So...hack, hack...I guess I should've gotten...cough...that flu shot after all...sniff, sniff. But I'll see if I can see through the gauzy haze of cold medicine and review Lucy's second appearance in the gauzy haze of the X-Files. Maybe being in this frame of mind will lead me to further insights into the show's murkier elements.

Last time we saw the X-Files, Lucy, as agent Shannon McMahon, was somehow living underwater. She had agent Doggett by his leg and was dragging him under to his soggy doom. Shannon had killed several people by this point in the episode, and she appeared to be a "bad guy."

This week begins by totally ignoring Doggett's plight and cutting straight into some nefarious action (as the X-Files is wont to do in their introductory scenes). We see a shady character working his way through some high security checkpoints. It turns out he's the captain of a boat. He meets a doctor in the hold who seems to be conducting some kind of genetic research (based on the images in the room behind him). The captain tells the doctor they have received an order to return to base. While nothing is said in words, the tension coming from the announcement shows that some of the crew are not happy about the decision.

After commercials, we return to the water plant where Doggett is going under. Brad is still looking around for him, and he turns around to miss seeing Doggett's last air bubbles break the surface of the water tank he's in. We cut to see Doggett's apparently lifeless body. Shannon gives her first indication she's one of the good guys when she then swims up to breathe air into Doggett's lungs. She is apparently trying to hide him, not kill him after all. Will she be successful? And more importantly, how did Robert Patrick get a job involving face-to-face with Lucy Lawless?

Later, back at the FBI, Brad is having a meeting with Skinner and Reyes. Seems he's pissed about the illegal autopsy, breaking into a water facility, and the fact that Doggett is now missing. He makes some veiled threats and warns Reyes to put some distance between herself and Doggett. She leaves, telling Brad she isn't going to play his political games any more.

Suddenly, like a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey, Doggett awakes to find himself in bed, a large monolith towering at his feet. No, wait--that's Shannon standing there. She finally introduces herself as Doggett coughs up the moisture left in his lungs. She was in Doggett's Bravo company in the marines. So that's were Doggett got that photo in his office in Part 1! Lucy is typically beautiful in just wet hair, a gray t-shirt, and jeans here. This woman looks good in anything, but it's been awhile since we've seen her do much "plain clothes" work.

Turns out Shannon is a "bio-engineered combat unit." It took fifty years to develop, and she's the "first generation prototype." She has no weaknesses (let's see how her head holds up to a bazooka blast, shall we?), can go without sleep, and can breathe under water! It turns out one of their other marine buddies went into the experimental program with Shannon, and he mentioned something to Doggett earlier (I must've missed that). That's why Doggett was calling the other Marines in the photo during Part 1, looking for clues about bio-engineering as applied to Scully's baby. It makes sense now, but during Part 1, the phone calls seemed to just come out of the air.

What makes Shannon special? The program is "expanding in ways no one ever dreamed of," so there are now apparently many bio-engineered combat units out in the field now. The inference here is that most of the "units" are involved in something, well, bad. Shannon, meanwhile, has decided enough is enough, and has been working to destroy the program. Sort of like Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: the vampire with a soul. Shannon goes far enough to admit they are tampering with the water supply, but when Doggett asks the inevitable question, "Why?" we cut to the next scene. Argh! So Shannon is good now? Or is this all just some double-crossing jive she's feeding to Doggett for her own purposes?

In Baltimore, we find the ship from the introduction docked and the captain is about to go ashore. The captain discusses the situation with a trusted crew mate, and he worries "they may be on to us."

In contrast to that paranoid scene, we go to Scully's house, where she's putting the baby to bed. Skinner arrives to talk. He wants to know why Scully has been getting involved in Doggett's investigation. She says the baby isn't normal (as we've seen). Skinner, none-too-pleased, realizes he's not changing her mind, so he leaves.

The captain is trying to reach his contact on a pay phone near the ship. It turns out he's trying to call the EPA guy who Shannon killed in part one. The machine tells the captain the guy is unavailable, which seems to disturb him. When he gets back on ship, his second-in-command is gone, replaced with some ominous man he doesn't know.

The next morning, Scully gets a call from Reyes. Turns out Doggett is there with her, and he's got news about Scully's baby. Scully gets right over, and Reyes introduces her to Shannon McMahon. Shannon tells her that the chloramine added to the drinking water is used to prepare people to give birth to genetically altered super babies. The implication being that Scully's baby was induced that same way. I got the impression it might just cause pregnancy as well, so Scully's baby may still not be Mulder's. She may have gotten a baby from her tap water! Scully, in tears, wants some proof. Shannon turns about and lifts up her long hair, exposing her neck. She explains that all the mutants carry a standard mutation, a small bump on the back of the neck. I was half expecting to see a bar code tattooed there!

And from there, it's a short splice to see the same bump on the neck of the captain's new second-in-command. So it would seem that the captain is on the good guy's side, trying to sabotage the genetic experiments, while his officer is a mutant trying to keep it going. And the second is going through the ship's logs. The captain catches him, and mutant-boy says he needs to keep up with them in case "something happens" to the captain. The captain, ever more fearful he's in danger, picks up on the implied threat. As if to drive home the point, an alarm sounds, indicating they found the original second-in-command drowned in the harbor. The captain and his new second look eye-to-eye, and no words need to be exchanged. It's getting interesting seeing how, or if, the captain is going to get out of this one.

Scully is giving Shannon a physical, looking for genetic mutations. Reyes and Doggett go out in the hall to discuss Shannon's story. Doggett thinks they're on to something; Reyes doesn't understand why Shannon has to murder people to make her case. Scully appears to tell them she can find nothing unusual about Shannon, aside from a slight spinal deformity. So is Shannon on the up-and-up or not? At this point, Doggett is amazed the women can't see what's right in front of their faces. Scully, meanwhile, seems to be skeptical simply because she doesn't want the story to be true. It would mean her baby's a mutant soldier.

Skinner calls, telling Doggett he's been suspended and must turn in his badge. Doggett knows where that order came from, and he bursts into Deputy Director Kersh's office, only to find Brad there as well. The three have it out, and when they tell him to stop the investigation, Doggett replies, "Try 'n' stop me!" as he storms out. Go, John!

Reyes is checking out Shannon's FBI files (middle initial "C."). The lone gunmen come in and report on some recent findings. They show Reyes how the EPA guy's phone has been getting numerous calls since he died. Obviously, that's the captain making the calls from the Baltimore dock. Sure enough, the phone rings as they are looking on. It's the captain, and one of the gunmen picks up the phone pretending to the EPA guy. The captain tells him the story we know so far, then says he wants the EPA guy to phone the FBI and tell them about the horrible lab being run on his ship. So the EPA guy was one of the good guys? So then Shannon killed him and is therefore one of the bad guys. Or was the EPA guy a bad guy only pretending to be on the good side? And if the FBI is running the evil lab, what good would come of calling the FBI about it? My brain is beginning to hurt! Unfortunately, the captain's second-in-command, with his super ears, hears everything. Looks like the captain's time is about up.

Reyes, more desperate now than ever for solid leads, finally goes to Brad, trying to appeal to his common sense. It appears he will help Reyes by getting her access to Shannon's confidential files. She learns that Shannon is actually employed by the Department of Justice, not the FBI. For some reason, the DOJ wants to "set up" the FBI. Shannon was working with them to keep the bio-engineering program going by killing the whistle blowers. So, as Doggett asks later, why involve him with this elaborate lie? Reyes says there is a laboratory ship somewhere, and Shannon knows there is another whistle blower (the captain) aboard, but she doesn't know where he's located. Shannon is hoping Doggett will lead her to her final kill. Scully is interested in seeing this laboratory for its possible ties to her baby. So off they go to find the captain's ship.

Meanwhile, on the ship, the captain, obviously feeling a need to take action before he gets killed as well, takes a hostage and demands the chief doctor give him all their information so he can turn it over to authorities. The second looms ominously in the background.

Doggett, Reyes and Scully have arrived at the dock to meet the captain by the phone. The captain isn't there, but the second-in-command is. Doggett smells trouble and begins shooting at the guy. His bullets have no affect on the second (try blowing his face off next time, Doggett--that'll slow him down a minute). The second pretty much swabs the deck with Doggett, finally grabbing him in a head lock and about to crush his skull. Suddenly, the second's head disappears. There's Shannon in a navy pea coat, saying, "You didn't trust me." So she is on the good guy's side?

Suddenly, as Doggett looks on, a hand (!) emerges from Shannon's stomach. Blood is flowing from her mouth as she convulses and falls into the water by the dock. Is she alive or dead? Good or bad? Xena or Shannon?

The three X-Filers then board the ship to look for the infamous laboratory. Scully and Reyes set off together and find the laboratory. Scully appears about set to find some of her answers in the lab when Doggett finds the ship has been rigged to explode in moments. That explains the lack of crew aboard. In keeping with the nature of this series, they are forced to abandon ship before we gain more than a mere glimpse of something concrete. We knew they were doing genetic experiments already, and this scene reveals no more. The ship does indeed explode, just as our heroes get out of harm's way.

Doggett is back in Kersh's office, being grilled about his report. Kersh asks, "How did I come out?" He reads Doggett's report in lurid detail, noticing his name is not mentioned at all. He seems pleased. Doggett tells him that although he didn't find evidence now, he is convinced Kersh's hands are dirty on this somehow. He turns over his badge and gun and starts to leave.

Kersh stops him, and tells him the story of King George who ruled Britain when America declared its independence. The King's journal entry for July 4, 1776, was, "Nothing important happened today." Kersh says that sometimes even kings miss things that are important if they aren't looking. Apparently Kersh is the one who delivered the autopsy to Reyes earlier, in order to help Doggett's investigation. He claims Mulder trusted him, so why shouldn't Doggett? Kersh presents himself as someone who plays up the bad guys to keep his position of power, where he can act from within to help investigators like Doggett bring the bad guys down. Doggett looks like he believes all this, although how he can trust anyone, even his own mother, at this point is beyond me.

We see Doggett getting into the FBI elevator, pinning his badge back on. He and Kersh seem to have come to an understanding of sorts. He runs into Brad, of course. Brad goes into his self-righteous banter while Doggett eyes him contemptuously. Brad tells Doggett that Kersh has him right where he wants him, and that he, Brad, is a "friend of the X-Files." Doggett doesn't appear to be buying this as Reyes gets aboard and Brad leaves in a symbolic gesture.

We cut to a last scene of Shannon laying on the bottom of the bay, looking dead. Her eyes suddenly open, only to find that it's Scully having a bad dream. She gets up and comforts the baby. When she returns to lie down, we see her eyes open, anxiously watching the baby as it gestures at the mobile over the crib. It waves its arms at it, but it doesn't move as before. Is the baby back to normal? I doubt it.

After seeing the whole two-part episode now, what do I think? It was great seeing Lucy Lawless again, and she does a great job making a character we want to see more of and know more about. I do miss the acting range she was allowed in Xena. Here, she's basically very serious and rarely breaks a smile. I miss the old vibrant Lucy. I guess she did comedy in Just Shoot Me, so now she's trying to make the point she can do straight drama as well. I can't blame her for that. What she really needs is some sort of feature role of her own to show off her many skills, rather than just supporting other actors in limited roles.

As for how she's used here, I was a little unimpressed. In Part 1, she was in a few key scenes to set the mood and provide a teaser of mysteries to be revealed in Part 2. Here, in Part 2, she has more dialogue, but once she is interviewed by Doggett and company, she really doesn't play much more of a role (not counting saving Doggett at the very end). She's never out of mind, since she is mentioned by the other cast members regularly, but she's not on screen too much.

And will she be back as Shannon? The word before airing the shows was that the character could be recurring, which would be nice. However, Lucy recently announced she is pregnant again, and her agent has announced that Lucy will not play the role again. Who to believe? Another mystery: will Lucy appear again or won't she? Stay tuned!

As in last week, I can't give this episode high marks as an X-Files episode. Not a bad episode, but at the end, even though the show was over, I didn't feel like I'd gotten to the bottom of anything so much as I was wrapped in another layer of complications. Was Shannon good or bad? Is Scully's baby OK? Can Doggett trust anyone at the FBI other than Reyes? Is Brad evil or simply obnoxious? Who knows? Lucy raised the dramatic bar, but overall the episode garners a three chakram-out-of-five rating compared to other X-Files episodes.
Rick(Gabriologist since the late 20th Century)
Visit my web site at www.ricks-studio.com for Episode Reviews,
Humorous Quotes, and other Xena-themed writing!

"Renee, I'm pregnant again!" --Lucy
"I told you to lay off the chloramine!" --Renee