 The 2016 revival of the X-Files was a long-awaited continuation of the story of the popular TV series. The producers made the creative decision to throw everything we thought we knew from past seasons into question. They presumably did this as a way of simplifying and starting fresh on what had been an intricately complex "mythology." A virus, also known as the Black Oil, appeared on Earth millions of years ago, we were told. If true, it may have evolved here. More likely it arrived by meteor or some other means. It has been said that it was the first intelligence to "walk the planet." The virus, looking in its natural form like oil, had the ability to enter other living things and take over their bodies. As a result, the virus appeared to be sentient in some way. Another group of aliens, these humanoid, also appeared to have arrived long ago, in excess of 35,000 years ago. The Black Oil apparently took control of some or all of these aliens. One group of the aliens may have left, probably under the control of the virus, and possibly to seek reinforcements. Others apparently remained on Earth, in hibernation in various secret underground locations. Large reservoirs of the Black Oil also existed underground on Earth. It seemed plausible that there were not enough humans on Earth at that time to support a Black Oil colony. We thought we had learned that from time to time over the centuries, the Black Oil aliens abducted humans, possibly to serve as hosts for their operatives, known to X-Files fans as "Bounty Hunters." For example, the Cigarette Smoking Man said that aliens captured virtually the entire Anasazi people around 1300 A.D., except for a few elders who were protected in a pueblo containing magnetite, the presence of which the aliens apparently could not survive. We thought we had learned that the main body of aliens was returning in a colonization force, possibly having acquired reinforcements. We believed that their advance party was here and had been working with the Consortium (a.k.a. the Syndicate) for decades. We had reason to believe that their goal was to take over the bodies of the entire human race. It seemed likely that this force of aliens represents is what is commonly called the "Gray Aliens," under the control of the virus. It appeared from original series episodes that American intelligence agencies first learned of the aliens at Roswell, N. M. in 1947, or other events around that time, and of the colonization plans in 1973. Powerful men of many governments around the world realized they had no way to stop the colonization, we were told. Instead, they formed their own organization and negotiated an agreement with the advance group of aliens - in exchange for assistance from the Consortium, the members of the Consortium and their families would be protected and not occupied by the Black Oil. The means offered to them by the alien Colonists, we believed, was a plan to create human-alien hybrids that would be immune from the virus. Once a successful hybrid was developed, the members of the Consortium would be given gene therapy to convert them also into hybrids. It appeared that the Consortium used the code name "Purity Control" for this plan. German and Japanese scientists who had performed unethical research on humans during World War II were employed to continue their work in the Purity Control project. The development of cloning and the use of abductees as sources of genetic material was all part of this effort. Abductees were tracked by means of their vaccination scars. The Colonists, it appeared, were content to wait for decades while these things were developing, possibly because most of them were in suspended animation. The schedule calling for the invasion to happen in 2012 would also provided plenty of time to advance the scientific art. What was in it for the aliens? They apparently lacked the ability to mount an operation large enough to conquer the Earth before their main colonization force was to arrive in 2012. Their work with the Consortium seemed to allow them to control and manipulate the governmental response to their existence, thus inhibiting legitimate efforts to prevent colonization. This appeared to be unusually politically astute for a group of aliens, but they would have been studying and occupying humans for thousands of years, possibly allowing them to understand human psychology well. We believed that for at least some members of the Consortium, their cooperation with the aliens was a sham - a delaying tactic to allow time to develop a real defense against the invasion. Enormous resources were put into what appeared to be an effort to develop a vaccine against the Black Oil virus. This vaccine, if it could be developed, would have both protect humans from being invaded by the virus and would expel the virus from people who were already inhabited. The alien plan, however, also appeared to have hidden agendas. Humans, once enslaved, would have been used to gestate Gray aliens, a process that would have resulted in genocide because the process would kill the human host. The Grays, the alleged source of the alien DNA used for the hybridization experiments, were apparently more preferable to the intelligent virus for their long-term habitation, but the Consortium did not appear to know this. This appeared to be because the Grays had powers not possessed by humans, such as the ability to shape change and employ extraordinary mental powers. While many of the human abductees were experimented on and released, others were taken to secret installations, such as the ship buried beneath the ice in the Antarctic, and turned over to the Colonists. The Corn and the Bees were another element for testing this plan, although their exact role was unclear. The Consortium may also have hoped that the corn (or processed corn oil) could be used to distribute the vaccine around the world. It is interesting to note that bees do not pollinate corn; this may have been an elaborate deception used by the Consortium to misdirect the Colonists, if they existed.
The Consortium/Syndicate The Consortium began as a covert alliance of intelligence operatives, managing the research and covering-up the work on Purity Control. Over the years, however, the Consortium became a shadow organization, accumulating power and influence across international borders. By 1990, the operation ceased to have members accountable to any one government. Their only chain of command was their own internal structure. Conrad Strugholdt, a German industrialist who had fled his homeland to Northern Africa, became their acknowledged leader. To protect against exposure, the Consortium appeared to employ methods of disinformation, using covert control of government agencies to hide their work. If the aliens actually existed, the Consortium appeared to also, at times, worked with them - the alien Bounty Hunters. For the Consortium, the ends came to justify the means. Past X-Files seasons suggested that the Cigarette Smoking Man was one of those members of the Consortium who was not ready to surrender to the Colonists, but who rather was ready to go to any length to hinder the invasion. While his motivations and agendas were far from clear, he appeared to be working within the Consortium to defeat the Colonists and to undermine those members of the Consortium who were ready to collaborate. Early in the 2000s, the Consortium's research efforts appeared to have finally developed a successful human-alien hybrid, Cassandra Spender. The alien Colonists, if they existed, were thus understood to be ready to move ahead and the Consortium had to admit defeat. As had been agreed so many years before, the members and their families gathered in an aircraft hangar to be taken into "protection" by the Colonists. When the alleged alien spacecraft arrived, however, the members of the Consortium were killed, possibly by a different faction of aliens, or possibly by the "new" conspiracy we learned about in 2016. The Supersoldiers also first appeared around the year 2000. We don't know who created them, but we were led to believe that they were transformed from normal humans as the result of treatments they received while abduction victims. Presumably this was some kind of DNA gene therapy. It may have been somewhat similar to the treatments received by Cassandra Spender - DNA injections (either genetically engineered human DNA, alien DNA, or both) to transform the body. Cassandra got immunity to disease. The Supersoldiers got a lot more, including a metallic skeleton that could regenerate from a single bone. The series finale suggested that the Supersoldiers were the creation of the Black Oil aliens and are being used to further the invasion plans. They would presumably pass their DNA on to their descendents, eventually resulting in a planet of Supersoldiers. Because Supersoldiers could regenerate their bodies after massive injuries, one Supersoldier host might incubate endless numbers of Grays.
Mulder and Scully In the 1990s, Agent Mulder discovered The X-Files and with his partner, Agent Scully, began putting pressure on the Consortium, threatening to expose Purity Control. They slowly and painfully assembled an understanding of what was happening, as fantastic as it was. Even Scully could not explain everything they say in scientific terms.
So, what do we know now? The invasion did not take place in 2012. Either it was not a real thing to begin with, or the aliens were defeated somehow. We have no evidence that they were defeated. It appears that some human faction IS in possession of alien technology, including the ability to make Alien Replica Vehicles (ARVs). It is unclear whether any of the aliens are still around or active pats of the story. Remnants of the Consortium still exist, at least as a small faction led by the Cigarette Smoking Man, and his assistant Monica Reyes. It is unknown the extent of this organization, or whether it includes actual aliens, bounty hunters, supersoldiers, etc. The current plot led by the Cigarette Smoking Man appears to be to allow all humans to die from a plague, except for a few chosen who will survive and rebuild civilization. The 2016 episodes would have us believe that this was the goal of all of the research using clones, bees, vaccination scars, and so forth that originally appeared to be related to an alien invasion. So "Purity Control", if it ever existed, may have had the goal of creating a man-made plague, while giving immunity to selected individuals, as opposed to an alien plague or infestation. Scully and Mulder again have official sanction to investigate cases of the paranormal, but everything they thought they knew is now suspect, opening the door for new storylines about fresh conspiracies, creatures, and mysteries. In 2016, Mulder came to suspect that everything he thought he knew was false, things he was led to believe to keep the true events secret. The Cigarette Smoking Man appeared to be leading an end to civilization himself, rather than opposing an alien invasion. We also have the question of young William Scully and why entities that appeared to be aliens (residing in Georgia) and Supersoldiers seemed so interested in his birth. At the end of the original run of X-Files episodes, it appeared that William was unique because he was the first child born of two parents who had first been infected by the Black Oil, and then freed by the vaccine. The genetic reinforcement of the altered DNA of his parents could make William a one-of-a-kind child, possibly like Kyle and Molly in 2016's Founders Mutation. This is where we begin the 2018 episodes.
Copyright © 2018 by Michael Marek
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