Season 6, Episode 22: Biogenesis

Synopsis

Scully gives a voice-over about how Earth has seen five great extinctions, and humans might be due to make the sixth. In Côte d'Ivoire, a couple of pieces of metallic debris with strange writing are found on the beach, and have a mind of their own when put together. An African scientist brings them to a colleague, Dr. Steven Sandoz in DC, but realizes that the person he's meeting with is not who he says he is. And then he's murdered. Mulder and Scully are put on the case, since the scientist and Sandoz both subscribed to the view that life on Earth originated on another planet.

Mulder sees a rubbing of the markings on the artifact, and starts hearing noises in his head. The man who murdered the scientist turns out to be a professor named Dr. Barnes. A friend of the agents says the artifact is a fraud and the writing is Native American, but the effect on Mulder remains. The agents find that Sandoz has met with a World War II codetalker they've previously had dealings with, and also find the scientist's body at his apartment. Mulder thinks Sandoz is on the run because of what he knows, and wants to find the artifacts. Skinner secretly records a conversation with the agents on the matter and gives the tape to Krycek.

Scully goes to New Mexico to see the codetalker, who is dying of cancer. Mulder suspects Barnes and tries to follow him, but collapses from the pain of his head noises; Krycek meets with Barnes. Scully finds Sandoz, who has another fragment (which also starts spinning) and says it has a passage on it from the Book of Genesis. Mulder, now being tended to by Fowley, thinks that's a sign that human life originated from aliens. Fowley keeps in touch with Cancer Man, and Mulder is hospitalized in a psychiatric ward with abnormal brain activity.

Skinner assures Scully and Fowley that the case is being resolved, although Scully hasn't submitted a report. Scully suspects that they're both up to something and that Mulder's office has been bugged (it has). Sandoz calls Scully and says that the letters translated by the codetalker are coordinates for the human genome, then is killed by Krycek. Scully travels to Côte d'Ivoire, where it turns out that the artifacts are from a large spacecraft partially buried in the sand. To be continued...

Episode Body Count

Dr. Solomon Merkmallen: murdered by Dr. Barnes.

Dr. Steven Sandoz: shot by Krycek.

Humans: 2
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Season Body Count

Humans: 122
Creatures: 16
Aliens: 1

Excludes the movie. More creatures this time around, but the rest decrease.

Cumulative Body Count (139/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,554

Creatures: 104
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,720

Season 6, Episode 21: Field Trip

Synopsis

On a hiking trip in North Carolina, a young woman has a vision of being trapped in a cave of yellow goo. The couple's skeletons are found oddly preserved in a field, and Mulder notes how it's near a UFO hotspot; Scully thinks it's a double murder with ritualistic themes involving the stripping of flesh from the body. Scully finds some yellow goo on the bodies, which tests positive for a digestive secretion with plantlike characteristics. She has a sample forwarded to the FBI. Mulder goes to the place the bodies were found and sees one of the missing hikers alive; he pursues him into a cave, where the hiker tells him their deaths were faked by aliens and his wife is still abducted. Scully visits the field, but doesn't find Mulder. A bright light floods the cave and the hiker's wife is returned; she also says they were abducted.

Mulder thinks the incident is one of textbook alien abduction, though he can't explain the skeletons. The light returns, and Mulder goes toward it. Cut to Mulder's apartment, where Mulder has apparently gone after leaving Scully in North Carolina. She arrives, surprised to find the married couple there, as well as an alien that Mulder has himself abducted. Scully is flabbergasted, but surprised when Mulder is skeptical of her reaction and still questioning the idea that the skeletons are decoys. He also sees visions of the yellow goo, and turns out to be in a cave full of it.

Scully and the coroner find the goo in the field, as well as a new skeleton whose dental records match Mulder. The coroner's theory on what killed him is the same as Scully's original one...word for word. She's now skeptical of that explanation. A wake is held at Mulder's apartment, where The Lone Gunmen promise to launch their own investigation but say they concur with the ritualistic murder theory. Scully thinks something else is going on, and starts to have yellow goo visions of her own. Mulder arrives at the apartment, and suddenly everything is back to normal.

Mulder gives his abduction story, and Scully assures him the hikers are dead and points out a few more gaps in his story. Scully thinks they're in a hallucination of some sort, with its origin in the field, and recalls the wild mushrooms there that gave off spores. She now thinks the couple was dissolved by a giant carnivorous hallucinogenic fungus, and the realization is enough for them to escape the cave. At least until they give their final report, and Mulder realizes they shouldn't have been able to will themselves out of the hallucination. He shoots Skinner to prove to Scully that they're not yet in real life, and Skinner bleeds yellow goo. Luckily, non-goo Skinner is leading a team of agents on a rescue mission, and Mulder and Scully are finally pulled to safety.

David Denman, who plays Wallace Schiff, also played Roy Anderson on the American version of The Office. Jim Beaver, as a coroner, played Whitney Ellsworth on Deadwood.

Episode Body Count

Angela and Wallace Schiff: their skeletons are found embracing in a field three days after they go missing, digested by the giant fungus.

Two past cases: the coroner remembers two prior cases of skeletal remains found in the same area.

Humans: 4
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (138/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,552

Creatures: 104
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,718

Season 6, Episode 20: Three Of A Kind

Synopsis

The episode opens with Byers saying he has a recurring dream of having a happy life with Susanne Modeski in a peaceful and clean country, but that it always ends with him losing everything. The Lone Gunmen go to a defense contractor convention in Las Vegas to try to learn a few trade secrets, but are kicked out of a high stakes poker game when their identities are blown. Frohike knows that Byers is trying to track down Modeski at the conventions, but says it's been 10 years and she's most likely dead. However, Byers soon finds her in a casino.

The Lone Gunmen trick Scully into coming to Vegas with a Mulder voice synthesizer to help them. Byers sees a man from the poker game meet with Modeski at her hotel room, and Frohike and Langly find that he is named Grant Ellis and works at the same New Mexico defense base where Modeski worked. A rival geek uses a vent to spy on a conference, where he sees Modeski, but is captured by an undercover geek and given an injection that causes him to jump in front of a bus.

Scully arrives, and Byers confronts Modeski about possibly being brainwashed; she denies it and says that Ellis is her fiance and everything's gotten better. Scully finds an injection mark while doing the autopsy, but is then given one herself by the undercover geek. She starts acting a little drunk and flirty (including toward Morris Fletcher). Modeski says Ellis was also helping her stall projects, and they were trying to escape at the conference. Langly is also given an injection. Frohike brings Scully back to the room, and Modeski recognizes that Scully has been injected with a gas she was working on that inhibits brain functions, making someone more susceptible to suggestion.

On the undercover geek's orders, Langly goes into a conference and shoots Modeski three times. Frohike and Byers cart her off, disguised as paramedics, since Modeski has realized that Langly was injected, given him an antidote, and set up the whole scene. Modeski realizes that Ellis has betrayed her to save his own life. The undercover geek kills Ellis and nearly kills Modeski and the Gunmen, but is given the injection by Byers; the Gunmen make him confess to the murders of Ellis and Modeski and give her a new identity. Byers urges her to have a normal life and leave the exposing of government corruption to them; she gives him a ring meant for Ellis and promises to find him again someday.

John Billingsley, who plays Timmy the Geek, also played Dr. Phlox on Star Trek: Enterprise.

Episode Body Count

James "Jimmy the Greek" Belmont: run over after he is given an injection that makes him run in front of a bus.

Grant Ellis: shot and killed by the undercover geek, Timmy.

Humans: 2
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (137/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,548

Creatures: 104
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,714

Season 6, Episode 19: The Unnatural

Synopsis

In Roswell, New Mexico in 1947, a black baseball player named Josh Exley is the star of a minor league team and content to stay there despite offers from national recruiters. The game is interrupted by the Ku Klux Klan, who have come for Exley. The players chase off the Klansmen, and one of the coaches removes the hood of one to find that it's an alien. Title screen: "In the Big Inning."

In present day DC, Mulder and Scully are looking through New Mexico obituaries from that time period, and Mulder happens upon a baseball article with a photo of Exley, Arthur Dales, and the Alien Bounty Hunter. Mulder finds that the Arthur Dales in the photo is the brother of the Arthur Dales that Mulder knows, and this Dales is happy to talk about baseball and Exley, with a bit of the alien conspiracy mixed in.

Back in 1947, Dales is assigned to protect Exley after a poster offering a reward for Exley's murder is put up. Dales sees Exley reflected as an alien in a bus window, and Exley bleeds some green blood after getting hit by a pitch. Dales finds that Exley is using an assumed name, and is deliberately trying to keep out of the major leagues. He also walks in on Exley while he's in alien form, and Exley demonstrates how he can change appearances. He explains to Dales how he fell in love with baseball, and is keeping on the down-low by assuming the appearance of a black man and staying in the minors.

A lab tech tells Dales that the blood on the glove is unlike anything he's seen, and that he's contacted the feds. The Alien Bounty Hunter takes Exley's form and kills the tech, so Dales urges him to get out of town to avoid a murder charge. Dales refuses to tell the feds anything, and realizes that Exley is at the Roswell game seen at the beginning. The alien is the Alien Bounty Hunter, angry at Exley for jeopardizing the colonization project for a game.

The Alien Bounty Hunter neck-stabs Exley and gets away. Exley warns Dales not to get near him due to the acidic nature of the blood, but it turns out that he has apparently become human somehow, as he has red blood. The wound is still fatal, though. The story inspires Mulder to give Scully a very early or very late birthday gift of a batting lesson, and she finds herself enjoying the sport.

David Duchovny wrote and directed this episode, and his brother has a role as Piney. Jesse L. Martin, last seen a long time ago in "Irresistable," is worth noting again for his role as Detective Ed Green on Law and Order, which he was starting around the same time as this episode. Paul Willson, who plays Ted, also played Paul Krapence on Cheers.

Episode Body Count

Ted: a lab technician, killed after being thrown through a glass door by the Alien Bounty Hunter.

Josh Exley: stabbed by the Alien Bounty Hunter. Has apparently become a human by that point, so that's what I'll count him as.

Humans: 2
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (136/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,546

Creatures: 104
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,712

Season 6, Episode 18: Milagro

Synopsis

A writer named Philip Padgett , suffering from writer's block, appears to yank his heart and later sees the organ in the flames of the building's incinerator. Turns out Padgett is Mulder's new neighbor, and is smitten with Scully as she goes to see Mulder about a murderer who is removing people's hearts. Padgett eavesdrops on the conversation, a third victim shows up as he writes about the murders and investigation for a novel. Part of the story also involves Scully growing attracted to the killer after he sends her a charm of a burning heart.

Scully runs into Padgett at a church, where he shows an intimate knowledge of both Scully and a painting involving a removed heart. He also admits to sending the charm and being attracted to Scully, so she decides that the charm is insignificant. Mulder's not so sure, and becomes more suspicious of Padgett. Despite being weirded out by the encounter at the church, Scully also finds herself becoming attracted to Padgett. She ends up visiting him while returning the charm, and is surprised when Mulder busts in to arrest Padgett based on his writing.

Padgett's book has a Brazilian psychic surgeon as the murderer, but Scully finds that the named person has been dead for two years. However, the man committing the murders certainly looks like the surgeon, and another body shows up after Padgett writes another chapter while imprisoned. Padgett is released, and shocked when the surgeon character shows up at his apartment and tells him that the book can only end with Scully's death.

The agents have Padgett's place under surveillance from Mulder's apartment, but don't see the surgeon. Mulder follows Padgett to the incinerator, and the surgeon attacks Scully; she opens fire on him with no effect. Padgett burns the manuscript, and Scully survives. Padgett lies dead and de-hearted in the basement, and in a final voice-over says the novel only reflected his own emptiness and that his final act was "to give what he could not receive."

John Hawkes, as Philip Padgett, also played Sol Star on Deadwood. Jillian Bach, who plays Maggie, also had a recurring role on Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place as Irene.

Episode Body Count

Two victims: Scully goes to see Mulder about two cases in which people's hearts were removed.

Kevin: dies after his heart is torn out.

Dr. Ken Naciamento: Scully says he's been dead for two years.

Maggie: murdered while visiting Kevin's grave.

Philip Padgett: dies of a broken (or removed) heart.

Humans: 6
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (135/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,544

Creatures: 104
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,710

Season 6, Episode 17: Trevor

Synopsis

An inmate named Pinker Rawls is locked in a hot box at the Mississippi prison farm after nailing another prisoner's hand to a wall during preparations for an approaching tornado. Rawls and the box both disappear in the storm, and the farm's superintendent shows up dead and in two pieces. He's a little charbroiled at the ends, so Scully is even willing to give the idea of spontaneous human combustion a go. The agents find the wall to the warden's locked office extremely brittle, and also discover that the $90,000 Rawls stole from a wire office was never recovered.

Rawls easily escapes a security guard's attempt to handcuff him to a pole, as well as an old acquaintance's attempt to shoot him. Mulder and Scully find the thug's body, and Mulder theorizes that Rawls has gained the ability to walk through solid objects and change their composition, which would include turning flesh into carbon. The agents also realize that Rawls is trying to track down his old sweetheart, June Gurwitch. They go to Gurwitch's sister's house, where Rawls has just showed up, and Rawls hides in their trunk to find out where Gurwitch lives.

Gurwitch tells the agents that she has used the $90,000 to settle into a happier life with her fiance. Mulder finds out about Rawls' hitchhiking after seeing damage to the trunk lid. From a message burned on the wall of the house, Mulder also discovers that Rawls can't pass through glass or other electrical insulators. Scully finds that Rawls is trying to find his son, who was born after he was imprisoned. Rawls kidnaps Gurwitch from protective custody. Mulder and Scully realize that the son is likely staying with Gurwitch's sister.

Gurwitch takes Rawls to see his son at the sister's house, and Rawls tries to take him away. The agents arrive, armed with rubber bullets. Scully protects Rawls' son in a glass phone booth, and though Rawls smashes a hole in the booth he walks away when he realizes how scared his son is. Gurwitch runs him down with a car, the windshield killing him.

Catherine Dent, who plays June Gurwitch, played Officer Dani Sofer on The Shield. John Diehl, who plays Pinker Rawls, also played Detective Larry Vito on Miami Vice.

Episode Body Count

Raybert Fellowes: the superintendent at the prison farm, halved by Rawls during his escape.

Bo Merkle: dies after Rawls burns away the majority of his head.

Trooper Collins: killed by Rawls.

Wilson Pinker Rawls: cut in half by the windshield of Gurwtich's car.

Humans: 4
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (134/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,538

Creatures: 104
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,704

Season 6, Episode 16: Alpha

Synopsis

A vicious creature escapes its crate and kills two crewmen on a Chinese freighter before it docks in California. A man named Dr. Ian Detweiler is angry that he hasn't been notified of the creature's arrival, and also the fact that it's gone. The wolf-like beast goes on to slaughter a customs agent and his dog. Mulder and Scully find that Detweiler is a cryptozoolgist, and that he thinks the creature has been stolen. Mulder suspects the dog has human-like intelligence, and goes to a dog expert named Karin Berquist who he's become acquainted with through the Internet. Berquist even has her own "I Want To Believe" poster, and Scully quickly thinks that she's more interested in Mulder than the case.

Berquist is dismissive of the idea that the beast is an extinct dog called a Wanshang Dhole. A Fish and Game officer observes a human figure change into the wolf beast before it attacks him. Berquist becomes more interested in the case, and also says she distrusts Detweiler. A vet manages to escape the beast and trap it in a room, but responding officers end up shooting a St. Bernard by mistake. After patching the dog up, the vet is killed and the dog transforms into the beast and runs off.

Berquist says that if the Wanshang Dhole survived it was because it was more cunning than man, and doesn't think Detweiler would have been able to catch it. Mulder begins to suspect Detweiler of something after finding that he stopped by the dead vet's clinic to pick up tranquilizers. He accuses Detweiler of getting caught by the Wanshang Dhole himself, and now becomes a shapeshifter upon nightfall and unsuccessfully sought to fight it with the tranks. Berquist confirms that Detweiler is the beast, and that he needs to be killed. She also tells Mulder that he'll try to kill a Fish and Game officer he wounded but didn't kill.

Detweiler doesn't show up at the hospital, and Mulder realizes that Berquist lied to him. Berquist waits in her home for the Detweiler-beast with a tranquilizer gun, but ends up letting him attack her. As a result, she gets pummeled through a second-story window. Detweiler is killed after being impaled on a fence, but Berquist also dies. She's also sent Mulder her poster, and he puts it up to replace the one destroyed in the fire.

Andrew Robinson, as Detweiler, also played Garak on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Melinda Culea, who plays Karin Berquist, was in several episodes of The A-Team as Amy Allen.

Episode Body Count

Fong and Woo: thanks for everything, signed, Detweiler/Alpha's teeth.

JoJo: who the hell is evil enough to kill a golden retriever? Oh right, Detweiler/Alpha.

Jake Conroy: a customs agent killed by Detweiler/Alpha.

Frank Fiedler: a Fish and Game officer killed by Detweiler/Alpha.

Dr. James Riley: a veterinarian who has his throat torn out by Betweiler/Alpha.

Dr. Ian Detweiler/Alpha: impales himself on a fence after attacking Berquist and flying through a window. I'll count it as a creature death, since he was in dog form when he died.

Karin Berquist: dies after being attacked by Detwiler/Alpha.

Humans: 6
Creatures: 2
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (133/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,534

Creatures: 104
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,700

Season 6, Episode 15: Arcadia

Synopsis

In a planned community in San Diego, a man is irritated by the fact that the codes are so strict that his neighbor is painting his mailbox an approved color. As a show of dissent, he puts up a tacky whirligig that someone has sent him. He and his wife are killed the same night by a mysterious creature.

Back on the X-Files and posing as a married couple, Mulder and Scully move into the couple's old house after the local police turn to the FBI for help in investigating unexplained disappearances from the community. Mulder finds what looks like blood on the overhead fan. Their neighbor, "Big Mike," tells the community president, Gene Gogolok, that they might want to let the new folks know about what happens when the rules aren't followed. Considering Big Mike a weak link, Gogolok apparently has another person break a lamp outside Big Mike's house, and Big Mike is attacked by a creature that rises from the ground. Gogolok declines to let Mulder have a basketball hoop at the house, and also notes how he's traveled to Nepal and Tibet frequently on business trips.

Walking with another neighbor and her dog, Scully finds Big Mike's necklace in a storm drain. Noticing how everyone is obsessed with the community rules, Mulder aims to break them by putting out a lawn flamingo and messing with the mailbox. Someone fixes both infractions and leaves a note warning Mulder to behave before it gets dark. Instead, he breaks out the basketball hoop, but his neighbor is nearly attacked instead due to another broken lamp.

The sample from the fan is found to be garbage, and Scully says the community was built upon an old landfill. Thinking the couple might be buried in the yard, Mulder starts excavating the front yard under the guise of putting in a reflecting pool. They don't find the bodies, but they do find the whirligig, an import from Gogolok's company. Big Mike turns out to be alive, and also the one who broke the other neighbors' lamp as an attempt to satisfy "The Übermenscher." He says the creature was asked for by the original owners, and that it's targeting the agents. He's killed soon after trying to take it out, but Scully is saved in the process.

Mulder arrests Gogolok, and charges him with eliminating the prior residents by summoning a tulpa with a Tibetan artifact, then losing control of it. Mulder handcuffs him to the mailbox while going to check on Scully. Apparently that's a violation of the rules, as the tulpa soon mortally beats him. It goes to attack Mulder, but dissolves into compost as Gogolok dies. Several residents of the community come forward after Gogolok's death to blame the disappearances on him, but claim ignorance on their own behalf.

Abraham Benrubi, who plays Big Mike, is best known for his role as Jerry Markovic on ER, but also played Ben Thomasson on Men in Trees and Larry Kubiac on Parker Lewis Can't Lose. Tom Virtue, who plays Dave Kline, also played Steve Stevens on Even Stevens.

Episode Body Count

Dave and Nancy Kline: killed by the Übermenscher.

Two other couples: Scully says they've disappeared since the community started.

Big Mike: roughed up by the Übermenscher, and later killed while trying to shoot it.

Gene Gogolok: beaten to death by the Übermenscher.

The Übermenscher: a living, breathing tulpa made out of compost, dissolves after Gogolok's death.

Humans: 8
Creatures: 1
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (132/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,528

Creatures: 102
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,692

The count just broke my original estimate, with 70 episodes and a movie still to go.

Season 6, Episode 14: Monday

Synopsis

Skinner arrives at a standoff at a DC bank, where a woman named Pam calls him by name and tells him to stop what's about to happen. Inside, Mulder has been shot and Scully is tending to him. As police storm the bank, the robber triggers a bomb on his chest. And thus ended the series.

No, of course not. Before all that, Mulder wakes to find that his water bed has sprung a leak, shorting out his cell phone and alarm clock and making him late for a meeting. He also has to deposit his paycheck or the check he wrote to the landlord for the damages will bounce. The robber, Pam's boyfriend, shows up outside the bank with him, and it's clear that Pam has seen this all enough to memorize it, though it's different thanks this time around because Mulder glances at her before heading inside. The robber sticks up the bank, Scully shows up looking for Mulder, and Mulder is shot. Scully tries unsuccessfully to get the robber to show the police that he has a bomb so they won't storm the place, in a slightly different way than the opening, but the robber still blows the place up.

The day repeats, again with a slight change of some circumstances in Mulder's lousy morning. Pam tries to call Mulder, but he doesn't answer; she also fails to talk her boyfriend out of the robbery. Mulder describes the day as one he wishes he could rewind and start over, and ponders how the smallest choices can change everything. Scully offers to deposit Mulder's check so he can catch a meeting, but still has to go there after he realizes he's endorsed the stub. Pam begs him not to go inside, but he does so after hearing a gunshot. He and Scully try to get the robber to give up, but he triggers the bomb after realizing the teller has tripped the silent alarm.

Mulder's lousy morning, slight differences. This time, Pam heads into the FBI as a tourist and tells Scully not to go to the bank, and to keep Mulder away as well. Mulder's been having a deja vu feeling all morning, and says some Freudians consider the sensation a result of suppressed memories. Scully tells him about Pam's visit, so Mulder decides to use the ATM to make his deposit. Unfortunately, it's not working, but he recognizes Pam from Scully's description and goes to talk to her. She tells him she's been reliving the same day over and over, always with the same result, and has determined that Mulder is the variable that needs to change. He decides to return to the meeting, only to find Scully has gone to the bank to look for him. Mulder returns there and manages to shoot the robber. He still throws the trigger, and Mulder repeats "He's got a bomb" to himself.

Last try. Mulder sort of recognizes Pam, but she makes no attempt to help this time. He also recognizes the robber and recalls that he has a bomb. Mulder calls Scully and asks her to bring Pam into the bank. Inside, Mulder confronts the robber and says he won't stop the crime, but urges the robber to change his fate. He tries to rob the bank anyway, but Scully brings Pam. Mulder tells the robber that the day is hellishly repeating for Pam. The robber seems ready to leave, but tries to shoot Mulder when he hears sirens approaching. Pam takes the bullet instead, and the robber surrenders. The next day arrives, with Pam having passed away.

Carrie Hamilton, who plays Pam, was Carol Burnett's daughter; she died in 2002 of cancer. Darren E. Burrows, who plays Bernard, also played Ed Chigliak on Northern Exposure.

Episode Body Count

Pam: shot and killed by her boyfriend during the bank robbery.

Humans: 1
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Lots of alternate universes this season...

Cumulative Body Count (131/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,520

Creatures: 101
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,683

Season 6, Episode 13: Agua Mala

Synopsis

In Florida, a hurricane is approaching and a mother and son try desperately to tip over a washing machine full of water as more water bubbles up from a drain. Then they're both killed by a strange tentacled creature. Mulder and Scully come down after Arthur Dales, who has relocated to the Sunshine State, tells them he's heard of their disappearance. He also says the parents were both marine biologists, and the mother said her husband was attacked by something with tentacles while on the toilet. The agents head there and find the bathroom door barricaded shut.

A dimwitted deputy finds them there, but helps Mulder check out the bathroom once he realizes he's FBI. They find nothing but a bit of slime and some water from the taps. The deputy sees the water bubbling out of the drain and finds the son's jersey there. The agents try to leave the state, but can't given the hurricane. The deputy does a welfare check on a condo complex and finds a dead person encased in a gelatinous organism, then nearly gets killed himself by a tentacle.

Mulder and Scully find the deputy alive but seriously wounded, having apparently been stung by the tentacle. Mulder also finds a looter and a couple of residents still in the complex. Thinking the deputy has been attacked by a pathogen getting around through the plumbing, Mulder wants to get everyone out of the building, but the hurricane once again makes it impossible.

Mulder thinks the hurricane may have churned up an undiscovered creature and forced it into the city's plumbing. After the deputy disappears from a bathtub full of Epsom salts, he thinks the creature is amorphous and only takes shape when it attacks, using a body's water to reproduce. Mulder is strung by a tentacle, and one resident forces his isolation from the rest of the group. Outside, he notices how a cat from the biologists' residence is hanging out in the rain, unaffected. Scully also realizes that freshwater kills the creature, and has a resident shoot on the sprinkler system as she delivers his girlfriend's baby. Mulder's OK, too. Hooray!

Joel McKinnon Miller, who plays Deputy Greer, also plays Don Embry on Big Love. Valente Rodriguez, who plays Walter Suarez, also played Ernie on George Lopez.

Episode Body Count

Jack, Evan, and Sara Shipley: two marine biologists and their son, all killed by the sea creature.

Slumlord Harry: killed by the sea creature while on the toilet.

Deputy Greer: disappears from his bathtub fever treatment, apparently killed by the creature.

Sea creature: apparently dies after exposure to freshwater.

Humans: 5
Creatures: 1
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (130/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,519

Creatures: 101
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,682

Season 6, Episode 12: One Son

Synopsis

In 1973, the Syndicate presents a folded American flag to alien representatives as a symbol of collaboration. Back in the present, a decontamination team from the CDC that includes Fowley bursts in and sends the agents and Cassandra to a quarantine facility, saying they've been exposed to a contagion of unknown origin. Scully, pointing out that Cassandra's been in a hospital for a long time, is suspicious of Fowley and thinks it's an attempt to isolate Cassandra.

Cancer Man says the Syndicate needs to turn over Cassandra to the aliens to save themselves and get the loved ones they sacrificed to the extraterrestrials returned. Mulder finds Marita at the facility looking pretty sickly, and she says the hybrid program was never intended to succeed, but only to buy time to make a vaccine. She also says colonization will begin if the aliens learn Cassandra is a successful hybrid.

Mulder sneaks into Fowley's apartment and finds Cancer Man, who tells him that Spender has decided to throw in his lot with Mulder. Cancer Man says the Syndicate has saved billions of lives by forestalling alien invasion, and denies Mulder's accusation that they're just trying to save their own asses. He says they needed to give up family members (Samantha taken belatedly) in order to get the alien fetus to make a vaccine from. He says the colonization will begin after a state of emergency is declared following an outbreak of the alien virus via bees and handing over Cassandra is the only way people will survive.

Spender finds the Syndicate's headquarters in New York City abandoned, and Krycek tells him they've moved to West Virginia to prepare for colonization and taken Cassandra with them. Cassandra begs Cancer Man to kill her, again in vain. Fowler returns to her apartment to find Mulder still there, rattled at what Cancer Man has told him. Cancer Man has also given him a piece of paper with "El Rico Air Force Base" written on it, and says they need to be there if they want to survive.

An alien rebel kills a doctor working with the alien fetus. Mulder wants Scully to come to the base with them, but Scully says she's going to the train yard to try to stop Cassandra's transportation (information she got by Spender, who got it from Marita). Mulder tells Fowley to go ahead, and he and Scully try unsuccessfully to stop the train, which includes a rebel in disguise.

Krycek finds that the rebels have stolen the fetus and refuses to help Spender try to rescue Marita, saying everything's going to hell and the rebels are going to win. At El Rico, the Syndicate and their families have gathered, along with Cassandra and Fowley. The base doors open, and realizing that something's wrong, Fowley and Cancer Man book it. Alien rebels storm the place and kill everyone left in the hangar. Kersh is horrified by the deaths, and Spender urges him to put Mulder and Scully back on the X-Files. Spender finds Cancer Man in his office, reminiscing about how Mulder's father was a friend who betrayed him. Cancer Man then shoots Spender.

Episode Body Count

Doctor: killed by an alien rebel disguised as a nurse.

Cassandra Spender and at least 25 Syndicate members and relatives: it's tough to count due to the low light in the hangar, but it's a relatively low Syndicate count and a fair amount of family members.

Jeffrey Spender: shot and killed by Cancer Man.

Humans: 28
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (129/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,514

Creatures: 100
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,676

Season 6, Episode 11: Two Fathers

Synopsis

In a rail car in Virginia, doctors working on Cassandra Spender are able to produce an incision that bleeds green blood before healing itself immediately. This is apparently the successful result of 25 years of experimentation, but the party is busted up by an alien rebel who sets everyone on fire...except Cassandra. Cancer Man pontificates about how the Syndicate's goal was to prepare a slave race of human-alien hybrids for alien colonists, and things were going just fine until the rebels showed up and his son (Spender) decided to betray him.

Cassandra is found alive at the train yard, and she wants to speak to Mulder. Spender is reluctant, but agrees to let them meet. A surviving doctor tells Cancer Man that Cassandra must be terminated, and a Syndicate elder is killed by a rebel. Scully thinks Cassandra's recollection might be able to expose the people who are doing the experiments. She and Mulder visit the now ambulatory Cassandra in the hospital. Cassandra spills the beans about how the aliens are taking over all life forms with the black oil, rebel aliens have mutilated their faces to prevent that from happening, and Spender's father is one of the people behind the colonization conspiracy.

The rebels are apparently causing the mayhem as a way of exposing the conspiracy, and the rebel has infiltrated the Syndicate disguised as the elder he killed; he suggests an alliance with the rebels. Mulder and Scully use Spender's computer to search for information on Cassandra's claim and find Cancer Man listed as C.G.B. Spender. Spender gets them in trouble for it, on the request of Cancer Man, but is starting to chafe under his orders. Scully has found that Cancer Man and Mulder's father were working together on a classified project with a doctor found at the train yard, and that Cassandra was first abducted on the same night as Samantha.

Cancer Man, having discovered the rebel spy, gives Spender a stiletto and orders him to kill the rebel. Spender botches the job, but Krycek finishes it; Spender is nevertheless freaking out to see the results and angered to learn that the group intends to sacrifice Cassandra for the greater good. Mulder and Scully let Skinner in on how the medical experiments have been ongoing, and Mulder thinks Cassandra is the first successful hybrid but also in danger of murder because the Syndicate doesn't want the project exposed. We see that Cancer Man, concerned over Spender's loyalty, has been talking to Fowley, and she agrees to help him. Cassandra flees the hospital and finds the agents, demanding that they shoot her "or it all starts." Mulder points his gun at her as someone bangs insistently on the door. To be continued...

Nick Tate, who plays Dr. Eugene Openshaw, played Alan Carter on the 1970s show Space: 1999.

Episode Body Count

Six doctors: torched by an alien rebel.

Dr. Eugene Openshaw: burned by an alien rebel, finished off when Cancer Man pulls the plug on his life support.

Second Elder: killed by an alien rebel.

Alien rebel: neck-stabbed by Krycek.

Krycek also mentions how a medical team in Arizona has been killed, but no numbers are given.

Humans: 8
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 1

Cumulative Body Count (128/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,486

Creatures: 100
Aliens: 62

Grand Total: 1,648

Updated to include an additional doctor after Fowley says the rebels have killed seven doctors in "One Son."

Season 6, Episode 10: Tithonus

Synopsis

A crime scene and news photographer named Alfred Fellig briefly boards an elevator in a New York City skyscraper, then races downstairs to snap some shots of the aftermath when the lift plummets to its doom. An FBI agent named Payton Ritter suspects Fellig in a string of deaths after seeing that the clock in a crime scene photo shows a later time than a photo Fellig took for the Post. Kersh agrees to relieve Scully from background check work to go on the case, much to Mulder's envy.

Checking Fellig's license records, Scully and Ritter find that Fellig apparently hasn't aged in decades. Fellig photographs a man having a heart attack, as well as a mugging where he is also stabbed but with no ill effect. His prints show up at the scene, so the police bring him in, but he is released after the agents find the stab wounds and his story checks out. Nevertheless, Scully wants to know why he's always the first on the scene of a death, and also works to cover up that fact. Fellig tells her that he only knows who will die and when, not how; after telling her a prostitute will die, Scully arrests a man harassing the prostitute only to see her get run down by a truck.

Ritter thinks Scully is compromising the investigation and that Fellig is still guilty of the mugging murder. Mulder calls Scully and says he's determined that Fellig is 149 years old. Fellig tells her that he is trying to capture a photo of Death so he can look him in the face and die. Scully asks Mulder to check up on a past alter-ego of Fellig, and determines that he murdered two people in the 1920s. Fellig sees Scully looking rather deathly. Scully realizes this, and both she and Fellig are shot when Ritter enters the apartment. Apparently feeling sympathy for Scully, Fellig tells her to close his eyes and dies after looking into Death's face; Scully makes a rapid recovery.

Episode Body Count

Six elevator victims: die when the elevator car plummets several stories.

Margareta Stoller: commits suicide via drug overdose.

Three other deaths: past cases of a suicide, heart attack, and a murder.

Blue Collar Man: dies of a heart attack.

Mugging victim: stabbed to death by a mugger for his light-up tennis shoes.

At least one murder: Scully says the man who killed the tennis shoe kid is a convicted murderer, so he'll have at least one body to his name.

Prostitute: hit by a truck.

Two more deaths: seen in Fellig's older photos.

Another two murders: Mulder finds a file from the 1920s saying Fellig was convicted of the suffocation deaths of two patients in a Connecticut hospital.

Alfred Fellig: dies after finally staring Death in the face, though the cause is ruled to be Ritter's gunshot.

Humans: 19
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (127/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,478

Creatures: 100
Aliens: 61

Grand Total: 1,639

Season 6, Episode 9: S.R. 819

Synopsis

Skinner is in the hospital, suffering from what looks like pronounced vein-iness. He flatlines, and is pronounced dead. One day earlier, Skinner is boxing pretty well, but is knocked cold after his vision starts to go blurry. Taken to a hospital, Skinner gets an auto-voice call saying he'll die in 24 hours. Mulder and Scully express concern for his well-being, and coupled with the threat they wonder if he was poisoned to eliminate him from his role as supervisor to the X-Files.

Skinner is skeptical, but remembers an encounter with a man in the hallway. Checking out the security tapes, Scully recognizes the man as a physicist named Dr. Kenneth Orgell, who is advising the Senate subcommittee on ethics and new technology. At the Orgell's house, several Arabic men spirit Orgell away and shoot at the agents, but Mulder captures one. Skinner, though still suffering from blurred vision, realizes that the man is a Tunisian diplomat and lets him go.

Mulder finds a picture of Orgell with his old friend, Senator Matheson. Scully analyzes a blood sample the hospital took and find a spike of pure carbon, apparently brought about by rapidly multiplying micro-entitites. Mulder visits Matheson, who tells him he and Orgell were supporting S.R. 819, which will provide funds and medical equipment to the World Health Organization. The diplomat tries unsuccessfully to assassinate Skinner at Embassy Row, but a bearded man runs him down with a car. Skinner is rehospitalized as Scully realizes that the bacteria are blocking blood flow in Skinner's circulatory system.

Mulder raids Skinner's office for information on S.R. 819, and finds Skinner was doing a security check on the bill as a last step before it went to vote. He says Orgell didn't poison him, but told Skinner that there was a violation of export laws involving new technology with the bill. Mulder finds and chases down the bearded man making the auto-speak calls; he gets away but leaves his car.

The man calls Matheson and tells him where to find Orgell, while forensics finds PCBs on the car tires, a sign that it may have been at an old power plant. Sure enough, that's where Matheson goes, finding Orgell in the same condition as Skinner. He screams in pain as the bearded man uses a device to raise the level on something. Skinner recalls seeing the bearded man, and Mulder checks out the power plant. Talking with Matheson, Mulder realizes that S.R. 819 is going to export the nanotechnology that killed Orgell and is killing Skinner.

At the hospital, Skinner recovers after the bearded man ramps his nanobot levels down. The bill is withdrawn by committee without explanation. Mulder shows that the bearded man has been caught on the surveillance tapes, but Skinner claims he doesn't recognize him despite that fact that he saw him at the hospital. Mulder tries to get Skinner's authorization to investigate the matter further, but Skinner says he can't do it. Krycek, who turns out to be the bearded man, meets Skinner in the parking garage and threatens that he can ramp up the levels again at any time...but doesn't explain what it's all about.

Episode Body Count

Alexander Lazreg: a Tunisian diplomat, killed after he is run down by Krycek in the Embassy Row parking garage.

Dr. Kenneth Orgell: dies after Krycek sics nanobots on his circulatory system.

Humans: 2
Creatures: 0
Aliens: 0

Cumulative Body Count (126/202 episodes, 1/2 movies)

Humans: 1,459

Creatures: 100
Aliens: 61

Grand Total: 1,620