Template:Infobox xfiles "Biogenesis" is the twenty-second episode of the sixth season of The X-Files.
Synopsis
Mulder believes that metallic objects discovered in Africa are proof that life originated elsewhere in the universe.
Summary
A metallic artifact covered with strange letters is found on the West African coast. A Dr. Merkmallen, who possesses a similar artifact, finds that the two fuse with each other when brought near one another. He heads to
The Artifact.
the U.S. to meet with a Dr. Sandoz who has found a similar object, but is killed by Dr. Barnes, who claims to be Sandoz.
Skinner brings agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) on the case, providing them with a rubbing made from the artifact. Mulder says that both men espoused a theory known as 'Panspermia' that theorizes that life originated off of Earth. While heading to the basement Mulder suffers from a headache and has a hard time hearing Scully.
The agents visit with Dr. Barnes at the University who claims not to believe in the theories of the now missing Dr. Sandoz. Mulder once again feels strange when near the rubbing. The agents meet with Chuck Burks, who tells them that the symbols on the artifact are Navajo. Mulder, who continues to feel strange, declines Scully's recommendations to go to the hospital and tells Scully that he believes Barnes murdered Merkmallen.
The agents head to Dr. Sandoz's apartment and find a picture of him with Albert Hosteen, a Navajo code breaker who has worked with the agents in the past. They find the body of Merkmallen in the garbage disposal.
Mulder and Scully report to Skinner on the case. Mulder believes that Sandoz is being framed and that the artifact emits radiation. During the briefing, Mulder experiences further headaches and announces that someone else is involved on the
A.D. Skinner gives a tape of a conversation with Mulder & Scully to Alex Krycek.
case, which Skinner denies. Mulder implies that he can hear Skinner's thoughts.
After the agents leave Skinner provides a video tape of their conversation to Alex Krycek. Krycek later provides the tape to Dr. Barnes. Scully discovers that Albert Hosteen is dying of cancer. Mulder heads back to the University but passes out in the stairwell. Scully finds Sandoz at the hospital and confronts him. He claims that Albert Hosteen was helping him translate the pieces of the artifact that he and Merkmallen possesed and that the translation included passages from the Bible.
Scully travels to New Mexico with Sandoz and contacts Mulder, who is resting at home. Mulder believes that the artifact proves that humanity was created by aliens. Diana Fowley takes care of Mulder and contacts the Cigarette Smoking Man. A healing ceremony is held for Albert, but Scully is forced to leave when Skinner contacts her, telling her Mulder is in the hospital in serious condition.
Scully arrives a the hospital, tired and angry from her long flight. Mulder is being held in a padded cell and is displaying
Spacecraft on West African beach.
abnormal brain activity. Scully, after learning that Skinner knows about their earlier conversation with Burks calls him and Fowley liars and leaves.
Scully is about to find a surveillance camera in the X-Files office when she is called by Sandoz telling her that the artifact contains information on human genetics. Sandoz is shot and killed by Krycek shortly afterwards. Scully heads to the West African Coast where she discovers that the artifact is part of a large spacecraft partially buried in the ocean.
Background Information
This episode includes archive footage from The X-Files Movie. The footage features two Primitives running through snowy terrain and appears near the start of this episode. The same footage would later appear in "The Truth", the series finale of The X-Files and the concluding story in its ninth season.
Notes
Although X-Files management was prepared to suspend filming to accommodate the birth of David Duchovny's first child, it proved to be unnecessary. Madelaine West Duchovny was born on April 24, 1999; two days after the filming of Fox Mulder's final scene in this season finale.
Goofs
When Mulder and Scully are examining the artifact in his office, there are pencils hanging from the ceiling tile over Mulder's desk in the background. Presumably this is a habit that Mulder has had at least since the episode, "Chinga," although they cannot be the same pencils since the office burned down at the end of season 5.
Scully quickly rattles off information about the human genome and all twenty-four chromosomes all humans possess. Humans have twenty-three chromosomes. There is no way she would know this fact.
The establishing outside shot of the Hospital Mulder went to was also used that same year as San Francisco Memorial Hospital on the show Charmed. In this episode, the hospital is supposed to be in Georgetown.
Skinner is cleaning his glasses while he talks to Scully and Mulder. Then we see him from an different angle, still speaking, with his glasses on.
If the police had given Sandoz's apartment a thorough combing-over and the landlord had been "all through the place" as the landlord claimed, would neither have thought to check the kitchen trash can/compactor, if not for body parts, at least for clues as to Sandoz's location?
When Dr. Sandoz is speaking with Scully over the phone while sitting in a car, he refers to the human genome and uses the word 'chromozone' instead of the correct 'chromosome'.
Cast
Starring
Also Starring
- William B. Davis as Cigarette Smoking Man
- Nicholas Lea as Alex Krycek
- Chris Owens as Jeffrey Spender
- Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Walter Skinner
Special Guest Starring
Guest Starring
- Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman as Albert Hosteen
- Murry Rubinstein as Dr. Steven Sandoz
- Michael Chinyamurindi as Dr. Solomon Merkmallen
- Michael Ensign as Dr. Barnes
Co-Starring
- Sheila Tousey as Native American Nurse
- Warren Sweeney as Dr. Geoff Harriman
- Chet Grissom as Detective
- Bill Dow as Dr. Charles Burks
- Marty Zagon as Mr. Coeben
- Samuel Kwaku Minta as Yelling Man
- Ayo Adeyemi as First African Man
- Benjamin Ochieng as Second African Man
References
Ivory Coast; Africa