User Reviews

This is the second episode that follows the season ender from season 3 of course, although if you could only watch one of the episodes this would be the one since this episode is almost perfect. Once again we see Alien Bounty Hunter (this guy is damn near indestructible - and they never explain why what kills other aliens barely slows him down...) and even more clues about who Cancerman really is, and what is his cronies' evil agenda for world domination and alien colonization. There's little to add her about the episode since it's better to watch it, it has everything - action, dark suspense, strong dramatic moments, tragedy and the aversion of same, fight scenes galore. This is how they should have made the X-files movie ("Fight the future") but didn't - but this episode more then makes up for it. Don't miss this episode.

The opener for Season Four delves way deep into the alien/hybrid colonization program as it continues from where the story line left off at the end of Season Three. The shape-shifting Jeremiah Smith (Roy Thinnes) leads Mulder to an apiary in Canada which is home to the clones of the special project, while the Alien Bounty Hunter (Brian Thompson) follows in close pursuit to dispatch Smith. With the hindsight of twenty years gone by now since this episode first aired, doesn't it seem like we're getting closer and closer to the kind of group-think suggested by the worker drone children in the story? Identified by Jeremiah Smith as a 'new origin of species', all part of a globalist agenda to diminish nation states and further separate the elites from the common man. The idea is given ample resonance with the title of the episode, which means 'Master Race' in German, a concept of Nazi ideology alluded to in prior stories like 'Nisei' and '731'.

The story neatly ties itself back to the 'Paper Clip' episode in which Scully and Mulder discovered the huge warehouse facility housing the records of smallpox vaccinations back in the 1950's and '60's. That project gets a name here as S.E.P. - the smallpox eradication program. Though it seems like the eradication of a disease like smallpox would be a good thing, and it was, but it's made to seem a lot more ominous with the cataloging that went on to document millions of people. Very clever writing here on the part of series creator Chris Carter.

The episode contains a shocker with the assassination of Mr. X (Steven Williams), who's dying moments have him provide a lead to Mulder's next contact stationed at the United Nations. Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden) is an assistant to the 'SRSG", the special representative to the Secretary General of the U.N. You know, it's quite often during the series that I wonder how Mulder can make the connections he does out of clues as mysterious as SRSG. That acronym doesn't actually have a direct interpretation represented by Covarrubias's position, so again, another of many mental leaps by the FBI agent.

This one ends on a somewhat surprising note considering the Alien Bounty Hunter's pursuit of Mulder and Jeremiah Smith. Obviously in league with the secret hierarchy above the FBI director level, it's the Smoking Man (William B. Davis) who persuades him to heal Mulder's mother who had fallen into a coma, upon the advice that 'the fiercest enemy is the man who has nothing to lose'. Of course, more secrets wait to be revealed as the series rolls on.

This is one of the best season opener's ever. I love how the cliffhanger from season 3 starts right back up again here after an entire summer of rest. I almost wonder if they actually filmed that whole scene back at the end of season 3 and just held onto the rest of it until now. I love the teaser with the electrician getting stung and then seeing the 5 drones. "Don't you all take the cake?" From there we are thrown into a chase scene as Mulder and Jeremiah Smith are trying to get away from ABH and Scully ignores Mulder's advice to, "stay out of his way, your gun is useless," and immediately steps in front of him with her gun. He of course chucks her to the side and takes off after Mulder and Smith. Then Mulder hides and jumps out behind ABH, plunging the stiletto into his neck. As he takes off with Smith in the boat, you can't help but feel sorry for Scully being left behind only to be nearly choked to death by ABH who it turns out is still alive and then held captive by him as Mulder tells her that he is fine over the phone and doesn't think to ask if Scully happens to be in any mortal danger at all.

Mulder is taken by Smith to a farm out in the hills of Canada where drone children clones of some boy and his sister are doing some kind of work with bees and smallpox. We will learn more about this later in the series. But ABH catches up with them and they are forced to hide in a beehive and when they are about to escape, ABH shows up and tosses Mulder out of the way and Smith runs off. It is unclear whether or not Smith gets away. He does show up later in the series but its not clear to me if it is actually the same alien or just another one that uses the same disguise.

Meanwhile, Scully has been doing some of her own research and uncovers information from X about human tagging using the smallpox vaccinations. Unfortunately, this apparently leads to X's assassination. It was probably inevitable and would have happened soon, but it turns out that someone was watching when he showed up after Scully's signal. He is again signaled for but arrives to Mulder's apartment dark and empty. He gets spooked and as he is leaving, runs into a man with a gun in the elevator and is shot. With his final moments he is able to crawl back to Mulder's doorway and write the letters SRSG on the floor in his blood, leading Mulder to his next informant Marita Covarrubias, Special Representative of the Secretary General at the U.N.

Her final words to Mulder are in direct contradiction to the theme of the episode, "Everything Dies". This is featured as an alternative header in the credits, replacing "The Truth is Out There", and is told to Mulder by ABH after he pleads with him to let Jeremiah Smith go so he can save his mother. It is also evident in the fact that X is killed and that Mulder's mother appears that she will now die as well. But Marita says to Mulder, "not everything dies Mister Mulder", as she hands him a file outlining the evidence he has been looking for about the drones. She seems to be reassuring him that even though he seemingly lost the battle this time, there is still hope. His cause will still go forward, and she will help him like the other informants have before. And finally, in another contrast to the theme, ABH is called to the bedside of Mrs. Mulder by CSM to heal her. He asks CSM to tell him "the reasons why this should be." And he is told that Mulder would even more dangerous if he had nothing to lose. I see this as being only half true. CSM is so good at lying because his lies are always told as half truths. The real reason CSM wants ABH to heal Mrs. Mulder is for him. It is common knowledge that the two have had an affair in the past and that he has feelings for her.

This is a wonderful episode and the two parter is one of the best mythology arcs in the entire series. 10 out of 10.

Herrenvolk is about Jeremiah Smith revealing to Mulder aspects of the conspiracy, while Alien Bounty Hunter in pursuit.

Roy Thinnes as Jeremiah Smith, who starred in the 60's series "The Invaders." It's a good episode, continuing on from the season 3 cliffhanger, has a lot of chasing and hoopla though. Brave attempt by Mulder to kill the Bounty Hunter, good thing the Bounty Hunter won't kill him, or he'd be dead many times over. Mr. X is unfortunately removed as well, but a good start.

A telling episode in the overarching X files story. Mulder has been taking to a farm with clones of his sister at the age of her abduction. He his fed breadcrumbs as to why his is exposed to this. I was hoping Mr Smith would stay alive longer to help.

I enjoyed this episode as I never knew what was coming next. Scully piecing the information for a catalogue of humans through a vaccine programme, albeit she knew this was happening whilst in the bunker and seeing the info on the digital tape transcribe. Now she has evidence to present.

Mr X getting us cover blown and meeting his end was another surprise. Who will fill his boots ?

SRSG ?

CSM healing Mulders mother? Why?

It makes me think what is Mulders grand purpose to the syndicate. What's their end game.

The Fourth Season opener. Well, i'm not a big fan of this show's season openers as they usually don't really answer anything but instead drag on. I could say the same thing about this episode, but it is one of the more memorable ones.

I even like it more than last season's finale. it's a decent closure, despite my lack of interest towards the cloning storyline. It never really interested me a bit.

There is some nice plot development in this one though. Especially for X's character. It was sad to see him get loured into a trap and then to be whacked. On the plus side, it was one of the most memorable deaths on the show. It was unexpected, sad and bloody. Just the way I like it.

And we are introduced to Marita, whose last name I can never seem to remember. She is a very good looking woman, almost as sexy as Scully to be honest. I like that she's almost a complete opposite to X.

Other than that, it gets a THREE star for me. A nice episode, but not a favorite.

Somewhere in Canada a power line repair man is killed by a bee as the Children of the Corn look on.

Back in our current timeline, Mulder needs a magical alien to heal his mother, but the matter is complicated by an unstoppable alien bounty hunter who never runs. And I don't mean runs away, I mean, he never goes faster than a mildly brisk walking pace.

Okay, I remember way back when we first met the alien bounty hunter and he just had this small spike device that he shoved into shapeshifting aliens' necks and it killed them. It was literally just a little spring-action stabbing spike. But now you see, it's actually an amazing alien artifact of unimaginable killing power.

You can't kill a shapeshifty alien without one of these spikes. Don't bother trying to make your own, it has to be a special alien spike.

Yes, that's how lazy and silly our alien mythos stories have managed to become. Mulder's mother has been hiding a little alien spike weapon in her summer home on the lake for 30 years. That's her big secret.

I mean, are they aliens or are they vampires? It wasn't enough of a juvenile stretch in story telling that they could only die by being stabbed in one specific spot, like some ridiculous creature from a campfire tale, now it's gotta be done with a magical alien spike made of Uranium 239.5, forged in the Antares cluster, and blessed by a high priest of Kodos?

What if I cut the alien bounty hunter in two with a katana? Oh what's that, he's filled with magical death virus that's as magical as he is? Well I'm wearing a respirator I bought on Amazon for $34.95 so now that won't work. Do the two halves of his body magically pull themselves back together? How about I torch him with a flamethrower? He can't burn? What if I superheat him with a microwave array and boil all the liquid in his alien body? Do his desiccated remains scoop themselves back together to go find a jug of water to drink?

I can't help but think of all the ways Mulder, or anybody else on Earth if they were so inclined (and they aren't except for Mulder), could murder this alien bounty hunter. I know aliens often have magical biology in science fiction, it's how you work the supernatural into the story. From Who Goes There to Alien to ET, they all have capabilities that defy scientific reason. Yet Scully never chides this alien for breaking the bounds of empirical knowledge like she's constantly chiding Mulder.

Anyway, literally all that happens this episode is that Mulder drives the magical good alien around Canada, while the bounty hunter alien tracks them, and by tracks them, I mean magically knows where they are at all times for no explicable reason rendering the whole running away from him thing seem rather stupid. Oh, and we set up that the pollen is dangerous and the evil aliens are doing something with crops, and that tracks back with the smallpox vaccination and the massive medical records warehouse in the mountains. Why all that made the bee at the beginning of the episode so deadly I don't know.

Why the bounty hunter alien could get stabbed in the neck by Mulder and not die, I also don't know. Why all these people trying to help Mulder uncover the truth never just give him a 15 minute rundown of the entire alien conspiracy, I again do not know. They even call that out in this episode. The alien bounty hunter catches Mulder and is all like, "That stupid magical alien keeps giving you little pieces of the puzzle instead of explaining it all in five minutes as he could have done at any point in your many hours long car rides together." Which is a solid observation on his part. I don't buy his explanation that the magical alien only does this because he's a just a little meaningless cog in a large plan, that doesn't follow any causal relationship, but the point stands. If anybody just wanted Mulder to know, they could tell him everything. Why does he get so much bad help?

Anyway, the alien bounty hunter offers no menace because he's so arbitrarily unbeatable and magic, and also, and this is something I'm really noticing rewatching this series a second time, our heroes take some savage beatings and terrible injuries on the regular and are always fine after. You know the main character isn't going to die and isn't really in danger or else TV Guide would have already tipped you off about it, but we put that fact aside and let ourselves get scared for the hero in like 99% of all television shows and movies we watch. But I'm realizing when the hero is actually shown getting beaten and injured, it suddenly makes the fights lose all tension. Because I've seen them get beaten before, they're not going to die.

It occurs to me there is a bit of a trick to it, to maintaining the danger, and that's to not neuter the violence such that it doesn't worry me any longer than Mulder or Scully may get thrown through a car by a super strong alien or shot repeatedly in the face and chest. If that super strong alien can punch your head clean off, then I'm really worried if he swings at Mulder. The secret is, have Mulder duck. But if it's sort of like a professional wrestling match, then violence itself no longer suggests a lethal threat because you keep seeing the same violence done over and over with no lasting consequences. Whereas a likely lethal blow that just keeps missing maintains that ongoing menace, all it has to do is land and your hero goes splat.

If only our hero was an alien, in that case only a magical spike made by Cthulhu could kill them.

In the end the alien bounty probably kills everybody he wanted to kill, and then he heals Mulder's mother, but only after demanding an explanation from the Smoking Man so the Smoking Man can explain it to the audience. And then after hearing the explanation the alien heals her because he didn't actually need an explanation and was always just going to do what he was told to do.

These mythos episodes aren't as bad as the worst monster of the week episodes, but they are routinely boring and meaningless, and I can definitely see how they weren't everyone's favorite thing about the series back when it first aired.