"Essence"

"Hey, look who's back."
Originally Aired 5/13/01

I had recently been exchanging messages with a friend about nearing the end of The X-Files, that I couldn't believe I only had one season left, and he laughed that I should quit before the series finale. "Can't do it anymore, too burned out" were his exact words, which actually seemed to be true now as I'm not even finished with the 8th season! I was already losing interest during the opening moments of this episode as Scully was finally having her baby shower, following her never-ending pregnancy. I'm not nearly as annoyed with stretching out the pregnancy for the length of the entire season as I am with creating the illusion that Scully has friends. I had thought it had long been established that neither Mulder nor Scully had much of a life outside of their work on the X-Files.

Throughout this entire season there has been two separate stories, one with Scully's pregnancy and the second being the coming invasion of "super soldiers." Cult leader Absalom attempted to use Doggett to thwart the efforts of the soldiers, which later ended with Doggett's mysterious friend being revealed as one of them. Billy Miles was also returned from his abduction and transformed into one of these soldiers. "Essence" is an attempt to merge both of these stories into one and Chris Carter actually does an impressive job of tying these two threads together, in a blending of present storylines with past conspiracies. It became apparent when Billy Miles showed up and whacked one of the doctors who was trying to create alien babies.

In a scene that gave me a momentary feeling of deja vu, Mulder showed up at Doggett's house and instructed him into flip the television to a newscast. It reminded me a lot of Season 1's finale, "The Erlenmeyer Flask", when Deep Throat gave Mulder a late night tip to watch the local news. I like Mulder in this pseudo role of Deep Throat to Agent Doggett. The lab filled with these little aliens in jars is kind of like "The Erlenmeyer Flask" too, when Scully recovered the fetus, only this is multiplied for extra creepy effect. It's hard to fully compare this to past mythology installments where Mulder was battling the clock to find a cure for Scully's cancer or racing against an actual ticking timebomb aboard a train, because Billy Miles attacking doctors almost feels like a low-grade version of the alien bounty hunter. However, the bromance of Mulder and Doggett continues to grow and it's refreshing to see Mulder have an ally for more than a single episode. If you recall, Krycek appeared to be an ally but was revealed as a spy of the Smoking Man by the end of that very episode. Then Jeffrey Spender was quickly killed off the moment he joined Team Mulder.

During the course of these 8 years of watching The X-Files in order, I'd often wondered what happened to all of these men and women working for the Syndicate. We know they employed "men in black" like Krycek and even X to carry out the dirty work of assassinations and sneaky things like that, but what about all of the doctors and scientists? There were experiments on bees, cloning, hybrids, and creating a vaccine to the black oil. I feel like while the Smoking Man was in charge of the men in black, perhaps the Well-Manicured Man was possibly in charge of overseeing several experiments. And now that the Syndicate has been burnt to a crisp going on two years, did the doctors keep working? Did the checks stop coming? Finally, I get my answers! While I did remember Billy Miles' rampage in this episode, I guess in the 8 years since I last watched "Essence" I apparently forgot one key scene. The nurse who was going to assist Scully at home as a nanny was actually revealed as an undercover agent of the project doctors. She shares vital information with Team Mulder that though the men in charge had been long deceased, the doctors continued their work in creating alien baby hybrids. BOOM. My mind was completely blown away that Carter actually came through on a two-year long story and connected everything, although I should be fully aware by now that's his m.o.

Before that revelation by Scully's nurse named Lizzy, I was even thinking that this episode was starting to feel a little like a retread of "One Son." Billy Miles was essentially wiping out the remaining traces of the doctors' experiments, much like the Faceless Aliens were destroying the Syndicate members and ending their union with the colonists. Now it makes even more sense why it appeared to be a retread. It wasn't a retread, it was more that Carter was finally closing the book on the entire Syndicate storyline for good. Compared to past mythology two-part bonanzas that brought back members of the Mulder family, Syndicate baddies, and aliens, "Essence" was lighter on characters but made up for it with an emphasis on action and surprises. "Essence" stands as a satisfying latter-day X-Files episode. Bring on the season finale, which is odd to say, given my stance on this episode during the lame baby shower.