May I ask someone who remembers - what was the deal with that one villain who was infected with the black oil then got stuck down a missile tube (presumably forever), but then showed back up only to get his arm chopped off? I never could quite follow that part of the plot.
I suggest going to the X-Files Timeline (The X-Files Timeline) and to thexfiles.com for a fully detailed explanation. However, I will try to summarize in what little space Dope provides. 
In the S3 ep, Aprocrypa, CSM put Krycek in the missile tube in order to try to capture/control the black oil (the means by which this type of alien lives and travels) but it left Krycek, presumably escaped into the huge ship that Krycek was sitting atop inside the silo.
In Tunguska and Terma, a two-parter from S4, Krycek gets out of the silo because he’s freed by a militia group doing salvage work in the silo. He joins the militia, and tips off Mulder anonymously to what the militia is doing so that he can convince Mulder to help him get revenge on CSM by exposing the Consortium. Mulder discovers a source of the black oil (or oilian, as I refer to it) is in Russia. He finds that Krycek, who’s his prisoner, can speak Russian, so off they go to Tunguska.
End Part I of this summary by Tesa
See Part 2
Part 2
Action ensues, Krycek and Mulder are spilt up, and Mulder becomes is infected with the black oil by the Russian government. Krycek, on the run through the Russian forest, encounters a group of one-armed men who believe the only way to avoid becoming test subjects is cut off the left arm (the arm in which test subjects are injected with the oil).
Mulder talks his way out of that fate.
The End.
Tesa
No, it never was. It is widely infered and accepted that they are, given the fact that Mulder had donated sperm to Scully for artificial insemination; Scully and Mulder had had sex (confirmed in the S9 ep “Trust No 1” and which is why the writers put in the bedroom scene in “all things”); and that Scully was tinkered with in “Per Manum” (thus the fact that the kid’s part alien).
Tesa
Tesa, Ranchoth, Bandit: are you Gunmen fans?
Cos they’re not dead! There are a whole lot of Gunmen fans out here who are determined that they didn’t die. See these sites:
http://lonegunmen.furvect.com
http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-38
We’re keeping them alive in fanfiction, virtual second season, message boards and IRC chat. We were all so disgusted and angry with Carter & Co for what they did to the boys, we refuse to let them be forgotten.
See these web pages for some of the reactions of fans when the Jump the Shark episode was aired:
http://www.revolutionsf.com/article/1105.html
http://www.revolutionsf.com/article/1104.html
If you want to join any of the groups devoted to the boys, you’ll be made welcome. See the links page on the Warehouse site.
The Gunmen Live!
Legomancer, I used to post on ATVXFA, and people there were NOT defending Chris Carter at all. In fact, he was roundly and rightly vilified for what he did to the show, esp. after David Duchovny left. I don’t think too many of the hardcore fans could stomach Doggett and Reyes, not to mention the mytharc.
I used to love TXF. I mean, LOVE. Now I can hardly stand to watch it. Sigh. I hope the same thing doesn’t happen to Buffy…
The baby was written out of the show?
I don’t get Fox, so I can’t watch the show regularly. The ‘newest’ episode I saw was the one where William was kidnapped by a cult and he activated an alien ship by crying or some such thing.
What is going on?
thi6
The baby was given away to unsuspecting parents in Montana who are totally unaware that the baby is being sought for by numerous governments and a couple of alien life forms. This was done “to protect William.”*
- I am not making this up.
Scully came to the painful decision that William had a better chance at a normal life if she gave him up for adoption. She’d been told that he’d never be safe and would be continually hunted and hounded. She realized that his chances of being safe were practically nil if he remained with her.
Many fans were upset by this (Hi John! :)), but looking at it from the POV of what’s best for the child, I always felt she made the right decision. At least he has some chance of surviving if he’s living with an anonymous couple out in the middle of nowhere than living with Scully, who seems to have a large X stamped on her forhead, when it comes to being found by aliens, conspirators, killers, etc. 
And, like GA said, you really can’t have Scully and Mulder fighting aliens and conspiracies in future films while worrying about who’s going to do the 4 a.m. feeding.
Tesa
Read my above post, Tesa. Putting the child in hands of two totally unsuspecting and unprepared people does not strike me as “safe.”
Neither do I… http://www.geocities.com/theevilwriter/lostfound.doc
It does if said couple isn’t being stalked by super soliders and aliens and Scully is.
Tesa
But Scully was being tracked because of… William. Just because she doesn’t have him doesn’t make him any less valuable.
This isn’t about William being valuable or not valuable. To Scully, he’s the most precious thing in the world. This is about not being selfish and doing what’s good for the kid, not the parent.
Scully wasn’t tracked because of William. William was tracked because of Scully. Scully’s involvement with Mulder since the beginning of the X Files has made her a constant target. Her abduction (back in S2) was related to the docs tinkering with her during the time of Per Manum in S8.
With or without William, Scully would always be tracked, because of her involvement with Mulder and the X Files. Look at where Scully is “now”: on the run with Mulder from the alien forces that have infiltrated sections of the government and from what’s left of the original conspiracy (which is alive enough to make Marita Covarrubias afraid for her life). Keeping a child in that environment would be beyond child abuse.
Even if it gives the kid just one minute of being safe, Scully made the right choice.
Tesa
But, with or without Scully, William will be tracked. After all, he’s the (supposed) hybrid.
I realized after I posted I’d misunderstood what you meant by invaluable, i.e., being invaluable to those who want him and/or want him out of the picture (the Big picture, I mean, not the next XF film. ;))
And as I said before, one more minute’s worth of safety (which he’ll have with the couple way off in Wyoming) is better for the kid and offers him more of a chance of survival than being on the run with Mommy and Dad Mulder.
Tesa
You know, I really hate geocities’ ever devolving linking policies. Anyway, if you gave a damn, you can see the page by clicking on " Lost and Found" here http://www.geocities.com/theevilwriter/otherfics.html
And my point is that he ISN’T safe - that Scully placed him in even more mortal danger by abandoning her child to two unsuspecting and ill-prepared people. This was easily the worst thing she could do for the child other than handing him over to whichever group wanted him.
And no mother worth her salt would believe that a child is safer away from Mommy. No mother worth her salt would abandon her child the way Scully did… which is why Laura and I felt betrayed by the writers and refuse to watch the show again. I don’t even think that Laura has her X-Files videos anymore… I do know that all the collectables have been boxed up and put in the attic - hopefully they’ll appreciate in value during some future X-Files revival.
I know that’s your point. And mine is that he * is safer* without Scully than he is with her. It’s simple logic. Scully is being chased. The adoptive couple isn’t, and there’s no proof that those chasing Scully know where William is or how to find him. Yes, he’s still in danger, but the danger is much less the more removed he is from Scully and Mulder. Which is why any mother worth her salt would have done what Scully did: put the well-being of her child first.
Um, still got those film cells? Care to sell any?
Tesa
"And mine is that he is safer without Scully than he is with her. It’s simple logic. Scully is being chased. "
But WILLIAM is being chased too! Abandoning him to a couple of yahoos does NOTHING to increase his chances of survival.
"there’s no proof that those chasing Scully know where William is or how to find him. "
Look, here in the US if you’ve got the jack, you can find anybody as long as they didn’t die in some forgotten mountain range. They even found Ted Kasczinski (sp) at some point and he was a man who worked desperately not to be found. I bet any reasonably competent private detective could find William within a week, especially if Scully did the things she would need to do to avoid legal scrutiny. I mean, you can’t just give your kid away - the authorities look down upon that.
And if you do it legally, you leave a paper trail. If you do it illegally, you’ve got even more people hunting you (the DC cops, for child-abandonment).
Given the implied future in the series, as hinted at in the final episode, it is likely that Scully is responsible for the death of her son.