Volume 2 of The X-Files Mythology collection is the second DVD release containing selected episodes from the third to the fifth seasons of the American science fiction television series The X-Files. The episodes collected in the release form the middle of the series' mythology, and are centered on the discovery of a mind-altering extraterrestrial "black oil". The collection contains five episodes from the third season, eight from the fourth season, and two from the fifth. The episodes follow the investigations of paranormal-related cases, or X-Files, by FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). Mulder is a believer in the paranormal, while the skeptical Scully has been assigned to debunk his work. Events covered in the episodes include the assassination of a secretive informant, Scully's diagnosis with cancer and Mulder's apparent suicide. Production for many of the episodes included in the collection required extensive effects. The titular black oil's on-screen appearance was achieved through visual effects; the shimmering oil effect was digitally placed over the actors' corneas in post-production. Steven Williams, William B. Davis, Mitch Pileggi and Laurie Holden all play supporting roles in the collection. Released on August 2, 2005, the collection received mostly positive reviews from critics.
Plot summary The collection opens with the two-part episodes "Nisei" and "731". Investigating evidence of an alien autopsy, FBI special agent Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) infiltrates a secretive government train carriage carrying an alien-human hybrid. Mulder is almost killed by a Syndicate operative guarding the hybrid, but is saved by his informant X (Steven Williams). X had been tipped off about Mulder's activities by the agent's partner Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson). Scully, meanwhile, meets a group of women with abduction experiences similar to her own, and meets another member of the Syndicate known as the First Elder (Don S. Williams), who claims during her abduction she was placed on a similar train car and experimented upon by the Japanese scientists. The crew of a French salvage ship trying to raise a World War II–era submarine from the sea floor are stricken with massive radiation burns—except for one, who has been infected with a parasitic black oil discovered on the submarine. The oil, controlling the crewman's body, passes into the crewman's wife and travels to Hong Kong in pursuit of a middleman selling government secrets, who Mulder has also been pursuing. After Mulder catches Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea) in Hong Kong, the oil passes itself to Krycek. Scully finds that the submarine had been involved in discovering the oil on the sea floor during World War II, under the guise of finding a sunken fighter plane. The infected Krycek makes his way to a missile silo used to hide a UFO, and the oil escapes his body to board the craft. Meanwhile, Scully has tracked down Luis Cardinal, the man responsible for killing her sister. When the Syndicate suspect that one of their members is passing information to Mulder and Scully, they organise a canary trap to find the leak, using information about the safety of Mulder's mother as bait. X's role as an informant is discovered, and he is shot dead, although he is able to pass along the name of another informant who can be of use to Mulder—Marita Covarrubias (Laurie Holden), the Special Representative to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Covarrubias' aid is sought when Mulder attempts to reach Tunguska in Russia to investigate the source of a further black oil contamination. Whilst there, Mulder is held in a gulag and used as a successful test subject for a black oil vaccine. He escapes and is able to return to America, having found that Krycek is working with the Russians. Having been diagnosed with cancer, Scully is unsure of her future with the FBI. Mulder is convinced that her condition is a result of her earlier abduction, and is prepared to make a deal with the Syndicate to find a cure. He is dissuaded by Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), who secretly makes such a deal instead. While being pursued by an assassin responsible for a hoax alien corpse discovered on a mountaintop, Mulder fakes his own suicide, mutilating the assassin's face to provide a decoy body. He uses the distraction this offers to infiltrate The Pentagon to find a cure for Scully's cancer, while Scully is able to uncover and reveal a Syndicate connection within the FBI.
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