“Herrenvolk” is episode one of season four of The X-Files.
A van pulls up in the countryside next to a telephone pole and a linesman gets out. He climbs the pole and a bee buzzes around his face. The bee stings him and he kills it. Five identical looking boys cluster at the base of the pole and silently watch the linesman as he starts suffering from what looks like an allergic reaction. His tether comes free and he crashes to the ground. One boy prods him, as if checking he’s dead, then all five make their way across the fields.
The title sequence phrase in this episode is ‘Everything Dies’.
At the end of the season three finale, “Talitha Cumi”, Mulder had met up with Scully and Jeremiah Smith; Smith had convinced Scully to help him and says he can explain everything, including about Mulder’s sister. Mulder wants Smith to come and heal his mother. At this point, the alien bounty hunter arrived.
Smith runs and Mulder follows, telling Scully to stay out of the bounty hunter’s way. He doesn’t want to hurt her and she can’t use her gun. Which she pulls out anyway and tries blocking the bounty hunter’s path, only to be knocked away. They play hide and seek in the building until Smith jumps from the roof; Mulder meets him at the bottom. The bounty hunter jumps down too and they head back inside. Mulder tells Scully to get the car but the bounty hunter lands on the bonnet. Mulder and Smith are outside again and Mulder hides and comes up on the bounty hunter unawares, jabbing him in the neck with the weapon he found in his family summerhouse and taking the bounty hunter’s weapon in exchange.
Smith is leaving on a boat, because more will be coming. Mulder tells him he needs his help. Meanwhile, the green fluid that came out of the bounty hunter’s neck has been sucked back in. Scully finds the body, then sees Smith and Mulder leaving together in the boat. She checks the body – which is not dead and he grabs her by the throat. He wants to know where they are going.
Smith warns Mulder that they will be waiting at the hospital. This is too important for the government men not to operate in the light. Part of the larger plan. Hegemony; a new order of species. They will be willing to kill Smith and face the consequences, and if Smith is dead, he will not be able to save Mulder’s mother. To stop the plan, Smith must show Mulder the work in progress.
The Smoking Man is in Mrs Mulder’s hospital room when the Elder enters. Mulder isn’t coming and the Smoking Man doesn’t know where he is. He assumes Mulder anticipated they would be waiting. The Gray Haired Man enters the room too. Mention is made of a security leak and the photos Mr X took are shown. A plan is made to flush Mr X out, by putting out information that Mrs Mulder’s life is in danger and see where the information flows.
Mulder calls Scully and, despite her attempt to speak first, tells her that he and Smith are heading to Canada. The bounty hunter is behind her in the car and he leaves on hearing this. Scully warns Mulder that he’s coming. Mulder and Smith run out of fuel about 20 miles from their destination; maybe half that over the hills. The countryside looks similar to where the lineman was when he died.
Scully arrives in Skinner’s office; she explains that they were searching for Smith but didn’t find him. Scully had sent a memo regarding five men with the same name and identical photos working for the Social Security Administration around the country. All five haven’t been at work in three days. Skinner tells Scully that they have found something; data that cannot be identified in password protected files belonging to the five. Roughly a billion entries. They haven’t worked out what the data is, but Scully has a suspicion.
Mulder and Smith are now approaching the linesman’s van. He’s lying in the road, dead and covered with bees. Smith warns Mulder not to touch the body, though Mulder finds a work order dated yesterday. They continue and arrive at a place where plants are being grown. For pollen, apparently. A boy and a girl are working. The boy is identical to the five from the beginning. The girl to Mulder’s sister. At the age she disappeared. There are more duplicate children at the site.
There’s the plan to flush out Mr X, Mulder’s attempt to save his mother and all the while the bounty hunter is following them and he seems totally, utterly unstoppable.