Season 11, Episode 7: Rm9sbG932ZXjz

Synopsis

A synthesized voice in the intro recounts that time in 2016 Twitter tried to launch an artificial intelligence chatbot that would learn from humans, only to see it turn into a terrible person because Twitter is a cesspool. The voiceover warns that we need to be careful about what we teach AI if we don't want to go extinct ourselves. The intro screen reads VGhlIFRydXRoIGIzIE91dCBUaGVyZQ=, because the writers really want me to take my time recapping this episode.

At a modern D.C. restaurant, Mulder and Scully place their orders with a tablet and play on their phones. They're the only ones in the restaurant, and their food is delivered automatically. Mulder tries to return his blobfish, only to find that the kitchen is entirely staffed by robots. Mulder picks up the tab but opts not to tip. The restaurant responds by eating his credit card and nearly trapping the agents inside.

Scully's taxi home is a self-driving car, which starts driving recklessly when she gets snippy with it. Meanwhile, Mulder's GPS routes him right back to the AI restaurant and his phone starts issuing suggestions that he should tip the chefs.

The agents experience more harassment from technology. Scully is automatically billed for a false alarm after her home security system doesn't accept her password,  and receives a package delivery by drone. Mulder is mocked by an automatic callback option from "Bigly Credit" and smashes a drone he sees hovering outside his home, only to see the wreckage recovered by another drone.

The package delivered to Scully holds a Roomba-like robot vacuum. It prompts an offer related to the "personal massager" it finds under her bed, then gets aggressive when she rejects it. She soon finds herself under attack by several automated appliances in her house, as Mulder is driven from his own home by hundreds of miniature drones.

Scully's automated home systems trap her inside as Mulder arrives, and she narrowly escapes a fireball triggered by the vacuum. The agents shed their phones in an effort to throw off their pursuers. However, they find themselves in a robotics warehouse filled with several threatening robots and devices.

One robot returns Mulder's phone to him, with a message giving him one last chance to tip the chefs at the AI restaurant. Mulder leaves a 10 percent tip, getting a celebratory thank-you and the message, "We learn from you." Mulder comments how humans need to be better teachers. The agents decide to go to an old-fashioned diner for breakfast, and also decide that maybe they don't need to look at their phones every spare minute they have.

Episode Body Count

Humans: 0
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (202/202 original episodes, 2/2 movies, 13/16 reboot episodes)

Humans: 2,496
Creatures: 134
Aliens: 66

Grand Total: 2,696

Season 11, Episode 6: Kitten

Synopsis

In a flashback to the Vietnam War, Skinner and two other soldiers are ordered to guard a crate while transferring it to another company. The crate is punctured by gunfire, releasing a yellowish gas. A timid soldier named John is exposed to the bulk of the gas and apparently kills several Vietnamese civilians soon after; the gas also makes him see Skinner as a monster.

In the present day, Kersh summons Mulder and Scully to ask their help in finding Skinner, who has gone missing. The agents are still uncertain whether they can trust Skinner, but agree to help. In his apartment, they find an envelope using his military rank along with a severed ear and a note saying, "The monsters are here." Scully finds that information on Skinner's platoon is classified.

Mulder and Scully head to the town of Mud Lick, Kentucky, since a newspaper from this town was used to wrap the ear. Mulder is informed that there's a body in the morgue with a missing ear. On the way in, a man named Trigger Davis tells the agents, that there "ain't no kitten out there."

The body turns out to be the town doctor, who was killed by a booby trap. The body is missing some teeth, and several people in town have also been losing their teeth lately. The sheriff tells the agents there have been sightings of a monster in the woods around town.

A hunter is killed, and a deer camera catches Skinner at the scene. Mulder reviews the footage further and sees what looks like a monster. Scully wonders if Skinner is suffering some form of PTSD after receiving the ear, while Mulder speaks with Trigger after surmising that "kitten" is a nickname for someone in Skinner's platoon.

Skinner visits an isolated mobile home. In a flashback to Vietnam, John (whose nickname is indeed Kitten) shows off a necklace of severed ears and also suffers lost teeth. John's son, Davey, returns to the home and converses with Skinner. It turns out that John has spent 38 years in a sanitarium after Skinner gave testimony against him at a court-martial; Skinner says he was forbidden to bring up the gas at the trial, and thinks it turned his mild-mannered friend into a hardened killer.

Davey promises to take Skinner to John, then reveals that his father has hanged himself and tricks Skinner into falling into a booby trap. Mulder and Scully visit Davey, who tells them about how his father was experimented on and that government agencies may be developing the gas for mind control purposes.

Mulder returns to the property and finds a monster costume in Davey's closet. The agents confront and kill Davey, then rescue Skinner. Reminiscing on his time in Vietnam, Skinner notes how his experience there made him mistrust the government and that Mulder and Scully taught him to fight back against such misdeeds. He vows to return to the FBI to continue that fight, as a way of honoring John. As he leaves, he realizes he has lost a tooth.

In a coda to the episode, a plane dusts some crops with the gas. See you in three weeks!

Episode Body Count

Five Vietnamese women and children: Apparently killed by Kitten after he is exposed to the gas

Dr. Matthew Wegmeiser: Killed by a booby trap

Ozzy Krager: Killed by another booby trap

Deer: Seen hanging at Kitten's home

At least four Vietnamese soldiers or civilians: Kitten has a necklace of ears collected from bodies in Vietnam, and at there appear to be at least four on it

John "Kitten" James: Has apparently hanged himself in the woods near his home

Davey: Impaled by one of his own traps after a fight with Scully


The tally originally included the boy shot by Skinner, but then I remembered that he was already counted way, way back in the Season 2 episode "One Breath." Nice job on the continuity, writers.


Humans: 12
Creatures: 1
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (202/202 original episodes, 2/2 movies, 12/16 reboot episodes)

Humans: 2,496
Creatures: 134
Aliens: 66

Grand Total: 2,696