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The X-Files S02 E09 "Firewalker" - TV Tropes

  • ️Sun Jul 10 2011

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Season 2, Episode 09:

Firewalker

The X-Files S02 E09 "Firewalker" Recap

"Our meddling intellect misshapes the beauteous forms of things we murder to dissect."

Mulder: He discovered the spore in the samples Firewalker brought up.
O'Neil: He would have told us.
Mulder: Not if what he discovered was too disturbing even for him to understand.

Mulder and Scully investigate mysterious events at a scientific project using a robotic probe, "Firewalker", to explore the interior of a volcano.

Tropes:

  • Chest Burster: The alien fungus-like organisms grow in human chests, though it ultimately bursts through a victim's throat.
  • Continuity Nod: Mulder is hesitant to bring Scully along due to the events surrounding her abduction, but she insists she's ready.
  • I Choose to Stay: Trepkos decides not to go back with Mulder and Scully, staying behind to take Jessie's corpse down his hiding place.
  • In the Back: This is how Ludwig goes down, courtesy of Trepkos and a flare gun. However, Trepkos did have good reasons for this, since Ludwig was going to have an alien fungus burst out from his throat.
  • Kill It with Fire: Trepkos shoots Ludwig with a flare gun twice, setting the man alight and killing both him and the parasite residing inside that man.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Mourning her death, Trepkos recalls how he convinced Jessie to join the operation to "have an adventure."
  • Not Himself: The guest characters insist this about Trepkos.
  • Silicon-Based Life: The alien organism that Mulder and Scully went to check is not carbon-based, but silicon-based, meaning it's Not of This Earth.
  • Teacher/Student Romance: Hinted at between Jessie and Trepkos, two scientists working at the station.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Trepkos is determined to prevent the organism spreading at any cost, and is willing to murder anyone who might be a vector (including Pierce, who only just arrived in the area and, in fact, never had any opportunity to become infected, though Trepkos had no way of knowing that). He does relent in the cases of Mulder and Scully (with the implied understanding that they will quarantine and the place will be scrubbed by a hazmat team, which does indeed happen), though it's implied this was largely due to his guilt over Jessie's death.

    Trepkos: No one can leave.

"And of the events that occurred at Mount Avalon between the 11th and 13th of November, 1994, mine stands as the only record."