THE ERLENMEYER FLASK

                                   What you are looking at exists nowhere in nature....it would have to be by                                                       definition, extra-terrestrial

The episode opens with a Police chase which ends at the waterfront and a male jumping out of the pursued vehicle and running towards the water. He is shot by one attending officer but nevertheless he continues to run, and finally jumping into the water. The officer is adamant that he shot him....

Some time following this event we see Mulder receive a call from his informant Deepthroat, who tells him to watch the news report on channel 8, with Mulder observing a manhunt following a suspect leaping into the harbour. Mulder plays the tape of the report to Scully, and struggles to see what it is they are actually looking for. The agents go down to the waterfront eighteen hours after the event had occurred, and the search has yet to reveal a body. What they do find is that the vehicle used in the chase had been switched at the harbour, and that the vehicle is registered to one Dr Terrance Allen Berube...a lead at last.

Mulder and Scully pay a visit to Dr Berube at his workplace, the Emgen Corporation Gaithesburg, Maryland, and it is clear that he is conducting tests on animals. Mulder asks the Dr if he was aware his car had been stolen, to which he sharply answers no and asks them to leave. Both agents are frustrated that the investigation is going nowhere and Scully believes that Deepthroat is toying with Mulder - however a further meeting with Deepthroat suggests that Mulder is relying on him too much - and that he needs to look harder as he is closer to the truth than ever before.  Elsewhere the manhunt for the male is called up and we see this fugitive emerge from the water, and at the Emgen corporation Dr Berube is murdered by an unknown male - although it is made to look like suicide. Mulder and Scully attend the scene and that latter informs Mulder that Berube was working on a human genome project. She picks up a bottle of solution titled 'purity control' and Mulder asks that the substance be analysed.

Mulder meanwhile makes the decision to visit Berubes house in the aim of finding out more about his work. He finds a key to a building and traces where the building is - however as he makes a call out of the address he does not realise that he is being listened in on by the same male who murdered Berube. He then answer Berubes telephone and speaks to one Dr Secare, who is the fugitive, but before Mulder can gain his position the male collapses and an ambulance is called. Meanwhile at Georgetown University, the microbiology department, Dr Anne Carpenter states that her first impression of the liquid is that it is some form of bacterial specimen, although further investigation is required. She tells Scully that she has never seen anything like it, and that whilst this bacteria may have existed in the past, it would not have been for millions of years. She explains that within a DNA sequence only four nuclear tides exist, and every living thing is based on these four building blocks - however this sample contains a fifth and sixth base pair, and that this exists nowhere in nature - effectively it is extra terrestrial.

Meanwhile Mulder tracks down what appears to be a warehouse and finds the door that matches the key he took from Berube's. He sees what appears to be human beings in tanks of solution - although they are hooked up to some computer and still alive. He quickly leaves and is pursued by some men including the same guy who listened in to his earlier conversation. He evades them and he and Scully return to the same room the following day - only to find that it is empty. Deepthroat is there however and he informs that agents that human experiments with extra terrestrial viruses has been ongoing, and that they have had the primary tissue sample since 1947. He explains that in the room in which they are standing the first human alien hybrid was created - Dr Secare, and that the humans Mulder saw were some of the six original volunteers who were all diagnosed with terminal illnesses. As a result of extra terrestrial gene therapy all six patients began to recover from their illnesses, and whilst Dr Secare was able to lead a normal life, he had inhuman strength, toxic blood and an ability to breath underwater. However Secare and Berube were friends, and the former warned his friend that he was due to be terminated - letting these hybrids into the real world would prove to be a liability. It is now clear that those in high places within the government want all evidence destroyed, and Mulder states that he will find Secare.

Mulder heads back to Berube residence and finds Secare - however the strange men who have been following Mulder are also there and they shoot Secare and kidnap Mulder. Back at the Georgetown laboratory Scully discovers that Dr Anne Carpenter died in a car crash, and turns to Deepthroat for help when Mulder goes missing. She is told that she must bargain for Mulder's life, and the only way to do this would be for her to gain possession of the original alien tissue, which is stored at a high security facility. Deepthroat organises passes for her to get into Fort Marlene and she manages to find the tissue - a small alien type creature in a flask - and gives it to Deepthroat to make the deal. Whilst Mulder is released Deepthroat is shot by the assassins.

The first series ends with Mulder telling Scully that the X Files is being shut down, and that whilst Skinner gave the instruction the word is that it came from the top....

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