The Cave's X-Files Commentary Archives: 
Episodes: The Sixth Extinction (7x01)
 

On first watching, The Sixth Extinction (*6E) seemed merely to present us with the opening of a two-part drama, offering new pieces to the ongoing puzzle of the alien ship Scully has found, the mysterious artifact and Mulder's resultant illness. However, after my customary three watchings--and, of course, the taking of my requisite 'little notes'--I found, as usual, a larger story in the characters.

This is, more than anything, Scully's story. Her initial voiceover contains the essence of a tremendous change that we see reflected in her actions throughout the episode: "I came here in search of something I didn't believe in. I've stayed on now in spite of myself, in spite of everything I've ever held to be true. I will continue here as long as I can, as long as you're beset by the haunting illness which I saw consume your beautiful mind."

This really is earth-shattering stuff for Scully-the-skeptic whose initial gut reaction is almost invariably to reject her partner's far-out theories, certainly ones pertaining to anything extraterrestrial. This is a fundamentally changed Scully. What exactly has changed and why?

• "I came here in search of something I didn't believe in." Here's novelty in itself. How many times have we seen Scully refuse--initially, at least--to investigate something she's found ridiculous? (Take the body of the 'undead' employee in Folie a Deux, which she refuses to autopsy.) Yet, in spite of her previous rejection of the theory that the artifact could be what is affecting Mulder, she is now at the site of the ship, studying it with all diligence.
• "I've stayed on now in spite of myself, in spite of everything I've ever held to be true." She has not done this without effort ('in spite of myself'), but nonetheless she's come and is staying. The fact that the evidence contradicts her tightly-held view of reality has not sent her home, and why?
• "... the haunting illness which I saw consume your beautiful mind." The motive, the driving force behind this new willingness to stretch herself into new and undoubtedly uncomfortable territory is... her partner. Zuffy points out--and accurately so--that Scully "has emotions we would freely identify as love just below the surface...and part of Scully's apparent 'closedness' is the failure of others to read her signals because they are different... She will continue to express love in ways that are not always conventional." Her willingness to stretch in this time of crisis, to do what her rational mind tells her is ridiculous or impossible--indeed, to do what she has never done or let herself do before--comes directly from a stronger emotion regarding her partner than she has ever before shown, or possibly acknowledged to herself. This is unselfed love (though not necessarily conventional, romantic/couple love.) It's a deepening of the respect/affection/bond that has existed between them for so long but now polished to the point where her own self-interest/self-preservation no longer define or restrict her actions. 'Beautiful mind', however, is a phrase that roped me and pulled me to the ground. My first thought was that it was a phrase right out of fanfic; certainly it denotes a change/growth in Scully's view of her partner.

We see this new, changed Scully throughout the episode, in her remarks about the 'connection which cannot be ignored', about the rubbing's effect on Mulder (now she is willing to accept the connection), in her remarks about the vanishing man ("I saw a man who vanished, and then they just swarmed..."  Obviously she's admitting a connection here between the two occurrences.) Some have worried about a sell-out in the process of Scully becoming more of a believer, and yet this is handled very well. She doesn't just wake up and change her mind. She doesn't turn her back on everything she's proved and believed. But she is willing to stretch herself in order to save a friend; she is willing to look and investigate if it means keeping her partner alive.

I believe the realization that she may lose Mulder has hit her in some very essential part of herself and she realizes she must act--and act now--instead of sweeping inconvenient, disquieting things under the rug. It occurred to me as I watched the Biogenesis hospital hallway scene in the teaser that perhaps her own skepticism has helped barb Diana's remark to Scully ("He said I was the only one who'd believe him.") Scully calls Diana a liar, and we know Mulder depends on Scully, but many times she has rejected his theories out of hand? It seemed that part of the 'You're a liar' could have been a knee-jerk reaction to a remark that's hit uncomfortably close to home. Perhaps this confrontation was a catalyst for Scully.

Whatever the precise motivators, Scully presses on, fighting her own skepticism, flying insects, the overwrought (and over-acted, it seemed to me) Dr. Barnes, and the fear occasioned by the mysterious disappearing man, who utters a statement sure to reinforce Scully's own perceived inadequacies: 'Some truths are not for you." Still, she does not give up; Mulder's life is at stake. As the action proceeds, her own feelings come more and more to the fore. Her initial statement, "I'm only here to help my partner" later becomes "I'm only here to help my friend." She says, addressing herself to Mulder in one monologue, "I feel you slipping away from me with every minute I fail here." In prior times, she might have easily left out the 'from me'. When she finally ends up in D.C. at Mulder's bedside, she doesn't say, 'You have to hold on'; she says, "I need you to hold on." This is territory her need-for-walls would have kept her from treading in the past. Scully even fights her customary less-than-optimistic outlook on life (see LJ's 'Calling out in the dark' in the Archives) when Skinner say of Mulder's situation, "There's nothing to be done about it." This time, she refuses to accept the seemingly inevitable.

Scully's willingness to stretch finds a subtle contrast in Skinner's actions. Skinner always seems to be trapped within the confines of Bureau protocol: if he helps Mulder and Scully too much, he could be censured or dismissed; to be available to help them at all, he must stay--or appear to be--essentially neutral. But as Skinner himself realizes clearly in *SR 819, he has never really committed himself. Kritchgau calls him on this very behavior as he prepares Mulder's injection. "You asked me to come down here," he says. "You'd better be prepared to accept the responsibility." Skinner has become accustomed to being able to slip away from responsibility in the end. Here he is faced with the more clearly-cut dilemma of either helping Mulder in a significant way or maintaining his own bureaucratic safety.

Some other aspects of the ep:

• The religious allusions: I really don't think these were meant to offend anyone's personal sense of faith. I think the overarching idea was that the aliens had come with a 'package' that included both of the two often-warring camps of faith and science. The part of their message that wouldn't speak to one group would speak to the other. The locals would be impressed by the show of the plagues such as Moses used to try to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go--the sea of blood and the plague of insects. Scully, on the other hand, was impressed by the science--the mapping of the human genome. Not a bad publicity plan--something for everybody.
• Michael Kritchgau: I liked what they did with his character. He definitely acted out the effects of having lost his job due to trying to blow the whistle on the defense department projects. He wasn't the same essential person as when we saw him at the end of Season 4.
• The alien angle: hopefully the second part of this arc will provide answers to some puzzling aspects of this ep, but I wondered whether the 'ship' bringing the fish and the man back to life was related to the ABH's ability to heal people as he healed Teena Mulder at the end of Herrenvolk, or the aliens' ability to heal Cassandra Spender. And while we're on the topic, what does all of this have to do with a 6th extinction?
• Diana Fowley finally becomes three-dimensional. Whether or not you like her (okay, so almost nobody is actually cheering for Diana--except maybe CSM), she was always a two-dimensional character before, a plot device. Finally she gets to be more than just a threatening mouth in a dark suit. Good for the writers. I'm interested to see how they will play this out.
• Best for last: David's amazing, brilliant, wonderful (can you tell I was impressed?) portrayal of the mentally tormented Mulder. This was no actor lying on a bed blank-eyed, just waiting for the shooting to be over. This was the best thing I've seen in a long, long time. Every shot is a gem; there's a trace of eye movement here, the barely-moving lips there, the distrustful face, the silent screaming of a mind trapped in a body that refuses to serve it, the tilt of his body as he sits in the wheelchair, the singularity of will, the absence, stubbornness, incomprehension, and perhaps best of all that crazed-dog look from the wall as he looks back at Skinner after attacking him. It was truly incredible, and if you missed all this, go back and play it again, Sam. Not to mention the great transitions between Tormented!Mulder and Lucid!Mulder, the wakening of coherence and that wonderfully breathy, "They're coming." Wow.
• The photography and the music: Excellent as always. I've been paying more attention to the writing staff's statement that they try to produce a movie every week, something that tells the story through visuals more than through dialogue. Of course the characteristic subtlety of The X-Files adds to this (I saw the end of an NYPD Blue ep a few weeks back while waiting for XF reruns on FX, and a woman victim on the show was so emotional, the acting so over-the-top, that it was almost embarrassing to watch. It made me really appreciate the subtlety of the performances on The X-Files, the richness of treading lightly and leaving the viewer--we're assuming an intelligent viewer here--to play Sherlock Holmes and make the connections... and thereby become truly involved in the story in the process.) And the music: got to admit I always find those quiet little piano pieces of Mark Snow's to be extremely effective.

In the end we come back to Scully, returned finally to Mulder (even if a non-responsive Mulder) in another scene of classically understated (read effective) emotion. This particular quest for answers is one she's invested herself in heavily; she can no longer hide the fact that she has a personal stake here, or that she is very much affected by her partner. And it's not like the scene in the snow at the end of Fight the Future where she can show her emotions freely because Mulder is unconscious. This time she knows he can hear and see her even though he's incapable of responding. She admits she needs him ('I need you to hold on') and this is a big step for her, a very difficult thing for her to bring herself to do. She's on the edge and she knows it but she presses on because he needs to hear it. I found it interesting that the voice she uses here is essentially the same voice she uses in Mulder's hallucination in Field Trip where she admits, after seeing the baby alien, that Mulder was right, the same voice she uses later in Skinner's office when talking about his death. In Christmas Carol, when talking to the social worker about adopting Emily, she is overtly more on the edge, more emotional than she is here, but I think she feels the need to hold herself together more in front of those she knows--and who often depend on her--than she did in front of a complete stranger.

All in all, another example of the excellent storytelling/photography/music we've come to expect from this show, and the added bonus of some really interesting--and welcome--character growth for Scully as well.
 

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