Season 6: One Son (6X12)

Written by: Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Rob Bowman

Mulder is about to pull the trigger and end Cassandra Spender's life, when the door to his apartment is forced open and CDC agents storm in, taking Mulder, Scully and Cassandra into custody. In a quarantined area at Ft. Marlene military base, Mulder and Scully are addressed by Diana Fowley. She explains that Cassandra Spender had contracted a highly contagious virus and needed to be put in isolation pending full medical evaluation. Scully scoffs at this notion, calling it unjustified and highly suspicious. Scully believes that Cassandra was taken so that the tests could continue. But Mulder tells Scully that the tests won't continue because they have been completed; Cassandra is, in fact, the first successful human/alien hybrid. Cassandra knew that; she was begging Mulder to end her life so that the aliens would not start colonization.

In a hallway at Ft. Marlene, Mulder finds Marita Covarrubias. She is a shell of her former self, all her beauty gone. She tells Mulder that they have been performing tests on her - tests to find a vaccine against the Black Oil. She explains to Mulder that the hybrid program was in cooperation with the aliens, but the conspirators never intended to succeed. They were only buying time until a vaccine was created to fight the Black Oil. But now that Cassandra Spendor is a successful human/alien hybrid, colonization will begin.

Scully calls Mulder to the Lone Gunmen's lair where she tells him of her suspicions about Diana Fowley. Scully feels that Diana is somehow working with the Syndicate but Mulder refuses to believe her. Scully storms out and Mulder pays a visit to Diana's apartment. He begins searching her room for any incriminating evidence when he hears another person enter the apartment - the Cigarette Smoking Man. Mulder holds him at gunpoint as C.S.M. substantiates the entire Syndicate operation. He even explains that Mulder's father gave over Mulder's sister Samantha to the aliens as a guarantee of their honor. In return, the aliens gave the Syndicate the alien fetus that would allow the human/alien hybrid work to begin. C.S.M. truly believes that what he did saved millions of lives and ultimately would bring Samantha and other family members back home. It was Mulder's father who thought of the idea to use the alien fetus DNA to make a secret vaccine against the Black Oil.

Jeffrey Spender pays a visit to his father in the Syndicate offices, only to find Krycek in the now abandoned space. Krycek tells Spender that everyone has left for El Rico Air Force Base to receive the hybrid genes and that Spender's father, C.S.M., has gone to get Cassandra to turn her over to the aliens, not believing him.

Notes:
This episode, which finally puts to rest everything about the government conspiracy with an alien species, begins with a montage of flashbacks stretching back to ''The Erlenmeyer Flask''.

Although the train carrying the Cigarette Smoking Man and Cassandra Spender near the conclusion of this episode appears to be travelling at high speed, in reality it never got above eight miles an hour -- the speed limit in the rail yard used for filming. The illusion was created with sound effects, music, clever camera angles and quick cutting.

Jo Black-David, who played the murderous nurse, was casting director Rick Millikan's high school drama teacher.

Quotes:
Mulder: (voiceover) Two men, young, idealistic -the fine product of a generation hardened by world war. Two fathers whose paths would converge in a new battle -an invisible war between a silent enemy and a sleeping giant on a scale to dwarf all historical conflicts. A 50-years war, its killing fields lying in wait for the inevitable global holocaust. Theirs was the dawn of Armageddon. And while the world was unaware, unwitting spectators to the hurly-burly of the decades-long struggle between heaven and earth there were those who prepared for the end; who measured the size and power of the enemy, and faced the choices: stand and fight, or bow to the will of a fearsome enemy. Or to surrender -to yield and collaborate. To save themselves and stay their enemy's hand. Men who believed that victory was the absence of defeat and survival the ultimate ideology ... No matter what the sacrifice.

(Mulder and Scully dressed in medical scrubs are being checked for radioactivity by a pair of technicians.)
Mulder: There must be some kind of mistake. I signed up for the aromatherapy treatment.
Scully: Are we going to be able to talk to somebody who can tell us what this is all about?

Diana Fawley: I'm going to beg for your understanding and forgiveness and offer my humblest apologies for the way this went down. I didn't have a lot of choices. I owe your neighbors apologies as well. It's going to be some time before they get back in the building. We're still acting on a CDC Level-Four quarantine protocol.
Scully: Based on what information?
Diana Fawley: That Cassandra Spender had contracted a highly contagious vectoring organism which produces a spontaneous cellular breakdown and combustion.
Scully: What?
Diana Fawley: She was and remains the only surviving victim of an unspecified medical experiment that killed seven doctors with violent and unexplained burning.
Mulder: Who called you?
Diana Fawley: Agent Spender.
Scully: Where's Cassandra?
Diana Fawley: She's isolated... pending full and satisfactory medical evaluation.
Scully: Cassandra Spender was in a general hospital environment for days. We met with her, and yet on a whim you call in the third battalion. It's unjustified and highly suspicious as to motive.
Mulder: Scully...
Diana Fawley: What motives are you suspecting?
Scully: Your isolation of Cassandra.
Diana Fawley: She's Patient Zero.

Marita Covarrubias: If they catch me with you, they'll kill me this time.
Mulder: Who?
Marita Covarrubias: The Smoking Man and ... his group.
Mulder: What have they done to you?
Marita Covarrubias: Tests. Terrible, terrible tests.
Mulder: Like the tests on Cassandra Spender?
Marita Covarrubias: No. No, Cassandra Spender is part of a program that's been going on for 25 years. A hybrid program.
Mulder: Then what were the tests on you?
Marita Covarrubias: I was infected with the alien virus -the black oil. My tests were on the vaccine against it ... being developed in secret.
Mulder: In secret from the alien colonists. The hybrid program was in cooperation with the aliens but the conspirators never intended to succeed ... to finish the work.
Marita Covarrubias: They were buying time.
Mulder: To make a vaccine and build a weapon.
Marita Covarrubias: But Cassandra Spender happened.
Mulder: She's the first, isn't she? She's the first successful alien/human hybrid.
Marita Covarrubias: If she is ... and the aliens learn a hybrid exists ... colonization of the planet will begin. With no stopping it.

Scully: Mulder, when I was abducted a chip was put in my neck. When I happened upon a MUFON group filled with women who'd had the same experience.
Mulder: So you're suggesting that Diana is monitoring these abductees?Monitoring these tests? Scully: You tell me that Cassandra Spender is the critical test subject -the one who could prove everything. And yet, who is watching over her? Mulder, I can prove what you're saying or I can disprove it but not when Diana Fowley is keeping us from even seeing her. Mulder, ask yourself why there is no information whatsoever on Special Agent Diana Fowley. Why she would suddenly happen into your life when you are closer than ever to the truth. I mean, you ... you ask me to trust no one and yet you trust her on simple faith.
Mulder: Because you've given me no reason here to do otherwise.
Scully: Well, then I can't help you anymore.

CSM: I remember looking over a gun barrel at you once before, Agent Mulder. You couldn't pull the trigger then. What makes you think you can do it now?
(Mulder cocks the gun.)
CSM: I came here looking for my son.
Mulder: Why?
CSM: Because he's betrayed me. He's chosen the wrong side. He's chosen to believe in your cause.
Mulder: That presumes my cause is wrong.
CSM: Oh, it is, Agent Mulder. It is.
Mulder: I'm not the one using innocent people -innocent women -as lab rats, trying to create a hybrid - an alien/human hybrid -so that I might save my own sorry ass when they finally come knocking! (CSM smiles.) You find that funny?!
CSM: Your father was against it, too, back in '73. The lone dissenter. But he came to his senses. And gave up your sister, Samantha.
Mulder: He didn't give up my sister. He was forced to. You made him do it.
CSM (with a laugh): Oh, you're wrong, Agent Mulder. I can't tell you how wrong you are. How wrong you've always been. We had agreed to cooperate with the alien colonists. By a majority vote taken by the group that your father and I worked for. A group that came together at the State Department on a project dating back to 1947, to Roswell.

Highlights from ''One Son''

Episode Number: 129

Season Number: 6

First Aired: Sunday, February 14, 1999

Production Code: 6X12

Season 6: Two Fathers (6X11)

Written by: Jeffrey Bell, Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by: Kim Manners

Inside a stockyard in Arlington, Virginia, a surgeon escorts Dr. Openshaw inside a train car containing a surgical bay. Openshaw approaches an operating table, on which lies a patient, her face unseen. The surgeon congratulates Openshaw on his work, some 25 years in the making, which is now a success. The surgeon exits the train car, only to be lit afire by a Faceless Man. The rest of the surgical team, waiting in a nearby van, are also incinerated. A Faceless Man enters the surgical bay and thrusts his weapon at Openshaw, burning him. The creature then looks upon the operating table... where an unconscious Cassandra Spender lies.

Skinner escorts Agent Spender to the stockyard. He explains that a group of people were burned alive, and that only his mother, and a critically injured man, survived. Spender sees his mother in a nearby paramedics vehicle and goes to her side. Cassandra asks to speak with Mulder. Moments later, Spender tells Skinner that he objects to the idea of Mulder's involvement in the case. But Spender changes his mind, and reluctantly informs Mulder of his mother's request to speak with him. Mulder tells Spender to find the truth himself.

Meanwhile, the Cigarette Smoking Man approaches Openshaw, who miraculously survived the fire and has been confined to a plastic tent inside a hospital. Openshaw tells him that Cassandra is a success, and must be terminated before the alien colonists find out that a human/alien hybrid exists. Shortly thereafter, the Cigarette Smoking Man kills Openshaw.

The Cigarette Smoking Man telephones Elder #1 to inform him about an emergency meeting of the Syndicate. Elder #1 promises he will make the meeting. He makes his way to the front door... only to find Openshaw standing on the other side. Elder #1 grabs at the impostor's face, exposing a faceless rebel beneath. A struggle ensues, and the Elder is killed.

Scully and Mulder decide to meet with Cassandra without informing Spender of their action. Miraculously, Cassandra pushes back the covers and lets her legs fall to the floor. Scully looks on, incredulous, as the previously wheelchair-bound Cassandra walks without assistance. Cassandra tells the agents that surgeons worked in conjunction with the aliens to cure her. She now believes that the aliens are plotting to take over the universe by infecting all life forms with a black virus. The surgeons were burned by another race of aliens-faceless rebels-who mutilated their faces so they wouldn't be infected. Cassandra now believes that her son's life is in danger, as he is in collusion with men who have worked with the aliens.

In flashback, some 35 years earlier, Openshaw, Bill Mulder, and the Cigarette Smoking Man enter a train car containing a Native American test subject. The Native American's face, arms and body are horribly disfigured. Repulsed, Bill Mulder exits the train car. As the disfigured man is their best effort, both the Cigarette Smoking Man and Openshaw believe they must ally with the aliens if they ever hope to create a human/alien hybrid. Back in the present day, the Syndicate members, including Krycek and the Cigarette Smoking Man, gather for the meeting. Elder #1 suggests an alliance with the alien rebels, something completely at odds with everything the group has strived for. After the meeting, Krycek informs the Cigarette Smoking Man that Mulder paid Cassandra a secret visit.

Scully and Mulder sneak into Mulder's old office, where they access computer files on Cassandra Spender, her son, and the Cigarette Smoking Man, who is identified by the name "C.G.B. Spender." But the computer has no additional information on the mysterious man. Moments later, Skinner warns the agents that they are about to get caught. Before Mulder and Scully have a chance to escape, they are confronted by Spender. Later, Spender informs his father that Mulder and Scully will be processed out of the FBI. He then asks for the truth about his mother. The Cigarette Smoking Man tells him that Cassandra has been involved in a very important experiment. But he does not elaborate further, as Spender must prove himself capable of the responsibility that comes with such knowledge. Meanwhile, Scully performs some research. She learns that Cassandra Spender was first abducted on the night of November 27th, 1973... the same night Mulder's sister was abducted.

The Cigarette Smoking Man tells Spender about Elder #1's death. He instructs Spender to kill the imposter using a gimlet weapon. Krycek drives Spender to Elder #1's home. Unfortunately, Spender cannot muster the nerve to carry out his assignment. The Elder #1 imposter sees the gimlet in Spender's hand and attacks him. Krycek comes to Spender's rescue, driving the gimlet into the imposter's neck. Afterward, a Iago-like Krycek informs Spender that his father directed the experiments forced on Cassandra. Spender realizes he is being asked to protect his mother so the experiments can continue.

Back at the hospital, Cassandra enters the bathroom to smoke a cigarette. As she looks in the mirror, her face suddenly loses its shape. Cassandra screams. The female FBI agent assigned to protect her races to her aid. She assures Cassandra that she will be all right, as she is "the one." Cassandra stares at her, not comprehending. The female FBI agent reaches up to her own face and pulls back her flesh... revealing a male Faceless Alien beneath. Cassandra recoils in fear. Clad in the FBI agent's clothing, she flees to Mulder's apartment. With time running out, she begs the agents to kill her, because if she lives, there will be no stopping what is about to happen. Mulder draws his gun and aims at Cassandra.

Notes:
Veronica Cartwright, playing Cassandra Spender, received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her work on "Two Fathers/One Son".

The idea that the Cigarette-Smoking Man would be telling the story was a very last minute addition as production had even wrapped on this episode.

This two-parter won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Makeup for a Series.

In this episode Cassandra wants to end her life because her existence as the first alien/human hybrid signals the beginning of alien colonization. In Greek the name Cassandra means "Prophet of Doom".

Recurring Special Guest Star Mimi Rogers (Agent Diana Fowley) is uncredited in this episode.

Krycek: Resistance was futile then, why would it be any less so now?
'Resistance is Futile' is a trademark saying of the Borg from ''Star Trek: The Next Generation''.

Quotes:
Mulder: (Dribbling basketball) Scully, you wanna go one-on-one? We got plenty of time now that we're on administrative leave.

Cassandra: (Happy) Oh! Agent Mulder. I think I'm going to pee the floor.
Mulder: Don't... Don't do that.

Mulder: You looking for work, Agent Spender? Cuz if you are, I got a whole pile in that middle drawer I'd love to shove down someone's throat.

Basketball player: Hey, milk. Let's play ball. Yo homestyle, cough up the rock.
Mulder: (Sinks a 3-pointer) Game.
Baller: Oh nah, it don't work like that.
Mulder: Hey homegirl, word up.
Scully: Mulder, it's my distinct impression that you just cheated and that you're not coming in again today.
Mulder: Oh Scully, I got game.
Scully: Yeah, you got so much game, I'm wondering if you have any work left in you.
Mulder: No, I'm ready to J-O-B, just not on some jagoff shoeshine tip.
Scully: No jagoff shoeshine tip?
Mulder: No background checkin' jagoff shoeshine tip.
Scully: Well about your J-O-B, Mulder, somebody's been trying very hard to reach you by phone. Somebody who wants you back at the FBI ASAP.
Mulder: (Sighs) About what?
Scully: About an X-File.

Highlights from ''Two Fathers''

Episode Number: 128

Season Number: 6
First Aired: Sunday, February 7, 1999
Production Code: 6X11