The X-Files Season 6, Episode 9: S.R. 819

Another Skinner episode? And it's gross and veiny? Actually, the skin effects reminded me of the 'Fringe' pilot episode. I'm not even sure what to think of this one at this point. We'll probably have to revisit it later and see how it connects to events that happen over the rest of the series.

I think I predicted early in the series that Skinner would eventually be killed in some way. Throughout this episode, because we saw him apparently dead at the beginning, I was a bit disappointed because I never expected it would be like this.

I figured at some point he'd get into something over his head and die in a shootout with the Smoking Man or something. Or maybe he'd just be shot in the back of the head by the Smoking Man. I expected there'd be guns involved, not iPhone-controlled nanobots. (OK, so given that this was 1999, probably more Palm Pilot, but still. I want that app.)

And of course, they didn't kill him, but we learned some very interesting things because he thought he was dying. I hope this means that in the future, he'll advocate more for Mulder and Scully, even though they no longer work directly for him. Perhaps this realisation means that by not playing it safe, he can actually advance their cause, which he clearly believes in. Of course, that will likely put him more in harm's way, so I think my prediction should probably still stand that at some point he's going to be too much in harm's way.

Except that by the end of the episode, he seems to indicate that none of that mattered, since he's getting better now. He can go back to playing it safe and keeping his distance, which, seriously, DID YOU LEARN NOTHING, SKINNER? Trust Mulder and Scully! Give them the information they need before it's too late. Help them get to the bottom of this conspiracy.

We also found out something at the end of this episode that was really not apparent throughout it. Krycek. What the fuck, Krycek? Is this all just personal now? Do you just hate Skinner and Mulder and Scully? Or are you working for someone else evil at this point? Or the same evil people maybe?

I haven't yet gone back and rewatched this one, but I still want to so I can see if Krycek is actually recognisable in his disguise.

But besides all that, what was the point here? There was a threat against Skinner's life, but there was no end game. That is, there wasn't anything they could have accomplished simply by threatening him. Yes, there was the Senate bill, but no one ever explicitly told Skinner or anyone to do anything. All they ended up doing, and apparently all the even intended to do was simply derail Skinner's investigation of the Senate bill. Which ended up being withdrawn anyway. So yeah, I don't know.

I obviously wasn't paying quite enough attention to every previous episode because I feel now, in hindsight, that I should have suspected Krycek all along. They did a good job of not including Nicholas Lea's name in the guest credits at the beginning, because obviously that would have spoiled the big reveal, but really, every time something awful happens to someone who's on Mulder and Scully's side, Krycek seems to be behind it. It makes perfect sense to me now.

The one thing I did find a little jarring was that Skinner's assistant at one point looked a lot like Scully. She was filmed from behind and in poor lighting, and she had red hair in a similar style to Scully, who would also have had plenty of reason to be going into Skinner's office. It wasn't until they showed her face that I realised it was someone else.

It also turns out that 'someone else' was not only Mitch Pileggi's wife, but had met him on the set of The X-Files where she worked as Gillian Anderson's stand-in. So OK, my eyes weren't deceiving me, she does look a bit like Scully.