The Erlenmeyer Flask

M & S must be really good at what they do to follow Deep Throat's breadcrumb trail on this one. Mulder is instructed to watch a car chase on the news. That is all.



Mulder tapes it, and the watch it together at work. They don't find much worth investigating, but head to the crime scene anyway.

From there, the chain of events: the car used in the chase was stolen from a doctor. The actual car was swapped out in evidence to cover that up. The doctor was one of the scientists working on the Human Genome project, and was using this research in order to conduct experiments that involved extraterrestrial DNA. The doctor also used a storage unit to store tanks filled with living alien-human hybrids. One of the hybrids escaped and stole his car, and ended up on the news.



I love the Deep Throat character, but I have to say, this is him at his most frustrating. M & S both think so too, but Scully is the one to indicate that enough is enough, by refusing to help Mulder pursue this case. Mulder can't believe what he's hearing.



M: "No?" What do you mean, "no?"
S: I mean, this has reached the point of absurdity, Mulder. We're out here on half a hunch off of a cryptic phone call chasing down a, a clue that's based on nothing but speculation.
M: Well, that's all we've got.
S: That's all he's given us. Who is this Deep Throat character? I mean, we don't know anything about him. What his name is, what he does...
M: He's in a delicate position. He has access to information and indiscretion could expose him.
S: You don't know that this isn't just a game with him. He's toying with you. Rationing out the facts.
M: You think he does it because he gets off on it?
S: No. I think he does it because you do.

At this point, she even dramatically disappears into the ladies room.



Mulder knows she's right though, and later that night Mulder calls him on it.

M: You know, from day one, this has always been on your terms. I've gone along. Been the dutiful son. But maybe this time, we can just cut out the Obi-Wan Kenobi crap and you can save me the trouble.
DT: I fear you've become to dependent on me.
M: Let me tell you something. I've got plenty to do without chasing down your vague leads or trying to decode your circular logic. Maybe it's you who's become too dependent on me... on my willingness to play your games.



Deep Throat knows exactly how to keep Mulder interested though. He plays his game very well.

DEEP THROAT: Don't give up on this one. Trust me. You've never been closer.
M: Closer to what?

No answer, and DT walks away. Dr Berube is killed that night (by what seems to be a precursor to the Alien Bounty Hunter later played by Brian Thompson. Like a proto-ABH). That is certainly worth pursuing.

The most interesting part of this episode for me, is Scully's investigation into the contents of the Erlenmeyer flask found at Dr Berube's lab labeled "Purity Control".

S: Okay, Mulder, but I'm warning you... if this is monkey pee, you're on your own.



It's not. At all. It's a flask full of strange alien bacteria, revealed after a long series of lab tests. Scully sleeps at the lab while Dr Carpenter conducts the tests. She can tell this is important. By the way, I adore the Dr Carpenter character. I would like to be her. She and Scully also seem like they might have been buddies- they act like friends. Or maybe it's a chicks-in-sciences bonding thing. Either way, I just love her!



In a theme that we will see returned to later in the series, the alien bacteria contain a virus as well as chloroplasts; a true chimera. Scully believes this may be an experiment with gene therapy, but I believe it's part of the alien's natural physiology, although that won't come into play until later.

What is so important right now, is the discovery that in addition to all of the strangeness I just described, the bacteria also contain two extra nucleotides that exist nowhere on earth. A fifth and sixth nucleotide, confirming that the bacteria are extraterrestrial for real. Even Scully can't deny this.




So what's most interesting for me, is Scully grappling with this idea throughout the rest of this episode, along with the rest of the evidence they come up with throughout.

Now, ordinarily news about the bacteria like this would probably have completely floored Mulder. But while Scully was taking care of the Purity Control, Mulder was doing some footwork and discovered a Zeus Storage locker filled with tanks, containing ordinary looking human beings, breathing under water. (Either CC has a thing for naming things after Zeus, or the conspirators use Zeus for all of their operations on purpose. Hard to say).



Before he takes her inside the locker, Scully has a confession;

S: Wait a second... Mulder? I, I just want to say that I was wrong.
M: It's all right, don't worry about it.
S: No, um... if you'd had listened to me, we wouldn't be here right now. I should know by now to trust your instincts.
M: Why? Nobody else does.



S: You know, I've always held science as sacred. I've always put my trust in the accepted facts. And what I saw last night... for the first time in my life, I don't know what to believe.



Mulder is kind of touched! What a nice thing for his partner to tell him; that she should trust his instincts, and more importantly... he was right!




Unfortunately when they get inside, they find an empty room. And Deep Throat, who is finally ready to tell them everything, including where to find the original tissue from which the alien DNA was extracted.



Then shit gets real.
Shocking is the sudden death of Dr Carpenter. She knows too much. Mulder is chasing the escaped hybrid, when he is kidnapped and held for ransom.



Scully goes to Mulder's apartment to meet him, but Deep Throat is waiting for her to tell her what happened.



To get Mulder back, Scully must break into a government facility to retrieve the original tissue; a frozen fetus. She then hands it over to Deep Throat, who is the only person they are willing to deal with. Probably because they have been ordered to kill him, which they do, as they push Mulder out of the truck and drive away.



One of the most famous death scenes ever:

DT: Trust.....Trust no one.



Devastating.

Was the entire thing set up from the beginning to trap Deep Throat? If you remember, DT pulled strings once to keep the X-Files open (in Fallen Angel), so they know he's helping Mulder. He told his associate "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer", but I think they saw through that bullshit line and decided to take DT out.

It may have been smarter to have just killed Mulder and Scully too, because even though they took away all of the evidence, our Agents still know what's going on, and they are going to do their best to expose the truth so long as the X-Files are around and the Truth is Out....

Oh.

Oh shit, they closed the X-Files for real.


:-/

Well, Mulder, do your best.



Scully is already asleep when Mulder calls her with the bad news. This late night phone call scene kind of mirrors the final scene of the pilot, down to the colour.

Mulder spits Skinner name like a poison when he says word came from him that the X-Files is being shut down, and M & S are being reassigned. Mulder appears... drunk... in this scene. It may be that he's in shock but I would not be surprised if if the first thing he did upon hearing the news was hit the bar, before he can surprise his partner with the news.



Final scene is CSM returning to the Pentagon's hidden ET room, and stores the fetus safely with others like it in a box.

What this finale did for the X-Files was made sure fans wanted to continue watching in the next season, without ending in a cliffhanger (thank you!).



Instead, they built the story quite a bit, adding information about aliens, and creating tons of questions for fans to chew on. At the end of this episode, fans now know that the government isn't just covering up the existence of aliens, but experiments with them. We know that a cloning project is in place, and they succeeded in producing a hybrid. We also know that these hybrids have toxic, burning green blood, and that none of them were meant to get out because it would expose the project.

Not only all of that, but they even had M & S find this out for themselves. Now that they have had a taste for it, they have to be hungry for more.