"What I'm saying Mulder is that there is no such thing as alien 
abduction. It is just a smokescreen happily created by our government 
to cover up the biggest lie of all."

Guess what folks? We were given a suspenseful hour long ride and 
we ended up with more questions than answers, and I'm beginning 
to think that looking for one answer is a big mistake. All we 
really know is that "they've gotten away with it" (and I don't 
know if we are talking about the show here or the evil government 
within it) and "apology is policy". And, we've once again seen a 
great, taunt two-part episode destined to drive us crazy with 
questions. 

My advice: Don't try to pick sides - it will only make your head 
warm. I kept remembering that great Deep Throat quote from E.B.E 
during this episode - the one about the lie being best hidden 
between two truths. Except I can't tell the lies from the truth 
anymore. Oh what a tangled web. The only thing I do *think* I know 
for sure is that either Mulder or Scully is now being used as a 
pawn against the other by the evil consortium of "The Blessing 
Way". 

What's the best way to get to Mulder? Tell him what him what he 
wants to hear as the Well Manicured Man does in "Paper Clip" - 
experiments are being done to create human/alien hybrids. Mulder 
can be a pawn to cover up the truth - let him believe the alien 
stuff - who else will believe him - meanwhile it is the government 
conducting insidious experiments. As long as Spooky Mulder is 
chasing little green men he contributes to their cover. The assassin 
has a good point when he tells Mulder if it were a alien/human 
hybrid you'd think someone would've come to save it. 

What's the best way to get to Scully? Give her proof that the 
abductions don't involve aliens (which is also what she wants to 
hear) as the other consortium member known as "The Elder" does. 
So here's the $64,000 question. Why tell Scully all of this? To 
pit her against Mulder? Give her information she craves - answers 
to her abduction questions when she is frightened that she may 
have been exposed to some unnamed horror. Frankly, I don't know 
what is worse to believe, that you were somehow part of an alien 
abduction, alien/human hybrid experiments or to know that you 
were part of these unfathomably evil experiments being conducted 
by the Japanese scientists.

We find out that Scully's implant is the key to a lot of information. 
X tells her "You want to know what's in that train - who killed your 
sister - you find out what they put in your neck". Much to her 
discomfort she is told it may  hold "everything you need to know". 
So, further analysis tells us the thing has something to do with 
collecting and artificially replicating a person's mental processes. 
It is an obviously disturbing thought further echoed by The Elder's 
admission "I know most everything about you Dana". This begs the 
question: are they using Dana against herself? Are they getting at 
Scully by using/manufacturing her own memories? They got her to the 
point of saying "I have what I told you I needed Mulder - proof". 
She tells us she realizes that she has been there before, but her 
story of homeless or insane people being used for experiments 
certainly doesn't fit the mold of her or the other women we saw in 
Allentown. 

Mulder, when on his journey, is once again completely impervious 
to his own safety. In this exciting chapter we get to see our man-
with-a-mission immediately try to enter a quarantine area and 
ignore the many threats of the assassin, "I'll take my chances". 
After all he has just leaped on a speeding train and has a death-
wish for the truth. 

What we appeared to be witnessing in Nisei/731 was a massive 
cleanup operation on the part of the black ops. The most like 
lyreason behind all the killing is hidden in what "The Elder" 
tells Scully - it isn't that the experiments going on were so 
terrible - it is that the knowledge gained by them wasn't being 
given to the consortium. They were double crossed and you know 
how they hate that. His excuse at the massive killing of the 
innocents "they had been exposed" reads to me that the only 
thing that they had likely been exposed to was the truth. 

X continues to be a mystery. We are still unsure just whose side 
he is on in the grand scheme of things (and there are so many 
sides it appears), but we at least witness him trying to help 
Scully and anonymously saving Mulder. I really liked Steven 
Williams in this episode. I did find it interesting that X with 
less than a minute left before the big bang did try to get the 
mystery thing out before rescuing Mulder. 

And finally, Cancerman appears at the end and all we know is he 
has the information Mulder wants (once again). Is he now a rogue 
agent working against the consortium? What was his part in all 
this? Well kiddies tune in next sweeps period for another exciting 
two part episode in which we learn that we really don't know 
anything. Oh well, we love it anyway. Thanks for the ride. 

Random Thoughts
--------------------------

-The cell phone bit was a scream. First it rings at an inopportune 
time and then we get the priceless line "It's for you".

-Time for Mulder & Scully to take the gun handling refresher AGAIN! 
Mulder loses his gun and darn he's given away his backup. While I 
admire Scully's gumption in taking on X (she certainly likes drawing 
that gun and even shooting folks these days) she is easily disarmed. 

-Love them Iowa mountains - They're almost as pretty as the one sin 
Oklahoma, don't ya think?

-I loved Scully's desperate race against time ("tick tick Scully") 
to save Mulder - driving like a bat out of hell, trying to call 
Senator Matheson (who has obviously blown them off big time), and 
even shoving Mulder's books to the floor to place an X on his window 
before getting their money's worth out of the video.

-We may never get to see Scully having any sort of social life, 
but we do now know she's got those techno-nerd guys like Pendrell 
all dreaming about being her boy-toy.

-You can tell Mulder was really messed up by the whole experience. 
Not only did he look terrible at the end he was obviously so 
traumatized he was wearing a normal tie.

Autumn