AIR DATE:  March 8, 1998
Written by Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Chris Carter

	Thank God Krycek finally said what we and Scully have been wanting
to say to Mulder throughout this two part mythology episode which was
"Pull your head out of the sand" though I wouldn't have been so polite in
my wording.  In "The Red and the Black" we actually do learn something or
is it they are finally making it clearer to us for the movie though with
the X-Files you never know what is the truth.  It appears there is a civil
war going within the aliens, one who wants to colonize and the other who
doesn't (i.e. pollute their gene pool), and the Consortium is in the
middle of it.  Let's not forget the Cigarette Smoking Man is alive and
well living in seclusion up in Quebec somewhere.  During all of this
Mulder still acts as pig headed as before until Ratboy wakes him up to
reality.  Well, wakes him up somewhat since we didn't see any follow-up of
what Mulder thinks now of alien abduction stories after his little
incident in the military truck. 

	Who didn't want to smack Mulder in the head after taking Scully to
Dr. Werber to help her recover her memories of the incident on the bridge. 
Only to totally dismiss what she said because it doesn't go with what he
believes to be the truth now.  Yup, Mulder, alien abductees always say
that faceless men start coming after them and try burning them to death.
Let's not forget how they stage all those burned bodies in Kazakhstan to
continue the myth of alien abductions.  Because Scully describes one
little incident that sounds like your typical alien abductee story he
disregards the rest of the story.  Well, why did he take Scully to Dr. 
Werber in the first place since alien abductee stories are Dr. Werber's
speciality.  Scully even asks Mulder why would she say this about what
happen on the bridge implying some of it has to be true, and this is the
last thing she wants to believe happened to her. Mulder acted liked a
little child who if he doesn't get his way is going to stomp out
(Skinner's office) or belittle the person who is making the claim
(Scully's hospital room and Skinner's office).  Scully tells Mulder if he
no longer trusts his memories or doesn't have the same drive he used to
have then she will not follow him, especially with her own memory lapses. 
Both Scully and Skinner tell Mulder it has always been his faith in what
he believed in that made them trust him, and if he has lost this then they
might not go along with him. Mulder says in response to Scully's comment,
"If I could give you those memories back.  If I could prove that I was
right and what I believe for so long was wrong."  Scully asks what we all
wanted to ask, "Is that what you want?"  To give up everything that has
defined you as a person for most of your life.  This is why I thank Krycek
for telling Mulder to get his head out of the sand, and finally making
Mulder realize he has been acting like a fool by the fact he finally opens
an X-file on Cassandra Spender, and from his own experience in the
military truck.

	Now some general comments on "The Red and the Black":

- I guess the aliens have one of those things that flashes a light just
like in "Men in Black" where it makes people forget what they have seen. I
don't know how else to explain how they could make Mulder forget so fast.
What I wanted to know was what was the last thing Mulder remembers?  Was
it getting into the truck?  He seemed fairly shook up by the incident and
unlike him sometimes in past episodes Scully gave him her support. 

- "Resist or Serve" is the new tagline at the end of opening credits or
should it be "Resistence is futile, you will be assimilated".

- The Well-Manicured Man (WMM) sure likes them young.  First he has a
thing with that young woman doctor in "Tunguska/Terma" and now it is
implied there was something between WMM and Marita Covarrubias.

- I'm confused on exactly what the black oil things do to people because
with Dmitri he was able to walk around, etc. while Covarrubias is laid up
in the hospital.  Are there different kinds of black oily things?  How do
these relate to the ones we saw in "Piper Maru/Apocrypha"?  And how do the
killer bees work into all of this?  I think I'm thinking too hard on this
one. 

- Is it me or was Chris Owens not able to pull off the anger man bit?  His
scene with Mulder reminded me of the scene in "Glory" where Matthew
Broderick tried to act tough to the quartermaster sergeant.  Some actors
just can't pull it off.

- I can't help thinking WMM is the only one who has a clue as to what is
going on and that it is best not to trust the aliens in their plans on
colonization.  The best thing that could happen would be if they killed
off the Elder (aka Chunky Italian Guy).  He still is an unmenacing
presence. 

- Wasn't it convenient that the rebel aliens ship crash landed on an Air
Force base.  There is a whole country out there and this would be the one
place they would crash. 

- I found Mulder's comment of wanting to investigate who built the chip
inside Scully as a way to prove it is the government very interesting
considering Scully already did this in "Nisei/731".  Is she not telling
Mulder things too, like how Agent Pendrell traced the chip to the leper
colony in Virginia and how Chunky Italian Guy found her and took her to
the train car which was similar to the one she thinks she was experimented
on. Boy, these two have really got to learn to communicate. 

- One of my favorite scenes was Scully's blank look at Mulder in the
hospital as he is going off about how it is the government.  She was most
likely wondering where the Mulder she had respected over the years has
gone. 

- I think the alien ship must have figured as long as Cassandra Spender
was there they might as well pick her up for a little more probing.

- I have to admit I don't know much about vaccines and such so the medical
people out there are going to have to explain this:  Isn't a vaccine used
to prevent a disease from happening and not after the fact?  So wouldn't
this mean the vaccine shouldn't have worked on Marita Covarrubias? 

- I loved the line Spender said to Scully of "Don't let yourself be used". 
Hey, I think she has been used for quite a while as evident in this
episode. 

- Ratboy kissing Mulder on the cheek was a killer. 

- I still can't help but think Mulder has been replaced by someone else
because the Mulder of old would have tried to sneak into the Air Force
base instead of driving up expecting to be let in.  Why would he think
that?  Why didn't he ask the Lone Gunmen for help as he did in "E.B.E."? 

- I did like how the Bounty Hunter as Quiet Willy in the military truck
was chewing gum.  I'll tell you everyone likes gum, aliens and earthlings. 

- As always Mulder is prepared as he takes out a flashlight from his
overcoat to see what was in the truck.  Why did the Bounty Hunter take
such a big truck?  How fast can those things go since it took the military
police quite a while to catch up with it.

- CSM must live in the English speaking part of Quebec since the young boy
who carried his mail spoke without an accent.

	"The Red and the Black" appears to be trying to start explaining
things for the movie though it and "Patient X" could have been better
episodes if they had handled Mulder's complete reversal better.  The scene
in his room where Scully sees him sitting in the dark trying to comprehend
everything Krycek has said to him was what was missing in previous
episodes.  Yes, we did see him sitting in his room in "Gethsemane" 
thinking about what Scully said to him, but it did not have the same
impact because in "Gethsemane" we did not quite know what was going on in
his mind.  In "The Red and the Black" we do know what is going on in his
mind because of everything we have seen, and Mulder's thinking maybe he
has been a fool for easily disbelieving everyone's abduction story so
quickly.  This is probably why he was so upset at the end of "The Red and
the Black", he was so sure of his convictions to only have them turned
around on him from his encounter with the Bounty Hunter and not
remembering what happened in the military truck.  I still wish they had a
follow-up scene with Mulder and Scully instead of Skinner and Agent
Spender where we learn Agent Spender has a friend in high places (ooh, I
wonder who that could be).  It would have made the episode work a lot
better if they had showed us how the events that happened in this episode
affected his current convictions. He has to wonder what the real truth is
in anything he has believed in, from alien abductions to not believing in
them.

Claudia
E-mailed:  Claudia.Cauchon@unh.edu

3/9/98

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