“One Son” is episode twelve of season six of The X-Files.
This episode opens with Mulder narrating as the scene opens in a hangar on October 13th, 1973, as the Syndicate made a decision. The CSM places a folded flag on the ground as Greys enter the hangar, the Syndicate having agreed to help them.
At the end of the previous episode, “Two Fathers”, Cassandra had been begging Mulder to kill her as someone was banging on his door. People in hazmat suits burst into Mulder’s apartment and start spraying everywhere and sealing the place. They finally admit they’re with the CDC. They are going to be placed in quarantine because of a contagion of unknown origin. Agent Fowley is with them; however, the CSM was filling her in on things in the previous episode.
Mulder and Scully use a decontamination shower and then are scanned. Scully thinks they are in Fort Marlene, a high-risk quarantine facility. All the people in protective gear leave and two new doctors, and Fowley, not wearing any enter. Fowley says that Cassandra Spender had contracted an organism that caused spontaneous cellular breakdown and combustion. She is the only surviving victim. Agent Spender called her and Cassandra is now isolated. Scully is noy happy. No-one is sick or infected, given that they are not wearing protective suits.
Scully leaves the room and Mulder joins her. She thinks Mulder knows what she thinks of Fowley. No; she hides her feelings very well. Scully thinks this is a high-tech government kidnapping. Mulder spoke to Skinner; he heard Spender make the call to the CDC. Scully says Cassandra isn’t sick. What’s remarkable is that she’s well. Then why ask to be killed? Because of everything done to her. She just wants it to stop.
Krycek is briefing the Syndicate. No, the rebels didn’t try to kill Cassandra; they killed everyone but her. They kept her alive to destroy them all. Once the aliens hear about Cassandra, colonisation will begin. The CSM believes they have no choice to have their families survive and see those who sacrificed returned.
Mulder is now wearing some badly-fitting clothes. He sees someone in a hospital gown and follows her. It’s Marita Covarrubias. If she’s seen with Mulder, they’ll killer her. The CSM’s group. They’ve done tests on her. Not like Cassandra; she was part of the hybrid programme. Her tests were on the vaccine against the black oil. The conspirators were buying time to create the vaccine, then Cassandra happened. As soon as the aliens learn about a successful hybrid, colonisation will begin.
Spender heads to see his mother with Fowley. He says he’s keeping her safe from his father. Cassandra tells her son that if she isn’t killed, everyone dies.
Scully has called Mulder to the Lone Gunmen. They have information on Fowley, suggesting she isn’t what she claims to be. Though they go through it all, Mulder isn’t convinced and, admittedly, it’s all a bit circumstantial. They’re right, but lack definite proof. Fowley visited the European chapters of MUFON. Mulder doesn’t think he’s been given enough information to distrust Fowley. It’s personal now for Scully; without the FBI, personal interest is all she has.
Mulder, despite his claims of trust, heads to Fowley’s apartment at the Watergate and, once determining she isn’t in, picks the lock. He’s searching the place when the CSM enters, and points a gun at him. The CSM isn’t worried;’ Mulder pointed a gun at him once before. He came looking for his son, who chose the wrong side. Mulder’s. The CSM says that their cause is right. They chose to forestall an alien invasion and saved billions of lives, including Mulder’s. The group agreed to the most painful sacrifices that no-one else had to make. They handed over their children. It was the only way to get the aliens to give them the one thing they needed; an alien foetus, the one seen in “The Erlenmeyer Flask”. Samples of their DNA to make hybrid. The plan was to stall and resist, to make a vaccine to save everyone. But colonisation is about to begin.
Everything the CSM’s group has theoretically been working towards seems to be failing. Their attempts to stop colonisation seem to have failed, but the alien rebels are still causing a lot of problems.