[[WMG:[[center:[-'''RECAP:'''\\
[[Recap/TheXFiles Index]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E01Redux 1]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E02ReduxII 2]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E03UnusualSuspects 3]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E04Detour 4]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E05ThePostModernPrometheus 5]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E06ChristmasCarol 6]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E07Emily 7]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E08Kitsunegari 8]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E09Schizogeny 9]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E10Chinga 10]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E11KillSwitch 11]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E12BadBlood 12]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E13PatientX 13]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E14TheRedAndTheBlack 14]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E15Travelers 15]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E16MindsEye 16]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E17AllSouls 17]] | '''18''' | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E19FolieADeux 19]] | [[Recap/TheXFilesS05E20TheEnd 20]]]]-]]]
'''Season 5, Episode 18:'''
!The Pine Bluff Variant
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thexfilesthepinebluffvariant.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"It’s eating away his flesh."'']]
->Written by John Shiban\\
Directed by Rob Bowman

->'''Skinner:''' You’re suspicious Agent Mulder’s betrayed his country.\\
'''Scully:''' I don‘t know what you’re talking about.\\
'''Leamus:''' Your discretion is understandable. In point of fact, Agent Mulder’s actions are entirely honourable. What you’ve stumbled into is a classified action, a deep-cover assignment.

Mulder goes undercover in a terrorist organization that has access to a horrifying biological weapon.
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!!Tropes:
* AdmiringTheAbomination: One of the bureau's scientists is quite impressed with the complexities of the virus.
* AfterActionPatchUp: Scully treats Mulder's broken finger when he comes to his apartment.
* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: Mulder is about to be shot but one of the terrorists is shot instead.
* BankRobbery: But a fake one.
* CasualDangerDialogue: Mulder, led to a secret location and about to get his finger broken.
-->'''Mulder:''' Is this the Pepsi Challenge? How ’bout some, uh, fresh air, boys?\\
'''Terrorist:''' Welcome, Agent Mulder... This is just a little method that we use to learn the truth.\\
'''Mulder:''' Well, you might want to put that hood back on me unless you want to [[SelfDeprecation see a grown man cry]].
* ContinuityNod: Mulder's anti-government rant at the UFO convention in "[[Recap/TheXFilesS05E13PatientX Patient X]]" is what brought him to the group's attention as a possible defector.
* {{Fingore}}: Mulder gets tortured and his finger gets broken.
* FormulaBreakingEpisode: An ''X-Files'' episode without an X-File. No [[AlienInvasion alien invasions]], MythArc tie-ins, or MonsterOfTheWeek. Instead, it's a paranoid thriller about a group of terrorists with a genetically-engineered bioweapon. However, it still managed to be about government conspiracies.
* IfIDoNotReturn:
-->'''Mulder:''' If you don't hear from me by midnight... feed my fish.
* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: Mulder's loyalty is tested when he is ordered to kill a wounded hostage. Turns out the group leader was a mole all along; that's why he suffered no repercussions.
* KarmaHoudini: Bremer, who nonchalantly kills fourteen people to test the bioweapon. On several levels, even: he is never specifically outed as the perpetrator of this attack, and is being protected by the government.
* {{Mundanger}}: The most fantastical thing in the episode is the virus, everything else about it is totally mundane.
* RightWingMilitiaFanatic: The New Spartans, played monstrously straight.
* SickeningCrunch: The sound effect used when Mulder's pinky is broken is just nauseating.
* VillainousRescue: Double subverted in an amusing way. Haley comes around and saves Mulder from Bremer... at least until Bremer reveals his earlier recording of Mulder's conversation with Scully, which confirms his duplicity. Bremer then prepares Mulder for another execution, only to be revealed as a MoleInCharge and save Mulder as well.
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->'''Mulder:''' I want people to know the truth.\\
'''Leamus:''' Well sometimes, our job is to protect those people from knowing it.