Answers to Terma!
MHadley
I can't thank you enough for helping me. It seems that I missed the 2nd
half of a wonderful and pivotal episode. DAMN MY DAMNABLE VCR!
Thankyouthankyouthankyou....
Lisa
ChazzMatt <chaz...@aol.com> wrote in article
<19961214180...@ladder01.news.aol.com>...
> Came across this review. Seems to answer all questions! Person who
wrote
> had access to a script.
>
> ------------------------------
>
> "Terma"
> Season 4, Episode 9 (1st Run)
> FOX production code 4X10
> Air Date: 12/01/96
>
> Written by Frank Spotnitz & Chris Carter
> Directed by Rob Bowman
>
> Guest Starring Mitch Pileggi as A.D. Skinner, Fritz Weaver as Senator
> Sorenson, Jan Rubes as Vassily Peskow, Nicholas Lea as Alex Krycek, John
> Neville as Well-Manicured Man, Jessica Schreier as Dr. Charne-Sayre.
>
> Review by LeeRecord
> DEC 03, 1996
>
> "I'm tired of the pain." -Old woman
>
> At the Harrow Convalescent Home in Boca Raton, Florida, an old woman's
> niece takes her to a van where a suicide doctor prepares her to die.
After
> her death, the alien life-form in her brain escapes. The woman was the
> victim of a black cancer experiment.
>
> In St. Petersburg, Russia, retired KGB stringer Peskow is given orders to
> go to America and eliminate all evidence of the American experiments with
> the Martian aliens.
>
> At the Gulag, Mulder has survived the first test with the black cancer.
> His arm is hurting where the implanted ID was removed. He checks to see
if
> there is any sign of the oily alien, but it seems to have been driven out
> by the first test of the vaccine. When Mulder tells his fellow prisoner
> that he will live long enough to kill Krycek, the man gives him a
> fabricated knife.
>
> Back at NASA Goddard, Scully discovers the 40-weight alien larvae growing
> around Dr. Sacks' pineal gland. It appears to be a nest of some kind of
> black vermiform organism.
>
> Vassily Peskow goes to the Well-Manicured Man's horse ranch in
> Charlottesville, Virginia. He kills Dr. Charne-Sayre who has been
> conducting black cancer experiments for the consortium at the home in
Boca
> Raton.
>
> Skinner tells Scully that the rock was being sent to Dr. Charne-Sayre,
and
> that she was killed by a horse. Scully explains that she was a well-known
> virologist who was trying to get the last of the smallpox virus, that is
> stored in Atlanta and Russia, destroyed.
>
> "Prisoner, you have but one chance!" (to kill Krycek) -Russian Prisoner
>
> Krycek and Russia's cigarette smoking man have arranged to allow Mulder
to
> escape so the body of an American F.B.I. agent won't have to be
explained.
> Unfortunately for Krycek, Mulder knocks him out before he has a chance to
> get off the truck that Mulder uses to make his getaway. The guards are
> ordered to follow, presumably to rescue Krycek and make sure Mulder has
> been killed -- off the gulag grounds. Krycek comes to, and realizing that
> the truck's brakes have been tampered with, he jumps off. The truck runs
> out of control and crashes.
>
> "That's a nasty habit. It's bad for the health." -CSM
>
> CSM arrives at 007's ranch. The Well-Manicured Man tells the Cigarette
> Smoking Man that Dr. Charne-Sayre's death was a murder, and he wants him
> to find out who did it. CSM accuses W-MM of jeopardizing the project by
> getting personally involved with Bonita. CSM asks him to call off the
> congressional investigation, but W-MM says that he can't. He assures CSM
> that the congressmen are all honorable men, and there will be no problem.
>
> "Wake the Russian Bear, and it may find that we've stolen it's honey."
> -CSM
>
> CSM refers to Mulder's capture by the Russian covert group conducting the
> black cancer experiments. He jests that he has also escaped. (This is
> CSM's way of saying that the Russians know that we have the BC too.)
>
> CSM finds this amusing, because the consortium has lost control. They
need
> CSM's services, but aren't sure what he can do at this point. For once,
> CSM feels a bit superior to his superiors.
>
> Back in Russia, when they find that Mulder was not killed in the crash,
> they begin a search for him. Meanwhile, local villagers find Krycek.
> Faking bad Russian, he fools them into believing he's an American that
was
> being held as a spy. The one-armed villagers say that they will help him.
> Unfortunately for Alex, they do him a favor by removing his
> smallpox-vaccinated arm. They believe that the group at the gulag won't
> have any use for anyone without the vaccination scar.
>
> "This sonofabitch ruined my truck!" -Driver "No arm, no test" -Wife
>
> The search for Mulder continues until dark. He eludes his trackers by
> hiding under a mound of leaves. In the morning he's found by the man that
> owned the sabotaged truck. He takes him to his home, where his wife
> questions him about the gulag. She says that he will be safe if he gets
> rid of that pesky arm. He tries to explain that the smallpox scar holds
an
> ID, and that's all they want from it. He asks to be taken to St. Pete,
but
> the truck driver comes in with a large knife. Apparently some fast
talking
> and an I.O.U. for the man's truck saves his arm, and gets him a ride to
> St. Pete.
>
> Senate Select Subcommittee on Intelligence and Terrorism:
>
> When Scully refuses to tell the committee where Mulder is, she is thrown
> in the slammer for contempt.
>
> "Lawyers ask the wrong question only when they don't want the right
> answer." -Scully
>
> Scully tells Skinner that, after all that's happened, they are asking her
> the wrong question, and she's not going to answer the wrong question.
>
> At NASA Goddard, the Russian assassin injects Dr. Sacks with the vaccine,
> driving out the alien larvae. He disconnects the air line to the suit and
> takes the Martian rock. The autopsy will show no sign of the black
cancer,
> and that Sacks died from oxygen deprivation.
>
> CSM and 007 have a talk about the KGB assassin. CSM asks who may have
told
> the Russians that we were conducting BC tests. He hints that Dr.
> Charne-Sayre may have been the leak, but W-MM says no way Jose. (We know
> that it was Krycek, but isn't it nice to see the know-it-all DCO in the
> dark?) The W-MM says that Peskow must be found. CSM says that if his
> intelligence sources are right, he knows of someone who might save them
> the trouble. (Referring to the persistent Fox Mulder.)
>
> "Where is special agent Mulder, and why is he not here?" -Sen. Sorenson
>
> When asked for the last time, Mulder walks in and asks what the question
> is. After Scully and the committee learn of the death of Dr. Sacks and
the
> missing rock, they adjourn until the next morning. Scully and Mulder give
> each other a big hug. Then Scully asks Skinner to stall the committee for
> fifteen hours, so she and Mulder can go to Boca Raton.
>
> Peskow beats them to the home by minutes, and kills the patients --
> eliminating all evidence of the BC.
>
> "Some storage garage... Terma, North Dakota." -Militia prisoner Mayhew
>
> Scully and Mulder ask Mayhew about Krycek. He says that he called himself
> Arntzen -- not Krycek. He says that they didn't find Arntzen in any silo.
> He came to them with big ideas about building a couple of devices
(bombs).
> When asked if Arntzen ever mentioned the black cancer, he tells them that
> he said it was developed by the Soviets and was used in the Gulf by
> Saddam. That's why the soldiers were given so many pills -- they had no
> cure, and the U.S. government knew all about it. Then he refuses to say
> anymore. Mulder threatens him with a rough time in prison if he doesn't
> tell him where the other bomb is. Mayhew tells him that Arntzen stole it
> -- truck and all. It's in some storage garage in Terma, North Dakota.
>
> "This has been a big set-up from the beginning." -Mulder
>
> Mulder tells Scully to ask the Canadian border police to watch for any
> two-ton truck fitting the description of trucks stolen in the last six
> months in North Dakota, and tell them they are looking for a bomb. He
says
> that this whole thing has been one big set-up from the beginning. Someone
> used Krycek, then Krycek used us -- someone who didn't want that rock in
> American hands.
>
> "What's in Canada?" -Scully
>
> Mulder asks Scully where she would put the rock if she didn't want it
> found. Scully answers, "Back in the ground."
>
> With the truck and the bomb cleverly disguised as fertilizer, Peskow
talks
> his way through a check point at the Alberta, Canada border.
>
> Scully and Mulder use a helicopter to search the Alberta oil fields near
> the border. They spot the truck next to a refinery. Peskow found a well
to
> drop the rock into. He has set the bomb to blow up the well after he
finds
> the blowoff valve at the refinery. Mulder checks the truck and the well,
> and Scully goes to the refinery. Mulder finds the rock in a vent casing.
> Scully finds Peskow at the refinery. He has opened the valve. Mulder
tries
> to reach the rock, but it's too far down the vent. Scully tries to get
> into the valve room to shut it off. Mulder hears the beeping of the
bomb's
> timer, and makes a run for it. The bomb explodes; destroying the well and
> the Martian rock. Peskow grabs Scully's gun, and tells her that he
doesn't
> want to hurt her; his work is done. Peskow runs off as Scully runs to see
> if Mulder is okay.
>
> Back in D.C., Scully explains that all that's left of their investigation
> are documents about the biotoxin that is, in fact, extraterrestrial. The
> committee shows its disbelief, and Mulder asks them why they find it so
> hard to believe, when the accepted discovery of life off this planet is
on
> the front page of every newspaper around the world. He continues, but the
> committee postpones the hearing until the evidence can be evaluated.
>
> Back in St. Petersburg, Peskow says to comrade Krycek that he's retired,
> and does not want to do any more work. A smiling Alex says that he just
> wants to congratulate him on a fine job! Then we see Krycek dipping tea
> into a cup with an artificial hand.
>
> Back in Senator Sorenson's office, he and CSM look through the documents.
> Nothing is said as CSM plops them into a drawer.
>
> Tunguska's favorite quote:
> "You're full of crap, Krycek. You're an invertebrate scum-sucker, whose
> moral dipstick is about two drops short of bone dry." -Mulder
>
> Review **** (of four) A fine web of intrigue and deception is woven by
> Carter and Spotnitz, just to drive us crazy! Only a diehard X-File
fanatic
> is going to appreciate this episode, let alone take the time to figure it
> out. I spent three days in solitary confinement studying the script. What
> we learn is that Krycek/Arntzen is a KGB operative that was sent to the
> U.S. as a mole. How he escaped from the silo is still a mystery. He could
> have been helped by other KGB agents that were watching out for him, or
> maybe the Super, All Grown Up, 40-weight alien came back out of the
> spaceship and set him free. A few days of his screaming would drive
> anybody or anything nuts. The Deep Covert Operatives are going to have to
> start over when it comes to the black cancer. After all, we can't have
the
> Russians using this stuff as a biotoxic weapon. And what happens when
> these critters grow up? Is big Daddy waiting in the silo, or what? More
to
> come on this, I'm sure.
>
> I only found one minor problem with the flow of the story. It is over 300
> miles from Terma, ND, to the oil fields of Alberta. Seems like a long way
> to drive to put a rock back into the ground. Why not a border town in
> Montana? It would have been closer. I guess they needed to tie in the
silo
> episode, and they were stuck with North Dakota. I think I will make some
> tea. Now where did I put my arm?
>
> E-mail comments to:
> leer...@aol.com
>
>
> Transmitted: 12/6/96 12:54 PM
> _____
>
> Charles Matthews
> <Chaz...@aol.com>
>
> http://members.aol.com/chazzmatt
>
>
> ************
> Your creed may be interesting,
> but your deeds are much more convincing.
> ************
>
grendel
cleverly disguised as fertilizer?
sounds more to me like the bomb is made of nitrogen fertilizer. like the
Oklahoma city bomb. at least that is was I got out of it.
it ties in with the ratboy-militia thing from the beginning of the episode.
also, since this alien didn't take over the mind of its host, I question it
being a younger version of the silo-monster. the oily menace did come from
a really old rock, after all. how old does it have to be before it is
mature enough to control humans?
Brian Brown
Bob Foster wrote:
Perhaps the differences between the two types of oiliens has something
to do with the solvent that it is in. In T/T, the oiliens are
presumably in their "natural" habitat, which is the oil from the rock.
In PM/A, the oilien was in a different sort of oil. I didn't think of
the oiliens as actually being made up of the oil itself, but rather
something IN the oil. So the PM/A creature may have been able to use
something found in the diesel oil that's not found in Tunguska oil. Or
perhaps Ratboy is particularly susceptible to mind control?
JeanEnz
Or maybe they are different strains of the same substance. In PM/A, the
petroleum people were supposed to be from alien origin (if I remember
correctly). Perhaps the aliens mutated the petroleum people for use in
their space ships - easy-to-clean-up-oil-spills, hard to steal, kind of
like an oily homing pigeon. The Terma ones could have be a purer form, or
maybe just differently mutated.