With all our favorite shows taking their usual break in the summer months, this opens up an opportunity to watch some of our old favorites. That’s where the Multiversity Summer Binge comes in. Last year, I took a look at the entire first season of my favorite show ever, The X-Files and this summer, I’m back with a vengeance covering season two. The first season of this show was more of a prelude. It teased all the things that were to come and spent a lot of time doing the ground work. In the second season, the show really kicks into gear. Truth be told, of the 11 seasons, this is easily top three for me. I’m really excited to be writing about these episodes, particularly the middle of the season. This week, I’m looking at “Ascension,” the second part of the Duane Barry episodes and a pivotal point for the series as a whole.
1. The Premise
“Ascension” follows right where “Duane Barry” left off. Duane Barry has escaped from the hospital and has abducted Scully from her home. Mulder goes back to his apartment and hears the message that she left him right as she was taken and he springs into action just a little too late. The entire episode is a mad dash to try and save Scully while forces work to keep Mulder from doing that. I’ll talk more about this at the end here but it cannot be said enough that this two parter is a massive turning point for the show and really establishes what the show will be going forward. Last year, I mentioned that “The Erlenmeyer Flask” was like the tip of the iceberg and now we’re going further down into the water and seeing how big that iceberg actually is. This episode is packed with stuff and I’ll try to fit that all in here.
2. Do Whatever It Takes
Mulder is full of guilt and determination over Scully being taken and it only gets worse when he meets her mother (hi mama Scully) at Scully’s apartment. Mulder makes getting her back the only thing that he can think of and he hasn’t slept over it. Skinner takes him off the case because he’s too close to it but Mulder goes behind his back and goes looking for her anyway. He takes Krycek with him because at this point, he doesn’t know that he’s actually a bad guy trying to stop him. Mulder is able to get a location on Duane Barry by listening back to their conversation and they go up to Skyland Mountain. From there, Mulder commandeers a skylift that isn’t fixed yet to go get her but he’s stopped by Krycek (we’ll get to him). Mulder is able to get there but he’s too late and he never gets to see Scully. Cue to my heart breaking because it’s rough. There’s so much I want to say about this but I’m going to save it for “One Breath” because it will back up a lot of my points. I will just say this, if you think that this is just Mulder trying to save his partner, you are very mistaken. This is guilt and love and so much more than what we’ve seen from these two so far.
3. Duane Barry, The Creep
Duane Barry in this episode is somehow even creepier here than he is in the last episode. His abduction of Scully, as it turns out, is completely selfish and in the twist here, he’s offering her up instead of himself. Between Krycek and Duane, Scully’s fate feels unavoidable as she’s in the way of other people’s goals. Duane Barry has become even more unstable and unhinged here but one of my favorite things about his use here is that he’s so insignificant. He’s a pawn and I think that’s what makes him tragic despite the fact that you aren’t cheering for him in any sense. He’s a victim of whatever is going on but it doesn’t excuse him. Scully in the trunk of the car is one of the most chilling images because honestly, we are never going to be accustomed to seeing her trapped this way. It won’t happen often but I think even at this point in the show, we’re forced to be scared by this because it’s just not who the character is.
Continued below4. I Hate Alex Krycek Dot Com
Alex Krycek is a horrible person and I hate him so much. I have watched this show more times than anyone needs to and I still get mad at him every single time despite knowing better. Alex Krycek shows just how garbage he is in this episode as he kills the lift operator and Duane Barry just to keep Mulder in the dark, away from Scully and keep up whatever plans Cigarette Smoking Man has. Alex Krycek is spineless because he’s simply a tool to be used and he’s too motivated by power to see that. “Ascension” is really the episode where he truly turns into the character that we’ll hate for years to come and that’s exciting to see play out again. He has such an interesting arc and I like to rewatch where it all started.
5. The Turning Point
The end of this episode leaves us with some very big things. First, Mulder discovers cigarettes in the car he was sharing with Krycek. He puts together the disappearance of the lift operator and Duane Barry’s death and realizes that Krycek is working with the Cigarette Smoking Man. Skinner says this is a huge charge to make against someone but then he gets a phone call telling him that Krycek not only hasn’t shown up for his work but his phone number has been disconnected. Mulder goes off and challenges Skinner about all of this. Mulder only has the pieces of this puzzle. He knows that the Cigarette Smoking Man is in charge of some kind of group within the government and he has agents like Krycek working for him. Mulder knows that he can’t do anything on his own but Skinner can and that’s when a big moment happens. Skinner reopens the X Files division and it’s this act of defiance that begins to make Skinner more an ally than an enemy. Skinner is a guy who’s constantly battling loyalty and the truth. He cares a lot about his job and doing that job the right way but he’s sometimes not as brave as Mulder and Scully who will spit in the face of authority for the sake of exposing the truth. Skinner, in the long run, will be a valuable ally for Mulder and Scully but he will still play the politics game at times and be a very complicated figure on his own. This is a big step for him in becoming a friend to the two of them instead of a one dimensional antagonist boss who just keeps telling them no. On top of this, we have confirmation that Scully is being tested on. We visually see it and this testing is going to be a massive part of her arc. It will lead to her almost death, it will lead to bigger implications in the alien mythology arc and really you see the ripples of this all the way into the final season of the revival that ended this year. It’s a huge deal but what we don’t get confirmed here is whether this is aliens or this is the government. That will be explored later on but it’s hard for me to not drill into your head here that this is an incredibly important two parter. Everything changes after this and the episode “One Breath.” This is really where The X-Files gets started.
