The X-Files “Field Trip”

Yeah, Hulu still won’t play that baseball episode.  I’ll try a couple more times and then basically give up.

As for this episode, it’s got some really cool “That Guy!” guest stars in the form of Robyn Lively, Jim Beaver, and David Denman…who looks really weird clean-shaven.

The Case:  Hallucinogenic Fungus!

The Rest:  Scully and Mulder are off on a case where a married couple (Lively and Denman) disappeared a couple days earlier and were found basically as skeletons.  They’d been hiking in the woods and were only identifiable through dental records.  What went wrong?  Mulder thinks aliens.  Scully thinks something else.  Mulder points out he’s usually right in a way that makes me think he’s being a bit of a jerk, but then he just asks Scully to give him the benefit of the doubt for once, and I kinda felt bad for him based on the way he said it.

But then they get out there, meet the local coroner (Beaver), and there’s some goo in the bodies.  Mulder goes off to look, finds some more goo, and sees the dead man walking around.  He goes into a cave, and the couple are in there.  They say it’s aliens.  Mulder even manages to abduct an alien, shows it to Scully, and she’s a believer now.

Wait, that can’t be right.  Then everyone but Mulder melts into early 90s CGI goo.

Scully meanwhile found out the goo is a digestive fluid with some plant enzymes built in.  She goes off to find Mulder because this is dangerous, but she had the foresight to send the goo to the FBI for testing.

And hey, she finds Mulder.  Or, his skeleton.  But then everyone just says Scully’s original theory about the dead bodies must be correct.  The coroner says it.  Skinner says it.  The Lone Gunmen says it.  And when those guys accept something like that at face value, Scully knows it isn’t real.  And then Mulder shows up at his own funeral in his own apartment.

Nice effect how the apartment is full of people when he knocks, but they all disappear when he walks in.

So, now they’re together.  And that’s when Scully figures out there’s a giant fungus there, and it has some hallucinogenic properties.  That’s not good.  So, the two bust out and report to Skinner…which is when Mulder realizes that chemically-caused hallucinations don’t work that way and they’re both still dying in gooey digestive juices.  Mostly because he shoots Skinner, and Skinner starts bleeding goo.

Fortunately, the real Skinner shows up with help to pull them out.  That FBI crime lab is faster than I thought.

So, that was kinda cool.  Both of the agents got what they probably always wanted, and that’s how they realized it was all wrong.

Up next, the season finale.  One more season to go before Duchovny leaves the original run.