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Patient X
Written by Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Kim Manners
Directed by Kim Manners
Mulder: There's just too much evidence that it's all been a lie. The conspiracy is not to hide the existence of extraterrestrials. It's to make people believe in it so completely that they question nothing.
Werber: So, you and I have just been advocates of insanity all along? Is this the extreme possibility you believe in now?
Mulder: Yeah. Is Patient X any more credible?
Werber: So, you and I have just been advocates of insanity all along? Is this the extreme possibility you believe in now?
Mulder: Yeah. Is Patient X any more credible?
Mulder, who has come to doubt that alien abductions are anything but a terrestrial cover-up, meets Cassandra Spender, a multiple abductee, and her son Jeffrey, an FBI agent.
Meanwhile, the Syndicate is having some trouble with the arrival of some very real aliens.
Tropes:
- Agent Scully: Mulder in this case, who believes Cassandra Spender was not abducted by aliens (though ironically, she came forward with the story after being inspired by Mulder himself).
- Body Horror: Dmitri's time with Krycek not only has him being infected with the black oil, but also has his eyes, ears, nose and mouth sewn shut. Not a lovely sight to see...
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Scully seeing faceless men on one side of the Ruskin Dam bridge, incinerating waiting alien abductees. She is frozen and unable to move.
- Eye Scream: Dmitri's eyes are sewn completely shut due to the black oil being administered in him. When he later escapes and reaches the Ruskin Dam bridge, he pulls out the stitches.
- Myth Arc
- A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma: A variant on the trope phrasing. Agent Mulder, who has grown skeptical of the existence of extraterrestrials but instead believes the alien conspiracy to be a lie concocted by the military to hide a different and all the more sinister scheme, describes his belief in "a conspiracy wrapped in a plot inside a government agenda."
- Would Hurt a Child: Krycek tortures an unfortunate kid in a gulag and has him infected with the Black Oil.
