Field Trip
Encyclopedia
"Field Trip" is the twenty-first episode of the sixth season
of the science fiction
television series The X-Files
. The episode first aired in the United States and Canada on May 9, 1999 on the Fox Network
, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom on Sky1. Frank Spotnitz
came up with the story and John Shiban
and Vince Gilligan
wrote the teleplay. The episode was directed by Kim Manners
.
In the episode, a mystery involving two skeletons leads the agents on a journey in which nothing is quite as it seems. The episode was generally well-received by fans and critics alike. The episode is a monster-of-the-week (standalone) episode.
. Angela appears to be exhausted after spending most of the day chasing after her overeager husband and is starting to get a headache
. Whilst taking a shower she thinks she is hallucinating and sees images of a yellow gooey substance running down the walls in the shower but shakes it off. Angela and Wallace head off to bed in one other's arms but as the camera pans out the scene shifts to their skeletal remains in the same position in the middle of a field.
Mulder
is filling in Scully
about the discovery of the remains at a well-known site of strange unexplained phenomena
but Scully seems keen as ever to find a more rational explanation. After showing her images of the bones and the fact they were only a few days old Scully concludes it looks like a ritualistic killing and that the bones were stripped of the flesh by boiling with/or acid
. However, they head off to examine the remains themselves.
The coroner is just about to send the remains away for burial when the agents arrive to view them. After closer examination they find a strange yellow goo covering the underside of the skeletons which was missed in the original examination. Mulder heads out to the scene of the discovery while Scully stays to perform more testing on the remains.
As Mulder arrives in the fields, he inadvertently drives over a patch of mushrooms with his car which seem to release a cloud of smoke. As he exits the vehicle and takes a look around he spots what he thinks is Wallace running away and takes chase, eventually following him down a cave
. Inside the cave, Mulder finds that the way he came in seems to have been replaced with solid rock. He catches up with Wallace in the cave he discovers that Wallace thinks he and his wife Angela have been abducted by aliens and covered up their disappearance with the false skeletons
. Meanwhile, Scully has discovered that the yellow goo mainly consists of organic material found in digestive juices but this seems to emanate from a plant rather than an animal. Unable to reach Mulder on the phone, she heads off to find him.
Arriving at the field, Scully starts to look for Mulder and accidentally steps on some more of the mushrooms that Mulder flattened earlier. Starting to follow his tracks, Scully finds they lead up to the cave and apparently lead inside.
Mulder and Wallace are now talking when a bright light appears in the tunnel entrance. Wallace is scared that it is the aliens returning but Mulder heads up to take a look and finds Angela has returned from her abduction. After describing the text book story of the tests that have been performed as well as locating an implant, Mulder starts to believe their story. Once again, the bright light from the tunnel entrance begins to shine and Mulder heads up to investigate.
The scene fades to Mulder's front door as Scully arrives. Mulder answers and checks she is on her own before letting her in. Inside are Wallace and Angela. Mulder explains how they got there. Scully still doesn't believe the alien abduction story until Mulder shows her into his bedroom and hiding behind the boxes in the dark is an alien creature. Scully is astonished and quickly apologizes to Mulder for ever doubting him. However, Mulder starts to doubt his surroundings and his disbelief in what is going on begins to increase. As he washes his face with water he starts to see the yellow goo Angela saw earlier but quickly shakes it off as a hallucination
. But, as he discusses the situation with Scully, his apartments seems to dissolve and everyone seems to melt into the yellow goo. Mulder awakens in the cave he followed Wallace into earlier, covered in the yellow goo, being digested alive.
Outside in the field, Scully and the coroner happen across more of the yellow goo. The coroner also spots footsteps leading out of the cave which Scully insists weren't there earlier. However, as the coroner follows them, he finds Mulder's skeletal remains lying on the floor.
At the coroner's office, Scully is identifying Mulder's remains from his dental records but finds no evidence of the goo on the skeleton. The coroner then informs Scully that he believes that this is a ritualistic killing with boiling of the bones in an acid to remove the flesh, the theory Scully had originally believed to explain the remains of Angela and Wallace.
Back at the FBI, Scully is reporting back to Skinner
about her report and her findings of the deaths of Mulder and the Schiffs. Skinner seems to agree with Scully's report but Scully is herself doubting her own findings and is not convinced by her own theories that everyone seems to be agreeing with.
Mulder's wake is in progress at his apartment. Notably, Skinner and the Lone Gunmen
are in attendance along with several others. The Gunmen tell Scully they looked at her report and totally agree with her findings which Scully finds unbelievable. There is a knock at the door and Scully answers but finds Mulder standing in the doorway. The rest of the wake congregation has disappeared. As Mulder and Scully discuss what has happened, they both begin to realize that they are both still in the cave being digested by the goo and that the mushrooms they broke caused an LSD-type trip causing them to become comatose whilst the organism began digesting them. As the realization occurs, they both awaken, deep in the cave and Mulder fights his way out of the ground dragging Scully behind him to safety.
In Skinner's office, where Mulder and Scully report on their findings, that an organism spreading many miles underground lures its prey into being consumed by inducing a hallucinogenic trip whilst it digests them. Skinner notes that it is rare that their reports agree on the same conclusion. However, Mulder begins to doubt that they're free at all, asking Scully to name any sort of drug that causes its effects to halt once the user knows they are hallucinating, and observing that they have no apparent flesh injuries despite being exposed to the goo's hydrochloric acid
. Scully is in disbelief until Mulder proves his point by shooting Skinner in the chest; the yellow goo oozes out of the bullet wounds.
Once again, their surroundings melt away as they awaken underground again in the cave. Mulder manages to stick his hand through the earth ceiling as Skinner and a team of rescue staff with masks on manage to locate them and drag them out and haul them to the safety of an ambulance. Scully murmurs "Mushroom
," to Skinner, with Skinner replying that they already "found it." Once inside the ambulance, Mulder and Scully weakly hold hands.
The X-Files (season 6)
The sixth season of the science fiction television series The X-Files commenced airing on the Fox Broadcasting Network in the United States on November 8, 1998, concluding on the same channel on May 16, 1999, and contained 22 episodes. The series was developed by Chris Carter, who also serves as...
of the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series The X-Files
The X-Files
The X-Files is an American science fiction television series and a part of The X-Files franchise, created by screenwriter Chris Carter. The program originally aired from to . The show was a hit for the Fox network, and its characters and slogans became popular culture touchstones in the 1990s...
. The episode first aired in the United States and Canada on May 9, 1999 on the Fox Network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, and subsequently aired in the United Kingdom on Sky1. Frank Spotnitz
Frank Spotnitz
Frank Spotnitz is an award-winning American television writer and producer, best known for his work on The X-Files television series.-Biography:...
came up with the story and John Shiban
John Shiban
John Shiban is an Emmy Award nominated American television writer and producer. He worked in both capacities on The X-Files and its spin-off The Lone Gunmen, Star Trek: Enterprise, Smallville, Supernatural, Legend of the Seeker, Breaking Bad and The Vampire Diaries...
and Vince Gilligan
Vince Gilligan
Vince Gilligan is an American writer, director and producer. He is the creator of the highly acclaimed television series Breaking Bad. Gilligan has also worked on the hit series The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen. He is a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University...
wrote the teleplay. The episode was directed by Kim Manners
Kim Manners
Kim Manners was an American television producer, director and child actor best known for his work on The X-Files and Supernatural.-Early life:...
.
In the episode, a mystery involving two skeletons leads the agents on a journey in which nothing is quite as it seems. The episode was generally well-received by fans and critics alike. The episode is a monster-of-the-week (standalone) episode.
Plot summary
The episode opens with Wallace and Angela Schiff returning home after a day out hiking in the fields of North CarolinaNorth Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
. Angela appears to be exhausted after spending most of the day chasing after her overeager husband and is starting to get a headache
Headache
A headache or cephalalgia is pain anywhere in the region of the head or neck. It can be a symptom of a number of different conditions of the head and neck. The brain tissue itself is not sensitive to pain because it lacks pain receptors. Rather, the pain is caused by disturbance of the...
. Whilst taking a shower she thinks she is hallucinating and sees images of a yellow gooey substance running down the walls in the shower but shakes it off. Angela and Wallace head off to bed in one other's arms but as the camera pans out the scene shifts to their skeletal remains in the same position in the middle of a field.
Mulder
Fox Mulder
FBI Special Agent Fox William Mulder is a fictional character and protagonist in the American Fox television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence. Mulder's peers consider his theories on...
is filling in Scully
Dana Scully
FBI Special Agent Dana Katherine Scully, M.D. is a fictional character and protagonist on the Fox television series The X-Files , played by Gillian Anderson. She also appeared in two theatrical films based on the series...
about the discovery of the remains at a well-known site of strange unexplained phenomena
Brown Mountain Lights
The Brown Mountain Lights are a series of ghost lights reported near Brown Mountain in North Carolina. The lights can be seen from the Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks at mile posts 310 and 301 and from the Brown Mountain Overlook on NC Highway 181 between Morganton, NC and Linville, NC...
but Scully seems keen as ever to find a more rational explanation. After showing her images of the bones and the fact they were only a few days old Scully concludes it looks like a ritualistic killing and that the bones were stripped of the flesh by boiling with/or acid
Acid
An acid is a substance which reacts with a base. Commonly, acids can be identified as tasting sour, reacting with metals such as calcium, and bases like sodium carbonate. Aqueous acids have a pH of less than 7, where an acid of lower pH is typically stronger, and turn blue litmus paper red...
. However, they head off to examine the remains themselves.
The coroner is just about to send the remains away for burial when the agents arrive to view them. After closer examination they find a strange yellow goo covering the underside of the skeletons which was missed in the original examination. Mulder heads out to the scene of the discovery while Scully stays to perform more testing on the remains.
As Mulder arrives in the fields, he inadvertently drives over a patch of mushrooms with his car which seem to release a cloud of smoke. As he exits the vehicle and takes a look around he spots what he thinks is Wallace running away and takes chase, eventually following him down a cave
Cave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
. Inside the cave, Mulder finds that the way he came in seems to have been replaced with solid rock. He catches up with Wallace in the cave he discovers that Wallace thinks he and his wife Angela have been abducted by aliens and covered up their disappearance with the false skeletons
Pseudocide
A faked death occurs when an individual leaves evidence to suggest that he or she is dead in order to mislead others. This may be done for a variety of reasons, such as to fraudulently collect insurance money or avoid capture by law enforcement for some other crime.People who fake their own deaths...
. Meanwhile, Scully has discovered that the yellow goo mainly consists of organic material found in digestive juices but this seems to emanate from a plant rather than an animal. Unable to reach Mulder on the phone, she heads off to find him.
Arriving at the field, Scully starts to look for Mulder and accidentally steps on some more of the mushrooms that Mulder flattened earlier. Starting to follow his tracks, Scully finds they lead up to the cave and apparently lead inside.
Mulder and Wallace are now talking when a bright light appears in the tunnel entrance. Wallace is scared that it is the aliens returning but Mulder heads up to take a look and finds Angela has returned from her abduction. After describing the text book story of the tests that have been performed as well as locating an implant, Mulder starts to believe their story. Once again, the bright light from the tunnel entrance begins to shine and Mulder heads up to investigate.
The scene fades to Mulder's front door as Scully arrives. Mulder answers and checks she is on her own before letting her in. Inside are Wallace and Angela. Mulder explains how they got there. Scully still doesn't believe the alien abduction story until Mulder shows her into his bedroom and hiding behind the boxes in the dark is an alien creature. Scully is astonished and quickly apologizes to Mulder for ever doubting him. However, Mulder starts to doubt his surroundings and his disbelief in what is going on begins to increase. As he washes his face with water he starts to see the yellow goo Angela saw earlier but quickly shakes it off as a hallucination
Hallucination
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...
. But, as he discusses the situation with Scully, his apartments seems to dissolve and everyone seems to melt into the yellow goo. Mulder awakens in the cave he followed Wallace into earlier, covered in the yellow goo, being digested alive.
Outside in the field, Scully and the coroner happen across more of the yellow goo. The coroner also spots footsteps leading out of the cave which Scully insists weren't there earlier. However, as the coroner follows them, he finds Mulder's skeletal remains lying on the floor.
At the coroner's office, Scully is identifying Mulder's remains from his dental records but finds no evidence of the goo on the skeleton. The coroner then informs Scully that he believes that this is a ritualistic killing with boiling of the bones in an acid to remove the flesh, the theory Scully had originally believed to explain the remains of Angela and Wallace.
Back at the FBI, Scully is reporting back to Skinner
Walter Skinner
FBI Assistant Director Walter Sergei Skinner is a fictional character in the American FOX television shows The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, two science fiction shows about a government conspiracy to hide or deny the truth of Alien existence...
about her report and her findings of the deaths of Mulder and the Schiffs. Skinner seems to agree with Scully's report but Scully is herself doubting her own findings and is not convinced by her own theories that everyone seems to be agreeing with.
Mulder's wake is in progress at his apartment. Notably, Skinner and the Lone Gunmen
The Lone Gunmen
The Lone Gunmen are a trio of fictional characters, Richard "Ringo" Langly, Melvin Frohike and John Fitzgerald Byers, who have recurring roles on the American television series The X-Files. They also starred in a short-lived spin-off, also called The Lone Gunmen. The name was derived from the lone...
are in attendance along with several others. The Gunmen tell Scully they looked at her report and totally agree with her findings which Scully finds unbelievable. There is a knock at the door and Scully answers but finds Mulder standing in the doorway. The rest of the wake congregation has disappeared. As Mulder and Scully discuss what has happened, they both begin to realize that they are both still in the cave being digested by the goo and that the mushrooms they broke caused an LSD-type trip causing them to become comatose whilst the organism began digesting them. As the realization occurs, they both awaken, deep in the cave and Mulder fights his way out of the ground dragging Scully behind him to safety.
In Skinner's office, where Mulder and Scully report on their findings, that an organism spreading many miles underground lures its prey into being consumed by inducing a hallucinogenic trip whilst it digests them. Skinner notes that it is rare that their reports agree on the same conclusion. However, Mulder begins to doubt that they're free at all, asking Scully to name any sort of drug that causes its effects to halt once the user knows they are hallucinating, and observing that they have no apparent flesh injuries despite being exposed to the goo's hydrochloric acid
Hydrochloric acid
Hydrochloric acid is a solution of hydrogen chloride in water, that is a highly corrosive, strong mineral acid with many industrial uses. It is found naturally in gastric acid....
. Scully is in disbelief until Mulder proves his point by shooting Skinner in the chest; the yellow goo oozes out of the bullet wounds.
Once again, their surroundings melt away as they awaken underground again in the cave. Mulder manages to stick his hand through the earth ceiling as Skinner and a team of rescue staff with masks on manage to locate them and drag them out and haul them to the safety of an ambulance. Scully murmurs "Mushroom
Mushroom
A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
," to Skinner, with Skinner replying that they already "found it." Once inside the ambulance, Mulder and Scully weakly hold hands.
Reception
The episode garnered a Nielsen rating of 9.5 with a 15 share. It was viewed by 9,431,000 households.External links
- Field Trip at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...