“The Sixth Extinction” is episode one of season seven of The X-Files.
The episode opens in Ivory Coast, West Africa, and Scully is still there where she found what looked like an alien spaceship under the water in the season six finale, “Biogenesis”. She will continue to work as long as Mulder is ill, even though Scully thinks this is work that would suit him better than her. She’s working in a tent on the beach and the lamp is attracting a lot of insects. There’s a man behind her in the tent and, when she turns off the lamp, she sees his reflection in the glass. When she turns around, he’s gone. Scully leaves the tent, holding a machete. Behind her, there are more insects. There’s no-one outside. When Scully returns, she is swarmed by hundreds of insects.
Mulder is in a padded room at Georgetown Memorial Hospital. Skinner is watching him on a monitor whilst a doctor explains to him they can only keep Mulder quiet for short periods. He will eventually die, his brain is so active. Skinner enters the room and tries to talk to Mulder, who ends up attacking him. However, outside the room, Skinner finds a piece of fabric with ‘HELP ME’ written on it that Mulder had slipped to him.
Land Rovers arrive at the tent in Africa. Men run towards the ship whilst a woman is directed towards the tent. Inside, she finds Scully. And lots of mess from insects. Scully had asked no-one be told about the discovery, or her. The woman says it’s still a secret, just a well-known one. She is Dr Amina Ngebe, and she worked with Dr Merkmallen. Though she isn’t qualified to say what happened here. Scully explains. Ngebe tells Scully not to tell the men; they will take it as a sign to leave the ship alone. Outside, one of the men in the sea is screaming for help. His skin is a mess.
Mulder sneaks into Mulder’s hospital room during the night. Mulder can’t speak, but he can write, and starts writing on Skinner’s hand.
In Africa, Scully heads outside the tent as a Land Rover has just pulled up. There’s a man driving it but he doesn’t speak English it seems. Then Barnes appears behind her and suggests she needs an interpreter. Barnes claims he didn’t murder Merkmallen. He tells Scully that he knows what it is, a craft of extra-terrestrial origin. Scully tells Barnes that he doesn’t believe that. He replies that nor does she. Yet here they are. He can help Scully read it. Barnes has spent his life looking for something like the craft, and has been threatened by men in Washington over what he knows. Then they see the sea has seemingly turned to blood.
The name that Mulder wrote on Skinner’s hand was Kritschgau. Kritschgau isn’t that happy to see Skinner; until “Redux II” he had a government pension coming. Then he did a favour for Mulder and ended up in a shabby apartment.
However, Kritschgau does accompany Skinner to the hospital. They are talking about Mulder and Kritschgau is observing one of the monitors. Kritschgau says that Mulder is anticipating the questions he is going to ask. He might know why Mulder asked for his help.
They smuggle Mulder into a pharmacy in the hospital. Kritschgau says Mulder is being given the wrong treatment. No, Kritschgau isn’t a doctor, but he has seen Mulder’s condition before. A remote viewing study run by the CIA. The injection helps.
Mulder is gaining certain mental abilities, but this is also killing him. Scully is in the Ivory Coast with an increasingly troubling, and possibly unstable, Dr Barnes. The story continues in the next episode, “The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati”.