If the Japanese and the French got their moments in the limelight in Season Three, in Season Four it's the Russians' turn. It feels logical then, rather than overdue, when in 'Tunguska' and 'Terma' the series pays due homage with more than adequate care and attention both to the heritage of Cold War paranoia on conspiracist lore and to the Tunguska mystery in ET mythology. And of course diplomats and sneering congressmen are also in on the Conspiracy. (Immigration officials, alas, are just hapless, clumsy oafs.) The Conspiracy's abuse and murder of oldies feels just as real (and in its own way just as horrifying) as its abuse and murder of unborn children: at either end of life, the cold bleak "ethics" of modern medicine are similarly threatening and frightening.
Krycek's back, and his and Mulder's special relationship is just as hot and spicy as ever. And just to up the phwoar factor, both Mulder and Skinner get shirtless scenes. And which way Krycek swings politically (and Mother Russia with him) is also up for grabs. Far-Right? Far-Left? In post-Soviet Russia there's not very much difference, so it's a neat shout-out both to the enigmatic Russian reality (perfectly reflected in the political confusion of post-Trump America, where politics is more likely to be a matter of race than ideology) and to the conspiranoid mentality that can recast a communist like Lee Harvey Oswald as the stooge of a "fascist" Deep State.
Meanwhile, back in the bleak world of dark, semi-deserted hospitals, it's confirmed (in 'Memento Mori') that rogue clones are still actively trying to sabotage the Project. Indeed, the "rebel colonists" subplot has arguably been in the works since Season One, with an internal resistance to the Syndicate's plans has been implicit all the way through: after all, if it hadn't been for individual flunkies of the Syndicate having crises of conscience (whether consciously or not!) there would never have been a Deep Throat, nor any other leaks for Mulder to work on.
In 'Tempus Fugit' and 'Max' though, we see the other side of the Syndicate - in other words the military themselves who actually carry out (without question, of course!) the cover-ups, the salvaging of crashed UFOs, and indeed covert warfare against the alien colonists. Implicitly, all this is being done under the umbrella of MJ12, and there's no sign of Garnet or the Smoking Man and his friends here. And in fact things are more exciting without them. We're invited to believe that these are soldiers (or airmen, in this case) not so much only obeying orders as relentlessly following protocols that were laid out more than a generation ago. If civilians get in the way, that's just too bad.
And interestingly enough it works because it feels as if this is The X-Files going back its roots, before the big baddies suddenly became a bunch of fat and/or old men in suits sitting around in their posh club and making only vaguely cryptic comments about what's going on with all the menace and dread of a tea party at the Ritz. Scott Garrett (aka 'Moustache Man' to fans) is genuinely scary precisely because he is just a government functionary, and of course that he ends up being abducted himself is a reminder that in The X-Files there are conspiracies within conspiracies... which of course would eventually give birth to the "Rebel Colonists" subplot in the following season.
