“The Red and the Black” is episode fourteen of season five of The X-Files.
This episode opens with someone typing a letter to his son, asking to reconcile, as a boy climbs a snow-covered and forested hill to a cabin. The unseen typist hands the letter to the boy; it’s addressed to someone at the FBI.
The opening phrase this episode is ‘Resist or Serve’.
At the end of the previous episode, “Patient X”, Scully was on a bridge with Cassandra Spender and a lot of other abductees when the faceless men arrived and started setting everyone on fire. The next day, emergency services are clearing away bodies, some merely blackened skeletons, when Mulder arrives. Amongst the dead is the man sent by the Elder’s organisation and Cassandra’s wheelchair. Skinner is also there; Scully is alive but in shock. She’s being taken to a hospital. Agent Spender is also there; he wants to know where his mother is.
Marita Covarrubias is being treated to no avail; the doctor tells the Well-Manicured Man that she was found on the roadside. She has the black oil in her eyes, presumably given to her by Dmitri.
Scully wakes in hospital, not knowing why she’s there or what happened. She has first degree burns and scorching but has no memory of how it happened. The news is showing the bridge and calling it a cult suicide. Scully asks if she was there, and what was she doing? Mulder hoped she’d have an answer.
The nurse kicks Mulder out and Spender is there as well. They haven’t found his mother. Spender wants to know what Mulder was doing with his mother and why Scully was meeting her privately. Is it too much to ask Mulder leaves his mother alone? Mulder was leaving her alone.
Krycek is still on the Star of Russia in the harbour, handcuffed, when the Well-Manicured Man comes to see him. The ship is heading back to Vladivostok; he’s sure Krycek will get an enthusiastic homecoming. He explains that Covarrubias took Dmitri; Krycek’s allegiance with her was as misguided as their own. She was unaware of the consequences of her deception. He thinks infecting the boy was clever, as anyone who tried to learn the truth would also be infected. Dmitri died on the bridge. Krycek says they need him; he’s the only one who knows what the boy saw. The Well-Manicured Man believes Krycek has a cure developed by the Russians. One that works. Resistance to the alien colonists is now possible.
Something crashes on Wiekamp Air Force Base. A man is dragging a body away when troops arrive. Both are faceless men.
Mulder is showing Scully photos of the bridge. She doesn’t remember anything. Nor do any of the other survivors. Scully doesn’t even know where the bridge is. Mulder has found more implants. Scully doesn’t know why she was there, why anyone wanted to kill them or why anyone survived. Mulder thinks the chip found in her neck is important; government manufactured and part of a military test. Scully, when she met Mulder five years ago, didn’t believe his story about his sister being abducted by aliens. But followed him, due to his faith the truth was out there. Mulder no longer trusts the memories he regained. Scully has no memories to trust or distrust, and she needs them.
The Well-Manicured Man is telling the others about the facial mutilations of the men at the air force base. Protection against the black oil. There is one survivor and he’s an alien rebel. Resistance to the alien colonists is possible; the aliens are fighting amongst themselves. The Elder says they need a vaccine. They have it, brought from Russia by Krycek. It’s going to be tried on Covarrubias.
Mulder takes Scully to Dr Werber to do regression therapy on her memories. She recounts what she saw on the bridge. Agent Spender thinks Mulder’s belief in aliens is being used to manipulate Scully and his mother. Mulder, however, is now as adamant in his disbelief of aliens as he was in his original belief. To the extent where Skinner thinks aliens are a more plausible story than what Mulder now believes about a government-military conspiracy. And there’s a surprise at the end.