"Field Trip"

"It sounds like crap when you say it."
Originally Aired 5/9/99

Season 6 is almost over!? Say it isn't so!

Finally, a return to the classic X-Files format in which Mulder presents a case to Scully with his trusty overhead projector. However, it's off-center and he says, "I don't know what they did to this thing", possibly referencing Spender's time as an X-Files agent along with Diana Fowley. The case Mulder shows Scully is that of a missing couple's skeletons which have been found in the woods near Brown Mountain, but not only that, they've been stripped down to the bone. Scully's theory is that it has "ritualistic overtones", while Mulder argues his case about "Brown Mountain Lights" and historical UFO activity in that area. I'm with Scully here; random UFO abductions were so 1993.

Both agents are wrong, as the "monster of the week" this time is actually a fungus. As they arrive separately at the base of the mountain, both Mulder and Scully are seen stepping on a mushroom, which releases spores that cause hallucinations. I enjoyed the "poof!" sound effect that it makes when they crush the mushroom under their shoe. That, along with a cave that Mulder encounters, reminds me a lot of the first season of the original Star Trek series. There was an episode called "This Side of Paradise", which the crew of the Enterprise were under the influence of similar spores. Mulder and Scully's fungal foe actually causes hallucinations while it digests you, which were much more deadly than that of what Captain Kirk encountered. These hallucinations actually cause an alternate-reality that takes place in 3 acts- the first is Mulder's, then Scully's, and finally a shared hallucination.

I remember when I first watched this episode on the Sci Fi Channel one afternoon and I was glued to the TV, wondering just how Mulder and Scully would get out of this impossible scenario. I hadn't noticed the time until the episode was just about over; "there's 5 minutes left of the episode!" The trick was that they don't actually make it out on their own- Skinner and a search party save the day. It reminded me a lot of the endings used in the early seasons, such as "Darkness" in Season One, when Mulder and Scully narrowly escape being cocooned. I felt like this was almost a cop-out, as the concept was so good, yet they relied on using an ending that had been done before. Being the new fan I was, the significance was lost on me. I was looking too much at the ending and how Mulder and Scully would escape, than actually "digesting" the content of the story. "Field Trip" began in typical fashion, with Scully and Mulder having opposing theories, yet this time Mulder points out that he's right about many of their X-Files cases. That leads into Mulder's hallucination, which reveals the married couple have actually been abducted so they could be tested on by aliens. It seems a bit too convenient that everything Mulder predicted turned out to be true and he starts to question it when even Scully agrees that he was right. I guess Mulder is so used to the dichotomy between his theories and Scully's. Suddenly the story shifts to Scully's perspective as she finds that Mulder's skeletal remains at Brown Mountain; he's suffered the same fate of the couple they were investigating. Scully should've realized something funky was going on when not only was Mulder's wake in his apartment, but that there were so many extra people paying their respects to the deceased. It's long been established that Mulder doesn't have a social life outside of FBI work with Scully and visiting the Gunmen. Speaking of them, I loved the part when Frohike says he could use a drink, then every time the camera cuts to him, he's taking a swig straight out of a bottle of liquor.

Scully comes to realize things aren't as they seem, and it bleeds into a shared hallucination when they both escape...or did they? "Field Trip" is actually much better than I realized, although I feel like this is likely the point where Duchovny was coming to the realization that he wanted out of the series. Hallucinating from mushrooms does seem a bit far-fetched, even for The X-Files. The conversation between Mulder and Scully in his apartment would have seemed very cheesy if it weren't for the talent of David and Gillian. The standalones have been a mixed bag since the destruction of the Syndicate in "One Son" and we haven't had another conspiracy episode since then. Whatever was lacking in terms of plots for episodes, the production crew was certainly making up for it with creative visuals. The yellow melting computer effects are seriously outdated by today's standards, but the sight of Mulder and Scully emerging from the underground cave while covered in dirt and goo was pretty damn cool.