Season 2, Episode 6: Ascension

Synopsis

The title credits read "Deny Everything." Following Scully's kidnapping, Krycek says one motive for Barry's action is that he believes someone else will be abducted by the aliens if he has a buddy at the scene. Skinner tells Mulder to back off the case, since he's too close to it. Mulder, of course, doesn't follow orders. From clues in his recorded conversation with Barry, Mulder deduces that Barry is heading to Skyland Mountain in Virginia. Krycek informs his superiors of their plans and says he'll try to stall.

Mulder takes the mountain tram, aiming to beat Barry to the summit, but is stranded for a time when Krycek kills the tram operator. When Mulder finally reaches the summit, just behind the glaring lights of a UFO or helicopter, Barry is celebrating that Scully has been abducted instead of him. During the interrogation, Mulder angrily chokes Barry but grows suspicious of Krycek when Barry dies soon after Krycek speaks with him.

Mulder's theory that Barry was killed by poisoning is met with skepticism. Mr. X meets Mulder and says that any channels of appeal he has are closed, as the government conspirators have only one policy: deny everything. Mulder realizes Krycek's connection with the Cigarette-Smoking Man after finding cigarette butts in the ashtray of his car. Skinner hears Mulder's theory out: that Krycek gave away the whereabouts of Scully and Barry to orchestrate the abduction to the conspirators as a way of suppressing evidence or hindering Mulder's work. Krycek goes off the grid, and Skinner reopens the X-Files, since "that's what they fear the most."

First of a run of Scully-less episodes, figured in to compensate for Gillian Anderson's pregnancy.

Episode Body Count

Patrolman: shot and killed by Duane Barry during a traffic stop.

Tram operator: clubbed by Krycek.

Duane Barry: dies of asphyxiation; Mulder suggests that he was poisoned and the cause of death covered up.

Humans: 3
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (30/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 222
Creatures: 11
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 242