This was a little odd. An entertaining if unsurprising "race-against-time" story is unexpectedly crossed with some conspiracy hoodoo, only the conspiracy here isn't of the UFO kind. It doesn't entirely work, but you can't fault the show for trying.The principal idea of the episode is about information, and what to do with it for the public's best interest. I don't know if the writers actually intended this, but I was siding more with CSM than Mulder this time around. Especially so early in the crisis, it wouldn't be smart to announce an air-borne virus is out there. Panic would ensue, and chaos could easily be prevented by a couple of hours of containing the problem. Eh. For the first time Mulder was seen as this paranoid, act-now-think-later lunatic, and I don't know if that's what the writers intended.
The rest of the episode was actually pretty fun. When it wasn't grossing me out repeatedly. Seriously, there's no need for that much pus. Or bugs. Or giant damn boils exploding in folk's faces. Outside of the nastiness, there was a palpable sense of urgency to the rest of the episode, we even saw Scully out of one of her 80lbs-lumberjack coats.
Speaking of Scully, her behavior was a little odd. Sure, she was out of her big-ass overcoat, but was it really safe? Surely she could have been exposed at any moment? Or maybe the show just really wanted to showcase her heaving chest. Apologies if that was inappropriate. Heh.
A fun little thriller episode, with some interesting ideas, even if the whole thing doesn't fully make sense or really work when you really think about it. Rating B-
Credits
Guest stars Charles Martin Smith (Dr. Osbourne); Dean Norris (Marshal Tapia); John Pyper-Ferguson (Paul); William B. Davis (The Cigarette Smoking Man); Angelo Vacco (Angelo Garza); Mitch Pileggi (A.D. Walter Skinner)
Writers Chris Carter, Howard Gordon Director Rob Bowman
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