Provenance And Providence

[ethsnafu]

Almost at the end of mythology marathon folks and I have enjoyed it immensley. "The Truth" is tonight and I await it with baited breath but I am taking a moment to look at "Provenance and Providence" and hope you will join me. Now I enjoyed this two-parter much more that "This Is Not Happening"/"Deadalive" and thought it was a mytharc episode there was decidedly less myth and much more melodrama than in times gone by.

I had forgotten the fate that befell Doggett in the first episode of the duo and realised that there were a fair number of 'bedside vigils' in the ninth season of the show. If I recall rightly Reyes was beside John's bed in "4D" he was beside hers in "Audrey Pauley" she was beside his again in "Provenance" - it's wonder they made it to the end of the season but that's merely an observation.

I just want to get clear my thinking here. I assume the UFO cult were taken by the aliens to be yet more victims of experimentation proving that devotion to them does you no favours in the long run. So if William was so coveted by the forces of light and darkness why was he left behind? Am I right in thinking that Comer's assertion that he was coveted was in reference to the various earthly groups, on both sides of the spectrum, who wanted him as a bargaining chip?

Also, can I just confirm my thinking that William represents the first super soilder born rather than created via the virus?

If anyone has any good links to share on the whole super soldier arc I would be really appreciative.

Eth

[ethsnafu]

Here I go again,

I've been thinking about this whole super-soldier (SS from hereon in)arc dear friends and bear with when I say I really enjoyed it. I know it is de rigueur to really like season nine of the show but I find it really enjoyable.

Am I right in thinking that that SS storyline was partially created to give John Doggett a viable reason to remain in the X-Files? I know he was charged with finding Mulder and chose to remain with the department once Mulder was found but I always felt that he did this because of his growing affection for Scully and his brotherly desire to protect her. Once Scully was no longer his partner it did seem a stretch for me that a man of his background and his beliefs would remain in such a role given the career-killing effects of being associated with it.

With Doggett a former military man was it reasoned that a conspiracy that seemed to lead right back to the military machine and also involve his former comrade, Knowle Rohrer would be the Samantha-Mulder-incident that John was lacking in explaining his conviction in hanging around the X-Files?

Any truth in my thinking folks?

Eth

[Orodromeus]

Now I enjoyed this two-parter much more that "This Is Not Happening"/"Deadalive" and thought it was a mytharc episode there was decidedly less myth and much more melodrama than in times gone by.

I had forgotten the fate that befell Doggett in the first episode of the duo and realised that there were a fair number of 'bedside vigils' in the ninth season of the show. If I recall rightly Reyes was beside John's bed in "4D" he was beside hers in "Audrey Pauley" she was beside his again in "Provenance" - it's wonder they made it to the end of the season but that's merely an observation.

Yes, a lot of melodrama in these episodes and season 9 altogether -- which, in my book, is a bad point. That, coupled with the rather preposterous messiah "revelation" and the nail-in-the-coffin line "Bring me the head of Fox Mulder!" make this two-parter the worst mythology episodes of the series.

I just want to get clear my thinking here. I assume the UFO cult were taken by the aliens to be yet more victims of experimentation proving that devotion to them does you no favours in the long run. So if William was so coveted by the forces of light and darkness why was he left behind? Am I right in thinking that Comer's assertion that he was coveted was in reference to the various earthly groups, on both sides of the spectrum, who wanted him as a bargaining chip?

I assumed the UFO cult was burnt when the ship took off. The cult was completely irrelevant to the aliens, just like somebody might step on an anthill and think nothing more out of it. William was spared because he held a special significance to the aliens. "Good and evil" could be pro- and anti-colonization humans or aliens (Rebels?), interchangeably depending on your point of view. Now as to why the aliens didn't take William with them to begin with, I guess it's the same reason why they didn't kill Mulder straight away ("The Truth", IWTB): it's not the story CC & FS wanted to tell. Maybe they were content Scully was doing the lousy babysitting work for them.

Also, can I just confirm my thinking that William represents the first super soilder born rather than created via the virus?

Very interesting! That's exactly my theory and I've defended it everywhere but rarely seen it elsewhere in the forums! How did you come to that conclusion?

For what it's worth, my analysis is here.

Am I right in thinking that that SS storyline was partially created to give John Doggett a viable reason to remain in the X-Files?

Yes, completely! I remember reading in interviews that the mythology was shaped to take a turn towards more action, suspense and straight-forwardness so as to stick closer to the character of Doggett. And surely Doggett's background in the military was put there because of the Supersoldiers' close ties to the military as well. It certainly fits better Doggett's character than it does Mulder's.

So there were the Supersoldiers, which were directly linked to the "old" M&S mythology, refitted to reflect the new characters of the show. And there was also the beginnings of a different mythology, one concerning the nature of evil and the mystery of Doggett's son's death: "Invocation", "Empedocles", "Hellbound", "Release". The parallel of Doggett's son Luke and Mulder's sister Samantha as character-defining plot threads is striking. This, I like to think, would have been the central mythology of a "Next Generation" X-Files had Doggett & Reyes continued on a season 10.

[ethsnafu]

Very interesting! That's exactly my theory and I've defended it everywhere but rarely seen it elsewhere in the forums! How did you come to that conclusion?

For what it's worth, my analysis is here.

Now that does surprise me to read. I would have thought that it was literally all there on the screen for all see. I shall give you a few examples of how I came to the conclusion and forgive me if I get some of the instances a little confused.

Now I got the impression that it was implied that Dana Scully was more than likely taken aboard the USS Valor Victory during her abduction. It was here that the chip was inserted into her neck that would prepare her physiology for the super soldier at a later date. I also came to thinking that the reason for Scully's inability to conceive was deliberate rather than a consequence. If the chip (as I believe) served the function (among others) of changing the fetus' physiology during conception then it was essential that this was done in a controlled manner and when the SS procedure had been perfected and for that reason the hosts of the chips were rendered barren to prevent any pregnancies in the meantime from causing the chip to become active before the process was refined.

It also makes sense that as the date of colonization moved closer there would need to be a task force in place to deal with human resistance. The problem as I see it is that the process the aliens were utilising was sloppy in that it was slow and fraught with problems. As there would evidently be a need to create a silent army, one that the population did not suspect was simply growing in their midst, another method was required rather then the abduction/infection method which by the time of Deadalive was already something the resistance movement could combat. Creating super soldiers from the children of former abductess creates a method by which few people would realise what was actually going on until it was too late. That said, as William was the first human born SS and colonisation was a mere 12 years away then I would assume that it would have been implied (had the show gone on) that left alone these human SS's would age much more rapidly than normal children bringing them to early adulthood in just over a decade.

I think the first time it's blatant that William was a human SS was the point at which Knowle Rohrer states that William is the result of a conspiracy to create a human-born super soldier though I accept that it is shown that he is duplicitous. I believe Shannon McMahon also hinted that William was a human born super soldier. Add to this the presence of the SS's at Williams birth and him being rendered inert by a modified form of magnetite no less then I think it was evident where they were going with the William storyline.

I know all that's hazy as I don't have the most encyclopaedic knowledge of the X-Files and I am sure there are countless more examples on screen of where it is hinted but that's just a brief resume of my thoughts. I will try and commit more to screen soon and do a better job of it.

Eth

[Guest WaveCrest]

Mark and Orodromeus, is there any possibility that you two could co-write a new X Files mythology book, containing these theories? Or if not, create an X Files mytharc library on the web containing your theories for the various mytharc elements in alphabetical order?

[ethsnafu]

Gosh not me Richard. I am touched you even think I'm capable of writing something like that but I really am not. I would adore a mytharc book though so if anyone knows of such a thing please do share a title. If the absence of anything physical may I point you in the direction of Oro's superb mythology roundup at his website. As I have been reliving the X-Files a little of late it has become something of a playground for yours truly and really is the best resource out there for mytharc-truth seekers.

Happy reading!

Eth

[Orodromeus]

WaveCrest, I invite you to follow the link Eth posted as well. This is to my knowledge and my humblest opinion the most complete and clear rundown of the XF mythology still online. On that page there's also the possibility to download the whole thing in printer-friendly pdf format, if you'd rather take your eyes off the screen.

Eth, I agree on everything you wrote about William being a human-born Supersoldier, it seem you followed the exact same thinking as I did. One thing though:

Now I got the impression that it was implied that Dana Scully was more than likely taken aboard the USS Valor Victory during her abduction. It was here that the chip was inserted into her neck that would prepare her physiology for the super soldier at a later date. I also came to thinking that the reason for Scully's inability to conceive was deliberate rather than a consequence. If the chip (as I believe) served the function (among others) of changing the fetus' physiology during conception then it was essential that this was done in a controlled manner and when the SS procedure had been perfected and for that reason the hosts of the chips were rendered barren to prevent any pregnancies in the meantime from causing the chip to become active before the process was refined.

I'd disagree on that one. You see, I don't think the Syndicate was at all aware of the Supersoldier project, which was a secret project conducted by the Colonists, a kind of Plan B that was in place in case the Syndicate somehow failed (which it did). So I don't think Scully was taken to the Valor Victor, nor that her future SS pregnancy was pre-planned. Instead, the SS used all the resources left available to them by the Syndicate to their own ends (see also the NIHT thread), in this case using previous abductees as remotely controlled gestators for "biological Supersoldiers" (the term is used in "Essence" to describe William).

I'm not too sure about them growing at an unnaturally fast pace as this would be too science fiction-y à la "Earth: Final Conflict", however this young generation of SS would be the perfect task force, ready to eliminate human resistance from within. Perhaps that's a potential storyline for XF3?

[ethsnafu]

So I don't think Scully was taken to the Valor Victor, nor that her future SS pregnancy was pre-planned.

Here I am again, knee deep in XF mythology. That will teach me to have a marathon viewing. It kind of grabs you.

Are you sure about this Oro? I ask, not to be confrontational, as I am still ordering my super-soldier thoughts but isn't this stated in Reyes' defense in "The Truth" which is, essentially, CC bullet-pointing the mytharc. She states...

from NIHT2 (9X02):

On the Valor Victor deep in the on-board lab, Scully searches through the names looking for either her own and/or her son's.]

REYES:

We came to learn that Scully was one of a number of random women who had miraculous childbirths and these women all had been abducted as part of a government program to secretly manipulate their biology operating offshore on a navy ship using these women as surrogates.

SOURCE

...that's very definite in terms of what the final thinking was with regards to where these women, Scully included, were taken during their abduction. I assert, again, that it it's not a case of Reyes states but more a case of Chris Carter states which is what those scenes were really all about.

I'm all for accepting that Scully was not taken aboard the Valor Victory but as this was the final word on what happened to her I am wondering on what you base your assertion that she wasn't.

Please do chip in, I'm loving the confab.

Eth

[Orodromeus]

I assert, again, that it it's not a case of Reyes states but more a case of Chris Carter states which is what those scenes were really all about.

There were quite a few debates on exactly this point after "The Truth" aired. I'd certainly be inclined to agree with your point.

However, Reyes' quote is problematic. If you accept it, then you have to accept that:

- the "Valor Victor babies" are part of a government program. We both agreed that these babies were destined to become Supersoldiers, and that this whole thing is ultimately controlled by the older version of the Supersoldiers. So is it a "government program" like Reyes says or is it a program using military/government resources but led by infiltrated aliens?

- when Scully was abducted in 1994 the Valor Victor project was already actively searching methods for creating these babies. But Scully's abudction was already fully explained throughout seasons 2-6 as part of the human/alien hybridization project controlled by the (human) Syndicate. So were the aliens/Supersoldiers already using governmental resources for their own secret goals right under the eyes of the Syndicate? The SS only "took over" in 2000; before that date they were pretty much waiting to be activated, and the Syndicate was "in charge".

Reyes also says that the point was to create "alien babies" when technically they're hybrids, however calling them hybrids would be confusing as the term was already "occupied" in the XF mythos by pre-season 8 hybrids. So calling them aliens or alien facsimiles is a simplification for clarity's sake, which is what the above quote might have been.

As much as this is indeed Carter's simple rundown of the mythology, the characters are still written as speaking through their own point of view, which was informed by only partial knowledge of the whole. Doggett doesn't accept the existence of aliens. Marita says the vaccine was being developed to save only the Syndicate when CSM had said it was to save everybody ("One Son"). There's even a quite blatant date mistake on Samantha's death in Jeffrey Spender's testimony, it's not 1987. Only Mulder and Scully can be said to know all the pieces (and again, arguably).

What I'm getting at is that all sentences were correct in generic terms, but several did include some approximations so as to manage to narrate the whole of XF's mythology in an hour.

[ethsnafu]

If ever you visit Blighty we are going to the pub. No arguments. OK let me have a go.

So is it a "government program" like Reyes says or is it a program using military/government resources but led by infiltrated aliens?

I would say the latter. Shannon McMahon also asserted that the SS project was goverment/military project at least at the time she and Rohrer were created as Adam and Eve and we know that SS's fought for the United States Army in The Gulf War for example. My assumption is that this began as a government project but, as you say, became corrupted from within.

I guess one of the counter arguments for this could be that Rohrer is certainly seen to be on the side of the colonists but as McMahon demonstrates the first generation SS's seemingly retained free-will, it could well be that Rohrer chose to side with the latter generation SS's by choice whereas McMahon sought to resist them. I would also imagine this is why further experimentation continued after Adam and Eve as there's little point creating SS's that can choose to fight on the opposite side.

We know that elements within The Syndicate resisted the Colonists. We know that the Colonists were also secretly working counter to the facade of mutual friendship with The Syndicate. It could simply be that the Colonists appropriated the research pertaining to the SS project and realised that a potentially unstoppable resistance force was being created by the military at which point they infiltrated the project using alien bounty hunters and continued the research to create an army of their own, one more loyal than the duplicitous Syndicate. Some of the early SS's remained loyal to the cause (Rohrer) others sought to expose it (McMahon).

My thinking goes something like this. This procedure was developed by the Military in co-operation with The Syndicate using knowledge they had gleaned from the alien-human-hybrid programme which too resulted in subjects with heightened levels of strength. Realising that if a vaccine failed they would need a plan b, The Syndicate secretly began to exploit the physical augmentation aspect of the hybridisation procedure and created a project to explore the military benefits of this aboard the Valor Victor. A number of women, Scully included, are then abducted and tests are conducted in an effort to perfect the procedure.

What I'm trying to suggest is that the SS project could simply be an offshoot of the alien/hybridization project and that the earlier reveal that this was the reason for Scully's abduction is not rendered invalid if Reyes' statement were true. She was taken as part of that programme, a military off-shoot of it, it's what their intentions for taking her were that are modified.

The project at some point perfects a means of creating a SS and creates Adam and Eve. A second generation of soldiers are created and these are deployed in The Gulf War to test them in battle situations.

The Colonists become aware of the project by accident (by abduction) or by design (a mole) and decide to destroy the project, appropriate it for their own use and replace The Syndicate in the process.

They infiltrate it using alien bounty hunters who replace "Project: SS" big guns by assuming their identities. They gain access to the research the project has amassed and appropriate it. Realising the problem of free will still remains an issue they abduct test subjects and submit them to surgical augmentation whilst developing a viral agent that replaces the humanity of the SS with a mindless and subservient drone mentality.

The procedure is not without its problems. It is a slow process and one that Scully proves can be resisted without much effort but with enough replicants now in strategic positions in the Government, FBI and the military and with Project: SS and Valor Victor completely under their control they are able to continue to experiment in the hope that they can refine the process. When Scully gives birth in "Existence", the replicants were in attendance to confirm their suspicions that they efforts had born fruit. Now that a way had been created to breed a secret army had been perfected that would allow this army to grow, literally, right before the world's eyes with few suspicions raised. It is from this point on that chloramine is added to the water supply to realise this.

Evidently some elements within what remains of The Syndicate did try to counter this threat. I would suggest that the experimentation Spender endured was not to create a super-soldier but to find a means to combat one which is why he was dreadfully disfigured by what was done to him whereas McMahon and Rohrer were not. I would guess this experimentation led toi the development of the vaccine Krycek possessed which could well have been a soluble form of modified magnetite as later used by Spender to render William Scully inert.

McMahon stated that the programme began approximately 50 years ago. It took most of this time to create the first generation SS's and in a matter of years they are able to create a further six iterations resulting in the birth of a SS to a human. I would assert that this is because the Colonists took control of the project and were able to advance it rapidly.

Anyhow, I completely accept your point that Reyes is channelling Chris Carter, as are most of the characters in the court room scenes, but still retaining her truths. As the Colonist infiltration of the SS project was no doubt made possible by replacing strategic people in powerful places to all intents and purposes it remains a Government/Military project albeit one with a entirely different mandate. Reyes would therefore be right to assume it was a government project and to state as much and I still think it's possible that her assertion that Dana was taken aboard the Valor Victor during her abduction is true.

Or at least I'm sure today. Tomorrow? Who knows. If I have embarrassed myself before the XF knowledgeable here I apologise.

Eth