“Ascension” is episode six of season two of The X-Files.
In the previous episode, “Duane Barry”, Scully had taken the piece of metal found in Duane’s abdomen to be analysed. There was etching on it and, when getting some shopping, she swiped the object across the barcode scanner. Which scanned it. Scully rang Mulder to tell him, leaving a message on his answerphone. However, Duane had escaped from hospital and was outside Scully’s; he broke in whilst she was on the phone.
The episode opens with Mulder returning home and listening to his answerphone. He hears glass breaking and Scully calling for help and heads to her place to find the police are already there. There’s a broken window with blood on the frame and signs of a struggle inside. Scully’s mother arrives in a panic and Mulder tells her Scully isn’t inside. Scully’s mother wants to know where she is then. She had a dream Scully was taken away, and was going to call but didn’t want to scare her daughter. Besides, Scully doesn’t believe in that kind of thing.
At the FBI, AD Skinner is briefing a number of people sat around a table; the Cigarette Smoking Man is there, but not at the table. Mulder and Krycek are there and Skinner states that Scully believed that Duane Barry’s behaviour came from a bullet wound to the head. Are there any other opinions? Krycek states that Duane is convinced he was abducted by aliens and, by taking someone else to the abduction site, he won’t be abducted himself.
Mulder asks how Duane Barry found Scully in the first place. He mentions the small piece of metal removed from Duane’s abdomen, an implant he described as a tracking device, which Scully had on her. Skinner reminds Mulder that Scully thought he had made a major mistake in his evaluation of Duane. Duane wants to go to a mountain, although he wasn’t clear on its location. He’s taken Scully’s weapon and car. Skinner wants Mulder to turn his files over to the HRT. He doesn’t want Mulder to brief them himself; Skinner wants him to go home and get some sleep. If they can use him, they will.
On Route 229, Rixeyville, Virginia, Duane is driving the car a bit erratically. So, it’s not a surprise when a police car he passes pulls up behind him. Duane stops the car and the cop turns on his dashcam. Scully is bound and gagged in her own car’s boot. The officer walks over to Duane and tells him to turn off the radio. In his own car, out of his hearing, the radio broadcasts an alert about Duane Barry. Duane tells the officer he has to be someplace, so to just give him the ticket. He’s not sure where; he’ll know when he gets there.
The officer notices Duane’s hospital band and bloody knuckles and draws his gun, ordering Duane to put his hands up and get out of the car. Duane begs the officer, for his own sake, not to stop him. Scully makes a sound from the boot; the officer is distracted and Duane shoots him.
This is all caught on the dashcam, and Mulder is watching the video. Scully can be seen in the open boot once the officer is down. Mulder is listening to the recording of him speaking to Duane when Krycek joins him. Mulder keeps replaying a bit where Duane is speaking about a mountain ascending to the stars. Which means something; the Ascend to the Stars tram on Skyland Mountain. Mulder tells Krycek to get his car.
Before Mulder arrives at the car, Krycek is on the phone with someone, explaining. After Mulder arrives and they drive out, CSM watches them leave and closes his own phone. In “Sleepless”, it was revealed that Krycek is working for CSM and his associates.
On the way to Skyland Mountain, Mulder nearly falls asleep at the wheel. He won’t let Krycek drive, though. At the tram, the maintenance worker there says he sent Duane Barry by road, because the tram is closed. Mulder wants it open. No matter what. He doesn’t take Krycek with him, and Mulder pushes the speed of the tram to double what is recommended, although he does slow down for the towers. Krycek knocks the worker over the head, then calls in where Mulder is. He’s told to slow him down, which he attempts by stopping the tram car. However, Mulder climbs on the roof so Krycek restarts it. Mulder fails to beat Duane Barry to the summit though. Mulder is definitely suffering from the effects of not enough sleep, which makes him a bit erratic.
This story was written because of Gillian Anderson‘s pregnancy.
For this episode, ‘The Truth is Out There’ is replaced with ‘Deny Everything’.