Season 2, Episode 16: Colony

Synopsis

A voice-over by Mulder says that what happened to him "out on the ice" has justified his beliefs. Meanwhile, he is being treated for hypothermia when Scully bursts in and tells the doctors that the cold is what is keeping Mulder alive. Mulder goes into flatline.

Two weeks before, the crew of an Arctic vessel rescues a man after a UFO plunges into the sea. This fellow, the "Alien Bounty Hunter," disappears from an Alaska hospital and begins murdering East Coast abortion doctors with identical appearances; doctors who have the same green blood we've seen before.

A CIA agent named Ambrose Chapel tells Mulder and Scully that he believes the doctors are clones introduced by the Soviet government to wreak havoc during the Cold War, and that they a Russian spy is eliminating them to cover it up. However, another doctor freaks out on seeing Chapel when the agents stop by with him, and Chapel kills him after a foot chase. Later, Scully observes Chapel, evidently a new disguise of the Bounty Hunter, destroying some biological vats that the doctor had been tending in a warehouse.

Mulder is called home to Martha's Vineyard by his parents and gets a surprise when it turns out that his sister has apparently returned. Samantha says she had no memory until recently and has been raised by a foster family...which includes aliens the Bounty Hunter is after. Scully finds four clones while investigating the trashed biological vats and sends them into protective custody. The Bounty Hunter finds them anyway. Meanwhile, Scully gets a visit from Mulder at the same time she gets a phone call from him. To be continued...

Ken Roberts, who plays the Motel Proprieter, has a few roles as an announcer, notably in The Electric Company.

Episode Body Count

Doctors Landon Prince, Dale Gayheart, and Harvey Buchanan: alien abortion doctors who are apparently murdered by the Alien Bounty Hunter.

Doctor Aaron Baker: an alien also killed by neck-stab by the Alien Bounty Hunter.

Agent Barry Weiss: apparently dies of exposure to the Alien Bounty Hunter's blood.

Dr. James Dickens: an alien murdered by the Alien Bounty Hunter in the guise of Ambrose Chapel.

Four alien clones: it is strongly implied that the Alien Bounty Hunter does them in. I'll undead them if any got away.

Humans: 1
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 9

Cumulative Body Count (40/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 281
Creatures: 18
Aliens: 18

Grand Total: 317

Season 2, Episode 15: Fresh Bones

Synopsis

A Marine private stationed at a processing center for Haitian refugees in North Carolina is killed after plowing his car straight into a tree, and his wife suspects voodoo instead of suicide. Traveling to the camp, a young boy sells a lucky charm to Scully and the camp commander tells the agents that one man, Pierre Beauvais, incited a riot recently based on voodoo that resulted in a 10-year-old boy's death. The Marine's body is replaced by a dog carcass, apparently as a warning.

Mulder and Scully get a surprise when they find the private dazed but alive and walking down a road. Meanwhile, another private tells the agents that Beauvais threatened to take the souls of the men at the camp, and is fearful of the young boy, Chester, who has befriended them. Scully is pricked with a strand of thorns hidden in the agents' car, and fails to notice that it's parked on top of a voodoo symbol. Mr. X says the commander is seeking to kill Haitians in revenge for three voodoo-related deaths in a recent U.S. incursion in the country.

More people die of apparent suicide, and Mulder and Scully find that two of the dead Marines filed complaints against the commander and the bones of one of them are in his office. The commander is found conducting a voodoo ceremony, but is stopped by Mulder and Beauvais. Scully starts to see some creepy images, but is saved by the charm. As the refugees are relocated, it is revealed that Chester is the boy who died in the riot.

Episode Body Count

Private Jack McAlpin: drives into a tree marked with a voodoo symbol after seeing strange visions. However, McAlpin returns from the dead soon after and is apparently still alive at the end of the episode.

Chester: a 10-year-old boy killed in a riot at the camp.

Manuel Guttierez: another Marine who killed himself or was murdered prior to the episode.

Dead dog: found in the morgue instead of McAlpin's body.

Harry Dunham's fiance: Dunham says she died on her wedding day and an autopsy found snakes in her stomach.

Three U.S. soldiers: Mr. X says they took their own lives during a recent intervention in Haiti, and two were in a unit controlled by the camp commander, Colonel Wharton.

Harry Dunham: Marine private, commits suicide by slitting wrists in bathtub.

Pierre Beauvais: Wharton says he cut his wrists with a bedspring, but it is more likely that he was murdered by Wharton or his men. Though he seems to return from the dead, he is still lifeless in the coffin when Scully gives it a peek.

Colonel Wharton: dies after Beauvais performs some sort of counter-curse on him. Or doesn't, but considering he's being buried alive at the end I think I can include him here.

Humans: 10
Creatures: 1
Aliens: 0

UNDEAD'D: One human.

Humans: 9
Creatures: 1
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (39/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 280
Creatures: 18
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 307

Season 2, Episode 14: Die Hand Die Verletzt

Synopsis

A routine parent-teacher meeting in New Hampshire ends oddly when the participants do a prayer to the forces of darkness. Meanwhile, a playful witchcraft ceremony in the woods ends with one teenager dead and another terrified that they accidentally summoned a demon of some sort. The faculty covers up their own occult rituals by blaming things on the devil music the kids listen to these days and such.

Mulder and Scully find plenty of odd things in the area, including a brief rain of frogs and Shannon Ausbury, a girl who tells of terrifying occult abuse from her stepfather, a member of the parent-teacher council. Mulder begins to suspect the faculty members, and Shannon's stepfather, Jim, cooperates with Mulder after Shannon is murdered and the group tries to cover it up. He says the rituals take place under hypnosis, with the children to be made aware of the religion when they come of age.

Jim is killed for his troubles, and Mulder and Scully are soon captured by the cult. Though they are about to be sacrificed, the cult members instead kill themselves, while under the control of the eerily possessed biology teacher Phyllis Paddock. The agents realize that she is behind everything, only to find that she has disappeared.

Dan Butler, who plays Jim Ausbury, had a recurring role on Frasier as Robert "Bulldog" Briscoe. Laura Harris, who played Andrea, was also Daisy Adair on Dead Like Me.

Episode Body Count

Jerry Stevens: murdered after a witchcraft ceremony goes wrong, has his eyes and heart cut out.

Mutilated 1930s teenage boy: Scully finds an account from a Nazi newspaper of a boy murdered in the same way as Stevens was.

At least six fetal pigs: passed out for dissection during a class.

Shannon's sister: Shannon says she was murdered at age eight; her mother says she died when she was eight weeks old.

Shannon Ausbury: cuts her wrists while under some sort of hypnotic control of Paddock.

Jim Ausbury: throttled by Paddock's python.

Three PTC/cult members: commit suicide while under Paddock's control.

Shannon also says she was impregnated three times and the babies were sacrificed, but Jim Ausbury claims she was never sexually abused. I'll have to leave those out of the count. This one should still be impressive, though.

Humans: 8
Creatures: 6
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (38/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 271
Creatures: 17
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 297

Season 2, Episode 13: Irresistible

Synopsis

Mulder and Scully travel to Minneapolis, Minnesota to investigate a grave that's been unearthed, with the hair and nails removed. Mulder knows that the incident isn't related to the supernatural, but thinks it a good opportunity to catch the Vikings-Redskins game at the Metrodome. When more graves are desecrated, Mulder warns that they might have an "escalating fetishist" on their hands.

The culprit, Donnie Pfaster, advances to a live victim when he kills a prostitute and desecrates her body. He also takes a shine to a young woman after landing a job as a delivery driver, and a woman in his night class...and then Scully. Meanwhile, Scully is finding it difficult to deal with the case. A fingerprint is found on the prostitute's corpse; a raid at Pfaster's apartment fails to capture Pfaster himself, and Pfaster kidnaps Scully.

More on a lucky guess than anything, Mulder and a field agent find that Pfaster's mother has a residence in Minneapolis. Pfaster is arrested in another raid, and Scully is traumatized but safe.

Bruce Weitz, who plays Agent Bocks, starred as Sgt. Mick Belker on Hill Street Blues and Anthony Zacchara on General Hospital. Jessie L. Martin, who has an uncredited role as a guard, is best known for his role as Detective Ed Green on Law and Order. Christine Wiles played Delores Herbig in Dead Like Me and Karen Kosseff in this and three other episodes.

Episode Body Count

Jennifer: a young woman whose funeral takes place at the beginning of the episode.

Catherine Ann Terle: a 21-year-old woman whose grave is disturbed.

Two more graves: Agent Bocks says that three bodies (presumably including Terle) have been desecrated in the past two days.

Satin: a prostitute who is murdered by Pfaster.

Pfaster's mother: Bocks says she died a year prior to the episode.

Humans: 6
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (37/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 263
Creatures: 11
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 283

Season 2, Episode 12: Aubrey

Synopsis

The body of an FBI agent who disappeared in 1942 is found buried in a field in Aubrey, Missouri. Mulder says the agent and his partner were known for investigating serial murders and using psychology to do so, a practice as odd as the X-Files at that time. The woman who discovered the body despite the lack of hints of its presence, a local pregnant detective named B.J. Morrow, has been having nightmares that seem to be related to the murders.

A current set of murders in Aubrey has distinct similarities to the ones in the 1940s, namely that the word "sister" or "brother" is carved in their chests. The agents question a 77-year-old man, Harry Cokely, who Morrow recognizes from her dreams and who was convicted of rape and attempted murder in an identical slashing in 1945. Though the evidence seems to point to Cokely, the agents realize that Morrow is the granddaughter of Cokely and the woman he raped; Mulder believes that Cokely's memories were passed down to her and are causing her to commit murder.

Morrow attacks her grandmother, then Cokely. Briefly holding Mulder at razorpoint, Morrow relents after Cokely dies. She is committed to the psychiatric ward of a hospital, with a court hearing over custody of her child pending.

You don't recognize Terry O'Quinn? That's John friggin' Locke from Lost! Though he's also had prominent roles in other shows, including Millenium and Alias, as well as movie roles including Old School and, hey, The X-Files. Morgan Woodward, who plays Harry Cokely, had numerous Western roles and a recurring role on Dallas as Marvin "Punk" Anderson. Sarah-Jane Redmond, in a bit role as Young Mother, played Sgt. Sheila Kurtz on Da Vinci's Inquest.

Episode Body Count

Unknown murder victim: killed and found with the word "sister" carved into her chest.

Agent Sam Chaney: disappears in 1942, found at the beginning of the episode.

Three murders: Mulder says Chaney and his partner disappeared while investigating three bludgeoning deaths of young women in Aubrey.

Verna Johnson: murdered and found in an empty swimming pool.

Tim Ledbetter: Chaney's partner; his remains are unearthed by Morrow in a basement.

Harry Cokely: dies after being slashed by Morrow.

Humans: 8
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (36/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 257
Creatures: 11
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 277

Season 2, Episode 11: Excelsis Dei

Synopsis

A nurse at a Massachusetts convalescent home is raped by an invisible man, and suspects one of the residents at the facility. It turns out that the resident is one of a set of people receiving an experimental treatment for Alzheimer's disease, and it seems to be restoring mental and physical functions. Scully says that excessive use of the medication can lead to schizophrenia, but Mulder points out that it doesn't explain the invisible aspect and suspects that the nurse is simply trying to get out of her job.

Meanwhile, several residents are taking excessive doses of the drugs, and an orderly falls to his death after being pushed out a window by an invisible attacker. Mulder finds a plot of mushrooms in the basement, and another orderly admits to giving them to residents in small amounts. He says the mushrooms are used to speak to spirits, and that the mistreatment of residents has led to anger in the spirit world. Mulder and the nurse are caught in a flooding bathroom by paranormal forces, but escape after a resident experiencing seizures from the mushroom dosage is treated. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health takes over the facility, and the residents relapse into their previous states.

Frances Bay, who plays Dorothy, is probably best known as Mabel Choate (from whom Jerry Seinfeld steals a marble rye) in a classic episode of Seinfeld. Sab Shimono, who plays Gung Bituen, has done quite a bit of voice work, including Mr. Sparkle on an episode of The Simpsons. Teryl Rothery, who plays Michelle Charters, also starred as Dr. Janet Fraiser in Stargate SG-1.

Episode Body Count

Mrs. Richardson: two nursing home orderlies say she has recently died; circumstances are unclear, but they include a face plant in a bowl of pudding.

Hal Arden: chokes to death on a pill.

Jerry Tiernan: falls to his death after being pushed out of a fourth floor window by an invisible assailant.

Upshaw: found buried in the home's basement by Mulder.

Humans: 4
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (35/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 249
Creatures: 11
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 269

Season 2, Episode 10: Red Museum

Synopsis

The son of a Wisconsin slaughterhouse worker is found 12 hours after his disappearance, wandering in his underwear with the words "He Is One" written on his back. Several similar incidents have taken place in the state, and the local sheriff suspects the Church of the Red Museum, a vegetarian commune. Mulder describes them as "walk-ins," part of a new age belief of opening yourself up to enlightened spirits; the kidnapped boy describes a similar experience.

The sheriff's son, Rick, turns out to be an active bully of the cult; after Rick's girlfriend is also briefly kidnapped, the agents find that a hallucinogenic substance has been used on her. The cult's leader is arrested as a potential suspect. An old man suggests to the agents that a bovine growth hormone used by local ranchers may be part of the rise in crime in the area.

After a plane crash kills a local doctor, the agents find that every kid who was kidnapped was also delivered by the doctor. The Crew-Cut Man shows up to murder a rancher, and then kills the sheriff's son. A peephole and a ton of videotapes are found in a hidden area in the slaughterhouse worker's house; the building's owner, Gerd Thomas, confesses to the kidnappings but not the murder. Thomas says the doctor was inoculating local kids with the bovine hormone, but Scully says the toxicology tests on the vial the doctor was carrying came back as the "purity control," and so the kids may have been test subjects for alien DNA. She also recognizes the Crew-Cut Man as Deep Throat's murderer after a chance encounter.

The kids affected are given sanctuary in the Red Museum. The agents manage to track down the Crew-Cut Man, aiming to capture him alive, but the sheriff shoots him. In her final report, Scully says the Crew-Cut Man is unidentifiable, the inoculant is determined to be an antibody of unknown origin that breaks down after a few weeks, and the Red Museum may have been a control group.

Episode Body Count

Pilot and Dr. Jerrold Larson: killed in a plane crash.

Rancher: shot and killed by the Crew-Cut Man.

Rick Mazeroski: killed by the Crew-Cut Man.

Crew-Cut Man: shot dead by Sheriff Mazeroski.

Humans: 5
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (34/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 245
Creatures: 11
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 265

Season 2, Episode 9: Firewalker

Synopsis

A team of volcanic researchers in the Cascade Mountains send out a distress call; another research station manages to pick up an image from Firewalker, a robotic volcano probe, that shows a dead seismologist and mysterious shadow. Mulder and Scully are sent to the scene, and find that the station in shambles and team members afraid of vulcanologist Daniel Trepkos, who thought up Firewalker.

Mulder becomes fascinated with Trepkos' notes stating that he may have found a new organism, while Scully wants to get the team out since they're suffering from post-traumatic stress. A team member dies after a fungus bursts from his throat, and the station goes into self-quarantine. Scully determines that the fungal spores become harmless unless they are immediately ingested or inhaled.

Mulder finds Trepkos, who has been hiding out in a volcanic chamber, and he reveals that all of the team members except him were infected when the fungus was first discovered. Scully narrowly avoids contamination herself when the last surviving team member handcuffs herself to Scully for some unknown reason. Mulder lets Trepkos go, and he and Scully enter quarantine. The volcano is sealed off, as Trepkos continues to live in hiding on the site.

David Kaye, who has a bit part as a reporter, has done a fair amount of voice work, including Optimus Prime on the animated series of Transformers (and, ironically, Megatron on other Transformers shows). Shawnee Smith, who plays Jessie O'Neil, also played Linda on Becker and Amanda in the movie Saw. Bradley Whitford (Trepkos) is best known for his role as Josh Lyman on The West Wing, but also appeared in the movies Philadelphia, Scent of a Woman, and Revenge of the Nerds II.

Episode Body Count

Phil Ericson: chief seismologist on the research team, dies of spore contamination.

Dr. Adam Pierce: strangled to death by Trepkos.

Peter Tanaka: dies of spore contamination and a very nasty throat fungus.

Jason Ludwig: shot with a flare gun by Trepkos, and subsequently set on fire to destroy the fungus.

Jessie O'Neil: dies of spore contamination.

Humans: 5
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (33/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 240
Creatures: 11
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 260

Season 2, Episode 8: One Breath

Synopsis

Scully arrives under unknown circumstances in a Washington, D.C. hospital, comatose and in critical condition. Her living will includes a condition for euthanasia under certain circumstances. The Lone Gunmen (communicating with a new hacker member named The Thinker via the Internet) say that Scully has abnormal protein chains in the blood, and that it is unlikely her body will be able to fight off the infection.

Mr. X tells Mulder to leave the matter alone after a man steals a blood sample from Scully; however, he kills the man soon after. Mulder believes the Cigarette-Smoking Man is involved in Scully's abduction, and demands that Skinner reveal where he is without success. He gets the Cigarette-Smoking Man's address through a secret message, and goes to confront him. The Cigarette-Smoking Man says Mulder can kill him, but then he'll never known the truth.

Mulder, upset over the complicity he feels in Scully's condition, tenders his resignation from the FBI. Skinner refuses to accept it, telling Mulder about an out-of-body experience he had and how Mulder is willing to look into such things while Skinner isn't. Mr. X tells Mulder that he needs to kill the people behind Scully's abduction, who will break into his apartment looking for information on Scully. Instead, he goes to visit Scully at the hospital; the next morning, she wakens, having no recollection of the events of her abduction.

First time Mulder refers to the CSM as "Cancer Man," which he'll be from now on because it takes less time to type. Melinda McGraw, who plays Melissa Scully, was Barbara Gordon in The Dark Knight.

Episode Body Count

Overcoat Man: executed by Mr. X after trying to steal Scully's blood sample.

Vietnamese boy: Skinner says he killed a 10-year-old boy in the Vietnam War after the boy walked into camp covered with grenades.

Skinner also says his squad was wiped out soon after, but no numbers are given.

Humans: 2
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (32/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 235
Creatures: 11
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 255

Season 2, Episode 7: 3

Synopsis

Mulder travels to Los Angeles, currently in the midst of wildfire season, to investigate a murder in line with a series of killings involving blood draining and smashed mirrors. He finds a blood bank night watchman drinking some of the goods and, in true vampire fashion, the suspect dies shortly after he is exposed to sunlight in confinement. Before he croaks, however, the man says two people are working with him (The Father and The Unholy Spirit) and they consume blood as a way of sustaining youth.

Mulder meets a seductive woman, Kristen Kilar, and believes she is trying to protect herself due to the presence of a blood-filled loaf of bread in her apartment. She and Mulder become romantically involved. John returns, saying he is able to do so thanks to his vampirism, and urges Kilar to kill Mulder to become like them. Instead, Kilar tells Mulder to flee. After a confrontation with the remaining vampires, Mulder is able to get away while Kilar blows up her house, killing herself and destroying the vampires.

Justina Vail, who plays The Unholy Spirit, played Dr. Olga Vukavitch on Seven Days. Perrey Reeves, who plays Kristen Kilar, also plays Mrs. Ari on Entourage.

Episode Body Count

Six murder victims: Mulder says the group leaves the same signs at their kills and have killed six people in the past year, presumably including the death in the intro.

John, The Son: burns to death after exposure to sunlight, presumably from congenital erythropoietic porphyria. Briefly UNDEAD'D, but then gets incinerated when Kilar blows up her house.

David Yung: drained by The Father.

The Unholy Spirit: staked against a peg on the garage wall after being rammed by Kilar's car and subsequently burned to death.

The Father: stabbed by Kristen and then incinerated.

Kristen Kilar: immolated after setting fire to her house to destroy the vampires.

Humans: 11
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (31/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 233
Creatures: 11
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 253

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

Season 2, Episode 5: Duane Barry

Synopsis

In the opening, a man named Duane Barry is abducted by aliens in 1985, evidently a common occurrence for him. In the present day, Barry is institutionalized but manages to escape, taking his shrink and three other people hostage in a Virginia office building. Mulder is brought in to talk to Barry due to his focus on abductions, and finds that Barry is former FBI.

After one of the hostages is shot, Mulder is sent in with another agent, disguised as paramedics. Defying orders, Mulder begins to talk with Barry about his experiences, getting himself exchanged for the wounded hostage. Scully is horrified to hear this after finding that Barry suffers from a state of psychosis characterized by pathological lying and violence. Meanwhile, Barry tells Mulder that the government cooperates with the aliens rather than reveal the truth, and that the aliens keep tabs on him with implanted tracking devices.

Barry agrees to let two other hostages go, keeping only Mulder and the shrink. Barry is subsequently shot and wounded by a marksman to end the standoff. Another agent lets Mulder know that Barry's X-rays seem to confirm his story, including the presence of implants where he said they would be and holes drilled in his teeth with superhuman precision. Soon after, Barry flees the hospital and kidnaps Scully.

Steve Railsback, aka Duane Barry, had the notable role of Charles Manson in the TV movie Helter Skelter. Sarah Strange, who plays the hostage Kimberly, also had recurring roles as Helen on Da Vinci's Inquest and Theresa in Men in Trees. CCH Pounder, who played Agent Lucy Kazdin, also played Dr. Angela Hicks for several episodes of ER and Captain Claudette Wyms on The Shield.

Episode Body Count

Barry clocks a police officer with a fire extinguisher pretty good, but from here it looks like another zero sum game.

Humans: 0
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (29/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 219
Creatures: 11
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 239

Season 2, Episode 4: Sleepless

Synopsis

A prominent sleep disorder doctor dies in his apartment after reporting a fire; however, no signs of the blaze are found at the building. Mulder manages to get assigned to the case after being tipped off about it, and is joined by a new partner named Alex Krycek. Scully's autopsy finds all of the secondary signs of death by fire, as if the doctor believed he was burning.

A man named Augustus Cole visits an old military buddy, who is subsequently found dead with wounds that suggest gunshots but have no external trauma. Mulder and Krycek find that the doctor, Cole, and the newly dead man were all part of the same Marine unit during the Vietnam War. Mr. X visits calls Mulder to visit him in person and gives him a report showing how the military was looking into ways to remove the necessity of sleep in soldiers, and how the dead men were part of such an experiment.

Mulder thinks Cole, who hasn't slept in 24 years, may have developed the ability to project his consciousness onto other people. Another surviving member of the experimental squad tells the agents that the squad went AWOL and were responsible for a terrible massacre, and that Cole may be seeking justice for those who died.

Mulder and Krycek look for Cole and another doctor who took part in the experiments. They find Cole after he nearly kills the doctor with a vision. Mulder tries to talk to Cole, who is despondent after so long without sleep, but Krycek kills him after believing Cole is pointing a gun at Mulder. The episode concludes with the revelation that Krycek is a plant from the Cigarette-Smoking Man and his cronies.

Tony Todd, who plays Cole, was also the Candyman in a series of horror movies bearing that name. Jon Gries, who plays Salvatore Matola, played Broots for several episodes of The Pretender as well as Roger Linus on Lost.

Episode Body Count

Dr. Saul Grissom: dies after thinking that his apartment is on fire.

Henry Willig: dies after believing he has been shot multiple times.

Augustus Cole: shot and killed by Krycek.

Humans: 3
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

A few serious wounds aren't confirmed as deaths. And then there were the 4,000-plus confirmed kills Mr. X mentions regarding the experimental squad, presumably including a massacre that kills over 300 people...

"Such figures, while reflecting the tragic cost of war, serve to artificially inflate the tally of investigation deaths and therefore don't count!"

Cumulative Body Count (28/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 219
Creatures: 11
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 239

Season 2, Episode 3: Blood

Synopsis

A Pennsylvania postal worker, Ed Funsch, starts seeing messages in electronic equipment urging him to kill after he is laid off. In the same city, four people on an elevator are murdered, the latest in a rate of notable killing sprees in the normally sleepy area. Mulder is called in to investigate as Funsch, who has a fear of blood, tries to resist further electronic messages to kill.

A woman kills her mechanic after seeing messages, and is killed by a police officer after attacking Mulder during the investigation. Scully theorizes after the autopsy that an unknown chemical found in the body, combined with substances secreted during phobic episodes, created a substance akin to LSD. The Lone Gunmen tell Mulder that an insecticide called LSDM creates a fear response on insects. Mulder finds that crops around the city are being sprayed with the substance, and that the killings might be a result of heightened fears in the killers.

The city agrees to stop spraying and start blood testing of residents, but of course that doesn't appeal to Funsch. The agents find electronic devices at Funsch's residence trashed, and Mulder realizes that he has a fear of blood. Funsch begins opening fire on a blood drive from a clock tower on a college campus, but Mulder is able to capitalize on Funsch's fear and stop him.

William Sanderson, who plays Funsch, has played a number of roles including Larry on Newhart, E.B. Farnum on Deadwood, Sheriff Bud Dearborne on True Blood, and Oldham on Lost.

Episode Body Count

Four elevator victims: killed by a real estate agent named Taber, apparently with his bare hands.

Taber: shot by a security guard after the massacre.

Eighteen other victims: a police officer, Spencer, tells Mulder that 22 people have been killed by seven people in six months; I presume he's including the latest victims in his tally.

Six other killers: Spencer also says the suspects in the sprees were all killed in "suicide by cop" scenarios.

Mechanic: stabbed with a piece of mechanical equipment by Bonnie McRoberts after she sees messages on a diagnostic reader.

Bonnie McRoberts: shot by Spencer after attacking Mulder with a knife.

A truck driver appears to be shot during Funsch's attack, but the number of deaths, if any, in that incident is not mentioned.

Humans: 31
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

An appropriate count for an episode of this title, and definitely high enough to merit the Deadliest of Season for now.

Cumulative Body Count (27/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 216
Creatures: 11
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 236

Season 2, Episode 2: The Host

Synopsis

Something pulls a Russian sailor into the septic tank of his ship, and his body shows up in a sewer in Newark, New Jersey. Skinner sends Mulder to investigate the body, and Mulder considers it a simple drug murder body dump and opportunity for Skinner to humiliate him by sending him wading through sewage. However, Scully discovers a flukeworm in the body while doing the autopsy, and a sanitation worker is attacked and bitten by something in the Newark sewer.

A man (Mr. X) calls Mulder anonymously and tells him he has a friend at the FBI, and an anonymous tipster also drops off a tabloid with an article about the freighter incident that helps Scully identify the body. The Flukeman, a human-sized hermaphroditic creature with flukeworm characteristics, is captured at a treatment plant. Skinner tells Mulder that the sanitation worker died (after we see him cough up a flukeworm), and admits that the case should have been an X-File but "we all take our orders from someone."

The Flukeman escapes while being transported to a new institution, and Mulder heads back to the treatment plant on the belief that the Flukeman has been transported there. Mr. X tells Mulder that he must succeed in the case as a way of reinstating the X-Files. Scully says the Flukeman is looking for hosts to transfer eggs into. As it tries to escape, Mulder stops the Flukeman by cutting it in half with a sewer gate. Scully reveals that the freighter was used for disposal of radioactive waste for Chernobyl, and evidently was created from that medium. Back in the sewer, a new Flukeman (likely from the workman's incubation) surfaces.

Matthew Bennett, who plays "Workman #1" (the one who gets attacked in the sewer), also played the Cylon Aaron Doral in the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica. Darin Morgan, who plays the Flukeman, has dabbled in writing and acting and is currently a consulting producer on Fringe.

Episode Body Count

Dmitri: pulled into the septic tank on a freighter by the Flukeman, and his body is found in the New Jersey sewer.

Sanitation worker (Craig): survives an initial attack by the Flukeman, but later dies after coughing up a flukeworm.

Federal Marshal: killed after the Flukeman escapes his restraints on an ambulance.

Flukeman: cut in half by a sewer gate.

Humans: 3
Creatures: 1
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (26/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 185
Creatures: 11
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 205

Season 2, Episode 1: Little Green Men

Synopsis

The X-Files have been closed, and Mulder is bored with his new wiretapping assignment while Scully teaches at Quantico. A senator in contact with Mulder advises him to get to the radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, an extraterrestrial intelligence search site that has (in the series anyway) been shut down. Here, Mulder discovers a recording from the Voyager spacecraft that has been returned to Earth. He also finds a terrified man in the facility, who dies shortly after running out into a storm.

After a bit of a close encounter, Scully arrives at Arecibo. The two leave with the tape recording as the military arrives on scene. Back in Washington, Skinner chews out Mulder for leaving his wiretap assignment, but surprisingly kicks the Cigarette-Smoking Man out of his office and lets Mulder return to his assignment without punishment after deducing that the Cigarette-Smoking Man tapped Mulder's phone. Mulder finds that the tape is blank, wiped by the storm or other means.

Raymond J. Barry, who plays Senator Richard Matheson in this and two other episodes, also played Pa Cox in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

Episode Body Count

Jorge Concepcion: dies under uncertain circumstances after running out of the Arecibo facility into the storm.

Humans: 1
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (25/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 182
Creatures: 10
Aliens: 9

Grand Total: 201

Season 1, Episode 24: The Erlenmeyer Flask

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Season 1, Episode 23: Roland

Synopsis

At a jet propulsion lab in Washington, a rocket scientist is sucked into an experimental engine after a mentally retarded/idiot savant janitor named Roland activates a test. Roland kills another scientist after having visions about the murder. Mulder discovers that someone has beeen continuing the work of a Dr. Arthur Grable, who has been dead for several months.

It turns out that Grable's head is preserved, awaiting a future when a body can be cloned for him, and that he is twins with Roland. Mulder wonders if Grable is able to control Roland through heightened psychic abilities. A former associate, Dr. Frank Nollette, tampers with Grable's preservation container, as Roland manages to achieve the scientists' goals of breaking Mach 15 with the engine.

Roland tries to murder Nollette in the test chamber after Nollette tries to steal the work, but Mulder and Scully intervene. With help from Roland, they are just able to save him. Grable's noggin passes away, and Roland goes off for a psychological evaluation.

Zeljko Ivanek, who plays Roland, has had recurring roles in several shows, including as Governor James Devlin on Oz and the less-than-recurring Edmund Burke on Lost, who got flattened by a bus after appearing in a single flashback. Suleka Mathew, who plays Lisa Dole, starred in several episodes of Da Vinci's Inquest (a show that seems to have attracted a lot of X-Files vets) as Dr. Sunita Ramen.

Episode Body Count

Dr. Ronald Surnow: he got squished by a jet engine.

Dr. Arthur Grable: mostly died in a car accident prior to the episode, fully dies later after Nollette tampers with his preservation system.

Dr. Keats: dies after Roland freezes his head in liquid nitrogen and lets it smash on the floor.

Humans: 3
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (23/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 173
Creatures: 10
Aliens: 7

Grand Total: 190

Season 1, Episode 22: Born Again

Synopsis

A detective, Rudolph Barbala, falls to his death at his Buffalo, New York precinct after trying to interview an eight-year-old girl found nearby. The mother of the girl notes how she used to scream whenever she got near the water of the swimming pool, and how she has somehow learned origami. The girl gives police a description of another man in the room who defenestrated the detective, but Mulder suspects telekinesis on her part.

The girl's description matches a picture of a long-dead police officer, Charlie Morris, and that she has mutilated dolls in the same way the officer was killed. The investigation causes a detective, Tony Fiore, and former cop Leon Felder to sweat a little over a conspiracy they and Barbala had going to murder Morris, and Felder is killed in a bizarre incident witnessed by the girl. The agents find that the detective's wife used to be married to Morris and had an origami hobby. Mulder now ponders reincarnation.

Cleaning up a flashed image that appears on a video recording of a hypnotherapy session with the girl, Mulder realizes that Morris was drowned in his own fish tank. Morris's ghost and/or the girl give Fiore a non-lethal scare, causing him to plead guilty to a murder charge, and the girl begins to live a more normal life.

Maggie Wheeler, who plays Detective Sharon Lazard, went on to irritate millions as Janice on Friends.

Episode Body Count

Detective Rudolph Barbala: evidently thrown through a window by Morris's ghost and falls to his death.

Officer Charlie Morris: narcotics cop killed nine years before the episode by his partner and a detective.

Leon Felder: Barbala's former partner and an insurance agent, strangled to death by a scarf stuck in the door of an accelerating bus.

Humans: 3
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (22/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 170
Creatures: 10
Aliens: 7

Grand Total: 187

Season 1, Episode 21: Tooms

Synopsis

Assistant Director Walter Skinner, with the Cigarette-Smoking Man standing by, chews out Scully and asks that the X-Files team be more conventional in their investigations (despite a high success rate with unconventional investigations). Our old friend, Eugene Victor Tooms, is released from a Baltimore mental hospital after he's believed to be rehabilitated. The review board doesn't believe Mulder's testimony of Tooms' murderous history or his warning that Tooms has to kill one more person to meet his 1993 quota.

Mulder keeps Tooms under surveillance; he, along with a child protective toilet lock, prevent Tooms' attempt to kill another victim. Tooms manages to set himself up as an assault victim and frame Mulder, which inhibits his surveillance. Mulder and Scully find that Tooms' dental records match bite marks found on a skeleton uncovered from one of his 1933 murders. Tooms manages to kill his fifth victim and return to hibernation in a nest in a mall that has replaced his old slumbering grounds. Tooms is killed when he gets sucked into an escalator, and his file is closed out.

First appearance of Assistant Director Walter Skinner (played by Mitch Pileggi, whose most recent sci-fi role was as Colonel Steven Caldwell in Stargate: Atlantis).

Episode Body Count

Additional four Tooms murders: Mulder attributes 19 homicides to Tooms; my previous count was only at 15, probably because it didn't take into account the additional 1903 murders.

Roadkill rat: disposed of by Tooms while working his old job in animal regulation.

Roadkill cat: also disposed of by Tooms.

Dr. Aaron Monte: killed and de-livered by Tooms.

Eugene Victor Tooms: crushed after Mulder activates an escalator that drags him into the machinery.

Humans: 6
Creatures: 2
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (21/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 167
Creatures: 10
Aliens: 7

Grand Total: 184

Season 1, Episode 20: Darkness Falls

Synopsis

The episode opens with a group of panicked loggers trying to escape the Olympic National Forest in Washington before we see a pair of men being attacked by a swarm of green bugs. Mulder notes how 30 loggers have disappeared since their arrival at the forest (paralleling a disappearance of a WPA crew in 1934) and ecoterrorists are suspected.

Investigating with a Forest Service agent and lumber company security man, the agents find a dessicated corpse cocooned in a tree. They also find Doug Spinney, an ecoterrorist who says the attacks occur after sundown. An examination of a felled 500-year-old tree finds tiny insects living within the trunk, and Mulder posits that the insects were lying dormant in the trees until the logging started. Mulder entrusts Spinney to use the last of the gasoline to go get a working vehicle.

After a harrowing night where it is determined that the insects don't swarm in the light, Spinney returns to pick up the survivors. However, the jeep is disabled and swarmed as the group tries to escape. Evidently due to timing with the light, Mulder and Scully as well as the Forest Service agent manage to survive the attack and are quarantined as the government begins efforts to destroy the swarm.

Titus Welliver, who plays Doug Spinney, had a recurring role on Deadwood as Silas Adams.

Episode Body Count

Forty-two loggers: the group finds only one body, drained of fluids, cocooned in a tree out of the party of 30 missing loggers. However, Scully says they "have a pretty good idea" as to what happened to that group after the discovery, along with the 12-member WPA group from 1934.

Steven Teague, Doug Spinney, and two other ecoterrorists: All killed by the swarm of insects.

Steve Humphreys: killed by a swarm of insects.

No, I'm not going to count every bug that flies into the zapper in the one scene. I'll declare insects as the cutoff point for recorded creature deaths.

Humans: 47
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Due to the extremely high body count in this episode, I'm going to create two "award" categories that can be shifted around as needed. First is Deadliest of Season, second is Deadliest of Show. This episode just won both, for now.

Cumulative Body Count (20/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 161
Creatures: 8
Aliens: 7

Grand Total: 176

Season 1, Episode 19: Shapes

Synopsis

A Montana rancher, Jim Parker, is charged with murder after shooting Joe Goodensnake, a young Native American man. Parker says the man had attacked his son and appeared to be an animal, and that his cattle had been getting slaughtered prior to the incident. Mulder and Scully discover a piece of shed skin, footprints that go from human to animal, and fanged teeth on the body.

Mulder thinks that the man may have been able to transmogrify into an animal, and notes similar accounts from as far back as the Lewis and Clark expedition. Following Goodensnake's funeral, Parker is killed by another beast. A Native American tells Mulder of the legend of the manitou: an evil spirit that can turn a man into a beast by night, cause those he attacks to change into a manitou as well, and pass down the traits by bloodline.

Goodensnake's sister is suspected, but she says she witnessed the animal attack Parker. The agents realize Parker's son, Lyle Parker, was transformed. Lyle is shot and killed after trying to attack Scully.

Donnelly Rhodes, who played Jim Parker, also played Doc Cottle on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica and Detective Leo Shannon on most episodes of Da Vinci's Inquest.

Episode Body Count

Bull: killed by Goodensnake while he is a manitou.

Joseph Goodensnake: shot and killed by Jim Parker while in manitou form.

Seven murders: Mulder says the first X-File was initiated in 1946 after a series of murders in the Northwest, with seven in the same Montana town. Other murders, occurring on eight-year intervals, are mentioned but not specified.

Richard Watkins: Mulder says the initial set of murders stopped after police shot what they thought was an animal but turned out to be a man.

Jim Parker: killed by his son in manitou form.

Lyle Parker: shot and killed by Sheriff Charlie Tskany while in manitou form.

Since they turn back into humans after they are shot, the manitou deaths will be recorded as human ones.

Humans: 11
Creatures: 1
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (19/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 114
Creatures: 8
Aliens: 7

Grand Total: 129

Season 1, Episode 18: Miracle Man

Synopsis

A young boy, Samuel Hartley, resurrects a dead man at the scene of a fire in Tennessee in 1983. In the present day, local authorities have turned to the FBI for help in shutting down the boy and his adoptive father, whom they believe to be scammers and possibly complicit in the death of an old woman. The agents confront Samuel, who seems to know about Mulder's sister's abduction.

Mulder believes Samuel is legitimate, and also has the ability to use his powers to kill. Another woman at a faith healing event dies, evidently of poisoning, and Mulder, who has been seeing images of Samantha, tries to secure Samuel's release. Samuel is beaten to death with a little help from the deputies, and Mulder and Scully find that the man Samuel saved is linked to the deaths. However, Samuel apparently rises from the dead, and the sheriff is implicated in his murder.

Episode Body Count

Lucy Kelly: (at left...lying down...almost dead) suffers from a malignant tumor and dies after going to faith healers for treatment.

Carol Wallace: apparently another suspicious death at the incompetent hands of the faith healers.

Margaret Hohman: dies after an encounter with Samuel.

Samuel Hartley: beaten to death by other prisoners, yet a nurse claims that he walks out of the hospital. And so he becomes the first UNDEAD'D of the blog.

Leonard Vance: commits suicide after betraying Samuel's ministry.

Humans: 5
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

UNDEAD'D: One human.

Humans: 4
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (18/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 103
Creatures: 7
Aliens: 7

Grand Total: 117

Human deaths exceed 100. Geez, we're not even past the first season.

Season 1, Episode 17: E.B.E.

Synopsis

An Iraqi pilot shoots down a UFO, and the craft crashes within observing distance of a base in Turkey. A trucker in Tennessee sees a UFO, experiences a shutdown in his electrical systems, and fires upon some rustling in a bush. Mulder and Scully briefly question them before the police chief tells them there will be no further cooperation. Scully notes that the trucker has symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome, despite the fact that he didn't serve in the Gulf. The trucker says that he hasn't been himself since the night he observed the saucer.

The agents discover that they are being bugged, and that the trucker was hauling more than he said he was. Mulder considers that he may have been transporting wreckage from the UFO crash. After tracking the truck, Mulder and Scully are witness to a strange flash of light that leaves the truck abandoned with a life-support unit, but determine that it was a hoax. With help from a government watchdog group called The Lone Gunmen, the agents sneak into a government facility. Here, Deep Throat finds Mulder and reveals that there was an international agreement to exterminate any extraterrestrial creature that came to Earth, and that his role in killing in alien is part of the reason he feeds information to Mulder.

First appearance of The Lone Gunmen. Roger R. Cross, who has an uncredited role as Officer Green, played Curtis Manning in several episodes of 24.

Episode Body Count

Three aliens: Deep Throat says he is one of three men who has killed an extraterrestrial entity.

Humans: 0
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 3

Cumulative Body Count (17/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 99
Creatures: 7
Aliens: 7

Grand Total: 113

Season 1, Episode 16: Young at Heart

Synopsis

The episode opens in 1989, where a creepy doctor, Joe Ridley, is doing some sort of experiment on a man named John Barnett. In the present day, a jewelry store robbery includes a written message from Barnett to Mulder. It turns out Mulder helped put Barnett away for armored car thefts and the murders of two men, but supposedly died in prison in 1989. At his trial, Barnett threatens that he'll get Mulder.

Barnett begins toying with Mulder. A prisoner tells the agents how he witnessed Ridley's operation. Mulder and Scully find that the Ridley was experimenting with sufferers of progeria, a rare genetic disease which rapidly ages children, to find anti-aging techniques. Mulder theorizes that Ridley was using prisoners to experiment on, and that Barnett might be using his youth as a disguise.

Ridley meets with the agents and tells them that the U.S. government sponsored him after he lost his medical license. Deep Throat tells Mulder that the government is trying to bargain with Barnett to get the research he stole from Ridley. Scully finds that Barnett has been in her apartment, and the FBI stakes out a cello recital that was mentioned on her answering machine. Barnett takes a cello player hostage, but Mulder manages to shoot and kill him. He and Scully ponder what become of the research, and the episode ends with a shot of a rental locker at an airport.

Robin Mossley, who plays Dr. Joe Ridley, was recycled as a doctor for three other X-Files episodes. Merrilyn Gann, the prosecuting attorney at Barnett's trial, played Rose Abbott on Everwood.

Episode Body Count

Jewelry store clerk: taken out in a robbery by John Barnett.

Armored car driver and Agent Steve Wallenberg: killed by Barnett in one of Mulder's early cases

Agent Reggie Perdue: choked to death by Barnett.

John Barnett: shot and killed by Mulder.

Humans: 5
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (16/202 episodes, 0/2 movies)

Humans: 99
Creatures: 7
Aliens: 4

Grand Total: 110