the hopes that they eventually quit.

And of course, Mulder and Scully do everything they can to save a life and basically this jerk doesn't give a shit. Nope, all that matters to him are the costs incurred, which are not insignificant, but the point he makes here is that there are apparently more important priorities than assisting law enforcement and trying to pursue peace and justice. You know, actually doing their jobs as FBI agents, which they probably won't be much longer at the rate they're going.

OK, no, I don't think the show will go there. They've survived at the FBI this long, and how would the show even work if they didn't have all those expensive resources at their disposal? It's not like they could just randomly show up at a crime scene in Nevada if they weren't somehow affiliated with law enforcement, right?

I guess it would give them more time to chase after aliens, though.