Original Air Date: October 21st, 1994
Episode Grade: C+
Nostalgia Index: 6/4. Other than Mulder’s desperation to find Scully, there’s not much to sink your teeth into here. Government conspiracies, Krycek the Weasel, and possible alien abductions (or staged abductions that are actually elaborate hits) abound, yet the pace is uneven.
Recap:
Picking up exactly where we left off in “Duane Barry,” Mulder returns home to check his messages. He springs into action as he hears Scully’s terrified message. Her apartment building is swarming with cops, and the broken window is smeared with blood. As he examines the scene, we get flashes of her abduction. It’s heartbreaking.
Scully’s mom arrives, and Mulder can’t even bring himself to say that they don’t know where her daughter is.
Cue the credits! This week, the tag is “Deny Everything.”
Skinner leads the war room on the case. Krycek says, although Mulder won’t, that Duane believes if he takes someone else to the abduction site, they’ll take her instead of him. Mulder looks rough—he clearly hasn’t shaved—and he agrees that Duane believes he’s been abducted. Skinner sends him home. The Cigarette Smoking Man watches.
Oh, sweet, it’s Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds! “Red Right Hand” is playing as Duane drives Scully’s car through scenery that is obviously the Pacific Northwest. He gets pulled over, and the cop tells him to cut off the radio. Aw, man. Duane says that he needs to be somewhere. The cop notices the blood on his knuckle and the plastic hospital wristband. He pulls his gun and tells Duane to get out of the car. Scully thumps on the trunk, trying to get the cop’s attention. Duane shoots him.
The camera in the cop car was still recording, and they’re able to pull an image of Scully in the trunk. Mulder is incredibly relieved to see that she’s still alive. He listens to the tapes of Duane’s insane ramblings. Krycek, still being a handsome weasel, brings an offering of coffee and support. Mulder suddenly realizes where Duane is heading and tells Krycek to get in the car. The weasel calls someone on his “cellular phone” to snitch. As they peel out of the parking lot, we see CSM enjoying a smoke nearby.
Mulder falls asleep at the wheel as they head toward the supposed destination. Krycek tries to convince Mulder to let him drive; the thing is, if we didn’t know he was a weasel, he’d actually be a very sympathetic character. Everyone treats him like shit.
At the mountain, Mulder insists—threatens, actually—the man on duty to allow him up the funicular. He tells him to keep it under 15, and Mulder immediately decides to crank it to 25, then 30. He scrapes past several towers, but just as he’s about to reach the top, Krycek pistol whips the operator and shuts off the funicular.
Mulder climbs out of the cable car and toward the nearby tower. Krycek’s expression is priceless. He switches the power back on, and Mulder just barely manages to hang on to the top of the car. He reaches the top of the mountain safely. Damn, Krycek, can’t you do anything right?
Mulder finds Scully’s car still running but deserted. Even though he knows she’s not there, he pops the trunk. Inside is a bloody rope and her gold cross. In the distance, a blinding light shines. Duane, exultant, laughs as the UFO flies off. He says that “they” took her as Mulder cuffs him. More lights shine, but this time it’s a search and rescue chopper.
Mulder questions Duane. “Did you kill her?” he whispers. It’s so painful to watch. Duane insists that he didn’t hurt Scully, but when Mulder finds blood and some distinctive gingery hairs on him, he starts choking Duane out. He stops before killing him. As he charges from the room, Duane apologizes, saying that he’s sorry they had to take her. He hopes their note hurting her too much with the tests.
Mulder runs into Krycek in the hall. Krycek didn’t see the shadowy government figures Duane mentioned.
We see Scully, illuminated by beautiful white light. There are glowing crosses on her skin. A drill bit descends, plunging into her abdomen…which appears to be heavily pregnant.
Mulder catches Krycek questioning Duane. Mulder insists that no one goes in there, and Krycek wants to know if Mulder choked the suspect. Skinner arrives and calls Mulder out for disobeying an order. Then Duane asphyxiates.
At the Quantico Morgue, Mulder looks down at Duane’s body. He asks the pathologist about her findings, and she says asphyxiation. He wants to know if they’ve done a tox screen, and she says that he’ll have to go through channels to get it. Apparently, she’s military, and since there wasn’t an FBI pathologist on duty that morning, it went through her.
Krycek meets with CSM. He wants to know why they don’t just kill Mulder. Obviously they don’t have a problem with murder, considering what they had him do. CSM says that killing Mulder will turn one man’s religion into a crusade. He says that they didn’t have a problem dealing with Scully.
Skinner questions Mulder about his involvement in Duane’s death. Although Krycek corroborates his story, it looks bad. Mulder suggests that Duane was poisoned, that the military covered up the toxicology report because they know where Scully is. He leaves, borrowing Krycek’s car keys, and stops by Sen. Matheson’s office. X is there, and he says that no one can help him. Mulder suspects that X knows where Scully is. X says that the government’s policy is simple: deny everything.
Back in Krycek’s car, Mulder looks close to breaking down. Then he notices some very suspicious cigarettes in the ashtray. Skinner brings allegations against Krycek to Skinner, stating that Duane and the funicular operator were both murdered by Krycek. Skinner says that he can’t protect Mulder, and asks what evidence he has. Mulder throws down the half-smoked cigarette…which happens to match the ones in Skinner’s ashtray from CSM’s regular visits. Skinner asks if he thinks Scully is dead; Mulder wants to know what he knows about Krycek. How far would they go?
Skinner gets a call; Krycek didn’t show up for work that morning, and his home phone is disconnected. Skinner says that Mulder will have to let it go. “Like hell!” says Mulder. “What can you do about it?” Skinner does the only thing he can do, the thing that “they” fear the most. He reopens the x-files.
Mulder meets with Scully’s mom. He has no news for her. He tries to give her Scully’s cross, saying that he had never considered the apparent contradiction of her skepticism and her faith. Her mom returns it to Mulder, telling him to give it back to Scully when he finds her.
Mulder hikes to the top of the mountain again. We see the outline of his profile illuminated by moonlight as he turns his eyes to the night sky.
Nostalgia Vision 