"Two Fathers"

"I'll be my own great man."
Originally Aired 2/7/99

For the better part of the past five years, The X-Files has been weaving a web of events involving abductions, small pox vaccinations, alien bounty hunters, and a Cigarette Smoking Man. At times, it even felt like the weight of all of these events would come toppling down like a house of cards. I felt like other than the revelation that Scully's mysterious abduction two years prior had given her cancer, that many of the new wrinkles in the Fourth Season were almost going to cause that toppling to occur. These fantastical events were getting too far out there as they spent much time on clones of Mulder's sister, black oil, and bees. However, the following season brought this mysterious conspiracy back on track with a new direction, one that would now be revealed as it's final act.

This final act introduced a new enemy in the two-part story, "Patient X" and "The Red and The Black", and also revealed the purpose for the mysterious black oil. This new, and also faceless, enemy is a race of aliens much like the shape-shifting bounty hunters. However they have sealed their faces with scars so that the black oil cannot infect them. They oppose the colonization of Earth and are sabotaging the work of the Cigarette Smoking Man and his mysterious partners in the Syndicate. This new episode, "Two Fathers", reveals a key detail of the black oil which is that it has a name, "Purity." In an early episode titled "The Erlenmeyer Flask", Mulder and Scully discovered a flask which was actually titled, "Purity Control." The seeds for the black oil were actually planted long before it was ever introduced to us in the Third Season, with "Purity Control" acting as vaccine to the alien life form.

Another key development in Season Five was the introduction of an FBI agent named Jeffrey Spender along with his mother, Cassandra. She claimed to be a multiple abductee while her son dismissed her stories and warned Mulder to stay away from her. Spender and Mulder were instantly at odds and it intensified once Cassandra disappeared again. In the events leading up to "Two Fathers", the Cigarette-Smoking Man met in shadows with Spender, much like Deep Throat (and later X) mentored Mulder, and manipulated Spender into taking over the X-Files and forcing Mulder and Scully out of the FBI. Thus far, the episodes in Season Six have shown Mulder and Scully stumbling upon X-Files cases in unconventional ways, with Mulder even becoming an "X-File" himself when he switched bodies with a Man in Black from Area 51. The real X-Files unit, Jeffrey Spender and his partner Diana Fowley, were only shown together once in a single scene in "The Beginning." My wish was that Spender would have been forced into investigating an X-Files case, and now that's finally happening here in "Two Fathers." While this episode is narrated by the Cigarette Smoking Man as he tells of his life's work, it actually paints Jeffrey Spender in a sympathetic light.

At times it does feel like all of these extraterrestrial enemies and man-made experiments are a bit hard to swallow, especially when characters talk about shape-shifting aliens with a straight face, but what makes it easily digestible are compelling characters. There's Fox Mulder, who lost his sister at a young age, and through his work on the X-Files he's learned that there was something more sinister than aliens taking her. He also lost his father, as did Scully, an event that brought them closer than any partnership could. Dana Scully was originally used as pawn of the Smoking Man as she was "sent to spy" on Mulder's work, though the two formed a partnership built on mutual respect. Their boss Assistant Director Walter Skinner was also a pawn, though he found ways around just being an authority figure and helped the agents at crucial moments and even risked his life. Alex Krycek, initially an FBI agent, and later a rogue agent, now works for the Cigarette Smoking Man as part of the project. This episode shows the most character development for Alex since his introduction in Season Two, though most of that unfortunately turned up in the "Deleted Scenes" file. I really hate how a short moment between Krycek and CSM wound up being deleted from what was promoted as "full disclosure" episode. Surely if The X-Files was the powerhouse series that it was for FOX, they could have allowed a full 45 minutes for the episode. I just hate how sometimes the episodes are 45 minutes, some are 44, even 43, and that inconsistency means that a great scene must suffer on the cutting room floor. Back to the actual content of "Two Fathers", Krycek always pops up at the most opportune time to reveal key pieces of information but he never actually feels like a truly fleshed out character.

While the Cigarette Smoking Man has tried and failed with many pawns, the biggest and most personal is his own son. Jeffrey Spender isn't much different than his rival Fox Mulder, in fact they are very similar. Both men lost a family member at an early age- the abduction of Mulder's sister tore his family apart, while Jeffrey's father abandoned his family. Both Spender and Mulder went through hypnosis therapy with Doctor Werber, though Jeffrey's were lies and Mulder never knew what was truth or a lie. The events surrounding Mulder's sister is what pushed him towards a belief in extraterrestrials and the paranormal, while Jeffrey saw the impact it had on his mother and he rejected any belief. Had Jeffrey not rejected such beliefs, perhaps they could have been great allies. Instead, Jeffrey had left himself wide open to being manipulated by the Cigarette Smoking Man. Don't forget that Mulder's pursuit of the truth often left himself open to being manipulated at times by X, Diana Fowley, Krycek, Marita Covarrubius, and even Deep Throat in "E.B.E." Everyone seemingly rejects Jeffrey during the course of "Two Fathers", from Skinner and the Smoking Man, to even his own mother when she'd rather speak with Fox Mulder. Jeffrey finally learns the truth about aliens, and even his own father, when he's forced into participating in the death of one of the rebels. With all of the past events merging in "Two Fathers", from the mention of the black oil to the return of the train car experiments, I was hoping Krycek would have referred to the Cigarette Smoking Man as an "extraordinary man" instead of "great man." However, the revelations of the Cigarette Smoking Man's history and that he has many aliases, do lend more credibility to the previous tale of his background in the Fourth Season's "Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man."

While I knew of many of these events already before viewing "Two Fathers", it's a testament to how great the series is when I can watch it unfold and still see new developments. I didn't know Jeffrey would learn of his father's past deeds in this episode and even that Krycek would be the source of such information. I suppose the Smoking Man can only reject Krycek so many times before it finally bites himon the ass; I'm referring to the deleted scene in which Krycek is coldly rejected when he offered to be the Smoking Man's true protege. The only flaw I can find in this episode is that the Syndicate's ultimate weapon and the source of all answers to alien life is Cassandra Spender. I thought we were supposed to believe that Gibson Praise was the true alien-human hybrid? No matter who the true hybrid is, I still found "Two Fathers" to be wholly entertaining and filled with unique moments that only this series can deliver. With the events surrounding the Spender Family, it felt more like a Greek Tragedy with aliens than just another conspiracy thriller.