Brand X (The X-Files)

The show centers on FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who work on cases linked to the paranormal, called X-Files.In this episode, Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) is horrified when the witness who was due to testify against the Morley cigarette company dies mysteriously.In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) is charged with guarding the life of Dr. James Scobie, a former researcher who is testifying against his former employer, the Morley tobacco corporation.While interviewing Weaver, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is exposed to the smoke, later coughing up blood and needing his lungs invasively cleared as the beetles begin to hatch.At the hospital, Mulder is in grave danger due to the eggs now hatching in his lungs, and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) attempts to find a way to save him, because he is now "too weak for thoracic surgery."[2] However, since an earlier season seven episode, "Hungry", had dealt with similar themes, the writing staff decided to take the story in a different direction and examine the "corporate evil that populates the cigarette industry".[3] Because both David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson were busy finalizing their own episodes ("Hollywood A.D." and "All Things", respectively), the writers struggled with a way to create a convincing story that did not require Mulder and Scully to be in every scene.[2] Kaplan, who worked closely with episode director Kim Manners, had the idea to "enhance" Morley Cigarette's corporate offices with "long hallways and sets heavy on texture and grit" in order to complement the aforementioned palette choice.[12] Rich Rosell from DigitallyObsessed.com awarded the episode 3 out of 5 stars and wrote "Tobacco beetles, dismembered noses and some really bad second-hand smoke permeate this installment, but it gets snuffed out with a lazy payoff."[13] Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated the episode two-and-a-half stars out of five.[14] Despite praising the plot, writing "it's a great premise, with lots of gore and larvae", the two lament its loss in direction: "halfway through, once the episode reveals what its concept is, the story is left with nowhere to go.