Colony (1)

Season 2, Episode 16, Aired
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Episode Summary

After the obituaries of three identical men are e-mailed to Mulder, the agents are contacted by a CIA agent who tells them about a Russian Spy Killer sent to eliminate evidence of Cold War era Russian clones who had infiltrated the American medical establishment.
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Fan Episode Reviews (11)

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  • Up until this point, this is my favorite episode/favorite group of episodes.

    9.0
    "Superb"
    By JaCkKbAuEr2424, Dec 01, 2010 Report Abuse
    Being a newbie to X-Files, I haven't made my way through my show, which makes it even harder to avoid spoilers. People tell me their own personal favorite episodes and moments, and I try to avoid spoiling how the show goes. However, up until this point, I think it's safe to say that this episode, along with End Game, are my favorite episodes of the series to date. They took the mythology of the show to a whole new level by teasing us with the possibility of meeting Mulder's sister who was supposed to have been abducted. However, the episode doesn't begin with this. All in all, this was a well-acted, well-written episode of television.

    It all begins when we meet Mulder being shipped into an ER room. His face is beaten up and it appears he's close to death. The doctors begin warming him up and Scully bursts in, claiming they must let him remain cold, as it's the only thing keeping him alive. From here, we're pulled back in time as we investigate the events leading up to this. There's the investigation into the deaths of identical men who all worked at abortion clinics and the mysterious crash landing of a ship in Alaska that the government sends submarines to destroy. There's also the bounty hunter going around to try and kill the identical men.

    All of these events coalesce into one thrilling plot that would be a shame to spoil. Let's just say that Fox Mulder meets who he thinks is his sister, Samantha Mulder, while the bounty hunter and the identical men have some extra-terrestrial blood in them.

    There's plenty of plot development here, and for the first time in the show, I've liked Skinner. Skinner always seems to be on the brink of believing Mulder, despite everything else telling him not to. It was also nice to see the return of "X," the nameless man from the government who has begun helping Mulder. It should be interesting to see how he keeps helping with Skinner discovering his existence, along with Scully.

    I realize that many of these events happened in the next episode, the second part, but it's hard to review them separately. They're both important to each other and it feels like watching a two hour episode instead of two separate one hour episodes. Either way, all that really needs to be known is that these episodes are some of the best that the show has made up until this point in the show.moreless

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  • One of the best of the mythology

    8.5
    "Great"
    By OnePerCentClub, Jul 06, 2009 Report Abuse
    What an amazing episode. Samantha Mulder is back but, is she for real?
    I always hated the fact that Mulder was such a believer that he actually believed (duh) everything he heard, was told, or read and others took advantage of that. However in this episode, they messed with his emotions.
    Mulder was very vulnerable in this episode (unfortunately, it was not going to be the first time). He always felt responsible for his sister's abduction and to have her back was really important that his mind was not clear.
    What a shocker for his mother. Not so much for his father. Who knows if he was involved in this.
    Scully was in danger again and was doing almost all the job. The end scene is priceless, she realizing it may not be Mulder in the door.moreless

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  • An excellent episode. It has aliens, bounty hunters and a myth-arc, what's not to love?

    9.4
    "Superb"
    By SilvrSlivr, Jul 24, 2008 Report Abuse
    A great episode! I was starting to get a little sick of the mix of simple soap opera drama and monster of the week fare. Finally a story that I was not only pulled into, but left waiting for the conclusion. There has been some talk that this is just a rip off of The Terminator and I agree that there certainly are similarities, but my point here is not to press the point but to point out the irony(?) that the bounty hunter (Brian Thompson) was actually in that movie! He is killed by Arnold for his clothes. Anyways, I digress, an excellent episode and I'm cueing up the conclusion as I type this review! A must watch for fans of the series and fans of the genre in general.moreless

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  • They're here, and they need Mulder and Scully's help as they are hunted down by a bounty hunter from their own planet.

    10
    "Perfect"
    By ilovemulder, Dec 30, 2007 Report Abuse
    This was a nail-biter for me. First, Mulder gets someone killed--never boring. Then we get caught up in so many stories and so many possibilities, "Trust no one," is more pertinent then ever. That's one thing this show does orgasmically when it does it: it creates an absolute whirlwind of possibilities, so diverse in their content and implications that you're just overwhelmed with the inability to know what to believe. And seeing more of Mulder, that's always good. Watching him with "Samantha" was so painful and beautiful--him not knowing to believe it, wanted (so characteristically) to believe, but in the back of his mind knowing better, not committing to the emotion of reunion. And what an ominous cliff-hanger: Scully standing there knowing she's just let the devil into her hotel room, with him looming there right behind her in sheep's clothing.moreless

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  • The mythology in good form

    9.1
    "Superb"
    By RJNeb2, Oct 27, 2007 Report Abuse
    Having dabbled to great effect in the notion of an ongoing mythology-based storyline, it's hardly surprising that "The X-Files" should dip into that particular well once again. And as the "Duane Barry"/"Ascension"/"One Breath" story arc proved, there's some extremely fertile ground to be uncovered here. It might not make any sense (it sort of does at this early stage of the mythology) but it does make for rattlingly good television.

    "Colony" begins with a breathlessly exciting teaser opener with the comatose body of Mulder being rushed into the emergency room, while outside Scully is shouting at them that to treat him normally will kill him. (Interestingly, as a parallel, she would do the same thing in Season 8's "DeadAlive", proving that if Mulder wants to keep hanging on there, he needs to keep Scully close by.) The only downside to this opener to the monotone inflection of Duchovny's voice. We never doubt his abilities as an actor and as co-writer of this episode, he makes sure he gets some juicy stuff to work with but a career as a voiceover artiste is never going to happen. This episode sees the introduction of several important supporting characters in the X Files universe. We meet the rest of Mulder's family his distant father, his pleasant mother who he clearly has a lot of affection for, and, in the episode's biggest surprise of all, his sister Samantha. As an audience we already know that Samantha's involvement in their ongoing case goes a lot deeper than it appears, but she spins Mulder a story that he believes, mainly because he wants to. (That poster isn't sitting in his office for nothing.) Samantha represents the "good" side of the equation, for earlier in the episode a parallel occurred with the CIA agent Ambrose Chappel also spinning Mulder an equally improbable story that Mulder equally swallowed hook, line and sinker. Because he wanted to. Scully's obvious doubt about all this causes some real friction between the two, but although she complains to him that he's prepared to go so far out on a limb in pursuit of the truth and that she's not always willing to go that same distance, that is actually what Scully ends up doing. Despite her scientific background, Scully has an intuition that she's loath to follow but follow it she often does. Of course the most interesting new supporting character introduced here is the Alien Bounty Hunter. Boasting a Terminator-like unstoppability, he represents a formidable new adversary, and one that actually brings a whole sense of increased danger. He can't be killed, he takes a bullet extremely well, he bleeds green blood that makes your blood coagulate instantly, and he can alter his appearance to look like anybody. How do you stop a foe like that? And although we're not given the answer to the question (hey, this is "The X-Files") we want to know why he's cleaning house, by eradicating all the cloned abortion doctors.

    Full marks to new director Nick Marck for the pace of this episode. It starts off with a bang and it keeps that momentum going virtually all the way through. Mark Snow contributes a pulsating score that ups the ante too. The action only really slows down in the last quarter (as it should) as Mulder tries to get to grips with the return of his long-absent sister. And that's what makes the mythology episodes work so well. The storylines are implausible in the extreme but they are tackled as a proper police investigation which somehow lends it all some greater credence. But the real ace in the hole is the amount that is personally invested for each agent. The "Duane Barry" 3-parter was all about Scully's brush with death, and just as importantly, Mulder's brush with despair at her disappearance. "Colony" ratchets up Mulder's investment by giving him the thing that he has spent all his adult life craving. His sister. Everything that Samantha tells him is designed to push his buttons, and it works. The Mulder family is overwhelmed by the return of Samantha (which you'd expect) but as yet no one has questioned why she has come back at this particular time. There's a huge question mark hanging over Samantha that we see, and which Scully would latch onto immediately. But Mulder can't. At least not yet. We also see Mulder at his most maverick in this episode. Despite being grounded by an angry Skinner, this doesn't even begin to hold him in check. This man is truly obsessed with his search for the truth, which is why he buys Chappel's vaguely plausible story about cloned sleeper terrorist agents. The scene where Chappel explains his story in Scully's apartment is very interesting for the differing reactions of the 2 agents. Scully looks on in disbelief, Mulder looks on in complete belief. The episode ends with one of the great cliffhangers that this series has ever given us. Scully on the phone to Mulder, while he's standing in the room with her. The look on her face as she suddenly clicks that she's in real danger is priceless. And a great way to leave us dangling for a week. But surely there's an even scarier aspect to this episode that is always overlooked? And that's the title. As the episode progresses, bit by bit, we start to learn that all these clones are actually aliens and that they're here to start the colonisation of our planet. Our very existence on our very own planet is in danger. And that's a great cliffhanger in its own right. 9/10moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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  • Trivia

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    • Mulder calls the Motel to ask if Scully has checked in. After the call the motel manager instantly forgets Scully's name, just seconds before Scully checks in. Edit
    • Mulder leaves an urgent message on Scully's answering machine to warn her about potential danger, why doesn't he call her mobile? In fact they frequently leave important messages on each others home answering machines throughout this two parter yet at other times use their mobile phones. Edit
    • The FBI doesn't have a field office in Syracuse, New York. Edit

  • Notes

    ADD NOTES
    • The role of Mulder's father was initially offered to Darren McGavin. He turned down the part. He would later accept the role of Arthur Dales in "Travelers" and "Agua Mala." Edit
    • The now infamous sound of the alien stiletto is co-producer Paul Rabwin making a 'pfft' sound in the microphone. Edit
    • Tom Butler previously appeared as Eurisko CEO Benjamin Drake in the teaser of Season 1's "Ghost in the Machine." Edit

  • Quotes

    ADD QUOTES
    • (Mulder was hit by a car chasing one of the Gregors) Scully: How are you feeling? Mulder: Like I should have used the crosswalk. A lot better than my phone. Edit
    • Samantha: Is it too late for a game of stratego? Mulder: It's 22 years too late. Edit
    • Mulder: I have lived with a fragile faith built on the ether of vague memories from an experience that I can neither prove nor explain. When I was twelve, my sister was taken from me, taken from our home by a force that I came to believe was extraterrestrial. What happened to me out on the ice has justified every belief. If I should die now, it would be with the certainty that my faith has been righteous. And if, through death, larger mysteries are revealed, I will have already learned the answer to the question that has driven me here... that there is intelligent life in the universe other than our own... that they are here among us... and that they have begun to colonise. Edit

  • Allusions

    ADD ALLUSIONS
    • Place Name: Ambrose Chapel Ambrose Chapel, the CIA agent who speaks with Mulder and Scully, shares his name with a church in the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Man Who Knew Too Much. In the movie, the phrase Ambrose Chapel was incorrectly assumed to be the name of a person. Edit

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