I absolutely LOVE this episode.
In general, my favourite episodes of the show are the “nature” mystery ones, of which there are a couple. Maybe it’s because I’m a scientist (biologist) with training in ecology, but I just find those storylines absolutely fascinating. Like I want to be in that setting myself doing experiments and asking questions and trying to figure out what this possible new life form is.
Except, I mean, no. Absolutely not in the case of this episode. For one, I hate the cold and would probably be complaining of how cold I was from the second I stepped off the airplane in snowy Arctic Alaska. And also as much as I love mysteries/true crime and doing science, I, uh, actually would very much not agree to go up to an isolated research station that was the scene of gruesome murder suicides.
So honestly, props to Dr. Murphy, Dr. Hodge, and Dr. Da Silva for agreeing to go up there. I hope either the government or their respective universities paid them a lot to participate in this little investigation (probably not, but I can dream?)
This type of mystery is not at all unique—the writers themselves explicitly said that the episode was inspired by the movie The Thing (which I haven’t seen…I haven’t seen most movies). But still, I think there are good and bad ways to tell this type of locked room, mystery organism, everyone is paranoid story. And the writers, filmmakers, directors, and actors in this case I personally feel did an excellent job. We truly get an excellent sense of how terrifying this experience is, even just from the way the scenes are filmed and the small little actions each character takes.
So this episode remains one of my all time favourite X-Files episodes, even 30 years later. It holds up, and I would (and do…) watch it over and over again. It’s also one of the most terrifying and potentially realistic episodes.
Let’s get into exploring the story now.
Setting up the Mystery/Murders
We open the episode on a true horror movie setting, with a bloody and half naked man stumbling through a dark lab. He starts a recording, only to be attacked from behind by a very “1990s grunge” dude with long blonde hair. After a bit of fight, we are left to assume that each man kills himself, but we do actually leave the scene before either gun is fired. And even Scully ultimately doesn’t seem entirely certain whether these final two men killed each other, or whether each man killed himself.
Back with Mulder and Scully, we learn that this was a team of scientists sent to the Arctic to drill down into the ice and see what they can discover down there, about early life on earth and changes in the earth’s environment, atmosphere, and climate over billions of years. Really, really interesting work, and it’s a shame really that they all end up dying.
I have to say, as a scientist myself, the first video recording that Mulder and Scully watch made me laugh because it is actually 100% accurate. A group of scientists standing with their ice core, each drinking a beer themselves is 100% correct: that’s what fieldwork is like at the end of the day, especially a particularly good day of experimentation or collection in the field. I enjoyed many a beer with colleagues after long days on the boat collecting samples from sharks and rays while doing our population surveys. Also unfortunately very realistic is the fact that all the members of the original team were (apparently) men. And also unfortunately…that hasn’t really changed much in 30 years. Geology in particular is still very much a “men’s world”. So props, maybe (?) to the writers for later including not only Scully (of course) but a second female scientist on the second team sent up to investigate what happened up there.
Throughout the rest of the episode, we don’t get much more about the OG scientific team. We focus more on learning what happened and the intense paranoia the second investigative team are experiencing.
BUT, we do get one more very important scene that shows us what life was like up there for the OG scientists before the parasite was discovered. We follow Scully into the bedroom, which has been left exactly as it was by the scientist who lived there. With all of his decor, a birthday gift on the desk, and images of his friends and family. Scully looks at these fondly for about half a second, and then immediately becomes terrified once again, flipping over all the photos and using the desk to block her door from the rest of her team.
Why? Because these little looks into the scientist’s life before remind Scully that those scientists also thought everything was fine, and they trusted each other. They worked together closely, and, presumably, actually knew and trusted each other more than the current team. And still, they ultimately killed each other. No one is safe from whatever pathogen seems to be floating around the research station. Can anyone be trusted?
The OG team went up to the Arctic to do a little science, drink some beer, and hopefully make some big discoveries. They didn’t know what was coming.
Our investigative team, on the other hand, came up here knowing something terrible happened, and basically immediately upon arriving they lose one “member” of the team (the pilot). This is not going to be a fun trip for them. Something is out there, and it’s unrelenting.
The Characters: Investigative Team
With my little bit of investigation into the OG scientist team, let’s now take a dive into our investigative team:
Fox Mulder. Genuinely, presumably, only sent up there because the FBI thinks he’s expendable, as Mulder himself said. I mean, I’m sorry, Mulder, but that really probably is why he got chosen. Mulder does have good investigative skills, as we have seen in past episodes, but, uh, he doesn’t really have much to offer on what appears to be a scientific or medical mystery.
Dana Scully. Well, partially presumably sent to keep Mulder in line. But also she is the FBI’s medical doctor™, and she definitely actually does have a lot of experience to offer to help solve this mystery.
Dr. Denny Murphy. The geologist. Definitely clearly a bit of a dork, but also immediately the most likeable out of our 3 unknowns. He greets Mulder and Scully very kindly and with zero mistrust, unlike our other two. He keeps to himself throughout the investigation, and is very helpful to Mulder. “Very good” he tells Mulder when Mulder interprets the scientists’ data correctly. Like Mulder is one of his students! So nice!
Of course, this means he is going to be our team member to die. Why couldn’t they have killed off Hodge, who is an asshole?
It’s because they wanted the dichotomy of Mulder/Scully vs. Hodge/Da Silva, which does work out very well.
But poor Denny :(
As a side note, I really like the cute little quirk of Denny listening to old football games on tape to get his mind off of things because I do this too!!!!
When I’m in a particularly anxiety-filled state, I watch recordings of old gymnastics meets because watching them calms me down and helps get my mind off of things. Somehow knowing what is already going to happen (because it’s an old meet), but still being able to enjoy a beautiful sport really calms my mind. I even do this sometimes when I’m in the lab labelling samples, so extra points for Denny.
So in case anyone was thinking hahahaha no one is actually like that, are they? What a dork!
I am like Denny, and I like him a lot.
Dr. Nancy Da Silva. The toxicologist. Seemingly the government did think it was most likely the OG scientists were exposed to some toxin up at the lab. Ultimately, Dr. Da Silva is the least helpful I think out of all the scientist sent up there, as she doesn’t make any discoveries herself, seems to just agree with Dr. Hodge on everything, and is very, very paranoid. Not that I blame her or anything, but just saying. She is the least helpful.
Dr. Hodge (we aren’t given his first name). I mean, really, throughout most of the episode this dude is basically a paranoid asshole toward everyone on the team. He doubts every discovery and finding Scully makes, he immediately accuses Mulder of murder, and he is also wayyyyyyyyy too trusting ultimately of Dr. Da Silva (more on that in a little bit). But at least he really is the one who saves the day in the end I guess. Small point for that.
Bear (The pilot). Poor dude, honestly. I mean, did anyone inform him that he was flying people up to a murder-suicide scene? The investigators did agree to this, knowing danger lurked up at the research station, but I highly doubt Bear knew what he was walking into. Poor guy was trying to be helpful, saving Mulder from an apparently homicidal dog, and ends up being the first one of the team infected, and the only one who actually dies of the infection.
The team certainly was right to stop Bear from leaving, and for trying to save him by cutting out the parasite, but genuinely the whole time Bear is being violent and aggressive about not wanting to stay up there, I don’t blame him. For one, that parasite is clearly affecting his brain already. And also he didn’t agree to this. Poor guy just wanted to make some good cash and fly back home to his Alaskan cabin with (presumably) his 5 huskies or something.
Mulder and Scully vs. Hodge and Da Silva
As I stated earlier, the writers clearly got Bear and poor kind Denny out of the way (relatively) quickly because they wanted us to look at these two relationships.
I mean, we aren’t at all explicitly told what the relationship is between Dr. Hodge and Dr. Da Silva, but they do seem to know each other. They arrived together at the air base at the start, and the way they continue to interact with one another definitely shows some familiarity. It’s unclear how they know each other: as colleagues? friends? lovers….? But regardless, pretty quickly we pit Mulder and Scully vs. Hodge and Da Silva.
So, looking a little bit into that dichotomy/comparison:
Right off the bat, Hodge and Da Silva are very paranoid, of everyone. No one else asks to see identification, not even Denny when two randos walk up to him. He just immediately assumes they are the FBI agents, though I cannot imagine what about these outfits screams FBI rather than university scientists and/or physicians:
Anyway. What is interesting is that despite the fact that Hodge is distrustful of Murphy, Mulder, Scully, and Bear…he seems to trust Da Silva without question, ultimately to his detriment.
I mean, she explicitly asks him if it is hot in the research station, and he just dismisses her! Maybe he is also a bit warm because the heat is malfunctioning, but my dude!!!! You are a physician, you know there is some infection spreading around the base, and yet you don’t bother to do a cursory check of whether or not your friend has a fever?!
This is in contrast to Mulder and Scully. They clearly want to trust each other, and even so, they both end up getting suspicious of one another. I mean, yes, they are protective and defensive of each other to the rest of the team, but Scully agrees that Mulder is possibly a danger to the rest of the team and keeps him separated after Murphy dies. By the end they do trust each other again (after doing some very intimate spine checks), but that trust between each other didn’t get in the way of the investigation. They do question one another and argue (quite loudly at one point) about what is happening.
But ultimately it’s the relationship between Da Silva and Hodge, and his weird apparently unfaltering trust in her, that almost brings down the whole team (and almost kills Mulder).
I also just need to bring up the moment between Da Silva and Hodge that made me want to punch Hodge in the face. He’s doing an experiment with infected blood, an experiment that it doesn’t seem Da Silva was initially involved in, and he just all casually asks Da Silva to complete the second step for him? And then gets all pissed when she makes a mistake!
In the words of Da Silva: “Maybe you should just do it by yourself!”
Seriously! I don’t just randomly hand off a task to another person who wasn’t involved in the initial planning of my experiment. Hodge is the one who labelled those blood tubes and had them set out. Da Silva has no reason to know which one is which! Do your experiment by yourself, asshole!!!!
I mean, ultimately, it ends up being a good thing that Da Silva made that mistake, because that’s what solved the case. But Hodge had no reason to be an asshole toward the one person he trusts without question.
The Science
Now let’s spend a little bit of time digging into the science of this episode.
By the end of the episode, what we have discovered is the following:
The OG scientists dug very deep down into the ice, and in that ice apparently there was some sort of tiny larva.
That larva apparently is able to live in the freezing ice, and has apparently been there for millions of years.
Unclear if it was dormant that whole time, and then revived once brought to warmer temperatures, or if it was actually “alive” down there in the ice too.
Somehow, the larva infects its host. We also don’t know exactly how the first OG scientist got infected. Maybe one of them had a cut or something and some of the ice/a water sample from the ice got into his system that way.
Once in the host, the larva apparently grows very quickly. The immune system immediately tries to fight the parasite, but the larva quickly grows into a worm that attaches to the hypothalamus.
The hypothalamus releases neurotransmitters, including acetylcholine, which makes the host very paranoid of everything around him (or her), causing the host to start killing other people.
The parasite will not tolerate another parasite in its host: they rapidly kill one another if introduced to each other.
How realistic is all of this? How scientifically accurate/possible is this storyline? Well, I mean ultimately of course The X-Files is a science fiction show, but actually, the science in this episode in particular is surprisingly good.
First, we have the fact that in 2018, a discovery was made by a team of scientists that horrified every fan of The X-Files: scientists revived microscopic nematodes found in permafrost in Siberia. Previously, scientists had found viruses, bacteria, and single-celled organisms that had been dormant in ice, but to my knowledge (sorry, not going to do a deep literature search at the moment), this was the first discovery of multicellular life that apparently was able to lie dormant in ice for up to 40,000 years. Now, if you read that article, you will note that other scientists have questions about the discovery (and how old the nematodes are), and think it’s possible that those nematodes might be contamination from another source. So maybe a multicellular organism can’t survive for thousands of years in ice.
But, other research has shown that some organisms are able to suspend their metabolism in extreme cases and essentially lie “dormant” before being “resurrected” when returned to normal conditions. This has been found to occur in another nematode.
So, is it likely that some organism was dormant in the ice for apparently millions or billions of years before it was drilled out and brought to the surface? Probably not, but the base of that idea does exist in nature.
It also is possible that a parasite could attach to the hypothalamus, because the hypothalamus isn’t completely protected by the blood-brain barrier. Infectious agents thus can reach the hypothalamus, and could attach there…to feed off of neurotransmitters or hormones, I guess?
Finally, acetylcholine is indeed a neurotransmitter that, when produced at very high concentrations, does cause anxiety, paranoia, and possibly psychosis in individuals. I’m not entirely sure why the hypothalamus would produce more acetylcholine if it was infected, but I’ll accept that. My knowledge of the hypothalamus is basically entirely in how it produces hormones. I’m a (wildlife) endocrinologist, not a neuroscientist.
What I do question is how quickly the parasite developed from a little sperm-like larva into a full worm, and how quickly it then attached to the hypothalamus of its host. Probably, the higher body temperature of humans does increase the parasite’s metabolic and growth rates, but even still all of my (brief) research shows that it takes at least several days for a nematode to go through a developmental stage. But Bear was dead within a few hours, with the larva growing into an adult worm that reached his hypothalamus already.
So that does lead into the other possibility here:
Alien Life?
Is the worm from another planet?
This is the one episode where Mulder doesn’t sound like a complete paranoid nutjob conspiracy theorist when he brings up the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
Because if there is life on other planets (or the moons of other planets), it is most likely to be some small multicellular organism. Not fully developed green/grey men with giant eyes that fly UFOs. (Sorry Mulder)
And the idea that a meteor could have crashed into this area millions of years ago carrying small alien life is…believable. As is the idea that millions of years ago there were high concentrations of ammonia in this area of earth, which allowed the worms or their larvae to survive and grow, before ultimately being frozen and staying dormant deep in the ice.
Overall, then, I will say this: the basic science does exist to explain this particular parasite. But, given the fact that this parasite thrives in ammonia and apparently grows ridiculously fast, it is also very believable that this is some form of microscopic alien life that reached Earth millions (or billions) of years ago.
Scientist Scully 👩🔬
I just briefly want to say here how much I love Scully being a scientist and making important discoveries that solve cases! I genuinely believe that watching Scully on The X-Files from ages 12 - 18 inspired me ultimately to go into science as a career.
And I think this is the first episode where we really see the scientist side of Scully come out. She has done some autopsies in past episodes, but here she gets to use all of her scientific skills in the investigation and I love it so much.
Also look how cute she is looking through the microscope! 😍
Solving (?) the case
So, it ultimately is Da Silva’s mistake of “infecting already infected blood” that solves the case. The parasites will kill each other if they get too close to one another. Only one possibly alien worm will survive!!!!
Hodge is skeptical of this, but Da Silva points out that the worm appears to be hermaphroditic, so it can reproduce by itself and doesn’t need another worm.
Our trio agrees to do a little experiment on the poor cute station dog. I will say that introducing the worm through the ear is a…choice? The ear is connected to the brain, and to the throat actually, but, uh, I don’t think either of those connections is big enough for the worms to pass through? Though actually if we’re focusing on that I’m not sure how that actually quite large worm attaches to the hypothalamus, which is a pretty small portion of the brain. Soooooo let’s move on from questioning the science again.
Because regardless of how it works, the experiment works! The dog is worm free! I’m glad they saved the dog :)
But then Hodge and Da Silva almost infect Mulder after trapping Scully in the locked room. Hodge’s really stupid unquestioning trust in Da Silva almost kills Mulder. So thank goodness the worm chose that single second to move and show Hodge that it was in fact Da Silva who was infected.
Now, I will say here, in defense of Hodge (to my chagrin):
The team did have every reason to believe Mulder was infected. He was also bit by the dog, though it didn’t break his skin. Mulder was found next to the dead body of Murphy.
And, there wasn’t really any particular reason to suspect Da Silva over anyone else. She seemingly had the least exposure to the parasite. She wasn’t bit by the dog, she didn’t assist in the attempted saving of Bear, and she didn’t help in the analysis of the blood or the ice until after the murder of Murphy (at least, we don’t see her helping). Da Silva also wasn’t any more paranoid than anyone else in a situation that 100% lends itself to paranoia, whether you are infected with an alien parasite eating your brain or not.
Still, I will not let it go that Da Silva was the only one that complained of a possible symptom (fever), and Hodge just dismissed her because he’s an idiot.
At least they do solve the case, all the adult worms are dead, and apparently the government destroys the entire lab and all the samples. So we have nothing more to worry about.
Or…did they actually destroy everything….?
Connection to Series Mythology
Which leads me into, just briefly, how this monster of the week episode does actually relate in some small way back to the series mythology.
I mean, for one, this episode brings up the possibility of alien life (in a very realistic way), so obviously small slight connection there.
But as I have said in the past, I think the real overarching theme of the series isn’t aliens, but government conspiracy and cover-ups.
And we are left to question whether the government actually might have saved anything from the lab or ice. They certainly keep other evidence of aliens (we’ve only seen The Smoking Man storing that implant so far, but we’ll see more soon). None of the team actually saw the lab being torched, or observed whether anything was taken.
Regardless, even if everything was destroyed, the government clearly does want to cover up what happened to the brilliant scientists they sent to drill into the ice.
Our “Completely Platonic Coworkers”
Not much time for actual flirting in this episode, as everyone is too busy being incredibly paranoid of one another. Even Mulder and Scully, who desperately want to trust each other
We do have a couple of little things:
Scully (and everyone else) saw that Bear got attacked by the dog and is actively bleeding. But before she checks on him, she asks Mulder if he’s hurt. Priorities.
Mulder clearly wants to fight Hodge for saying it’s possible Scully missed something on her autopsies. Don’t disrespect his girl!
Scully is verrrrrry defensive of Mulder and willing to go in and talk to him by herself, even though she thinks he might be infected and could attack her
Incredibly intimate touching each other checking each other for signs of the worm in their spine. I mean, I know everyone checked each other out earlier (and the scene between Scully and Da Silva is very homoerotic…) but the way they chose to film this second check between Mulder and Scully is just. Very gentile and intimate
The 90s™
There also isn’t a ton of “hahahaha OMG the 90s” in this episode, so just a couple things:
The very grainy VHS tape of the scientists Mulder and Scully watch at the beginning
Were those transmissions sent over (very rudimentary 1990s) internet, or did the scientists record themselves and mail the VHS tapes?
I have to imagine it is the former, because otherwise they wouldn’t have gotten that last transmission from the scientists?
Because we assume no one else has been up to the research station until Mulder, Scully, and co get there to find the dead bodies
But even if that is so…did that recording automatically send somehow? Because the bloody dude who started the recording was attacked by grunge scientist in the middle of his recording and I don’t think he pressed any buttons to send it…
Anyway, I have questions
Murphy listens to recordings of his football games on cassette tapes on his Walkman
So. Much. Flannel. Especially Scully, but I swear all the outfits here just scream 1990s:
Goofs/Bloopers/Fun Facts
Well, I actually don’t have much here. I already stated above the couple of scientific questions I still have, but really for the most part I think this episode was very well done.
One further question I do have is why the hell Mulder went to investigate and then opened that freezer door by himself in the middle of the night. He really should’ve woken Scully or alerted everyone when he heard that noise. And even if he didn’t do that, he should’ve waited to open the freezer door. I mean, not that being the one to discover a freezer dripping blood would make him look markedly less suspicious, but it is 100x worse to actually be found next to the dead body of Murphy. He can’t really blame the rest of the team for suspecting him.
I also have a question of how or why those ice core samples were melting. Yes, the power is out, but that also means the heat is out so it has to be absolutely freezing in that lab, just like it is outside. So I question whether the ice samples would’ve melted that much? Maybe one of the OG scientists unplugged or turned off that freezer earlier and that’s why the ice was melting already.
Overall Thoughts/Summary
Well, as I said at the beginning, I absolutely love this episode and it 100% holds up 30 years later. And, actually, the episode is made even better for me now that I’m a scientist myself, because even though this is a science fiction show, how the writers chose to depict this alien pathogen is very realistic and actually not that far from possible.
And (also as I already said), genuinely everything about this episode makes it a great watch. The dark filming of the scenes, setting the very spooky and terrifying place the episode occurs in. The writing (Glen Morgan and James Wong are some of my favourite writers on The X-Files). The acting by all of our key and guest cast (including a baby Felicity Huffman who I did not recognize until I went to Wikipedia). They all do a really good job of showing how tense and terrifying this situation is. No one is overdramatic, but instead they all are really believable and relatable as characters.
Again, this overall type of story isn’t unique, but this was a very good take on the locked room mystery and the idea of a mystery pathogen quickly infecting people and making them violent.
Episode rating: 10/10. And I’m sticking with it. “Squeeze” was 9.5/10 for me, but “Ice” really does still hold up as an absolutely fantastic episode with very few questionable elements.
X-files cases “solved” to date: You know what, I’m going to count this one as “solved” and bring out count up to 7/8. They discover what made the OG scientists kill each other and they figure out how to kill that parasitic pathogen. We are left with questions about what exactly that pathogen is, but the overall case Mulder and Scully were sent up to investigate is solved.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this incredibly long review of one of my favourite episodes, including my deep dive into the science of the episode.
Next week we have “Space” which I remember nothing about, but do remember disliking, so we’ll see if I can find anything good about that episode in retrospect.