Ascension (2)

Season 2, Episode 6, Aired
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Episode Summary

When Mulder finds out that Scully was kidnapped by Duane Barry, he risks the wrath of his superiors and the annoyance of Agent Krycek in order to do whatever it takes to find her. Meanwhile, Krycek is found to be reporting Mulder's activities to the CSM.
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Fan Episode Reviews (12)

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  • "Duane Barry"/"Ascension" features many defining moments and characterize"The X-Files" more sharply than anything else that has appeared in the series so far

    9.5
    "Superb"
    By MattMTRUSTNO1, Aug 12, 2011 Report Abuse
    While I was never convinced of Duane Barry's story, he struck me as a deranged man, whose story was wholly untrustworthy, I was convinced by Steve Railsback's performance. When dealing with someone so divorced from reality as a brain damaged psychotic, even direct evidence in the form of scars and assorted implants does not "prove" his story. We still have to rely on his testimony, and what he thought he saw may not have been what was really happening.
    Steve Railsback gives a fantastic performance, probably the best guest starring role to date. In a few scenes he showed a shy geniality and an almost childlike bafflement.
    While Railsback gives an amazing performance, I am a bit reluctant to criticize David Duchovny's performance in this two parter; he is carrying a hell of a load in Gillian Anderson's virtual absence. In "Little Green Men" and "Ice", he has shown us that Mulder can show strong emotion believably. Parts of "Duane Barry" show his intensity, his command of nuance and implication, his sharp grasp of understatement and control. Having said all that, however, I have to say he disappointed me in this story. I know Fox Mulder is not given to hysterics, but there comes a point when you have to pull out some stops. Like Sam Spade says in "The Maltese Falcon":
    "When a man's partner has been killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him, he's your partner and you're supposed to do something about it."
    When Mulder found Scully's necklace, when Duane Barry (the only witness to her whereabouts) died, I needed to see some reaction from him. Consider the resonances of this story for Fox Mulder: the only person in the world whom he trusts has been snatched away from him, while he is powerless to do anything about it--just like his sister. A normal man would be driven half mad with guilt and anger and fear. Mulder either looks sleepy or puzzled. Duchovny neither raises nor lowers the temperature, right up to the last scene. Is he looking for Dana Scully in the stars, or figuring his income tax? From his face, you could never tell.
    Despite this, overall I absolutely loved this two part story arc. I cheered when Deputy Director Skinner re-opened the X- Files. How typical that he did it in a fit of pique, rather than as an administrator who saw, finally, the value of those extreme possibilities. I must give writer Paul Brown credit, however, for not making Walter Skinner a hopelessly evil bad guy. This scene was one of the best of the entire story, showing Skinner as a frustrated, hard-nosed cop who cannot seem to get a grip either on the slippery characters he's up against or the obsessed agent before him. In fact, this time around he was more human than Mulder.
    But the highlight of this two part story arc, aside from Railsback's perfomance, was the introduction of Krychek: Rat Boy. Everyones favorite double crossing double agent. He's my third favorite character of all time, after Scully and Mulder of course. Although I can't help but feel the scene where he double crosses Mulder could have been so much more effective if it had not already been revealed to us who he was really working for. That information shouldn't have been revealed until the end. Aside from that minor detail, I still give this story arc a 9.5 out of ten. IF revealing Krychek as a spy had been handled better, I'd be giving this a perfect 10.moreless

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  • “There are no answers for you, Mr. Mulder. They have only one policy: Deny Everything.”

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By Jewishprincess, May 28, 2011 Report Abuse
    This is where the events laid out in Duane Barry really take off. At this point the conspiracy realizes they made a fatal mistake in making Scully Mulder's "handler", instead of debunking his work she came to lend a degree of credence to his claims of paranormal phenomena, and government cover-up. So Scully's abduction makes sense in that the conspiracy would be desperate to remove Mulder's support system, the legs on which he stands. It is also crucial to the conspiracy that Mulder survive, one surmises that the conspiracy needs Mulder alive for some future purpose. When Mulder and Scully are reassigned it is a plausibility that the conspiracy assumed that the bond between the two agents was not so strong that Scully would continue to be Mulder's support system, this was not the case, Scully continued to back him with all the power and resources at her disposal. She continued to invest her skill and emotion in his personal crusade. It is quite clear in this episode that no aliens are involved in Scully's abduction, Duane Barry is simply a pawn of the conspiracy, a very damaged tool. The first tangible evidence of just how far the conspiracy extends is given in this episode. Ascension is also the place where Skinner takes a step away from minion of the conspiracy towards being Mulder's ally. It is also interesting to not the oft used conspiracy excuse for keeping Mulder alive, that is, they don't want to turn him into a martyr, however, this episode gives that excuse a false ring as clearly the conspiracy is powerful enough to eliminate Mulder without making him a martyr or turning his personal quest into a crusade, it is obvious that Mulder is kept alive for some other purpose. This is an excellent and entertaining episode, and it serves as a starting point for many subsequent events.moreless

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  • Scully is taken and Mulder must deal with it

    8.5
    "Great"
    By OnePerCentClub, Sep 22, 2008 Report Abuse
    This episode is very hard for me to watch. Scully is taken and there's nothing Mulder can do. But Mulder knows there's something nasty going on and he is determined to find out who is behind it.
    He is reluctant to give up the case. He conducts his own investigation but unfortunately Krycek is helping him and he is giving out information to the CSM. In the end, Mulder can't do anything and Scully is taken and Barry arrested and then dead. This is when it became personal for Mulder and Scully. They wanted to stop Mulder from finding the truth: they took Scully away and that kept him busy for a while. Again, this is the first of many excellent arcs with classy perfomances and amazing stories. David Duchovny's performance can't be ignored as he is the center of this episode. We get to see Margaret Scully again and she meets Mulder under terrible circumstances. Poor Mulder, he has all the evidence and it must've been so frustrating for him not able to do anything to save Scully or discover the authors of her abduction. And last, Mulder obviously has developed a different feeling for Scully that has him thinking of her in so many ways.moreless

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  • This is where it all begins.

    10
    "Perfect"
    By farscapefanuk, Aug 21, 2007 Report Abuse
    From this episode on Mulder and Scully form a bond that is unbreakable. In this episode Mulder fights to try and get Scully back. The only way he can do that is if he can track Dwane Barry down in time. But there is one problem they don't know where he is. So with the help of Krychek Mulder and him travel to skyline mountain.

    But we also learn that Krychek is working for CSM and that he wants to stop Mulder, so on a cable cart ride up the mountain Krycek stops him, but this does not stop Mulder. He continues on forcing Krychek to restart the cart. But he is too late Scully is gone... Before we know it Barry is dead too and Mulder is all alone. Mulder knows it is a conspiracy as does Skinner who reopens the X Files. I have to say that this is a fantastic episode. It is definatly one of my all time favourites.moreless

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  • The mytharc continues

    8.2
    "Great"
    By RJNeb2, Jun 17, 2007 Report Abuse
    After the giddy heights of "Duane Barry", the follow-up episode "Ascension" is basically just a chase story with little in the way of tangible results for the beleaguered Agent Mulder. His desperation in his search for his kidnapped partner is very real and very effectively portrayed by Duchovny perma-stubble and all and he's able to impart a real duality to his performance. At one level, he's back to being the same hollowed-out agent that we saw at the start of the second season. At another he's an intensely driven man with only one goal in mind, and nothing to dissuade him from it. And if that includes murder, so be it. Actually Mulder is able to apply the brakes in his interrogation of Duane Barry, and stops just short of strangling the man. But the fact that he does resort to violence in his dealings with Scully's abductor, shows the extremities that he's prepared to go to and also the depth of feeling he has for his partner. In this episode we also see the real duality of Krycek. At first this seemed like a rather anodyne, by-the-book agent. It came as a real shock to learn that he is in cahoots with the Cigarette Smoking Man. It comes as an even greater shock in this episode to learn the extent of that alliance, and the fact that Krycek too thinks nothing of stooping to murder to further his own goals. (This enables the stuntmen to do their stuff with some good work atop a cable car as it makes its way up a mountain.)

    But what comes as an even greater shock in this episode is the fact that Scully wasn't just abducted by a psychotic madman (who's actually given short shrift after his starring role in the previous episode). What becomes increasingly clear is that Barry is just one part of a greater whole and that all fingers ultimately seem to be pointing to the Cigarette Smoking Man and whoever he might be representing. Despite his rather spurious meeting with the shadowy X, Mulder inadvertently lucks into this information, and the duplicity of Krycek, and Skinner too knows it. That's why it's Skinner who performs one of the episode's great heroic acts. Not on top of a cable car, but by re-opening the X Files. What normally should have been a cause for great celebration, certainly for Mulder, is heavily muted by the fact that the gesture is personally meaningless to him without Scully.

    And that's the prevailing feeling about this episode, despite all the revelations and action. The fact that we are without Scully. She makes the briefest of appearances (with a guest starring role for the soon to be born Piper) but her presence is deeply felt. Whether it's in that gentle and nicely played scene between Duchovny and Sheila Larken as her mother where neither of them particularly have much to say but need to reassure each other anyway, or in Mulder's bleak return visit to Skyland Mountain where he stands dwarfed under a black black sky, the fact remains that Scully is gone. And so have a lot of our hopes.

    8/10moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

    ADD TRIVIA
    • This episode changes its regular tagline "The truth is out there" for "Deny Everything". This is what X tells Mulder about the politics of the Syndicate. This episode forms part of the mytharc episodes. Edit
    • The Skyland tram is most likely the Grouse Mountain tram near Vancouver in real life. You can see the Vancouver area when Mulder escapes from the tram. Edit
    • Continuity: Margaret Scully tells Mulder that she gave her daughter the cross necklace for her 15th birthday. This is contradicted in season 5's "Christmas Carol." Edit

  • Notes

    ADD NOTES
    • David Duchovny performed his own stunts in the aerial tram sequence. Edit
    • This episode's tagline changes to 'Deny Everything', spoken by X: "They only have one policy Mister Mulder... Deny everything". Edit
    • The song that Duane Barry is listening to on his way to Skyland Mountain is "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, featured on The X-Files album "Songs in the Key of X". Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • Duane Barry: (yelling at the sky) They can't touch Duane Barry anymore! Edit
    • Cigarette-Smoking Man: We tell you only what you need to know. Krycek: I think I have a right to know. Cigarette-Smoking Man: You have no rights, only orders to be carried out. Edit
    • Mulder: I found this. (He shows a cross) It's something I... I never considered about her. If she was... if she was such a skeptic, why did she wear that? Margaret Scully: I gave it to her on her fifteenth birthday. Mulder: Don't you want to keep it? Margaret Scully: When you find her, you give it to her. Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • Krycek: He started whistling "Stairway to Heaven." Stairway to Heaven was an influential song by Led Zeppelin. Edit
    • Krycek: You know, Chernobyl, Exxon Valdez, Three Mile Island...they were all linked to sleep deprivation. Chernobyl is the site of a nuclear power plant that exploded in 1986. Exxon Valdez is the name of an oil tanker which caused a massive oil spill in 1989 after hitting Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef before the coast of Alaska. Three Mile Island is the location of a nuclear power plant which suffered a partial core meltdown in 1979. Edit
    • Skinner: That he's following orders from alien voices in his head. Well, that's an interesting spin on the Nuremberg defense. Skinner is referring to the Nuremberg Trials which were held in the German city of Nuremberg from 1945 to 1949. The trials were conceived to bring the major war criminals/leaders of Nazi Germany to justice. In their defense most of the accused stated that they were just following orders. Edit

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