Maybe this is what happened to Deepwater Horizon.
I remember the Black Oil. It's about time they brought it back, and this time with a somewhat meaningful and cohesive plot. And a really sad ending that signifies a clear change in the direction of the show, and to some degree what feels like the true end of The X-Files as we know it.
Mulder is out of the FBI. And this isn't the season finale. Sure, he's been on the ropes before, and there've been constant threats to end the X-Files, but those have always come at the very ends of seasons and with the exception of season two, where it took a few episodes to reopen the X-Files (back when we weren't even sure whose side Skinner was on), Mulder and Scully have got back to working in their shared basement office pretty quickly at the start of the next season.
But this seems diffferent. There are still three episodes left in season eight, and presumably those will largely focus on the upcoming birth of Scully's child. (Aside: I noted, I think during this episode, that it's now almost a full season since she announced her pregnancy, so why has she not given birth yet? And then it occurred to me that this show has never exactly followed the real timeline of the show's broadcast, so even though it's maybe eleven months after 'Requiem', it's possible it's only been seven or eight since the actual events of the episode, and that includes the three month flash forward in 'Deadalive'.)
Plus, there's the whole fact that Mulder is done at the FBI. This isn't a mere suspension like in 'Hollywood A.D.', and it's not just reassignment like in 'The Erlenmeyer Flask' or 'The End'. This has a more permanent feel to it, and until Kersh is out of the picture, I'm pretty sure there's absolutely no chance for reinstatement.
I knew things wouldn't go well for Mulder as soon as Kersh showed up on screen. I'm still torn as to whether Kersh is part of a bigger conspiracy or just on a huge power trip. If he's answering to someone else, I wonder who that is - there's not much time left to find out, so if he's part of a massive conspiracy, all will be revealed soon. If he's not, I hope he dies horribly and Skinner is given back control of the X-Files and reinstates Mulder. I hate the idea that in a business or in the federal government, a person who does a good job but just isn't well-liked by their superiors can be put into a situation where it doesn't really matter what they do, they're going to be dismissed anyway. (Actually, wait, I hope Kersh dies horribly whether he's part of a conspiracy or not. Or just leaves the FBI, but if he's just a power hungry asshole, that seems unlikely.)
Granted, flying off to a remote oil rig against orders is a little more egregious than pretty much anything else Mulder has done, but still, it bothers me that Kersh had it in for him since day one.
But in this episode, it also seems that Kersh values capitalist greed over justice, which is very much NOT what the FBI is or should be about. Solve the case. If it hurts a business, it's because they were doing something they shouldn't have been doing. But don't protect a business's profits, especially not Big Oil, while obstructing justice. That's extremely uncool.
Especially because here, simply moving everyone off the rig would have exposed the greater population to infection by the Black Oil. Fortunately, the thing they didn't seem to be counting on was Mulder and Doggett being on the rig, and while they couldn't stop further infection among the crew, I think they managed to put the crew in a position where they would simply destroy the rig (really, from the moment things started exploding, I knew Mulder and Doggett would end up in the water, and their flailing, screaming fall may have been one of the funniest things ever on this show).
I also think it's kind of odd that Kersh so has it in for Mulder, but for whatever reason Scully, who flouts his orders almost as much as Mulder, often - as in this episode - specifically to give Mulder help that he's asked for, is immune. I wonder if it's because Kersh knows she'll be on maternity leave soon and Doggett will be running the X-Files office without her.
That certainly doesn't make me particularly excited about the future of the show, but with only 23 episodes left, I can't exactly stop now.
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