AIR DATE:  December 1, 1996
Written by Chris Carter & Frank Spotnitz
Directed by Rob Bowman

	I've said it before and I'll most likely say it again, please let
Scully and Mulder win one.  Nothing big, but at least something such as in
this episode where they could have had them at least keep the rock.  They
could have had it be so hazardous they couldn't do anything with it.  Even
having the rock didn't really prove anything except it had stuff you
shouldn't fool around with such as the parasites in "Ice".  Did Scully and
Mulder get any closer to exposing the conspiracy?  No, I don't think so. 
Did Scully and Mulder learn anything more about what is going on?  Yes,
they did learn a little bit more about the nasty experiments.  The
question is did learning this information help them out in any way.  I
don't think so except it told them both the Russian and American secret
governments are doing ghastly experiments on their citizens, for what we
are not certain.

	One thing "Terma" brought out was the fact there seems to be some
infighting going on within the Consortium especially between the Cigarette
Smoking Man(CSM) and the Well-Manicured Man(WMM).  It is most likely over
the direction of where the project should be going and the fact they just
don't like each other.  Now if I got this straight this is who was behind
what:  WMM was behind bringing the alien rock thing into the United States
along with the materials we saw in the Hawaii incident.  CSM learning of
this went to Ratboy in order to sucker in Scully and Mulder to get the
alien rock from the courier, then letting things get slightly out of hand
so that WMM would have to come to him for help.  We can also guess CSM was
behind the Russian assassin guy coming to America to get rid of all
evidence of what has been going on with the oily alien creature.  I liked
how CSM gave WMM just a little bit of the puzzle with absolutely no
intention of taking care of the Russian assassin.  I guess it was his way
to tell WMM that he better watch his back.

	What these experiments are meant to do has yet to be explained to
us.  It is nicknamed Black Cancer and the oily alien creatures connects to
some gland that paralyzes its victims.  The Russians were doing their own
experiments either to find a cure for what these oily alien creature do to
people or to enhance its ability to use it as a weapon.  Maybe the
Russians were trying to do the latter and the Americans were trying to do
the former with CSM not giving a damn either way as long as he discredits
WMM.  Oh well, maybe in the next conspiracy episodes it will become
clearer.  Ha, ha, yeah, that'll be the day. 

	Now the random thoughts section:

- I thought it was quite funny that Vassily Peskow, the Russian assassin,
had to take the bus to Charlottesville.  I guess when he got there he must
have finally rented a car since the Doctor lived out in the country which
makes one wonder why he didn't rent one in the first place.  He isn't
going to take a taxi out there.  Also, I found that an interesting bus
stop for a big city. You would kind of think there would have been a bus
terminal.

- Did anyone else find it slightly annoying at how easy it was for Peskow
to get into places without anyone questioning him?  You would have thought
there would have been someone watching the poor doctor at Goddard Space
Center, and why didn't the nurse question why a stranger started walking
through her ward?  What was this, a common thing in her nursing home, then
again the niece was able to take her aunt out of the place without anyone
questioning her.  Oh yeah, do all nursing homes leave their medicine
cabinets unlocked and with easy access to anyone who wishes to touch them.
I just thought it was too easy for him to be believed.

- Also, I don't understand why Scully and Mulder didn't try to take a
sample of one of those oily alien creature things from the dead patient. I
can understand if they were afraid to touch it, but they should have at
least mentioned doing it or even attempt doing it.  I guess we can assume
the oily alien creature evaporated into thin air once they escape the host
body since neither one mentions it again.

- Speaking of Mulder and those oily alien creatures, what the hell did
happen to him over in Russia.  If Mulder was so important to the project
why didn't CSM do something about it or was this just a way to get Mulder
over there to continue the project on him.  Maybe the prisoner next door
worked for CSM and it was his way to help him out after they did what
needed to be done to him.  This is going on that Ratboy was working for
CSM and it was all a part of a big setup for Scully and Mulder.  WMM
seemed damn upset that Mulder was in Russia, for what reason WMM is upset
about we are not sure whether it is because he fears being exposed or he
knows what CSM is up to in Russia and doesn't want Mulder touched. 

- Should we change Ratboy nickname to the One-Arm Man?  How appropriate
that Ratboy should end up losing an arm for his involvement in the
experiments.  Can't wait to see the next time he and Mulder meet up and
seeing Mulder's reaction to him.  Ratboy has become Mulder's One-Arm Man
who he will use as part of his search for the truth.

- Oh yeah, can some of you medical people explain why it was so important
for the left arm to have been used for the small pox vaccinations and how
not having a left arm would prevent them from using those Russians in the
experiments.  I couldn't see what difference it made in which arm was
used, but then again I don't know too much about how the small pox
vaccination worked in people.

- So how long was Scully in that cell that she was still wearing her same
clothes when Skinner came for a visit, and she had time for someone to
bring her all that material?  Wouldn't she have been put in prison clothes
if she had been there for awhile.  Of course, I didn't see a toilet in her
cell either so I guess she would have to ask the teacher if she could go
to the bathroom. 

- Funniest line in "Terma" was Mulder saying to Scully, "Almost perfect
execution" in reference to them being set up by CSM and Ratboy.  I felt
like going to Mulder, "I think they did do it perfectly since they killed
off who needed to be killed and were able to destroy the rock without
getting caught".  Talk about being used as saps.  Scully and Mulder might
as well be working for the Consortium since they always seem to end up
helping them in the end, and they end up not getting any closer to
exposing them.

- Once again I would love to get onto the Scully and Mulder express since
they were able to go down to Florida then the next day be somewhere in
Canada and later on in the day make it in time for the Senate hearing. 
Mulder sure looked nice and clean when he walked into the Senate hearing
after having a bunch of oil dumped on him.

- Lucky for Mulder the bomb had an alarm to go off to warn him that there
was soon going to be a big bang.

- I'm of the firm belief that Scully and Mulder wouldn't have been dumb
enough to have given the Senate committee those forms without making
copies.  This part bugged me because it means everyone on the committee is
corrupt because if they weren't then there definitely would be questions
brought up by the other members or maybe the news media since it didn't
appear to be a closed hearing.  It just seems too easy sometimes for the
Consortium to get away with things.  I guess I'm one of those people who
doesn't believe anyone in the government is competent enough to be able to
keep things cover up.

	"Terma" was kind of anti-climatic to what we saw in "Tunguska" 
because we didn't really learn that much more about the conspiracy other
than stuff we could have suspected the Consortium of doing.  It would just
be nice if once Scully and Mulder won one battle against the Consortium.
We now know they cannot trust Congress to investigate further since
important congressman have been compromised, and it makes it questionable
who they can trust to expose the truth to if they ever get the evidence
they need to expose the conspiracy.  This episode definately fell into the
category of the second part not being able to live up to what we saw in
the first part.  Here's hoping more comes out in the next conspiracy
episodes, there are more cat fights between CSM and WMM and let Scully and
Mulder win one against the consortium.

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

12/2/96

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