X-Files- Field Trip

Field Trip is one of my favorite episodes of the X-Files.

The episode begins with a young married couple, the Shiffs on a hiking trip returning to the cabin in which they are staying. Mrs. Shiff becomes frightened when she keeps having visions of yellow slime. She gets into bed and asks her husband to hold her. We then cut to their skeletons which are discovered weeks later, still clinging to each other.

Mulder and Scully examine the skeletons. They notice some yellow slime on the bones, which is later identified as some kind of stomach acid. 

Mulder suggests that this might have something to do with UFOs, like cattle mutilations, as the location, Brown Mountain, is associated with lights in the sky. As usual, Scully is sceptical and suggests this is more likely a murder with ritualistic overtones. For once, Mulder points out the obvious, expressing incredulity at her constant scepticism, despite every case turning out to involve something supernatural.

Mulder sets out to visit Brown Mountain, leaving Scully to continue forensic examinations of the skeletons. When he arrives, he steps on some mushrooms, which release a cloud of spores. He then enters a cave where, incredibly he meets the Shiffs still alive.

The Shiffs tell him that they had been kidnapped by aliens. Despite the terror of the couple, he brings them back to Washington DC. We then cut to his apartment, where he introduces the incredulous Scully to the Shiffs. He then takes her into his bedroom and shows her a live Grey alien that he has captured. Overjoyed, he tells Scully that all his dreams of proving the existence of aliens have come true. Nevertheless, the two agents then start puzzling over some discrepenacies in what is happening. Mulder then starts to see yellow slime everywhere.

We then go back to Scully, who has not heard anything from Mulder. She goes to Brown Mountain, where like her partner, she steps on some mushrooms that release spores into the air.

Scully then discovers a skeleton which is later identified as that of Mulder. She files a report to Assistant Director Skinner, concluding that Mulder was killed in a murder with ritualistic overtones. Skinner expresses agreement with this and congratulates her on doing a good job in difficult circumstances.

Scully then attends Mulder's funeral, at which the Lone Gunman tell her she did a good job of solving the case, agreeing that it must have been a murder. Scully becomes disturbed by the willingness of everybody to accept this explanation and points out that she still has no answers. She starts to see yellow slime.

Incredibly, Mulder appears, very much alive. Scully then comes up with a new theory that the two of them have been captured by a colossal fungus colony that consumes live victims. She suggests it pacifies its victims using hallucinogenic chemicals, putting them into a dreamlike state. At that moment, the two agents find themselves covered in yellow slime in a cave. They struggle out of the grasp of the fungus and out of the cave.

We then go to Skinner's office where Mulder and Scully file their report. Then Mulder asks how it was that they escaped so easily. He argues that they are still in the grip of the creature. To prove his point, he fires his gun at Skinner, who turns into yellow slime.

The two agents are then rescued by Skinner and their colleagues from the FBI.



I love this episode so much. It has a really eerie, dreamlike atmosphere to it. The idea of a creature that gives you happy dreams as it devours you is both haunting and disturbing.