A decent little episode.

It's kinda fun to see Mulder and Doggett partnered up. Although they didn't really do much together in this episode beyond argueing and running.

I have to wonder about the black oil though. So did it come up from field below and did they want to drill there and the black oil just happened to be there? That's the impression I got.

I have to wonder about Kresh though. He gets really ticked off and demands that they replace the crew on the platform and continue drilling. What's the deal? Did he take to many angry pills or what? Are his bosses yelling at him about it? Does he have another motive? Because he was way over the top. Especially in a situation like this where there was a hazard to everyone on that platform, he something would have went down, he could have been on the grill instead of Mulder.

But I digress, it's just that something about his atttitude is just too over the top to me tonight.

I missed the opening credits, and the Fox web site is being unhelpful this morning...

So, was that Legate Damar (Casey Biggs) as one of the guys infected with the black oil virus? The voice seemed very familiar.

oh yeah. I forgot about that. I saw his name in the credits but I forgot about it and I never plugged his voice or face on anyone. I guess he must have been one of the oil workers. Maybe replacement radio operator. I don't quite recall.

He was the one getting busy with the ax on the door while Doggett was having that long radio conversation with Scully. Before that he had seemed pretty helpful.

I saw the name casy biggs int he opening credits and though "I know that name, but from where?" . So yes his name was in the credits.

Eh. Maybe it would have been more interesting if Doggett had gone to the oil rig alone, sans Mulder. 'Cuz I'm already getting sick of "Doggett doesn't know how to handle the situation alone, so Mulder's got to go in and save him!" Please. The ending was just corny to boot. I wish this hadn't been about the black oil because then we might have had an original episode as well.

I still don't understand the ending. (Not the coda, it's clear that Duchovny wants off the show.)

Why did the black oiliens destroy the platform? If their objective was to infiltrate human bodies and take over the world, then they weren't doing themselves any favors by going boom. If they wanted off the planet, then why not just wait for their spaceships to arrive?

Strategically speaking, the bad guys had everything going their way. A few more blows with the axe and they could have taken over Dogget and burned Mulder. Scully would still know about the immunities, but blowing up the oil rig didn't solve that.

And what's going to happen with that oil field now? If the Americans don't tap it the Mexicans will.

So is Mulder stopping the search for the truth out there now that he passed the X-Files baton to Doggett so to speak? And since Mulder got back and not officially part of the X-Files, what is his post in the FBI? How'd he get to oil rig? Yeah, they never clearly stated where the black oil that infected the oil rig workers came from. Was one of them originally infected and infected everybody else and trying to pass off the black oil as the oil they're digging out. Or was the alien black oil what they were digging/refining? Wonder if Scully isolated what was so special about the Mexican workers' genetics that made them immune to the alien virus. Would be helpful in the future right? So is Scully also going to pass off to Agent Reyes for the next season?

It's interesting there are so many comments lately about DD's work on the show; that is, that he hates GA, wants off it, looks like he's having root canal whenever he's on screen. I caught one of the first or second season eps the other day and came away with a different perspective.

Mulder nowadays seems cynical, angry, and almost paranoidly distrustful. Contrast that with the innocence and uncomplicatedness of his personality when we first met him, how his humor lacked the edge we see now and was just gently funny. DD's portrayal seems the natural evolution of an initially respected FBI agent into the Bureau's resident nutcase, cynical because he doesn't expect anyone to believe or help him (except for his established familiars), angry because he's right most of the time, and paranoid because he's lost a fair bit of basic human perspective about some things.

Or then again, maybe DD's just bored.

Well Mulder's been 86'ed off the FBI now (after this ep)..