[[WMG:[[center:[-'''RECAP:'''\\
[[Recap/TheXFiles Index]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E01 1]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E02DeepThroat 2]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E03Squeeze 3]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E04Conduit 4]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E05TheJerseyDevil 5]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E06Shadows 6]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E07GhostInTheMachine 7]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E08Ice 8]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E09Space 9]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E10FallenAngel 10]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E11Eve 11]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E12Fire 12]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E13BeyondTheSea 13]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E14GenderBender 14]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E15Lazarus 15]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E16YoungAtHeart 16]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E17EBE 17]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E18MiracleMan 18]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E19Shapes 19]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E20DarknessFalls 20]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E21Tooms 21]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E22BornAgain 22]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS01E23Roland 23]] | '''24''']]-]]]
'''Season 1, Episode 24:'''
!The Erlenmeyer Flask
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thexfilestheerlenmeyerflask.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''[[TagLine "Trust... no...]] [[KilledOffForReal one."]]'']]
->Written by Creator/ChrisCarter\\
Directed by R. W. Goodwin

->'''Scully:''' What exactly did you find?\\
'''Dr. Carpenter:''' A fifth and sixth DNA nucleotide. A new base pair. Agent Scully, what you are looking at... it exists nowhere in nature. It would have to be, by definition... extraterrestrial.

A car chase in Maryland ends with the fugitive overpowering several officers, bleeding [[AlienBlood green blood]], and disappearing into the water. When [[MysteriousInformant Deep Throat]] points Mulder to the case, he and Scully find themselves investigating. Scully doesn't trust Deep Throat, but both she and Mulder find themselves led to a gene therapy experiment of possibly extraterrestrial origin, as well as [[TheMenInBlack government spooks]] looking to cover it up at any cost.
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!!Tropes:
* TheAdjectivalMan: One of the men in black is known only as Crew-cut Man.
* AlienBlood: The participants in the gene therapy experiment developed green blood that emits vapors that are toxic to non-hybrids.
* AnyoneCanDie: Mulder's MysteriousInformant Deep Throat is killed at the end of the episode.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Scully describes chloroplasts as plant cells; a chloroplast is in fact an organelle, a specialised structure within the cell. To use an analogy, she called your liver a person.
* BookEnds: The first and last episodes of the season end with Scully lying awake in bed at 11:21 pm in blue pyjamas and getting a call from Mulder with bad news, right before the Cigarette-Smoking Man places an alien item into a secure storage facility in the Pentagon.
* CaptainObvious: A microbiology expert explains the rudiments of genetics — material taught in any high school's freshman biology class — to Agent Scully, a fully qualified doctor.
* CoincidentalBroadcast: Mulder watches the news informing on the case he's about to investigate. Justified because Deep Throat, his secret informant, called him to tell him to watch it.
* TheConspiracy: As exposited by Deep Throat; this time we learn US Intelligence has "black groups", one of which has been wiping out the evidence (and people) of the Purity Control project.
* DestinationDefenestration: One of the murder victims was chucked out of his lab window.
* DownerEnding: Mulder is released by the MIB, but Deep Throat dies in the process, the X-Files are shut down, and both agents are re-assigned.
* HalfHumanHybrid: Terminal patients were given gene therapy with alien DNA, which on top of curing them also gave them super strength, toxic green blood, and the ability to breathe water. Handy.
* HeroicSacrifice: Deep Throat outs himself as the traitor within The Syndicate to save Mulder's life, almost certainly knowing what the price was going to be.
* ItWasHereISwear: When Mulder returns to the storage unit full of incubating hybrids, it's been entirely cleared out.
* KilledOffForReal: Some people on this show were only ''seemingly'' dead or even managed to get resurrected. Not Deep Throat. He was offed for good, never to return but in hallucinations, flashbacks, or alternative realities.
* MeaningfulName: Zeus Storage on Pandora Street is named after Pandora's Box. Probably not a good idea to open that door.
* MythArc: It was a mythology episode, as is becoming for a SeasonFinale.
* NoEscapeButDown: A fugitive flings himself off the jetty and into the sea, and disappears.
* NotOfThisEarth: Just look at the page quote.
* PeopleJars: In Zeus Storage there are five glass tanks similar to aquariums with naked men, alive and breathing underwater. But they're not entirely human.
-->''"You're standing in the room where the first DNA transplant took, the first human-alien hybrid was created."''
* PersonAsVerb: Person from popular culture as adjective. Mulder gets angry with Deep Throat.
-->'''Mulder:''' But maybe this time, we can just cut out the Obi-Wan Kenobi crap and you can save me the trouble.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The ambulance scene is based on the contemporaneous [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Gloria_Ramirez Gloria Ramirez incident]].
* SuperNotDrowningSkills: One guy from the experiment hid under water for three whole days. Justified, since one of the effects of the experiment is that he can breathe underwater.
* VirusAndCureNames: The episode introduces the infectious, alien form Purity, also known as black oil. The same episode gives a putative name --Purity Control-- to the vaccine that wouldn't be developed until several episodes later.
* WhamEpisode: And how, as it set the wham standard for all subsequent season finales. We see the first alien-human hybrid, Scully receives near-indisputable evidence of extra-terrestrial life, Deep Throat is shot dead, and the X-Files unit is shut down.
* WhamLine: Thirteen days after Deep Throat's death, Dana wakes up to a phone call by Mulder, who tells her some distressing news:
-->''"They're shutting us down, Scully."''
* WhamShot: Literally. Dana witnesses Deep Throat handing over a box containing the alien fetus to the Crew Cut Man. He heads to his van to put the box inside, walks up to Deep Throat... and immediately shoots him in the chest.
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->''[[{{Determinator}} "I'm... not going to give up. I can't give up. Not as long as the truth is out there."]]''