Firewalker
"I say the earth holds some truths best left buried"
Scully is back! Mulder and Scully are given a case to work on together!
…They also definitely need to work on their own trauma, but spoiler alert that’s not going to even come close to happening for another 5 episodes. At least they’re back working together, and the “X-files” are open again, and someone came to them with a case. Though, as you will see, it turns out to be uh…definitely not the best case for Scully’s return to work 🙃 And I have arguments that really, I think this episode would’ve been better as the “filler” in between Scully’s abduction and return. So, we’ll get into that in a bit.
Overall, this is a pretty solid episode. I’ve said several times that the “nature mystery” episodes are my favourites. Probably because I myself am a scientist, and I do know there’s so little we still know about life on earth, so almost all of the “sPoOkY nature” episodes are like…extra scary, because there’s elements of real truth and real possibility there.
Now, that being said, this episode definitely ranks below “Ice” (my beloved) and “Darkness Falls”. In some ways it feels similar to “Ice” but…worse, with a much less fleshed-out plot, characters, and relationships. Also, there’s no getting around it: this episode is gross. I’m not going to post any pictures or GIFs, but I’m actually quite shocked Fox execs let them get away with how the fungus “sprouted” out of their bodies. 🤢 It felt…unnecessary. I guess that visual aspect really hammers down how awful this possibly pathogenic fungus infection is but…ugh. I don’t need to see that, especially several times in one episode.
And, then, there’s the one relationship we’ll get into that definitely feels icky. Like, on the one hand, excellent mirroring of the current Mulder-Scully dynamic, but on the other hand, why’d you have to make that the other relationship?
OK. I’ll stop just cryptically detailing some of my thoughts on the episode now, and let’s just get into the full review.
A shadow in the volcano: The Case
The episode opens with us meeting the “off site” team for the volcano observatory, freaking out because the on-site team hasn’t checked in with them…but they did send an emergency transmission requesting immediate rescue. The off-site team is able to remotely activate the camera on “Firewalker”, the robot they are using to explore inside the volcano. To their surprise, “Firewalker” appears to be inside the volcano, contrary to the descent schedule, along with the apparently very dead body of one of the researchers.
But dead bodies and robots aren’t the only thing in the volcano…A shadow passes over the camera. There’s something, or someone, alive in the 143 degrees volcano!!! 😱
One of the “off-site” scientists, Pierce, brings the video to Mulder and Scully, asking for help figuring out what’s happening up there on the volcano. Both because there’s the possibility of a crime (Did one of the scientists—Trepkos—murder his colleague?) and because…he doesn’t want word of whatever did happen to get out. Because he wants to protect his science and taxpayers’ money at all costs 🙄
PIERCE: Whatever there is between me and Trepkos, I pray that he isn't. We've got 20 million tax dollars in this project. If word of it were to get out, it could destroy years of work. I'm afraid to go through proper channels.
On that note though…I do wonder what was told to the FBI about why Mulder and Scully were going up to investigate specifically? Maybe the “X-files” unit is currently being given a bit of leniency because Scully just came back and Mulder was put through hell for 6+ months but…what did they tell the FBI? Did anyone mention the murder possibility, or the call for immediate rescue from some of the team? Or did they just mention that at least one of the team was dead, and there was taxpayer money on the line?
They probably just said that last one, right? Mention money and the FBI immediately wants to get involved to protect the government’s interest.
Well, anyway, the FBI apparently very easily signs off on the two of them travelling to a remote volcano site in Washington state with Pierce acting as their guide…who immediately abandons them to check on his precious remote sensing instruments.
Mulder and Scully go inside the research station which very much appears completely abandoned, until one of the research team members attacks Mulder in the dark. So, great start! 🙃
The research team tells our agents a little bit about the project P.I. Daniel Trepkos—a brilliant man, but who also had bipolar disorder and stopped taking his medication. After the first descent into the volcano, Trepkos allegedly got completely obsessed with his work and the possibility that they discovered a new organism when Firewalker went down into the volcano.
And he also very likely turned into a murderer, as the team later discovers the dead body of Pierce, strangled by someone. Who could really only possibly be Trepkos, since the rest of the team was inside the base and it seems unlikely there’d be a different random serial killer that hiked up a remote volcano.
So, option #1: Trepkos is murdering his colleagues after going off his medication, driven mad by what might have been discovered in the volcano.
On the surface, seems like a perfectly compelling explanation for what happened. Except…one of the team members (Tanaka) is quite clearly very ill with something.
“Something” which turns out to be a fungus that was growing inside his body until it grew too large and actually broke out of his neck somehow as a giant…fungal shoot (?) 🤢 to kill him.
Sooooooooo maybe it’s not murder. Or not “just” murder. There’s something else very dangerous up there on the volcano, and no one is going home just yet…
The research team
Just briefly here on our research team. We don’t learn nearly as much about them as we did our characters in “Ice”, which is one of the reasons this feels like a weaker episode to me (comparatively). But anyway:
Daniel Trepkos: The project leader/P.I. Described as a brilliant mind. He designed “Firewalker”, the robot that can explore inside volcanoes and bring back scientific data. Trepkos appears very interested in the “larger” questions that might be discovered deep in the earth’s core, about the origin of earth and life. But we also learn that Trepkos has bipolar disorder, and for some reason decided to stop taking his medication at some point while the team was at their remote volcano location. And he’s been dating his thesis student.
Jesse O’Neil: Said thesis student of Trepkos. We don’t learn much about her…not even what her role on the project was or what her own research was. She appears to just exist as the romantic interest of Trepkos, the one thing he still feels guilt about. Which is…gross. She also spends the entire episode terrified, which is a valid reaction, but I don’t love that they gave that role to the young female student researcher.
Jason Ludwig: The robotics engineer for the team. And that’s about all we learn about him. He doesn’t seem to like Trepkos very much.
Peter Tanaka: The systems analyst. Among his roles seems to be to monitor seismic activity in the area…possibly to make decisions about when and where to deploy “Firewalker”?
Phil Erikson: OK, we don’t actually meet him, but his role turns out to be important. He was the “chief seismologist” on the project, and apparently worked closely with Trepkos. Erikson was the one who broke open the possibly new rock brought up by “Firewalker”, evidently releasing the fungal spore that was growing…inside the rock? He was the first to become infected, and when he actually died (not murdered by Trepkos), everyone else but Trepkos was around when the fungus again grew and released its spores, infecting everyone else on the team.
Fact Check: Human fungal parasites?
I’m not entirely sure why, but the fungal infection in this episode feels less believable to me than the possibly alien worm from “Ice” or even the weird insects from “Darkness Falls”. Perhaps it’s partially because they chose to make this infection and how it kills people so horrifically graphic? So it just…really doesn’t feel based in reality?
Now. I will say that fungal parasites of animals do exist, but what’s important to note is that no such fungal parasite is able to infect warm-blooded animals, like humans.
To be clear: Fungal parasites, that apparently require growth in a different host to then emerge and pass on their spores/offspring. Fungal infections absolutely do exist in basically all of nature, including humans. We have skin infections like “athlete’s foot”, yeast infections, even fungal pneumonia in rare cases. These fungal infections range from the uncomfortable to the possibly very dangerous (pneumonia), and they can be spread among people like bacteria and viruses. And, yes, they are much more complicated to kill because fungi are much more complex organisms when compared to bacteria!
But that last point is also exactly why true fungal parasites are very rare. As in, a fungus that infects another organism, grows and develops in that host environment, and then apparently grows out of that host organism to release its spores.
There is one semi-well-known example, that has been talked about more since the video game/TV show The Last of Us came out (disclaimer: I haven’t seen this show). And that example is the Ophiocordyceps fungus, specifically one species that is known to parasitically infect ants similar to what happens in this episode. Click on that link at your own risk, but just uh…yeah, basically the fungus does grow out of the ants’ heads to release its spores into the environment.
So, I will grant that what happens in this episode isn’t entirely outside the realm of nature, but it just felt like such a huge leap to have a huge fungus grow out of humans, with an apparently fairly quick development period! I feel like I would’ve been much more willing to believe a “normal” new fungus discovered in the volcano. It could’ve even had visible gross symptoms, like white-nose syndrome in bats. And I would’ve been even more willing to believe that a new bacteria was discovered down in the volcano, because, as I’ll get into in a bit, we do know that bacteria are able to live in very extreme environments.
I just…wish they hadn’t made the scary pathogen in this episode quite so dramatic I guess? There were better ways to make this discovery of a “new life form”. Ways that would have made more sense when it comes to evolution, too—both fungi and humans are extremely complex…it seems unlikely to me that a fungus would immediately be able to hijack humans and use them to grow when it had never been exposed to that environment, and otherwise appeared to grow just fine in very high volcanic temperatures? We have yet to see a fungal pandemic, or even really large scale human-to-human fungal epidemics because fungi are so complex and don’t mutate as quickly as bacteria and viruses.
So, summary for this section I guess overall is: Why did it have to be a (very gross!) fungus? The story would’ve been just as horrifying with a pathogenic bacteria discovered deep inside the volcano!
Fact Check: Life in volcanoes
Speaking of: Life in volcanoes and other extreme environments.
SCULLY: Mulder, nothing can live in a volcanic interior, not only because of the intense heat but the gases would be toxic to any organism.
Note here that I am not a geologist/volcanologist, and I actually don’t know if we have found life inside volcanoes themselves. But, I am a marine biologist (by training), and because of that I can confidently say that Scully isn’t 100% correct here. We have discovered thriving ecosystems around hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean, despite the lack of sunlight and the toxic gases emitted from those vents into the surrounding water. Bacteria undergo chemosynthesis, converting those toxic gases such as hydrogen sulfide into glucose for energy, which then is able to basically power entire unique ecosystems growing around deep-sea volcanoes.
We also have found archaea living in hot springs and geothermal pools in areas like Yellowstone. Some organisms evolved to actually thrive in very hot temperatures, and again, convert toxic gases into energy to sustain life.
Now, both of these environments also involve the presence of water, which I do think is important. I don’t think scientists have yet found life deep down in volcanoes like where “Firewalker” was sent. There definitely is a point when the heat become too intense to maintain the chemical bonds needed just for DNA and RNA (the building blocks of all life). The geysers/geothermal pools in Yellowstone top off at around 117 degrees. And at hydrothermal vents, the organisms we’ve discovered don’t actually live exactly where the superheated water and toxic gases are produced—the temperatures are going to be a lot cooler where the bacteria/tube worms/crabs/etc actually live. So, I will grant that there likely isn’t anything living down in a volcano that reaches temperatures over 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
But I still wanted to insert my own little science fact check of Scully here. Because hydrothermal vents are super cool!
Descent into Madness: Trepkos and Mulder
Now that we’ve gotten the fun (?) science out of the way, let’s get into what is genius about this episode: The intense parallels between Trepkos and Mulder, and how they interact with the world/the larger questions and handle guilt.
Both men have their singular focus on finding the answers to what they consider the “deeper questions” about life on earth and in the Universe. Both of them definitely do not interact well with others, except for apparently the one woman in their life who encourages their passions and pushes them.
TREPKOS: I was too immersed in the work to notice. I'd been alone in the lab for three days when I heard their screams.
Like, does that quote not sound exactly like something Mulder would do and actually has done in the past? Become too singularly focused on one specific thing to really look at the bigger picture and how everything might connect?
Now, we learn that Trepkos has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and was previously taking medication, so his descent into madness, leading to his killing of his colleagues is uh…definitely farther than Mulder has ever gone. You could maybe argue that Trepkos killing Ludwig was kind of a “mercy killing”…I guess?
Trepkos is undeniably mentally disturbed now that he is off his medication, but I do think he feels some larger guilt for everything that happened to his team. The very idea of “Firewalker” was his idea, and he brought everyone along to investigate the depths of a volcano. More specifically, Trepkos was the one who told Erikson to break open the mysterious volcanic rock, thus exposing the fungal parasite that infected the rest of his team.
But Trepkos is definitely not dealing with his guilt or the situation that has developed in a healthy way and that alone is a very good mirror to Mulder. Particularly his reaction in the last episode to what happened to Scully, as he almost lost her to some unknown “biological poison”.
I think that as Mulder listens to Trepkos, he does see himself, and that scares him. He sees how easy it can be to descend into madness and become consumed by guilt and lose sight of the bigger picture. Knowing that sometimes, saving other people is more important than finding answers to your questions.
“I told her it would change her life”
We’re given yet another parallel/mirror in the relationships between Mulder and Scully vs. Trepkos and O’Neil. Trepkos definitely seems to feel the most guilt over O’Neil’s death because…did she even have a role on this project? Or was she just brought up to “help” Trepkos not go insane/be his companion up at the station? I mean I guess she’s getting some fieldwork experience, but she doesn’t seem to be doing any research herself which is like…the whole point of a thesis (masters or PhD, we’re annoyingly never told what degree she’s getting).
On the surface, this is a good parallel to Mulder and Scully’s relationship, or at least, how Mulder currently sees/feels about their relationship. I think Mulder still feels 100% like what happened to Scully was his fault, because she continued to work with him and getting involved in his cases even after being reassigned elsewhere in the FBI.
But, I don’t really love this parallel, because it basically strips all agency from Scully and her ability to make decisions for herself. In the case of Trepkos and O’Neil, he 100% should feel guilty, because there’s a huge power imbalance in their relationship, and unfortunately I do think it’s very likely O’Neil was charmed by Trepkos and didn’t really feel like she had a “choice” about going up to the research station with him. She needed to go to please him and stay in whatever weird relationship they were in…
That is not the case with Mulder and Scully and their work relationship. For one, as I’ve said several times, the FBI were the ones who assigned Scully to work with Mulder!!!! And case after case, no matter how exasperated she got with some of Mulder’s spontaneous actions and wacky ideas, she chose to stay and do the work. At almost any point in season 1, it would’ve been really easy for Scully to tell the FBI about what Mulder was doing, get the “X-files” shut down, and move on elsewhere. And then, when the unit is shut down and they are separated because together they got too close to the truth, it again would’ve been really easy for Scully to cut ties and move on.
She’s the one who chose to continue working with you in secret, Mulder!!! And not because you were a particularly enjoyable person to work with a couple months ago. No, because Scully is a woman with thoughts and ideas and passions all of her own, and she loves this work. She enjoys working with Mulder and having arguments with him, but I also really genuinely think she loves the challenges of the cases they work on together. She’s a scientist, and she loves solving “puzzles” perhaps even more than Mulder does!
I just…I desperately love the character of Dana Scully, and her character had a big influence on my career choices in science. But there’s a lot of times when I very much do not appreciate how she is treated by the various writers of The X-Files. They don’t appreciate her brilliance and passion enough. They don’t always treat her like she’s a full fucking person, and not just a “tool” for them to use, like The Syndicate does.
So, speaking of, to conclude:
Mulder and Scully’s post-abduction work relationship
Scully was used way too much as just a “background character” in this episode, especially considering it’s the first episode after her abduction and like…I guess we’re barely going to get into that? Other than Mulder mentioning he didn’t want her to go with him.
I hate that Mulder doesn’t seem to trust Scully to make her own decisions and seems to want to control where she goes and how involved she is in this case. I can understand that he’s scared and still feeling guilty about what happened, but come on Mulder. You need to trust your work partner.
Now, I will say that it is indeed completely believable to me that Mulder and Scully don’t actually want to talk about her abduction. Neither of them are exactly great about talking about emotions, and we’ve already seen Scully’s need to work after experiencing trauma (her father’s death). I don’t hate that we won’t address even the surface of Scully’s trauma for another 5 episodes. I didn’t need a direct discussion of Scully’s absence and return, but I would’ve appreciated a little bit more of Scully in this episode.
Overall, I guess I felt like this episode was a bit weirdly placed in the season 2 schedule? Scully is barely there in this episode, unless she’s doing an autopsy or scientific experiments (I do love science Scully though!) We focus almost entirely on Mulder’s experience and his feelings, and very little on how Scully must be feeling with this being her first case after 6+ months kidnapped.
Because of that, as I stated at the beginning, I personally feel like this episode would’ve been the perfect one to have as the interlude between Scully’s abduction and her return, because evidently Scully barely needed to be up there. You could’ve easily had one of the team be a doctor/fungal biologist or something. And I think the conversation between Mulder and Trepkos really would’ve opened Mulder’s eyes and brought him out of his guilty brooding that we saw in “3” and realize how much Scully meant to him. And realize that answers to the “deeper questions” aren’t what matters most—the people you love do. Watching Trepkos lose his “lover” (🤮) could’ve pushed Mulder into actually doing some investigating to find Scully.
And then maybe we could’ve had Scully’s first case back as an FBI agent be less horrifying, and not require yet another month-long hospital stay for a woman who is still traumatized after her abduction?
The X-Files is a comedy
Well, I’m glad Mulder can still make jokes when they’re up against a horrifying fungal infection that could very well just be waiting to kill them:
Our “Completely Platonic Coworkers”
Well, we mostly had a lot of awkwardness and “I don’t want to talk about what happened”, plus very overprotective Mulder.
But this neck touch was very sweet:
The 90s™
Eh, mostly this is an episode that could’ve happened at almost any time, though the computer software and everything would be better today.
Chuckling a bit at the 90s fashion though.
Mulder in a denim shirt and jeans:
Why do they look like dueling geology PhD candidates here?
Goofs/Bloopers/Fun Facts
“I’m not a botanist.” Fungi aren’t plants, Scully!!!!
Why did Trepkos murder Pierce? I’ll grant that we’re never actually given the full timeline, but it seemed to me that Pierce had left the camp before Erikson broke open the rock and released the fungus? Does Trepkos just really not like Pierce, or think if he’s there now, he must have already been exposed even though he just arrived???
MULDER. Stop giving your gun to random dangerous civilians!!!!!
The “Firewalker” robot is based off of NASA’s Project Dante, which unfortunately never got to do as much exploring of a volcano, but did serve as basically a prototype for the Martian rovers we have now
Overall Thoughts/Summary
Episode rating: 7/10. It’s a good episode! I have more to complain about with the science here than I did for “Ice” and “Darkness Falls”, but because they didn’t try to go toooooo crazy, I still enjoyed the story. I do very much wish that the fungal pathogen hadn’t burst out of their bodies like that…the episode loses some points for how gross that was. And the characters weren’t developed as well in my opinion, with both O’Neil and Scully unfortunately just there as…background characters for the men’s guilt. But even that being said, I do enjoy the episode and the parallels to Mulder’s descent into madness and his relationship with Scully. I think it could’ve worked better at a different point in the season (like…two episodes ago), but nonetheless the episode is an enjoyable watch, with solid-enough science that doesn’t get too crazy, and a completed mostly satisfactory storyline.
Also, baby Brad Whitford as Trepkos is a treat.
X-files cases “solved” to date: 6/9 for season 2 now (26/33 total). Definitely solved this case, and thankfully did not get infected with a horrifying fungal parasite while solving it.
Next week’s episode is “Red Museum” which brief sleuthing tells me is a “mythology” episode that I…do not remember? I have vague memories of a religious cult being somehow involved in the episode I think. But mostly it will be a fun adventure for all of us as I re-discover that episode!
Thanks as always for reading, from Scully:
