So I just watched TUNGUSKA/TERMA and wondered about the whole smallpox scar; that's important because that's how the subjects are tracked, yes? It's not that the alien material is given to them there, right? And all those Russians hacked off their arms because, without the smallpox scar, they're useless? I ask because I was watching the episode and kept wondering if the villagers were making an unnecessary sacrifice in a desperate attempt to avoid tests, overreacting and putting too much emphasis on the smallpox scar? But they say, "no arm, no tests." so I guess it works. So is it fair to assume that the smallpox innoculation was the first round of actual testing of the alien material, and not just a way of tracking them? Does that mean everyone with a smallpox vaccination has already been infected with something alien, no matter how benign? Because if it was just a tracking issue, couldn't they take a genetic marker from somewhere else on the body? Why is the smallpox scar so important? Any answers or guesses?

Also, I thought it was interesting that Mulder was given the alien vaccine in the back of the neck. I hadn't noticed that before.

PS: Here's a cool link I found about the bees and smallpox and all that stuff:
http://www.mediacircus.net/smallpox.html

I found this there:

You are confusing two separate reasons for giving people shots in the left arm. This is not your fault, but rather yet another aspect of the mytharc that was muddled.

1. Americans who were given smallpox vaccinations as children supposedly also received a unique marker of genetic material that would allow the government to catalog and track them. The exact reason for this was never made clear, but seems to have something to do with post-apocalyptic population control.

2. Unlucky Russians who piss off the authorities get sent to prison camps, where evil doctors inject them with experimental versions of the anti-alien virus. The Russian victims subsequently cut off their own arms to make themselves unsuitable test subjects, which actually doesn't make sense if you think about it, because they could still be given shots anywhere else on their bodies, but that's how 1013 wrote it.

In other words, don't try adding up the clues because they really don't go together. Business as usual at Confusion R Us.

I thought the injection Mulder got in the neck was a tranquilizer of some sort – since it made him pass out. They definitely did something with his left arm too; he had a bloody patch on his arm when he woke up in his cell after the black oil thing.

About the smallpox scar – I think you are right ejluther.
In ‘Herrenvolk’ Scully found an inventory of everybody ever given the vaccine, from Jeremiah Smith’s work records. She also found a protein – she called it “one of the inoculants used in smallpox vaccines” – and told Skinner that it’s a tag, a genetic marker.

I didn’t think the smallpox inoculation was the first round of testing of alien material – wouldn’t that make us all infected with the black cancer? I thought they collected information about us, tracked us – like Skinner said: ‘tagged, catalogued and inventoried’.
As far as I remember, Scully didn’t say anything about the protein being alien?

But I have one question about the black oil in 'Tunguska'. It seems to work differently than the black oil in ‘Piper Maru’ where infected people – like the French diver and Krycek - walk, talk, drive cars, etc. In ‘Tunguska’, dr Sacks became paralyzed, stopped breathing and had a nest of something wormlike growing inside his hypothalamus.
Is it really the same sort of black oil do you think?

Now my head hurts. Again.

Thank you, 1013.

The black oil is a mystery. In Biogenesis, Mulder is adversely affected by the piece of the spaceship because he was exposed to the black oil and its vaccine in Tunguska & Terma. But why isn't Scully? The bee injected the oil, or at least the virus it carries, into her in the movie, right? And then Mulder gave her the vaccine the Syndicate had been testing on Covarrubias when she had the black oil.

My husband tries to say the oil and the bee virus are different things, but in the movie both have the same effect: Whichever you're exposed to, you're going to grow an alien in your stomach. The virus seems to be the genetic material of the oil, so I don't know why it would make only Mulder crazy or, for that matter, give him a brain disease.

I always thought the smallpox vaccination was worldwide, that all recipients had been categorized and kept track of - that's a lot of people. Sure, the US tracked some them, but I assumed that the US (along with other nations) were tracking all of the others, too. Are we sure the Russians didn't receive these smallpox vaccinations we speak of? I think they did and figured out that their smallpox vaccination scars were somehow intregal to the tests, hence the self-amputations. As LIVE BAIT pointed out, if the smallpox vaccination acted as a genetic marker, then the Russians cutting their arms off makes sense. I also think the chop-happy Russians also represent an "old world" way of doing things.

Of course, that raises the question about why subjects were tagged; why was it so important to know who was who. I think the answer lies in Mulder finding that subjects with certain genetic profiles were being targeted for abduction/replacement (THREE WORDS):





In short, all these tests were being run to see who among the subjects was well-suited for replacement by aliens, the final stage of the plan, I suppose. I also think that's why Scully was NOT affected by the spaceship, while Mulder was. Her genetic profile, for whatever reason, was not like Mulder's and she did not react to the same things in the same way. As to what the bee carried? I always assumed that it was some form of the black oil, but we've seen that the black oil can adapt and change to suit a variety of purposes; even if it was the same material, it would not necessarily make every subject react in the same way, the genetic profile perhaps being the deciding factor again.

If nothing else, it seems to me that not every human being is capable of becoming a hybrid and/or a supersoldier/replicant; that all the tests and abductions and tracking over the years was to find out who was an appropriate lab rat and Mulder fit the profile, as events in REQUIEM seem to support:



I know what you're thinking, "but genetic profiles and Electro-encephalitic trauma are NOT the same thing!" And, no, they're not. And that explains the reason Billy Miles was at cross purposes with Rohrer and Crane, they were made by different forces for different reasons; Billy for his brain trauma and Rohrer/Crane/McMahon (lucy lawless) for their genetic profiles. If Mulder had been left alone? He'd have been a replicant because of his brain trauma. I've always thought that supersoldiers=government and replicants = aliens. Why else would Miles want to destroy the supersoldier project? And the different criteria seems to suggest that. Because Mulder, along with Billy Miles, etc., reacted to exposure to black oil the way they did, they became the desired subjects for the final invasion (or for alien retaliation against sinister human forces)...

And I think the differences in the black oil may be attributed to the age of the oil - the stuff in the meteor, for instance, has been buried for since it feel from Mars, millions of years, and may represent an early version of the black oil, like prehistoric man, in a way. As the virus progessed and evolved, much like man, it became more adaptable and sentient.

Yes, this makes sense! I first thought the black oil in ‘Piper Maru’ was different from the black oil in ‘Tunguska’/’Terma’ - but then I remembered the old lady at the nursing home in the ‘Terma’ teaser: She acted completely normal and the black oil only showed itself after she died.
And I assume that was black oil from the same source as the black oil dr Sacks was exposed to (the American branch of the consortium tried to import black oil from Tunguska to make their own vaccine against it).
So it makes sense that it’s people’s genetic profiles that decide how they react to the black oil. Some act normal and you can’t see if they’re infected or not, others become catatonic/paralyzed. Very clever ejluther!

I think one of the great things about the show is our complete and utter lack of insight into the aliens - we really have no idea what they're about and/or after. The behavior of the black oil, while contradictory on the surface, may be evidence that the invasion/takeover is fraught with problems and failures, regardless of Mulder & Scully/consortium activity. In this way, the viewer is no less an important part of the equation than M&S/D&R; we are puzzling it out at the same time, often coming to different conclusions. The rebels were also an interesting twist for the same reason, colonization/repopulation is clearly not a smooth and easy operation.

Here's an interesting theory I read on some alien website; there's a theory that "greys" are not really "true" aliens at all, but actually drones that are manufactured/designed to space travel, much like the robot currently on MARS, except biological and not mechanical in nature...

which would explain apparent lack of emotion and/or individualistic personality traits. hypothetically. very interesting.

I've heard that theory before. I like it. And it makes some kind of sense, since even for advanced science spacetravel is time consuming.

But if the greys are "drones" - who are the real aliens, and what's their phone number..?

…and maybe, when they’re not wearing a ‘grey’ they’re wearing one of the metal cockroaches from ‘War of the Coprophages’….

Season four is one of those years that I missed the first time around. I've had the DVDs for a while now and I'm finally getting around to watching some of them. Just watched Teliko and Unruhe (or something like that) and I liked 'em both. Started on "The Field Where I Died" the other day but I have a ways to go.

So what are we going to do if Spirit decides to defect and take up baseball?

Eat popcorn and cheer at the homeruns?

Spirit can only go like, two miles an hour. Or less. It would take him an entire Martian day to go around the bases.

Of course, watching baseball in TV seems to move at that glacial pace as well, so I guess there wouldn't be much difference.

Back "Home" for a moment - does anyone know why the Peacocks buried that freak-baby in the first place? If they explained it in the ep I missed it. At the end the mother talks about how they need to reproduce, and the kid was alive, so...?

wow, that's a really good question. i got nothing.

where's ejluther when you need him?

Wasn't the baby horribly deformed? I mean, not just missing the odd extremity, like Mama Peacock, but actually, really, truly deformed. Like, life-threateningly so.

Moving to Brooklyn so I was internet-less for awhile, but I'm back, kids! (and thanks, glasgow, for the shout-out)

Well, in the aired episode we don't hear the baby screaming, right? But Scully finds evidence the baby was buried alive because of dirt in the nose, etc. So, in that scenario, the baby was so badly deformed and messed-up the Peacocks didn't even know it was still alive. But, as we all know, the episode was originally meant to have the baby screaming and squalling when they buried it so here's my explanation (and it ain't pretty): the baby had no/deformed/freaky genitals so it served no long-term purpose. Either that or it was, indeed, a boy, and they needed a girl. I know, I know. Ick. But that's what I got...

I always thought what Kanel said. I thought they buried the baby because it was too badly deformed, and they wanted a healthy (or at least viable) baby. The living Peacocks were badly deformed, but they still seemed more or less healthy. From what Scully said about the baby, it sounded like it had more significant problems.

Can I just say how cool and dark and scary "Home" is? Actually, S4 as a whole is awesome. Other than "The Field Where I Died", it's gold.

Until recently, I had forgotten how much I love "Home", "Unrue"(sp?), "Tunguska/Terma", and "Sanguinarium".

i like Sanguinarium, too, but it icks me out something awful. i do like all the brief shots of Mulder checking himself out for defects, tho'. i like that it was M and not S they chose for that.

LOVED Unruhe. Have to say though, that I'm not the biggest fan of Sanguinarium. It just rubs me the wrong way.

I just knew there was another "h" in that title somewhere. Too bad I was too lazy to go look it up.

Yes, but the H is silent.

How did I not know that Quentin Tarantino was supposed to direct Never Again, and then had to back out when he got pressure from the DGA? Cor, I'm a bad Phile.

I'm trying to imagine what the would have been like.

Does. Not. Compute.

I can't shake the image of Scully getting a hypodermic needle in the heart, ala Uma in PULP FICTION...*shudder*

I think it would have been bitchin. It's great just to know QT is a phile.

Slip, I didn't know that either. Why would the DGA not want him to do it?

"Hey Scully, you know what they call a Big Mac with cheese in the Reticulum galaxy?"

"Royale Liver wit' cheese?" huh?

IIRC it was because he was not a member of the DGA, for reasons unknown (to me at least). They had recently granted him a waiver to direct an episode of ER, but they thought another one was pushing it.

Hey Crow, you asked this question ages ago, and you probably already know the answer, but the excised kiss is indeed on the DVD. I'm not sure if it's part of the special features- I haven't watched those in a while- but when I was playing the actual episode on my computer last night to get some screen caps I accidentally accessed the liplock. I'm glad it wasn't left in because I think it was too soon, but it was a really nice moment on its own.

I like the MM kiss, too, but even if they had left it in, it's not really a sexual/romantic moment so I don't think it would have "counted". Still, I'm glad we had to wait until MILLENNIUM...
http://xfphotos.fredfarm.com/extras/sea4outtakes/cap163.jpg

For me, they just have so damn much chemistry that any kiss makes me go all quivery inside. It's the way they look at each other- even though you're right that there was nothing sexual about the cut MM kiss, every screen cap I got was incredibly, inappropriately hot.

Yeah, they smoke a little. Okay, they smoke a lot.

I didn't mean to suggest the kiss wasn't hot, just that the moment wasn't. JimsBride is right, their chemistry makes everything they do hot. I think it's the way Mulder is clutching her head and drawing her to him - very sexy...

The moment was definitely NOT ripe for hotness. True dat.

Dude, I'm panting just looking at the screencap. How is it possible for two people to have so much chemistry that it's evident even in still pictures? Blows my mind. We've been discussing the Luke/Lorelai chemistry a lot on the GG forum recently, and not to downplay what they've got, but the M/S chemistry is unbeatable.

Ok, so it's not technically Mulder, but we did have this near kiss in Season 4, too:

http://www.chrisnu.com/s4/gal/potatoes/Screenshot171.jpg

You know, I never realized just how close Blundht actually came to kissing Scully. I mean, I always knew he got pretty damn close, but in that picture it looks like their lips are practically touching. That's a great screencap!

I like how her eyes are almost closed looking down at his lips.

Is it hot in here? fans self

I like how the relationship developed in Season 4; it had been all flirty and fun up until then, but it took a turn for the serious (and hot) in S4.

Season 4 is my absolute favorite season. The MOTW episodes were the best, and the conspiracy episodes made sense still.

I have begun watching reruns on TNT at night, and it had been more than 6 years since I had watched the episodes. I forgot how great the show was and how much it was a part of my adolescence. Man, oh man.

Also, I had forgotten how HOT and how GREAT Mulder and Scully were together. David and Gillian have the best chemistry I have ever seen on screen. The above photos are hot.

Thanks for the info, JimsBride and ejluther. (I would have thanked you earlier, but a dog ate through my cable modem--no joke--and it didn't get fixed until today.) I got the s6 DVDs for Christmas, so I still haven't seen the MM kiss, but I do have a birthday coming up... But the forehead kiss was certainly enough to sustain me at the time, and then all of the Redux II stuff. Sigh. That show sure was good.

Watched Small Potatoes on TNT the other night. One of my all-time favorite eps. Faux Mulder's earnest "Well, what's stopping us?" coupled with Scully's initial alarm at his attempt to kiss her: I titter the whole way through.

Small Potatoes is near-perfection. Forget Pusher and Irresistible, I wish a sequel could have been done for SP, so we'd have had another Vince/Darin collaboration.

I read somewhere that this was the first episode in which no one died.

I think her illness forced the cards on the table quite a bit. They weren't ready to cross the line into a romantic relationship, per se, but I look at their friendship as put-yourself-in-harm's-way-to-save-the-other-at-all-costs romantic. I was awfully glad Mulder stepped up in "Memento Mori," because, frankly, I wanted to slap the smug right out of him with his toss-off line to Scully about her second appearance in the X-Files at the end of "Never Again."

Stupid Q from a DVD-less person -- are the episodes ordered on DVD by airdate or by production number? Case in point -- "Kaddish" is a longstanding favorite for my family but it is such an odd fit for when they actually aired it.

The DVD episodes go by airdate. Would you remind me/us why KADDISH is an odd fit? I know GA wasn't happy but I liked that NEVER AGAIN came after LEONARD BETTS and not the other way around. And there are a few episodes in Season 9 that should have been turned around; UNDERNEATH should have come much earlier in the season (it was supposed to, IIRC, but there were problems with the episode) and WILLIAM should be the episode right before THE TRUTH, IMO. But, of course, with DVDs, they can be in any order you like...

YMMV, but, for me, it was an odd fit because they'd just been through this arc about her being ill and then they dropped in a lovely standalone episode with overtones about losing your soul mate and so badly wanting him returned to you that you do the unthinkable, but there was no intimation of their own near loss of each other.