Review: The X-Files: Season 10 #25

Gibson and Scully traverse a thick tropical forest while he tries to appease her fears and explain his objectives. The place is dangerous and riddled with landmines and guerrilla, but this is not a worry to the man since he can manipulate their movements thanks to his psychic abilities. Scully is stoked by the magnitude of his powers.

Gibson walks them into Camp Delta in GITMO where he has equally put everyone in a trance. He explains to Scully that he tried to convince Mulder that this place was the safest place they could be, but he had refused to accept his arguments, being that he’s always had a resistance to assimilate things he doesn’t want to hear.

Gibson claims that hiding in plain sight is the best bet when trying to conceal something effectively these days. Scully is astounded by the man’s capacity to manipulate the large population of detainees and guards as they go through the facility, oblivious to their presence, until Gibson brings them back to life with a snap of his fingers.

According to him, it took some time to get everything set in motion; the secrecy associated with the actual creation of this place facilitated his mission even when he wasn’t ready for it back in the day. He took advantage of the incestuous nature of the deals that the conspiracy, the government, and the alien colonists had gone into to put his own plan to work. The genetic cataloguing that the members of the Syndicate compiled proved to be their own demise, as now Gibson is using this resource to create an army of clones that he has manipulated for his own agenda, using their secrets and spreading his own very particular kind of vengeance.

Gibson tried to sell his intentions to Mulder, that intentional harm wasn’t his goal, but that wasn’t enough for Mulder as we have learned from previous issues. Gibson’s appeals to Scully this time, trying to clarify that their approval is meaningful to him, but she isn’t buying it either and slaps him when he’s distracted in his rant. His emotional manipulation is offensive to her. The disbelief that this could be the sweet young man they once protected. This reaction obviously doesn’t fare well and he uses his psychokinetic powers on her. He only meant to make them proud, he claims, as the structures and pods holding the clones he’s fabricated shake around them as his rage shows, levitating, surrounded by electric sparks in front of a shocked Scully. But he collapses just so briefly, the effort taking a toll on him, and Scully notices. The exertion caused by this display of his powers is something that’s probably a side effect of their use that he still hasn’t fully understood or conquered.

Meanwhile, Mulder is driven around the Sierra Maestra area by the armed guys that he ran into. They take him to a shanty setup in the middle of the jungle. They’re in the know of the people Gibson has been experimenting with at Guantanamo, they fear those, but they’re also in the know that there’s a price on Mulder’s head. So that protects him from getting shot, but it also puts him back in captivity. Thankfully, he’s thrown into their improvised computer room where Mariel, the bonafide hacker helping them, is instructed to keep him quiet.

Mulder asks her to help him to send a few messages he has stored in a flash drive, but this chick isn’t a pushover, as she threatens him with a flamethrower if he comes any closer to her. So he offers to trade her help in sending these files out for some equipment that might help their cause once he gets back to the US. She accepts, only commenting back on Mulder’s need to take a shower… STAT.

Up north, more specifically in the depths of Arlington National Cemetery’s catacombs, the Lone Gunmen receive a transmission through their secure port, from Cuba. They deduct that given the authentication sequence, Mulder is trying to send them a file, and fast.

Scully is in a cell after her discussion with Gibson when she’s gets a folder that’s slipped under the door. In it she sees the port schedule from the camp, everything seems normal but a name that stands out: CANTUS. A door opens behind her to a hallway that leads to a room filled with monitors streaming multiple news feeds from all over the world, informing of the ups and downs of global economy, politics, wars, civil unrest, the weapon’s market; you name it. Gibson literally floats while sitting in lotus position in the middle of the room while absorbing all this information as Scully comes in. A guard stops her from going any further, as Gibson looks on while they take her away. She wasn’t supposed to be there, someone has aided her. That someone is yet another CSM clone.

In Arlington, the boys are almost done downloading what Mulder sent over, but they detect an interference in the traffic that makes them nervous, and with reason. Just as they backup the files on a thumb drive, their power goes off. Is it the NSA? Nope, it’s CANTUS, in association with the Department of Justice. But what is this agency? We don’t know yet, only that their hideout is stormed by armed men and the boys rush to pack up and leave.

On Cuba’s end of this connection, Mariel cusses as their transfer fails since the connection has been interrupted, but the weird part is that they’re still somewhat connected. This is not your usual bandwidth fluke. Mulder laments, but this is about to get worse when Mariel starts acting strangely and grabs the flamethrower again, claiming that she can’t control her actions. Then it makes sense, the connection was hijacked, and Gibson is peeking in. He speaks through her, yet another power we learn that Gibson has acquired. He claims that now Mulder will be safe when his own crew comes to get him. But it’s Mariel’s crew that comes in after hearing the ruckus, and despite her own efforts to explain that it was not her intention to stand threatening to them, the captors shoot at them, carelessly and dangerously, given that the tank of the flamethrower could get hit.

Meanwhile, Gibson and Scully approach the site in a humvee caravan. He’s still channeling through Mariel, announcing that he’s brought someone to see him, when they witness a huge explosion.

In Washington, Skinner returns to the FBI looking quite unkept, as you may remember, he had been kept captive as well. He finds AD Morales going through his office, well… more like packing it up. She claims that she’s been trying to contact him, but he cuts her off, demanding to know who put her up to the situation at hand. She seems startled but he elaborates on his accusations: he’s received intel that points to a plot to infiltrate the FBI and undermine Mulder’s work. AD Morales is barely listening, dismissing his arguments claiming that the investigation on the X-Files is coming from places higher up, directly from the Attorney General, and that Mulder will have to respond to it once he’s found.

Skinner doesn’t understand where Mulder and Scully have gone, and Morales confirms that the AG is asking the same question, showing him one of CANTUS’ notices. They’re outsourcing the X-Files division, for profit, streamlined by outside agencies, as Morales puts it. So this is what CANTUS has become. She won’t explain anymore, he’d have to take it up to the Department of Justice, and they’ve also sent his dismissal in the form of a tacky gold wristwatch.

In Cuba, Scully screams for Mulder in the midst of the fires around the captor’s camp. Mulder approaches her and whispers not to move, and to be careful so that Gibson doesn’t find them. Mulder argues that Gibson is too far down the rabbit hole, sick, and the kind of help he needs, they can’t give. Scully informs him that there’s a naval vessel under CANTUS’ control. He’s going to move the clones to the mainland and with it possibly bring the US navy and Cuban forces into turmoil. Mulder wants to escape before it all goes to hell, but Scully wants to help Gibson or... stop him. Mulder won’t accept this, but he promises to wait for her, advising her to slip off while he distracts with his own business, but she won’t make a simple decision… And so we slip into a sort of epic, old school, Scully monologue.

Scully’s main objective coming to Cuba was to search for Mulder, to clear him from false allegations, but what she found was worse than she had foreseen, imprisoned by an ally, betrayed by someone they’d thought was their friend. She follows along, playing to Gibson’s tune as he prepares to board their boat.

Gibson believes that Mulder will be the object of a manhunt, even after he’s cleared of the accusations, but that he could help. He’s trying to protect him, if he only had Scully’s help. But right now, Gibson is the one doing the hunting. What else should they be worried about? And there’s plenty, starting with the consequences of the experiments the Syndicate once started on Gibson. He has continued them; the Syndicate only managed to know that they couldn’t grasp what he was. So Gibson continued and it’s gotten out of hand, so much he’s wishing his own death, wishing they’d killed him back then when the Syndicate experimented on him. Mulder and Scully wouldn’t have allowed that when he was just a child. Adult Gibson wants to make things right he claims when the boat approaches the harbor.

Scully monologue continues; Mulder’s present situation had stemmed from an accusation, a need to discredit his work, exposing “his actions against people and plans that could never beat him directly…” but also preventing him from continuing his fight. Meeting Gibson again, they’ve discovered that he has become a threat by embracing his power in a destructive way, because of the actions taken by the people that once hunted him. Scully can’t help him, but also can’t stay with him, she confesses as she pulls a gun.

Meanwhile, inside GITMO, the same CSM clone admires one of his copies. In New York, the First Elder addresses a room full of his counterparts. This is his final address; their secrets have been stolen, they weren’t ready for this world. He wants to thank them for all the sacrifices made, it’s an honor to live and die with them once more… Thousands of miles away, the CSM clone hits a self destruct button.

Scully points the gun at Gibson’s back. He claims that once he can continue his work in the US, things will become clear, but she can’t allow that. He doesn’t think she’ll have the guts, but she does… and shoots him in the head. But this is not over, quickly… everything turns for the worse. The approaching vessel calls to abandon ship, an emergency has broken out inside. The pods holding all the clones explode in CSM’s wake. Treachery based on good intentions… as Gibson throws some last accusations at Scully before dissolving in a puddle, “Some people try to be good people, but some people just don’t care… like you.” This seems utterly heartbreaking, considering how much she loved this boy.

Hours later, she meets with Mulder as he sets out to escape with a very sketchy element. She’s reeling from what just happened. What she just did. Mulder coaxes her to explain, to confide in him. She wants to go back to the FBI and set the record straight, for the both of them. He has to run, he’s probably been charged by now, so she’s going to work to clear his name and they’ll reunite later. The guy waiting for them is getting impatient. Scully starts to tell Mulder what she’s done, but she’s hesitant, and he kisses her. What she’s done she hopes to defend in front of a review hearing or on a report, to try and find the logic behind it. To tell Gibson’s heartbreaking and tortured story. The story of their friend that turned into a monster. The friend that she killed.

Mulder leaves, leaving a haunted Scully behind by the beach. A man calls out from one of the bar stands nearby, offering a drink, a Cuba Libre, and why not? She might as well have the alcohol. This drink is sometimes called “a little lie,” he says, just like the one that has happened before her eyes. Scully won’t be taking her story to any review board, as in front of her she finds Gibson Praise, again. Before her, behind her, all around her. His clones surround her. They’re getting ready to cross over to the US, and eventually catch up with their hunt for Mulder and turn his will into their fight. Scully may have to reserve the telling of her story for her memory, if she’s capable of keeping it.