The X-Files Recap With Spoilers; My Struggle II

The episode opens with a monologue from Scully, explaining her backstory and bringing the audience [...]

By Russ Burlingame

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The episode opens with a monologue from Scully, explaining her backstory and bringing the audience up to date, mirroring the one Mulder had at the start of "My Struggle," the season premiere.

Scully heads to the X-Files office, where Mulder is missing but Tad O'Malley's website is back up and running. He's promising big, new news: alien DNA in virtually every American citizen.

The phone rings, and she answers it; it's O'Malley. He tells her that she needs to come see him.

O'Malley is at Mulder's apartment, where the house has been ransacked. O'Malley says they were planning to meet up, but that he arrived here and the doors were open. O'Malley says he found alien DNA in himself just like Scully found it in Sveta.

Scully calls the police.

Back at the FBI, Skinner and Einstein are waiting for her when she arrives. She tells them that she's worried Mulder isn't taking her calls because he's worried she'll think he's crazy. She explains O'Malley's claims, and Scully and Einstein head out to look for information.

They arrive at the hospital where Scully used to work, and there's a man there sweating and with a legion on his arm. She summons a nurse to find out what he's been exposed to.

Elsewhere, Mulder is driving through the countryside, his face bruised and bloodied. He ignores an incoming call from Skinner and keeps driving.

At the hospital, Einstein gives some blood, and is skeptical that she'll find anything interesting. Scully isn't so sure. She suggests that a factor could be introduced into the body through childhood vaccines. Miller joins them, saying he's looking for Mulder too and that people are freaking about the Tad O'Malley show.

Cut to the show, where O'Malley is interviewing a man who describes tampering being done to everyone's genomes, and the concept of a man-made plague. Scully worries that it's not only plausible but happening.

In the lobby, Scully tells a nurse that the man she saw earlier was exposed to anthrax by a botched vaccine. She's convinced that they're witnessing the start of a global contagion. Elsewhere, Mulder is asleep in his car when an ambulance blows by with the lights on. He gets a call from Scully, but doesn't pick up.

At the X-Files ofice, Miller sits down and starts watching O'Malley's show, claiming that police and military are being infected by a contagion. When he does so, thouhg, he spots Mulder's phone finder app and pings it, finding that Mulder (or at least his phone) is in Spartanburg, SC.

Back at the hospital, Einstein and Scully watch the man with the legions. They debate what's going on -- Einstein thinks Scully is jumping to conclusions, but Scully thinks it's something bigger. Einstein tells her that she's not seeing widespread infection, that it's one affected class. Scully can't explain how or why any of her theories would make sense. Einstein points out that something would have to be taken away from the genome, not added to it, for any of it to make sense.

Scully gets an anonymous call from "someone who was there for you when you needed it," offering information on what's going on.

In a park in the rain, Scully meets with Agent Reyes. She tells of a story when she was summoned by a nearly-dead Cigarette Smoking Man, after his apparent death a decade ago. He offered her a deal: he'll spare her life if she does something. She says he had the ability to build impurities into the DNA of all but the chosen -- and that to prevent him depopulating the world, she would have to become his servant. She was the one who brought him his cigarette at the end of "My Struggle," and he says he plans to reinvent the world in his image rather than God's.

Reyes says she's been protected -- she's one of the chosen, who will be saved. She says since the Cancer Man loves Mulder, he sent a man to offer him a deal.

Cut to Mulder, at his apartment, getting into a fight with an intruder; it's what bloodied him and trashed the apartment. When the man gets the upper hand, he prepares to shoot Mulder, but Mulder manages to stop him, hold a gun to him and demand to know who sent him.

Next, we see Mulder holding a gun to the Cigarette Smoking Man's head, saying "You sent for me. I'm here." He tells Cancer Man to put a stop to what he's put in motion, but CSM says it's too late for that. He tells Mulder that he may not believe this, but he really wants to save Mulder's life. Mulder says he doesn't make deals with CSM.

CSM says he didn't set out to destroy the world -- people did. He talks about the destruction of the environment, and that aliens predicted it decades ago. He says he plotted the timetable himself rather than letting it happen. When Mulder threatens to kill him, CSM tells him that he's offering a seat at the table, but Mulder says he couldn't look at himself in the mirror.

CSM tells Mulder it isn't too late to make a deal and prevent himself dying within weeks.

Cut to O'Malley, who is reporting on widespread outbreaks that aren't being covered by the mainstream media. He gives a number of examples, usually borne of things that are already the subject of everyday paranoia like chemtrails.

At the hospital, Mulder is looking for Einstein, who's now scared. The Center for Disease Control is confirming massive contagions, and they can't control it, but Scully thinks they can help. Scully says that the only way to save humanity is the alien DNA that's inside of her. She says that the contagion is being caused by the Spartan Virus, which can be cured using something made from her DNA.

At CSM's house, Mulder is collapsed on the ground, still refusing to work with him. CSM tells him that he'll miss him -- and that he made his life truly worth living. He removes a facial prosthetic, revealing his hideously deformed face. Mulder says he wishes Scully were there to see what a monster CSM has become.

At the hospital, Scully and Einstein are working on their cure, but they can't find nay trace of the alien DNA in her test culture. The nurse from earlier comes in and tells Scully that the doctors are all getting sick.

O'Malley is still broadcasting, now reporting on the deaths of soldiers and the elderly who were on the forefront of the "attack." There are reports that the same is happening in Europe, and that microwaves are being used as a delivery device.

At the hospital, things have gone from bad to worse, and Einstein is trying to help Scully figure out what is happening. Scully speculates that the alien DNA could "hide" from her when she was looking for a cure. Einstein says their mistake was that their sample was too small.

At Cancer Man's house, Miller arrives to save Mulder, but CSM says there's nothing to be done to save either of them. Miller takes Mulder nevertheless.

Einstein, now starting to get sick, is drawing blood from Scully to get a larger sample to find a cure.

Miller takes Mulder to the car, and Mulder tells him to ask Cancer Man for the cure -- that he only didn't ask because that's what CSM would want. Miller asks CSM who he is, and CSM says only to tell Mulder good-bye for him.

Back at the hospital, Scully has isolated the gene that could be a cure. Einstein goes to lie down.

Miller calls in to Scully, saying that he's on the road with Mulder but that since there's a run on gasoline, they may break down before they get to her.

At the hospital, Scully hangs an IV on Einstein, saying that they need to do the same for the other doctors so that they, in turn, can help the others.

O'Malley is getting sicker, and his technology is failing.

In the streets of Washington, D.C., a traffic jam has paralyzed traffic. Scully works her way through the increasingly violent streets with IVs full of cure, and stops to tell them that help is on the way.

O'Malley receives a text -- one from Scully that says that there may be a cure and not to give up.

Scully gets into her car, but has to drive along the sidewalks to get anywhere due to the traffic. Unable to make her way through traffic, she has to get out of her vehicle on a bridge in order to find Miller and Mulder. When she gets to the car to save him, Mulder tells her to save Miller, too. She tells Miller that what Mulder needs is cells from William -- but that she doesn't know where he is. Just then, a UFO appears overhead and lights up the bridge, focusing on the area where Scully and Miller are standing. The episode ends with a close-up on Scully's eye.

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