Talitha Cumi

Why can't I think of anything interesting to say about this one?

It sets up several of the most important aspects of the mythology.

1) Bees. Bees and contaminated crops; key to spreading the havoc in the most low-key, unsuspectable method possible.

 2) Clone drones of Samantha and (presumably) Gregory, the other clone from Colony/End Game. There are many copies... and they have a plan. (oh wait...)

 3) The healing power (some) aliens possess (in addition to that radioactive thing, and the toxic green blood). Aliens are God. Literally- we'll learn that in season 6.

4) CSM and Mrs Mulder were so having an affair.

But as with most X-F two parters, the first ep merely sets up the drama-fast that is the second half.

There are lots of opportunities for Scully to be a really wonderful, supportive partner in this one though, when Mulder's mom is admitted into the hospital. 

Poor Mulder is a wreck, and who wouldn't be. And frankly, the prospect of him losing his mother so soon after losing his dad just makes it that much harder. But he's so distraught that I often have to remind myself that she does in fact survive for a few more seasons.

When Mulder leaves her hospital room, his encounter with CSM is positively crazed... but also hilarious because CSM is so bold here..

M: You wanna smoke that, or do you wanna smoke on this?

CSM:OH you're giving me a choice?

Just.. seriously, that is such a funny line, I love it.

M: I should shoot you right here, but they probably would be able to save you.

CSM: Do it, do it Agent Mulder.

M: Or maybe shoot a bullet through your brain so you'd be bedridden on a bed for the rest of your life.

CSM: (totally sincere) How is she?

M: (taken aback) What do you care? 

Then Mulder's fight with X is the most believable fight I think we ever see on the show- it looks like real life barroom brawl, and it ends in a stand off.

M: I'm walking, away.

X: You're a dead man Agent Mulder. One way, or the other.

Also of real importance, is when Mulder acquires on of those alien stiletto weapons that we have seen ABH and the Samantha clones carrying around. While I'm on the topic, any episode Alien Bounty Hunter is in is a good one.

And then as far as cliffhangers go... no so much exciting or cliffhanger as it is... well... anticlimatic. M, S and Jeremiah Smith are slowly being approached by a tough looking ABH...... END SEASON!

...meh. That could have been better.

Wetwired

A strong stand alone that manages to maybe be the most paranoid episode of the whole series.. and I love it. Maybe in my top ten, certainly in my top.. I dunno.. three of this season. Love it.

Lots of UST all over it, almost as much as the paranoia. Mulder joins Scully in her hotel room when they are watching hours and hours of tape recorded TV and makes himself awfully comfy on her couch. I think when you lie down and spend an entire conversation laying down, that's essentially an invitation..

People, including Scully are manipulated with subliminal messages in TV transmissions, made to believe their greatest fears were reality.

Scully's greatest fear, it seems, is that Mulder has been out to get her and collaborating with CSM this whole time. That the one person she trusts is actually involved in some elaborate betrayal. Her scenes are so intensely paranoid and fearful, and because they are somewhat uncharacteristic of her it's easier to understand why she becomes so distressed from it. Enough to tear apart her hotel room looking for listening devices.

For some reason, when she hears Mulder on the phone in the next room, and she leans in to the TV screen crunching on ice, it makes me so tense. I love it!

In turn, Mulder must face his ultimate fear as well; Scully's death.

The episode takes a surprisingly harsh turn when Mulder receives a phone call while enlisting the Gunmen's special brand of expertise. He just leaves.

FROHIKE: What happened?

M: Maryland State Police. They think they've found Scully.

(He opens the door.)

FROHIKE: Is she okay?

M: No, um... (pauses, shaky) they think maybe I should come down and I.D. the body. 

When we see Mulder pull into the parking spot and collect himself, it is so subtly heartbreaking, which makes it somehow more real. He can't quite prepare himself to face it, but he knows he may be faced with his partner's dead body. 

He's approached by an informant who tries to make him get in the car with him. Furious that he'd interrupt this very effing important task of ID a dead woman, Mulder kicks the man's door. I am so proud of him at this moment- yes! Stop being pushed around by these men you don't know, and focus on what's important.

In this case, who else could even do the job? Out of respect or perhaps to keep things going at a pace he can manage, Mulder even insists on pulling the blinds open himself. He's not ready but he does it anyway, and it's almost hard to watch as you wait for relief to wash across his face- it doesn't. He just says 'it's not her'. I think he's not quite over the initial shock. That bit was almost as good as the Pusher Russian Roulette scene.

That's not even the climax.

Then Mulder calls on Mrs Scully. From her body language, he knows he can find his partner inside the house, and when he does, she's already pulled a gin on him.  It's a tense scene when he tries to talk her down.

S: He's never trusted me.

M: Scully, you are the only one I trust.

S: (highly emotional, getting more so with every word) You're in on it. You're one of them. You're one of the people who abducted me. You put that thing in my neck. You killed my sister!

Mrs Scully: That's not true, Dana. 

Interestingly, this is the only time Scully has referenced to her abduction as an 'abduction'. This may or may not involve UFOs but the word carries certain connotations that may reveal something about what her hidden ideas of this experience may be.

 At this point, Mrs Scully, who trusts Mulder implicitly and even gets away with calling him 'Fox', steps in front of him to protect him.

Mrs Scully: I want you to listen to me...

S: Mom, just get out of the way!

Mrs Scully: You trust me, don't you? 

Of course she does. Mrs Scully is able to talk her daughter down, and Scully breaks down in her mom's arms.

Mrs Scully: That's why you came here, isn't it? You're safe here. Put the gun down, Dana.

They take Scully to the hospital where she is embarrassed about what happened. Mulder, to show there are no hard feelings, enters the room with arms raised in mock surrender. Cute :)

Later, Mulder finally confronts X, and we finally get confirmation of his double dealings. I love the parallel in dialogue at the end;

SKINNER: What about their killer?

M: (protecting X) He remains an unknown subject.

CSM:  What about Mulder's source?

X: He's been eliminated.

CSM: And his source? Who's he working with?

X: (protecting himself) That person remains unknown. 

Quagmire

... Giggety?

I sometimes feel like this episode only exists so that they end up stranded on a rock at the end. Cute moments throughout seem to lead up to the wildly popular scene that usually pushes this otherwise ordinary ep into shippers' top ten lists. (Well, not mine....)

Any evidence of Life Outside of Work on this show is usually given as evidence of a budding relationship. Here, Mulder pulls Scully away on her weekend. She doesn't have to come along, but she does (possibly remembering what happened the last time she declined to join him on a weekend investigation). She brings Queequeeg- Mulder's remark makes it clear he's let her know what he thinks of that thing. I'm of the same opinion...

Scully also implies in the same conversation that they have discussed kennels (and what she thinks of them) previously. 

M: Did you really have to bring that thing?

S: You wake me up on a Saturday morning, tell me to be ready in five minutes, my mother is out of town, all of the dog sitters are booked, and you know how I feel about kennels. So unless you want to lose your security deposit on the car, I suggest you pull over. 

So Scully joins Mulder on a rather silly trip to investigate a Loch Ness, Ogopogo kind of crypto-animal, lucky her.

M: Sounds like you know a little something about the subject.
S: I did as a kid. But, then I grew up, and became a scientist.

She loses her dog in the middle of it, and I think Mulder is too busy being relived to be of much comfort to her.

His lack of kindness in their hotel room is made up for on their boat ride, and he even manages to get a smile out of Scully; a real smile by doing nothing other than just being himself... Even though hours previously she was beyond words with grief over this "dog"... I am a little surprised she's so attached to the damned thing lol!

Big Blue attacks the boat, stranding them on the rock, lord knows how far from the shore in any direction......

M: When you're living in the city you forget that night is actually so...dark. 

They actually manage to seem quite vulnerable sitting on a rock in a lake, and as Mulder said real dark is so surprisingly dark. Not many people actually get to experience darkness- you may as well have your eyes shut.

Or, you know, bundle up with your partner nearby and exchange mild flirtations and charming hypotheticals. 

M: Hey Scully, you think you could ever cannibalize someone? I mean if you really had to.

S: Well as much as the very idea is abhorrent to me, I suppose under certain conditions a living entity is practically conditioned to perform whatever extreme measures are necessary to ensure its survival. I suppose I'm no different.

M: You've lost some weight recently haven't you?

S: Well, actually I have, thanks for... (stops and glares a bit, realizing he's not sincerely taking an interest in her improved appearance but is teasing her about cannibalism)

We already knew about Scully's father sharing Moby Dick nicknames, but Mulder asks about her dog's name; Scully comes to a realization.

S: It's funny, I just realized something.

M: It's a bizarre name for a dog, huh?

S: No, how much you're like Ahab. You're so consumed by your personal vengeance against life, whether it be its inherent cruelties or mysteries, everything takes on a warped significance to fit your megalomaniacal cosmology.

M: Scully, are you coming on to me?

S: It's the truth or a white whale. What difference does it make? I mean, both obsessions are impossible to capture, and trying to do so will only leave you dead along with everyone else you bring with you. You know Mulder, you are Ahab.

M: You know, its interesting you should say that, because I've always wanted a peg leg. It's a boyhood thing I never grew out of. (seriously!)  I'm not being flippant, I've given this a lot of thought. I mean. if you have a peg leg or hooks for hands then maybe its enough to simply keep on living. You know, braving facing life with your disability. But without these things you're actually meant to make something of your life, achieve something earn a raise, wear a necktie. So if anything I'm actually the antithesis of Ahab, because if I did have a peg leg I'd quite possibly be more happy and more content not to be chasing after these creatures of the unknown.

S: And that's not flippant?

M: No, flippant is my favourite line from Moby Dick. 'Hell is an idea first born on an undigested apple dumpling' (Scully repeats this line along with Mulder, duly impressed with his ability to quote from this most important book in her library).

Strangely, it's Scully who tries to cheer up a gloomy Mulder at the end of the episode. 

S: Well, you slued the big white whale, Ahab.

M: Yeah, but I still don't have that peg leg.

S: How can you be disappointed? That alligator would have gone through half the local population if you hadn't killed it.

M: I know. I guess I just wanted Big Blue to be real.

Ranking the first three seasons

Personal enjoyment: Pusher - Vince Gilligan Ice - GM / JW Wetwired- Mat Beck Apocrypha - FS / CC  Little Green Men - GM / JW Irresistible - Chris Carter One Breath - Glen Morgan / James Wong Anasazi – CC Paper Clip - Chris Carter The Blessing Way - CC Sleepless - Howard Gordon Darkness Falls - CC Beyond the Sea - GM/JW EBE - GM / JW Grotesque - Howard Gordon Squeeze - GM / JW Tooms - GM / JW Ascension - Paul Brown Erlenmeyer Flask - CC Dod Kalm - HG End Game - Frank Spotnitz Die Hand Die Verletzt - GM / JW Duane Barry - CC The Host – CC War of the Coprophages - Darin Morgan Young At Heart - Scott Kaufer / Chris Carter Eve - Kenneth Biller / Chris Brancato Pilot – CC Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space" - Darin Morgan  DPO - Howard Gordon Conduit - Alex Gansa / Howard Gordon Deep Throat - CC Humbug - Darin Morgan Colony – CC Talitha Cumi - Chris Carter Aubrey - Sara B Charno Firewalker – HG Revelations - Kim Newton Nesei - CC/ HG/ FS 731 - FS The List - CC 2SHY - Jeffrey Vlaming Quagmire - Kim Newton  Avatar - Howard Gordon Syzygy - CC Roland - Chris Ruppenthal Born Again - AG / HG Ghost in the Machine - Alex Gansa / Howard Gordon The Walk - John Shiban Soft Light - Vince Gilligan Shadows - GM / JW Miracle Man - Howard Gordon / Chris Carter Lazarus - Alex Gansa / Howard Gordon Fallen Angel - Howard Gordon / Alex Gansa Shapes - Marilyn Osborn The Calusari - Sara B Charno Fresh Bones – HG Blood - GM / JW Our Town - Frank Spotnitz Red Museum - CC Excelsis Dei - Paul Brown Teso Dos Bichos - John Shiban Fearful Symmetry - Steve De Jarnatt F. Emasculata - CC /HG Hell Money - Jeff Vlaming Oubliette - Charles Craig Gender Bender - Larry Barber / Paul Barber Fire - CC Space - CC Jersey Devil - CC 3 - Chris Ruppenthal / GM / JW And Shippiness: Irresistible - CC Anasazi - CC One Breath - GM / JW Sleepless - HG Ice - GM / JW Dod Kalm - HG Beyond the Sea - GM/JW The Host - CC Little Green Men - GM / JW Tooms - GM/JW Firewalker - HG End Game - Frank Spotnitz EBE - GM / JW Darkness Falls - CC Squeeze - GM / JW Pilot - CC Deep Throat - CC Erlenmeyer Flask - CC Red Museum - CC Aubrey - Sara B Charno Die Hand Die Verletzt - GM / JW Humbug - Darin Morgan Colony - CC Our Town - Frank Spotnitz Jersey Devil - CC Conduit - Alex Gansa / Howard Gordon Fire - CC Eve - Kenneth Biller / Chris Brancato Young At Heart - Scott Kaufer / Chris Carter Shadows - GM / JW Roland - Chris Ruppenthal Miracle Man - Howard Gordon / Chris Carter Space - CC Fallen Angel - Howard Gordon / Alex Gansa Lazarus - Alex Gansa / Howard Gordon Gender Bender - Larry Barber / Paul Barber Duane Barry - CC Blood - GM / JW Excelsis Dei - Paul Brown Soft Light - Vince Gilligan the Calusari - Sara B Charno Ghost in the Machine - Alex Gansa / Howard Gordon Shapes - Marilyn Osborn Born Again - AG/HG Fearfull Symmetry - Steve De Jarnatt F.Emasculata - CC / HG Fresh Bones - HG 3 - Chris Ruppenthal / GM / JW

Let's Rank Season Three!

Personal enjoyment:

Pusher - Vince Gilligan
Wetwired- Mat Beck
Apocrypha - FS / CC 
Paper Clip - Chris Carter 
The Blessing Way - CC
Grotesque - Howard Gordon
War of the Coprophages - Darin Morgan
Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space" - Darin Morgan 
Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose - Darin Morgan
DPO - Howard Gordon
Talitha Cumi - Chris Carter
Revelations - Kim Newton
Nesei - CC/ HG/ FS
731 - FS
The List - CC
2SHY - Jeffrey Vlaming
Quagmire - Kim Newton 
Avatar - Howard Gordon
Syzygy - cc
The Walk - John Shiban
Teso Dos Bichos - John Shibn
Hell Money - Jeff Vlaming
Oubliette - Charles Craig



Shippiness:

Pusher- Vince Gilligan
Paper Clip - Chris Carter
The Blessing Way - CC
Wetwired- Mat Beck 
War of the Coprophages Darin Morgan
Apocrypha - FS / CC
Quagmire - Kim Newton 
Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose - Darin Morgan
DPO - Howard Gordon
Revelations - Kim Newton
Talitha Cumi - Chris Carter
Nisei - CC/ HG/ FS
731 - FS
Grotesque - HG
The List - CC
Syzygy - CC
2SHY - Jeffrey Vlaming
Piper Maru - FS / CC
Teso Dos Bichos - John Shiban
Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space" - Darin Morgan 
Hell Money - Jeff Vlaming
Avatar - Howard Gordon
The Walk - John Shiban
Oubliette - Charles Craig

Avatar

Well, the movie Avatar has kind of usurped the title of this episode, so let's refer to the name we give it in our household; "Skinner Kills Bitches Dead" (and gets away with it).

While I agree characters are more interesting if we know a little more about them, I don't know why they concocted a lame divorce to a wife that nobody knew about for no reason. I mean, nothing in this episode is resolved in any way, and now they've given Skinner a .. wife?

So what even happens to the wife? We understand that Skinner is refusing to sign the divorce papers, and he even takes his wedding band (which he keeps in his desk at work; probably the most important place in the world for him), and puts it back on his finger at the end of the episode. 

But at the same time, he has no problem sleeping with someone else. Plus, his wife is in the hospital and then we never see or hear from her again. I can only assume she winds up dying from her injuries, but how are we to know? Scully's stupid inherited dog gets more closure in the next episode than Skinner's wife does? Come on, that's stupid.

And what about the bizarre ending in which Skinner happens to shows up at the hotel in time to save the other hooker's life? He shoots an unidentified man and then suddenly... has his job back? And charges for his first murder are just dropped? What? He can't even explain what he's doing there.

And it's not as if his shooting the mysterious man gets rid of his succubus problem. He has nothing to do with the succubus, so we can only assume she still haunts him. Unless she dies along with his wife.

Yes, that would tidy things up nicely.

Does anyone else find it amazing that the only real sex scene in the series is Skinner with a hooker? Wow, go Skinner I guess.

That is one dead hooker you have there, Skinner.

Oh yeah, and Mulder and Scully are in this one too.

Mulder is maybe even grateful for the chance to defend Skinner, just like Skinner has been defending him for all these years... even after it stops making sense for him to do so.

S: Mulder, it's me. I just got your message. You said Skinner called in a homicide?

M: Yeah, it appears to be a little more complicated than that. It seems like he had a front-row seat. 

They visit the operator of this very high class escort service and confirm it was Skinner's credit card used in the transaction that night.

M: What the hell was he thinking?

S: It just doesn't seem like him.

M: You'd think he'd be a little more discrete.

S: Well, I think the lack of discretion is the least of his sins. 

 ...

M: Credit card fraud happens every day.

S: Skinner was in bed with a prostitute at the time of her death, and he's offered us no explanation or alibi. 

Wow, come on Mulder, it's really hard to get around the whole 'Skinner was in bed with her at the time of her death'.

Scully discovers Skinner is undergoing treatment for some kind of sleep disorder, so Mulder concludes that Skinner is being visited by a succubus. 

M: So you think that Skinner may have killed the victim in his sleep?

S: Defending himself against this imaginary old woman. A lot of these patients have no recollection of their nocturnal activities, which might explain Skinner's amnesia.

M: And it's not such a strange story.

S: It isn't?

M: It's ancient, actually. You may have heard it, although not in such clinical terms. In the middle ages, a visitation like the one Skinner described would have been attributed to a succubus. It's a spirit that visits men in the night, usually in the form of an old woman.

S: Visits them for sex?

M: Usually. Though sometimes the succubus becomes so attached to the man that she would kill any woman competing for his affection.

Mulder shows her a picture in his book of a man and a woman in bed, with her arms outstretched and light glowing from her hands. The ten year old in me wants to giggle at Mulder showing Scully dirty pictures in a book..

S: (pointing to the glow) What's that?

M: Reports of residual luminous phenomena have been associated with some succubus encounters, at least according to the mythology. Why?

S: I feel kinda strange saying this, but I found something during my post-mortem exam that I think you should see.

What appeared originally to maybe be.. uhm.. "not milk" around the hooker's mouth... may turn out to be some supernatural residue, but in an unusual turn of events, Scully has to defend herself when it no longer appears to glow in the dark.

S: It's a circular patch around the victim's mouth and nose, approximately 11 centimeters in diameter. It retained light energy. It glowed in the dark. I know what I saw, Mulder. It was here. 

There is actually a cute moment here where Scully dials Mulder's number, only to find him walking up behind her.

Cute.

It finally emerges that CSM & co have set Skinner up. The have already tried shooting him to get him out of the way; that didn't work. As Mulder says, trying again so soon would be too obvious.

And I'm pretty sure the Assistant Director being caught with a hooker should have been the fast track to burying him. They must have been positively giddy when the hooker winds up being murdered too- I don't think even they can take the credit for the succubus showing up. Yep, Skinner should definitely be out of the picture now... Too bad the Conspirators weren't counting on.. well.. whatever it was that happened.

Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'

As clever as this episode is, it pales in comparison with Jose Chung's Millennium episode, which is the funniest thing I have seen this side of Arrested Development.

Also, as clever as this is, it is not super high on the UST scale- doesn't seem to stop it from being a major fan favourite though! The use of repetition is particularly effective in keeping the audience in stitches.

Among the highlights for me:

JOSE: Actually? It was my publisher's idea. At first I was reluctant, until I realized that I had an opportunity here to create an entirely new literary genre... a non-fiction science fiction. Now, see, that gimmick alone will guarantee it's landing on the best-seller list. In short, to answer your question? (pause, then gleeful and sing-songy) Money.

S: Well... just as long as you're attempting to record the truth.

JOSE: Oh, God, no. How can I possibly do that? 

I love watching Scully go a little bit fan-girl for a change; I wouldn't say there is any hero worship going on here, but she is definitely starstruck.

So am I, when Jesse Ventura and Alex Trebek show up as Men in Black!

Ventura: Venus was at its peak brilliance last night. You probably thought you saw something up in the sky other than Venus, but I assure you, it was Venus. 

Detective Manners (a clever representation of Kim Manners, they say) is a hilarious blankety-bleeper.

MANNERS: Hey! I just got a call from some crazy bleep-head saying he was an eyewitness to this alien abduction. Do you feel like talking to this blank-hole? 

Even funnier is the loser Blaine's assumption that M & S were MIBs.

Blaine: One of them was disguised as a woman, but wasn't pulling it off. Like, her hair was red but it was a little too red, you know? And the other one... the tall, lanky one... his face was so blank and expressionless. He didn't even seem human. I think he was a mandroid. The only time he reacted was when he saw the dead body. 

M: (yelps!) 

Scully's overall.. uh.. lack of enthusiasm for this case is also constantly amusing (as always). She often has that look on her face like she's thinking of throwing herself out the window. I wonder if it's because alien abduction is still a touchy subject for her, or if she's just really sick of sci-fi obsessed losers and their fake abduction stories.

BLAINE: Well, I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons and not learn a little something about courage.

..sigh..

Scully interrupts Mulder's interrogation of the boy, finally losing patience.

S: Harold... did you and Chrissy engage in consensual sexual intercourse that night?

HAROLD: (pauses, busted) If her father finds out, I'm a dead man.

Then, as if to give M & S as much opportunity as possible to say (and emphasize) the word 'sex', they sit down and discuss the implications...

M: He said it happened before the abduction.  (pause) So what if they had  sex?

S: So we know that it wasn't an alien who probed her. Mulder, you've got two kids having sex before they're mature enough to know how to handle it.

M: So you're saying that all this is just a case of sexual trauma? 

Ok, that was probably a little USTy. So is the part where Mulder reads from Roky's ridiculous manuscript in their hotel room. Both look utterly embarrassed by his bizarre account of events. Even Mulder thinks this sounds slightly retarded.

Well, sort of...

S: Mulder, you're nuts! 

M: I'm not saying he isn't delusional, I'm just suggesting that his delusional state was triggered by something he actually witnessed that night.

The most embarrassing part for Scully is the alien autopsy video 'Truth or Humbug?', narrated by the Stupendous Yappi. 

YAPPI: Who is that mysterious man who seems to be overseeing the proceedings? And what secret government agency does this autopsy doctor work for? 

LOL!

Then of course, it's a guy wearing an alien costume... so good.

Mulder goes to Scully's hotel room, but she's missing... he finds our two favourite MIBs instead.

M: Where's Scully?

Ventura: Oh. She, uh... (unconvincing) she went to get some ice.

M: (demanding) Where is she?! 

Scully calmly walks past him in a trance, carrying a bucket of ice. WTF right?

Trebek: (to Mulder) You're feeling very sleepy, very... relaxed. 

S: I don't have any recollection of this. I... was surprised to wake up the next morning with Mulder asleep in my room.  

Yeah, I'll bet she was. They haven't exactly shared a hotel room before :P I love that he just... crashed there.

 

S: I know it probably doesn't have the sense of closure that you want... but it has more than some of our other cases...

She could be talking about either their case or the UST here if you really want...why not.

And to sum up... 

ROKY: And so, at each death, the soul descends further into the inner earth, attaining ever greater levels of purification, reaching enlightenment at the core. Assuming, of course, that your soul is able to avoid... the lava men.  

Hell Money

(I sing the title of this episode to the tune of 'Red Money' by David Bowie. Just thought I'd share that...)

The most disturbing part about this episode is that I totally believe in this game.

Special guest starring Lucy Liu, Chinese CSM (from Balls of Fury), and Chinese Val Kilmer. They didn't even need Mulder and Scully in this episode, except to act all racist and suspect Chinese Val Kilmer of being involved in the human-body-part-trafficking.

Well, they weren't wrong though, were they? Does that send a good message about racism?

That said, we have some great quotes here.

S: (of the first victim) He was a dishwasher in Chinatown.

M: How many dishes do you have to break before your boss tosses you in an oven? 

M: Looks like somebody was trying to get two burials for the price of one. 

(Ok I'm sorry, that sounds exactly like the kind of thing my old boss Ping would try to do.)

S: Do you know how much the human body is worth, Mulder?

M: (smiles and eyes her) Depends on the body.

Then they light heartedly joke about leaving hearts in San Francisco. Oh, boo :P Probably one of my favourite autopsy scenes, so let's throw one more pic in there.

I even get a stakeout. Nothing really important happened here, other than.. well.. confined space. 

I also love the bit of dialogue when Scully essentially questions Chinese Val Kilmer as if he is a suspect, just because he's Chinese (which is awful).

Chao: You might see the face of a Chinese man here but let me tell you something -- they don't see the same face. They see the face of a cop... American-born Chinese, ABC. To them, I’m just as white as you are.

Then he guilt trips them when he hands over a helpful piece of evidence, saying

Chao: I just happened to run across it while I was sitting there twiddling my thumbs. 

M & S follow Chao, and they find the operating room below the place where the Game is played, and arrest Chao for his involvement, along with Chinese CSM (who I secretly love in this episode).

Great idea to have this underground game being run by a very similar cancer-man (and boy he's got the speech patterns and mannerisms down)- there's one in every culture I guess.