This has a particular nostalgic value to me because I watched it at least twice on television when it aired back in 1994. It has this particularly eerie quality and that ending gives me goosebump chills every time. Mulder and Scully investigate the mysterious disappearances of two logging camps (one in 1934, and the other in 1994) and "monkey wrenchers" ("tree-hugging ecoterrorists" who make mischief and mayhem towards machinery, roads, and equipment that halt and hinder loggers in forests), soon encountering what caused their vanishing: centuries-old bright lime green mites caused perhaps by volcanic activity. Along with a federal forest ranger (Jason Beghe), who himself (and his fellow rangers) has endured punishment from those attacking the loggers, and the owner of the recently missing logging camp (Tom O'Rourke), disgruntled and annoyed by environmentalists causing his operations harm financially, Mulder and Scully will try and find answers. They do and their lives will be in jeopardy if they stay out of the light.
It is indeed fascinating that while there is this obvious environmental message inherent in the plot, the threat of mites shows no mercy on anyone. The monkey wrenchers who laid out devices to blow out tires cause danger to a lone member of the ecoterrorists still alive (Titus Welliver; "Bosch") when he is able to gas up a running jeep! The trees of old that are "marked" (trees that the loggers are *not* supposed to cut) and cut being the very executioner of the loggers does have its irony! And blowhard O'Rourke, just aggravated by this whole situation (money lost, loggers missing, ecoterrorists just getting in the path of his way of life), avoiding the proclamation that his men were cutting "illegal", off-limit trees, falling victim to the mites as his men did also has quite an irony to it.
The idea that the mites might not be contained within the forest certainly is a scary thought! And the way they cocoon folks is certainly quite unsettling (Mulder, Scully, and the ranger are found in the jeep wrapped in a type of web developing into a cocoon; the three of them were perhaps saved by the daylight and one brief transmission of help made by Mulder after he fixed a radio). I think this is the kind of episode that certainly leaves quite an impression. Scully freaking out when noticing the mites all over her hand is a highlight, as is her argument with Mulder about letting the ecoterrorist go to get the jeep (taking the only gas left, meaning very little was available for the generator to keep the light on in the cabin they were staying over the night).
It is indeed fascinating that while there is this obvious environmental message inherent in the plot, the threat of mites shows no mercy on anyone. The monkey wrenchers who laid out devices to blow out tires cause danger to a lone member of the ecoterrorists still alive (Titus Welliver; "Bosch") when he is able to gas up a running jeep! The trees of old that are "marked" (trees that the loggers are *not* supposed to cut) and cut being the very executioner of the loggers does have its irony! And blowhard O'Rourke, just aggravated by this whole situation (money lost, loggers missing, ecoterrorists just getting in the path of his way of life), avoiding the proclamation that his men were cutting "illegal", off-limit trees, falling victim to the mites as his men did also has quite an irony to it.
The idea that the mites might not be contained within the forest certainly is a scary thought! And the way they cocoon folks is certainly quite unsettling (Mulder, Scully, and the ranger are found in the jeep wrapped in a type of web developing into a cocoon; the three of them were perhaps saved by the daylight and one brief transmission of help made by Mulder after he fixed a radio). I think this is the kind of episode that certainly leaves quite an impression. Scully freaking out when noticing the mites all over her hand is a highlight, as is her argument with Mulder about letting the ecoterrorist go to get the jeep (taking the only gas left, meaning very little was available for the generator to keep the light on in the cabin they were staying over the night).