The X-Files - 5.

German title: Cassandra 2

Japanese title: Aka to Kuro
translation: Red And Black

Spanish title: Resistir o Servir, El Rojo y el Negro
translation: Resist or Serve: The Red and the Black

US Airdate: March 8, 1998

writer: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz

director: Chris Carter

STARRING:

David Duchovny as Special Agent Fox Mulder

Gillian Anderson as Special Agent Dana Scully

Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Walter Skinner

Guest Cast:

Nic Lea as Alex Krycek

Alex Shostak as Dmitri

Laurie Holden as Marita Covarrubias

Veronica Cartwright as Cassandra Spender

Max Wyman as Dr. Per Lagerqvist

Barbara Drake as Dr. Dominique Alepin

Ron Halder as Dr. Floyd Fazio

Jim Janser as Dr. Heitz Werber

Chris Owens as Jeffrey Spender

Don S. Williams as Elder

John Moore as 2nd Elder

John Neville as Well-Manicured Man

Willy Ross as Quiet Willy

Brian Thompson as Bounty Hunter

William B. Davis as Cancer Man

Klodyne Rodney as Medic

Jenn Forgie as Nurse

Derek Thomas Versteeg as M.P.

Plotline

SCULLY UNDERGOES HYPNOSIS IN AN EFFORT TO REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED AT THE MASS BURNING SITE.

In this continuation of the previous episode... a man, his face unseen, types a letter to his son (whose identity is unknown). The man, who lives in a remote cabin, addresses the letter to the FBI and pays a boy to mail it.

Meanwhile, rescue workers sift through the area near the dam where blackened bodies lie along the length of a bridge. Amongst the bodies is Quiet Willy, the Syndicate's hit man. Skinner directs Mulder to a nearby provisional tent, where Scully is ministered by medics. Nearby is the body of Dmitri, the Russian boy, his exposed skin blackened by the fire. When Scully regains consciousness, she tells Mulder she has no memory of what occurred at the dam. Outside of Scully's room, Spender tells Mulder that rescue workers were unable to locate his mother, Cassandra.

The Well-Manicured Man and a physician, Dr. Bronschweig, tend to Maria Covarrubias inside a hospital quarantine room. Later, the Well-Manicured Man speaks with Krycek, imprisoned aboard the Russian freighter. The Well-Manicured Man is aware that Krycek deliberately exposed Dmitri to the black oil to insure the infection of anyone who attempted to ascertain what he knows about the burnings in Russia. He also believes that Krycek possesses a vaccine, that would create resistance to the alien colonists. The Well-Manicured Man offers Krycek freedom in return for the vaccine.

Meanwhile, a spacecraft crashes at Fort Wiekamp Air Force Base. A faceless alien pirate drags one of his comrades from the wreckage. Later, members of the Syndicate study photographs of the alien. They realize the man is a resistance fighter, a member of an ongoing battle against alien colonists. The Well-Manicured Man explains that Krycek gave him the vaccine, meaning resistance may, in fact, be a possibility. But the Elder concludes that the captured fighter should be turned over to the colonists, the Well-Manicured Man has Covarrubias injected with the vaccine to ensure it actually works.

Back at the hospital, Mulder tells Scully that x-rays have revealed the presence of implants inside the people who were at the dam. Mulder recounts his belief that the U.S. government manufactured and implanted the chip as part of a bio-chemical weapons project. Scully agrees to be hypnotized by Dr. Werber in an effort to recall what happened at the dam. In a trance-like state, Scully recalls how a UFO flew overhead, and shortly thereafter, how the faceless aliens set congregants on fire. Then another craft appeared overhead, which began attacking the faceless men. Cassandra was then pulled upward, out of her wheelchair, by the ship. Afterward, Werber tells Mulder that the same event will happen yet again.

Skinner reviews an audio tape of Werber's session with Scully. Mulder tells Skinner the entire event was staged to cover up a classified military project. Skinner admits, however, that Scully's UFO scenario is more plausible. Meanwhile, when Covarrubias fails to respond to the vaccine, the Elder informs the Well-Manicured Man that the captured alien is being turned over to the colonists.

Spender shows the agents a videotape of himself, as a young boy, answering questions while under hypnosis. As the tape plays, the young Spender describes his abduction by a UFO. Spender then pauses the tape. He tells the agents the story is untrue, a falsehood told to him by his mother many times. He maintains that Dr. Werber's regression memory theory is without merit. Spender also points out that Mulder has expressed his UFO theories to Scully many times... suggesting that she has recounted the information in a similar manner.

Krycek surprised Mulder inside his apartment. He explains that Kazakhstan, Skyland Mountain and the site in Pennsylvania are all beacons for colonization. The burnings, Krycek explains, were the work of alien rebels attempting to foil the colonist's plans for takeover. Krycek gives Mulder the location of the captured alien rebel. He maintains that if the captive perishes, so does the resistance. Accompanied by Scully, Mulder drives to Fort Wiekamp. As they attempt to bluff their way through the front gate, the agents notice Quiet Willy at the wheel of a military truck as it is about to exit the base. As the vehicle pulls away, Mulder sneaks aboard the cargo area. There he finds faceless alien pirate imprisoned inside. Quiet Willy brings the rig to a stop... then morphs into the alien bounty hunter. He climbs into the cargo area, but shortly thereafter, a white light illuminates the truck. A second faceless alien, armed with a firestarter weapon, enters. Mulder

opens fire. Shortly thereafter, a confused Mulder is swarmed by MPs and placed inside a car with Scully. Mulder has no memory of how he got aboard the truck. Meanwhile, the envelope seen in the opening teaser is delivered to Spender. Several days later, back at the cabin, the envelope, labeled with the words "return to sender," is delivered to the Cigarette-Smoking Man.

Notes

The tagline reads: Resist Or Serve, the second time this season it's changed from "The Truth Is Out There". The first change was for "Redux", when it read "All Lies Lead To The Truth".

Not finished yet, as you can see, I'll update as soon as I can, thanks for your patience.

Quotes

____________________

Mulder: "It all comes down to a question, Scully. One that hasn't been answered or... I don't even think honestly addressed. Who made that chip in your neck? That chip was found in a military research facility. Our government made that chip, implanted it in your neck as part of a secret military project to develop a biochemical weapon, to monitor your immunity, or to destroy you like a lab rat, if the truth were to be exposed. And your cancer... your cure... everything that's happening to you now... It all points to that chip. The truth I've been searching for? The truth is in you."

Scully: "Mulder, when I met you five years ago, you told me that your sister had been abducted... by aliens, that that event had marked you so deeply, that nothing else mattered. I didn't believe you, but I followed you, on nothing more than your faith that the truth was out there, based not on facts, not on science, but on your memories that your sister had been taken from you. Your memories were all that you had."

Mulder: "I don't trust those memories now."

Scully: "Well, whether you trust them or not, they've led you here... and me. But I have no memories to either trust nor distrust, and if you ask me now to follow you again, to stand behind you in what you now believe, without knowing what happened to me out there, without those memories, I can't. I won't."

Mulder: "If I could give you those memories... if I could prove that I was right and that what I believed for so long was wrong..."

Scully: "Is that what you really want?"

____________________________________________________________

First Elder: "The facial scarrings appear to be self-mutilation done as protection."

Second Elder: "Protection against what?"

First Elder: "Infection by the black oil. He was the lone survivor of a crashed spacecraft at a military base in West Virginia."

Second Elder: "What the hell is he?"

Well-Manicured Man: "An alien rebel. This is what the boy saw in Russia. The last face the dead saw at Skyland Mountain, and most surely who killed our man at the dam in Pennsylvania. He's a resistance fighter against the alien colonists. This is what Alex Krycek knew--that a war had begun."

First Elder: "What good was that knowledge? Without the vaccine against the black oil, no one can survive."

Well-Manicured Man: "We have a vaccine. Developed by the Russians, stolen by Krycek, given to me. Do you see what this means? Resistance is possible. We have the weapons and the magic in hand."

First Elder: "We don't know the vaccine works."

Well-Manicured Man: "It will. And if it doesn't... We have a new alliance to be made."

First Elder: "Side with the resistance?"

Second Elder: "Suicide."

First Elder: "They'll squash us as they do them. We must turn the rebel over."

Well-Manicured Man: "But first, wait till we know the vaccine works."

____________________________________________________________

Skinner: "I've got a problem. And the problem is, I have to head up the investigation into this incident. I don't have the luxury of interpretation. I have to make a report, and that report must state a reason or cite a fact, or at least make an assumption. As I sit here right now, I'm unable to do that. I need to know what happened."

Mulder: "It was staged."

Skinner: "To?"

Mulder: "To test a classified military project, or to cover it up."

Skinner: "Then I wanna know what happened to Cassandra Spender."

Mulder: "Cassandra Spender was taken aboard a military aircraft, as part of the staging."

Skinner: "Over the past five years I've doubted you, only to be persuaded by the power of your belief in extraterrestrial phenomena, and I'm doubting you now, not because of that belief, but... Because extraterrestrial phenomena is, frankly, the more plausible explanation."

Mulder: "Then I suggest you put that in your report."

____________________________________________________________

(after watching a tape of a young Jeffrey Spender recounting the abduction story)

Scully: "Why are you here, Agent Spender? Why did you show this to me?"

Spender: "Because I think the process is bogus. Dr. Werber and his whole regression of memory is B.S. It's like having a dream and then pretending it's real."

Scully: "I think that Dr. Werber would beg to differ."

Spender: "He indulged and infantilized my mother for his own purposes. I think he's dangerous and I think his methods are unsound. If you went through it, I hope you'd question what came out of it."

Scully: "I appreciate your opinion, Agent Spender, but I don't have a mother feeding me abduction stories."

Spender: "You've got Agent Mulder, don't you? How many times have you heard the stories he's told? How about the one about his own sister? Don't let yourself be used."

____________________________________________________________

Krycek: "You must be losing it, Mulder. I could beat you with one hand."

Mulder: "Isn't that how you like to beat yourself? If those are my last words I can do better."

____________________________________________________________

Krycek: "Hear this, Agent Mulder... Listen very carefully because what I'm telling you is deadly serious. There is a war raging, and unless you pull your head out of the sand, you and I and about five billion other people are going to go the way of the dinosaur. I'm talking planned invasion. The colonization of this planet by an extraterrestrial race."

Mulder: "I thought you were serious."

Krycek: "Kazakhstan. Skyland Mountain, the site in Pennsylvania. They're all alien lighthouses where the colonization will begin. But where now, a battle's being waged. A struggle for heaven and earth. Where there is one law: fight or die. And one rule: resist or serve."

Mulder: "Serve who?"

Krycek: "Not who... What."

Mulder: "Krycek, you're a murderer, a liar and a coward. Just because you stick a gun in my chest I'm supposed to believe you're my friend?"

Krycek: "Get up. I was sent by a man... a man who knows, as I do, the resistance is in our grasp, and in yours. The mass incinerations were strikes by an alien rebellion to upset plans for occupation. Now, one of these rebels is being held captive. And if he dies... So does the resistance. (he kisses Mulder, then says in Russian) Good luck to you, my friend."

____________________________________________________________

(Mulder and Scully try to bluff their way onto the military base)

Mulder: "Are you aware there's been a leak and contamination in one of the labs and the personnel on site need immediate medical attention?"

MP: "No, sir, I wasn't."

Mulder: "Why don't you go check on that, son? I'd hate for somebody to die because you were uninformed."

____________________________________________________________

Skinner: "I'm sorry. There's been no news about your mother. I appreciate your wanting to keep this discreet. I'll try and do that. But you should know, Agent Mulder has opened an x-file on this case. This hasn't reflected on you in any way, Agent Spender."

Spender: "Thank you, sir."

Skinner: "You'll do fine. It seems you have a patron outside this office who thinks highly of you."

Spender: "Who's that?"