The Red and the Black (The X-Files)

"The Red and the Black" is a 1998 episode of The X-Files television series. It was the fourteenth episode broadcast in the show's fifth season. "The Red and the Black" continues from the previous episode, "Patient X" and involves the introduction of a group of alien rebels that are fighting against the alien colonists.

Plot

In Canada, someone in a cabin writes a letter, addressed to "Son" and expresses hopes that they may reconcile. The envelope is addressed to the FBI, and is given to a boy courier for mailing.

Agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) arrives at the Ruskin Dam, which contains a number of burned corpses, including Quiet Willy and Dmitri. Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is found with only minor burns, one of approximately fifty survivors who were found nearby in the woods. Jeffrey Spender arrives looking for his mother, Cassandra, who is missing.

The Well-Manicured Man and other elders watch as their black oil vaccine is administered to Marita Covarrubias, which as of yet has not worked.

Mulder meets with Scully about the incident, who doesn't remember anything. Jeffrey sees Mulder and again tells him not to get involved with his mother, who remains missing.

The Well-Manicured Man meets with Krycek, who is being held captive in a Russian freighter. The Well-Manicured Man believes that the Russians possess a functional vaccine to the black oil or else Krycek wouldn't have infected the boy. With a working vaccine, resistance to the alien colonists is possible.

A spacecraft crashes at Wiekamp Air Force base in West Virginia, and the surviving alien rebel passenger is captured by the military. Mulder shows Scully more photos of the victims and, having found more implants in them, believes the implant in Scully may be able to answer all of their questions.

The Syndicate meets over the capture of the alien rebel. The Well-Manicured Man wants to align with the rebels, but the other Syndicate members are reluctant and want to make sure the Russian vaccine from Krycek works.

Scully is hypnotized by Dr. Werber. She recalls the alien rebels burning fellow abductees. Suddenly, a colonist spacecraft appears, destroying the rebels with beams of light and abducting Cassandra. After the hypnosis, the agents report to Skinner. Mulder's insistence that the events that occurred were caused by the military and not aliens frustrates even Skinner, who finds alien involvement a more likely explanation. The Russian vaccine has thus far had no effect on Marita, and the First Elder tells the Well-Manicured Man that they have already decided to turn the alien rebel over to the colonists. Jeffrey shows Scully a video of him talking about aliens while under hypnosis while he was a child. He claims his mother went crazy because his father abandoned them and that she forced him to say those things.

Mulder is jumped by Krycek in his apartment, who was released by the Well-Manicured Man. Krycek claims that a war is raging between the aliens and that the incinerations were caused by alien rebels who want to stop plans to colonize the Earth. The captured rebel is critical to their plans and must not die. The Alien Bounty Hunter arrives at Wiekamp Air Force Base. Mulder and Scully head there and when Scully spots Quiet Willy, whom she recognizes, in a passing truck, Mulder jumps aboard. Inside is the captured rebel leader, whom the Alien Bounty Hunter (who had taken on the appearance of Quiet Willy) comes inside to kill. As he's about to do so, a white light flashes and a second alien rebel appears, who presumably kills the Alien Bounty Hunter and rescues the other rebel. The Well-Manicured Man watches as the Russian vaccine is revealed to have been successful on Marita. Mulder, who doesn't remember a thing, is visited by Scully. At FBI Headquarters, Jeffrey receives a letter that he has returned to the sender, the Cigarette-Smoking Man, at his cabin in Canada.^[1]

Production

The opening scene was filmed at Grouse Mountain, above the city of Vancouver, Canada. The child he gave the message to was a young boy and the son of production manager J.P. Finn. When filming, Chris Carter made homage to ER, filming one of the scenes entirely with a Steadicam. The various scenes with the Syndicate testing the black oil vaccine on Marita Covarrubias were filmed at an abandoned hospital in Vancouver. Carter commented that they chose it because it had "an interesting observation space above it that we used", which was difficult to shoot in.^[2]

Rob Bowman was originally intended to direct the episode but, due to reshoots, he was unable to do it, resulting in Carter directing.^[3] Most of the scenes at the Ruskin Dam were shot approximately 50 miles east of Vancouver, while the abduction sequence involved a full scale replica of the dam. The scene where Cassandra Spender was elevated into the colonist craft was shot by having a stuntwoman sit in Cassandra's wheelchair and be lifted upward via a crane, which was removed from the shot during post-production.^[4] The lights of the alien spacecrafts were shot using a lighting rig combined with computer effects by Special Effects Supervisor Laurie Kalisen-George.^[4] The crashed alien spacecraft was sixty feet in diameter, twice the length of any other spaceship seen before on the show, and dragged along the ground to create a skidmark. Twenty-five explosions were set off to simulate the saucer crash; the remains of the wreckage were then burned to create the rest of the footage.^[4] The list of victims viewed by Scully in her hospital room was made up of X-Files staffers.^[4]

The tagline for this episode is "Resist or Serve". The tagline was later used for The X-Files game, The X-Files: Resist or Serve as well as the official book covering the fifth season of the show.

Reception

This episode earned a Neilsen rating of 12.0, with an 18 share. It was viewed by 19.98 million people.^[5]

Footnotes

External links

• "The Red and the Black" on The X-Files, an external wiki