The X-Files: One Son (Part 2/2) Rewatch
July 5, 2020 7:41 PM - Season 6, Episode 12 - Subscribe
Mulder learns the truth about the Syndicate's extraterrestrial collaborations, just as the time has arrived for the Syndicate to give up the hybrid Cassandra to the alien colonists.
The "let's make everyone 26 years younger" thing was so ill-conceived. TV/film wardrobe people, makeup artists, and hairstylists are incredibly good at what they do, but the one thing they can't do is make people look more than five years younger than they are. I am sure the X-Files team did their absolute best, but the results were just cringeworthy.
Like the aliens are going to want a U.S. flag, or get whatever CSM was trying to express by laying on at their feet.
David Duchovny's hair naturally stands on end on top when it's cut short, and so yes, the advantage of his season six haircut is that it doesn't require styling.
The decontamination scene (which yes, even to someone who knows nothing about how that would work, was clearly a dog and pony show) is the most skin we ever see from Gillian Anderson in the entire series. I didn't believe that a male and a female agent would be sent to shower in such close proximity to each other. Mulder at least could easily have gotten a whole view of Scully, given his taller vantage point, and he did seem to be looking.
Which might be why Scully made that comment about Diana being "dressed to the nines". She was just wearing a suit of the kind she and Scully normally wear, for heaven's sake, but she didn't like having been forced to shower and then winding up in scrubs looking like a drowned rat while Diana looked perfect.
Diana has a beautiful apartment. Scully's apartment is attractive and comfortable, of course, but Diana's is really elegant. How did Mulder get into it so easily? Was he one of those exes who don't return their keys after a break up? It was more than a bit weird for him to go through Diana's lingerie -- I mean, that's where he starts looking? -- but it is possible as her ex that he knows she hides things there. Like her cigarettes. It's so perfect for the "smokers are baddies" trope of this show that Diana is a clandestine smoker: she poses as a good person but is secretly on the wrong side.
I did enjoy CSM ribbing Mulder about going through Diana's undies.
Marita has the freedom to run around the facility talking to people, but can't find a comb.
I was wondering how they managed the alien effect, but apparently they are slim young girls in alien suits.
I also wondered why the alien rebels didn't kill Cassandra at the rail yard, but it does make strategic sense: leave her alive for the time being, and then they can get all the Syndicate and her when they gather to meet the aliens and present them with the alien-human hybrid. Without her, the gathering might not have happened.
It's a relief not to have to see anymore of Cassandra and of some of the old goats in the Syndicate. There was one in particular, played by Don S. Williams, whom I couldn't stand to hear talk.
Diana and CSM taking the car and saving their own skins without even trying to save anyone else was *so* them.
posted by orange swan at 11:44 AM on July 8, 2020
Like the aliens are going to want a U.S. flag, or get whatever CSM was trying to express by laying on at their feet.
David Duchovny's hair naturally stands on end on top when it's cut short, and so yes, the advantage of his season six haircut is that it doesn't require styling.
The decontamination scene (which yes, even to someone who knows nothing about how that would work, was clearly a dog and pony show) is the most skin we ever see from Gillian Anderson in the entire series. I didn't believe that a male and a female agent would be sent to shower in such close proximity to each other. Mulder at least could easily have gotten a whole view of Scully, given his taller vantage point, and he did seem to be looking.
Which might be why Scully made that comment about Diana being "dressed to the nines". She was just wearing a suit of the kind she and Scully normally wear, for heaven's sake, but she didn't like having been forced to shower and then winding up in scrubs looking like a drowned rat while Diana looked perfect.
Diana has a beautiful apartment. Scully's apartment is attractive and comfortable, of course, but Diana's is really elegant. How did Mulder get into it so easily? Was he one of those exes who don't return their keys after a break up? It was more than a bit weird for him to go through Diana's lingerie -- I mean, that's where he starts looking? -- but it is possible as her ex that he knows she hides things there. Like her cigarettes. It's so perfect for the "smokers are baddies" trope of this show that Diana is a clandestine smoker: she poses as a good person but is secretly on the wrong side.
I did enjoy CSM ribbing Mulder about going through Diana's undies.
Marita has the freedom to run around the facility talking to people, but can't find a comb.
I was wondering how they managed the alien effect, but apparently they are slim young girls in alien suits.
I also wondered why the alien rebels didn't kill Cassandra at the rail yard, but it does make strategic sense: leave her alive for the time being, and then they can get all the Syndicate and her when they gather to meet the aliens and present them with the alien-human hybrid. Without her, the gathering might not have happened.
It's a relief not to have to see anymore of Cassandra and of some of the old goats in the Syndicate. There was one in particular, played by Don S. Williams, whom I couldn't stand to hear talk.
Diana and CSM taking the car and saving their own skins without even trying to save anyone else was *so* them.
posted by orange swan at 11:44 AM on July 8, 2020
Don S. Williams - yeah, it sounds like he's trying to do a bad Marlon Brando impression, with a mouth full of broken golf balls. Only just looked it up, but I'm amused that he's credited as some variation of "Elder #1."
Mulder's good with lockpicks, however, they showed him with only a bumper pick but no tension wrench. But does no one have a security alarm, or concierge/ building security?
Does CSM have a key, or did Mulder not lock the door behind him... or CSM re-picked the lock?
posted by porpoise at 12:48 PM on July 8, 2020
Mulder's good with lockpicks, however, they showed him with only a bumper pick but no tension wrench. But does no one have a security alarm, or concierge/ building security?
Does CSM have a key, or did Mulder not lock the door behind him... or CSM re-picked the lock?
posted by porpoise at 12:48 PM on July 8, 2020
I forgot to comment on the eight locks on the Lone Gunmen's door. I mean, seriously, eight.
When I had my front door replaced in 2011, I asked about the possibility of adding a second lock to the new one (I've been burgled twice). The company rep advised against it, saying that once one has a deadbolt, the burglars have to break down the door frame to get in, and once that happens, it doesn't matter how many locks one has, and I'd just be spoiling the look of the door for no reason.
So, those eight locks -- which do include at least one deadbolt -- speak more to the Lone Gunmen's paranoia than to their understanding of home security.
posted by orange swan at 12:19 PM on July 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
When I had my front door replaced in 2011, I asked about the possibility of adding a second lock to the new one (I've been burgled twice). The company rep advised against it, saying that once one has a deadbolt, the burglars have to break down the door frame to get in, and once that happens, it doesn't matter how many locks one has, and I'd just be spoiling the look of the door for no reason.
So, those eight locks -- which do include at least one deadbolt -- speak more to the Lone Gunmen's paranoia than to their understanding of home security.
posted by orange swan at 12:19 PM on July 10, 2020 [1 favorite]
Hehe, the eight secondary locks was definitely played for laughs.
Second lock (from the outside?) - like, a regular doorknob lock and a deadbolt; requiring two different keys?
The regular doorknob lock is trivial to bypass unless you have a super fancy variant. Both in terms of the internal tumbler as well as the plates preventing access to the self-closing bolt.
Deadbolt is more difficult, but still pickable. The house I grew up in had that setup, for some reason. But we never used the deadbolt while away. In retrospect, we used it wrong.
From the inside, an additional good secondary lock is usually sufficient, though you can go to a "3 point" system with one on the left in the middle and two on the right top and bottom. This is typically tied to a panic bar. Used for emergency exits in secure areas, and would be the scenario where the doorframe would have to be removed. This also cover emergency escape scenarios.
This is to prevent access when one is on the inside.
This setup precludes having it be active when one is away, but the workaround there would be redundant and secure wireless access to servos to disengage the 3 point system on top of physical keys.
This is all in regards to non-destructive breaches.
There are a lot of destructive methods that are possibly less obvious than "have to break down the door frame to get in."
Windows are a vulnerability. Once inside, the door locks can be disengaged for egress. If there are shared walls, it is sometimes easier to go through those. Same with the ceiling/ roof unless it has specifically been hardened against intrusion.
--
For a residential place, yeah, a deadbolt and a doorknob lock is sufficient. It's enough to deter the regular burgler. Many doorknob locks are trivial to bypass even without picks; in college I'd routinely get hauled out of the bar by drunk friends who had lost/ forgotten their keys and were locked out of their apartments and just wanted to piss, puke, and crash in their own bed. I've also had to specify/ design/ justify secure facilities to meet federal physical security requirements.
posted by porpoise at 8:18 PM on July 10, 2020
Second lock (from the outside?) - like, a regular doorknob lock and a deadbolt; requiring two different keys?
The regular doorknob lock is trivial to bypass unless you have a super fancy variant. Both in terms of the internal tumbler as well as the plates preventing access to the self-closing bolt.
Deadbolt is more difficult, but still pickable. The house I grew up in had that setup, for some reason. But we never used the deadbolt while away. In retrospect, we used it wrong.
From the inside, an additional good secondary lock is usually sufficient, though you can go to a "3 point" system with one on the left in the middle and two on the right top and bottom. This is typically tied to a panic bar. Used for emergency exits in secure areas, and would be the scenario where the doorframe would have to be removed. This also cover emergency escape scenarios.
This is to prevent access when one is on the inside.
This setup precludes having it be active when one is away, but the workaround there would be redundant and secure wireless access to servos to disengage the 3 point system on top of physical keys.
This is all in regards to non-destructive breaches.
There are a lot of destructive methods that are possibly less obvious than "have to break down the door frame to get in."
Windows are a vulnerability. Once inside, the door locks can be disengaged for egress. If there are shared walls, it is sometimes easier to go through those. Same with the ceiling/ roof unless it has specifically been hardened against intrusion.
--
For a residential place, yeah, a deadbolt and a doorknob lock is sufficient. It's enough to deter the regular burgler. Many doorknob locks are trivial to bypass even without picks; in college I'd routinely get hauled out of the bar by drunk friends who had lost/ forgotten their keys and were locked out of their apartments and just wanted to piss, puke, and crash in their own bed. I've also had to specify/ design/ justify secure facilities to meet federal physical security requirements.
posted by porpoise at 8:18 PM on July 10, 2020
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The decontamination was bs - in the sense that it's just theatre. Mulder's hair apparently self-styles. Impressive.
Fowler is such a weasle. Neat to see Scully get angry.
If Cassandra now has toxic green blood (the "contagion") its inconcievable that they hadn't discovered/ realized that already after a few days at the hospital. Unless that was just more bs.
Covarrubias running around in the same facility and able to catch Mulder's attention, her wile and tradecraft notwithstanding, is another wth. Unless someone wanted her to have an encounter with him. Her hanging out in Cassandra's operating theatre later, waiting for Jeffrey is suspect as hell.
Fowler is a (secret?) smoker (Morley lights... 100s?), so there's no question that she's a baddy. I'd have expected her underwear drawer to be better organized.
I wonder if there's any subtext to CSM referring to Bill Mulder as Fox's father, or if that was just shorthand/ convenience? And he double down on that, when shooting his acknowledged son.
I'm sure people much more obsessed than I am have obliterated the logic behind the Syndicate, but... if the story is reliable, CSM is gaslighting Mulder that all of this lets him see his sister again, which is a non-sequitur if Mulder isn't hybridized (or allows himself to be hybridized). If there's a vaccine against behind hybridized (for a "genetically unmolested human resistance war" that Bill Mulder wanted), then everyone who has the vaccine doesn't get a free pass and are stuck engaging in probably futile resistance?
If all they needed was DNA, there is zero reason why they need an alien fetus aside from having a visual prop. Preserving/ archiving DNA in a whole organism is bs. Having it extracted, purified, and in a reasonable concentration in a buffer before cryopreservation (in multiple aliquotes in multiple locations) is standard practice.. -80'C isn't much less good than liquid nitrogen but lN2 has inherent power failure mitigation built into it.
Speaking of wth, Mulder and Scully shooting handguns at a train (albeit the engineer's compartment) to stop it?
posted by porpoise at 9:12 PM on July 5, 2020