The X-Files - 4.

French title: Nids d'abeilles
translation: The Bees' Nest

US Airdate: April 27, 1997

writers: Howard Gordon and Frank Spotnitz

director: Kim Manners

STARRING:

David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder

Guest Cast:

MITCH PILEGGI as Assistant Director Skinner

WILLIAM B. DAVIS as The Cigarette-Smoking Man

DON S. WILLIAMS as 1st Elder

MORRIS PANYCH as Gray-haired Man

LISA STEWART as Jane Brody

NICOLLE NATTRASS as Misty

FRED KEATING as Detective Hugel

ALLAN GRAY as Dr. Peter Valedespino

THERESA PUSKAR as Mrs. Kemper

BARRY CREENE as Dr. Emile Linzer

PAUL MCLEAN as Special Agent Kautz

JOHN MOORE as 2nd Elder

LAURIE HOLDEN as Marita Covarrubias

SKINNER IS FRAMED FOR MURDER AFTER HE COVERS-UP THE DEATH OF A YOUNG WOMAN WHO WAS ATTACKED BY A SWARM OF BEES.

Jane Brody, a mail sorter at an overnight delivery company, sneaks into the female employee's rest room to smoke a cigarette. Without warning, hundreds of bees creep into the stall where Jane is sitting. When the young woman attempts to swat the insects so she can escape, the bees swarm and attack, stinging her to death.

An e-mail file containing photographs of the victim is sent to Mulder, but Skinner intercepts and deletes the file. Skinner thin covertly erases evidence of the bee attack, and incinerates Jane Brody's body. Identifying himself as Fox Mulder, Skinner visits a police forensics lab in Virginia where he switches a vial containing Brody's blood with another identical container. As he is leaving, Skinner is approached by Detective Ray Thomas, the man who e-mailed Mulder photographs of Brody's body. Skinner tells the disappointed Thomas (who thinks he is talking to Fox Mulder) that the evidence does not warrant his further involvement in the case.

Mulder pays Skinner an unexpected visit. He states that someone has gone to great lengths to keep news of the bee attack from reaching him. He also reveals that Detective Thomas was found dead, the victim of an execution-style shooting. With Scully undergoing tests at a hospital for the treatment of her cancer, Mulder asks Skinner for his help in solving the mystery. Later that night, Skinner is approached by the Cigarette-Smoking Man. Skinner accuses him of murdering Detective Thomas. The Cigarette-Smoking Man counters that Skinner "failed to neutralize a potentially compromising situation."

Mulder discovers that someone stole Brody's body from a morgue and switched her blood sample at the police station. He also discovers that Thomas was murdered by someone using a government issue gun. Shortly thereafter, Skinner realizes his own weapon is missing. Skinner revisits the women's rest room where Brody was killed. He discovers part of a massive honeycomb inside the rest room wall, and brings a piece of the honeycomb to entomologist Peter Valdespino for analysis.

Mulder discovers that a bank surveillance camera captured a blurry image of someone talking to Detective Thomas shortly before he was murdered. He hopes the Bureau's Photo Unit can produce a clearer image of the man who he suspects is Thomas' killer. Using larvae taken from the honeycomb, Valdespino hatches more bees to identify the species. The insects unexpectedly swarm the entomologist, killing him. Mulder later discovers that Valdespino died from smallpox. He hypothesizes that someone has engineered a method of spreading the contagion using the insects.

Skinner questions Brody's co-worker, Misty Nagata. She reveals that a damaged overnight package was confiscated by other investigators working on the case. Students at an elementary school in South Carolina are attacked by a swarm of bees. Skinner tells doctors at a hospital emergency room that the children should be treated not for bee stings, but for smallpox.

Working from surveillance camera footage, the FBI photo unit produces a clear image of Skinner talking to Thomas shortly before his death. Outraged, Mulder accuses Skinner of working in conjunction with the Cigarette-Smoking Man from the very beginning. But Skinner insists he was framed.

Skinner again confronts the Cigarette-Smoking Man, firing several shots in anger. Afterward, the Cigarette-Smoking Man instructs Marita Covarrubias, in the company of Syndicate members, to tell Mulder whatever he wants to hear.

Ahhhh, finally, an ep to get my fellow Mitch fans all abuzzzzz!

Gillian Anderson did NOT appear in this episode, regardless of the fact that the official site has her listed in the credits.

Many fans, including myself, missed the fabulous Gillian Anderson in this ep, but I must say, I really enjoyed this one, and not just for THAT scene of Skinner in his briefs ;-) The only other time, so far, that they've tried doing an ep without Scully, the universally loathed "3", gave us all good reason to fear how this one would turn out. I've always found the secondary characters fascinating and this was no disappointment for me.

This episode finally reveals the "price" of Skinner's deal with the devil from "Memento Mori". After all he goes through here, it really makes one wonder why Skinner would risk his own life for Scully's. Some fans would like to believe that he secretly loves her, but I can't see that happening outside of fan-fic. I think he feels a great deal of guilt with regards to Scully and how she contracted her cancer. Whether he actually knew or had anything to do with her adbuction, I'm not sure, but it seems he feels responsible, maybe simply because if she weren't working in the x-files department, she wouldn't have been abducted and thus, wouldn't be dealing with the cancer now. I don't know, just some thoughts. There's no question he respects her, admires and cares for her, but we're not talking love, sorry folks.

Loved the "hell" imagery at the beginning, especially the sound of the fire when Skinner opens the door on the incinerator, with the flames beautifully reflected in his glasses.

Am I reading way too much into this, or did the top of the elevator that Skinner carried the dead woman's body in, look like a honeycomb? And you people thought I didn't WORK on these episode pages!

The second-best scene (well, okay, maybe the third ;-) ), was the classic look on Cancer Man's face after Skinner has fired the gun at him, missing on purpose. You even hear CM breathe "out" afterwards, meaning he was holding his breath. Scared him silly!

Did you catch the homage to Hitchcock's "The Birds"? The scene where the bees attack the schoolchildren in the playground was almost an exact remake of a similiar scene in the movie. The attack coming from the air, children running and screaming, one kid falling and losing his glasses, the teacher pushing him aside to save him, sacrificing herself whether she meant to or not, with the final shot from above showing her writhing on the ground, covered in bees. Delicious! Maybe I'm twisted, sorry, but I loved it and I'm a parent, scary huh?

On a serious note though, a lot of people were put off by what they saw as the gratuitous use of children in this ep, too violent and too heartless. Comments along the lines of "If Chris Carter had kids, he wouldn't do this" were bandied about. To me, there are plenty of other shows on TV today that take advantage of our emotions where children are concerned, The X-Files is not the first, won't be the last and is not the worst offender, in my opinion. Sermon over.

Speaking of bees, what the heck is this all about?! In the season opener, "Herrenvolk" we were first introduced to the bees and, frankly, I'm still trying to figure them out! The smallpox part of the conspiracy was introduced in "Terma", but this is the first time I remember them being connected, which doesn't help at all. If the bees are being bred to spread smallpox, a disease which almost all older human beings are immune to, then they must be for the elimination of alien visitors right? Just a guess, don't quote me! And seeing the bad guys (whoever *they* are this week), testing on the kids was just oookey, those people are scum!

We don't know much about the guy Skinner took the bee to, but he must be hot stuff if he's the only guy the FBI goes to! For what it's worth, the bee guy was in Elsinore, Maryland, and "Elsinore" was the name of the castle in Hamlet.

A minor nitpick for me with this guy, when he returns to his room and tries turning on the light, which he doesn't know is covered with bees, as is the window, did he not think something was amiss seeing as it's the middle of the day and the room is pitch black?!

Remind me to never set up a clandestine meeting with Mulder, the man has a problem with secrecy! Seriously though, I doubt Deep Throat and X would be in his Rolodex, after all, Marita is a UN employee, not unusual that she'd be there. But gee, you think maybe Skinner could have done us all a favour and looked up Mrs. Mulder so we could finally give her a first name, but noooo!

Because people seem to enjoy this sort of thing as much as I do, here's the listing from the first entry in Mulder's handy-dandy Rolodex:

Cottage Industries

603 Sally Crescent

Washington, D.C.

(202) 555-0113

I believe that the term "cottage industries" means work that is related to something bigger, such as, in this case, what Skinner is doing as it relates to his actual job. Anyone else want a crack at this one?

Nice "product placement" with the name Foo Fighters on one of Mulder's files. The band by the same name is on the soundtrack album and two of the band members made a cameo appearance in "Pusher". Doesn't hurt that they had a new album coming out when this ep aired either. Of course, Mulder *does* have a reason for having a file on this phenomena, the name comes from, I believe, World War 2, as a name given to unidentified objects seen by pilots during the war and beyond.

The first victim's name was Jane Brody, the same name as a nutrition/health columnist for The New York Times. I also noted the similarity to the the title character in the marvelous "The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie".

Still some debate regarding the final scene, namely, who was in the background listening in on the phone call between Cancer Man and Marita? According to the official site, it's a member of the Syndicate, but that's not clear to the viewer. As we have debated, if it was Mulder, okay she's not a spy, but if it was, say, Krycek, that woman's gotta die! Oh, who cares, bump her off anyway please? Thanks! :-) She drives me nuts!

Credit where it's due on this last note. On the newsgroup, Valkyrie ( valkyrielj@aol.com ) came up with this gem, which the rest of us are ashamed to admit we hadn't noticed before. Rearrange the letters in the name Marita and, voila, it spells "Im a rat". This is too good not to have been planned from the start, man I love this show!

(in the parking lot)

Skinner: "Was it you? Did you pull the trigger or did you have him do it for ya?" (indicating the driver of the car Cancer Man has stepped out of)

Cancer Man: "I'm not here to answer your questions."

Skinner: "You murdered him! You killed an officer of the law!"

Cancer Man: "I suggest you keep your voice down Mr. Skinner, unless you want your neighbors to know the hours and the company you keep."

Skinner: "I won't be a party to murder."

Cancer Man: "I wouldn't get too comfortable on your moral high ground, Mr. Skinner. This only happened because you left your job unfinished."

Skinner: "I handled him just like I've handled everything else you've asked me to do. I followed your instructions."

Cancer Man: "You failed to neutralize a potentially compromising situation."

Skinner: "You didn't have to kill him. He didn't have to die."

Cancer Man: "You're in no position to question the terms of our arrangement."

Skinner: "Then we have no arrangement." (starts to leave)

Cancer Man: "You'll find it's not that easy to walk away from, Mr. Skinner."

Skinner: "No?"

Cancer Man: "A man digs a hole, he risks falling into it."

____________________________________________________________

(after finding his gun missing, the one used to kill the detective, Skinner calls Cancer Man)

Skinner: "What did you have me cover up?"

Cancer Man: "I think the less you know the better, under the circumstances."

Skinner: "I need to know what that man died for!"

Cancer Man: "He died for you, Mr. Skinner. He died so you could have what you wanted, a cure for Agent Scully. Isn't that what you want?"

Skinner: "Agent Scully is in the hospital, if you *can* do anything for her, I want it done now!"

Cancer Man: "I'm fully aware of Agent Scully's progress."

Skinner: "If anything happens to her, I will expose you. I'll turn state's evidence. I don't care what happens to me."

Cancer Man: "Agent Scully stands to live a long and healthy life. I would hope the same for you, Mr. Skinner."

____________________________________________________________

(in the morgue with the body of the entomologist, dead from smallpox)

Skinner: "Caused how? I mean, how could this man have contracted a disease that doesn't even exist anymore?"

Mulder: "From these." (he picks up a vial, showing it to Skinner)

Skinner: "What are they?"

Mulder: "Bee stingers and venom sacs recovered subcutaneously from the victim's face, arm and neck."

Skinner: "You're saying this man was stung by bees carrying smallpox?"

Mulder: "He was a forensic entomologist, I consulted with him several months ago about a similar fatality."

Skinner: "Then you've seen this before."

Mulder: "Yeah, but I've never had any hard evidence, not until now. I think that's what somebody's gone to great lengths to try to prevent."

Skinner: "Why?"

Mulder: "I can only guess, but I think that somebody's trying to engineer a method of delivery. For a disease that has killed more people throughout history than any other contagion known to humankind. If you want me to suggest an appropriate response then I can..."

Skinner: "Can they be stopped?"

Mulder: "How can we stop them? We don't even know who these people are, and we won't until we know the identity of that shooter."

Skinner: "How close are you?"

Mulder: "Hopefully very, I've got one of the photo techs pulling an allnighter on that surveillance video so he can show me something this morning. I told him that you'd authorize the overtime."

Skinner: "Of course."

Mulder: "I'm going to go over there right now."

Skinner: "Tell me what you find."

____________________________________________________________

(placing a vial containing a dead bee on a table)

Cancer Man: "The last remaining speciman. The bees from the scientist's house have been contained and destroyed."

1st Elder: "And the body?"

Cancer Man: "It also has been sanitized."

1st Elder: "How did this happen?"

Cancer Man: "It's been taken care of. The details are unimportant."

1st Elder: "Details are everything. Much more important than your vague assurances."

Cancer Man: "Well you'll have to trust my assurance that any other breachs have been handled."

1st Elder: "Handled by whom?"

Cancer Man: "I have a man in place. A man with no other choice but to succeed."

1st Elder: "What assurance can you give us that he can be trusted?"

Gray-Haired Man: "We can't risk even the slightest exposure."

Cancer Man: "He has nothing to expose. Except his own duplicity."

1st Elder: "Should we assume that the trial run is proceeding as planned?"

Cancer Man: "It's already begun." (scene changes to the playground, right before the bees start attacking)

____________________________________________________________

(Mulder confronts Skinner after identifying him on the video)

Mulder: "Is that the gun you used to shoot the detective?!"

Skinner: "No!"

Mulder: "How does it feel to shoot an innocent man in the head?"

Skinner: "I didn't kill him!"

Mulder: "You're a liar! You've been working with the Smoking Man all along, you knew when he had my father killed, and you knew when they took Scully!"

Skinner: "Listen to me..."

Mulder: "I've heard enough of you."

Skinner: "He set me up! He stole my gun and then he put it back! Which means the police are probably on their way right now."

Mulder: "I don't believe you."

Skinner: "Look at my desk drawer, Agent Mulder. Look at it! Why would I force my own lock? If I lied to you... I *have* lied to you and I won't make excuses for those lies, but there's a reason that I did what I did. One that I think you're in a unique position to understand. I advised you against a certain course of action some time ago, concerning Agent Scully. I didn't follow my own advice."

____________________________________________________________

(Cancer Man enters his darkened apartment, or possibly his office, where Skinner is seated with a gun pointed at him)

Skinner: "Leave it off. I'm starting to get used to the dark."

Cancer Man: "Is this part of our deal?"

Skinner: "We never had a deal."

Cancer Man: "No?"

Skinner: "Agent Scully is dying and you haven't done a damn thing about it! (a smirk appears on CM's face) You think that's funny?"

Cancer Man: "I'm just enjoying the irony, Mr. Skinner. Only yesterday you said you wouldn't be party to murder, and now, here you are. Yours isn't the first gun I've had pointed in my face, Mr. Skinner. I'm not afraid to die. But if you kill me now, you'll also kill Agent Scully."

Skinner: "You have no intention of saving her, you never did!"

Cancer Man: "You're certain? I saved her life once before when I had her returned to Agent Mulder, I may save her life again. But you'll never know if you pull the trigger, will you? (phone starts ringing) Now if you don't intend to kill me, I'd like to answer my phone. (Skinner fires 3 shots, camera moves with Skinner as he leaves, we see bullet holes in the wall behind Cancer Man, he swallows hard and lets out the breath he was holding in, picks up phone after Skinner leaves) Yes? He was just here, he threatened to kill me. I'm sure Mulder will be contacting you. He'll want to know if Skinner's seen all there is to see."

Marita: (on the other end of the phone, glances back at shadowy figure listening in on a cell phone) "I'll tell him what you want me to tell him."