Página PrincipalInternal dating:No date given, but if the air-date order tracks internal order, this episode happened in March 1994, after Miracle Man (around March 7th 1994) and before Born Again (starts March 27th). This is all rather odd, considering that Mulder and Scully were rather badly damaged by the events of this episode, casting doubt on whether this one and two others could fall into this three week period.
Olympia National Forest, Northwest Washington state, present day: A group of men stand arguing in a forest about trying to escape. They agree that their best chance would be to risk running to the road on their own. Just after sunset, two men helping each other through the forest are attacked by a swarm of green glowing objects.
The X-Files Office: Mulder shows Scully a slide of the 30 loggers who have disappeared from a logging camp. Mulder displays a slide of Stephen Key and Doug Spinney, eco-terrorists, also known as "monkey wrenchers," who use violent tactics and sabotage in order the forest. One week before the loggers disappeared, the monkey wrenchers had been sabotaging logging equipment. Two Federal Forest Service (FFS) agents who were sent to investigate have also disappeared.
When Scully questions Mulder's motives for making sure the case was assigned to them, he displays a third slide of a group of loggers working the same area who vanished in 1934. He believes that there is some correlation between the two events.
"You suspect what--Bigfoot?" Scully asks.
"Not likely. That's a lot of flannel to be choking down, even for Bigfoot," Mulder replies with a wry smile. He makes no guesses about what caused the disappearances.
Olympia National Forest: Mulder and Scully meet Larry Moore, an FFS ranger. Moore explains that "I have no quarrel with these eco-terrorists. . . It's their methods I can't condone." Scully wonders whether they would go so far as to commit murder, but Moore gives them no answer.
The head of security for the logging company introduces himself as Steve Humphreys, whose tirades about the monkey wrenchers reveal his conviction that the eco-terrorists are at fault for the disappearances. "Get the impression that we've walked into a war that's already started?" Scully says to Mulder.
The four climb into a pickup and begin the drive up the mountain. The truck runs over a tire spike, puncturing two tires. The tire spikes were placed there by the eco-terrorists to disable logging trucks. There is only one spare, so the four hike to the logging camp.
They discover that the camp has been abandoned in haste. Mulder notices a greasy residue over everything. The power generator is busted, the radio smashed; rice is found in the trucks' radiators, sugar and sand in the gas tanks. It seems that someone has taken precautions to ensure that the men could not escape whatever doom had befallen them. Scully says she 's sure of one thing: "It wasn't Bigfoot."
Moore, Mulder, and Scully hike through some an area which has been cleared of trees. Mulder notices something like a cocoon dangling in a tree near the edge of the cleared area. They use ropes to elevate Scully to reach the cocoon, and she cuts it down.
The opened cocoon reveals a body that "feels desiccated. . . like all the fluids have been bled from the body," as Scully observes. Moore conjectures that some insect has encased the body and drained the body's fluids."What kind of insect could have gotten a man all the way up in that tree?" Scully asks. "Itsy bitsy spider," Mulder replies sarcastically.
Back at the camp, Humphreys is repairing the generator. He finds Doug Spinney gulping down the food abandoned by the loggers. Spinney appears dirty, tired, and, judging from the gusto with which he consumes the food, starving. He gives no regard to Humphreys' threats and accusations. Mulder, Scully, and Moore return to find Humphrey confronting Spinney. "I don't know what happened to them--probably the same thing that's gonna happen to us when the sun goes down." As Mulder and Scully question him, Spinney says that they "come from the sky" at night. One of his companions from two valleys over became a victim. He came to the camp to steal a battery for his Jeep, so that he and the remaining companions could make the drive out.
Spinney accuses the logging company of cutting down "old growth trees," which are hundreds of years old and protected by law. It has gotten dark. Humphreys challenges Spinney's vague references to whatever force is responsible for the vanished loggers. When Spinney asserts that the reason they are safe in the cabin is because they are near a light source (a single lightbulb, powered by the repaired generator) and the mysterious enemies are afraid of the light.
Humphreys mockingly accepts this as a dare and stalks out into the darkness. The others crowd onto the porch and watch as Humphreys taunts the shadows. They fail to see a swarm of green concealed behind a tree, just outside the circle of light from the cabin. "There's nothing out there but a bunch of trees," Humphreys says.
The next day (after sleeping with the light on), the five hike up to the clearing again. Spinney points out an old growth Douglas fir which has been cut down. As they gather around the stump, Mulder notices a thick, dark, greenish ring towards the center of the trunk. Moore says he's never seen a ring like it before and takes a core sample for examination. Humphreys is exasperated--he thinks it's obvious that Spinney is at fault, and they should stop wasting time on a dead tree. When Mulder admits that he doesn't think Spinney is guilty, Humphreys explodes. He hikes off towards the road, intending to use the truck's radio to call in officials to arrest Spinney.
Later, at the cabin, Moore finds a parasite living in the ring. "This doesn't make sense." He explains that parasites attack only the living wood in trees. Scully notices that they seem to feed on the ring, and hatch out of the porous wood. Moore has never seen anything like it before. Scully suggests that they had tapped into a larger nest when they took the core sample, one that had lain dormant until the tree was cut down. "Maybe they woke up hungry," Spinney says.
The scene cuts to Humphreys, who has reached the truck but must hot-wire it to get the radio turned on. He works until past sunset, and looks up to see the greenish swarm descending upon him. He runs into the truck and gets it started, but the glowing cloud comes in through the vents. He has become trapped inside the truck, and we hear his screams as the insects attack him.
Back at the cabin, Scully is bent over a microscope, observing that the parasites in the core sample aren't moving in the light. Scully tells Mulder what she knows about insects from her biology courses: they are the foundation of our ecosystem, they've been around for around six million years, etc. Mulder divulges his theory: that in the growth season which produced the strange ring, an event such as a volcanic eruption may have caused the extinction of this species. These larvae, then, would be the last remnants of their species, deposited in the tree long ago. Scully is, as usual, reluctant to accept Mulder's theories.
The next morning, Mulder catches Spinney sneaking out. Spinney says he must find his friends and help escape. He promises to return for Mulder, Scully, and Moore if Mulder lets him go. Mulder agrees, and Spinney leaves with the gasoline and a car battery.
Later that morning, Scully finds Mulder repairing the radio. He gets it working but before his transmission is complete, power is cut off. Moore has turned the generator off, noticing the low fuel in the tank and the absence of the gas can. Mulder confesses that he trusted Spinney to return. Scully and Moore tell Mulder he had no right to risk their lives without their consent. Scully is especially tense: she is obviously questioning her trust for her headstrong partner. Mulder admits that he might have done the wrong thing.
Once it gets dark, the generator is turned again. Scully notices that the swarm is collecting in a dark corner of the cabin. Going over to examine them, she freaks out when her hand falls in the shadow and appears to be covered with the insects. Mulder calms her and tells her he thinks that they're actually everywhere: the greasy residue he has been noticing over everything is probably the insects. "I think the light keeps them from swarming."
The night wears on. Scully explains that the luminescent quality of the insects is probably caused by oxidizing enzymes, like those in fireflies. She guesses that they cocoon their prey to oxidize the enzymes taken from the proteins in body fluids. Mulder affirms that he won't give up on Spinney, but they discuss plans for escape, looking desperate and weary. The generator dies just as the sun creeps over the mountain and fills the cabin with light.
They take one of the tires from the logging trucks and hike to their pickup, intending to drive down with one flat. They find Humphreys cocooned inside the truck, his desiccated face pressed against the window. Spinney shows up with the Jeep--his friends have died and he wants to "haul ass" because it is getting dark.
They drive off but the Jeep hits tire spikes. "Talk about shooting yourself in the foot," says Moore as Spinney gets out into the darkness and examines the busted tires. The swarm atacks Spinney. He runs off into the forest, followed by an airborne army of green. The cloud invades the Jeep through the vents. Mulder, Scully, and Moore swat helplessly at the swarm, and the scene fades to green, accompanied by a terrible gnawing sound.
The next day, men in white biohazard suits pile out of a helicopter and three white vans and find Mulder, Scully, and Moore cocooned inside the Jeep. Their leader radios that there is a quarantine situation; there has been "exposure to unknown biological vectors."
At the High Containment Facility in Winthrop, Washington, we find a weak Mulder in a curtained hospital room, attached to an oxygen tank. Scully and Moore lie unconscious in cots; all three have rash-like red blotches on their skin. A doctor, while monitoring the patients, says that Mulder's respiratory charts look good, although they were worried about the large concentrations of the enzyme found in fireflies and other bioluminescent insects found in Mulder's lungs.
As the doctor tends to Scully, Mulder asks if she will be okay. The doctor replies that she isn't out of the woods: she has lost a lot of fluids, and a few more hours of exposure to the enzyme would have made recovery impossible. Mulder looks guilty. "I told her it would be a nice trip to the forest."
When Mulder questions what the government intends to do about the insects, the doctor replies that they intend to contain them with irradication procedures of controlled burns and pesticides.
"And if they're not successful?" Mulder asks.
The doctor, stepping out the door, turns to look at him and says with gravity "That is not an option, Mr. Mulder."
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